We have been watching Bonus Episode
01:01:24
About
Happy New Year folks! And what better way to kick off than a Welcome To Horror Bonus Episode! With the Christmas break, we did a lot of extracurricular watching, and rather than rush through some great stuff, or end up with a top-heavy first episode, we thought we’d discuss our viewing in a separate ep. Here we discuss such delights as Mark Gatiss’ adaptation of “The Mezzotint”; epic Folk Horror documentary “Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched”; “Devs”; “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”; “Dead Still”; some real classics and the 1986 oddity “Nomads”.
Transcript
Show full transcript
LeeGood evening and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we are here as a special bonus episode after we were all so cheeky and took the whole of the Christmas and New Year period off. and we've all watched a metric shittonn of stuff. So we've come back to discuss it all now without having to compress it all so it doesn't interfere with the runtime on our normal episodes.
LeeSo, without further ado, Chris, what have you been watching?
LeeOh, and before I do, spoilers and swearing as always is a warning. Sorry about that.
ChrisYeah, that's interesting.
ChrisRight, so, so we normally try not to spoil these films too much because people don't really know.
ChrisSo I'm, I'm keeping it a little,
Chrisit depends, older, older stuff, I think, can be spoiled, yeah.
ChrisBut newer stuff I'm going to be a bit more careful with, right?
ChrisSo I'm starting with the one that really is the new one.
Chrisalthough all three of mine, I've really enjoyed, obviously that's what I'm talking about, but it's possible to watch some you might not enjoy, but anyway, right.
ChrisSo the first one is The Devs mini-series from 2020.
ChrisSo I'm only a year, year past this one.
ChrisThat's a year and a bit, that's pretty good.
ChrisI think I watched it just before the New Year.
ChrisSo, so it's a mini-series, by Alex Garland.
ChrisFamous for Ex Machina, Annihilation, which we covered.
AdamWe've covered.
LeeWe do need to, we do need to.
Chriswe must have talked about it quite a bit.
ChrisBecause I watched it, so in my head we've covered it.
ChrisSo either you talked about it so much.
ChrisI was like, right, I'm watching that, and we didn't actually end up covering it.
ChrisOkay.
ChrisAnd but 28 Days Later we did cover.
AdamYes, we did, yeah.
ChrisAnd,
Chrisand also The Beach, which I'm told I should definitely watch.
ChrisBut it's been so many years now.
ChrisSo one day I guess I will.
ChrisHave you have you seen that?
LeeNo.
AdamI've not seen The Beach. I again, it's I think that was the point where I sort of drifted away from Danny Boyle's stuff and only previously because up until that point I'd been like, I'd watched everything that had come out because I love Shallow Grave and 28 Days Later and Trainspotting and everything.
AdamBut yeah, I think The Beach was, I think it was also probably because it was like, no watching Leonardo the fucking DiCaprio.
LeeFuck up.
AdamBut, interestingly enough, you are ahead of me, Chris.
AdamBecause I started Devs, but I think I either got as far as episode three or four.
AdamI can't remember.
ChrisOkay.
AdamI really should have kept going with it, but I, I, I don't know why I did.
ChrisYou must have got sidetracked with something else.
ChrisOr, well, you you may you may relate to some of what I say here.
Chrisso so I think I've mentioned it before because we started to watch it and it stood out to me.
ChrisBut obviously it took us a while to finish the whole lot.
ChrisBut, I would say unless you're really into, you know, current state of computing, it might be a bit of a hard watch potentially.
ChrisAnd also, you know, so if you enjoy thinking about the nature of reality along with theoretical physics and science and technology, you probably will like it, but it it it does push the boundaries of of disbelief somewhat.
ChrisNow, you I think, I think I would say on the whole, I felt it was worth getting through to the end.
ChrisI loved the way it riffed on the idea of good and evil, because the characters it's it's not obvious who is good and who is evil and yet bad things are happening.
ChrisAnd it's like, well, why, you know, how can this be going on if no one appears to actually be truly, you know, having a scheme to cause pain on others, and yet pain is happening, and so throughout it's like the circumstances that happen and everyone's roles on how they interact, and it's like, I really don't want to be causing you this amount of pain.
ChrisBut because of the information they have, they kind of have to.
ChrisAnd that's that's the crucial bit, which I don't really want to give away, like it's,
Chrisessentially, I best suppose the best way to say it is it's a bit like time travel.
ChrisAny time you introduce time travel into a film, you kind of makes it really difficult to like if you can either tell what's going to happen in the future or in the past, then
Chrisit's going to change what you do and you might take actions that would otherwise seem really bad and really inciting, when actually you know you have to do them.
ChrisAnd so it's it's really I found it fascinating.
ChrisAnd the way it played with that.
ChrisIt does also mean it's that pushing the disbelief, because obviously we never experienced that in real life.
ChrisIt's like you don't know if that's how it would really happen.
ChrisSo you kind of have to say, right, within this framework, it works.
Chrisbut yeah, no.
ChrisSo I I did really enjoy it all the way to the end.
Chrisit did have, and I might mention this before,
Christhis really stood out to me a scene in it that I just replayed it over in my head again and again.
Chriswhere somebody is in a car crash and it is just like, Hereditary.
ChrisLike it's it had enough of a build up for me that it was like, that's I didn't exactly see that coming quite like that.
Chriseven though you get a sense of something bad is going on.
Chrisyeah, just whenever somebody manages to have that effect in a film.
ChrisLike that just really works for me.
ChrisI love the fact that it it makes you really think.
ChrisYou know, almost question your own actions, I find, it's like, yeah, okay, I could see how that could potentially happen to anyone.
ChrisAnd and yeah, being aware of the consequences.
Chrisyou know, it's a difficult thing.
ChrisHindsight is fantastic.
ChrisBut trying to foright.
ChrisThat's the thing to do.
ChrisSo yeah, so I absolutely recommend it for.
ChrisFor dark physics.
Christhen the other ones I watched a bit more fun.
ChrisShaun of the Dead.
LeeNice.
ChrisI know both of you have seen this.
ChrisCuz I'm sure we've mentioned it many times and in fact, I think we said we're going to cover it at some point.
LeeDefinitely.
ChrisAnd I would happily watch it, you know, just like, right.
ChrisLike I, you know, I remembered it being good, just didn't remember how good it was.
ChrisLike it still holds up so well and I mean it's it's and also I I I remember it still was being fairly new.
ChrisLike it feels like a newish comedy horror that was big and it but it's like I think it was 2004 now.
AdamYeah, he's ridiculously old now, but yeah.
Chrisbut yeah, I mean the comedy is fantastically.
AdamWe all we all have.
ChrisWell, yeah.
ChrisBut you know, like some of the scenes, so good and like the one where he's he's just woken up, it's like the next day and obviously you've had hints of it all throughout.
ChrisAnd that's done really nicely and then he's walking through the streets just not noticing anything and it's like it's just it's so funny to watch him.
Chris
Chrisyeah.
ChrisAnd and and also I'd totally forgotten how brutal some of the killing of the zombies is.
ChrisI'd remembered it as being much more just fun.
ChrisAnd then the first woman that they kill, when he sort of pushes her back.
ChrisAnd she falls back on the the the the wire girl post.
LeeYeah.
LeeOn the wire, go.
ChrisYeah, and they're just standing there like,
Chrisokay, this is this has gone, you know, very wrong here.
Chrisyeah, like it's it's fantastic.
ChrisSo I really enjoyed that and definitely would like to cover it in more detail.
Chrisnow the third one,
Chrisright?
ChrisI'm going to say it.
ChrisStarship Troopers.
ChrisNow,
Chrishave either of you seen this?
AdamI have not, although I feel I should have done.
LeeDon't think so.
ChrisThat's interesting.
ChrisOkay.
ChrisWell, all right.
ChrisSo, in my head, I remember it as a kind of a spoof sci-fi action with horror-ish elements.
ChrisYou know, but but mostly it's an Aliens Predator kind of action sci-fi.
ChrisRight, but I always think of it as it's almost like two parts, I feel, like.
ChrisThe first part is is a bit more funny, but then it does get deeper towards the end.
ChrisAnd I just always forget about that.
ChrisAnd as I'm watching, I'm like, actually, this is getting really good.
ChrisAnd I just thought it was just going to be a really simple, you know,
Chrisa little bit of entertainment, just to watch in the background.
Chrisand it is it's it's hard to sort of get across exactly how it is a spoof.
ChrisBut it's it's definitely like it's it's over the top.
ChrisIn in the way it presents.
ChrisLike a lot of the dialogue.
ChrisIt's it's a lot of what sound like one liners.
ChrisSo it's like, they're not saying anything in depth for a long time.
ChrisBut it somehow it still kind of works.
Chris
Chrisbut yeah, it's essentially like the humans are in an existential crisis against aliens.
ChrisBut they're essentially viewed as just big bugs.
ChrisSo they have weird things like news reports and and again, they're so over the top.
ChrisLike everything feels almost like plastic, sugary reality.
AdamIs because isn't it isn't isn't it Paul Verhoeven? Like the director.
ChrisI don't know, yeah.
AdamBecause.
ChrisYes, it is.
ChrisI don't know what else he's done, though.
AdamBecause because he did, Robocop.
ChrisOh, okay.
ChrisAnd that's obviously Robocop does have a bit of a.
AdamBecause it has that over the top thing, particularly like the adverts and the.
LeeOh, buy that for a dollar.
ChrisYeah, no, that totally makes sense then.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYou're right, I'd forgotten about those.
LeeI need to watch it.
AdamAnd that's the that's the terms in which I've had Starship Troopers recommended to me.
ChrisYeah.
AdamI when I've sort of read about it online, that's the bit that's interests me.
AdamThey've sort of said it follows in it's in that same sort of.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBecause like Robocop you can watch as a straight film, but it's also a spoof and a critique, satire, whatever.
AdamAnd.
ChrisAnd of how like future is becoming somewhat dystopian.
AdamYeah.
ChrisBecause it's essentially I mean it kind of Starship Troopers kind of shows humans in a bad light.
ChrisLike it doesn't show us as wonderful, even though we're fighting against, you know, another race that essentially doesn't want to wipe us out.
ChrisWe're kind of also really, really keen and gunned up to to, you know, wipe them out as fast as possible with as many nukes and it's so yeah.
ChrisThat's I think that's what gives it that kind of plasticky feel.
ChrisBut that's where as the depth starts to come in, you sort of appreciate it or at least appreciate it more.
Chriscompletely getting there.
ChrisYeah, one of the ads it just shows kids stamping on cockroaches.
ChrisAs a sort of, you know, a public service announcement to get everyone keen on killing the the the bugs.
ChrisAnd then there's a woman laughing maniacally in the background of it.
ChrisShe's yeah, it is.
ChrisFor me, for some some reason, it works really well.
ChrisSo it's one of those I just always forget.
ChrisI watch it sort of I think I've seen it four times now.
ChrisAnd every time kind of forget that it's it's got a bit more to it.
Chris
LeeI'm going to have.
ChrisI've never seen.
AdamI'm going to have to check it out because if you if you've watched it multiple times, so I know that you like it. I really feel I've got to watch it.
ChrisI just I remember it as being fun and forgetting that there is a bit extra there to appreciate, you know, as the film unfolds.
AdamWhich is essentially the what I go to Robocop for.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
ChrisNice, yeah.
ChrisSo yeah, that's that's my three.
LeeExcellent, well done, you have been busy.
LeeAdam, would you like to go next?
AdamI'll go next, I've got a few.
Adamfirst off, I've really got to talk about Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, which is is turned up on Shudder now.
AdamI got the Blu-ray from Severin.
AdamAnd it arrived what I think it arrived like Christmas Eve.
AdamSo it was and I'd been shitting myself because obviously it was an import and then it's Christmas post and fucking charges for Brexit and whatever else bullshit they'll give you as a reason not to fucking deliver your parcel.
Adamso I was very pleased when that sort of turned up.
Adamwhen that turned up just in time and I was like, yes.
LeeSanta works his magic there.
AdamSanta did, yeah, I've I've clearly I've clearly been an adequate boy this year.
AdamI would I would last year, I would I would hesitate to use the term good.
AdamBut, and basically it's a documentary on folk horror.
AdamAnd it was it it's really, really well done.
Adamone of my favorite things about it is now, there's a thing, I don't know if you've seen it, quite quite a lot of the times now with people are talking about folk horror online.
AdamThey always say, folk horror, a term first coined by Mark Gatiss in the in his history of horror series.
AdamAnd when I first saw that, I was like, oh, that must be true.
AdamI'm sure I'd heard it before, but maybe I'm, you know, I'm clearly misremembering it.
AdamYou know, I don't want to Mandela effect it and claim that I'm so important that time fucking slipped a groove.
AdamBut only I didn't notice.
Adam
Adamsorry, anyway.
Adambut then Jonathan Rigby, who was one of the consultants on that show who is like, he's, you'd know him if you saw him.
AdamHe's a very stern looking man, bald and
Adambut he's got just a lovely voice.
AdamHe really and and he's he did like the the good the BFI Rapturey film.
Adam
Adam
Adamand he's done lots of stuff with various members of the league.
AdamAnd,
Adamyeah.
AdamAnd he wrote a really good book called, English Gothic, which is like, basically could be a Bible for this show, certainly in terms of British horror.
AdamIt just had that's where I discovered things like mutations and, just loads and loads of stuff and got more of an insight into like the Hammer series and how they actually were supposed to run and things like that.
AdamBut, and but yeah, anyway, Jonathan Rigby's on this documentary.
AdamAnd he does mention that it's actually from his own book American Gothic, which was the follow-up, where he first used the term.
AdamAnd I kind of feel his whole appearance there is to say, it's not fucking Mark Gatiss, I fucking came up with that, the cheeky bastard.
AdamJust because he's fucking Mycroft Holmes.
AdamDoesn't mean that you should believe everything you see on the internet.
Adamand and then in fairness does mention times earlier when the phrase folk horror has been mentioned, but it still does feel like he's having a dig at his mate.
AdamThat it's like like, fuck you.
Adam
AdamYou invented folk horror my arse.
AdamSo,
Adambut besides that.
AdamI was the director's, I think it's Yunice or Yanish.
AdamI'm not sure.
Adamand yeah, basically it's three hours long.
AdamSo set aside.
AdamYou know, set that time aside, get a fucking pen and paper because there is going to be stuff you want to find out more about.
LeeYeah, that's what I did. I came away with a huge list of stuff that needs watching.
AdamYeah, yeah.
AdamOh,
Adamso you've seen it?
LeeYeah, yeah, I saw it.
AdamWhat did you think? It's fucking it's great, you know, I was really.
LeeYeah, I loved it.
LeeI mean,
Leeas you say, you know, the and as they say in the the documentary itself, you know, folk horror is generally mentioned when in conjunction with a handful of films, but actually, if you apply it properly, there's so much more stuff.
LeeAnd it goes into all the, you know, the Japanese stuff and all, oh yeah, and I came away with a dirty great list that could definitely bankrupt me if I'm not careful.
AdamWell, I mean,
Adamthere's a part of me, I mean, particularly a lot of the telly stuff they were talking about, it was really good because I was like, I've seen that, I've got that, I've seen that.
AdamThen obviously they mentioned Doctor Who and the Demons and I think at that point I'd have to go and change my underwear.
AdamAnd but but also, yeah, there was loads of films that I hadn't seen.
Adambecause there's stuff in there like V.
AdamWe need to cover on the show because that is a fucking great film.
AdamJust because of how strange it is, like the Polish or Russian film.
Adam
Adamand but also, yeah, so I I came away, I came away with with the list from that.
AdamAnd I've I've always I've been having a sort of oddly Australian Ostion thing in my head lately that I've been sort of like, oh yeah, I must watch Turkey Shoot again and I must do this and I must do that.
Adamso I watched a film called Allison's Birthday.
AdamWhich is because that's the other great thing is Shudder have put up loads of the films that they mentioned in that in the documentary.
AdamYeah.
AdamSo,
Adamwe unfortunately over here we haven't got quite as many as they have in the US, usual story.
AdamBut there's a good 30 odd films that they've got, they either already had or they've put in a folk horror, or they've obtained and put up on this folk horror collection.
AdamAnd yeah, I watched Allison's Birthday, which is from 1981, directed by Ian Coughlin.
Adamand it's got,
Adamit's got John Bleuthall in it, who you will know from various comedy shows, he's like in the Vicar of Dibley and used to appear with Spike Milligan a lot and stuff like that.
AdamAnd he is, yeah, nicely sort of villainous in it.
AdamBecause he sort of comes across a nice genteel old fella, and then the steel comes in and you're like, oh, fuck it hell, yeah, you could be quite a nasty bastard.
Adamand the main character Allison is played by Mrs. Mad Max.
AdamThe woman who gets the I can't remember Mrs. Mad Max's name.
AdamBut Joanna Samuel, played Mrs. Mad Max, who obviously then dies and changes him from slightly miffed Max to full steaming Mad Max, and yeah, that's when he goes off on one, you know, so any little thing with these people.
AdamAnd,
Adambut Allison's Birthday is.
AdamI I it's a TV movie, but I think it was one of those things where they saw what they had and someone put a bit more money in and said they could do a theatrical release possibly.
AdamBut it's sort of it's in the same sort of vein as say Hereditary or Rosemary's Baby is that thing of sort of people being used unwittingly by a satanic or a cult cult.
Adam
Adamand basically it starts off with Allison and her two friends.
AdamDoing a Ouija board, one of them gets possessed by the ghost of her dad.
AdamAnd tells her to not go home on her 19th birthday.
AdamAnd bloody hell.
AdamAllison goes home on her 19th birthday to her aunt and uncle's place and her aunt and uncle are really nice, but they do have a miniature stone hinge at the bottom of their garden.
AdamAnd yeah, it's all,
Adamthere's a weird thing to it because it because it's a bit TV movie, it it oddly creeps it up more, like say with even though I love it, with Hereditary.
AdamYou know, it's obvious from the start that like, this is creepy.
AdamThis is horrible.
AdamWhereas this is like.
AdamThis is like sort of like.
ChrisYou don't.
AdamI mean.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah, this feels more like you.
AdamYou come in in the afternoon and there's an Australian soap.
AdamAnd then slowly you go, what's going on?
AdamAnd.
ChrisAnd also don't.
AdamTell me.
Chris
ChrisI'm scared.
AdamIt's.
AdamNo.
AdamIt's not even that.
AdamIt's it's so sort of plain that it oddly makes it creepier because it feels more like it's happening.
AdamRather than, well, I don't live in a big nothing house with my wife who makes miniatures of traumatic family events and etc, etc, etc.
AdamWhereas this is more sort of like, you know, these people just live in ordinary houses, but they also happen to be a satanic cult.
AdamAnd, you know, and but yeah, I would and so yeah, because of that, I would recommend it.
AdamYou know, that's that's definitely one.
AdamAnd I'm going to go and.
AdamObviously watch more from the the the folk horror stuff on Shutter.
Adam
LeeEye of the Devil is the one that caught my attention.
LeeOh.
AdamOh, yes.
LeeAnd I went and spent a lot of time searching for it and couldn't find it, you know, a reasonable price anywhere that I could justify to myself.
LeeAnd then discovered it's on YouTube in its entirety, so yeah, I'll be having that.
AdamSpeaking of on YouTube in its entirety, I cannot ignore the fact that I watched a film called Nomads from 1986.
Adamwith Pierce Brosnan and what can only be described as an outrageous French accent.
Lee
AdamLike it's it's like it you're sort of listening to it and you're going, this this is probably racist, but I'm not sure who too.
ChrisIt's Monty Python Holy Grail.
AdamYeah, it is.
AdamHe manages to insult most of Europe.
AdamAs he sort of struggles to be this.
Adam
AdamFrench anthropologist.
Adam
Adamand basically, but here's the weirdest fucking thing.
AdamIs it's directed by John Mctiernan.
AdamAnd this film is the reason that he got to do Predator.
AdamLike Arnie saw Nomads and was like.
AdamRight, that's the guy to do Predator.
AdamBecause and it's the weirdest fucking thing.
AdamBasically, well, it's a doctor who works working in a hospital, surprise, surprise, and Pierce Brosnan's bought brought in, shouting in French.
AdamAnd she goes and like talks to him and then he dies.
AdamAnd then she's possessed by him probably, and that's it's that sort of a film.
AdamShe's probably possessed by him or something, or his spirit is making her hallucinate the last few weeks of his life.
AdamIn what I can only describe as the most fucking extraneous plot device ever.
AdamBecause just show us what happened to Pierce Brosnan.
AdamBecause.
AdamBecause that's what you're doing.
AdamBut you're doing it through this woman hallucinating what happened, but yeah.
AdamBut there's no sort of mystery to it.
AdamIt's quite straightforward.
Adamand basically, but he's meant to be an anthropologist who studied Nomads across the globe and things like that and then realizes that there's like a street gang.
AdamWho ride around in a big black 18 van, one of whom is Adam Ant, so it gives you the level of street punk.
AdamThat we're talking here.
AdamYou know, far far too pretty street punks, but, they,
Adambut basically yeah, they're like.
AdamThey're.
AdamThey're so they're basically actually what what this would have been is it would have been a brilliant prequel to Near Dark.
AdamBecause they kind of present the Nomads as they're a bit like the vampires in Near Dark.
AdamThey basically just ride around, fuck with people and kill them.
AdamAnd yeah.
AdamBut yeah.
AdamIt's but it's a fucking bizarre movie.
AdamAnd I'm not going to say it's good, but it's really, really compelling.
AdamSo I think that's the John McTiernan thing.
AdamHe just hasn't he can't shoot a shit film.
AdamYou know, I mean, obviously like he makes he he goes on to make Die Hard and and the Predator, so he knows how to shoot like action and.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut yeah, it's just a fucking bizarre one.
AdamBut it's definitely but it's free on YouTube, so go and watch it because.
AdamIt's I just want people to see it because it's just.
AdamIt's it's a proper what the fuck.
AdamSo.
Adamthen I can't think what else.
AdamThere was.
AdamObviously we finished what we do in the Shadows.
Adamseries three now.
AdamAnd, on a Matt Berry kick, Toast of Tinseltown has started.
AdamSo, which is the follow-up to Toast of London that they're doing on the BBC.
AdamAnd, on that subject like with the Matt Berry connection as in, Susan Makoma from Year of the Rabbit.
Adam
AdamNetflix have just put up The House.
AdamWhich is like a an an animated anthology film.
Adam
Adamlike stop motion animation and it's the it's three tales from a house over three different periods of time.
AdamAnd it's.
AdamIt's definitely not for kids.
AdamBut not in the sort of it's not like Avenue Q.
AdamIt's not because it's like got knobs and swearing in it.
AdamOr whatever like that.
AdamIt's just kids probably wouldn't get it is the better way of putting it.
AdamBut I do it does also have that feeling that I'd imagine one day a kid is going to be shown it in the same way that I was shown when the wind blows, like the Raymond Briggs anti-nuclear fucking cartoon.
AdamOn the basis that, it's a cartoon, so it's for kids, isn't it?
AdamBut no, clearly not because they melt at the end.
AdamIn the, you know.
AdamIt's it's tragic.
AdamBut,
LeeHave we trace back your love of horror.
AdamOh, it's definitely it's definitely got to be in there somewhere.
AdamBut,
Adamyeah, similarly so you've got three stories, you've got the first story is quite sort of, feels like a traditional fairy story.
AdamIt's basically it's a family who, they're, you know, they're sort of hard up and they have a mysterious benefactor who builds a house near them, and what they've got to do is they've got to go and live in the house.
AdamAnd food is prepared for them all the time and everything's fine.
AdamBut they can't take any of their previous possessions with them.
AdamAnd they've got to and they've got to stay in the house.
AdamAnd then slowly it goes madder and madder because the house is being rebuilt and the parents get possessed and the daughter and is looking after like her little baby sister because the parents have basically been drawn into this weird nightmare.
AdamOne of the characters in that is played by Mark Heap.
LeeCool.
AdamAnd.
AdamWho.
AdamYou know, just is the modern Donald Pleasence.
AdamAnd,
Adamyeah, but I mean and then you've got the second story is setting the present day and it's a a rat who is a building contractor, who is trying to sort of trying to do up a house to sell it on.
AdamAnd.
Adambasically there's like an infestation of cockroaches, there was and so on and so forth.
AdamAnd it's a very weird, creepy little sort of gets under your skin sort of feeling to it.
Adamand it the rat is voiced by Jarvis Cocker.
AdamAnd he's really fucking good.
AdamAnd it's it's yeah, just that that one sort of is yeah, as I say, it's because it's an anthropomorphized rat.
AdamIt's suddenly gone a bit weirder and you're sort of, but you just get drawn into the story in the end.
AdamYou're like, oh no, this is just the story of a building contract who's having shit go wrong.
AdamNot.
LeeThis is a real who's a rat.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd.
AdamSo.
AdamAnd similarly and the full story and the third story rather is set in the future and it's similar, but it's all anthropomorphized cats.
AdamAnd basically it's one of them owns the house and rents it out to two other cats, but neither of them can pay the rent and one of them, one of them just, oh yeah, and this is set in the future where the world is drowned.
AdamAnd the house is one of the few things high enough that it's not in the in the water.
Adamand yeah, one of the tenants catches fish, that's how he pays his rent.
AdamAnd the other one is an old hippie cat, played by Helen Bonham Carter, who just hands over like.
Adamprecious stones, you know, sort of like.
AdamOh, this this this will improve your chakras and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
AdamAnd basically yeah, it's the sort of that getting all wound up.
AdamAnd then.
Adamher hippie boyfriend turns up, voiced by Paul Kay, and it's.
AdamAgain.
AdamThe best way I can describe it is it feels like all those roll like the recent roll doll stuff.
AdamLike Fantastic Mr. Fox and Coraline, well, that's Neil Gaiman.
AdamBut yeah, Coraline and, James and the Giant Peach, it's in that sort of animation sort of feel to it.
Adam
Adambut it's kind of like Roll Doll's Tales of the Unexpected as the plot drivers.
AdamSo yeah.
AdamIt's a really weird combo and it but it's really, really, really worth checking out.
LeeI also got that recommendation from a previous guest on the show Dave.
LeeChris and I spent the weekend with him at Horror on Sea, which we will mention at a later date.
Leeyeah, and in the foyer while we were waiting to go into the first film, he was saying he'd watched it and yeah, same as you, Adam, he was saying it's really strange, but really worth watching.
LeeSo.
LeeYeah, it's definitely on my my to watch list, once we finish all of the Hound of the Baskervilles that there are.
Adam
Adamother other bits I watched.
Adam
AdamOh, I watched, I rewatched the documentary because I'd watched Allison's Birthday, I was then on an Oz kick, so I rewatched the documentary Not Quite Hollywood.
AdamI think I've talked about it before.
AdamBut it's basically about the sort of 70s, 80s explosion of Australian cinema and you've got stuff in there like Mad Max and Turkey Shoot and,
AdamBut also Howling Three the Marsupials.
AdamAnd you know.
AdamSome right classics.
Adam
Adambut on that there was a film called Next of Kin.
AdamDirected by Tony Williams from 1982.
Adamand bless her Claire got it for me on Blu-ray.
AdamBecause I was watching it.
AdamAnd I was like, oh, that does look good.
AdamDidn't it?
AdamThat one.
AdamAnd yeah, she chaffed off and ordered it for me, bless her.
LeeOh.
Adam
AdamSo I so I've watched that.
AdamAnd that's that's really good.
AdamIt's.
AdamIt's kind of because it was they said the bloke who directed it was basically he was obsessed with Hitchcock.
AdamAnd it's like.
Adamyeah, I can really see that.
AdamBecause there's so many it just it's shot amazing.
AdamBut basically it's kind of a bit Allison's Birthday.
AdamIt's another thing where it's a girl returning home after her mother dies, she has inherited this old folk home.
AdamAnd yeah, just strange shit goes down.
AdamAnd it has even down to that that it's like the sort of thing of locked away mental relatives and things like that.
AdamThat feels a bit Hitchcockian as well.
Adam
AdamBut yeah, that's that's definitely worth checking out.
AdamIf only for the scene when someone's looking through the bathroom door keyhole.
AdamI will say no more than that, but fuck me when you see it.
AdamYou're like.
AdamOh, yeah.
LeeBastard.
AdamSo.
Adam
AdamAnd.
Adamyeah, I think, I think that's pretty much I think that's pretty much covered everything.
AdamApart from and I know this is something that you watched as well, Lee, Mark Gatiss's The Mistletoe or Misotin over Christmas.
Lee
LeeYes, I was going to say, I think that's probably a good crossover one, yes.
LeeSo, did you see it as well, Chris?
ChrisI didn't.
LeeNo.
LeeWell, you have got a treat in store.
LeeWhat did you make of it?
LeeAdam?
ChrisOh.
AdamI.
AdamI mean, compared to the last two sort of ghost stories for Christmas that we've had from Mark Gatiss and, you know, we, let's face it, we know this show loves Mark Gatiss, but yeah, the the modern day one he did with Simon Callow, I can't remember the Dead Room.
LeeYeah.
AdamThat that was I just didn't rate that much, if I'm honest.
AdamAnd then.
AdamThey did Martin's Close, which was okay.
AdamBut it just.
LeeIt didn't talk, did it?
LeeThere was nothing.
LeeI mean, especially seeing as the one before when it had done the Tractate Middoth, that was so good.
LeeI was I was kind of hoping to get back into that, which I mean, I think he did with this one, definitely.
LeeYeah.
LeeBut yeah, it left those other two as you say, just wanting something really, but we definitely got it this year.
AdamCourse.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd I was and I know it's your favorite MR James story.
AdamSo I was just so pleased because I was like.
AdamThere was a part of me that was like, I don't want this to be whack, but equally I was like, and don't fuck up Lee's favorite.
AdamYou know, I was I had a sense of propriety on your behalf.
AdamI was like, yes.
AdamSo.
AdamBut,
Adamno, I was I I thought that was, I thought they and also I just think.
AdamIt was done much like how the Tractate Middoth was, it was just done so accurately to literally translating how the story go makes you feel to the screen of how the story should creep you out and everything else like that.
AdamBecause I think because that's the thing I like with it is the fact that it's not just one person.
AdamAnd another person going, what, you talking about this, you know, it's that sort of thing where, you know, you have multiple witness.
AdamWhich is actually quite rare with MR James.
AdamYou know, you get people who you usually get the person who's affected by the madness or what the effect is on the or the the chosen victim, I suppose.
AdamOr whatever like that, or the,
AdamBut yeah, it's rare in that sense that it's a few more people are joined into the psychosis, if you like.
AdamOr the, the supernatural event. Absolutely.
LeeAbsolutely.
LeeIt was and on such a small cast as well, I'm just looking at IMDB, there's only seven people in it.
Leebut yeah, just such a an amazing cast as well, it was just, oh, it was fantastic.
LeeIt was really, really good.
LeeI say, I watched it as it went out.
LeeAs I said before, this is the first thing I've watched live on TV, I think since I think we said inside number nine.
AdamOh yeah, the Halloween the the live Halloween one.
LeeYeah.
LeeWhich was a few years ago.
LeeBut I I had to see this as it went out, and I'm so glad I did it, it was absolutely fantastic, so, so good.
LeeIt made my Christmas.
ChrisYeah, I like I like what Mark Gatiss says about it.
ChrisIt's delightful to be bringing a little seasonal unease to the nation once again.
LeeWell.
AdamI think.
AdamWell.
AdamFunnily enough, that's that is something that, I mean, again of what we watched over Christmas, I did basically churn through the ghost stories of Christmas, but I added in like Shout the Painter and ITB Cast and the Ruins and stuff where it was all like, these were these are kind of ghost stories for Christmas.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd and the Stone Tape, I just yeah, I just chewed through those and the the Lawrence Golden Clark ones and everything and it's yeah, it was.
LeeI just need to I do need to rewatch Calen the Painter.
LeeI've only seen it twice, but my God, it's good.
AdamYeah.
AdamIt's it's I think the thing again, it's that much the same as like with the the or I come to you, the Jonathan Miller one.
AdamBecause it's because it's kind of a documentary or purporting to be a like a documentary, it it sort of has a different, slightly different feel to it.
AdamTo the usual.
AdamSort of.
AdamBecause it's basically, this is the life story of a painter.
AdamOh, and by the way, this happened.
AdamSo it was.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeThe only thing I did find was I recognized Francis Barber and I couldn't work out what I knew her from, and I still haven't quite worked it out. I think it's because it feels like I was saying to Chris just before we started recording.
LeeEvery time she came on, I was like, I definitely have seen her in something, but I think I've seen her in the same thing a lot, and I couldn't for the life of me work it out, but when I went back through her back catalog, it's all like Midsummer Murders.
LeeSo it I think it's that I see her on a regular basis.
LeeBut as bit parts in loads of different stuff, and she's phenomenal.
LeeSo.
AdamYeah, no.
AdamShe's brilliant.
AdamYou might she was in, she was in the Red Dwarf episode Polymorph.
Lee
LeeYes.
AdamAnd which is where I I think the first time I ever saw her.
AdamBut yeah, she's.
Adamyou also because I know you said you've been watching bits and pieces of psycho bitches and she turns up on that as well.
AdamYeah.
Adamher, oh, fucking hell, her Queen, her Queen Mary is it was it no, it's not Queen Mary, it's, Queen Elizabeth is fucking terrifying.
AdamWhere it's just her, what it's just,
AdamNo.
AdamThings are meant to go in your fanny, they're not meant to come out.
Adam
LeeOh, Claire's just said that she she remembers her mostly for seducing Moss in the IT Crow.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeYes, I remember that as well, again, as I say, one of those she probably comes on my TV every year or so, but in something different.
LeeIn a kind of small part.
LeeSo it feels like I see her very regularly, but it's normally yeah.
LeeIn very different cars.
LeeSo.
Leeso following that, the next thing that I watched isn't exactly horror, but I think it definitely falls into that, into that catchment.
Leewe watched the 2020 TV show Dead Still.
AdamOh, yes.
LeeOh, yeah.
AdamSo, how was that? Because I hadn't heard of it. Yeah.
AdamI hadn't heard of it. I googled it, and then I was like.
AdamThere's a fucking show with Michael Smiley.
AdamI don't know about it.
LeeIt's very, very good.
LeeSo, Michael Smiley is, so it's all set in Ireland, sort of just for the turn of the century, I believe, and he's a photographer of the dead, so back when people didn't have photographs taken a lot, when somebody died, you would get a photographer in to come and take a photograph of that person often posed with the family so that you have something.
AdamThat's sadly often usually children.
LeeYes.
Leebut as the series progresses, there is a murderer who is murdering people and posing them and taking their photographs.
LeeSo obviously the head of the local constabulary goes to Michael Smiley as the expert.
LeeAnd sort of says to him, you know, this is very much in your field.
LeeI want you to help me catch this person, and then it gets wrapped up in his story as well.
LeeSo it turns out there's something between possibly him and the killer.
LeeThat you don't quite know, and he's being very cagey, yeah, it was a fantastic series.
LeeReally, really, really good, so definitely get that on your watch list, Adam.
Adamis it still?
LeeDead Still.
LeeYeah.
AdamDead Still, yeah.
LeeI also caught up with Ghostbusters Afterlife.
AdamOh, yeah.
LeeOh, yeah.
Lee
LeeSo I thought that would be worth mentioning.
LeeI like, I liked it.
ChrisThe trailer looked pretty good.
ChrisOkay.
LeeYeah.
LeeI I I liked it.
LeeIt was, I was worried that it was either going to be a terrible grab at nostalgia for the old, you know, for the original fans.
Leeand the trailer did look like it might just be sort of fan service.
LeeBut I I totally enjoyed it. Now the story is far from original, I won't go any more into it than that, but once you've seen it, you'll you'll get what I mean.
Lee
Leebut I I thought they did a really good job.
LeeAnd it's Paul Rudd as well, who I always find entertaining and charismatic and amusing.
Lee
Leeyeah, so I don't want to go too much into that because it's new and spoilers and whatnot.
LeeBut yeah, it's if you're a fan of the original, I don't think you'd be upset.
LeeBut I I would definitely go back to this before I'd go back to the reimagining that came out a couple of years ago.
AdamRight.
Leewhich I was desperate to enjoy. I was like, it's a fantastic idea, it's a kind of, you know, like the idea of a parallel universe almost where it's a group of women who find themselves in the same position.
LeeAnd are trying to have ghosts taken seriously and save New York and everything, and amazing cast, I was like, this can't possibly go wrong.
Leebut it was just.
LeeToo Disney for me and it just fell down on that unfortunately.
LeeBut this one, yeah.
Lee
LeeIs definitely well worth your time.
AdamThe one.
AdamThe one question.
AdamI have though is I have I have seen a lot of things where people are saying it's not.
Adamit's not a comedy per se.
AdamIt's a bit, you know, it's not quite as sort of caper setup sort of thing as as Ghostbusters.
AdamExactly.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
ChrisJust missing.
ChrisBill Murray.
LeeWhat.
LeeYou never know, Bill Murray may be in it.
ChrisOh, okay.
LeeYou never know.
LeeHe's still around, so it is it is possible that he could pop up.
Leebut yeah, no, I totally get what you mean. It was more it felt more like the kind of more like the sort of MCU stuff where it's.
LeeIt is action primarily, it's definitely got some good laugh out loud moments in it and yeah, but yeah, it it's not an all out comedy.
LeeIt is more of an action movie with comedic elements, yeah, it was a good balance.
LeeIt was a good balance, so I was quite quite surprised with that.
LeeAnd finally, after way too many years.
LeeOh God, 2006, I am behind the curve on this one.
LeeI've finally started Masters of Horror.
Leeit came out at a time when.
LeeWhat was I? Oh, do you know what it was? I was really into gaming at the time and coming away from my computer, which was Chris's fault, to be fair, so coming away from my computer for even an evening a week to watch this was torture.
LeeSo I I didn't get around to it. But it's great now that I've got this massive back catalog to go through.
LeeSo I've finally started and as you would expect, it's a very mixed bag.
AdamOh, yeah, yeah, they are.
Leeso we started off the very first episode, which is incident on and off the mountain road.
AdamYeah, the Don Coscarelli one.
LeeDon Coscarelli one.
LeeWhich, yeah, I mean, I quite enjoyed.
LeeIt was a good opener.
LeeA five out of ten, I'd say.
AdamYeah, it's it's okay, it's because this is the thing, because because obviously like the setup of it was it's.
Adamall classic horror movie directors and I just don't think that it's I don't think it's just it's not up to those sort of it's you know, it's good, but it's not.
AdamYeah, it doesn't have that sort of same it well it doesn't it's not as fucking mental as Phantasm or as just brilliantly funny and creative as Bubba Ho-Tep.
AdamSo it's yeah.
AdamBecause I think it's adapted from a story by the guy who wrote Bubba Ho-Tep, so, yeah, I think they're still sort of like that connection there, but yeah, I just it's it's like you say, it's okay, it's not.
AdamIt's not bad in any way, it's just not a shout from the rooftops job.
LeeYeah, absolutely.
Leeunlike the next episode which followed that.
Leewhich was Stuart Gordon's, Dreams in the Witch House.
AdamOh, yeah, that's.
LeeWhich was amazingly good.
AdamOh, yeah.
AdamThat's.
AdamThat's one of his best Lovecraft adaptations.
AdamI think.
AdamAnd probably because he hasn't had to do a movie.
LeeYeah.
AdamBecause because they're all they're all roughly an hour on.
AdamI think.
LeeYeah, so it's a nice length.
AdamSo presumably with adverts it would have felt like a movie because it'd been like an hour and a half when it was on telly.
AdamBut,
Adambut yeah, no, that's that's probably.
AdamI think.
AdamI think one of his best Lovecraft adaptations, especially because it's still modern as he always does the Lovecraft adaptations pretty much modern, doesn't he?
LeeIt does.
LeeAnd the main actor in it is the guy who was in Dagon as well.
AdamYes, of course.
Lee
LeeYeah.
LeeSo I was impressed with that.
LeeAnd actually, funnily enough, I I don't normally listen back to our to our own back episodes.
LeeBut recently I saw,
Leenuts, Curse of the Crimson Altar on the shelf, and I thought, oh, we must cover that, and I was like, I'm sure we did cover that. So I went back and listened to the episode, and because it's very loosely based on Dreams in the Witch House.
Leeyou did mention this, actually.
LeeI think you'd not long seen it.
LeeAnd you did say about you need to watch it, even if it's just for the rat with a human face, which was absolutely horrific.
LeeSo.
AdamAnd it's and it's that weird fucking thing that Master of Horror, I don't know again, I don't know whether it's that time restriction means that it's like if you give them the budget.
AdamIt's getting used better or they've just got better people in or whatever like that.
AdamBut that's actually genuinely good effect, it's not the dog in a mask at the end of invasion of the body snatchers.
LeeExactly.
AdamIt looks really fucking good.
LeeYeah.
LeeOh.
LeeThat's fantastic.
Leewhich was good because I probably wouldn't have gone back.
LeeIf the second episode was episode three, which was Tobe Hooper's, yeah.
LeeYeah, so the dead.
LeeWhat a shit show.
LeeThat one.
LeeAnd the thing was.
LeeEvery time I a name came up, you know, like the music and everything, I was like, oh my God, this is going to be amazing, Robert England's in it.
LeeHow can this possibly go wrong?
LeeWell, it did, it was an absolute, it was horrible, even sitting through it for an hour, I felt like torture.
AdamIt's Tush.
AdamIt's.
AdamIt really is.
AdamIt's absolute Tle.
AdamIt especially because like you say.
AdamI was watching them when I was watching them where I think it's the first or second series.
AdamBut there's one, there's one he does where it's zombie like soldiers coming back from Afghanistan.
AdamOh, yeah.
AdamAnd there's.
AdamAnd then there's.
AdamAnd then there's another one he does which I'm sure I think that's the second series one, which is really creepy where it's basically.
Adamall the women have been wiped out and it's just but it's set sort of like five years after this has happened.
AdamAnd it's like this family trying to protect like trying to protect themselves and it's this basically it's a world without kindness.
LeeSo.
LeeYeah.
AdamBecause we're not going to fucking buy each other cards, come on.
LeeNo.
AdamSo.
AdamBut, so but I can't but yeah.
AdamYou've got you've got two John Carpenters.
AdamThere's dear woman.
LeeI was going to say, dear woman is the only one I'd seen, I think.
LeeBecause when it when it aired, you brought it around and said, you need to watch this.
LeeIt's John Landis, it's ridiculous.
LeeIt's absolutely brilliant.
Leeyeah, and I've got very fond memories of sitting around drinking and watching that.
LeeSo I'm looking forward to that.
LeeComing up.
AdamYeah.
AdamDear Woman's fucking fantastic. Also when you're watching Dear Woman, the main actor in it is Brian Benben.
AdamWhich is.
AdamAn amazing name as it is, you will try and work out who he sounds like.
AdamHe sounds like Tom Hanks.
LeeAll right, excellent.
LeeThank you.
LeeThat draws me mad.
AdamBecause because me and Claire watched it and we were both like, he really sounds like someone we couldn't.
AdamAnd then eventually, I googled it and the first third or fourth thing that came up was, why does Brian Benben sound like Tom Hanks?
AdamAnd of course.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah.
Adambut yeah.
AdamSo there's there's there's some really good stuff in there.
AdamAnd actually when they showed it over here.
AdamWe got an episode they didn't show in America because there's a Takeshi Mitzu Takeshi episode.
AdamAnd basically the act like.
AdamNo, I'll be honest.
AdamI can honestly say it's got it's got one of the harshest things I've ever seen on television.
AdamAnd I'm like, wow, yeah.
AdamI can I can see why they didn't, but I was also I was so pleased.
AdamThat I had it.
AdamI had it on video.
AdamI took it around to Deans.
AdamBecause I was like, there's the Miki one, the one they've banned.
AdamWe have literally got the only copy in the universe.
Adam
AdamBut.
AdamYeah.
AdamThen they came out with DVD.
LeeOh.
LeeYou go, shit.
LeeYeah.
AdamThen they came out on DVD.
AdamAnd I'll go shit.
LeeYeah.
AdamBut yeah, so I shall be looking I shall be watching that again and reporting back.
Lee
LeeSo, thanks ever so much for listening, everybody.
Leethanks very much for bearing with us.
LeeI say we were hoping to get this episode out earlier than we did, that's my fault, we were supposed to record on Saturday so that we could post it on the Sunday between our other two Sherlock Holmes episodes, and I had a terrible migraine and lost an entire day to lying on the sofa feeling like I had a head full of concrete.
LeeSo, that wasn't much fun.
AdamIt's all them poppers you've been doing.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamSolid gold blow your tits off.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah, decompression after, you know, Christmas stress.
LeeYeah.
LeeI don't know.
AdamIt's got Christmas pence.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamUnbelievable.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah.
Leebut yeah, so as we mentioned.
LeeChris and I went to Horror on Sea, we are going to try and get Dave and Jennifer who are also there together.
Leeand just do a little short, you know, 45 minutes or whatever, just to run down what we saw in that day, which was fantastic.
Leeand as well as being an amazing day, I also came away, as I sent a photograph to Adam, with the Arrow release, the Yokai Monsters box set.
AdamYeah.
LeeThat I've been looking at and kept thinking, I really, I really do need that.
Leeand then I got it there sort of half price, so, I can't wait to watch that.
AdamNice.
LeeI'll I'll make Jennifer watch it.
LeeAnd see what she makes of it, because it's pretty random.
LeeSo.
AdamOh, yeah.
AdamI mean, this is.
AdamThis is the thing.
AdamIt's, you know, you're sitting there going.
AdamSo he's an umbrella with one leg, and a licky tongue.
AdamAnd one eye.
AdamOkay.
AdamSuddenly hopping vampires don't seem so weird.
AdamWell, yeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamBut yeah.
LeeSo.
LeeI should be.
LeeLooking.
LeeI should be watching that again.
LeeAnd reporting back.
Leeso, thanks ever so much for listening, everybody, apologize again for the fact we were off for a month over Christmas and New Year.
LeeBut we have trouble getting together once a fortnight as it is, so that was pretty much a right off that period, so it's good that we've we've got an extra episode out for you now.
Leeand we shall return I will try and get this episode up possibly Saturday, so we will return tomorrow, hopefully, with the next three episodes.
LeeWell the next episode covering the next three of the Hound of the Baskervilles.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
LeeI've got to say, I know how one of the podcast, Adam and I listen to.
LeeLast podcast on the left, sometimes they cover stuff and go, oh my God, I can't wait to have this out of my head.
LeeI'm getting to that point now. I've now watched four versions, I've read the entire novel.
LeeAnd I'm trying desperately to get through the War Look Holmes version of the Hound of the Baskervilles as well.
LeeSo four films and two novels of the same thing in a two-week period is making my eyes bleed.
LeeBut,
Leebut yeah, always entertaining and very different.
LeeIt's great to get a perspective on how you can take a take a text and make it so completely different in three in so many different ways.
LeeSo.
LeeExcellent.
LeeSo, right, thanks ever so much for listening, everybody, go and check out Not For Everyone podcast.
LeeAnd, oh, go and listen to Eerie Essex.
LeeThat's also a fantastic podcast we've been listening to.
LeeBig fans of that.
LeeAnd we will return.
LeeI will try and get this episode up.
LeePossibly Saturday.
LeeSo we will return tomorrow, hopefully, with the next three episodes, well, the next episode covering the next three of the Hound of the Baskervilles.
LeeGood night.
