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Welcome To Horror Presents: “The Casebook of We Have Been Watching”. To kick off the new year, it’s time for another round up of the team’s recent eye-musings. This episode we pay close attention to Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” (which, at time of recording, Adam and Chris had seen) and the BBC’s latest Ghost Story for Christmas: “Woman of Stone (which, at time of recording, Adam and Lee had seen). We also touch upon Disney’s “The Black Cauldron” (1985); Shudder’s “To Fire You Come At Last” and “Black Cab” (both 2024); “Dr Terrible’s House of Horrible” (2001); the first episode of “Squid Game” series 2; “The Faculty” (1998); “Boys From County Hell” (2020) and animated anthology series “Red Iron Road”. No need to prep for this ep, but listeners beware, as here be (possible) spoilers and (definite) swearing. Join us!
Transcript
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Unknown
LeeGood evening and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamAnd I am Adam.
AdamAnd we are here as promised for our first episode of 2025.
Adamwe're going to be doing a bit of what we've been watching. We've all been watching a lot of stuff, I gather, so plenty to be cracking on with.
Adamto open up, don't want to go too far into it, partly cuz Chris hasn't seen it, but also because it only aired a week ago.
AdamI thought a good place to kick off would be this year's ghost story for Christmas, which has become a bit of a tradition for us to cover.
LeeAlways, yeah.
ChrisAnd next next Christmas I think we should go back and do some of the old ones cuz we never, we haven't done them all.
AdamAnd there's still great ones. Yeah, we still haven't done some of my faves, so yeah, I'm definitely up for that.
Adamso Adam, as you don't know the original story, what did you think of the ghost story for Christmas this year?
AdamWell, so obviously, once again, it's Mark Gatiss, so, you know, that's that's always a pleasure.
ChrisCuz I was Does it have a specific name or is it?
AdamIt's called Woman of Stun, but the actual story that it's based on is called Man-Sizing in Marble.
ChrisOkay.
Adamwhich Lee's familiar with. I wasn't, and it's written by E Nesbit, who did Five Children and It.
AdamAnd I'll be honest, this is how little I know, it wasn't until I watched this that I found out that E Nesbit was a woman.
Leeyes.
AdamSo, you know, and having read about her, I can see what all the references to were about her like her husband, cuz he sounds like a.
LeeYes.
AdamAn absolute arsehole. So anyway, but.
ChrisTo put it lightly.
AdamYes.
AdamAnd but no, I I kind of think I might have heard it or on something, you know, like an adaptation or a reading or something like that, like fear on four or something, price of fear or something like that.
AdamBut yeah, it's not necessarily one I was familiar with and yeah, I thought it was absolutely fucking brilliant.
AdamI mean, it's a very classic sort of story in the sense of that's kind of why I felt I might have seen it before, whether it's people have ripped it off or it comes from legend or other people have done some other things, you know, which is likely.
AdamBut yeah, the the idea of statues or sarcophagi coming to life and wreaking their revenge.
AdamI think it was done really well.
AdamI liked the sort of I liked the sort of female perspective take that it took.
Adambecause I mean I don't I don't having not been familiar with the original, I don't know how much of that is in there, but it definitely felt that there was a a point to be made there when you've got again, a husband who's a total arse.
LeeYeah.
LeeSo all of that, I think that's why they renamed it because Man-Sizing in Marble is only 16 pages, I re-read it today.
Adamokay.
Leebecause again, it's that strange synchronicity, about a week before they announced that they were doing this, I was buying Christmas presents and bought Jennifer a compendium of E Nesbit ghost stories.
AdamOh, wow.
LeeI just ordered it and then it turned up, so so I re-read that today.
Leeyeah, and as I say, I've heard a couple of different radio adaptations of it, one of the Essex Witch Museum books uses it as like a launching off point to somebody.
LeeIt's they they all go to a church at the beginning, it's like a a writer's club, so to get them all in the mood, they all go and sit in the local church and read the book and then the next morning they wake up and someone is dead with something in their hand. So it's it takes that same thing.
Leebut yeah, so the story itself doesn't have any of that thing about the husband. It's all from the husband's perspective.
AdamRight.
Leeso he gets the story from from their house lady.
AdamHousekeeper.
Leeyeah, he forgets all about it and it's set it's all Halloween Eve that it takes place in the short story, and it happens at 11:00 and he forgets all about it and he's outside smoking his pipe and he's halfway to the church when he hears the bell ring and that's the jumping off.
LeeSo there's none of that domestic abuse element of it, which I I assume is why they renamed it, because it it it has made it a much bigger thing.
LeeBut as I say, at 15 pages long, if you just shot it without any of that, this would have been, you know, five minutes long.
AdamIt's a sketch at that point, yeah.
LeeYeah, like a lot of the best ghost stories. A lot of them they do have to expand out.
AdamYeah.
AdamYou know, even the the old ghost stories for Christmas did it.
AdamAnd I think that Mark always does a blood good job and it looks looks the part, you know.
AdamIt really, you know, it held in that sense. I think it's just another good, another good entry in the tradition.
AdamCuz I mean, I think maybe the past couple of ones have maybe missed or whatever like that or they've just been. I think the Mezzotint was the last really good one that they did.
Adamand this I thought was very sort of back on form with that.
ChrisYeah.
AdamI thought it was very good.
LeeYeah, very sinister, yeah, good act, great cast.
ChrisWho who was in it?
AdamMonica Dolan was the is in it as the housekeeper and she is amazing. I mean she's great anyway, but she's really good.
LeeYeah, always excellent, yeah.
AdamYeah, yeah.
AdamAnd also Celia Imrie plays E Nesbit right at the start of it.
ChrisOkay.
Adamand yeah, and like I say that was that was that was my moment of like, oh, I didn't know that.
AdamYou know, and you think I've got got 46 without knowing that E Nesbit was a woman.
LeeThat's it.
AdamThat's it feels a bit wrong. It just does, you know.
Leeyeah, but I I liked that bringing her life into it at the beginning, and at the end, yeah, it was that kind of wrap around as well.
LeeBut I'd completely forgotten cuz I rewatched it today as well, I'd forgotten that that you get the the short shots of the nights before the wrap around even starts.
LeeSo it's kind of in like five acts with the main narrative all just right in the center of it.
AdamYeah.
Leeyeah, I thought it was really good and I I like the way it expanded it. I liked that he added I would say I liked that he added that in.
LeeBut I mean, it fitted with the story and it did give it more of a Yeah.
AdamIt gave it more, it gave it more of a cultural retail type edge.
AdamWell, it gave it more of a twist and also it was it was good that as part of it, as you know, cuz the actual thing an innocent party suffers.
LeeYeah.
AdamBut but in a weird way, at least a non-innocent party also suffers.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, that that, you know, it didn't feel in a weird way not quite as bleak in that sense.
AdamThat it would just be, you know, the the sort of plainness of just someone dying because they happened to live in a certain house.
LeeYes.
AdamYeah.
Leebut yeah, so we will leave that there cuz I say we've Chris hasn't seen it, I'm sure we'll be discussing it again shortly.
Leeas well as our listeners.
LeeAdam, you said that you and Chris had also seen something you wanted to discuss.
AdamWe, yes, well, I I don't I don't know when you saw it, Chris, but literally this afternoon, myself and my good lady wife.
ChrisOkay.
AdamWent to see the new Nosferatu, the Robert Eggers's Nosferatu.
ChrisI went on the second, so two days ago now.
AdamYes.
ChrisThe the cinema was quite full.
AdamBut.
AdamYeah, I mean, what do you what do you think, Chris?
AdamI mean we're cuz obviously this is part it's Robert Eggers who did The Witch and The Lighthouse and The Northman.
AdamSo it's something that it's someone that we have enjoyed all their stuff so far.
ChrisFor me, it's becoming hard probably to be fully unbiased, I would say.
AdamOkay.
Chriswhich may come out during our our conversation here.
ChrisSo having seen the original once, which we covered, couple of Christmases back, yeah.
ChrisYeah, and certainly it still holds up as a very impressive film.
ChrisI thought, as I was watching this, that it was very much based on that original, in that a lot of the shots were reminiscent of, you know, very harsh shadows and light and using using the shadow of his hand.
AdamYeah.
ChrisA few times and while bringing it up to a modern look.
ChrisBut yeah, just still so gritty and real as is similar to say The Witch in in that it it it's.
ChrisFor me, it works so well as bringing me into it as if I'm perhaps there as well, which not always try to do that necessarily.
Chrisyeah, so so I still I do love his ability to bring both a supernatural stylistic feel while keeping it very realistic.
Adam
AdamOh, absolutely. I mean, I was watching one of the things I got for Christmas was was there's a documentary just come a documentary's come out of about Werner Herzog called Radical Dreamer.
AdamAnd in that that and he obviously was made remade Nosferatu in the seventies.
Adamwhich if I would I would propose now that if we cover Robert Eggers's Robert Eggers's Nosferatu, we pair it with Werner Herzog's Nosferatu.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThey're different enough.
ChrisOkay.
Adamyou know, and I think that they are two very distinct takes on the original, both of and both of them also drawing a bit more from Dracula than Nosferatu necessarily does in different ways.
AdamI mean, certainly obviously, but in that documentary, someone said, oh, like Werner Herzog's early films, they were saying, oh, it's like, it's like you're watching a documentary of these extraordinary events or something like that.
AdamIt's like you've, you know, they were sort of saying, we don't know how he did it with the budget, but it looked like you've just traveled in time to, you know, South America when the conquistadors are rampaging through and stuff like that.
AdamAnd I think Robert Eggers has a very similar aesthetic.
AdamHe's like you're watching and with this, the one thing I thought was really interesting is because it's in color, but feels still feel like black and white.
ChrisYeah, especially some parts of it really do. Yeah.
AdamYou know, it's very sort of it's there's a lot like you say, they've they've sort of emphasized the shadow. I mean, the take on Orlock physically and character-wise is different.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd actually, the thing that it reminded me of a lot of bits and pieces was Bram Stoker's Dracula, like the Francis Ford Coppola, Gary Oldman one from 92, whatever it was, and there were certain bits where I was like, oh, that's almost how they do it in that rather than how they do it in Nosferatu and stuff.
ChrisI should probably rewatch that.
AdamIt's again, we'll we'll do we'll we'll need to do it at some point.
LeeWell, I mean, I know that it that's part of the the vampire style that you're less keen on.
AdamIt's it's not it's not so much that. I just thought the casting was all wrong.
AdamThe effects didn't look great.
ChrisI mean, wasn't it Carrie Reeves and Winona Rider, yeah.
LeeYeah. Which it does seem a bit odd.
ChrisYeah.
AdamI mean, Gary Oldman's excellent in it, but everyone else is hugely cast and some people seem to think they're in a different film.
AdamThat said, I've come to the conclusion that a Dracula film, and not just because I've come I've also looked in the mirror and realized, I'm not playing Dracula, am I? You know, I'm not tall enough, I'm not sexy enough, I'm not thin enough.
AdamBut I reckon Renfield I get my teeth into.
LeeYeah.
AdamRight? And similarly, I always think now I'm almost like Dracula movies live and die on their Renfield.
AdamAnd obviously, in that you had Tom Waits in Bram Stoker's Dracula, and I think he was fucking spot on. He was great.
LeeI'll take that.
AdamAnd and similarly in this, I can't remember the actor's name.
ChrisI didn't recognize him, okay.
AdamHe's he's in a few things. He was in Utopia, he was a guy who was like part of the chemist he was like the chemist in Utopia.
AdamAnd weirdly enough, he's also the serial killer in Gregory Dyer of a Nutcase, the comic strip presents.
LeeOkay.
Adambut it's oh, hang on, my scientific advisor might be coming in here with a late.
AdamWith a late entry. Thank you, my dear.
AdamWhat are we doing here?
Adamoh, bollocks, not on that list.
AdamThere we go. Come on.
AdamTalk about yourselves, you know, that's the best way to do these things, isn't it?
ChrisSo I know we're not going in and find out who that is while you're.
AdamSimon McBurney.
ChrisOkay.
AdamThat's it. Simon McBurney.
Adamand it's also great. I mean Willem Dafoe's in it as the Van Helsing figure. He was brilliant.
ChrisYes.
AdamRalph Ineson's in it as well.
AdamWhich is just again, of course he is it's a you know, it's a Robert Eggers film.
AdamMuch in the same way as Willem Dafoe turning up really.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo Lily Rose.
ChrisAnd Lily, yeah.
AdamShe was good.
ChrisI thought she was amazing. Some of her were quite impressive.
AdamI mean let's face it.
AdamLet's face it, it would be very disappointing that a very good actress daughter turn out to be a very shit actress.
LeeYeah.
ChrisBut but she may not have done a film necessarily like this effectively. She might have been good at something totally different.
ChrisAnd yeah, it does seem like she's picked up perhaps with Edward Scissorhands a bit of his, you know.
AdamWell, I mean, I think it's just that gothic aesthetic, isn't it?
AdamYou know, it's just sort of kind of, but there were lots of, when I saw it, there were lots of like young adults in in the room.
AdamAnd I was kind of pleased because I was almost it was almost like yes, come and see this. This is proper Gothic, not that Tim Burton sort of flowery bullshit, you know, this is this is proper Gothic, you know.
LeeYeah.
Adamand yeah, but the, I mean sort of but the character of the count is just far more horrific in a different way.
ChrisYeah.
AdamIt's more his malignness as a creature.
AdamBut also his viciousness as a creature.
ChrisSo good good balance between him being a sort of rotten corpse plague and being very powerful seeming at points.
ChrisSo there's like a strength there that you can't mess with and yet, yeah, he's also kind of disgusting.
AdamI don't want to give too much away on that though as well.
AdamBecause obviously he's it's quite weird when you watch it, he doesn't really appear properly at all, almost.
ChrisOkay.
AdamBut it takes a very long time before you see him like his face essentially or so you can make out his face.
AdamIt's a lot of shadow.
ChrisWhich was that's what made me think of the original Nosferatu again, it seemed like, yeah, very stylistic in that sense and just giving you an impression of something and letting you fill in the gaps.
ChrisI mean, I don't know how much detail I want to go into, but I I liked again what I think Robert Eggers tends to do is leaves it open for potentially being explained as not supernatural at all if you so wish.
AdamWell, I thought I thought it was fairly explicit.
ChrisYeah, well, that's fine.
ChrisBut there were several points where I thought, that's I think that's great that he's included that in that way because it allows you to explore it further.
ChrisSo, I we can save all of that for when we cover it properly.
AdamYes, yeah, cuz I don't want to you don't want to spoil it for people.
AdamI would say I would say go and see it definitely.
AdamYou know, if you're a fan of if you're a fan of Robert Eggers, definitely, if you're a fan of vampire movies, definitely, and if you and you are not going to feel it's you know what I mean.
AdamI mean it's it's not the very original, like the original black and white one, but that is so alien to filmmaking now that it couldn't possibly be anyway.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know.
Adamso yeah, no, I think definitely a recommend.
AdamI mean, I always say, probably could have shaved a bit off the running time, but then I'm like that with most films, you know, to be honest, I think it's just my age. It's like two hours. I could be dead by the end of that.
ChrisI actually yeah, I didn't feel that for this one, but perhaps I was just in the right mood for it.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah, I was but I'd just been out there.
AdamI was, but I just downed one of their big cups of, blind folks. I probably also needed a piss quite bad during the denouement.
LeeYeah, I say now I'm over the lergy, I'm hopefully going to try and get out and see it as soon as it's humanly possible.
LeeBut we'll see how it goes.
AdamAnd we'll let it percolate down and then at some point we'll cover that, we'll cover Herzog's one and we'll cover.
AdamI I think give Bram Stoker's Dracula a go.
AdamYou know, whether we cover it on the show or not, but if you've not seen it.
ChrisBut add it to the yeah. It would add a bit more to the discussion.
AdamIf if anything, everyone's seen it, so it's a good one that people come in and listen to and people don't mind if you rip the shit out of it.
AdamSo, you know.
LeeSounds good.
LeeRight, so if if we run through what we've been done what we've been doing.
AdamWhat we've been doing.
LeeSee you can tell I'm still not fully over this.
AdamYeah.
LeeI can't even think straight.
Leeyes, so if we run through quickly what we've been doing, just kind of a little bit quick, fiery.
Leeso let's start with Chris. Is there anything you've watched over this?
ChrisYes, well.
ChrisFortunately, I've been watching this rather amazing Dr. Terrrible's House of Horrible.
AdamHey.
ChrisA very nice gift from Adam, Claire and Ted.
AdamOh, Merry Christmas.
ChrisNow, you thank you Merry Christmas. So you may have mentioned it before.
ChrisI don't know.
LeePossibly.
ChrisBut I didn't remember it.
AdamPossibly a thousand times.
ChrisYeah, it's many things that mentioned it's hard, you know, they don't necessarily become salient until you can actually match them to something you've seen.
ChrisSo yeah, so I've watched two of the episodes and I can safely say I'm feeling pure and zesty after just having watched Friends with Tongues.
ChrisLimehouse 1911, Gentleman Adventurer, Nathan Blaze, Locks Horns with Hangman Chen, the sinister bony-fingered menace from the east.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah, and and like and it is it's just it's such a good blend of funny and moments of horror like sprinkled throughout and just the dialogue is fantastic.
AdamIt's just a show where it's like, right, if you if you love Hammer, Amicus.
AdamThat sort of era of horror film making, probably moving into Witchfinder General sort of territory, so sort of 50s, 60s, 70s British horror.
Adamit's definitely worth a watch cuz they I think they do one of every sort of take there. They've got they've got an anthology one in there, which is possibly my favorite.
AdamI don't know.
Adambut yeah, and then you've got a a lesbian vampire one, a sort of a Fu Manchu one.
Adama weird rare a rare reptile one and.
LeeI think my again, it's difficult to say, but I think possibly my favorite is actually the very last episode, which is the witchfinder one, with Angela Pleasant. He just turns up it.
AdamOh, yeah.
AdamYes, yes, of course, yeah.
Leeyeah, I was very pleased cuz I was with Chris when he unwrapped it and he opened it. I was like, oh, yes. That's great.
LeeYeah, I think we managed to wait about half an hour before we put it on, did we?
AdamOh, well, I am glad.
LeeThe whole family there. Just one episode, it'll be fine.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd did that end up becoming five episodes, six episodes?
LeeNo, no, unfortunately not, we didn't start it too late.
LeeSo it was a bit.
ChrisYeah, if there weren't kids involved, almost certainly.
AdamAdam.
LeeAdam, what have you been watching?
AdamWell, just to, just in case you weren't aware, I think Shudder are putting themselves in for a similar strand to Ghost Story for Christmas.
LeeOh.
Adamthey've started something called The Haunted Season, and only one has gone up and that went up over Christmas, so I'm kind of assuming that it's sitting there waiting till next year to add another one to it.
AdamBecause The Haunted Season, I'm assuming is Christmas.
Adamyou know.
AdamAnd but they've they've done one called it's To Fire You Come at Last.
AdamAnd it's written and directed by Sean Hogan, who did the Devil's Business, not did the Devil's Business, that sounds like he took the Devil's poo.
Adambut also wrote the two books that I absolutely adore called England Screaming and Twilight's Last Screaming that are sort of like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for horror, where it's like they they're books where they take characters from horror films and twine it all together into one big narrative where like sort of Richard Burton from the Medusa Touch confronts Damian from The Omen and so on and so forth.
AdamIt's yeah.
Lee
AdamAnd but yeah, so this to to Fire You Come at Last is basically it's like sort of
Adam1700s set and it's basically a group of people have to take a body down a corpse road.
AdamAnd what corpse roads were, were they were roads designed for smaller outlying villages, so that you could get to the main parish, because you wouldn't necessarily have a church in your village, so if you were burying someone on consecrated ground, you had to take them there.
AdamSo they had these things called corpse roads, which were just sort of means of getting there. They were sort of the corpse road was one word from they were also briar paths and stuff like that.
AdamBut it was a means of being able to get to the local church or place of worship or whatever, and it's yeah.
AdamSo it's four guys taking a body down there and there's rumors of things bad happened to you on the path.
AdamBut basically they all start getting at each other.
AdamAnd sort of it breaks down from there and it really has that old ghost stories for Christmas vibe to it.
LeeExcellent.
AdamThey could they they could have put this on, you know, not instead of the Woman of Stone, but, you know, if this was the one that they put on next year, you'd go, oh, that's very much in the vein. It's very much in the tradition. It's right.
AdamBut it but as I say, it's an original piece.
AdamSo it's like it's not not like based on a story, a previous story.
ChrisAnd they plan to do this every year.
Adamthat's what I'm kind of assuming. I'm not quite sure cuz there sort of it seems to be a bit vague what I've seen about it.
ChrisAnd that's a good start.
Adamit's one of the people in it is James Swanton, who was the mummy in last year's Christmas, Ghost Story for Christmas.
AdamAnd Mark Carlos was really good as the Squire in it and I mean everyone's really good in it.
AdamBut it's yeah, and it's about 40 minutes, so it's the right sort of length, definitely worth a watch cuz it's just those it's it's one of those little atmospheric pieces that you sort of think, oh, is that going to it just works.
AdamIt's just a 45 minute shiver down the spine, you know.
LeeFantastic.
LeeYeah, I'm definitely going to have to look that up then.
LeeThat sounds great.
AdamYeah.
ChrisAnd it's good. Shutter does seem to, you know, they keep on working their own stuff again. It's been it's been consistently pretty good, so.
LeeExcellent.
LeeI rewatched, I can't remember if I mentioned this when I first saw it, I don't think I've ever review, seen it, but a friend of mine said, messaged me about two weeks ago and said, I've just watched a film. If you haven't seen it, you need to. Boys from County Hell.
Adam
AdamOh, no.
LeeIt's fantastic.
LeeSo it's the story of a small village in Ireland, there's got a major road going through it, and basically they claim that the story of Dracula by Bram Stoker wasn't based on Vlad the Impaler, but was actually based on their local vampire, who is buried in a field with a massive pile of stones on top of him. so for the new road, they have to go and knock this pile of stones over to make way for the new road, releasing the vampire under the ground and it all goes mental. it's hilarious, it's really gory, it's really atmospheric, it's it's good, it's just a really it's sort of Shauna the dead type comedy but with the that same darkness and stuff.
Adam
Leeyeah, it's it's a really, really good film. I say I was it was one of those ones where you mention it and I was like, I have seen it, but I'm so glad you message because I only saw it once about five years ago. and then I rewatched it and yeah, I was like, oh, I'd forgotten how good this is. It's such.
AdamIt's nice when that happens.
LeeYeah.
AdamWe do it we do it sometimes on here where it'll be like, you go back and I forgot this was fucking cracking.
LeeAnd it is, it's one of those I think I watched it bookended by a lot of stuff, so it just kind of so I kind of forgot about it to some degree.
Leeyeah, so it was good to go back, but yeah, it really is a great film. So if you get a chance, boys from County Hell is really good, fun horror movie for the evening.
AdamYeah.
ChrisExcellent.
LeeChris, back to you.
ChrisRight, so I decided to go for Squid Game season two. So I've seen episode one.
LeeOh, God.
ChrisNow, you know, may not be exactly horror, but I think there's enough scenes.
AdamI think it borders quite quite harshly in the horror, yeah.
ChrisYeah, it does get very intense and so I started watching it.
ChrisI thought, oh, last time we talked about this, or last time I talked to anyone about it. I think was Adam saying, I really hope they don't do a series two because it was great. Leave it at that.
AdamYeah.
ChrisAnd I and at the time I agreed. I thought, yeah, no, I think that's good to do that sometimes.
ChrisRe-watch or watching it now, I started to think, why do why can why can't people leave things alone more and more, it seems.
ChrisAnd is it that like say, say they had left it, there's so much content that comes out nowadays.
ChrisThat would it just pretty much get forgotten. Like if you then mentioned good games to be, they'd be like, oh yeah, that was that good series. Yeah, you know. No one would ever watch it again because there's so much more things coming out to watch.
ChrisSo nothing becomes a classic anymore.
AdamI'm not sure if it's that.
AdamI think it's much more because you're trying to get seen in that world, you better you're better off going with something that's got a name.
LeeYeah.
ChrisWell, yeah, yeah.
AdamYou know, a lot of horror, horror sequels where they're like, someone wrote a horror script. I mean, particularly Hellraiser, where it's like someone wrote a slightly weird horror script and then someone to go, if we punk in that, we'll make it and call it Hellraiser four or Hellraiser 16 or whatever like that.
AdamAnd I think it might be the similar sort of thing, the reason they don't leave things alone is because it's like Squid game got a name.
ChrisIf yeah, well, but if it got that many numbers, like let's try it again and until it starts to drop, they'll just keep on doing it.
ChrisNow, after after having watched the first episode, I would say they're getting things right still, because I was at first, it's like, oh, this is fun and and it reminded me at first, like, yeah, it's like they had a good combination of fun, and tense and with a sort of layer of darkness there that you know is going on.
ChrisAnd then when there's two scenes in this episode, when they hit, it was like, yes, now I remember exactly why you worked so well before, because they just to me, they just got it so perfect as the intensity builds and the sort of the profound idea of what is your decision going to be now?
ChrisIs it, you know, is it for yourself or others or how are you going to play this out?
ChrisAnd and yeah, I just think they they get it just right in this.
ChrisSo they've hooked me back in.
ChrisAnd I'm quite happy to now watch the rest of this.
AdamThey're like Michael Corleone, they've dragged you, dragged your left, they dragged you right back here.
Leeyeah.
LeeI I I I love the first season, so I'm definitely going to be watching the second season.
LeeI haven't started it yet.
ChrisOkay.
Leebut yeah, it's definitely on the watch list.
AdamI might I might wait I might wait a few episodes, see what the general feeling is because you you'd hope they'd come back fairly strong and they made the first season.
AdamThey're not going to be it's not going to be unwatchable, you know what I mean?
AdamIt's like it's got to be yeah.
AdamIt's got to be something there.
AdamSo.
LeeAbsolutely.
LeeAdam.
Adammy next one is another original that I've just obviously been getting my money's worth on there.
Adamjust quick, this is just a quick one, go and watch it Black Cab.
Adamdirected by Bruce Goodison.
AdamHave you seen it, Lee?
LeeNo, I haven't.
LeeBut I saw I I I again, it kind of got missed and it was only because Nick Frost posted about it on Instagram.
LeeAnd I was like, what he's done a horror film and I watched the trailer.
LeeI was like, yeah, that looks worthwhile.
AdamIt is definitely worth seeing.
AdamNick Frost is brilliant in it. I mean, you wouldn't expect anything else, but Nick Frost is really good.
AdamIt starts off and he's quite, you know, he's Cuddly Nick Frost, he's your friend, and then you go to the point of, actually, he is a really big bastard, and when he turns nasty, it's fucking scary.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd basically, a couple who are less than favorably getting on with each other, take a cab home after a disastrous night out and Nick Frost is the cabby and he effectively kidnaps them and takes them to a haunted road.
LeeWow.
AdamTo give more to give more away, I think would be sort of churlish to be honest, because it was I went into it just knowing Nick Frost has done a horror film.
AdamAnd I thought, well, I'll give it a whirl and yeah, it's really, really good, really sort of creepy it's it's weird because he is menacing, but the the the ghost threat is something different and menacing in its own way and it's yeah, there's a there's a lot to it.
AdamAnd the music's the that was the other reason I wanted to watch it because the music is Gazelle Twin and her scores are fucking brilliant.
AdamI mean musically she's fucking brilliant.
AdamBut yeah, when she does I always check out any film she does the music for cuz I'm like, cuz she's got excellent movie taste as well.
AdamSo and yeah, and but yeah, well worth check out Black Cab.
AdamDo you know and then who knows if if we if we go for it.
AdamWe could do it on the show at some point.
AdamOr something like that because yeah.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
LeeExcellent.
AdamDefinitely worth seeing.
LeeAwesome.
LeeI've gone back and watched a classic because I'd never seen it and I don't know how I'd never seen it.
LeeI'd never seen The Faculty from 1998.
AdamI've never seen it actually.
LeeOh.
LeeDude, watch it.
LeeIt's really fun.
Leeit's basically it's a load of kids at high school, realize that something's up with their teachers, yeah, and basically it doesn't give too much away. You find out in the first 10 minutes one by one they're being replaced by aliens. And nobody believes them, obviously. So they have to fight them.
Adam
Leeyeah, I mean it's it's an incredible cast.
AdamI was going to say, I remember it having like a really good good lot of people in it.
AdamWho's it who's it directed by or written by?
AdamCuz it was like someone who.
LeeThat's Robert Rodriguez.
AdamOh, it is Robert Rodriguez.
AdamOh, fair enough.
AdamI knew it was someone who's like at the time where it was like, oh, it's slightly different to what else I'd seen, but it was still sort of like, yeah, you know, a good night.
ChrisDoes it give too much away to say what the alien's plan is?
Leeit's just domination.
LeeAs it always is.
ChrisOkay.
ChrisAnd they're trying to start with.
AdamBut I remember at the time a lot of people seemed to refer to it as Buffy the Body Snatcher.
LeeIt was like that sort of thing of, you know, like.
LeePrecisely what it is.
Leebut yeah, I say I've never seen it. It's Josh Hartnett, Helma, Salma Hayek's in it.
Leeyeah, it's just it was it was one of I've never seen it.
LeeMaybe there's a reason, maybe it's crap. And I thought, you know what, I'll bung it on and I'll give it a watch.
Leeyeah, and just thoroughly enjoyed it. I had a really, really good time with it.
LeeUsher's in it.
AdamOh, right.
LeeBecause why not?
Leebut yeah, no, really good. Again, really good fun, not a comedy horror, but doesn't take itself too seriously.
LeeCuz it knows it's a bit of a daft concept really.
AdamIt kind of knows it's a B movie, so it's sort of like, you know, it's not going to yeah.
Lee
LeeYeah.
Leebut yeah, yeah, great film and again, I I'll definitely go back. I's definitely one I'll rewatch again at some point when I'm in the right mood.
LeeRight, we got four minutes.
LeeSo let's rush through quick, what you've watched title and would you recommend it or not? Chris.
ChrisI've blessed everything.
LeeOkay.
AdamAdam.
AdamRight, one last thing. Red Iron Road, watched it the other day on prime.
AdamIt's six episodes. It's animated anthology horror series of European folktales.
AdamAnd they're all done in different styles. There's one that's like Mike Mignola did a heavy did the film Heavy Metal.
AdamThere's sort of Akira style dystopia, very traditional stuff. Some of it's laugh out loud funny, it's and yeah.
AdamHe's absolutely well and they're like sort of 10, 15, 20 minutes each.
AdamSo you you blast through it in about two hours.
Leethat sounds excellent.
LeeI should be checking that out.
LeeI watched yesterday for the first time, I'd never seen it, but it was discussed on The Lawmen podcast.
LeeThe Black Cauldron, the Disney movie from 1985.
AdamHave you never seen it?
LeeNo.
AdamRight, we'll do it on the show.
LeeIt's full on horror.
AdamYeah.
LeeAnd it's brilliant.
AdamOh man, it's so fucking good.
LeeYeah, I don't know how I'd never seen it.
LeeI think yeah, no, 1985, so I would have been the right age as well.
LeeI don't know, I think it was that point where if you didn't see them at the cinema.
LeeNothing was getting released on VHS.
LeeSo if you didn't see it there and then, you missed out.
AdamI think it was also that thing that Disney would only release only really promote stuff if it had been a success.
LeeYes.
LeeSo that kind of fell by the wayside. No one was asking for it to come out on rental. It wasn't like Snow White or Robin Hood or Jungle Book or something like that.
LeeIt was one of their flops.
LeeSo.
LeeWell again, I'm not surprised the flop. It cost like 40 million, they were saying on Lawmen.
LeeI saying ridiculous.
AdamOh yeah.
AdamAnd it's dark as and it's dark as all fuck.
LeeYeah, it is.
LeeYou couldn't I mean, you could show it to kids.
AdamBut I'm thinking of showing it with ted, but I don't know, you know.
LeeSo.
LeeOh, yeah, it was fantastic.
LeeI loved it.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut no, when I saw that as a kid, I was like, because the trouble was I saw it as a kid and then it was one of those ones that never fucking showed up.
LeeNo.
LeeSo I was like, but I still remember this one.
AdamAnd it had like the guy with the hood, with the horns and the little scruffy cat bear dog thing.
LeeYeah.
LeeOh, yeah.
LeeLoved it.
LeeThat was great.
Leeright, so let's wrap it up there, gentlemen.
Leehappy New Year to everybody.
LeeWe'll be back in a fortnight's time, horror on C's happening in a fortnight.
LeeSo we will be going to that and discussing it.
Leebut it's actually on the it's actually we're going on the night that we would normally be recording, so we might be a couple of days later than usual with the release, because we'll probably go on the Saturday and then discuss it on the Sunday or whatever.
Leebut we'll get it out to you as soon as we can.
LeeBear with us. I'm certain it's going to be worth the wait.
Lee
LeeYes, can't wait for that.
LeeAlways highlight of the year.
AdamAnd it might be the feature debut of some exciting young new actors and artists. So we'll stay tuned for that.
LeeOh, I can't wait to talk about that.
LeeRight, anyway.
LeeThat's enough of that.
LeeThanks very much for listening, everybody.
LeeGood night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
