Transcript of 70mm’s His House (2020) Episode.
SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers just like you. Every Monday I chat about recently watched movies with my close friend and artist Danny Haas.
DANNY What Patreon tier can we do to give Proto traumatic experience? [Danny laughs]
SLIM And our spiritual adviser and Movie Insider, Protolexus.
PROTO Yeah, I mean, I don’t browse any streaming service, I think that’s like psychotic at this point.
SLIM Our featured discussion later in this episode is my pick for Hauntvember — His House from Remi Weekes, streaming right now on Netflix. Is this a haunted house movie with more than meets the eye? Or are these themes of trauma and grief no fun in a horror movie? Let’s find out… together.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alones, fades out]
PROTO Let’s just, let’s just get into it.
SLIM Oh my god.
PROTO Have you guys ever heard of the Criterion Closet?
DANNY Talk to me.
PROTO This is, I mean maybe, this is like a sacred place.
DANNY Yeah, cinephile Mecca.
PROTO And they don’t just let anyone, you can’t just like walk into the Criterion headquarters in New York City, and just go in there. You need to be invited, you know, you need to be somebody. And someone on the show was there this week… [Slim laughs]
DANNY Because he’s a somebody.
PROTO He’s a somebody!
SLIM Everyone is somebody. I’m no bigger or better than anyone. I’m just a regular Joe. Okay? First of all, I can picture Proto practicing this little intro, he’s got like his number two pencil, he’s licking it before he puts it down on his Moleskin. [Danny & Proto & Slim laugh]
PROTO What was it like?
SLIM Oh boy, I went to New York City for Big Apple. This past — when was it? I don’t remember, my god. What day is it? Last week to see some Letterboxd crew. I saw Gemma in person for the first time, I saw Flynn in person for the first time. And it was one of the festivals — which one was it? New York Film Festival was happening.
DANNY NYFF.
SLIM So we figured, let’s do some things while we’re in the city. The Windy City.
DANNY Nope. Nope. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM And Criterion was one of those things. You know, they have these like video series where they have like creators and filmmakers come in — I’m not saying we did that, we did our own thing. But like you can see the Criterion closet like on YouTube. Proto’s boy was just there, Kyle Maclachlan.
DANNY Kyle, what an ep.
PROTO God bless.
SLIM He just did his own video there. So we went up there. I didn’t really have any expectations. We were going to like film some stuff for TikTok, IG reels, that sort of thing. The big hot stuff. And we walked in there and, man, their office is gorgeous. They’ve got these beautiful frame posters up everywhere. Just real briefly, we walked to get a drink of water and like, you know, all their gorgeous Criterion posters obviously are framed up on the walls. And then we went into the, the Criterion closet. And it legit is a closet. It’s like a broom closet. It’s not that big. [Danny laughs] It’s like a broom closet with shelves and their entire Criterion Collection. And for those that don’t know, it’s, you know, Criterion puts out their own DVDs or blu-rays or 4K’s of movies, they add to the Criterion Collection, you know, the best of the best gets added to the criterion, as our former producer has his own show about the criterion, the Cinenauts. But it was rad. They had every in-print movie on the shelf. The first thing I asked, of course, is Robocop here? Do you have Robocop? And Valeria I believe her name was who produces the video series was like no, we only have in print editions and I was like, alright, see you later, bye. [Danny laughs] But it was pretty cool. Very lucky to have been invited to the Criterion offices, a lot of fun, great office to work at. They had a nice little kitchen setup with plants everywhere. Jenna would have loved it, Proto.
DANNY Goodness.
PROTO They have coffee there? Just grab a coffee?
DANNY Not at all jealous.
SLIM Listen, I’m just like everyone else. We all put our pants on one leg time in the morning, or joggers if you prefer.
DANNY I wear shorts.
SLIM I’m wearing joggers right now.
PROTO Sweats. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM Proto, did you watch any movies this week?
PROTO I did. I watched last week. If anyone listened to the ep, I watched The Addiction, which is a vampire movie. And I, you know, I kind of decided that. This October I just wanted to watch a bunch of vampire movies. And I had a few on my watchlist. So I just started tearing through them. I watched three vampire movies this week. I watched, let’s see, the first one I watched was thirst which is Park Chan-wook’s movie from 2009, the director of Oldboy and The Handmaiden. I don’t think I’ve seen any of his movies. So this is my first Chan-wook movie. And it was something else. I’ll tell you that much. I gave it three stars. But it has, let’s see, who is this guy? It’s the guy who, the father from Parasite, Song Kang-ho.
DANNY Ohhh.
SLIM Okay…
PROTO And he is just incredible in it. He’s the lead. He plays a priest. I wouldn’t really want to give it away. It’s kind of it’s a little different than just like a typical vampire story. But very cool. I enjoyed that. And then I watched two other vampire movies. I watched The Hunger which was Tony, actually Tony Scott’s first directorial feature.
DANNY Really?
SLIM What?
PROTO Yeah, it’s his first movie and this movie is friggin gorgeous. It’s on HBO Max. I gave it four stars. It’s just dripping with style. It stars Catherine — how do you pronounce her last name? [Proto makes inaudible noises]
DANNY Close. It was close.
PROTO Maybe I’m close? It stars her, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon.
DANNY Excuse me.
PROTO Yes, Suzie Sarandon in this. And it’s fantastic. A fantastic movie. Maybe more of what people say is, you know, “it’s a vibe.” But it has the, the main thread of it is that the one vampire is been alive for sent, like, probably over like 500 years. And then David Bowie’s character is he he is like her mate. But he, after a few 100 years, he starts to age suddenly. And he’s seeking a way to stop that process from happening. So it’s, you know, it’s a little different. And I love it. You know, I of course, there’s Dracula. Everyone loves Dracula. But any Dracula movie, it’s kind of like, you’re so familiar with the story, that you want something different. And all of these movies that I watched, you know, it’s like a different take on the vampire story. And the last one that I watched, I watched the other day, which is A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, which is a more recent vampire movie from 2014. And I think I think last week, Danny, you said I should watch this.
DANNY Yeah.
PROTO And I had it on my watch list for a while and um, but when you said that and just like the we talked about, I was like, man, I really have to fire it up. So I put it on. And yeah, it’s it’s another gorgeous movie like The cinematography and this is incredible it’s black and white. But man every shot is just amazing. Most of its in a lot of its shot at night, of course, but just the black and white at night there’s there’s I don’t know there’s like some effects that are done on like the lights. I don’t I don’t know what the technical term is for it, but it’s like, everything like looks kind of blurry with a lot of the lighting. I don’t know if it’s like overexposed or what that would be called. But it was it was gorgeous. And I and it was everything that I could could have wanted from, you know, a vampire movie. The one thread through all these movies that I’ve realized is that a lot of people with these movies they call them like a vibe like the story is almost like loosey goosey or Yeah, yeah, it’s like they kind of write these movies and but they’re not really sure how to end them necessarily or what to even do with them entirely. But it kind of works I guess, with with these with these movies, at least the ones that I’ve watched so Oh, I think that was like the main thread. I came away with all of those. But I’m having a great time. This is shaping up to be a fantastic October for me.
DANNY What do you have next? What’s your plans?
SLIM Listen, I just want to say, Proto is picking later in the show and he’s done three vampire movies this week…
PROTO Well, you know what? I’ll be honest with you — every single one of these that I watched I thought, “Should I not log this and pick this movie?” [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM We’re actually talking to the director of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night on The Letterboxd Show soon, Ana Lily Amirpour.
PROTO Oh, I saw you logged her most recent movie.
SLIM Mhmmm.
PROTO Interesting. Anything you’d like to say?
SLIM I really liked A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night also. I love that scene where you first see her kind of just like listening to music, dancing, just vibing.
DANNY Mamma mia.
SLIM Oh my god.
PROTO Also her cape that like goes over, like that man was so affected like so simple, but I think it’s like iconic.
SLIM Yeah, it’s amazing. Is it really, the poster, I think Danny even said it somewhere. I mean, all time poster.
DANNY Literally the reason I watched it was because of seeing that poster. I’m like, I gotta watch this movie now. Great poster.
SLIM How about when she spits that finger out? [Danny laughs]
PROTO When her fangs come out for the first time…
SLIM Yeah, yeah.
DANNY Fang me.
SLIM Was that it? Was that all your watches?
PROTO I did sneak in a non-horror movie into my watch. Moonfall…
DANNY Oh no… [Danny laughs]
PROTO This is now streaming on HBO Max. And when I saw I’ve been waiting for this to come out. In this directed by my boy, Roland Emmerich, human Planet Earth catastrophe auteur, some would call him. Traynor in chat says, “different kind of horror”. And I think you guys should watch this movie. This movie is a ton of fun. I gave it three stars. I thought it was loads of fun. Like I think James would love this movie.
SLIM He’s wanted to watch it. I brought it up to him recently but he couldn’t find the time.
PROTO Yeah, this suffers from like a lot of these popcorn blockbuster movies where it’s just too long. There’s like padding in it. I think it’s you know it’s over two hours long it could have easily been 90 minutes and you know a lot of it’s like not that worthwhile but what they do at the end like the last act of this movie is so cool. I was like blown away by the direction it went in and like a lot of people have said that in the reviews I won’t I don’t want to like give too much away but I think it’s —
SLIM The moon falls. [Danny & Proto laugh]
PROTO It does something else as well. And it’s just really cool. There’s like I think like the design that they have like with the you know the the art that they came up with this is just like really incredible and just really imaginative. So I think it’s worth watching.
SLIM I just went through Roland Emmerich’s filmography, look at the poster of this Moon 44 movie from 1990. It’s pretty cool.
DANNY I gotta click. Hold on.
SLIM Mineral resources of Earth are drained in space, there are fights for the last deposits on other planets and satellites.
PROTO Is that me on the poster?
DANNY Malcolm McDowell? Let’s go.
SLIM It does look like you, what the hell?
DANNY What the? This has been a bit the whole time.
SLIM Enhance.
DANNY Someone zoom in on that. That’s Proto.
SLIM I’m gonna puke.
DANNY Ew.
SLIM I remember seeing the Day After Tomorrow in theaters and that was an event. Didn’t Jake Gyllenhaal walk from like Pennsylvania to Washington in that movie or something like that? Or his dad Dennis Quaid to save him?
DANNY I don’t remember that movie, I know I saw it.
SLIM Nutty stuff. I remember what I was gonna say earlier. It was gonna be some kind of. We’re out. All edited out but it’s gonna be an NFT joke for Danny. The king of NFT, David Bowie.
DANNY Edit that please. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Should we talk about — well, first of all, our episode is about His House, it’s Hauntvember.
DANNY Your pick.
SLIM My pick, later in the show. It’s on Netflix, horror movie. And I was looking at VGER, the supercomputer who loves movies that —
DANNY Is VGER still alive?
PROTO Yeah, does that still work?
SLIM Let me get to this in just one moment. I was looking up VGER to see the average rating of our supporters. You know, Proto built this thing that has everyone who supports us, all their Letterboxds powered in there, I can see the average rating of a movie. The last time VGER was updated… Jurassic World: Dominion.
DANNY Oh my God, that’s what killed it.
SLIM VGER never recovered. VGER went into a comatose after that recording.
DANNY It’s on low power mode right now.
PROTO VGER will return… [Slim laughs] When the moment is right, VGER will be updated and will rise again from the ashes of the Jurassic World trilogy that killed it.
SLIM Another casualty from Jurassic World — VGER.
PROTO Still.
SLIM Anyway, the average rating of our supporters for His HOuse is 3.88. I was curious to see what it was at, so. Almost at four. What will we think? We’ll see. Next pilot episode — I feel like I’m talking a lot, but.
DANNY Keep talking.
SLIM We did a poll about what our next Pilot episode should be…
DANNY I feel sick. [Slim laughs]
SLIM We put it to a vote. In the past, you know, we said we’d never do another vote again. Never in the history of this show will we ever do another vote. But we crunched the numbers, we found a new way to do a vote.
DANNY But we’re liars.
SLIM Where people can’t scam us and scam each other into shifting a vote. So if you’re not aware of Pilot Season, we do the pilot episodes of shows for supporters as special bonus episodes, and we put it to a poll to see what people wanted us to cover. So we put out five options. Band of Brothers was one option.
DANNY Never seen it.
SLIM Neither have I. Seinfeld, Smallville.
DANNY My god.
SLIM Sex and the City, infamously covered for six months on the Cinenauts podcast.
DANNY For the same pilot.
SLIM Nothing gets Proto as riled up as talking about Sex and the City and the Cinenauts podcast.
PROTO Talk about suicide. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM And finally, The Sopranos. So of those five options, everyone could vote, they could not change their vote, nor could they see the live results of the poll. And we were pretty pleased with that, to be honest.
PROTO It was great. Felt great. [Slim laughs]
SLIM So let’s see. Proto, have you looked at the results? Do you want to guess to see how Seinfeld did in the in the poll? What percentage of the pie?
PROTO I haven’t looked I think since the first day. I’m gonna say Seinfeld is around maybe 20%. I don’t think Seinfeld is gonna win.
SLIM You think Seinfeld is gonna win?
PROTO No, I don’t.
DANNY Definitely not.
SLIM Danny, any guesses?
DANNY Seinfeld’s in the teens, maybe 17%.
SLIM Forrest in chat: “The secret villager channel was almost entirely about the nature of the vote, not the actual shows. So maybe the worst vote we’ve ever had.”
DANNY It’s a lot of votes for being the worst vote.
SLIM That’s certainly one opinion, Forrest, but the the responses say otherwise.
DANNY Its the opinion of someone who didn’t vote.
SLIM You know, our country not voting is what got us 2006, Forrest. Okay? Or is it 2016… 2016, Forrest, okay?
DANNY 2006 and beyond, Forrest.
SLIM Seinfeld got 21% of the vote. The loser of pole. Sex and the City with 10%.
DANNY The losers.
SLIM Sex and the City is finished in terms of this poll. Oh, I’m sorry, no. 7%. My God, even worse.
DANNY My gosh.
SLIM Smallville had 14.5% of the vote. And the winner of the poll, with nearly 40%, is The Sopranos.
DANNY 40%.
PROTO There it is.
SLIM Yeah. So The Sopranos is our next step.
PROTO Which I haven’t seen.
SLIM I’ve never seen an episode of The Sopranos.
DANNY I’ve only seen the pilot. So there’s that.
SLIM I’m excited.
DANNY Right?
SLIM Band of Brothers was 18.1%. It was in second place for a little bit. Supporters Sopranos ep coming soon. Danny, what about you? What did you watch?
DANNY Watched one movie. Big one I checked off my list for Halloween. I watched John Carpenter’s The Fog for the first time.
SLIM Oh, hell yeah.
DANNY And I’ve been wanting to watch it for a while. I was kind of hoping it’d be picked for the show at some point, but I didn’t wait anymore. Incredible movie. I had a great time watching I’m starting to find out like The 80s Horror is my favorite time for horror movies. I’m having a great time.
DANNY But the instant I saw this lady having her own radio station in the top of a lighthouse while also doing lighthouse duties, I was in love already. I was like, ‘I want this as a dream job.’ Find me a lighthouse in Florida and I’m gonna do it.
SLIM Imagine being like a disc jockey, playing songs, podcasting in the lighthouse.
DANNY Podcasting… Can we… buy a lighthouse? How much are lighthouses?
SLIM They can’t be that expensive.
DANNY What tier of Patreon can get us a lighthouse? But I had a great time watching this. I love the story. What a great cast. Jamie Lee and her mom Janet both in this film. Janet still looking insane, insanely old. That’s mean. Janet Lee looking old with Jamie in this while she’s also in like H2O with Jamie but also old in that I was so confused. So I thought she seemed a lot younger, but it was just baffling. I was like, oh, Janet said this but she also looked exactly the same that she did an H2O.
SLIM Ageless between 1980 and 2000. My only memory really I remember liking the fog and I it’s been I last I logged it was 2017 so I’m due for rewatch for sure. And now that it’s out in 4k, I think there’s a 4k disc floating around. But Jamie Lee Curtis gets picked up to start the movie as a hitchhiker. Right? And then she has whoopie with the guy that picks her up?
DANNY Right away. But also she lies to him and said she’s never been hitchhiking before. And she’s like, are you a creep? But then she like lets it slip that she’s been hitchhiking from since like California or something.
SLIM Oh my god.
DANNY Anyway, she’s great.
SLIM I mean, hitchhiking is one of the most bonkers things to ever exist in my opinion.
DANNY I don’t have the guts for it.
SLIM Let’s give out our free year of Letterboxd Pro. Folks that share the show on social media — I’m actually going to change it up a little bit. But if you share the show on social media in the past, you are automatically entered to win a free year Letterboxd Pro. And Tom McKiernan shared the show this week, found my favorite new hashtag movie podcast while on my Dune back catalogue binge. Great to have differing opinions from the 70mm crew, makes for a much better podcast than the single host ones usually listened to. And the artwork drool emoji. So, welcome aboard Tom. Glad to have you. I remember when the Dune episode happened. It was like our most popular episode at that time. And we were chuckling at the idea of new listeners trying the podcast and the new Dune movie episode was their first listen.
DANNY Listen, we liked the movie.
SLIM Forged in fire. So I was going to change it. I know that some folks tag their reviews 70mmpod when they watch movies alongside of us. So for anyone that does that and is listening, you watch you try to watch along with us tag your reviews 70mm pod and then those folks will get entered to win a free year of Letterboxd Pro. Gets rid of ads. You can see where movies are streaming, and you get some year end stats as well. So just remember to add that tag when you log them movie. Hauntvember, next week’s Proto’s pick. I’m shaking in my boots. But for now, His House, Proto, what’s this movie about on Netflix?
PROTO Bol and Rial are Sudan refugees who escaped civil war and ultimately found asylum in London. They’re given housing with very strict rules set in place for them. As they try to adapt to a new life in a strange place. They begin experiencing a dark presence within their house. Something has followed them from Sudan and won’t stop until a secret debt is paid. His House..
SLIM Our boy is in this. Matt Smith.
PROTO Oh my god.
SLIM Doctor Who himself. Remember when he was rumored to be in The Rise of Skywalker? He was going to be like —
DANNY Palpatine’s clone.
SLIM Red Herring, got all of us.
PROTO The lips on that guy.
SLIM Incredible lips. Proto, what do you remember about this movie? Is there any I know you talked about it last week was you? Did you have any inkling about what this movie was about? You saw it you had some vibes in the past, right?
PROTO Um, yeah, I just remember when the trailer dropped. I think this was like a classic Netflix movie comes out of nowhere. You don’t hear of anything leading up to it. And then like, Oh, here’s a trailer and it comes out tomorrow. kind of deal. But yeah, I just remember I don’t remember when it came out. But I remember seeing it and you know, I’m not really I’m not one that jump on horror movies. That’s more of your job. So I think I just, I was the messenger. You know, and I was thinking about watching it. But you know, I never I never pulled the trigger on this. That’s as far as I got
SLIM it. This was two years ago. So I don’t think Danny at that point. You were even really watching that much higher.
DANNY No, definitely not. So you were like The Godfather for for us?
SLIM Yeah, I watched it. And I left a review. So I did hide my rating. But I remember obviously spoilers. I like that. But I remember being really shocked that this was the feature debut with the director. Yeah, Remi Weekes. That was kind of like my main thought.
DANNY And this was what Sundance, it was like Sundance festival. And then before the festival started Netflix bought the movie. Oh, really? before it even premiered.
SLIM I don’t even know that was wild. Yeah, I was. I was like thinking about Netflix, and how like movies get lost on there. They just put out so much now. It’s just so much on Netflix. I joked in the past about how I just like scroll Netflix for five minutes and find something else to watch and different app, like some kind of fill fun discovery. Discovery plus goes to the good teachers, then watch anything. And I feel bad for some of these movies that just like get released, like, yeah, you’re on Netflix, but they only have so much promotion, budget, marketing budget, you could just get dumped on there. And then who knows what happens? Nothing really.
PROTO I wonder though, if like the average user, that’s just what they do. It’s like, you know, you just you’re going home from work, you just turn on Netflix, and you find something to watch. Whereas I feel like us who you know, we were looking for movies and kind of curating a list to watch. Right?
PROTO Yeah, I mean, I don’t browse any streaming service. I think that’s psychotic at this point. [Slim & Danny laugh] I never do that. So that’s not me. But I’m sure a lot of people you know, that’s how they find movies.
SLIM Yeah. So you’re saying they should be institutionalized? Anyone? Yes. That?
PROTO Yeah, most of the population should be
SLIM There’s like a thread between that Steven and the mass brainwashing of Kyle Maclachlan, I think that you’re talking about in the past.
PROTO Hey, me and Kyle, we’ve worked things out.
SLIM That’s true. You have worked things out slowly. I remember in the dune pod discord. I think Jason shared a screenshot of your comments on Kyle Maclachlan on one of their channels. And there was somebody that commented like, who gives these people microphones? Let’s see. So I’ll go first. I it’s you know, it’s kind of like a haunted house ish movie. But this is like a flip script a little bit. That’s one of the three things that I love about this movie is that it’s, he’s haunted like they are haunted by something. It’s, it’s it, for the most part. It’s like something is up with this house. They lost their daughter in the journey over from war torn urn. Sudan, I think it is right. And it’s almost like it’s getting even worse for them. Now, they lost their kid and now they’re in a haunted house, like, oh my god, this is terrible. But it’s them. It’s him that’s really haunted by it. And the story unravels. So this is the second time I’ve seen this. So watching it, I was able to kind of like, See, they’re, like, look at look at it a different way, because as you find out later in the movie, spoilers, obviously. You know, it wasn’t really their daughter that they lost. That was a girl, they almost like took in the heat of war, to try to get the hell out. And they thought she was alone wasn’t the case. So it kind of like gives a double meaning to everything at that point. But I loved that I loved that. It wasn’t just haunted house. It was something more than that.
DANNY I like that you put it that way. I didn’t think of it as him being haunted. I just just kind of sat with the fact that it was a haunted house. But saying that he’s haunted. Makes all the more sense. The different perspective to look at it too. And it was a great little band bamboozle to in the beginning, especially when they first get to that kind of suburb projects type area in London. Because I was just waiting for it just to be a race issue. Like the whites were going to be the piece of shits that they are, but it was interesting how it kind of slowly the slow burn of this, and the slow reveal of why they’re haunted. I thought was a little bit brilliant.
PROTO Yeah, I guess that makes so much sense. But I didn’t really think of that either. Is that you know, he’s haunted, rather than the house itself. And I love the little like explanation of it. Where Rial says at one point, like the, you know, the path is here, or, you know, a night which, which I wish we got more of, you know, I I’ve never heard of that before. But anytime I hear like a new word like that, I like sit up in my chair. And I’m like, we go. And I just wish they got into more of that like an explanation as to like, what that means. Or, you know, like the history behind that if there is any, because like, just even that word and like night, which was triggering me. I was like, all in.
SLIM Danny, what’s your number one?
DANNY Well, my number one kind of goes in the same vein as that I was incredibly surprised impressed, I guess. With Rumi’s ability to fuse like to fuse this ghost story haunted house story with an actual like moving and impactful story of their kind of refugee, the refugee story as well, because it’s like, it really reminded me of how I felt watching city of God, and the watching a story that I don’t really know, like much about that kind of situation. And then this it’s like, watching in the South Sudan with the the, the wars between the tribes and people just trying to flee this. To throw that into a horror story that dealt with the guilt and the grief of what they’re dealing with. I thought was just insane. Like, I’m really enjoying this new. Like, as much as I liked the 80s kind of horror movies. The current kind of status of telling horror movies through the perspective of trauma, or something that is way more personal that we can connect with, I think is some exciting stuff like this, get out really came to mind thinking of get out with this. It’s just, it’s just brilliant.
PROTO Yeah, it’s like, it’s less that you’re going to a haunted place or someone is like hunting you and it’s more of like, there’s something wrong with you, like you are the thing that is causing some harm to happen. Which is cool.
SLIM Yeah, reminded in my initial review, I kind of like compared it to hereditary, because I think hereditary was one of those like, prestige horror, where it makes you like, Whoa, there’s like a different level of horror movies that are attainable. And that one, like, these feel like they’re in the same area. They’re almost like I don’t want to say like smart horror, because it’s kind of like not meaning that as like an insult to other 80s Horror, but you’re not really gonna see this type of heart in the 80s. Yeah, like it wasn’t popular, probably. Or nobody wanted to see it.
DANNY Yeah, and it kind of bums me out a bit that this is on Netflix, because if you put it on an A24 ticket, then this is gonna be like talked about like we talked about Hereditary and it’s not going to fall in the wayside of a million Netflix movies.
SLIM Yeah. Yeah, I mean, two years ago, this would have been so cool to have like, you know, one of those studios attached to it to like some pretty cool campaign. Cool release. Get some people behind it.
DANNY Yeah, because Netflix picking this up right away means we’re not getting theatrical right? This wasn’t a theatrical run at all, which is a bit of a bummer. Part of what’s your number one.
PROTO My number one is really the performance from the two leads. The movie is pretty much outside of Matt Smith. It’s just them to playing these lead characters. And there’s a lot of tension between them in terms of like just the different themes that’s being displayed. And the one that I really liked was his desire to assimilate to like this new life while she was kind of like clinging to her old life and her culture and like her people Um, and that tension between them, I just thought like the, their performances were so good in this. And it felt I mean, it felt so authentic. They were so expressive, just like, especially like with the horror stuff that I thought that was just really great.
SLIM Their first scene together, I caught this time when he’s waking up from the nap. And she’s sitting with him. And he’s just like, using his hand to kind of like rub her shirt fabric. I just thought that was so adorable, just like the two of them together, just like this minutia moment that like maybe a married couple would do together. There’s no reason otherwise to have that on screen. And maybe most directors wouldn’t even think to show that. But it just gives this kind of like slight connection between the two that you’re right, it covers over through the rest of the movie. In the meeting dinner together.
PROTO Yeah, there was an I also like the part where I think when he first sees their daughter, he kind of like freaks out a little bit is like, whoa, like he’s surprised. But then there’s a great moment where Raul she, I think she like looks through the front door looks out the window, and she sees her daughter. And all she does is like sighs almost as if she was like expecting it. And I felt like that that just like that little bit there just gave like so much in terms of where how differently they both felt about this their circumstance. And maybe what happened in the past. So there was like a lot of storytelling in those little moments.
SLIM One other note that I had was, there was a few times like Matt Smith, you almost like you’re right, you would expect Matt Smith to be douchey or any other the white characters. Like remember when there was that one guy on the street like he was having, like pick x music. Oh, boy, you wanted those refugees? I got something for years. And it was like actually a good thing. It wasn’t him getting knifed in the alley or something.
DANNY I really kept waiting for the shoe to drop. Well, yeah. Before the twist. It’s like, which one of these white neighbors are like, it just felt like what is going to happen? And then the the people the few people that actually were roots of them, were the black kids of London, which I thought was a fascinating take. They were really rude to her in the when she’s looking for directions for the doctor. I was like this is because they told her to go back where she came from. And I’m like, Man, fascinating.
SLIM Many layers, many years. So this also like Matt Smith, even when the he comes to tell them like I want a different house and they’re all like your house is bigger than my house. Yeah, like this is going to be big trouble for you. If you want to leave that house. Like are you sure you want to do this? And they were like at every turn, or at least Matt Smith. You know, he’s trying to help. Which I thought was fascinating. So my number two is the what I said earlier like this is a feature feature debut for Remy weeks. I think Remy weeks I like I couldn’t believe that this is someone’s feature debut. Right? So many cool moments. Like when he’s having visions of the creature in the darkness, and they’re having these conversations with the fire lit so cool, he’s eating dinner, and the camera pulls back. And he’s like in the water again. The where they lost their quote unquote daughter, the conversation at the end of the movie, which is my one of my favorite movie moments, probably the last few years where he gives that speech of you know, Matt Smith asks, like how you’re how you’re doing, he’s still seeing that demon. And he explains why he’s not.
[clip of His House plays]
SLIM But then you see the refugees like in the room with them in various shots like they’re staying with him like all the trauma is still with him. But he’s like maintaining it and keeping it but I couldn’t believe like that depth was in this movie. And I still can’t believe it. Really? Yeah,
DANNY that was one of my notes was the ending of this. I was I was waiting for like some something else. I don’t know what I was waiting for. This doesn’t follow like a typical horror movie, but the fact that when it pulls out of the rooms and it shows their daughter and then it flips around and shows them standing there with the refugees, but we saw the refugees so many times throughout the the episode has like the zombie kind of ghoulish type figures, but now that they’ve defeated the witch, they’re still there and it’s suggesting that their torment is still going to be with them through their grief and shame. But they still have to work through it. And that’s how they end the movie, which was impressive. Yeah.
PROTO Yeah, in terms of like a directorial debut. You know, there’s a lot of like effects in this. And I appreciated how they just, you know, really went for it, I would say like, you know, like the, the CG stuff, like some of its like beat here. But it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s told. So like, it’s used to, like, sit with such confidence. And it’s like, consistent throughout the movie that it didn’t really bother me. Like, there’s some shots, it’s like, alright, this, like, it doesn’t look great. But it didn’t really, like bother me either. I don’t know, if I’m just getting like numb to like this kind of world of CGI that we have. And I just kind of expect it now in movies. It kind of it just kind of reminded me of that movie salaam that I watched a couple of weeks ago, where it kind of did the same thing. Like it kind of, you know, just went for it with like this, you know, you know, B level, CGI, but I you know, I, I liked it. And I thought it was consistent. And you know, it’s like a lot of bold choices in this and, and I think like some of the shots are so creative, like Yeah, like that. That shot of him sitting at the table as the camera pulls out. He’s like, in the ocean is so it’s so cool.
SLIM Yeah. Danny number two?
DANNY One this kind of goes hand in hand with the shots but I was quite taken with how well the horse scenes were made the the light switch going on and off revealing the things in the shadows, the the, the stuff behind the walls, him pulling out the rope that’s turning into see we that ends up being the doll. There’s so much of the horror that’s in this. I keep saying horror, but it’s really, I don’t know, it felt it was had its moments where it was kind of scary. But also it looked great. And the monster has been brought up a couple of times the witch and I had to look it up. It’s actually an actor. It’s a guy name, Javier Boutet. And he’s a six six actor he was in a suit like laying on top of show pay in the scene is disgusting. It’s disgusting. It’s this really tall actor playing the monster and I just I don’t know, I really loved how well the horror was handled in this because it could have gotten way out of hand I think. But I felt like it was really kept tight. Especially when you’re only following the two leads this whole time to keep adding in the refugees the daughter running around in that creepy ass mask. It’s just it’s just really well done the horror aspects of this,
SLIM either. How about when he uses he like pushes his free hand into his
DANNY eye? I covered my eyes. Yeah, it was physically covered my eyes. Oh my god. I could not get enough of it.
SLIM Yeah, I did see some reviews that were like not so high on the creature reveal at the end. I still I’d love that. I think I felt like he was like a slow burn to the point where you’re leading up. I mean, it is pretty slow. The first like half thirds is definitely a slow burn. Yeah, it’s extremely slow. The guy that played the monster is going to be the Slenderman and the Slenderman movie.
DANNY Oh, yeah.
SLIM Bro, what do you think of the creature? Um,
PROTO yeah, I thought it was cool. Yeah, I didn’t I don’t really have anything else to say. But yeah, I thought it was good. And I like the slow burn too. I think that like that approach with horror movies. It just fits so well. You know, like, you gotta give it a slow burn, I think
DANNY a slow burn and an hour and a half movie. Was that a quick face?
SLIM Yeah. Proto, what’s your number two?
PROTO My number two is I think my favorite scene in the movie. I think it’s when when ball goes into like a catatonic state. And then his wife can escape from the house. I think she like goes out a back window. Yeah. And then like suddenly she’s back in Sudan. And she’s greeted by her friends. And they take her into a room and she’s talking to them and she realizes like you know, I’m not you know, I’m not really here. And then it cuts to her. It cuts to ball like looking for her coming into the room and like she comes out of a cabinet and everyone in there is dead like they were killed. So she like hid in this cabinet and survived a massacre in this room. And like that, that the storytelling in that scene was just like was so good like that the just the the formation of that and just like the way it was revealed, and then them trying to escape and like hiding on the roof while the weather eyes with guns walked by, I just thought that that scene was like really powerful. And when you’re in thinking of going through something traumatic, and then having to, you know, relive it over and over again, like that, that scene really communicated that so well.
SLIM Also her performance to while talking with the, like the demon ghost versions of her friends, and asking about her daughter and her crying during that entire scene. And then like offering a deal, like you credit when your husband will bring your daughter back. My third one will, is right after that, when they finally showed the backstory of the daughter, you know, they get up to the bus, there’s not enough room, they’re panicking, you know, there’s gunshots coming, like right behind them. And he sees a dog, a girl, a young girl, and that could be their ticket on to the bus. And it happens. And then seconds later, you see the mom realize what happened. Like this is one of the most chilling. I can remember. It’s so real. It’s so visceral, that like, this is real life. Like we’re seeing like what’s going on in this area in many areas. And I like it’s still stopped me in my tracks on this feeling. Like, imagine a mother imagine being them, and having to like deal with that trauma of what you just did. It’s insane. It’s crazy.
DANNY It’s definitely insane. And it just, it goes to show like the brilliance of this movie where we’ve already sat with the horrors of this house that they’re dealing with and to be presented. The reason why they’re the witches haunted them to watch the horror of this scene makes everything I don’t know it was this scene gave me the chills when the when you realize not just that they that this is what his theft was his him stealing this girl. That’s why the witch has attached to them like this was his theft from the Sudan, but to watch the mother lose her child as well. Like this was a horrific scene. And I think the mom is sitting in that room with her when she transports back to the whatever classroom that was, I think you can tell by the forehead, her forehead scars. She’s one of the women sitting with her. Anyway, incredible scene, incredible moment in this film to have the whole story come full circle.
PROTO Yeah, also because, you know, by no, no fault of their own, if, like if they could talk to that mother and things went differently. Like if their daughter survived and made it to England with them. I’m sure their mother would be like, well, like, it sucks that you took my daughter but thank you for saving her life. But the fact that she dies on the way there it’s like, man, like maybe she would have lived if she stayed. You know, so like you think and I’m sure like you can imagine that and then playing that story in their head like well, like trying to justify like, well, she was gonna die anyway like, oh yeah, it sucks that she died but we gave her her best chance anyway and it saved my life. So I had like the guilt of that but I was I was doing the best thing I could and just like that that tug. And like that mental gymnastics, you would be playing with yourself for the rest of your life trying to justify what you did
DANNY keep thinking about every time they said we are good people as well like that. One of the good ones. The good. Yeah, we’ve that all started to make sense. We’re not like
SLIM them, but we can be it. Danny number three cache, we’ve
DANNY gone through so much of it. I have one a little bit of a gripe for my third. I wanted more of the night witch or whatever they called him. I kind of there was so much about that story when she first tells the folklore when they’re sitting there and and you finally see him at the campfire when he has the candle in the room trying to call out the witch and you see the eyes glowing in the back there was something there’s just something I wanted more from that aspect and I don’t I don’t know what it could have been but seeing the seeing the night which more is I kind of wanted that and it kind of bummed me out that we only got the final reveal of him coming through the ground and attacking ball.
PROTO I wanted more of that as well. Just fleshed out a little bit more
SLIM to movies to our movie at that point.
DANNY It’s fine. That’s fine.
PROTO That’s fine. Make it if it makes it a better movie. I mean that kind of bleeds into my my, my final point bleed. I think it’s more of this is more of like a thing like I’m realizing with movies like this movies that are like centered around like grief or trauma thing that happened in the past is that I feel like I have a disconnect with these type of movies. Because the thing that’s happening in the background like that, that thing, like the character is is dealing with is, is the main part of the movie. And it’s like, where the meat of the movie is. And the thing in the foreground, like the actual story, in front of what’s going on, is kind of like a lesser part. And I feel like that that like the background stuff overtakes the story of the thing like, um, that I’m watching happen. And it like it these movies it feels like it relies on you connecting with what the character is feeling and going through. And I mean, I’m fortunate enough that like, I don’t have like any experience in my life like that that is like very traumatic, or something that like haunts me, so I don’t I can’t like relate to that right so often when I watch these kinds of movies like I feel like there’s like a disconnect or like something I’m not getting and I know like these are seemed like the movies that like slim like you love and and we’ve we’ve like talked about this a lot like I think of that Joaquin Phoenix movie I don’t get that movie at all like it does nothing for me and I feel like this movie falls in like that same category of where I like I just like have this disconnect with what’s going on and like I it kind of like loses me for that reason.
SLIM It’s funny you say that because in a rare turn of events I sent Amanda the after Yang episode to listen to and she listened to it and she said the same thing about you proto she had the same realization she’s like maybe proto has never gone through something like that or like that was her reasoning for your your final thoughts and I think you’re both right I mean, that’s fine
DANNY What Patreon tier can we do to get Proto a traumatic experience? [Slim laughs]
SLIM Who wants to traumatize Proto for a small fee?
PROTO Traynor says I’ll do it.
DANNY He’s been doing it since he’s been trying.
SLIM I was trying to think it’s probably true that maybe The Babadook episode was probably looking back maybe similar. And I’m wondering Of course, what’s your rating for Hereditary? What did you think of Hereditary. because you’ve seen that right?
PROTO Yeah, I mean, I tried to forget that. I think that was before I have that watch. I don’t think I like left a review for that. That might have been before I was like writing reviews. Yeah,
SLIM Yeah, but I agree with you. I think that those kind of like subtext movies could be a slight disconnect for people. My honorable mentions, I guess I when the monster is like about to kill him. He’s got his greedy little hands up his arm skin ops. She makes the decision to step in and help I love that see? See your hand go for the knife behind it. Holy smokes, that was rad.
DANNY You said “arm skin”. I hate you. That’s disgusting. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Was I wrong?
DANNY No, you’re not wrong.
SLIM So final rating for me I had this login as five stars. I love that. I had a great time rewatching it I forgot to Google to see what Remy weeks is doing next because Remy I’m using Joy
DANNY baby. It’s gotta be doing something right.
SLIM I’m keeping it five stars for his house loved it. Great experience watching d&d Honorable Mentions final reading.
DANNY I don’t remember Let me see. I mean Chopin, when wound me up are incredible actors and I’m excited for more that they do. I’m with you. This is a great movie. I thought the story itself was brilliant. I want to just a little bit more from the which some standing up for stars for this four stars for his house.
SLIM And now the three star reveal from
PROTO honorable mentions. I think you had this in your first review. Slim hit. Balls like final words. At the end. He says something like ghosts don’t live they live with you. When you see all the people in the room with him. I just I love that line. And just like that, that idea was really cool. But yeah, I’m at three stars. I think it’s a good a good movie.
SLIM Yeah, I probably put that quote in earlier just dropped it in. Great line. Love it. Love it. Love it. His house. We’re we’re flying through Han vember is going too fast. If I It can be frank with you both slow downs flying through. We’re so close to Halloween ends it’s not even funny.
DANNY I keep forgetting or doing that.
PROTO I don’t know if I’m mentally ready for that.
DANNY I know seriously.
SLIM The artwork has been dropped crepes alive this mascot as I was a it’s disturbing Imagine if he used the arm sleeve
DANNY No, no.
SLIM We do have a letter. You can shoot us at 70mmpod@gmail.com It’s comes from Brian prison month when question mark lol Hey 7am is Brian sorry to be so heavy but I have been struggling lately with my visual impairment brain tumor. But listening to the pod weekly brings me great happiness and laughter I just felt like sharing how awesome you all are for being great hosts. I give you five stars whenever I can. Thanks for reading. Just one of your many supporters. Brian Harmer, the recommendation, the ritual on Netflix. The ritual the ritual much is out here.
PROTO I’ve seen this going around.
SLIM Hold please.
DANNY Pause for editing.
PROTO Foster searching
SLIM 2017 your darkest dream awaits you a group of college friends reunite for a trip to the forest, but encounter a menacing presence in the woods that stalking them. Oh, god. Okay,
PROTO I reunite with people in the woods too much,
SLIM I think. Thank you very much for the letter, Brian, and thanks for reminding me Danny. Glad we can help any way we can. And you know what’s going to help even more Pardo’s pick for you? No,
DANNY no it Where
SLIM could it go wrong? Where possibly wrong? There’s a lot of talk about this. We’re trying with us on our vacation. You gave options to us. Where Where do we stand after that period of time?
PROTO Yeah, well, I put it out there. I actually made a list of my potential picks. And I am I am picking one of those movies from this list. I decided you know I wanted to maybe maybe maybe someone say play it safe. I wanted to return to the master of her. Which you know his name so many come on. We all know it Clive Barker. Oh 1987 The year of my birth mom came out with the movie iconic monster. Hellraiser
DANNY hell in
SLIM my dad.
PROTO I’ve never seen it.
DANNY I’ve never seen you there. It scared me so much as a kid in the VHS store. Blockbuster, seeing this pinhead. Yes. I couldn’t do it. I wondered like I like held the like VHS tape just to like, rub my finger over the image to see if I could feel the pins. Just like freak me out so much as a kid.
SLIM I think I walked in on this movie. I don’t know who was watching it. But it looked like I was watching horror porn. Like I didn’t know what horror Porn was at that time. When I was wondering what I was watching. It felt horrifying and sexy at the same time. Gosh,
PROTO I remember watching like on a VHS tapes, you know, where they would have like promos from whatever studio I don’t know, who put out Hellraiser. But the clips of Hellraiser showing you know, pinhead would always appear and it would freak me out for and that’s my main memory of this.
SLIM This champions on many places. streaming on Prime streaming on shutter Pluto to be and our library friends. Hoopla. Oh my gosh, my library won’t even wouldn’t let me rent creep show it said it was like to like they wouldn’t let me rent that rated movie. It was like too scary or something. But they have it offered. Yeah, my library wouldn’t win. Let me do one look
DANNY at you. They wouldn’t let you rent it.
SLIM Crashed as don’t watch it on shutter. It looks horrible. Oh, all right. Maybe try Amazon Prime, or Pluto or Tubi new Hellraiser comes to Hulu this Friday, too. It’s right. So by the time this episode is out, there’s a new Hellraiser on Hulu. So anyway, the description for Hellraiser, “an unfaithful wife encounters the zombie of her dead lover, while the demonic Cinobites are pursuing him after he escaped their saddo masochistic underworld.”
DANNY What?
PROTO Do you believe? Is this the greatest month in the history of this podcast? I ask you/
DANNY We’re going to have to put the art behind that plexiglass.
SLIM Brown paper bag, yeah.
DANNY Bag my art.
SLIM Oh my god, that’d be hilarious. You’d have to like swipe over to remove the bag.
DANNY Are you 18 or older? [Slim laughs] Disclaimer.
SLIM What is Proto unleashing into the Village this week? Alright, what an ep. Hellraiser next week. I think if I remember correctly there’s like nine Hellraiser movies. Remember when Chuck from Bat & Spider went through them and he almost jumped off a bridge?
PROTO Yes!
DANNY I really felt bad for him.
PROTO Doing the Lord’s work.
SLIM My god, look at all these! Yeah, there’s like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… There’s five Hellraiser — oh my god, there’s more. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8… 10 Hellraiser movies.
DANNY Clive, please.
PROTO Milk it. [Slim laughs]
SLIM The master of horror does it again. Proto, closing thoughts for this week as we continue our horrific journey through Hauntvember?
PROTO Man, it feels good to be back in October, and we’re having a heck of a time. And I mean, the best might be yet to come. Halloween Ends? This could make or break everything. I mean, we all listen to our double feature ep. [Proto sighs]
SLIM The sigh from Proto to end it. We’ll see you next week for Hellraiser.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
