6 Feet Deeper - Late Night With The Devil
00:23:00
About
Adam’s back in the Library with a bonus episode of extra gubbins left over from our recent episode on “Late Night With The Devil” As always, we recommend you listen to our main episode (number 207) first, before diving into this swirling hypno-disc of fact. We hope you enjoy this little transmission from the Welcome To Horror Fact Library.
Transcript
Show full transcript
AdamGood evening and welcome to horror.
AdamI'm Adam.
AdamYep, still just me here.
AdamI'm back in the Welcome to Horror Fact Library for Late Night With the Devil, 6 Feet Deeper.
AdamThis is a companion to our main look at the film, episode 207, so be sure to listen to that before diving into this one.
AdamAs always, there will be spoilers and possible swearing.
AdamQuim.
AdamWhilst we praised David Dastmalchian's work in the film, we didn't touch on some of the other roles he's played.
AdamObviously, he was Thomas Schiff in The Dark Knight, which was his feature debut. He was in Animals, which he also wrote. He's Peter DeVries in Dune, Part One.
AdamHe's in Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp. He was in Blade Runner 2049.
AdamHe was the Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad. He's in The Belko Experiment, Boston Strangler, Last Voyage of the Demeter, Relaxer, Gangs of Brooklyn, The Boogeyman, Bird Box.
AdamSushi Girl, Prisoners, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, and Oppenheimer.
AdamAnd on television, as well as being in 12 Monkeys, Gotham, The Flash, and MacGyver, he was Pit Boss Warwick in Twin Peaks: The Return, three episodes of that.
AdamAs well as being an executive producer on Late Night With the Devil, Dastmalchian is also a lifelong horror devotee.
AdamHe has a love of local horror hosts, having grown up watching Crematia Mortem in Kansas.
AdamThen finding Svenghouli when moving to Chicago.
AdamHe has his own horror host persona, Doctor Fearless, a mad scientist vampire with a very Bela Lugosi accent.
AdamHe also made a horror host the focal point of his ongoing comic book series Count Crowley, about a reluctant horror host who finds she's unwittingly taken on the role of local monster hunter along with presenting duties.
AdamI've read the first collected volume and it's a definite recommendation from me.
AdamAnother person who deserves note is the only other American in the cast, albeit one who's been based in Australia for around 20 years.
AdamPhil, the floor manager, was played by Christopher Kirby.
AdamLee would certainly recognize him as James Washington in Iron Sky.
AdamHe was Mouser in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
AdamHe appeared in Upgrade, Queen of the Damned, Daybreakers, and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
AdamHe was also Herbert Magic Williams in Quantum Leap, The Leap Home, Part Two.
AdamAnd Space Above and Beyond, Wolf Creek, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Neighbours, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and the 90s remake of Flipper.
AdamDirector writers Cameron and Colin Cairns set the film in 1977.
AdamAs they wanted the episode in the story to go out on a Monday for sweeps week, and 1977 was the only year in that decade where Halloween fell on a Monday.
AdamSweeps Week occurs four times a year and is when TV networks schedule programming to try and drawing a larger audience than usual.
AdamAs the ratings generated over that period determine both local and national advertising rates.
AdamIt will also determine scheduling for that network and whether a show is renewed or not.
AdamInterestingly enough, the production designer Artello Stolfo worked on Australian TV for years, building sets for variety shows, and director of photography Matthew Temple started his career as a pedestal camera operator for Studio TV in the 80s.
AdamNow let's take a look at those inspirations and influences on the Cairn brothers' magnificent movie.
AdamNight Owls is The Don Lane Show.
AdamSpecifically, episodes featuring Uri Geller and Doris Stokes.
AdamThe Don Lane Show was an Australian late-night talk show hosted by American Don Lane.
AdamLane was a singer and comedian whose initial TV career in Australia began as a replacement for Dave Allen, who had been sacked from his own chat and sketch show Tonight With Dave Allen after telling his producer live on air to go away and masturbate whilst interviewing Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
AdamLane, who had been headlining a residency at Dune's Nightclub in Hawaii at the time, was asked to audition and was contracted for six weeks.
AdamTonight with Don Lane eventually ran from 1965 to 1969.
AdamAfter the show finished, Lane returned briefly to the US before coming back in 1975 to host The Don Lane Show that eventually ran from 1975 to 1983.
AdamConstantly referenced throughout the film is The Johnny Carson Show, which ran in the US from 1962 to 1992.
AdamHis absolute zenith in popularity was the 70s.
AdamThis show defined what is pretty much still the format of American TV talk shows.
AdamSuch as an onscreen announcer, second banana who acts as a comic stooge to the host, acts coming on and performing before joining the host for a chat, the gradual buildup of guests to form a conversational panel, and a resident house band.
AdamIn the ratings war, Carson was the one to beat.
AdamNext, Carmichael Hage is James Randy.
AdamAdmittedly, with a dash of the talk show era Orson Welles, who would often perform tricks dressed very similarly to Hage.
AdamRandy, real name Randall Zwinge, started out as an escapologist, conjurer, and stage magician, adopting the name The Amazing Randy, appearing on TV, radio, and touring the world.
AdamHe even appeared on stage with Alice Cooper, playing the roles of mad dentist and executioner during the Billion Dollar Babies tour, as well as building a number of the props used.
AdamAs the executioner, he would behead Cooper with a guillotine at the climax of the show every night.
AdamRandy really garnered attention for his long-standing feud with spoon botherer and cunt Uri Geller.
AdamIn 1972, he publicly accused Geller of being a fraud, stating that all his psychic powers were tricks and illusions known to most magicians.
AdamRandy felt that Geller and those similarly claiming paranormal and psychic abilities, such as spiritualists and mediums, were, at best, liars, and in most cases, con artists, exploiting the vulnerable for their own gain.
AdamHe found that he had a kindred spirit in Johnny Carson.
AdamCarson, who had also been a magician himself, similarly doubted Geller's claims.
AdamIn an unprecedented move, Geller was booked on Carson's show for an interview, with Randy in the background advising the production team to provide their own props and keep them away from Geller and his team.
AdamCarson, live on national television, asked Geller to demonstrate his abilities using the props he provided.
AdamAs you may have guessed, Geller was unable to perform any of his usual watch-stopping or spoon-bending, claiming that the whole surprise had reduced his powers.
AdamHowever, this occurrence only raised Geller's profile, and he was immediately booked onto other more accommodating shows to prove his powers.
AdamAt this point, Randy realized that he needed to do more if characters like Geller were to be brought to account.
AdamAlong with psychology professor Ray Hyman, Isaac Asimov, and Carl Sagan, he was a founding member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, formerly the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
AdamAn American nonprofit organization whose mission statement is to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims.
AdamContributing regular articles and columns to their magazine, The Skeptical Inquirer. He also wrote a number of books during his career, including a less than flattering biography of Geller.
AdamIn addition, he formed the James Randy Educational Foundation in 1996, offering to pay $1,000 to anyone who could provide proof of the paranormal to the satisfaction of the Foundation's laboratory conditions.
AdamThe reward quickly grew to $1 million and is still yet to be claimed, despite many applicants.
AdamInterestingly, a number of high-profile psychics and spiritualists have been asked to apply, none of whom have taken up the offer.
AdamAnother high-profile target of Randy was English spiritualist Doris Stokes.
AdamShe had appeared on The Don Lane Show, and there is an interesting clip on YouTube of Randy appearing on the show, where Lane really takes him to task about his perceived mistreatment of Stokes, swearing and storming off set.
AdamIn 2010, Randy came out as gay and married his partner of over 20 years, Venezuelan artist Jose Alverez, in 2013.
AdamDuring the filming of a documentary about Randy, An Honest Liar, it was revealed that Alverez was actually named Davy Penna and had used a false identity to come to the USA.
AdamHe was arrested for identity theft and nearly deported.
AdamRandy finally left this realm in 2020, aged 92.
AdamIan Bliss, who plays Hage, may be familiar as Bane, the character possessed to a greater or lesser extent by Agent Smith in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
AdamHe also appeared in Man-Thing, Superman Returns, Farscape, and Home and Away.
AdamHage also name checks Ed and Lorraine Warren in as disparaging terms as they deserve in real life.
AdamThe Grove is Bohemian Grove.
AdamBohemian Grove is a fenced and restricted 2,700-acre area of Californian redwood forest belonging to the Bohemian Club, founded in 1878.
AdamThis men-only club, made up of a number of high-profile figures including politicians, government top brass, former and future presidents, senior executives, business leaders, artists, actors, and musicians, basically anyone with power.
AdamThere is a 15-year waiting list for potential applicants.
AdamOnly four women have been admitted as honorary members of the club, the last of whom, Iona Kulp, died in 1928.
AdamWhilst women can come in as the guests of members, all guests have to be off-site before 9:00 p.m.
AdamThis playground for the rich and powerful supposedly offers time for them to relax in an informal setting, where networking and business are off-limits. Yeah, right.
AdamThe club motto being 'Weaving spiders come not here'.
AdamThey participate in activities such as plays written and produced by members, and the Cremation of Care Ceremony, a ritual in which a proxy for worldly responsibilities is set ablaze on an altar.
AdamAs would be expected with such high-profile clientele, security is very tight, with local and state law enforcement, as well as the United States Secret Service being brought in to secure the area during gatherings.
AdamDespite this, a few people have managed to infiltrate the proceedings, including conspiracy theorist, Trump shill, and campaigner against amphibious homosexuality, Alex Jones, who filmed the Cremation of Care.
AdamAs such.
AdamThe nature of people involved, the secrecy and rituals have led many to believe that Bohemian Grove is a site for the occult conspiracy who truly runs the world.
AdamThe Grove is rich in tradition and symbolism, with owls a recurrent motif.
AdamThe Cremation of Care takes place in front of a massive stone owl shrine, fitted with speakers for added effects. If you weren't already looking suspicious enough, let's bung in Moloch worship in there for good measure.
AdamFor what it's worth, I don't think it's the center of power for a satanic Illuminati, but much more some outsized frat party for all these horrendous men who sadly do run our lives.
AdamIt's a fortnight's worth of pathetic debauchery where connections and plans are definitely laid, far from the eyes of the public, in between rounds of the biscuit game and public urination.
AdamIt's shitty people trying to recreate their shitty youth.
AdamSandor Diabo is Anton Zandor LaVey.
AdamAnd Diabo's cult is the Branch Davidians led by David Koresh.
AdamSandor Diabo shares Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey's middle name and a diabolical beard.
AdamAfter founding the Church in 1966, LaVey, a relentless self-publicist, was often seen on TV, performing rituals with naked acolytes in his house for salacious news stories and documentaries.
AdamSuch as the Mondo documentary Witchcraft 70.
AdamAKA White Angel, Black Angel, or The Satanists.
AdamTaking full advantage of the renewed interest in the occult in the 60s and 70s.
AdamThe footage of Diabo feels very similar to the Church of Satan segment on Witchcraft 70.
AdamOn another point of interest, LaVey was also a noted musician and accomplished Theramin player.
AdamI've heard that at one point he was the only registered musicians' union Theramin player, but I've been unable to corroborate this.
AdamHis other instruments of choice included the calliope and the pipe organ.
AdamUnlike LaVey, whose church did, does not literally believe in or worship Satan, regarding Satan as a representation of personal liberty and individualism.
AdamDiabo's cult worships Abraxus.
AdamAbraxus was originally a mystic word made up from seven Greek letters that were inscribed on charms and amulets.
AdamIn numerology, the word Abraxus translates to 365, the number of days in the year, and the number of heavens in certain Christian theology.
AdamIn the second century AD, Gnostic sects personified Abraxus as their God above all gods, or the Great Archon, the original source of all creation.
AdamHe has been considered possibly as another form of Mithras from Greek mythology, or a sun god in the Egyptian Pantheon.
AdamIn appearance, Abraxus has the head of a rooster or lion, body of a man, and snakes for legs.
AdamEventually, the Catholic Church would consider Abraxus a pagan god, and therefore branded him a demon.
AdamAs mentioned in the film, one of the many theories for where the word Abracadabra comes from is that it may come from Abraxus, but there are a number of other possible etymologies.
AdamFor the inspiration of what becomes of Diabo and his cult, we actually have to move to a version of the Christian faith.
AdamIn 1993, a religious cult known as the Branch Davidians, led at that point by self-professed second coming of the Messiah David Koresh, became involved in a siege with authorities.
AdamAmid reports of both sexual abuse of minors by Koresh, real name Vernon Howell, and the confirmed stockpiling of firearms by the group, a raid on their compound, the Mount Carmel Center in Waco, Texas, was initiated by the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
AdamBut the cult were apparently tipped off and ready to fight back.
AdamIn the initial firefight, six members of the cult and four ATF officers were killed.
AdamUnable to enter the building, the ATF were joined by the FBI and Texas State Troopers to lay siege to the building.
AdamThe siege lasted for 51 days between February and April, eventually the FBI initiated a tear gas attack to try and force the Branch Davidians out.
AdamAt this point, a fire broke out at the compound, the source is still a matter of dispute as to whether this was started by the cult or by the federal forces.
AdamThis resulted in the deaths of 76 members of the Branch Davidians, including Koresh.
AdamInterestingly, the SWAT team footage of the Diabo cult in the opening sequence is actually footage of the LAPD storming 1466 East 54th Street on the 17th of May 1974, where six members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, kidnappers of Patty Hearst, died having set fire to the building during an armed siege.
AdamOne of Diabo's disciples is played by a gentleman called Miles Brown. He's a professional Theramin player, who performed the Theramin music for the film as well.
AdamDigging deeper, I found he's a member of the instrumental bands The Night Terrors and The Narcoleptor, both are great and well worth seeking out. Much synthy horror soundtrack style goodness is to be found there.
AdamWhilst not an overt influence, the opening sequence borrows heavily on the style of another Mondo documentary, The Killing of America, even down to the red, white, and blue lettering and font of the title card.
AdamThis documentary, whilst powerful and thought-provoking, must also come with a heavy warning to potential viewers, as it's made up almost entirely of uncut and unedited news footage, which includes graphic imagery of people being injured and killed both in criminal acts and during warfare, as well as unflinching studies of crime scenes and autopsies.
AdamIt was originally made by for the Japanese market and was written and co-directed by Leonard Schrader, brother of writer-director Paul Schrader, of Taxi Driver, Cat People, and Mishima fame.
AdamIt seeks to trace the origin and epidemic of American violence and is a smart, yet brutal study.
AdamThe narration of that brilliantly evocative opening segment is by the one and only Michael Ironside.
AdamA familiar face from Scanners, Total Recall, Turbo Kid, Starship Troopers, Top Gun, Highlander 2: The Quickening, The Machinist, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2, X-Men First Class, McBain, Mindfield, Terminator Salvation, Murder in Space.
AdamAs well as on television, SeaQuest DSV, V, Masters of Horror, The Outer Limits, Tales from the Crypt, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and, yes, just the guy that you call when Jack Nicholson is busy.
AdamFinally, Conversations With the Devil is Michelle Remembers.
AdamAs the 70s rolled into the 80s and 90s, the renewed interest in the esoteric and occult gave way to an adjacent phenomenon, the Satanic Panic.
AdamThis groundless moral crusade was kickstarted mostly by the book Michelle Remembers, published in 1980.
AdamThis now thoroughly discredited book was a bestseller.
AdamCo-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lauren Pazder and his patient Michelle Smith, this is presented as a factual account of the ritual abuse that Smith suffered at the hands of her own family as part of a Satanic cult.
AdamUsing the now debunked practice of recovered memory therapy.
AdamPazder and Smith did the news and talk show circuit and eventually married, further mudding an already dubious doctor-patient relationship.
AdamDespite the various investigations that would absolutely disprove all of the claims made in the book, beginning almost immediately after its publication, including threats of a lawsuit from the Church of Satan, it still led to a string of similar exposes of satanic cults hitting the shelves.
AdamLaura Gordon, who plays Doctor June Ross Mitchell in the film, may be familiar to horror fans as Ashley from Saw V.
AdamAnd before we wrap up.
AdamA quick look at the music, the score, which really please someone release.
AdamIs by Rosco James Irwin and Glenn Richards.
AdamIncidentally, the UBC show band seen in the film are, I assume, all real musicians, as they don't actually have any other acting credits on IMDB, but some of them have composer credits on other projects.
AdamReese Sotiri, who is superb as Gus, along with acting, writing, and performing, is also a musician and in a band called Baby Drivers.
AdamThe opening track is 'Forever My Queen' by Pentagram.
AdamThis proto-doom metal band, whose only consistent member is singer Bobby Liebling, originally formed in the 1970s, playing and recording demos throughout the decade.
AdamIt was only after a series of complete lineup changes that they began releasing records from 1985 onwards.
AdamThis song is from an is from unreleased recordings by the 70s version of the band that were eventually formally released on the 2001 compilation First Days Here from Relapse Records.
AdamThe music over the end credits, 'Keep It Warm' by Flo and Eddie from their 1976 album Moving Targets.
AdamFlo and Eddie, real names Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, were founding members of The Turtles.
AdamAfter that band split, they found that they were contractually unable to use their real names for any subsequent musical projects.
AdamSo took the names The Fluorescent Leech and Eddie, shortened to Flo and Eddie.
AdamThey joined Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, appearing on Chunga's Revenge, 200 Motels, and a number of live recordings.
AdamWhile The Mothers were on hiatus, they released their first album in 1972 and established themselves as a comedy rock band, going on to release a further four albums.
AdamThey also worked as a session vocal group, appearing on records by T-Rex, the classic albums T-Rex, Electric Warrior, and The Slider, also records by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Steely Dan, Blondie, Keith Moon, Bruce Springsteen, The Psychedelic Furs, The Ramones, Duran Duran, and Alice Cooper.
AdamWho they were the opening act for on his Billion Dollar Babies tour, which also featured James Randy.
AdamThey were also the house band for the Canadian TV talk show, 90 Minutes Live With Peter Gzowski.
AdamSo, what have we learned?
AdamWell, I've learned that you have to turn off a specific setting on Zoom, otherwise it cuts out your Theramin as unwanted noise, and the rest of the team just sees you silently waving your hands around like a dickhead.
AdamMy final question on that is, if Zoom is defaulted to cut out unwanted noise, how come I can hear my manager perfectly?
AdamIf you enjoyed this episode of 6 Feet Deeper, I've been Adam Thomas for the Welcome to Horror podcast.
AdamIf you haven't, I've been Mimsy DuRouth Bartlet for the Crushed Velvet Flojistem podcast.
AdamThank you and good night.
AdamEnd transmission, so it is done.
