Class of Nuke 'Em High

0:24 Lee Good evening and welcome to Horror. I'm Lee.

0:27 Chris I'm Chris.

0:28 Adam I'm Adam.

0:29 Lee And we're here again for something that we should have possibly watched at an earlier date, but we didn't want to scare Chris away.

0:37 Lee So we've waited 160 plus episodes,

0:41 Lee to finally delve into the exciting world of Troma, came to hear what Chris made of this absolute onslaught of a movie.

0:52 Lee so for those who are unaware,

0:55 Lee Troma is basically Troma is very divisive. They are it's not a movie you'd sit on your own and watch generally. It's a group of drunken teenagers who've had a bit too much to drink or a bit too much to smoke and you've ordered a pizza and you want something dumb as dog shit to watch that's going to be entertaining. Yeah. And this is it. There will be spoilers, there will be swearing.

1:41 Chris Fuck you.

1:42 Lee you can't cover this and not really. so, let's get straight into it.

1:47 Chris There might even be some mutants turn up.

1:51 Lee So Chris, what did you make of Troma?

1:55 Lee in your first showing?

1:58 Chris So let me let me think, what's the best way to put this?

2:03 Chris I think I was possibly enjoying it more than I think I should have.

2:08 Lee Yeah.

2:10 Lee Troma makes you happy but feel dirty about it.

2:14 Chris That is it, that should be their tag line.

2:16 Adam Yeah.

2:18 Chris I I thought I was thinking like after I'd got it, after I mean, didn't take long, you know, a few minutes in and you're like, no, yeah, fine, this is this is it, right?

2:26 Adam This is where we're going.

2:28 Chris Yeah, I was thinking, if I'd if I'd just flicked this on one night when I was like 15, 16, I'd be like, yes, I've hit the jackpot.

2:35 Lee Yeah, it's just like, what is going on?

2:37 Chris Yeah.

2:39 Chris There's there's just too many good scenes, too many good characters, like and and it shouldn't work, I'm sure it shouldn't, it it should have been absolute rubbish, but it was great fun.

2:51 Chris It was just like they were I mean Gonzo.

2:55 Lee Oh, love Gonzo.

2:57 Lee I mean, what a ridiculous.

2:58 Lee But that's what I love about these, like they kind of and I'm sure Adam agrees as well.

3:04 Lee Troma kind of takes things that are going on at the time and then just s- s- like, oh, they were worried about, you know, gang culture and violence in schools.

3:14 Lee So they were just like, well, let's just make it ludicrous and just go absolutely over the top.

3:19 Lee Oh, and let's have nuclear waste as well.

3:22 Lee Let's just they like Troma always throws absolutely everything at it.

3:28 Lee yeah, so the story is incredibly difficult.

3:32 Lee Have you ever tried to tell someone explain a Troma movie to someone Adam?

3:37 Adam It's it's a fucker.

3:39 Adam I mean, weirdly enough, I suspect that might be why Toxic Avenger remains their most successful film.

3:45 Chris So that was it, right, as I was, I was like, okay, this totally now I can see what Lee was saying about Toxic Avenger if it's at all similar to this.

3:53 Adam Watching it, I was like, oh, actually, it's kind of basically the same plot, just back to front.

3:59 Chris Yeah.

4:02 Adam Yeah and you you get a guy who goes into toxic waste and becomes a superhero and beats up the bullies who've been tormenting him at high school.

4:12 Chris Yeah, well, because Warren does do that.

4:14 Adam Yeah, at some point quite impressively.

4:16 Adam Yeah, but also it's the the bullies have been affected by the toxic waste first anyway, so.

4:28 Lee Again because again, that's another thing, I, you know, I've watched this film probably half a dozen times.

4:33 Lee But it's always like I say, a late night with other people generally.

4:37 Chris It it absolutely fits that, yeah.

4:39 Lee And you do miss little things like that, like where they were saying that the cretens used to be the debating team and they one day just snapped in the middle of debate of a debate just started beating people to death.

4:50 Lee Like I just I'd never picked up on that before, or I I certainly didn't remember it.

4:54 Chris It didn't seem yeah, it didn't seem necessarily the most important aspect when so much was going on.

5:00 Chris But it is, I mean, they have they did fit a lot into it, yeah, a lot of fantastic scenes.

5:06 Chris and yeah, and and the story of of the baby alien mutant toxic monster thing, that was quite good that that sort of threaded through to the end.

5:16 Chris I kind of you almost forget that that's even a thing.

5:19 Lee Yeah.

5:20 Adam Yeah.

5:21 Adam But then you get the impression so does the film.

5:24 Chris Yeah.

5:24 Adam You know.

5:25 Chris There's a lot going on here.

5:29 Adam Eccentric is probably Yes, far too polite for it, but yeah.

5:36 Adam And actually on the subject, I'll it's like on the subject of the monster, I was watching it and it was like,

5:42 Adam Troma monster's not half bad.

5:44 Adam because actually the effects like the gore effects.

5:46 Chris Yes, they're over the top.

5:48 Chris But they're pretty good still and it's 1986, I saw.

5:53 Adam It's pretty impressive.

5:55 Adam 86, yeah.

5:56 Lee Yeah.

5:57 Lee I think I think correct me if I'm wrong Adam, but I think Troma came out in that straight to video era where people were just, you know, if you had a flashy cover, people were just buying anything.

6:09 Adam Well, I think I think they got a lot of majority of their stuff got theatrical releases, but then,

6:16 Adam I mean, do you remember Funny Man, we covered way back that got theatrical release.

6:22 Adam So it's, do you know what I mean, it's not it was just the way movies worked, you had to have been out in the cinema and then you went to video, but that's where you made your money.

6:31 Chris Yeah.

6:32 Adam and definitely because I I think of like Troma and Lloyd Kaufman Kaufman I tend to think of them like a sort of extreme Roger Corman. In that sort of Roger Corman made the sort of a lot of exploitation films, but he also did like Vincent Price, Edgar Allen Poe films and stuff like that.

6:50 Lee Yeah.

6:51 Adam And also he acted as a kind of launch pad for a lot of people's careers and Lloyd Kaufman's done the same really. He's and also very much like Roger Corman, he ends up being cameo-ing in a lot of stuff.

7:04 Adam He's very much the public face of Troma.

7:10 Adam And he's he's that sort of William Castle, John Waters-y sort of direct where the director is as much as star and a recognizable figure as their movies.

7:20 Lee Yeah, he's kind of the hype man for his own video studio, which is.

7:24 Lee Yeah, it it which is hilarious and he I mean he is quite charismatic and amusing, so.

7:29 Adam He's not fully off.

7:32 Adam Well, he's he's like a sort of he he reminds me not also to look at, but he reminds me a bit of Mel Brooks.

7:41 Chris okay.

7:43 Adam but I think he's just but then weirdly enough because it's like a two basically it's a Troma's two a two-man company.

7:53 Adam And the other guy Michael Hertz, who they both directed, but I think Lloyd Kaufman continues to direct and he the Michael Hertz concentrated more on the business end of the business, if you see what I mean.

8:08 Lee Yeah, I assumed that was the case.

8:10 Adam And he, he's in Class of Nuke 'Em High, but it's the only time he appeared on screen apparently.

8:17 Adam and he is one of the people who runs up when Jury goes out the window.

8:26 Lee Oh, yeah.

8:27 Chris Yeah.

8:28 Adam Yeah, he's I think he's like the first guy who runs up.

8:32 Adam And that's literally his sort of career on screen.

8:38 Adam To the point where they've actually got.

8:40 Chris They they did have a lot of extras in this, didn't they?

8:43 Lee Yeah.

8:44 Chris Because during the school periods like there, there's quite a few, but then in the the party, which looked like it was kind of in a night club, but then they went upstairs to a a bedroom, I was like, what is going on, but yeah, whatever, that's fine.

9:00 Chris yeah, yeah, there was tons of people.

9:03 Chris They and even the band was kind of good.

9:05 Lee Yeah.

9:06 Lee I was going to say, I'm sure it's easy for them to get lots of extras because I imagine being on set for a Troma movie would be absolutely awesome, so yeah.

9:15 Adam I think it's it's like it's like a lot of low budget stuff is like Joel Romero always got zombies because it's like I get to be in a zombie film.

9:25 Adam It's very much and similarly with this, it would be like I'll get to be in a Troma movie.

9:30 Adam You know, which means that it's going to be you know, it's going to be seen and loved in spite of itself.

9:38 Adam but.

9:40 Adam but the interesting thing with Michael Hertz is there's a guy called Joe Flishaker or Flacheker, I can't remember.

9:50 Adam But he is a he's about 35 stone and he portrays Michael Hertz at like press conferences.

10:08 Adam So again, but I mean and actually like you're saying about like Lloyd Kaufman being like the hype man, Carnival Barker is definitely the term, I think.

10:20 Adam He's got that roll up and come and see the.

10:24 Adam Come and see the mutated man.

10:27 Lee Yeah.

10:29 Adam Women is pressed of all descriptions.

10:33 Lee Yeah, you get loads of that again as well, it's like going for that teenage audience of like over gore, there's got to be excessive boobs in it for no reason whatsoever, just because.

10:44 Lee I mean, they know their audience, don't they?

10:46 Lee That's that's the thing and I I don't know how I'd feel watching one for the first time now.

10:51 Lee But yeah, it's you know, said before we started recording.

10:54 Lee Chris said, oh yeah, if I'd been 15 years old and I'd found this on late night channel hopping, I'd be like, I've just found the best film ever.

11:03 Lee And yeah, yeah, like it totally was for for me at that age, it was just.

11:06 Adam I think I think Claire said, she was like, I feel that this was written by like a 13-year-old.

11:16 Chris Yeah.

11:17 Adam You know, of like all the best bits they could they could think of.

11:23 Chris Yeah, that's why I've definitely I've got a little bit of me that's like, just don't know if I should enjoy it, I clearly do still, I'll just have to accept that.

11:31 Adam I I think the weirdest thing is is Troma is it's literally working to lowest common denominator.

11:45 Adam But so but puts so much more time, effort, silliness and everything into it that you're like, you you know, to do something that is.

11:58 Chris You can still appreciate it.

12:00 Adam Yeah, you don't just like it's just like, right, what do you want, you want Gore, you want tits, you want drugs, violence.

12:09 Adam And you know, in a weird way it bypassed the cynicism of it by the fact that they're just like, yeah, but we know this is fucking.

12:16 Chris Yeah, that's that's I think that's it, yeah.

12:21 Lee And I think that's the thing, you're either you're on board with Troma or you're not, people who don't like it really don't like it.

12:28 Lee

12:28 Lee but if you do like.

12:29 Adam I can understand it as well because they're.

12:31 Lee Oh yeah, I can I mean the acting in some of it is so like just over the top and ludicrous.

12:38 Chris But it still fits the whole thing.

12:40 Adam Yeah.

12:41 Adam But none of I think that's also it's one of those things that is it is not troubling any like best movies lists.

12:50 Adam Only in the sense of, you know what I mean, I mean what plot.

12:59 Chris You know, it did it did have the what was it, you know, the the CEO of the nuclear power plant, and I was like, oh, they're sort of pushing that, the idea that, you know, he's a nefarious corporate we just want to get our new.

13:14 Adam Definitely.

13:15 Chris And I was trying to think actually how did that fit in 1986 because probably at the time, I mean even now people are still worried about nuclear, but it must have been kind of a serious more serious point then.

13:25 Adam Well, I mean, what was what is going on currently in the states?

13:30 Adam They've had that massive like explosion and chemical spill and everything and it's just like,

13:38 Adam But again, everyone seems to be like.

13:40 Chris Wait, was this was this the train?

13:42 Adam Yeah.

13:43 Chris Yeah, yeah.

13:45 Adam Like the the derailment or whatever.

13:47 Adam But again,

13:47 Adam look.

13:48 Adam I'm clearly not that involved about it.

13:52 Adam Because there's so little of it bleeding through because they're too busy saying, you know, we shot down a fucking weather balloon.

14:00 Adam And they keep.

14:03 Adam people like last podcast on the left and stuff like that, they're all sort of like.

14:09 Adam Okay, we like UFOs, but for fuck sake, you clearly why is this not priority news that there is basically an environmental fucking disaster taking place.

14:21 Adam And it's because the the guy in charge is essentially the guy who's in charge of the nuclear plant in this.

14:32 Adam And that I I couldn't give a wet fart.

14:35 Adam What you think.

14:36 Adam Just immediately, it's like, I mean, that comes out the gate.

14:39 Adam That's like best line of the movie in the first two minutes or whatever, you know, it's just.

14:46 Chris And he was trying to he was trying to push microwaves being the the evil.

14:50 Adam That was beautiful, that really felt like that that was a real clear understanding of.

14:55 Chris You know, we know what corporate BS yeah, that's that's people will suck that up because they're sort of scared about microwaves, they don't fully understand it, yeah, so it's it's like, let's compare us to them. They're the bad guys, even though we kind of look the same, but yeah.

15:15 Adam And that's the thing is there is there is more going on in it.

15:20 Adam And certainly from a humor point of view.

15:22 Adam And but also weirdly, and I think again this was like a very it was a very 80s thing was America being obsessed with the 50s.

15:31 Adam So you've got stuff like, we're not Happy Days, that's the 70s.

15:36 Adam But you've got a lot of music starts going back to that sort of sound and you've got Back to the Future where he returned, you know, it's all about the 50s and so on and so forth.

15:50 Adam And it was a real sort of thing in the 80s to be looking back at the 50s.

15:55 Adam But what they did was they looked back at like them and the wasp woman and mole people and stuff like that, all the right proper classic like ludicrous B movies.

16:09 Adam Which are filled with stilted performances and, you know, insane fucking sci-fi plots that, you know, would not pass muster in an A-level chemistry class, let alone.

16:20 Lee That did make me laugh with this as well, the fact that in the end they were just like, we've got a giant laser.

16:23 Lee And I was like, yeah, people in 1986 didn't know what a laser was clearly because.

16:28 Chris It doesn't do.

16:30 Lee It's just a light, really.

16:31 Chris Like it doesn't it'll probably probably blind you if you hold it at your eyes.

16:35 Chris for a minute or two, but.

16:36 Adam Well, Claire Claire was saying earlier about she'd seen a vacuum cleaner which has a laser on the front of it.

16:44 Lee Oh, yes, I've seen this, yeah, to highlight the dirt in the carpet.

16:48 Adam Yeah.

16:49 Adam And all I can say is lasers, you really let me down.

16:54 Adam Lasers, you're a fucking disappointment.

16:56 Adam Yes, you're pretty cool on SWAT teams, scopes and for cut price snipers in films and stuff like that.

17:05 Adam But essentially, I wanted to be able to fucking melt glass, cut through bank vaults and essentially it's cat startling.

17:12 Lee Right.

17:14 Lee You know.

17:15 Lee Yeah, you're absolutely right.

17:17 Adam But in the 80s, a laser would chop you in half.

17:21 Adam That's what it was there for, you know.

17:24 Lee But again, nobody can ever say that Troma let science get in the way of an entertaining plot point.

17:28 Chris Oh, no.

17:29 Chris I'm sure sure they don't.

17:30 Adam I I think that's the good thing as well is they have at least they have a level of energy.

17:39 Adam So you don't have, cuz oddly enough the one thing you do get with a lot of 50s B movies is, you know, you get oh, here we go, we've got 10 minutes of dialogue before we get an iguana the size of whales coming over the fucking horizon or whatever like that.

17:56 Adam But with this at least it's like, no, every every bit of it is silly or entertaining and has something going for it at each point.

18:05 Adam So it never really lags, it doesn't drop.

18:09 Lee No.

18:10 Adam And I think it's only an hour and 20 minutes anyway.

18:14 Lee Yeah, so it's worth mentioning as well, so this is one of the five Nuke 'Em High movies.

18:19 Chris Oh, okay.

18:20 Lee I have seen Class of Nuke 'Em High 2, I haven't seen 3, but I will definitely be looking it up.

18:27 Lee and I did try the reboot Class of Nuke 'Em High Volume 1, which I found streaming somewhere a while back and watched and and quite enjoyed.

18:36 Lee but I haven't seen the second one of those yet, so.

18:39 Lee I still got a couple more of these.

18:42 Adam Cuz I think they're both Lloyd Kaufman

18:47 Adam directed, but he didn't do the other possibly I'm wrong, I can't remember, but I don't think he did the other the two and three, I don't think he did.

18:55 Lee Two and two is fantastic, it's that great thing where it just if you love the first one,

19:00 Lee the second one doesn't drop off, it's just more of the same if not even more mental.

19:06 Chris Set it up even more.

19:07 Lee That's the one with the mouth in their stomach for no reason whatsoever. yeah, it's just absolutely ludicrous and it's fantastic fun.

19:16 Adam See see again, this is something that very much goes against the grain of film fans or or whatever like that.

19:27 Adam But it's very true that something like Class of Nuke 'Em High, you do not want a franchise that progresses,

19:35 Lee Yeah.

19:35 Adam that changes in any way, shape or form.

19:40 Adam If you like Class of Nuke 'Em High, you just want more of Class of Nuke 'Em High.

19:43 Chris You want more of that.

19:46 Adam So the best example I would say is something like Anchorman.

19:51 Adam Where it's like, no, all we want is more Anchorman, so thank you, you didn't you didn't have to sort of like go out of your way to try and make it more high brow or developed this in any way, shape or form, we just want this again please.

20:06 Chris Yeah, we do.

20:09 Lee yeah, and again, you know, as we said, Chris, if if you liked this.

20:14 Lee Yeah, Troma movies are not interchangeable.

20:18 Lee But they're all very much if you like this, you'll like Toxic Avenger, Sergeant Kabuki Man, like any of those.

20:36 Chris They've figured out their style and formula and they deliver that, yeah.

20:41 Lee It's funny cuz I was I was thinking today there was a movie that a friend of mine obsessed over when we were in junior school, and I remember thinking as I was watching Class of Nuke 'Em High, it came to me for the first time in decades and I was like, oh god, yeah, he used to rave about this movie.

20:58 Lee And just now when I was waiting for you guys to login, I had a look and it is on the Troma list with a slightly different name, so he had it as The Children of Ravensbeck, but it's just called The Children.

21:12 Lee But yeah, I remember going round there and what like, you know, in a lunchtime and him showing me the worst scenes on the VHS with the curtains closed.

21:19 Lee Like so I need to track that movie down as well.

21:22 Lee But yeah, that's what it was, it was kids doing the, look, let me just show you the best bits.

21:28 Lee But it is just the best bits.

21:30 Lee They're just all the best bits.

21:31 Lee Like I say, there's no long dialogue scenes, there's no overcomplicated story, it's just an absolute.

21:38 Lee And that's why they're great late night movies.

21:41 Adam The party films.

21:42 Chris Yeah.

21:43 Adam We've said this a lot, you get that's one of the things, horror, which is something that a lot of other genres have, but horror have party films.

21:51 Adam Yeah, you can literally stick on.

21:53 Adam It's it's not a conversation killer.

21:56 Lee No.

21:57 Adam You know what I mean, you don't have you don't have to sit there and go, hang on, what's going on, you're not going to get two-thirds of the way in and someone goes, what is this?

22:05 Adam You know, why were they doing that again? Oh, didn't you miss it, they had the Camel cigarettes case at the start.

22:12 Chris Right, okay.

22:13 Adam Yeah, you can't you can't watch the Usual Suspects as a party.

22:16 Adam Or, you know.

22:17 Lee I'm pretty sure the first time I saw Class of Nuke 'Em High was at a party, a friend was having a it was one of those, I did my mates mates were having a party, he wanted to drop in and we were out so we just turned up.

22:26 Lee I knew nobody, I went in and they there was about eight of them just sitting around watching this on VHS in absolute fits.

22:34 Lee

22:34 Lee yeah.

22:36 Lee And we just and I didn't know anyone and I didn't need to, we just sat down, drank beer and just had a fantastic time watching this film.

22:43 Lee It's just there's so much fun.

22:48 Chris Yeah.

22:50 Chris So I I would definitely watch, you know, another I think two or three, I'm wondering how many until I'm like, all right, I might have to give that a break now.

22:59 Adam Definitely cuz funnily enough, I mean even if I think maybe at a later point.

23:04 Adam You know, cuz we're looking to do a trauma month.

23:08 Adam But obviously we're doing sort of Troma sort of OG Troma as it were and modern day.

23:15 Adam and but you know, I think certainly Toxic Avenger would be worth sticking on the list.

23:22 Lee 100%.

23:24 Adam Just because cuz that was the only thing I got while watching this is I was like, is Toxic Avenger probably.

23:29 Adam Because I mean Toxic Avenger Toxy himself is Troma's logo.

23:36 Adam And it really is.

23:37 Adam It really is the basis of everything that comes after it.

23:40 Adam Because I think they did they did a few they basically before they did Toxic Avenger, they sort of did a few films, but they were like kind of sort of teen sex comedies, you know, like Porky's type sort of stuff.

23:51 Lee Yeah.

23:52 Lee I've seen that.

23:53 Adam Which you can see in this, obviously, you know, it's still there.

23:57 Adam But but it doesn't have the horror element or, you know, or the gore or anything else like that.

24:04 Adam So.

24:05 Lee It's funny you saying about Toxy, didn't they make a kids cartoon of Toxic Avenger at one point?

24:09 Adam Yeah.

24:10 Lee In a sort of real Ghostbusters type, you know, style.

24:15 Adam He even had a whole, I think in that he even had a whole crew of similarly mutated like friends who were, you know, they were a whole crime fighting team.

24:29 Adam So.

24:31 Lee Oh yeah, it was called Toxic Crusaders, you're right.

24:34 Adam That's it.

24:35 Adam Yeah,

24:35 Adam yeah.

24:36 Adam But again, that's and really that was a lot of their that was their calling card really, that was where that's where Troma really sprang from of what they were going to do pretty much.

24:51 Adam From henceforth like from that point on.

24:55 Adam they are the longest running independent film production and distribution company.

25:02 Chris Oh, wow.

25:03 Adam now so like I said, they were formed in 74.

25:09 Adam Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Hertz met at Yale University and Lloyd Kaufman said they only hang around because Hertz had a pinball machine and he had a TV.

25:21 Chris Right.

25:22 Adam So they were like, yeah, that's that.

25:24 Adam and then they sort of started yeah, the I think.

25:31 Adam yeah, so they started they were working in the film industry anyway and then they sort of met up on the set of a film and decided to sort of like set up Troma.

25:41 Adam the name supposedly was literally them just trying to make an ugly word.

25:50 Adam Like I I don't think it doesn't have any sort of meaning or anything.

25:56 Adam I don't think, you know, because it it sounds a bit like trauma other than that, it doesn't.

26:00 Adam But yeah, they were just trying to come up with like a basically I think what was it again, there's Lloyd Kaufman is always worth reading interviews and watching interviews with him because he's just naturally such an entertaining person.

26:16 Adam but yeah, he was like, oh no, the trouble is is when you look in when you check it with companies house, there's already like, there's already five companies called, I'll shit on your corpse and fuck you up your ass productions or whatever like that.

26:31 Adam So it was almost like a matter of, well, we've got to come up with something because every time they were trying to put a name, it got rejected because someone already had it.

26:42 Adam And it was like, well, we're just going to make up a word.

26:44 Lee That that's so them.

26:46 Adam It is.

26:47 Lee Yeah.

26:49 Adam And the Class of Nuke 'Em High was their biggest selling type, like VHS.

26:58 Adam

27:00 Adam so yeah, they they've also developed everything's in Tromaville or the majority of their stuff's in Tromaville.

27:10 Adam And so.

27:12 Adam Which is Tromaville, New Jersey, the toxic capital of the world.

27:18 Adam and yeah, it's sort of they.

27:22 Adam because they reuse actors and props and stuff like that, it's kind of an extended universe, but it's not because I mean it's much more, let's just say it's much more like the DC universe in that no one is fucking concentrating or actually trying to make this shit marry up.

27:36 Adam So, but but with Troma quite rightly, they just know it doesn't matter.

27:41 Adam With DC, it just seems to be a rudderless ship that slowly slowly killing all its fucking goodwill.

27:50 Adam And actually probably because like I say, because they not they would also although they produced films, they also distributed a lot of films, so there's stuff that they didn't that is a Troma film, but it's Troma for distribution only like

28:01 Adam They did.

28:02 Chris Okay.

28:03 Adam Cannibal the Musical, which is Matt Stone and Trey Parker's thing they did just before they did South Park.

28:10 Lee Still not seen it, I really, really need to, especially having seen Book of Mormon now, I really need to get involved.

28:15 Adam Yeah.

28:16 Adam Well, it's it's actually it's it's basically it's I think it's based on a real case, a guy called Packer, like who was it's basically the I think it was something along the lines of the Donner party where it was basically this guy who just you know.

28:29 Adam But that was the original title was like, I think it's Albert Packer and it was like Albert Packer the musical and basically the Troma signing was, yeah, but change it to Cannibal the Musical, so you sell more.

28:45 Adam And yeah,

28:45 Adam you know,

28:46 Adam that's.

28:46 Adam It's a fucking fair point, I think.

28:49 Adam You know, because that's and also again, knowing your audience because you know that Cannibal the Musical.

28:56 Adam There's certain people that I saw all your eyes light up.

29:00 Lee Yeah.

29:01 Adam You know, it's.

29:02 Lee you say about their distribution as well, another one of their films that I've got that I've got to mention because if I don't do it now I'll forget.

29:05 Lee And this is still one of the funniest things ever and it was the reason I had to buy it.

29:11 Lee so they released a film called Maniac Nurses find Ecstasy, which was a Hungarian.

29:17 Lee porn movie like a softcore porn movie.

29:23 Lee and they shot the whole thing in that kind of 70s, 80s, it's got a through line story.

29:30 Lee And it got shot and it was all in the can and nothing was ever done with it.

29:34 Lee Troma bought it, removed the sex scenes and just put out the ridiculous story in between.

29:40 Lee And I was like, I need to own that because that's awesome.

29:43 Chris That's pretty good.

29:45 Adam He's he's also just such a it's it's like it's that's almost like anti that's like that's like anti-exploitation.

29:55 Adam Because it's usually you know when they make Caligula with like Helen Mirren and Malcolm McDowell and then the producers like let's stick some hardcore in it as well.

30:07 Adam whereas you know they've they've taken all the sex and they've taken all the sex I was like, that is such a brilliant idea.

30:20 Adam But also, does that not mean that they preempted Tommy Wiseau because that's essentially the room as far as I'm concerned, it feels like a pawn film with the with the sex cut out because just everything else about it is so meaningless and bad that it's.

30:39 Adam But yeah, they also released Combat Shark, Death by Temptation, you know, the horror film.

30:45 Chris Okay.

30:46 Adam Mad Dog Morgan, Rabbit Grannies, which I remember seeing a trailer for on the Clive James show when I was a kid and it terrified the fuck out of me.

30:54 Adam But Rabbit Grannies still stays in my head. Surf Nazis Must Die, Nightbeast and Shock the John Landis movie.

31:00 Lee Yeah.

31:01 Adam And actually, I mean, the they did their current sort of what's the word I'm looking for.

31:18 Adam Like probably the most famous Troma alumnus at the moment is James Gunn because he scripted Troma and Juliet, which was kind of one of their weird successes in the 90s.

31:19 Lee I'm such a fan of that.

31:21 Lee It has a massive cult following.

31:23 Adam It does, but I think cuz weirdly enough, I think that was one of those moments where Troma did sort of break away a bit from what they normally do.

31:31 Chris Okay.

31:32 Adam And suddenly a a few more people were into it, but it wasn't really you know what I mean, it was like it was like, I don't know, it was like everything must go by the Manic Street Preachers.

31:41 Adam It sort of managed to alienate all the fans of the first three albums, but had a lot more success.

31:50 Adam I mean, there's still people who like Troma and Juliet who also like Troma, but I think there's also quite a number of people who are like, no, it's not.

31:58 Adam but yeah, he did that and he also co-wrote Lloyd Kaufman's autobiography.

32:06 Adam which is all I need to know about filmmaking I learned from Toxic Avenger.

32:13 Lee I need to read that.

32:16 Adam Even better than that, they also turned that into a film called Terra Firma.

32:20 Adam And it's and it's basically like a slasher film based on Lloyd Kaufman's autobiography.

32:29 Adam Which presumably does not feature a maniac I don't fucking know, but.

32:36 Lee This is what I love, like you were like Claire said, these are all just.

32:39 Lee Ideas a 13-year-old has had on his first beer and they just run with them every time.

32:44 Lee And they just managed to land it when every time.

32:48 Lee It just shouldn't work.

32:50 Lee Like on paper, it's lunacy.

32:52 Lee I don't know how they managed to keep and they are they like they're bangers some of them. They're really, really good.

32:59 Adam The the trouble is is that they like Toxic Avenger and Nuke 'Em High were really successful and then they did a film called Troma's War which flopped.

33:07 Adam And that was kind of the start of the decline.

33:12 Adam So now they concentrate on producing and acquiring.

33:19 Adam So they're putting money up to other film makers or they're buying stuff to distribute.

33:23 Adam So they're not really a they're not a production company anymore.

33:28 Adam They're a distribution and they're sorry.

33:32 Adam They're not they're not making the films themselves, but they are investing and so on.

33:36 Adam at one point they did put.

33:40 Adam where is it 2012, they put a hundred films on YouTube, most for free, and it was the channel was shut down for not meeting community standards.

33:50 Chris Right.

33:51 Adam Yeah, two fucking right from.

33:53 Adam Like especially especially when it's like now it's like YouTube where it's like, oh don't swear because we get demonetized.

33:58 Adam Everything.

33:59 Adam Don't fucking swear.

34:00 Lee Yeah.

34:01 Adam The fucking Troma movie.

34:03 Adam The swearing was the only bits you could show your mom.

34:05 Lee

34:06 Lee yeah.

34:06 Adam

34:07 Adam yeah.

34:08 Lee Yeah, I I just have such a love of Troma and it.

34:11 Lee And like I say, as I as we were saying, you know, I totally get how people don't necessarily like it.

34:17 Lee

34:19 Lee And how it doesn't work for everyone, but I just I I just find them so much fun.

34:22 Lee And I find them, although they're quite over the top and in your face, it's it's normally quite an innocent, you know, it's all.

34:29 Adam It's honest, isn't it?

34:30 Adam Yeah, it is like a fucking 13, 15 year old, you know what I mean, where it's like never been kissed but like you still got all this just got this sort of like filth.

34:40 Chris Yeah.

34:40 Adam pouring out.

34:41 Adam But it's like, you know, it doesn't actually.

34:45 Adam Yeah,

34:46 Adam it's.

34:46 Chris A strange sort of charm.

34:48 Adam Yeah,

34:49 Adam it is.

34:49 Adam It's that well, I mean, I think taking a porn film cutting all the porn out.

34:55 Adam Yeah, to make the movie, you know, that kind of says it all, almost, like I said, it's like anti-exploitation almost.

35:02 Adam

35:03 Adam Well, I mean, obviously not many people a huge number of people on like the cast list of this, this is their only film.

35:18 Adam if a lot of obviously there's a few people who turn up in other Troma movies, there's quite a few people who do like Toxic Avenger and this have quite a crossover.

35:29 Adam

35:30 Adam But Chrissy their actress Janelle Brady.

35:36 Adam she she was also in Teen Wolf 2.

35:41 Lee Oh, is she really?

35:41 Lee Oh, it's funny, I just bought Teen Wolf and Teen Wolf 2 on a double pack and I've only watched the first one, so.

35:46 Adam Oh, well.

35:47 Adam I I think she's credited as history student, so I don't think she's going to have too much of a of a role in it to be honest.

35:55 Adam But she sort of she did some other acting and she also modeled for Playboy.

36:05 Adam But excuse me, the but the weird thing that I when I was looking into this, in February 2012, she went missing in Las Vegas and no one knows what happened to her.

36:19 Lee Really.

36:19 Lee She's not been found.

36:21 Adam She's not been found, she was meant to be meeting her husband and just never showed up and yeah, there's never been any.

36:27 Lee That's awful.

36:28 Adam It's weird.

36:29 Adam And it's on like on the Troma websites, they update on Lloyd Kaufman's website.

36:39 Adam Before I do this next week, I'm going to check whether it's Kaufman or Kaufman.

36:41 Lee I say Kaufman.

36:42 Adam Oh fair enough,

36:43 Adam Kaufman.

36:44 Adam So, but he yeah, he's on his website and on Troma websites and everything, they sort of regularly update and there's rewards for information and stuff like that, but yeah, no one knows what became of her.

36:57 Adam apparently I mean apparently she did have some chronic like health issues, like both medical and mental.

37:02 Adam Poor thing.

37:03 Adam But but yeah, there's just been no nothing since she just has gone, vanished.

37:09 Lee That's awful.

37:11 Lee I I got I was going to say, I've got to give props to her, her image on IMDB is her with the blown up belly before the monster.

37:17 Lee I was like, I love that.

37:20 Lee That like, you know, you'd put something so.

37:25 Lee Yeah, like not going for like a head shot, you know, just this.

37:28 Lee That was great fun.

37:31 Lee I'm going to go with that.

37:33 Adam And and actually as I was saying about with the monster, and I'm sitting there going, that's actually a pretty good monster.

37:39 Adam they actually only got as far as making its hands and its tail and its head.

37:45 Adam which is why you never see it the whole thing, you never see it doing things or whatever like that.

37:50 Lee The whole thing.

37:51 Chris The whole thing.

37:52 Adam But they.

37:54 Chris They did it.

37:55 Adam It worked perfectly.

37:56 Adam And actually probably takes away from the shit shot of a guy in a.

38:02 Lee Yeah.

38:02 Lee 100%.

38:03 Lee And they do manage their budgets well and make them look pretty solid on these always which is something.

38:09 Lee but I am keen to know, we're down to our last minute of run time.

38:13 Lee I'm keen to know, because as soon as we came out of watching Eating Miss Campbell, I immediately said, well, that was just Troma through and through.

38:23 Lee So Chris, do you now see what Adam and I were saying when we came out and we went, yep.

38:26 Chris Yeah.

38:27 Chris Yeah, this this this it sets it completely, yeah.

38:31 Lee Excellent.

38:33 Lee So on that note, we're going to be back in a fortnight's time and we're going to be covering the modern Troma movie, My Bloody Banjo, which is the prequel to well, not the prequel, it was the original to, yeah, it is a prequel, but it wasn't made later.

38:49 Adam Can't wait.

38:50 Lee to eating Miss Campbell, so.

38:53 Lee It should be out on Blu-ray, if it isn't out quite yet, we'll try and do it a little bit spoiler-free, but if you can, go and track down My Bloody Banjo, and we will see you in a fortnight's time for that. Good night.

39:04 Chris Good night.

39:05 Adam Good night.