We have been watching
00:36:18
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Welcome To Horror Presents: “The We Have Been Watching Master Plan”. It’s one of our semi-regular rundowns of all the visuals we’ve been spaffing into our eye globes, betwixt our regularly scheduled programming. We discuss “The Devil’s Rejects” (2005); “Sinners” (2025); “Dellamorte Dellamore” (aka “Cemetery Man” 1994); “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” (2016); “The Monkey” (2025); BFI Southbank’s screening of Sophie Sleigh-Johnson’s “Code Damp: Experimenta Mixtape” and some honourable mentions. There should be 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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LeeGood evening and welcome to horror.
LeeI'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we are here this evening for a roundup of what we've been watching.
LeeThere will potentially be be spoilers, there will probably be swearing.
LeeI think that's everything we need to warn about.
LeeBefore we get into what we've been watching, Adam, would you like to tell people about what happened this weekend, our little excursion?
AdamWhat do you mean when we got arrested? Oh no, sorry, the other.
AdamYes, we, yeah, we want to thank everyone who joined us, we had an invite only screening at Romford's Lumiere cinema.
AdamWe supported them, they had a crowd funder and one of the tiers that you could go for was.
Adambeing able to have a private screening, so we went for that.
Adambut mostly to support premier because we like the cinema and it, you know, it's a great place to go.
Adamsorry, Lumiere.
AdamDid I say Lumiere first?
LeeYou did.
ChrisI was like, oh, he's got it, he got it right that time, that was good.
AdamI got it right first time, that's better.
AdamGet it right, don't get it right second time.
AdamThat's that's the rules of bomb disposal, isn't it?
AdamBut, yes, obviously, yeah, the Lumiere cinema.
AdamWe sort of thoroughly recommend it to everyone.
AdamIt's a great little place independent cinema.
AdamAnd we had a screening there for various guests, thanks to everyone who could come, thanks to everyone who we invited who wasn't able to make it.
AdamBut, you know, we understand because it's not the easiest thing to get to Romford from various points around the country and so on and so forth.
ChrisQuite easy for mine and yet somehow I still didn't manage it.
Adamthere you go.
AdamSo, you know, if if Chris can't be us to show up, we're not going to have a.
AdamAnd yeah, and we showed Peach's Christ's film all about evil, which we did in 2023.
AdamIt's episode 151, I believe.
ChrisBonus points to Adam.
AdamIt was only because I looked it up before I was posting about it.
AdamBut, yeah, and we had a great time.
AdamAnd thanks to Lumiere for like the whole team there because it was just brilliant.
LeeYeah, and it was really well organized and put together.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd apparently we our guests drank a fair bit, so that's that support.
AdamThat's there you go, there's there's a lovely way of supporting a local cinema.
Leewhich is a.
Adamat the car.
LeeYeah.
ChrisSo so we might do it again.
Leepotentially, I say we were chatting to people afterwards because everyone hung out afterwards which was nice.
LeeYeah, and a couple of people said, oh, you should do it again and maybe, you know, do like watch the film and then stick some recording equipment on and do a quick 30 minutes podcast there and then in the cinema.
LeeWhich I thought wasn't a bad idea.
LeeSo, something we might look into in future, if we can get enough people together to cover the cost between us and what not.
LeeI think that could be a yeah, could be a good venture, could be a bit of fun.
LeeAnd yeah, so that's something we'll be looking into in the future.
ChrisYou're only allowed to do that if you let me at the dungeon that day.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou were given full dungeon access.
AdamDon't don't play up in front of the listener.
AdamYou were you were.
ChrisThey know it's true.
ChrisThey they can read the subtext.
AdamYou had a hall pass.
AdamAnd you were allowed your one family moment of the year.
AdamThe rest of the time you stay in that dungeon, you watch those films.
AdamYoung man.
ChrisWell behaved.
LeeAnd on that note, what have you been watching, Chris?
LeeWould you like to kick us off?
ChrisOh yeah.
ChrisWell, I will start off by saying, I've had a fun, borderline traumatic day.
ChrisReally, and in the choice of film that I made.
ChrisSo I'll start by telling you what really happened.
ChrisI had our our friends from the colder end of the chessboard decided to visit one of my websites.
Chrisand scam me for 300 pounds through a Google service that I it turns out I should have looked down a little more than I did.
Chrisnot realizing that it was possible to find out the API key.
ChrisNow, you know, it's not the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
ChrisBut Google said they might be able to do a billing readjustment.
ChrisWhich that sounds like it could be a refund, but you know, we'll find out once I fill in all of the details.
LeeWell, that's not fun.
ChrisBut well, yeah, you know.
ChrisBad things happen.
ChrisNow, so that was a bit traumatic, so I spent the day trying to sort that out.
ChrisLuckily, I think I've stopped it, so no more will happen.
ChrisBut anyway, that'll teach you to read the, you know, the documentation that's long.
ChrisBut anyway, yeah.
ChrisThen I decided to watch the Devil's Rejects today.
ChrisNow, I'm just going to look at your your face.
ChrisOkay, right.
ChrisNow, as I was watching it, I was like, is this the one that Lee hates?
ChrisAnd as some of the scenes came up, I was like, I might hate this.
LeeYeah.
ChrisBecause.
ChrisRight, now.
ChrisYou know, I got I got there's tons of films I could choose to watch.
ChrisBut I went it onto Shutter and it came up featured.
ChrisI was like, oh, yeah.
ChrisI mean, the first one was great.
ChrisI'm just going to do it.
ChrisI'm going to click play.
ChrisThat's it.
ChrisI'm I'm in.
ChrisAnd it starts off and it is it's fun.
ChrisAnd I'm like, oh yeah, I remember these characters.
ChrisGreat, like this is going to be an entertaining couple of hours.
ChrisAnd then they have the Star Wars discussion scene.
ChrisI'm like, this is definitely, I'm well into this.
ChrisYou know, not for the completely obvious reason that she might do a a Princess Leia scene.
ChrisBut the fact that they're just chatting like that, you know, yeah, all right, this is going to be it's going to be lots of action, some gore, I did not quite expect the full on, you know, traumatic relentless descent from all angles.
ChrisWhere it turns out you really don't know whose side you're on.
ChrisThey're all sometimes got a little bit of good, but everyone's got a lot of bad in them.
ChrisAnd you know, it essentially does turn out that we we did all evolve from filthy monkey men.
Adamit is a it is a very moral free zone.
ChrisYeah, that's that's a nice mile.
AdamYou don't really have a you don't really have a protagonist.
ChrisNo.
AdamYou know, and yeah.
LeeYeah, no.
LeeWell remembered, Chris, it's a yeah, it's one of those.
LeeI love the first one, now the first one is just.
ChrisYeah.
Leepeople being horrible to one another, I do get that, but it's it's in such a an over the top and exaggerated.
ChrisYeah.
Leesort of cartoony way.
LeeBut yeah, the second one isn't, it's a lot more.
ChrisReal.
Leesort of real and gritty, yeah, and I I did not like that.
ChrisAnd and it it pushed some boundaries further than I.
Christhink I would like them to be pushed as much as I you know, in my mind I think, yeah, I could probably handle watching anything.
ChrisBut you know, maybe that was like 20 years ago.
ChrisNow.
ChrisIs is this really what I want to be watching?
ChrisBut you could probably edit a few of them and be left with.
Leea good film.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisNo, I'm assuming that that was Rob Zombie's aim was to push those boundaries.
ChrisBut yeah, it's like I haven't watched.
ChrisHostel.
Chriswe've talked about saw a few times, getting like like the premise of it.
ChrisBut.
ChrisI haven't done the first film, don't need to watch it again when it's when it does feel like it's gratuitous.
Adam
Chrisnow it it.
ChrisNow you've both mentioned the word exploitation.
Chrisseveral times when we've watched films.
ChrisNow I haven't fully grasped that term yet, so I thought it was worth you reminding me of what that is meant to be.
Adamwell, essentially it's question I suppose it's questionable taste.
ChrisOkay.
AdamIn terms of observing a subject.
AdamSo it's as as a very sort of bog basic example, I suppose, you know, there's a lot of films that are exploitative of mental illness.
ChrisYeah, okay.
Adamyou know, but that is that is the reason that they're the killer is.
AdamDo you know what I mean is it's.
AdamSo but exploitation can go across anything, I mean, typically in like, you know, in its early sort of stages it would be nudity, drug use.
AdamAnything that's.
ChrisOkay.
Adamshocking.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd and a lot of the time there was kind of like this weird thing where it was almost like educational, I suppose is the best way of putting it, like there would be like a it would be like, oh, this is a film about, you know, they're claiming a moral high ground of.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThis is a film about how drugs can fuck you up and it's like, or it's a very good excuse to have lots of women walking around top and.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
ChrisOkay, that definitely makes sense.
AdamFreakouts and stuff like that.
AdamSo.
ChrisSo I it so I certainly had that on my mind while watching it.
ChrisIt's like, yeah, I don't it it felt like there was an element of.
Chriswe're trying to take a view of humanity here.
Adam
ChrisBut yeah, at what point does it go over into just.
LeeI don't need to see that.
Chrisjust displaying this, yeah, like you're not gaining as much.
ChrisSo I for me the jury's out on it, but yeah, it felt a bit too much.
ChrisI mean like the what was the scene where he he smacks the the boy's mom and then he gets in the car.
ChrisAnd this is a ding.
Adamding, yeah.
ChrisYeah, and and it's like, oh, I mean there could have been like okay and it could show you just how horrible he is.
ChrisBut for some reason it just felt a little bit too.
ChrisWrong.
ChrisAnd so yeah, I don't know if that was.
ChrisYou know, it's always hard to know, is it my state of mind?
ChrisYou know, or are you are you seeing something for what it is?
ChrisI suppose that's where discussion comes in.
AdamI do think it's a distinct, there's a distinct thing where I think Rob Zombie went deliberately away.
AdamFrom the style and sort of feel of House of a Thousand Corpses.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut it was the same characters.
AdamAnd there's.
AdamBecause weirdly enough, you just saying that it's made me think it's almost like the inverse of how the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies went.
ChrisRight.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
ChrisDefinitely.
AdamSo you have the first one which was like very realistic, very sort of brutal and real life and sort of, you know.
AdamTo the point of unpleasant.
ChrisYeah.
Adamversus the fucking insane ludicrousness and camp essentially of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah, and it's funny, you could think that might not work for some reason because I think that's he drew us in with this sort of like.
ChrisAnd it's funny you could think like.
Adamwildly cartoony and and that end point as well.
Adamwhere he sort of put the different ending in where it goes into the sort of fantasy of Doctor Satan and.
Adamstuff like that because you know it's all that stuff is absent from Devil's Rejects, there are deleted scenes where there's like Doctor Satan's in hospital and things.
ChrisOh yeah.
AdamBut I think by that point it was like, no, I want to go more realistic with this and that it feels more like a film about serial killers than House of a Thousand Corpses does.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know.
AdamEven though it's it's as brutal, but I think it's also that thing of you have here's your for want of a better expression Scooby Doo team who are sort of like mildly annoying and.
Adam
Adamto varying degrees.
AdamIt's much more sort of like, oh, here's how a lot of innocent people had a fucking shit day because they ran into these other.
AdamAnd, you know, it's sort of not, I'm not saying that necessarily the characters deserve what happened to them.
AdamThe House of a Thousand Corpses.
AdamBut it's much more on that.
Adam80s sort of like slap not slasher film necessarily, but the thing of like, you know, a group of youngsters get dispatched and whittled down.
LeeYeah.
Adamto one survivor, you know.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisSo tell me, remind me again, now you've definitely said it before, what would be Rob Zombie's film to watch next?
ChrisAnd I'll make a note and then at some point.
LeeI mean I'd go with Lords of Salem.
LeeI love Lords of Salem.
AdamI haven't watched Lords of Salem in a long time.
AdamAnd I was talking to Dean about it former guest, Dean, and yeah, he said that it doesn't really stand up these days.
ChrisThat's interesting.
AdamNot as good as it was.
AdamBut I'd be.
AdamBut I don't know, I've not seen it for such a long time, so I'd be quite interested.
AdamBut yeah, because I was that the next live action one he did.
LeeI believe it was, yes.
AdamCuz there's in between there's El Super Beast, the thingy world of El Super Beast though, isn't there?
LeeYeah.
AdamBecause Rob Zombie did.
Adaman animated cartoon about a Mexican wrestler who solves monster crimes.
ChrisOkay.
AdamEssentially, that's the best one I could put it.
Adamand it's very sort of Frits the Cat with lots of nude.
Adamgiggling babes and stuff like that and monsters.
Adamand the devil's in there.
AdamThat feels that feels kind of like the Rob like the old white zombie album sleeve.
ChrisRight.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamIt's that sort of look to it.
Adam
AdamBut yeah, probably Lords of Salem would be the next one to go.
AdamAnd if I remember, I mean, I, I haven't watched Devil's Rejects for a long time.
AdamI did like Devil's Rejects.
AdamBut I'm also a deeply cynical man who doesn't believe there's any good in the world.
AdamSo, you know.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamIt's just nice to have your biases reaffirmed in a way.
AdamBut I much preferred Lords of Salem at the time.
ChrisOkay.
AdamI think that was because it was yeah.
AdamIt just sort of hit the right sort of thing.
LeeYeah, so I watched it again about three years ago, yeah, and I I I enjoyed it as much.
ChrisOkay.
LeeBut.
ChrisOkay.
AdamYeah.
AdamI'll have to rewatch.
AdamI'll give it a rewatch myself because it's been a long time.
AdamAnd I did really used to like it.
LeeYeah.
LeeExcellent.
LeeCool, Adam, what did you watch?
Adamwell, I yesterday I watched oddly enough, Ted's been watching Shrek, so,
AdamThere's Rupert Everett plays Prince Charming in Shrek 2.
Chris
AdamAnd I understand Shrek 3.
AdamWe haven't got that far yet.
Adamand that made me think, oh, I haven't watched Delamorte Delamoro for a long time.
AdamSo I dug that out.
AdamAnd, so yeah, so you got, so it's Delamorte Delamoro.
Adamsometimes called Cemetery Man.
LeeYeah.
Adamand it's have you seen it, Lee?
LeeI've not, no.
AdamOh, right.
AdamAnd it's basically it's a it's Rupert Everett the playing Francisco Delamorte who is the groundskeeper and gravedigger at the at this the cemetery in this Italian village.
Adambut after seven nights, the dead rise from the grave and he has to blow their brains out.
AdamBut.
AdamIt's that lovely thing of you come into it and that is already established.
ChrisYeah.
AdamSo he is now bored with it, it's it's just a relentless pain in the ass job.
ChrisYeah.
AdamIt's a a bit like, you know, like troll hunter or whatever like that, so he is licensed by the like by the local mayor.
AdamSo.
Adamwho is kind of aware of what's going on, but he gets to live there rent free.
AdamAnd as long as he's killing all the zombies, they're quite happy.
ChrisIt is definitely a job.
AdamYeah.
ChrisAs a job entails everything.
AdamAnd so, but it's a it's a tough one to describe.
AdamSo.
AdamBasically, so you've got that's the premise and then it gets sort of weirder from there.
AdamAnd he becomes fixated on a woman who, well, several women who are all played, by, Anna Falchi.
AdamAnd it's not quite sure whether it's him imposing her on people he's meeting or he's just meeting a group a lot of women who all look exactly the same.
Adam
AdamAnd.
AdamYeah.
Adamhe so he runs this, he runs this cemetery where the dead are coming back to life and there's fighting off zombies in the night with his, sort of Igor-like assistant who only says.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd,
AdamYeah.
AdamThe best way I can describe this is this feels like it feels like Guillermo Del Toro made it.
Adamin.
ChrisOkay.
Adamthat he's incredible to look at.
AdamIt is like seriously.
AdamSome of the shots it's Michelle Sovi who did, the church in the sect.
AdamBut this it's just so well shot.
AdamAnd you have all these things like so Francisco Demorti's having conversations with the Angel of Death.
AdamAnd so you've got like these zombie designs, but it's zombies where they've been in graves where trees have rooted into them, there's one guy who they they bury someone who's killed in a motorcycle accident with his motorcycle and he is reborn from erupting from the grave melded into the bike.
Adamas and but still with the same sort of like, just he's a fuck you attitude and everything else like that, so everyone everyone comes back not so much as the dead, but sort of annoyed versions of themselves.
AdamAnd, yeah, and it's,
Adamlike I say.
AdamIt's it's really fucking funny.
Chris
AdamAnd but really old.
Adamand not that it's.
Adamweirdly enough as I was watching it, and I was thinking because I'd I'd like to do it, I'd like to do it on the show, but I know that the not for everyone guys.
AdamThis feels like one that's not for everyone.
AdamIt's like.
AdamIf you get this, you get this.
AdamBecause it feels, you know, it feels kind of I don't know, sort of near sort of evil dead.
AdamBut it's not quite a slapstick.
Adamand things like that, but it's that it's that vibe.
AdamAnd, yeah, and Rupert Everett's just fantastic as as like the main character.
AdamAnd.
AdamIt's basically him, I mean, what there was a lot.
AdamI had to write it down, there was a line in it that I loved that was,
AdamOh, I'd give up my life to be dead.
AdamOr something like that, I can't.
AdamI didn't write it down.
AdamHey, what was it?
AdamGive my life.
AdamThat's it, I'd give my life to be dead.
AdamSo he sort of narrates the thing as he goes along in a sort of series of sort of little sort of bored asides and things like that.
AdamBut it is basically, you know, he's like a bin man.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know, he's just disposing of a public health issue.
AdamMeanwhile, the rest of the town taunt him.
Adamand he's sort of, yeah, he's having this series of weirdly escalating affairs with all these women who look are all played by the same actress who all die in various ways.
AdamAnd it's sort of, yeah.
AdamAnd then he basically he has an argument with death itself, who is one of the most spectacular Grim Reaper renderings I've ever seen is in this.
Adam
AdamAnd basically the death says to him, well, if you're bored of this, why don't you just start shooting living people in the head, because then their brains will be destroyed before they get to your graveyard?
Chris
AdamAnd you're like.
AdamAnd, yeah.
AdamIt is a wonderfully fucked up film, but and it has lovely touches of surrealism.
AdamBut it's it never gets into.
Adambecause I know sometimes a lot of the Italian more 70s and 80s Italian horror gets too sort of dream logic for you.
Adama lot of the time, this doesn't have it.
AdamAs I say.
AdamThe one thing it has that doesn't have that because it all of it feels quite Del Toro, both the look and the sort of attitude of it.
AdamThe one thing it doesn't have is a monstrous antagonist.
ChrisYeah, like.
Adamlike a monstrous villain.
AdamThat's probably the only thing it doesn't have.
Adambecause it's the 90s, so he's as much a villain as he is a hero, it's sort of that thing.
Adam
AdamBut yeah, haven't watched it in a long time.
AdamAnd it was just, yeah, just a really, really good film.
AdamCouple of off moments in there where you go, oh yeah, we're watching an Italian film, so there's a few sort of attitudes that you go, oh yeah, that's a bit.
AdamBut,
AdamYeah, there's nothing, you know, I think that it's really, it's definitely so worth checking out.
AdamBecause it's it's one of those quirky ones where you sort of like, if you get it, you really get it.
AdamAnd it becomes a it becomes a favorite.
LeeCool, yeah, I've put it on the list, I think I'm just going to check that out.
LeeExcellent.
AdamWe'll have to keep it on the list, yeah.
LeeDefinitely.
LeeExcellent.
AdamAdam, what was your next viewing?
Adamwell, I had an excursion out to the BFI South Bank.
Chris
AdamAnd I watched the Code Damp Experimental Mixtape.
AdamNow, I've spoken about it on here before, I think Code Damp is Sophie Slay Johnson's book about.
Adamsort of it's like a sort of a cult look at British sitcom through Leonard Rossiter.
AdamAnd basically, what this was is she put together a sort of mood compilation to give you an idea of the the sort of tone of the book, as it were.
ChrisOkay.
AdamAnd so it was all mixed in, and at the end of it, if this wasn't pretentious enough, at the end of it, Stuart Lee came out and did a Q&A with.
AdamSo, you know.
AdamI was well fucking happy.
AdamAnd,
AdamSo it's got bits of rising damp and Reginal Perron and Bottman up Pompey and mixed them in with Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Tle, the band play for the day did, a warning to to the curious.
Adamthe Christmas ghost stories.
Adama bit from the frighteners, which is an anthology series which I have seen a few episodes of Lucifer over Lancashire, which is a news report about devil worship in Lancashire.
AdamAnd Donald Pleasant's Huston Pills advert and if that wasn't enough for you, you also had Dr. Feelgood live at the Curzel.
AdamSo that was just to give you this this whole encompassing thing of because the book is kind of like, yeah, sitcoms, esoterica and isn't Essex really muddy?
AdamSo.
AdamAnyway, but yeah.
Adamvery great night out.
Adambloody great night out.
ChrisYeah.
LeeI think I'll have to watch that.
LeeThat sounds great.
Leefor my final movie, again, one from this year, I watched the Stephen King movie The Monkey.
ChrisOh.
Adamthat's thingy, isn't it?
AdamOscar Perkins, isn't it?
LeeI believe it is.
LeeIt is, yes, yes.
Lee
LeeYeah, it's it's daft.
LeeIt's super daft.
Adam
LeeBut it's fantastic.
LeeI didn't know anything about it going in.
Leeexcept that people were fans of it and you know, it gone over quite well.
Lee
LeeAnd I know.
ChrisAnd is it based on a book of the same name?
LeeI'm guessing it's a short story.
Adamshort story, isn't it?
LeeStory, yeah.
LeeIt's very the concept is there is a toy monkey.
LeeAnd you wind it up and it plays a drum and when it finishes, somebody dies in a horrific accident.
LeeNot necessarily in the location where the monkey is, but somebody somewhere a linked to the person who wound the thing up.
ChrisI was going to say, so yeah, like, but also then why would someone wind it up?
ChrisI'm assuming they don't know.
LeeWell, no, yeah.
LeeSo that.
ChrisThis is perhaps the.
LeeIt does get covered in it, yeah, so there is a long period where people expressly try to hide the monkey.
LeeBut it has a way of keep getting itself found again.
LeeAnd then someone who has no idea.
LeeDoesn't.
LeeBy the time they put two and two together, there's half a dozen people dead.
Leebut yeah, it's it's really good.
LeeIt's really daft and over the top, it's got some really creative kills in it.
LeeIt's it's very sort of final destination.
Leethe kills in it.
Lee
LeeBut yeah.
AdamYeah, cuz.
AdamI heard Oscar Perkins wanted to basically.
Adamit was because he'd done long legs, he was like, right, now I want to do a silly one.
LeeYeah.
ChrisFair enough.
LeeYeah, and it it's just as I, it was one of those, if it wasn't for the fact that somebody.
Leehad suggested it to me specifically, I would never have watched this because it just looked too daft.
LeeBut actually, I'm so glad I did because it's it is daft in a kind of 80s over the top way.
Leethat I really, really enjoy it a lot more than I thought I was going to, to be fair.
ChrisYeah.
LeeSo.
LeeExcellent.
ChrisCool.
LeeGood.
LeeFor our next film.
LeeAdam, would you like to tell us about Happy Ending?
Adamyes, so we were approached by the director of Happy Ending and asked if we wanted to, take a look at it.
AdamSo we'll be doing a certainly less spoiler.
Adamrifi, review than we do of sort of stuff that's more out there and everything, or indeed hundreds of years old.
Adamso, yeah.
AdamWe'll be back for that.
AdamI believe it is streaming currently, so people should be able to see it.
AdamBut obviously, we're not going to spoil anything.
AdamSo that should be a review they can just come to.
LeeExcellent, fantastic.
LeeRight, thanks so much for listening everybody.
LeeGood night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
