Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird How Cinema. This
Speaker 1: is Rob Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. Yeah. Today we
Speaker 1: have another fun collision of B cinema genres. Here. What
Speaker 1: happens when you take Italian cannibal exploitation films and you
Speaker 1: cross them with a good old fashioned Nam exploitation film,
Speaker 1: as in Vietnam, and then you go ahead and just
Speaker 1: set the whole picture right here in Atlanta, Georgia. One
Speaker 1: thing I will say about this concept is it does
Speaker 1: not sound like it will be under seasoned. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: how tender eyes? Would you say? This film is? Oh
Speaker 1: my god, it has used the spiky side of the
Speaker 1: meat mallet. It has covered everything in in pineapple puree. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be uh, it's gonna be fork tinder all right.
Speaker 1: The film is Cannibal Apocalypse. The original title in Italian
Speaker 1: Apocalypse Domani, which I believe is Italian for apocalypse tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, yes, So it took me a while to
Speaker 1: understand this title because I actually watched this movie. So, uh,
Speaker 1: this was your pick, you handed it off. I watched
Speaker 1: it last night and then I immediately started watching it
Speaker 1: a second time after I watched the first time with
Speaker 1: the with the commentary track that's actually on the disc
Speaker 1: that you rented um by a film critic and historian
Speaker 1: named Tim Lucas who has written a lot on exploitation cinema,
Speaker 1: particularly Italian movies and Jello and stuff like that. And
Speaker 1: I know he wrote a book about Mario Bava that
Speaker 1: is that is pretty popular. But anyway, I might mention
Speaker 1: some more of Lucas's observations as we go on, because
Speaker 1: his commentary track was pretty good. But like I said,
Speaker 1: I was watching this and I kept trying to understand
Speaker 1: the title Cannibal Apocalypse. I would have expected with that
Speaker 1: title that the movie would be a little more apocalyptic,
Speaker 1: but there's not really anything apocalyptic about it in either
Speaker 1: sense of the word, so not the original literal sense
Speaker 1: of apocalypse meaning a revelation or unveiling. There's nothing really
Speaker 1: revelatory about the movie, nor in the common understanding today
Speaker 1: having to do with the end of the world. It's
Speaker 1: not really an end of the world movie. But then
Speaker 1: I realized, oh, it's called that because of apocalypse now,
Speaker 1: but the Vietnam movie, right, So what comes after Apocalypse Now,
Speaker 1: Apocalypse Tomorrow, Apocalypse Demani. Uh. So, if you want to
Speaker 1: cut right to the quick, what you actually do is
Speaker 1: you take one word from the title of a recent
Speaker 1: popular movie with similar themes, and then you take another
Speaker 1: word that is a lurid, conceptual hook word like cannibalism.
Speaker 1: So you end up with cannibal Apocalypse. It would be
Speaker 1: kind of like if you made a movie today called
Speaker 1: like the Necrophilia and the Furious or something, uh and
Speaker 1: then other. There are tons of connections actually with other
Speaker 1: Vietnam movies, but mainly with Apocalypse Now. For example, the
Speaker 1: main character in this film, what's his name? Him? His
Speaker 1: name is Norman Hopper. I think it's pretty clear where
Speaker 1: this comes from. It is a combination of Norman Bates,
Speaker 1: the main character in Psycho, and Dennis Hopper, the actor
Speaker 1: in Apocalypse Now. Oh yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 1: And it is this the sort of role that Dennis
Speaker 1: Hopper could have conceivably played. You know, you could imagine
Speaker 1: him playing this sort of character. I guess you could.
Speaker 1: That would be very different. I mean, Dennis Hopper, he's
Speaker 1: notable in Apocalypse Now for being wild. You know, he
Speaker 1: is on a permanent trip, and he is fully in
Speaker 1: the thrall of the warrior poet of of Marlon Brando's
Speaker 1: Kurts in the movie. In this movie, the main character,
Speaker 1: Norman Hopper is very much on the edge, but because
Speaker 1: it's cast as John Saxon, John Saxon has an undeniably
Speaker 1: even tempered, steady kind of presence. I mean, he he's
Speaker 1: an extremely grounded actor, and that's contrasted with some of
Speaker 1: the the very like ratlike energy of characters in this movie,
Speaker 1: such as the character named again, this is really the
Speaker 1: character's name, Charles Bukowski, exactly the same as the name
Speaker 1: of the author and poet. Oh but but but we're
Speaker 1: we're burying one of the leads here. Uh so this movie,
Speaker 1: each kid just have two names for a movie that,
Speaker 1: you know, it was an Italian exploitation movie released in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, you've got to have at least like six names, right,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, it's It's also been released as Cannibals
Speaker 1: in the Streets, which weirdly enough, is the main title
Speaker 1: for the film on its IMDb listing. Right now, I
Speaker 1: feel like this was surely not always the case. I
Speaker 1: think I because I've been aware of this film for
Speaker 1: a very long time, but just had not set down
Speaker 1: and watched it. I think it used to just it
Speaker 1: used to just be listed as um, Cannibal Apocalypse, because
Speaker 1: that is it's it's most famous name, I thought. But
Speaker 1: then again, I think Michael Weldon in the Psychotronic Video
Speaker 1: Guide also lists it as Cannibals in the Streets, so
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think it also got an American
Speaker 1: R rated release, so it was released with in a
Speaker 1: in a somewhat edited form, especially in the Southern United States,
Speaker 1: under the name Invasion of of Flesh Eaters. Is that right,
Speaker 1: I believe so, yeah, and it may have been released
Speaker 1: it was released in UM to the German market with
Speaker 1: it with several different titles as well, so it's It's
Speaker 1: definitely one of these films that's often referred to as
Speaker 1: a video nasty because it was. I think it was
Speaker 1: banned in the UK for a period of time. Um.
Speaker 1: Though it is interesting how you assume that the pictures
Speaker 1: are that are classified as such that they're all going
Speaker 1: to have like the same level of of nastiness to them, uh,
Speaker 1: and it's really not the case. Um. I think one
Speaker 1: of the things about this film is that. Yes, it
Speaker 1: has its grotesque moments and themes. For sure. It is
Speaker 1: not a family movie by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker 1: But it's also not nearly as as bad as or
Speaker 1: And when I say bad, I don't mean quality wise,
Speaker 1: but just in terms of taste, it's not. It doesn't
Speaker 1: nearly have the level of bad taste that it certainly
Speaker 1: could have had. And it's gonna be fun to discuss
Speaker 1: why that seems to be as we go through this episode.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's the only reason, but one that
Speaker 1: has been mentioned in several sources I came across is
Speaker 1: just the influence of John Saxon being in the lead
Speaker 1: and repeatedly saying about things he was asked to do
Speaker 1: by the script no I'm not doing that. Yeah, seemed
Speaker 1: to be a moderating influence on the content of the film.
Speaker 1: That's what you when you when you cast John Saxon,
Speaker 1: you know you're going to get a certain level of
Speaker 1: energy from the performance and intensity. But yes you're gonna
Speaker 1: get you're gonna get some some other grounding influences as well,
Speaker 1: which ultimately makes this a better film. I think, all right, well,
Speaker 1: let's talk just a second about these these different genres
Speaker 1: that are colliding here. First of all, I mentioned Nam sploitation. Uh,
Speaker 1: these elements aligned with the various Vietnam action films of
Speaker 1: the day, including both numerous US films and then international
Speaker 1: films that were clearly springboarding off American pictures. For instance,
Speaker 1: some of the American films, particularly films that dealt with
Speaker 1: Vietnam vets returning home and d with with post traumatic
Speaker 1: stress to some degree or another. Your funder, Yeah, you
Speaker 1: have like Deer Hunter seventy eight, also Coming Home in
Speaker 1: seventy eight starring Bruce Dern, and even First Blood. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess the first Rambo movie would fit more into
Speaker 1: that category. Though. It's funny with even within the progression
Speaker 1: of the Rambo movies, you see the change in how
Speaker 1: Vietnam subject matter is dealt with. Like earlier on, I
Speaker 1: think you get more of these movies that are uh,
Speaker 1: you know, dealing with some of the with some of
Speaker 1: the horrors and the moral ambiguities of the war, and
Speaker 1: then later on turning uh, the lingering residue of Vietnam
Speaker 1: more into just kind of like pure exploitation action cinema
Speaker 1: subject matter. So like Rambo by the time you get
Speaker 1: to First Blood Part two, Rambo, the character of John
Speaker 1: Rambo has gone from a you know, a a brutalized
Speaker 1: man who just wants to be left alone and has
Speaker 1: turned into a like a human slaughter house who you know,
Speaker 1: the point of the movie is to watch his greased
Speaker 1: up muscles as he just guns down millions of enemies.
Speaker 1: So like in the first one, you're asking the question
Speaker 1: is is Rambo okay? I don't think he's okay? And
Speaker 1: then the second one and on from there Rambo is
Speaker 1: doing great. Look at him. Go ye, all right. So
Speaker 1: we have those elements in the film and we'll talk
Speaker 1: about some of that. But then, of course, also it's
Speaker 1: in the title, this is a cannibal film. And cannibal
Speaker 1: films at their their absolute worst, they tend to be
Speaker 1: movies that follow a basic structure where modern day explorers
Speaker 1: or journalists, or you know, whatever their case may be,
Speaker 1: they're traveling to a remote part of the world and
Speaker 1: they're encountering cannibalism and cannibalistic violence as practiced by an
Speaker 1: isolated tribal group. I've long known there are a bunch
Speaker 1: of movies like this, but I've never really watched any
Speaker 1: of them. It's one of those that just seems conceptually
Speaker 1: just like not enjoyable at all to me. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they you know, they're often marketed for their just sheer
Speaker 1: shock value. That was part of their appeal, and it
Speaker 1: remains part of their appeal for people who who dig
Speaker 1: them today. Uh. They can of course be area exploited.
Speaker 1: They can be very sleazy. They include such films as uh,
Speaker 1: Sergio Martino, Slave of the Cannibal God from seventy eight,
Speaker 1: Umberto Lindsay's Sacrifice from seventy two, which I think was
Speaker 1: the first major Italian cannibal movie, Umberto Lindsay's Eating Alive
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty, and so many more. But the most
Speaker 1: notorious example is of course rogero uh Deodata's Cannibal Holocaust
Speaker 1: from eighty notable for its extreme violence and gore as
Speaker 1: well as animal cruelty. Yeah, I remember. Actually I think
Speaker 1: maybe even like reading some sort of like film scholarship
Speaker 1: about that movie when I was in college. It seems
Speaker 1: like the kind of thing that is maybe more interesting
Speaker 1: as like subject matter for film criticism and film historians
Speaker 1: than it is actually something you would ever want to
Speaker 1: sit down and watch. Yeah, I agree, and I'll get
Speaker 1: into some some of the scholarship about it. Though. I'll
Speaker 1: also point out that when I was when I had decided, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to check out Cannibal Apocalypse, I pulled up
Speaker 1: what I thought was Cannibal Apocalypse online and it was
Speaker 1: Cannibal Holocaust. So I ended up watching the first five
Speaker 1: and a half minutes of it, which which are actually
Speaker 1: pretty goofy and don't have any cannibalism in them. But
Speaker 1: that is as far as I can recommend anyone watch
Speaker 1: in this film. Once I realized, oh, this is not
Speaker 1: the film, this is not John Saxon, I cut out
Speaker 1: and uh and actually send an email to Video Drome,
Speaker 1: our local video store, to make sure they had a
Speaker 1: copy of Cannibal Holocaust for us. You mean Cannibal Apocalypse.
Speaker 1: Cannibal Apocalypse. I'm doing it again. It's so easy to
Speaker 1: get them confused. So if you hear me reference Cannibal
Speaker 1: Holocaust again outside of the context of that film, I
Speaker 1: probably mean Cannibal Apocalypse. Well, I mean it's clearly. I
Speaker 1: think it shows what these titles have in common, which
Speaker 1: is they're just trying to like jam your radar with
Speaker 1: the most shocking words they can possibly fit into a
Speaker 1: title like ultimate Shocking title density. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: all about the shock. So for a little more. I
Speaker 1: was interested early because you can engage with these films
Speaker 1: at the shock level and all. But then I'm also
Speaker 1: thinking like, why why cannibalism? Why were these cannibals and
Speaker 1: films so big at that in the time. So I
Speaker 1: was reading Cannibalism in Literature and Film by Jennifer Brown,
Speaker 1: which is a really interesting book. You can you can
Speaker 1: pick this up as an e book, um, for example.
Speaker 1: But the author argues that much of what we see
Speaker 1: in this in this genre, especially the colonial cannibalism film,
Speaker 1: as opposed to the domestic cannibalism film. So again, think,
Speaker 1: are you encountering cannibals in Texas, as in the Texas
Speaker 1: Chainsaw Masacre, or are the characters traveling to some you know,
Speaker 1: former colonial holding, um, some you know nation that was
Speaker 1: under a colonial rule and encountering cannibalism in those settings, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I see the distinction. So Brown's argument is that these
Speaker 1: colonial cannibalism films are probably resulting from post colonial anxieties
Speaker 1: in the West and media coverage from this time period,
Speaker 1: you know, especially like the late seventies or the eighties
Speaker 1: and so forth, um of political and social unrest in
Speaker 1: parts of the world previously under colonial rule. Quote amidst
Speaker 1: the litany of atrocities, arose the feeling that without the
Speaker 1: civilizing arm of British colonial law, the world had descended
Speaker 1: into chaos. And they also explained that there there there's
Speaker 1: a familiar trope of the cannibal other in all of this,
Speaker 1: of course, as well as a specific variation on colonial
Speaker 1: cannibalism based on US foreign policy and its ramifications. So
Speaker 1: imagining audiences already have a kind of embedded colonial mentality,
Speaker 1: like this fear that people would have that without boots
Speaker 1: on the ground in every part of the world and
Speaker 1: soldiers managing every other country on the world, we can
Speaker 1: only imagine what kind of grizzly horrors are taking place
Speaker 1: in every other part of the world if we are
Speaker 1: not constantly pointing a gun at people right, right, and
Speaker 1: so Brown discusses this at length, and they also they
Speaker 1: also get into cannibal holocaust itself and talks about sort
Speaker 1: of the the things that are important about it from
Speaker 1: a film history standpoint, but also you know why it
Speaker 1: is so notorious. But but I should be clear that
Speaker 1: Cannibal Apocalypse, the film were primarily discussing here today, doesn't
Speaker 1: really draw on any of these cultural cannibalism tropes and
Speaker 1: seems to be largely exploring a concept a model of
Speaker 1: PTSD as viral cannibalism. Yeah, despite the fact that it
Speaker 1: does use all these tropes of Vietnam exploitation movies. Really,
Speaker 1: I would say it is a domestic cannibalism movie. It's
Speaker 1: a it's about you know, the cannibals are all Americans. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I ultimately really enjoyed this model of cannibalism that is
Speaker 1: deployed in this film. It reminds me a lot of
Speaker 1: the later film by um uh Antonia Birds Ravenous, which
Speaker 1: is a wonderful I guess largely it's got It's a
Speaker 1: domestic cannibalism film, kind of a frontier cannibalism film as well. Right,
Speaker 1: it's about all these soldiers at an outpost in frontier
Speaker 1: California who are switched onto the magical wonder of eating
Speaker 1: human flesh. Yeah. Yeah, Ultimately even more of a vampiric
Speaker 1: model of cannibalism in that film. Well, that one also
Speaker 1: I guess it does loosely draw on some rough like
Speaker 1: Windigo mythology, but but then it's I think it's one
Speaker 1: of those movies where you kind of wonder, like wait
Speaker 1: a minute, like within the world of the movie, like
Speaker 1: is there real magic going on here? Or is this
Speaker 1: just like an idea that has captured and motivated the
Speaker 1: minds of the characters. And you could probably argue the
Speaker 1: same thing about this movie. Yeah. Now, Cannibal Apocalypse, though,
Speaker 1: is about more than just eating human flesh and US
Speaker 1: foreign policy. This film is also exciting for us because
Speaker 1: it is a Georgia movie. It is an Atlanta and
Speaker 1: Decatur movie filmed here back when that was something that
Speaker 1: was notable, you know, back when you weren't filming all
Speaker 1: these big blockbusters in the state of Georgia. There actually
Speaker 1: were a good number of Italian horror films shot in
Speaker 1: the US South though, right around this time, like Luccio
Speaker 1: full Chiese The Beyond, which he shot in New Orleans,
Speaker 1: said in New Orleans, or like, uh, I think it
Speaker 1: was also ful Chi who may um City of the
Speaker 1: Living Dead or also known as Gates of Hell. Is
Speaker 1: that Savannah? Yeah, that was in Savannah, which I actually
Speaker 1: watched just earlier this year. Yeah, there's also the wonderful
Speaker 1: film The Visitor, which is very much filmed in Atlanta
Speaker 1: around the time, same time period that is the God
Speaker 1: talking about Weird House. That is one of the most
Speaker 1: bizarre movies I have ever seen in my life. I mean,
Speaker 1: that one will make you leave your body. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: may have to come back to that one. That's a
Speaker 1: fun one. So so yeah, if you're a if you're
Speaker 1: a local, if you have any connection to Atlanta, Georgia
Speaker 1: or Decatur, Georgia, Uh, it's worth watching because there's a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of local locations that are used,
Speaker 1: including the Decatur Marta station, which I was looking this up.
Speaker 1: This film came out in nineteen eighty and the station
Speaker 1: opened June nine, So it's like a fresh spanking new
Speaker 1: Marta station there that which Marta is the train system
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta. Uh. But but yeah, you get to
Speaker 1: see it fresh and new and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: unsoiled by by cannibalism. Oh. I just thought of another
Speaker 1: one that I forgot to mention earlier, though this one
Speaker 1: is actually not Italian. Some Marta stations appear in uh
Speaker 1: in Escape from New York John Carpenter's movie One of
Speaker 1: the Marta stations here in Town is extensively featured in
Speaker 1: a sequence that was cut from the movie that involves
Speaker 1: Kurt Russell robbing a bank at the beginning of the movie,
Speaker 1: or maybe sort of like digitally robbing a bank. I
Speaker 1: think he like steals computer stuff. Um, but he like
Speaker 1: gets on a Marta train and then like rides it
Speaker 1: to a station and then him and his co conspirator
Speaker 1: are ambushed right in the middle of a Marta station
Speaker 1: by a bunch of police. That's how Snake gets caught.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's right. Um. And to be fair, there
Speaker 1: are some other Georgia horror movies of note from back
Speaker 1: in the day. I think Squirm from seventy six, I
Speaker 1: think that was a Georgia movie. And oh, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to remember the name of the one that's set at
Speaker 1: the Beach, um Man, I was just down there recently
Speaker 1: and I had I think I even sent you a
Speaker 1: picture of one of the locations. Or was it The
Speaker 1: Slayer from Type Island? Yes, from Tybee Island, The Slayer,
Speaker 1: which is which actually quite good, um, maybe even too good.
Speaker 1: It could have it could have been a bit crappier,
Speaker 1: and that would have been probably been better for the
Speaker 1: viewing experience. It's it's pretty seriously serious minded, but it's
Speaker 1: so it's a fun view So if you ever, if
Speaker 1: you ever find yourself out on Tybee Island enjoying, you know,
Speaker 1: beach vacation, bring a copy of The Slayer with you. Okay,
Speaker 1: So what's the elevator pitch on Cannibal Apocalypse? Green Beret
Speaker 1: Norman Hooper or is it Hopper? I guess because it's
Speaker 1: like Dennis Hopper, Queen Beret Norman Hopper survived the Vietnam War,
Speaker 1: but he brought something back with him, a stress activated
Speaker 1: viral hunger for human flesh. Let's set that trailer audio
Speaker 1: cannibalism that very ridd in the flu market taking pot
Speaker 1: shots got side. Okay, that's an avoid about Please please
Speaker 1: try to understand. Listen to me. While she was here,
Speaker 1: I had this urge tood by her, good bye her,
Speaker 1: you understand, like Posky, it's so good, it's so good.
Speaker 1: I love the music in this film. I can't wait
Speaker 1: to talk in more depth about the music. Music is
Speaker 1: great and some of the musical choices, as is common
Speaker 1: in Italian movies of this period are quite hilarious in
Speaker 1: their in their deployment in the film, despite being pretty
Speaker 1: great on their own. But first let's talk about Let's
Speaker 1: talk about the director, the writer, and some of the
Speaker 1: some of the cast. So the director here is Antonio Madretti, director,
Speaker 1: co writer, lived through two thousand and two. Um, I
Speaker 1: believe you're you're very familiar with one of his other works. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: he's so. He's the director of your The Hunter from
Speaker 1: the Future from three so a few years after this
Speaker 1: one was made. That is a Conan the Barbarian rip off,
Speaker 1: a leather diaper barbarian movie starring Reb Brown, the guy
Speaker 1: from Space Mutiny who screams. You remember him? Oh yes,
Speaker 1: he's an all time great muscle bro and in this
Speaker 1: movie he's playing the Conan. But I like how this
Speaker 1: movie mixes cheap barbarian rip off movie with dinosaurs and
Speaker 1: science fiction. So it has aliens and robots and spaceships
Speaker 1: and the villain at the end of the movie is
Speaker 1: basically Darth Vader. Well, it makes sense for Margarity because
Speaker 1: he worked in pretty much every genre. He did Vietnam
Speaker 1: War movies, horror movies, sci fi movies, and more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he's widely considered sort of an ultimate top
Speaker 1: tier schlock granddaddy. Uh. And in fact, he gets he
Speaker 1: gets name dropped by a lot of other film nerds
Speaker 1: and stuff. And if you are not familiar with these
Speaker 1: Italian schlock movies, but you recognize his name an Tonio Marghariti,
Speaker 1: that might be because you have heard him name checked
Speaker 1: in movies by Quentin Tarantino. For example, in Inglorious Bastards,
Speaker 1: Tarantino has a character who is assuming a false name
Speaker 1: as and pretending to be an Italian Uh, camera operator.
Speaker 1: I think say that his name is Antonio Margariti. I
Speaker 1: forgot about that. Um, yeah, yeah, he did it. All
Speaker 1: he did did like you can pretty much name it,
Speaker 1: and he did it. Did he do underwater horror movie? Yes,
Speaker 1: he didn't want called aliens from the deep, so many
Speaker 1: of those. Did he do a Hercules movie? Yes, he
Speaker 1: did a couple of them. Oh yeah, I think he
Speaker 1: actually did a number of them. So the Sword and
Speaker 1: Sandal movies, as they're often called in the States, uh,
Speaker 1: they're they're often referred to as peplum movies in the
Speaker 1: in the Italian press, I think named after sort of
Speaker 1: like the Greek garment that the Hercules type character or
Speaker 1: the Ercole character would wear. Uh in these movies. Uh,
Speaker 1: these were really popular in Italian cinema from like the
Speaker 1: mid fifties until the early sixties. I think they, like
Speaker 1: they absolutely dominated the Italian movie scene at the time.
Speaker 1: What Marvel movies are today. Peplum movies were to Italian
Speaker 1: movies in the in the fifties through the early sixties.
Speaker 1: And and he definitely made a few. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: he also did literary adaptations. He did a Treasure Island adaptation. Okay,
Speaker 1: he did a Christopher Lee horror movie titled Horror Castle
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three. He did a number of science
Speaker 1: fiction movies that I think are can that I haven't
Speaker 1: seen any of them, but I think they're considered less
Speaker 1: over the top and grotesque than a lot of his
Speaker 1: later works. Uh. And there it seemed to me like
Speaker 1: they're sort of like competent, pretty solid, well grounded, well
Speaker 1: executed sci fi movies from the fifties. Yeah, it would
Speaker 1: be interesting to explore. I I read that he did
Speaker 1: special effects as well, including working on two thousand and
Speaker 1: one of Space Odyssey in the special effects department. But yeah,
Speaker 1: he Also I should note that, even though his his
Speaker 1: name carries more weight today, he generally worked under the
Speaker 1: moniker Anthony M. Dawson. You know, you had to americanize
Speaker 1: that name, right right. A lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: Italian people in film, not just directors, would have a
Speaker 1: sort of anglicized pseudonym that they would release their movies under.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that was designed to make them
Speaker 1: seem more appealing to English speaking audiences, but so, yeah,
Speaker 1: he would be Anthony UM Dawson. I think I read
Speaker 1: somewhere that he sometimes directed under the name uh an
Speaker 1: Tony Daisies or Anthony Daisies, which is what Margariti actually
Speaker 1: means Daisies. So he's co writer on this. But also
Speaker 1: we have Dardano Sacchetti, who was born ninety four, Italian
Speaker 1: screenwriter who worked with oh, just about all the big
Speaker 1: names in in um you know, the sort of B
Speaker 1: movie uh schlock market. He worked with Lomberto Bavo, with
Speaker 1: Lucio Fulci, with in Zog Casta Castelleri, uh, Dario Argento. Uh.
Speaker 1: In fact, his first credit was Argento's The Cat of
Speaker 1: Nine Tales. Ah, that one. Despite what you would guess
Speaker 1: from the title is about genetic engineering. I think I've
Speaker 1: never said it. It involves a murder that takes place
Speaker 1: in like a genetics lab in the seventies, which is
Speaker 1: very strange. Uh And I think it shares a cast
Speaker 1: member with this movie. Now. He worked with Fucci a lot,
Speaker 1: including some of his most well known films such as
Speaker 1: Zombie House by the Cemetery That Beyond New York, ripper Man,
Speaker 1: Hat and Baby, etcetera. He worked on Baba's Monster, Shark
Speaker 1: and Demons, and he worked on Castellarity's nineteen ninety The
Speaker 1: Bronx Warriors. So he's just an important name in Italian
Speaker 1: be cinema. You're gonna if you start watching b movies
Speaker 1: from Italy in this time period, you're going to see
Speaker 1: his name. Now, the next person we got to introduce
Speaker 1: for this film is uh Is is someone who was
Speaker 1: born by the name of Carmine Rico, though you might
Speaker 1: know him better as John Saxon. That's right. I believe
Speaker 1: he was the son of Italian immigrants if I recall correctly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's He's Italian American. He was born in New York.
Speaker 1: I think his father was a was It was a
Speaker 1: dock worker in Brooklyn. Yeah, yeah, he. If you have
Speaker 1: been listening to our Weird House Cinema episodes, you will
Speaker 1: remember he was our villain in Hands of Steel. Just
Speaker 1: a legendary American B movie actor. Um. He wasn't close
Speaker 1: to two pictures. He he was born in ninety six,
Speaker 1: died in um but had a very long career. Uh.
Speaker 1: He started out in some beach hunk movies I guess
Speaker 1: you'd call them in the nineteen fifties, and he went
Speaker 1: on to be in some really iconic films. He was
Speaker 1: in the Original and Nightmare on Elm Street playing Nancy's dad.
Speaker 1: He was in Inner the Dragon, of course, had a
Speaker 1: huge role in that opposite Bruce Lee. I think that
Speaker 1: is in some ways considered his big breakout role. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean he it's an incredible role. But yeah, he's
Speaker 1: a guy that was always working, so the films were
Speaker 1: not always top shelf, but he always brought this quiet intensity,
Speaker 1: you know his he's really piercing eyes. Were already talked
Speaker 1: about he has kind of a grounding um acting presence
Speaker 1: in a film. Yeah he. I mean he's one of
Speaker 1: these people. Actually. I think Tim Lucas talks about this
Speaker 1: in his commentary track that Saxon operated at the boundary
Speaker 1: between a cinema and be cinema, and it seemed like
Speaker 1: he had a choice where he could sort of be
Speaker 1: a supporting player in A cinema or he could be
Speaker 1: a leading player and top name in B cinema. And
Speaker 1: it was around the time of this movie that it
Speaker 1: seemed like he just fully embraced I'll be top billing
Speaker 1: guy in B movies. Yeah. I was reading an interview
Speaker 1: with him that was from a two thousand two Dutch
Speaker 1: fan convention where they were talking to him and he
Speaker 1: was talking a little bit about working in Italy. He
Speaker 1: mentioned that, you know, he spoke some Italian, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: enough to get by, but he was took from this
Speaker 1: interview that he wasn't like truly fluent. Sometimes I see,
Speaker 1: like an IMDb, I see factoids about him being fluent
Speaker 1: in Italian, and I don't think that was necessarily the
Speaker 1: case based on his own words there, because he talks
Speaker 1: about there being communication issues sometimes um between Italian directors
Speaker 1: who did not speak English or very good English and
Speaker 1: the cast um. But he says that in these Italian
Speaker 1: films he was often given just a lot of room
Speaker 1: to do like what he wanted with a role. And
Speaker 1: part of that might have been that they couldn't communicate
Speaker 1: with him that well. Um, or that maybe they were
Speaker 1: a little intimidated because again he's this this boundary walker
Speaker 1: between a film and B film and a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys, I mean, they knew they were making a
Speaker 1: B film. Uh, and so illusions there. Yeah, and here's
Speaker 1: John Saxon. We're paying money for John Saxon. We're gonna
Speaker 1: let Saxon do his thing. You know what I had
Speaker 1: forgotten is that John Saxon has a prominent role in
Speaker 1: tenne Brey Another, a famous Italian jello movie made by
Speaker 1: Dario Argento. Some people consider it Argento's best movie, or
Speaker 1: one of his best movies. I'd put it maybe like
Speaker 1: fourth or fifth. But but yeah, it's good. That's one.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it yet, but I've listened to the
Speaker 1: soundtrack before. Oh yeah, good soundtrack. If you see Goblin live,
Speaker 1: they will play tenner bre definitely. Now. That a two
Speaker 1: thousand two interview from the Dutch Fan convention. UM. I
Speaker 1: was reading it on a site to title the flashback file. Um,
Speaker 1: if you just look for John Saxon interview there you'll
Speaker 1: find it. But he has a wonderful little story about
Speaker 1: this film that I think is very revealing. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna quote here. This is a quote from John's Good One.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you about that film. It's a real
Speaker 1: funny story. When the script came, I thought it was interesting.
Speaker 1: It was talking about the Vietnam War, like it was
Speaker 1: a virus you could bring home. I thought it was
Speaker 1: a great metaphor for a psychological condition. So I went
Speaker 1: down there and I met within Tonio Margretti, and I
Speaker 1: told him how I really liked the script. He said
Speaker 1: he did not. I didn't understand why he would say that,
Speaker 1: but I didn't ask him. Turns out I got an
Speaker 1: English translation of the Italian script, but the translators weren't
Speaker 1: very good. They just left stuff out. But we got
Speaker 1: babble fished into a role. Yep. Yeah, And he says,
Speaker 1: but I always found out that that When we were
Speaker 1: actually shooting, I thought it was just one guy biting
Speaker 1: another guy in the virus spreads. But at one point
Speaker 1: we were shooting a scene and a guy brings in
Speaker 1: this tray of meat. I asked what it was for,
Speaker 1: and they explained to me it was supposed to be
Speaker 1: body parts, even genitals, and we were supposed to gnaw
Speaker 1: on them. He continues, I asked Margaritti to take me
Speaker 1: out of the scene and I went to my hotel room.
Speaker 1: Once I found out what the true nature of the
Speaker 1: film was, I got so depressed. I had three days
Speaker 1: off and I flew to New York, and all the
Speaker 1: while I was dreading to go back there. I've never
Speaker 1: seen it, and I tried to forget about it. But
Speaker 1: in four I met with a Korean producer who wanted
Speaker 1: me for a film, and he said, you know, your
Speaker 1: film is a big hit in Korea. I asked him
Speaker 1: which film, Yeah, that one. Oh my god. But even
Speaker 1: in observing the difference between this story and the final film,
Speaker 1: you will see some of John Saxon's influence and saying like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that, because here he's being asked to
Speaker 1: gnaw on in trails, and he never does that in
Speaker 1: the movie. Other characters do, but Saxon, I do not
Speaker 1: think you ever see him with any kind of meat
Speaker 1: in his mouth. Now. I think the most he ever
Speaker 1: does is he wiped some blood off of his mouth,
Speaker 1: you know, So it's implied that he engaged in cannibalism, right,
Speaker 1: it is implied that he does all kinds of horrible things,
Speaker 1: but off camp ra Yeah, alright, so again Saxon plays
Speaker 1: Norman Hopper and then his wife in the movie, Jane Hopper,
Speaker 1: is played by Elizabeth Turner, an Italian actor. This was
Speaker 1: her last film. She was also in Full Chise the Psychic.
Speaker 1: She was in a truly throbbingly bizarre movie called Beyond
Speaker 1: the Door that came out in nineteen seventy four. Though,
Speaker 1: so she's credited as being in that film, But then again,
Speaker 1: I don't really remember her from it, and it's possible
Speaker 1: that big parts of her performance may have actually been
Speaker 1: cut out of the movie. But anyway, I'll leave that
Speaker 1: for you to sort out. Anyway, Beyond the Door, it's
Speaker 1: worth saying, is a fascinatingly weird, blatant rip off of
Speaker 1: The Exorcist released just so. The Exorcist came out in
Speaker 1: seventy three, This is seventy four. It's set in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: but of course it is actually super Italian. I feel
Speaker 1: like we should get a sting from the trailer here.
Speaker 1: Let's hear it where Demonic possession lives an evil and
Speaker 1: it trates the soul. Step inside. If you dare you,
Speaker 1: Jessica has gone beyond the door. At first she didn't believe,
Speaker 1: but she does now. No one must attempt to interfere
Speaker 1: with her pregnancy. You understand, the child must be born
Speaker 1: beyond the door where demonic possession lives and grows and grows,
Speaker 1: and beyond the door, we dare you not to believe
Speaker 1: it's a demon possession movie. But the weirdest thing I
Speaker 1: remember is a scene where there's a couple of the
Speaker 1: main couple in the movie, or they're like having lunch
Speaker 1: shout on a on a patio, and they're discussing what
Speaker 1: to name their unborn child, and the woman says, with
Speaker 1: great passion, what about Steve? No offensitive people named Steve
Speaker 1: or Steven. But I don't know that that seemed really funny. Well,
Speaker 1: the trailer is great. I've I've never seen it, but
Speaker 1: in looking it up, I do see that it's another
Speaker 1: one of these Italian franchises of sorts where you have
Speaker 1: otherwise unconnected or or you know, just unconnected films that
Speaker 1: have been relabeled in some cases in order to loosely
Speaker 1: be a franchise. I think this one may have actually
Speaker 1: been such a blatant rip off of The Exorcist that
Speaker 1: there were some legal troubles, but all that aside. I mean,
Speaker 1: who can resist going beyond the door. All right, let's
Speaker 1: move on to our next actor. This is um Giovanni
Speaker 1: Lombardo Radici. That I hit that right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is the guy playing that uh that character named
Speaker 1: again Charles Bukowski. Like, I think this is just a
Speaker 1: direct nod to the author. Um. I was trying to understand,
Speaker 1: like what the what the connection might be, And I
Speaker 1: think basically the idea is that Bakowski was a writer
Speaker 1: who was uh you know, he he was sort of
Speaker 1: is self characterized as an outsider. His whole thing was like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I I need drugs and alcohol to cope
Speaker 1: with the fact that I have horrible memories of my
Speaker 1: experiences throughout life and that I don't fit in in society.
Speaker 1: So just somebody who's uh embracing the role of an unaccepted,
Speaker 1: sort of despised outsider who doesn't fit in. Okay, that
Speaker 1: matches up. So Radici again an Italian actor born nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty four as of this recording still at it. Played
Speaker 1: a lot of sleeves bags in his career, especially his
Speaker 1: early career. Uh. And and was in more than one
Speaker 1: cannibal film. Yeah, he was in I think he is
Speaker 1: in a very famous disgusting gore scene from Full Cheese
Speaker 1: City of the Living Dead, in which he gets like
Speaker 1: a power drill to the head. Okay, I noticed. He's
Speaker 1: also in Joe Diamato's Cannibal Love, uh, acting alongside Big
Speaker 1: George Eastman. So that's that's exciting. He's also in the
Speaker 1: Church by Michael A Suave. Oh yeah, that's a good
Speaker 1: one from nine. And he's also a in Berto Lindsay's
Speaker 1: Cannibal Fear Rox film that proudly boasted that it was
Speaker 1: banned in thirty one countries. That's another one of the
Speaker 1: cannibal movies that I have never watched. Yeah, same here,
Speaker 1: but it's not on my list either. But uh, but yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a cannibal apocalypse though. And this was his
Speaker 1: first film, but he's gone on to have quite a career,
Speaker 1: including showing up in a couple of Big Us pictures.
Speaker 1: The two thousand and six reboot of The Omen, which
Speaker 1: falls in line with some of what we're talking about here.
Speaker 1: But also he has a role in Martin Scorsese's Gangs
Speaker 1: of New York. Oh do you remember who he plays
Speaker 1: in that? He's pretty far down the list. I think
Speaker 1: he he but he has a name, his character has
Speaker 1: a name. Um, he's just I'm assuming one of the
Speaker 1: Italian characters. I haven't actually seen Gangs in New York,
Speaker 1: so I can't I can't be more specific than that. Okay, alright.
Speaker 1: Another actor in this we have a Sinsiad Carols, who
Speaker 1: plays Mary the Neighbor. Born nineteen sixty an Italian actor, again,
Speaker 1: a former child actor. I think she was twenty at
Speaker 1: the time that this film was put together, but she
Speaker 1: had already been in Argento's The Cat of Nine Tales.
Speaker 1: She was She went on to be in an Italian
Speaker 1: TV bio of Helen Keller, and I believe she's worked
Speaker 1: as a as a dubber, dubbing helping to dub various
Speaker 1: like uh, English language films for instance, into Italian. We
Speaker 1: also have in this film Tony King. Also known I
Speaker 1: think more properly known today is Malik Farrakhan Uh. He
Speaker 1: plays Tom Thompson, a vet. He was born in nineteen
Speaker 1: forty seven. He played for the NFL on the Buffalo Bills,
Speaker 1: I think for one season in nineteen sixty seven, I believe,
Speaker 1: and then he went on to act in a lot
Speaker 1: of B movies throughout the seventies. He's been a political
Speaker 1: movies though he's oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. He
Speaker 1: did a lot of B movie work. But he also
Speaker 1: pops up in Shaft. I believe. He has a brief,
Speaker 1: maybe uncredited role in the Godfather. He was in The Toy.
Speaker 1: He was in Sharky's Machine with Burt Reynolds. Yeah yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: and I I read that he also served and I
Speaker 1: think perhaps still serves as the hip hop group Public
Speaker 1: Enemies head of security. Uh. There's apparently a documentary about
Speaker 1: about him in the works titled The Long Road Projects,
Speaker 1: So check that out. It's The Long Road Project dot com.
Speaker 1: He's great in this, Yeah, he has all right. We
Speaker 1: also have the character Dr. Phil Mindez played by Ramiro
Speaker 1: al oliver Eros, who was born in n and is
Speaker 1: a Spanish actor. It's It's worth driving home. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if I mentioned this already, but this is a
Speaker 1: Spanish Italian co production. Um so here's our Spanish presence
Speaker 1: in the film. He's known for such titles as The
Speaker 1: Swamp of Ravens and Black Commando. Tim lucas Is commentary
Speaker 1: track pointed out the distinctive Italian nous of the inappropriateness
Speaker 1: of this character, This guy who, ostensibly, in another in
Speaker 1: another version of this movie, would be able to kind
Speaker 1: of be the hero of the movie, like the person
Speaker 1: who uh can can like step in and intervene. Instead,
Speaker 1: he's just like he's just wrong in every possible way.
Speaker 1: He is well, and we'll get to some examples here
Speaker 1: in a second. Now, one thing about this film is
Speaker 1: that it's it's filmed in Atlanta for the most part.
Speaker 1: I think they shot some tunnel sequences in Rome, but
Speaker 1: not Room, Georgia, but Rome, Italy. So it's very much
Speaker 1: filmed in Atlanta, and it is set in Atlanta. Not
Speaker 1: in like a hard way. They don't say things like
Speaker 1: what will this cannibalism due to the city of Atlanta
Speaker 1: or anything to that nature, but they don't hide the
Speaker 1: fact and they seem to embrace on some level that
Speaker 1: it takes place here. That being said, we have a
Speaker 1: number of Italian actors who are clearly dubbed, including a
Speaker 1: couple of them at least that have just ridiculous Southern accents,
Speaker 1: like like country loyal chicken accents. Oh my god, Foghorn, Leghorn,
Speaker 1: the doctor Fog were in Leghorn at the psychiatric hospital.
Speaker 1: That was so funny. Um. I don't know the actor's name,
Speaker 1: but I think he was an Italian actor who looks
Speaker 1: just the slightest bit like I forget the actor's name,
Speaker 1: but the guy who plays the President in Clear and
Speaker 1: President Danger. You know that guy, um, Donald Moffatt. Yes, yes, Oh.
Speaker 1: Also he's in the Thing, the Captain and the Thing.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah, I do agree. When
Speaker 1: I was watching this, I was like, he looks like somebody,
Speaker 1: and I looked him up and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's he's an Italian actor I've never heard of. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it just slightly like in the eyes, looks like him.
Speaker 1: But anyway, he's like many characters in this movie and
Speaker 1: many other Italian movies of this period, totally dubbed, so
Speaker 1: you don't know what his real voice sounds like, but
Speaker 1: they dubbed him with This guy with the most hilariously
Speaker 1: implausible Southern accent ever, and sometimes edges almost into Cajun
Speaker 1: accent where he's at the hospital, you know, treating somebody
Speaker 1: who's been bitten by by a cannibal and he is like, oh,
Speaker 1: geryon d you know, he sounds like Paul Prude m
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, it's ridiculous. So you have a lot
Speaker 1: of that going on. But but again not every actor
Speaker 1: is dubbed, So you have this this weird exception that
Speaker 1: makes those accents even more ridiculous because he had this actor,
Speaker 1: Wallace Wilkinson playing Captain McCoy of the Atlanta Police and
Speaker 1: he is not only an actual Southern he's an actual
Speaker 1: who was an actual Atlanta native who lived nine two
Speaker 1: thousand and one. Yeah, so he plays like the hard
Speaker 1: edged police captain in this Yes, and he has some
Speaker 1: some wonderful lines and it's some some hilarious lines in
Speaker 1: the film. So he's a he's a real pleasure. Uh.
Speaker 1: He was, of course, when it goes without saying he
Speaker 1: was the nineteen seventy nine The Visitor, that other one
Speaker 1: of the other Italian movies set in Atlanta, like that,
Speaker 1: it just lines up too well, you know, he would
Speaker 1: have to be in that one as well. The cast
Speaker 1: in that one is so weird, so it has like people.
Speaker 1: It's got Franco neary as as like a space Jesus
Speaker 1: in it. But then it's got Sam Peckinpah the director. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a doctor in the movie for no reason that I
Speaker 1: can discern. He's just like, Hi, I'm a doctor. I
Speaker 1: think he just gives somebody like a prescription. And then
Speaker 1: the scenes over. Yeah. Yeah, you've got John Houston in
Speaker 1: that one. You've got Lance Hendrickson showing up. He's got
Speaker 1: a weird cast. I believe there's a there's a particular
Speaker 1: long running um or. I think he's retired now. But
Speaker 1: there's a particular political radio host that was Atlanta based
Speaker 1: that pops up in it for no real reason. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a background extra. Oh yeah, right wing radio guy
Speaker 1: Neil Boards. Yeah, he's just I think he's just in
Speaker 1: a in the background in like a boardroom scene or something. Alright,
Speaker 1: So Wallace Wilkinson, he's fun in this. Um This doesn't
Speaker 1: mean anything to me, but I'm gonna pass it on.
Speaker 1: There's a character in it that's just called Brunette Jogger,
Speaker 1: played by Laura Dean, and apparently she is Sophie from Friends.
Speaker 1: I never watched Friends, so I don't know how meaningful
Speaker 1: that is. I don't really know friends, So okay, well friends, fans,
Speaker 1: you can just take that run with it. Then. Uh,
Speaker 1: but then finally, let's come back to the music. Oh boy, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: the score of Cannibal Apocalypse is by Alexander block Steiner,
Speaker 1: who lived nineteen thirty through five. And for my money,
Speaker 1: this is one of the real stars of this picture
Speaker 1: because this is just a fabulously like funky disco score.
Speaker 1: It's just absolutely tremendous. It may not always feel completely
Speaker 1: at home in this picture, at least for a lot
Speaker 1: of our our our listeners out there. Uh, but it's
Speaker 1: impossible to imagine this movie without it. It has some
Speaker 1: synth delights in there, it has some spooky bits that
Speaker 1: feel very much in keeping with Italian horror. But it
Speaker 1: has to be the funkiest horror movie score ever. And
Speaker 1: it also has a saxophone love theme. I know what
Speaker 1: you're saying, but actually there's a thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about regarding the music. I was gonna bring it
Speaker 1: up later, but maybe I'll get into it right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's do it. This is also something that Tim Lucas
Speaker 1: pointed out when commenting on the opening sequence of the
Speaker 1: movie that takes place in Vietnam. Uh And it's something
Speaker 1: that's true of that scene in this movie, but also
Speaker 1: just more broadly true of Italian movies of this period. Generally,
Speaker 1: there is this weird cultural disconnect between Italian sensibilities for
Speaker 1: the uses of different types of music and genres of
Speaker 1: music versus American sensibilities. Many Italian directors of the seventies
Speaker 1: and eighties have a distinct predisposition to take a scene
Speaker 1: of high tension, terror and suspense and choose these exact
Speaker 1: moments to let the musical score get the funkiest. And
Speaker 1: this always elicits laughter from American audiences because I don't know,
Speaker 1: I mean, it just doesn't feel right, like funky bass
Speaker 1: and saxophone is not really what would seem to heighten
Speaker 1: the effect of a scene where someone is creeping up
Speaker 1: on somebody else behind them with a knife or something.
Speaker 1: But for some reason this made sense to the Italians.
Speaker 1: So what is going on here with the intended effect
Speaker 1: of funky music? I I don't don't don't hear funky
Speaker 1: music and think, oh wow, I'm getting really nervous. I
Speaker 1: think I have a theory on this. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'm correct, but because certainly there are people that
Speaker 1: have more expertise in the genres involved here. But I
Speaker 1: think part of it might be might come down to
Speaker 1: the disconnect regarding disco culture between the Italian market and
Speaker 1: the Europe in general and the United States, because disco
Speaker 1: obviously exploded in the States, but there was this for
Speaker 1: a long time, there was this kind of disco backlash,
Speaker 1: and I feel like a lot of us grew up
Speaker 1: exposed to that backlash, you know, jokes about disco and
Speaker 1: about disco being dead and and being lame to some extent, right,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, sure, yeah, yeah, But but in Europe, disco
Speaker 1: never really died, and horror disco was able to to
Speaker 1: sort of thrive and evolve as its own genre or subgenre.
Speaker 1: Um and is it is actually doing quite well today,
Speaker 1: with a lot of artists that were inspired aired by
Speaker 1: soundtracks just such as this one. So you can even
Speaker 1: check out whole labels. There's a wonderful label called Jollo
Speaker 1: Disco Records um which interestingly enough put out a label
Speaker 1: sampler titled Apocalypse Domani that's really really, really quite good. Huh. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I agree with your characterization of the difference
Speaker 1: between Like, yeah, I think clearly disco had a more
Speaker 1: sustained survival and popularity in in European culture than it
Speaker 1: did an American culture. But I don't know if that
Speaker 1: would really explain the disconnect within the movies, because I
Speaker 1: don't feel any personal particular disco backlash, and yet it
Speaker 1: still seems very funny, and I can imagine many other
Speaker 1: types of music that would seem equally funny to put
Speaker 1: in these types of like if you were to put
Speaker 1: in Simon and Garfunkel, or some kind of like a
Speaker 1: folk music, or if you were to put in certain
Speaker 1: times of rock music. I think, like any of that
Speaker 1: would seem really not fitting with the tone of the
Speaker 1: scene and would be very funny to me. Maybe may yeah,
Speaker 1: But but I do wonder if there's something to this,
Speaker 1: like the idea that that disco was allowed to thrive
Speaker 1: morning Europe, and so European audiences might be just more
Speaker 1: exposed to a wider world of disco, Like disco is
Speaker 1: big enough in Europe and in Italy, perhaps theorizing here
Speaker 1: big enough to encompass horror and suspense, whereas in the
Speaker 1: United States we almost had this this effort to eradicate disco,
Speaker 1: and so it's just not growing in all the places
Speaker 1: it should. Well, I'll keep an open mind about that.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. I could be completely wrong. It's just just
Speaker 1: throwing that out there. That's that's what's going through my head. Well,
Speaker 1: either way, so as as funny and incongress as it
Speaker 1: does seem to me in its placement in the film,
Speaker 1: the funky disco tracks are just great. Yes. Uh. In fact,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and listen to a quick sample from
Speaker 1: the score. This is one of my absolute favorite bits
Speaker 1: from it. Yeah, and I should also throw into the
Speaker 1: excellent Death Waltz Recording company. They put out a really
Speaker 1: stunning red vinyl edition of this score, which you can
Speaker 1: still buy for you know, a reasonable price, and you
Speaker 1: can also get it on CD, though I don't think
Speaker 1: official digital versions or are that easy to come by.
Speaker 1: Right now, make the score of Cannibal Apocalypse your next
Speaker 1: Friday night. It's a it's a great it's great. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it feels a good time. If you did not
Speaker 1: know this was cannibal music, I don't think most people
Speaker 1: would would associated with cannibal you'd be like cannibals. You think, God,
Speaker 1: this is this is great, this is this is hitting
Speaker 1: the town music. I am at the discotheca. Yeah, about
Speaker 1: to go out and get steak guys, French fries. I
Speaker 1: got lots of gas, full moon and a jump in tune.
Speaker 1: All right, So I guess we should talk about a
Speaker 1: few elements from the plot. We mentioned already that the
Speaker 1: movie starts with a flashback to the middle of the
Speaker 1: Vietnam War, where you get to see some of the
Speaker 1: themes I think the movie is trying to establish, like
Speaker 1: it is, it is trying to depict the kind of
Speaker 1: cold brutality of the war in Vietnam. And but also
Speaker 1: that's the reason that it's kind of funny when the
Speaker 1: funky music kicks in in the scene. Um. But it
Speaker 1: sets up the plot by showing a couple of American
Speaker 1: soldiers who have been taken as po ws at a
Speaker 1: at a Vietcong base. And I think the implication is
Speaker 1: that they're they're kept in captivity for so long and
Speaker 1: and fed so little that they are driven to cannibalism,
Speaker 1: or at least that's what you were led to believe
Speaker 1: is the causal factor at the beginning, right right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So the film opens with these choppers moving in. This
Speaker 1: is the Green Beret team coming to ultimately rescue these people.
Speaker 1: And I should point out that the blue ray of
Speaker 1: this we watched is a wonderful Keno Lerber addition, Um,
Speaker 1: and I believe a new four K remaster from just
Speaker 1: it looks absolutely gorgeous, almost too gorgeous because the just
Speaker 1: jarringly good quality for a cannibal movie. And you notice
Speaker 1: this when you cut back and forth between the actual
Speaker 1: film footage and uh, the stock footage of the helicopters. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think the stock footage is originally archival sixteen millimeter
Speaker 1: news footage that was taken. You know. It's like actually
Speaker 1: from Vietnam, so it's showing helicopters landing and stuff. But
Speaker 1: it looks extremely grainy when held up against this nice
Speaker 1: restoration of the cannibal movie here. Yeah, so that they
Speaker 1: they're coming in for the rescue. And then there's this
Speaker 1: hillatious there's a number of hillacious things happen in quick succession.
Speaker 1: Uh that can maybe make it hard for some people
Speaker 1: to push on through this movie. Uh, because for one thing,
Speaker 1: they break the dog rule uh pretty quickly. I want
Speaker 1: to say, well, maybe five minutes into the film, oh less,
Speaker 1: I mean a few minutes into the movie a a
Speaker 1: dog explodes, so there's like a dog bomb, which, yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta say when I was like, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh no. And then and obviously also like the battle
Speaker 1: in Vietnam, uh by being based on real events is
Speaker 1: sort of less can be. It's harder to take in
Speaker 1: a lighthearted way like you can with the biting and
Speaker 1: the eating of people and the rest of the movie.
Speaker 1: Um so like the I feel like definitely the first
Speaker 1: like ten minutes or twenty minutes of the movie are
Speaker 1: are the most unpleasant part of it. Yeah, And there's
Speaker 1: a there's a sequence that's ultimately pivotal to the plot
Speaker 1: where the Green Berets they have a flamethrower and the
Speaker 1: flamethrower hits um. It doesn't even appear to be a combatant.
Speaker 1: It's like a Vietnamese woman she's on fire and so
Speaker 1: it's a horrific like burn suit stunt. And then she
Speaker 1: runs away on fire, falls into the pit where the
Speaker 1: two p o ws are being kept and they immediately
Speaker 1: start eating her body. Yeah. And then On Saxon, who
Speaker 1: is the leader of the Green Berets, are actually It's
Speaker 1: kind of confusing because he's wearing a beret that would
Speaker 1: seem to indicate he is a Green Beret, but he's
Speaker 1: leading a group of soldiers who are not similarly dressed.
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure what the composition of this this
Speaker 1: group is supposed to be. But they come in. John
Speaker 1: Saxson like opens up the cage on top of the
Speaker 1: pit that these guys are being kept in while they
Speaker 1: are eating a human being and uh, and he reaches
Speaker 1: down to to help these guys out, and what do
Speaker 1: they do. They bite him on the arm. And then
Speaker 1: as soon as they bite him on the arm, suddenly
Speaker 1: John Saxon wakes up. It was all a dream. But
Speaker 1: then he gets up and his his wife wakes up again.
Speaker 1: This is played by Elizabeth Turner and uh, and she's like, oh,
Speaker 1: dreams again. And we see a scar on his forearm
Speaker 1: right where the bite was in the dream. So it
Speaker 1: was a dream, but it was also real. He is
Speaker 1: being haunted by the memories of what he saw in
Speaker 1: the war and what bit him in the war. And
Speaker 1: these are actually I think some of the best acting
Speaker 1: scenes for for John Saxon in this you know, where
Speaker 1: he has this real haunted. Look, it's him like getting
Speaker 1: up in wandering shirtless around his his house. Uh. And
Speaker 1: and he's good in these Saints. He's in great physical shape,
Speaker 1: by the way, And I detect I feel like I
Speaker 1: have a good sense for when this is happening in movies.
Speaker 1: I feel like you can really tell he wants to
Speaker 1: show off the fact that he is currently in really
Speaker 1: good shape while they're shooting this movie. Yeah, he was,
Speaker 1: I think at the time, but he jacked. He looks awesome.
Speaker 1: I think he was. He was using this movie as
Speaker 1: like his dating profile. This is his profile pick, but
Speaker 1: also the funny thing. So he gets up and he's like, well,
Speaker 1: another haunting dream about the war. I guess I need
Speaker 1: to go take pills. So he goes to take pills,
Speaker 1: and he like opens the refrigerator and just sees that
Speaker 1: there is just raw, bloody meat just out open in
Speaker 1: the refrigerator, not in a container of any kind, just
Speaker 1: dripping maa globin all over. Everything in the fridge. Is disgusting. Um.
Speaker 1: So he's doing that, uh, you know, being troubled. And
Speaker 1: meanwhile his Elizabeth Turner, his one dubbed wife, it just
Speaker 1: seems very irritated by his Vietnam flashbacks and she starts
Speaker 1: flipping through a copy of Fortune magazine. I have to say,
Speaker 1: the meat and the refrigerator scene was a moment we're
Speaker 1: looking back in it. I can imagine this was a
Speaker 1: sequence where they originally they might have wanted him to
Speaker 1: to eat that meat or to drink that meat juice,
Speaker 1: and Saxon was like, I'm not doing that. I'm not
Speaker 1: And ultimately the film's better for it because it's not
Speaker 1: about him, you know, being a midnight uh you know,
Speaker 1: meat drinker, and more about like the what's going on
Speaker 1: in his head when he's looking at it. Right. So
Speaker 1: I guess, once again, we don't have to describe every
Speaker 1: scene in the movie, but I think you can probably
Speaker 1: guess the the basic format of it. So John Saxon
Speaker 1: is still haunted by the war, and he finds out
Speaker 1: that the POW's that he rescued in his in his
Speaker 1: dream sequence. Of course, they are real guys, and they're
Speaker 1: about to be they're about to be released from a
Speaker 1: psychiatric hospital where they've been receiving treatment, and one of
Speaker 1: them is this guy, Charlie Bakowski, and we follow him
Speaker 1: once he is released, and pretty quickly he So he
Speaker 1: like goes to a movie theater and starts watching a
Speaker 1: war movie that's just like full of violence and explosions
Speaker 1: on the screen, and immediately starts biting people in the theater.
Speaker 1: He like bites a woman sitting in front of him,
Speaker 1: and then the cannibalism cycle kind of ramps up from there.
Speaker 1: And so one of the things that I thought was
Speaker 1: really interesting about this movie was the way that it actually,
Speaker 1: in the mechanics of plot development, very closely mirrors zombie movies,
Speaker 1: because what normally happens in a zombie movie, especially zombie
Speaker 1: movies that followed Night of the Living Dead and followed
Speaker 1: the sort of formula established by George Romero, it is
Speaker 1: you have a number of human characters and some zombies
Speaker 1: are roaming around. A zombie bites a human character. The
Speaker 1: bite makes the human character die, and then they turn
Speaker 1: into a zombie and they start biting other people. This
Speaker 1: movie has essentially the exact same dynamic, except without the death.
Speaker 1: So you have a cannibal who you could think of
Speaker 1: as like the zombie. They are driven to bite other people.
Speaker 1: Once they bite someone, the bitten person has a sort
Speaker 1: of has a sort of grace period where they are
Speaker 1: recovering from the bite, and then eventually something about the
Speaker 1: bite seizes them, changes them and they start biting people
Speaker 1: in turn. And so I thought that was interesting that
Speaker 1: in an unacknowledged way, it is like a Ramiro zombie movie,
Speaker 1: except everybody is still alive and to a certain extent,
Speaker 1: like even the characters who give in to the cannibalism
Speaker 1: are still human enough that you don't have that clear disconnect,
Speaker 1: because I've often seen it pointed out by sort of
Speaker 1: zombie critics that in the zombie film, there is there's
Speaker 1: no question what you do about zombies. You kill zombies.
Speaker 1: Brutal violence is the way you deal with the problem
Speaker 1: of zombies, and it's okay because the fiction creates gives
Speaker 1: you license to do that. Whereas cannibals, as presented in
Speaker 1: Cannibal Apocalypse, that's never the case, Like there's still mortal
Speaker 1: human beings that could conceivably be pulled back um, even
Speaker 1: if they are, you know, drifting further and further into
Speaker 1: their their cannibalistic obsession. You can almost see several characters,
Speaker 1: especially John Saxon, struggling with the cannibalism thing. It's almost
Speaker 1: like they're conflicted about it, like they feel the urge
Speaker 1: to bite and eat humans, but maybe they're resisting it
Speaker 1: for some period of time. Well, in the film, like
Speaker 1: he he was bitten a long time ago, and it's
Speaker 1: like he's been fighting it this whole time, and it's
Speaker 1: almost it's one of these areas that gets into where
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's almost or perhaps you can go
Speaker 1: say it it actually is like a clever um commentary
Speaker 1: on sort of either modern life or the American condition
Speaker 1: that you know, you that we were all bitten a
Speaker 1: long time ago ago, and the sickness is already in us.
Speaker 1: The sickness is growing, and it's not a question of
Speaker 1: will we acquire the sickness, but will we give into it?
Speaker 1: You know, can we fight it off? And is it
Speaker 1: ultimately too much for any individual to fight off for
Speaker 1: too long? Yeah, I think that's a really good point.
Speaker 1: And uh, but there's another way of thinking about it,
Speaker 1: which is that so as you mentioned about the zombie movies,
Speaker 1: you know, a common criticism of them is that, uh,
Speaker 1: is that by creating the zombie plot device, you you
Speaker 1: remove certain types of moral ambiguity from the film. You know,
Speaker 1: because like in the Romero set up. It's frequently emphasized
Speaker 1: by characters who have a kind of scientific authority or
Speaker 1: something that these are no longer your friends and relatives.
Speaker 1: They are not human anymore. They must be destroyed on site,
Speaker 1: and characters are often punished for making the mistake of
Speaker 1: thinking that the zombies in these movies are still the
Speaker 1: person they were before they died. You know, they like
Speaker 1: try to reach out to their friends or relatives and
Speaker 1: then they just get bitten. This movie almost posits that
Speaker 1: you could be a secret zombie, that you could be
Speaker 1: a zombie, but that you could still blend in with
Speaker 1: the living, and that you could talk and you could
Speaker 1: seem like a normal person at least for a while,
Speaker 1: as long as you're able to keep it under wraps.
Speaker 1: But at some point your zombie nature will just sort
Speaker 1: of erupt out of you and then the biting starts. Yeah. Which, again,
Speaker 1: not to give too much credit to this movie, I
Speaker 1: don't want to overstate, uh, it's it's thoughtfulness, but you
Speaker 1: could see that as actually a kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: if you look at it the right way, as a
Speaker 1: kind of clever insight about the the effects of certain
Speaker 1: kinds of trauma or experiences. With brutalization, say in a war. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think again this is an area where um Saxon
Speaker 1: and perhaps others, right, that is, and then what the
Speaker 1: commentary track indicated that they were it wasn't just Saxon
Speaker 1: that we're encouraging the director to maybe pull back from
Speaker 1: the from the visceral and allow some of the metaphorical
Speaker 1: a little more room to exist. Yeah. Yeah, there, Tim
Speaker 1: Lucas was saying, I think that Saxon and uh and
Speaker 1: Dja as well, we're sort of, uh, we're sort of
Speaker 1: the the angels on Antonio Marghariti's shoulder when making this movie.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who the devils were. Maybe it's his
Speaker 1: own devil, the screenwriter. Maybe I don't. But also so
Speaker 1: so that's the kind of interesting, serious thematic part they're
Speaker 1: also there's just so much absolutely unintentionally hilarious stuff in
Speaker 1: this movie. Some of the dialogue and the dubbing is
Speaker 1: so funny, uh like especially one thing that really stands
Speaker 1: out to me is the character of Dr Phil played
Speaker 1: by Rameiro Olivero's Almost every scene he's in is so
Speaker 1: inappropriate and the way that the movie doesn't really seem
Speaker 1: to understand. Yeah, I mean it seems where he's like
Speaker 1: he's talking to um John Saxon's character's wife and she's like,
Speaker 1: I'm really concerned about Norman. Um, you know he's having
Speaker 1: these dreams. And he's like, no, I totally understand by
Speaker 1: the way, I'm still looking for my soul mate. You know.
Speaker 1: So good. There's one part I can't remember the exact quote,
Speaker 1: but this is pretty close. He's on the phone with
Speaker 1: her and he says something like, I do not think
Speaker 1: you should be alone with your husband tonight. He may
Speaker 1: be on the verge of a psychotic break. You should
Speaker 1: have married me and not him. It's so good. Uh.
Speaker 1: There are also some great lines that are that are
Speaker 1: they are not dubbed. For instance, UM, we're talking about
Speaker 1: the the Atlanta police chief character and he has there's
Speaker 1: this one scene where the cannibalism has spread two police
Speaker 1: officers and so they're screaming and he rushes into this
Speaker 1: room and cannibalism has broken out. One character cop character
Speaker 1: is eating human flesh and he says, oh my God,
Speaker 1: put that down, son, And then I think later he
Speaker 1: says cannibalism that maybe in the trailer that we aired
Speaker 1: earlier on in fact, we were we were joking that
Speaker 1: he's like James Brolin as the Republican Governor of Florida
Speaker 1: and the West Wing. You know, he's like cannibalism. Boy,
Speaker 1: I don't know cannibalism. Big side. Um. There was another
Speaker 1: one more thing I wanted to mention about the plot
Speaker 1: before we move on. So, of course, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of like a spiral into cannibal hell as
Speaker 1: more and more people getting bitten and sort of secret
Speaker 1: zombified get turned into cannibals. But again with the interesting
Speaker 1: difference from the zombie movies that they still retain rationality,
Speaker 1: that they can speak, that they can form and execute plans,
Speaker 1: that the cannibals seem to have the ability to collaborate,
Speaker 1: like they can work together with each other to further
Speaker 1: the uh, the coordinated cannibal agenda. Yeah, and it almost
Speaker 1: is like it instant, like the once the switch is
Speaker 1: turned in the mind, you start working with the other cannibals,
Speaker 1: because you know what life is about now, it's about
Speaker 1: that human flesh. Just in terms of technical filmmaking, though,
Speaker 1: I thought there was something worth pointing out, which is
Speaker 1: that there is a central sequence of the movie that
Speaker 1: really stands out, and it's the entire flea market sequence
Speaker 1: with Radici in it um where So before this part
Speaker 1: of the movie, I think it starts maybe like twenty
Speaker 1: to thirty minute it's in, and then it just goes
Speaker 1: and goes for like twenty or thirty minutes, almost in
Speaker 1: real time. And before this part of the movie there's
Speaker 1: just like a lot of bizarre and inappropriate, tasteless stuff happening,
Speaker 1: and then afterwards it's it's more in kind of like
Speaker 1: cannibal escalation mode. But for this one middle chunk of
Speaker 1: the movie, you just get this really tight, very well executed,
Speaker 1: high tension standoff scene with with this character played by Ridici,
Speaker 1: this cannibalistic veteran, uh sort of taking over a flea
Speaker 1: market with a gun and the police being outside and
Speaker 1: there's this whole thing where they're trying to talk him
Speaker 1: down and get him out, And I thought it was
Speaker 1: so weird to have this one sequence that just technically
Speaker 1: and pacing wise, is so different than the rest of
Speaker 1: the movie. Yeah, yeah, now that you mentioned it, it's
Speaker 1: definitely a sequence section of the film that really moves
Speaker 1: quite along. I mean, in general, I feel like this
Speaker 1: movie kept me invested throughout like it. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's definitely not boring. Yeah, And I think a
Speaker 1: lot of it has to do with certainly with it
Speaker 1: with some of these many of these sequences being so
Speaker 1: well paced and and in many cases shot really really well.
Speaker 1: But but also the last third of the film especially,
Speaker 1: it goes in a direction I wasn't expecting and in
Speaker 1: general didn't seem to be setting itself um in accordance
Speaker 1: to any particular cinematic pattern, at least one that I
Speaker 1: was familiar with, So I really wasn't sure how everything
Speaker 1: was going to play out. Yeah, And I think part
Speaker 1: of the unpredictability of the movie is created by having
Speaker 1: this chunk of the movie in the middle where or
Speaker 1: the early middle, where suddenly the plot stops developing at
Speaker 1: the at the kind of uh fast, random pace of
Speaker 1: what was happening earlier, and suddenly everything slows down and
Speaker 1: we get this real time, very very technical scene that uh.
Speaker 1: Tim Lucas in his commentary very much compares the way
Speaker 1: the flea market scene plays out to the filmmaking of
Speaker 1: George Romero, which again I think is a good comparison.
Speaker 1: It has that kind of I don't know that real
Speaker 1: time uh, tactical step by step progression of the way
Speaker 1: that that Romero does a lot of sequences, and for example,
Speaker 1: Dawn of the Dead, you recall a lot of What's
Speaker 1: actually pleasurable about Dawn and the Dead is the kind
Speaker 1: of is seeing the characters execute a plan very much
Speaker 1: in real time, step by step in a way that
Speaker 1: that feels very logical, and you have a good sense
Speaker 1: of place and and setting and do you know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, that all of
Speaker 1: that is definitely in play with this sequence. They do
Speaker 1: a really good job of of creating that environment and need,
Speaker 1: like the physical expectations of that space. Um, and it
Speaker 1: makes for a really solid standoff because you you know
Speaker 1: what the environment is like, it's well established. So question
Speaker 1: before we wrap up, do you think the movie would
Speaker 1: have been better or worse if it did include a
Speaker 1: shot of John Saxon just like housing role meat. I
Speaker 1: think it would have been worse because I think we
Speaker 1: would have we we would have It would have been
Speaker 1: hard to root for him if we had seen that,
Speaker 1: especially if we'd seen it early in the picture. Even
Speaker 1: if it was just him be again being a midnight
Speaker 1: meat drinker that would have I think it would have
Speaker 1: it would have caused that that slip to occur, and
Speaker 1: would we would have a harder time thinking that he
Speaker 1: had a shot at at a normal life anymore. Uh So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it ultimately it made the film a little
Speaker 1: less exploitive and and allowed for the film to feel
Speaker 1: a little more metaphorical for those who wanted to engage
Speaker 1: in that kind of experience. It's funny we keep saying
Speaker 1: this though, about about the ways that it seems to
Speaker 1: kind of like hit certain limits because you know, because
Speaker 1: once again, I mean, this is a gross cannibal movie
Speaker 1: that is like inappropriate and in bad taste in most
Speaker 1: ways you could imagine. But for some reason, you just
Speaker 1: keep noticing about it that it feels like it would
Speaker 1: have gone farther in that regard, and and for some
Speaker 1: reason it doesn't quite even though it is already pretty
Speaker 1: gross and tasteless. Yeah. Absolutely, And and once again, I
Speaker 1: think it's a far better film for those restraints being
Speaker 1: in place. Uh And you still get to have all
Speaker 1: your bloody cannibalistic fun in this film as well. So
Speaker 1: again it's not a family film. It still has plenty
Speaker 1: of gross and shocking scenes. My only question in my
Speaker 1: own mind is whether it would have been better had
Speaker 1: George Eastman been in it as well playing a cannibal,
Speaker 1: And on that I'm not sure. I'm kind of torn.
Speaker 1: On one hand, I'm always up for a good George
Speaker 1: Eastman appearance, but on the other hand, Um, he is
Speaker 1: very much a harbinger of of that kind of excessive
Speaker 1: quality of filmmaking of it. I feel like like his
Speaker 1: presence alone might have been enough to push the film,
Speaker 1: uh into the extremes that we're we're praising it for avoiding.
Speaker 1: When we saw the poster for this movie displayed on
Speaker 1: the menu screen from the blue ray, So Rachel and
Speaker 1: I she watched this with me and uh, And at
Speaker 1: first when I saw the guy, I thought it was
Speaker 1: George Eastman the guy, but you know, it's got a
Speaker 1: kind of eagerly rendered anthropophagus, kind of Georgie Sman appearance.
Speaker 1: But Rachel, upon seeing it, was like, is this a
Speaker 1: Sasquatch movie? But no, I think it's just supposed to
Speaker 1: be Uh and uh, what's his name? Radici? Yeah, some
Speaker 1: of the you look at some of the posters for
Speaker 1: this and there's like another poster or maybe VHS box art,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure which. That shows John Saxon's face, and
Speaker 1: part of half of his face is distorted into like
Speaker 1: a monster face, which is totally not in keeping with
Speaker 1: anything you see in the film at all, or even
Speaker 1: really in the vibe of the picture. But they certainly
Speaker 1: didn't have a problem presenting it on the you know,
Speaker 1: the post or the box art in some market or another.
Speaker 1: One last thing I have to mention before we finish.
Speaker 1: Rachel had a really good one. When I was explaining
Speaker 1: that I had realized the title comes from trying to
Speaker 1: get some of the magic of apocalypse now, she suggested
Speaker 1: instead of cannibal Apocalypse, they should have called this movie
Speaker 1: apocalypse Chow. Oh would have been good, especially because I
Speaker 1: can double with like the Italian greeting. Yeah like that
Speaker 1: like dog chow and yeah chow Okay, all right, I
Speaker 1: like it. All right. Uh, well, we're gonna go ahead
Speaker 1: and close it out there. Again, if you're wondering where
Speaker 1: can I watch this, well, I think it's as of
Speaker 1: this recording kind of hard to find on legit streaming services.
Speaker 1: But again, that Keno Lerber Blu ray is beautiful and
Speaker 1: you can buy that wherever you get your films. Um
Speaker 1: it's again just really great remaster four K remaster of
Speaker 1: the film. We rented our copy from Video Drome, Atlanta's
Speaker 1: last rental store, and I think it was meant to
Speaker 1: be because when I walked in there to inquire about
Speaker 1: the film, they were playing Transfers three on the on
Speaker 1: the screens. So so I got to talk briefly about
Speaker 1: the Transfers franchise with the with the owner. Uh so, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a great spot. And if you want to check
Speaker 1: out more about Video Drume, you can go to Video
Speaker 1: Drome a t L dot com or for their merchandise,
Speaker 1: you can go to Video Drume dot tv. Are we
Speaker 1: coming back for Deep Transfer sequels on on Weird House? May?
Speaker 1: I mean, who knows? We could do Transfers three. I
Speaker 1: don't know about four and five, but you know three
Speaker 1: three is a possibility. Three basically have like Street Sharks
Speaker 1: in it. There is a there is a shark character. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's a fun monster character that shows up, and we
Speaker 1: have uh in keeping with the second Transfers, there's a
Speaker 1: wonderful villain roll as well. Okay, that's staying on the list.
Speaker 1: Oh but I think I actually know what we are
Speaker 1: doing next week, and boy is not going to be
Speaker 1: a treat. Let's not spoil it. I do you want
Speaker 1: to tease anything about it? Of course not. No, I
Speaker 1: want it to be a surprise. Okay, all right, I'll
Speaker 1: just say it's going to be an incredible journey. Al Right, Well,
Speaker 1: I won't even spoil it. Then. At the at the
Speaker 1: blog post for this episode, which we'll find it some
Speaker 1: new to music dot Com, but I will include some
Speaker 1: some clips and some samples and some links to some
Speaker 1: of the soundtrack stuff we've been talking about here. And
Speaker 1: if you want to catch more episodes of Weird House Cinema,
Speaker 1: the place to get it is every Friday in the
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your Mind pod cast feed, which we'll
Speaker 1: find wherever you get your podcasts. Stuff to Blow Your
Speaker 1: Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast. We run
Speaker 1: our core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but we run
Speaker 1: an artifact episode on Wednesday's, we run listener mail on Monday's,
Speaker 1: we run on the weekend, and then on Friday it's
Speaker 1: this It's Weird Our Cinema, you know, which we get
Speaker 1: to talk about a weird film. Huge thanks as always
Speaker 1: to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you
Speaker 1: would like to get in touch with us with feedback
Speaker 1: on this episode or any other, to suggest topic for
Speaker 1: the future, or just to say hello, you can email
Speaker 1: us at contact. That's Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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