Join us for an electrifying conversation on "A Dingo Ate My Movie" as a friend of the the podcast, Brandon Hardy, returns to dissect the 2022 Australian horror sensation "Talk To Me." What happens when friends unleash terrifying spirits using an embalmed hand? We talk about how Sophie Wilde and Miranda Otto's stellar performances breathed life into this chilling narrative, and follow the remarkable journey of directors Danny and Michael Philippou from YouTube icons to cinematic trailblazers. We'll also dive into the film's sweeping success at film festivals and its laudable reviews on IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Letterboxd.
Have you ever wondered how smartphone culture shapes our experiences and perceptions, especially in the realm of modern horror? We'll explore this theme deeply as Brandon shares an anecdote from a midnight screening of "Evil Dead." This episode examines the film's portrayal of social media's influence on today's youth, the haunting isolation caused by our camera phones, and how these elements intertwine with grief and trauma.
Finally, we discuss the grotesque and unsettling scenes that make "Talk To Me" unforgettable, from bone-chilling possessions to manipulative spirits preying on vulnerable characters. We'll debate the film's ambiguous ending and its impact on audience satisfaction, then shift gears to compare hype and expectations across films like Barbie, Oppenheimer, and upcoming cult favorites.
Plus, we geek out over our passion for collecting physical media and obscure films. Tune in for an episode with horror analysis, personal stories, and cinematic love!
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Please note that this podcast often explores topics and uses language from past eras. This means that some of the discussions may include attitudes, expressions, and viewpoints that were common in those times but may not align with the standards and expectations of our society today. We'd like to ask for your understanding as we navigate these historical contexts, which are important to appreciate the era we're discussing fully.
You're listening to a Monster Kid Podcast. Hi and welcome to A Dingo Ate my Movie, a podcast that features classic exploitation and other weird, wonderful, overlooked and underappreciated Australian films from the 70s, 80s and beyond. My name is Pete and I'm your host, the Night Rider. That is his name, the Night Rider. Remember him when you look at the night sky. Welcome to A Dingo Ate my Movie, a podcast about weird and wonderful Australian films from the 70s, 80s and beyond. I'm your host, pete, and today I'm joined by Brandon Hardy to discuss Talk To Me from 2022.
Brandon:Good morning, brandon us talk to me from 2022. Good morning, Brandon. Hello Pete, it's great to see you again and to be back on the show.
Pete:It's been a long time. I was just looking at. The last thing we did together was BMX Bandits back in 2022. So it's been like over a year. It's been a while.
Brandon:Yeah, I didn't realize it had been that long.
Pete:All right, so today we're uh here to talk about, uh, talk to me. It's really strange how it's hard to say we're here to talk about.
Pete:Talk to me just sounds weird oh yeah talk to me, talk to me, talk to me about and it's interesting, like you know, I say, uh, wonderful australian films from the 70s, 80s and beyond. Well, this is definitely beyond anything I've done. This is like a movie, that's what? Basically a year old, yeah, so I've never done one this recent. So, yeah, so I'll go through the synopsis and I pinched the synopsis from IMDb because I'm lazy and the synopsis is when a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand. They become hooked on the new thrill until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces. Pretty much sums it up. I like the IMDB synopsis. Some of them are very good and very straight up.
Brandon:Yeah, I like succinct and to the point.
Pete:Yeah, giving too much away that's why I pinch them and don't write my head. Yeah, um, the. The movie is directed by brothers danny and michael philip who, and it stars sophie wilde as mia, alexandra jensen as jade, joeensen as Jade, joe Bird as Riley, miranda Otto as Sue, and it was written by Danny Filippo and Bill Hinsman on a concept created by Daley Pearson. Yeah, the cast is fantastic. I really enjoyed the cast in this movie. I didn't list them all because there's a lot of them. No, I like the cast too. Yeah, I think it's one of the things that makes this movie really work.
Pete:The movie premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2022 and was initially released by Umbrella Entertainment, maslow Entertainment and Aahi Films on July 27, 2023. Films on July 27, 2023. It was shown at Cannes Film Festival or Cannes Film Festival in 2022, and then it was sold to several international distributors and it had its international premiere at Sundance Film Festival in 2023. Shortly after that, there was a number of American distributors engaged in a bit of a bidding war for the film and A24 eventually secured the rights. It's very much an A24 kind of film, right.
Brandon:Yeah, absolutely, and that was certainly. That's what got people in the theater was that A24 banner and, of course, the hype built around that. I think at the time they were saying, oh, this is the scariest movie of the year yeah, but they say that a lot with movies these days I know yeah sure whatever unfortunately that's the story.
Pete:Right, you should hear it like and we'll talk about that a bit later. I'll go to one of my talking points about hype. Oh yeah, yeah, it was budgeted at $4.5 million and it made $92 million at the box office, which is a nice little return on investment, I think.
Brandon:Yeah, I think it's A24's most profitable film they've made so far.
Pete:Yeah, absolutely yeah. Its ratings On IMDb it's rated a 7.1 out of 10, which is quite high. Rotten Tomatoes certified fresh with 95% critic score and an 82% audience score, and on Letterboxd it's a 3.6 out of 5, so it's a pretty well-liked movie. I don't see too many people talking down about it. I noticed when I was flicking around on youtube looking for you know, just bits to watch and people reviewing it and people talking about it. There was a a couple of uh videos about it's, about how it's not a great movie and all this sort of stuff, and I watch bits of that as well. Some of them make some decent points, but I think overall it's a pretty popular film. This movie is basically directed by two guys that had a YouTube channel, which is quite interesting. Danny and Michael Philippow are well-known for their YouTube channel, raka Raka, which is a really interesting name.
Pete:I was trying to work out. How would you come up with that name? What the hell does it mean? But I didn't know name. I was trying to work out how would you come up with that name, what the hell does it mean?
Brandon:Yeah, I was hoping you would have some insight.
Pete:No, which, as of this recording, has 6.8 million subscribers, so it's a nice subscriber base. The channel's known for its over-the-top action, dark humour and special effects. They initially gained fame through videos featuring Ronaldonald mcdonald in various bizarre and violent scenarios. I watched a couple of those.
Brandon:I don't know if you bothered to watch a couple of them I saw a few, a few clips that they played during an interview and I'll have to watch them later and they're.
Pete:They're really violent and bizarre. And then there's because I thought, okay, to get an understanding of these guys, I'll just flick through, watch a couple of the videos, because most of them are short. There's a lot of like one minute, two minute videos, sort of things on there and I thought I'll watch. Some of these ronald mcdonald ones are really bizarre and I'm like I don't know how they got away with it. I'll have to look those up.
Pete:And then later on, I was watching one of their later videos and I think they were talking about the fact that the last video that they had released, basically YouTube's algorithm buried it because of the fact that it was so not right. Oh Okay, yes, not right. Oh okay, yes, I don't think there's been a video put up there since a couple of years ago, probably, when this movie came out. I think there was a video I sent you and, uh, I think that's almost the last one that came out and I don't think there's been any movement on there for a year or two, and with good reason. I'd say they're kind of, you know, got bigger fish to fry at the moment.
Brandon:Oh, absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, but it seemed like I mean from that clip that you or that video that you'd sent me, it seemed like that they were, that their video channel channel on youtube was essentially like them experimenting and kind of cutting their teeth on like using effects, using sound design, using, uh, using techniques to to engage people in a short form, and so you can definitely see, or I can imagine you could see, like their, their progression and their ability to do a lot with less and especially making this film for four it's a four and a half million, I mean certainly it's a good mark of a good filmmaker is economy, and even the film itself is like an hour 35 minutes. You know it's pretty tight.
Pete:You can definitely see where it's all come from because, like some of the videos on there, there's there's wire work involved and there's, you know, makeup effects. And I was listening to the commentary for this film. Uh, the other night and one of the people that I can't remember what her name was exactly, who was doing visual and makeup effects with them on Raka Raka, ended up doing makeup effects in Talk To Me. It was the main makeup effects.
Brandon:Oh, that's cool.
Pete:Which is amazing, right. So I think they brought a few people across with them. So, yeah, you can definitely see the progression. So, according to the two brothers brothers, while in pre-production there was a lot of interest from large american production companies, they didn't name who they were, but once they started apparently to understand that they wanted them to use an american cast and change things in the film and make it more, I guess they decided to not go ahead with that and they funded the film locally.
Pete:Much of the funding comes from Screen Australia, the South Australian Film Corporation and the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund. There's another couple of production companies Headgear Films, metro Technology and Causeway Films. Causeway Films is familiar with people who have listened to this podcast and have an interest in the Babadook, since they were one of the producers of the Babadook back in 2014. So they have a bit of form with this. But it's kind of nice to see, you know, creators that were courted effectively by the big studio system inverted commas kind of reject that and decide that they wanted to, you know, make the film they wanted to make, which doesn't happen a lot these days, or it starts out that way, and then the second film ends up being you know, overproduced, for want of a better term, I guess.
Pete:Uh right, I guess we'll find out with these guys, because there's a sequel to this film coming up. Oh, interesting anyway. So yeah, so they're shooting a prequel, which I assume is going to kind of maybe end where this one starts okay, yeah, I hope it's not like a.
Brandon:Like an origin story like this is how the hand came to be, like who the hand belongs to. If it is indeed a real person's hand, all of that like I won't, I think that's why it works so well is the the mystique. You know the mystery around its origin. You know like there, I mean, even though some time is spent talking about the rules, how this works 90 seconds is the hard limit and things like that that people have figured out but it has all this lore around it and no one really knows where it came from and what its purpose was, and so I like that and I hope that they don't reveal too much. I guess.
Pete:So you don't want like talk to me origins, so exactly yeah, Same same. I think one of the things that I loved about this film is they didn't spoon feed the audience.
Brandon:Yes.
Pete:And they purposely kept things out of the film that they'd filmed because either A it was too drama-ish, or B they just wanted to have that mystique. They didn't really show a lot. They didn't talk about where the thing came from, where the hand came from, Right.
Brandon:And so that would have taken at least another 10 minutes, because most films like this will have a scene where people are doing research, they're Googling things or they're in a library somewhere looking at microfilms. This is the history of all of this. This is how this hand came to be, and it's magic. You know explaining everything, and I'm so glad we didn't get any of that in this film. Yeah, I loved it.
Pete:I love the fact that it just the hand just seems to go to different people at different times, and we'll go into that a bit later Especially the end, especially the end.
Pete:So it's really interesting and I think they did a great job doing that. So I watched this on a Blu-ray. So last year, umbrella released a Blu-ray and a 4K and a couple of collector's editions of this film, obviously because I think they're one of the production partners, so it's a big deal to them. One of the editions, the Let Me In edition, has a full-size replica of the hand from the movie. Uh, and quite amazingly, as of today's date the recording day um, it's still available. If you have 160 to spend, it's kind of tempting.
Brandon:Is that the one that I think I've seen? This it's like the hand also is like a bong or something or like you can smoke out of it. I've seen one of that I think maybe a, I think I think I'm thinking of like a24 replica hand that you can smoke out of oh well, as we'll, as we'll talk about.
Pete:There's parallels between drug use and hand use in this.
Brandon:Right Tobacco use only.
Pete:Yeah exactly. For sure. Yeah, so they have that. You can also watch this on Netflix in Australia and you can buy it on Apple, amazon and other digital platforms. Like, if you want to risk that. I don't really advocate buying digital anymore, but I guess that's a discussion for another day. I mean, I'm not keen on things and hearing things like what's the famous one I heard about a few months ago how they changed bits of the French connection on Disney Plus.
Brandon:Oh right, yeah, I heard that and I bought it that same day on Blu-ray Right Good time.
Pete:Worked out well. Yeah, so that's why, you know, I don't really buy. I've got some digital movies, but they're nothing special.
Brandon:But I don't buy them anymore because you could just lose access to them as well right, yeah, I think the only digital ones that I have are either were redeemed through you know codes that came with the the disc, or you know, like on apple tv, maybe this one, this one, was on sale one day and I was like okay, well, that's cheaper than the rental, so I'll buy that oh yeah, for that reason, yeah, yeah, yeah, just not a not a fan of, uh, of that sort of thing.
Pete:And also noticed with digital games lately, playing digital games is that they just remove them from the store after a period of time when they don't sell and stuff like that, and then you know everything's got to be digital and I don't think it's a great idea uh, yeah, I, I agree, I agree, I saw, I watched this movie, uh, here in the states on paramount plus.
Pete:That's where it's at currently before we start talking about the movie as such. We're definitely going to spoil this movie. It's really important that if you don't want it spoiled, please go and watch it before you listen to the discussion because, like, there's some major spoilers in this film, and especially the ending. So if you want to keep listening, do it at your own risk, I guess. So what were your initial thoughts on the film, brandon?
Brandon:I'm going to preface this with a short story. So I went to see Evil Dead, the 2013 film, when it came out and on opening night it was a midnight screening packed house. I'm there with a friend and his date We'll call the date Andrea so she mentions having a headache on the way there and then, about 20 minutes into the film, she leaves and all of a sudden there's murmuring, then shouting, and the lights come on in the theater and the movie stops and people are running over to look over this partition between the auditorium and this little corridor that runs alongside it, and Andrea has passed out in this corridor and, instead of anyone running to help her, this crowded theater takes out their phones and starts recording her lying there on the floor and someone eventually helps her and the movie starts back up a bit later. But that moment has stuck with me, just that image of dozens of phone screens and flashlights and that poor girl lying motionless on a dirty theater carpeted hallway.
Brandon:And 10 years later, I thought about that when I first saw this film, because the thing that this film does really well is it I mean it.
Brandon:It depicts like real young people in a way that, like it, accurately reflects like what, what they do and how they engage with the world.
Brandon:But it also comments on this idea of spectatorship in an age of social media and influencer culture and smartphone dependence and just that being the smartphone and the camera being kind of this buffer between a person and the world.
Brandon:And I'll say my thoughts more on that stuff later, but that's what I was thinking about when I saw it and that's what stuck with me. But when I saw the film, we'll talk about the hype factor, but this movie was really hyped up here and I was expecting this to be blown away and I wasn't. And I think that's okay because it was in some ways a more not subdued, but it was, you know, like we talked about, like there weren't these frequent jump scares. I mean, we had the practical effects, we had some grotesque imagery and disturbing things happening, but at the same time it was invasive, you know, and it just kind of it's like a stain on your hand. It just lingers for a while, and so that's something I think the film did really well and I think that is what I remember most about seeing it for the first time.
Pete:It's really interesting comparing it back to that story from 10 years ago.
Brandon:Yeah, I know, know it's crazy.
Pete:I assume she was okay, at the end of it.
Brandon:Yeah, she was fine, she was just lightheaded and passed out. But just the, this big crowd reacting in that way that their impulse was to was to record it, and you know, and uh, and something, and I'll, I'll get this out of the way. But since we're talking about kind of that, that dynamic being, you know, early on in the film, you know, is trying to talk to jade about seeing that kangaroo on the on the road and you know, of course, jade is on her phone and is distracted, ignoring her, and mia calls her out and I'm like, yeah, put away your phone and listen to your friend. You know, but just this idea, like the party game and use, you know, the possession is kind of the drug stand in, it's like the camera phone, because I think we need to kind of get this out of the way before we continue. But the camera phone, it becomes this kind of shield, like this barrier that allows people to become non-participant observers, like so, like there's no consequence because they're not really involved, they're just watching, yeah, and they can also ride that thrill of the experience without taking part in it. You know, being accountable in any way or rather, I think you know the events of this film brings that into question. And since this film deals with grief and trauma, you know, the camera phone itself allows one to associate, you know, and disconnect from the world. And it's like when they're recording this stuff or when they're participating in this, they're essentially watching it through another eye that's not their own, through this lens, and so they don't have to experience it for themselves. They can be very passive, a passive observer rather than an active participant in the situation. So there's something there when it comes to grief and trauma and how we can put that buffer between us and whatever it is we're observing Now.
Brandon:The last thing I want to mention is that, through this act, they're documenting it at the same time. They're documenting it at the same time, they're preserving it as fodder to be shared and distributed, either for attention, for clicks, for likes, or to be the first to share it, or whatever. But those moments are reduced to content, for entertainment, for a distraction. But it's like the possession. Is it fake? Is it just a trick, you know? Is it just engagement bait or is it a means of humiliation, you know? So just all of those things that dynamic kind of creates this, this framework that this film kind of works within and you know kind of the big picture top down stuff, and so anyway, I just wanted to kind of get that out there.
Pete:Yeah, I think what you're saying is probably really well demonstrated in the opening scenes of the film, right?
Preview Time Dude:Oh absolutely.
Pete:We've got this party and we've got this young bloke locked in a room. Obviously he's had experience with the hand and held onto it for too long. So the rules of engagement tell me if I'm wrong, brandon is you hold onto the hand, you light a candle, you hold onto the hand, you say talk to me, and then you say let me in, and then you basically have 90 seconds to have the experience and at the end of the experience you let go, or someone pulls the hand away and you blow out the candle and that's right, and it sounds like such a. This is what I like about this movie. It's such a one of those things like when you were younger I know I did you would you would have you'd always know someone that had a ouija board or or something like that and it was all these like almost urban legends about you know, you do this and then you do this, or the Bloody Mary thing.
Pete:Right, you've got to do this three times. Do this three times and this is going to happen right, yeah.
Pete:And this is like one of these kind of, you know, urban legends that they've created this movie from, and I think it's really interesting. You know, instead of a Ouija board or staring at the mirror, they've got this. You know, this hand that apparently is I don't know has some sort of stuff cast over it, but apparently on the inside it's a mummified hand of somebody that lived at some stage and they weren't sure if it was, I think, a Satanist or some sort of cleric or something like that.
Pete:So you've got all these stories swirling around. So you have this opening scene where you know, obviously the brother of this guy has been using it for way too long and is having a session and his brother's trying to get him out of his room, brings him out and he just straight up stabs his brother and then stabs himself in the head, which is shocking in the way it's shot. I love the way it's shot because you're not. In a lot of films they would pull right up close to that guy stabbing himself in the face and make it as graphic as possible. But this is like and I this is goes back to what you're talking about at this stage you're almost like the observer because you're standing back as far as somebody might be at a party like that, just watching this happen. And yeah, that's true and that's the feeling I got when I was watching it. And at the same time, just before he does that, all you can see in the background are phone camera lights. Yeah, it's just, it's done really well and I think that's one of the things that works great in this film is they really nail the kind of teen lifestyle of this point in time in society which is all about. You know they use Snapchat in the film.
Pete:Oh right, yeah, apparently they had to get permission for that, right, of course. And they had to get permission for Apple to have iPhones in the film and stuff like that, which is quite interesting. I mean, I've always figured that was the case, but it's interesting when they were talking about it on the commentary oh, we had to get permission for this, we had to get permission for that. We never thought we could afford the Sia song that they're singing in the car and she just said they could have it and stuff like that, and yeah, so it's a really interesting start to the movie, and the voyeurism and the like you said and your story also reminded me, you know, when you're talking about being disconnected from what's going in front of you reminds me of an old Tom Savini story, the Makeup Artist, where he learned a lot of what he did with makeup when he was a photographer in Vietnam.
Brandon:Oh, that's right.
Pete:Yeah, and he was saying that he looked at everything through the lens, so he was kind of disconnected from the whole thing as well. I think it still fucked him up a bit. I think Vietnam fucked a lot of people up, but he was saying he felt disconnected from what he was seeing. Based on that as well, yeah, yeah, that's interesting.
Brandon:Yeah, I mean because it is the lens you know, kind of being like you are, kind of you know on the other side of the screen. It's like there's this kind of membrane between you and what you're observing and it offers you some protection or some feeling of safety because it's like you are I don't know you're so distant. Like he was talking about how much you learn from from what he observed, you know as a war photographer, and just kind of being able to separate yourself from the separate, the reality from the image you're creating, if that makes sense.
Pete:Yeah.
Brandon:Yeah, I don't know it's.
Pete:I like that the hot. Like you said, the whole film is based around kids filming stuff. Yeah, it's just quite amazing and it is it's so typical of what people would do.
Brandon:Oh yeah.
Pete:Even at my age right, I'm 62. If I was somewhere where this is going on, I'm probably getting my phone out.
Brandon:Yeah, I probably would be too, and part of the. And I'm glad that we can admit that, because I remember when I first saw the film and when I rewatched it in preparation for the show, I was thinking the thing about the film that I guess was hard for me to buy into is because I'm you know, I'm a professor and I I work with a lot of young people. It's like, oh, these are just young people doing stupid shit, you know, you know they're just getting into mischief.
Pete:I think one of my notes here was around the use of technology and I just put teens doing teen things yeah and some of the reviews damn kids yeah
Pete:I'll go and shout at some clouds outside. And and some of the reviews I I listened to, and, and and watched on youtube. A lot of it was a lot of enjoyment, or a lot of people got into the film because of the portrayal of the kids, and and a few people said and I'm not dissing on america, but a few people said if this was like an american film, that would have all the stereotypes out there.
Pete:And and oh yeah and whereas this was just like a bunch of kids doing kids stuff right, and I would say for a lot of this, you know, especially with extras and stuff like that, they probably pulled in people that were in their videos on. Youtube and God knows how many people they used. Yeah, I thought it was really quite realistic. On to the cast, I thought that Sophie Wall is well. She carries the whole film right. The whole film depends on her performance and I thought her performance was fantastic and I actually thought all the casts were great.
Brandon:They all were really quite stellar and very authentic. I think the acting, too, was fantastic. Was it was? I don't know, this sounds very simplistic, but it was very believable, very naturalistic in a way that, like you, you felt like these were real young people, that they weren't like you said, they weren't some kind of stereotype or like oh, this, this is, you know, well, we got the nerd here and we got the jock and the thely girl and the cheerleader or whatever it was great to actually see Miranda Otto in this as well, that she played a good part.
Pete:I think she was really good as the mum Obviously a single mum trying to deal with the kids and I wanted to shout out Joe Bird, who plays Riley, because that guy goes through a lot of shit in this film.
Brandon:He sure does. No, yeah, he's a real trooper. Yeah, yeah.
Pete:Yeah, so the film opens with the party and it kind of sets the scene. Then you know I won't do this scene by scene, by scene, but then you know, we eventually get to a point where we find out about me as mum passing away.
Pete:I think it was a year or two ago, yeah two years, two years yeah and and I think that's you know part of this film is all about how grief is. People handle grief and and wanting to see her mum again, and when the spirits latch onto her later, they kind of I don't think it's ever her mother that she sees.
Brandon:I think it's something else right. At the same time, she's vulnerable not just vulnerable to bad influence, but to malevolent spirits who are trying to corrupt her ability to find closure, because she has so many questions around the death of her mother. Was it an intentional suicide or was it an accident? Or was it an accident or was it something else?
Pete:yeah, and her father's not always straight up with her about what happened.
Preview Time Dude:So there's that there as well right, yeah, so she's really open.
Pete:She makes some really bad decisions in this film, but, but I think obviously she has to for the plot to progress. But also I think they're quite believable For someone that's in grief like that. And really, you know, like the whole reason that Riley has such a bad time of it is because she believes it's her mother talking to her through Riley, is because she believes it's her mother talking to her through Riley, so she wants to keep him in that state, which they go way past the 90 seconds. And if you notice, at the end of all the kerfuffle with Riley, the candle's still burning as well. Right, so they haven't blown the candle out. So, yeah, so she's really susceptible, as you were saying, to all this sort of stuff and the fact that she's under this pressure and she's this stress that she's in and the grief. That's why I think it's believable she makes so many dumb decisions, some really dumb decisions did you get the sense that she was you?
Brandon:you know, because her friend Jade, and like the relationship she has with Jade and Riley and their mother, it seemed like she was kind of a almost like she was part of, or trying to be part of, that family unit. Yeah, yeah.
Pete:Sue is almost her surrogate mother, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, she very much does like. It seems like she spends most of she lives at the house, most likely. It doesn't seem like she goes home very often and her father's obviously dealing with the grief as well, so it's kind of split their relationship as well. She doesn't have a very good relationship with the father and and I think it's mainly because, like I said, I don't think he's been too straight up with her about what really happened, or maybe he doesn't really know what happened either and he's trying to deal with that as well. So we go into scenes like when you know the first scene where where mia decides that she's gonna, she's gonna go through the, the experience, and the experience is really interesting and I think her acting in that scene is great and, um, I just love watching like the way they've got the, the way they're all standing around her giving her advice, telling her how to do it and all this. It's very realistic, I think. And also the way when she first holds the hand and then sees the image of the I think it's like an old man and she pulls the hand away.
Pete:When I was watching the commentary, the guy who played the old man. He was in that just for like that three seconds of screen time. A lot of this was shot during COVID. He had to fly in to Adelaide, be locked away for three days, basically to make sure that he was, you know, okay from COVID point of view. He came on the set he was working for, like it turns out, probably less than an hour. Then he flew home and then he had to quarantine for three more days at the end. So he was in the movie for like five seconds. I think he's in the like it's not even five seconds. He's on screen for.
Brandon:It's mere seconds. Yeah, it's mere seconds.
Pete:And the second vision she sees looks like a drowning victim right, and then when she sees her mother in all the other scenes her mother always looks like she's wet. Yeah, I wondered about that, but so it makes me think that the spirit that she first had contact with after she pulled her hand away the first time. Um seemed to be the spirit that was kind of that, had kind of latched onto her a bit because, her mother didn't drown, so why is there always water when?
Pete:when her mother's in the scene, there's always like a slushing sort of watery sound as well. So I think that's a good way that it's actually not her mother she's seeing, but she thinks it's her mother yeah, interesting, I didn't notice that sound, but yeah, the sound design in this movie is fantastic as well.
Brandon:It's really good yeah, I mean even even. I mean I mean all the the breathing and stuff, the low drones that we kind of get when the first guy like stabs himself in the face, like like that sound effect sells it, like you know it's. It's far enough away that we don't really see you know the knife go into his face, but just that motion and that sound effect, just really sell it.
Pete:A lot of the sound design reminded me that, because a movie I saw recently with jay actually when he was in australia last year was we went and saw evil dead rise and I don't know if you've seen. Oh yeah, yeah, I've seen the sound design in.
Pete:That is fantastic, it's unbelievable, especially in the cinema. It was amazing. It reminded me a little bit of that. The sound design and the way the music worked with the sound design was just so good. It's really.
Pete:I think that's what, like you were saying, there's absolutely no jump scares in this film at all. There, there's absolutely no jump scares in this film at all. There's not one. I don't think. Yeah, I can't think of one. The only other recent movie we talked about in this podcast recently was Lake Mungo, and that only has like one jump scare in the whole film, and it's kind of the same in the way that it's more about building a sense of dread and an uneasiness in you, and I think that's what works in this film and and the way they've used sound um and the music together is kind of really has a lot to do with that, of course. I mean, if you are watching just rushes of this film without the sound effects and without the music, it would be very plain, of course, as any movie would be you gotta have great, a great sound, sound design.
Brandon:But the I mean, there are so many movies that that, over the years, have relied so heavily on jump scares and those stingers you know to punctuate moments that they want the audience to you know to be afraid of and to react to. And I like it when films don't kind of tell you like, oh, this is the scary moment, yeah, yeah, this is all right, here's the little thing that's gonna pop out like I don't know. That just seems very cheap.
Pete:I haven't seen the second one, but I saw the first movie, the none. Have you seen that?
Brandon:yeah, I've seen. I've seen the first.
Pete:And that's just all jumps, it's just all jump scares. Yeah, all those movies, conjuring universe, all jump scares, and I mean they're obviously made for an audience. I mean jump scares probably work best with an audience of teens, right, and and things like that because it's fun.
Pete:But I find now, maybe just because I'm older or I've seen more movies, I find that jump scares kind of take me out of the movie sometimes. Yeah, because you suddenly you sort of jump and then you kind of collect yourself and when you're collecting yourself you're not really invested in the film.
Brandon:Yeah, I agree, I tend to now. I don't like films that are like a roller coaster in that way, like where it feels like it's just like an amusement park kind of ride. I like films that kind of bury you in a mood and keep you there and and you know, cause that's a place that it eventually will hopefully take you out of. But this kind of goes back to what you said earlier about the hand-holding thing or spoon feeding the audience.
Pete:You know, I think it a lot of particularly, and I'll say you know a lot of most american commercial films do that because they don't trust the audience well, they actually said in that in the commentary at one point they wanted to trust the audience to understand what was going on and they just left enough breadcrumbs for people to be able to follow the story yes, and there's no need to be spoon-fed.
Pete:Everything right, and some films do that really badly, like give you everything oh, I can't stand it, yeah even when they're talking about the hand in this film, they're not really saying, like someone says, oh, where did you get it from? Oh, I got it from some guy who got it from some guy. That's all you need to know. That's that's all you need. Yeah, you don't need to know. It came from some ancient burial ground and some you know. Like you said before, I'm hoping the sequels or the prequels or whatever don't go there.
Pete:I think the Hand is great just to have. It's one of those things you could build on that. The only thing I can see is it'll get to a point eventually where all the movies are the same, so that they kind of have to do something. I guess, yeah, I can see a prequel working. I'm even concerned then that we will get like a major origin story and I don't really, really want that. Well, we will see. Speaking of disturbing scenes, there's a very disturbing scene with the dog in this film, mia's ex. He has his experience with the hand and he gets someone else kind of possess him and he ends up having almost like a sexual encounter where he's kind of writhing on the floor and it looks like he's basically having sex with the floor for a minute.
Brandon:Right.
Pete:And then the dog comes over and starts licking his face and then he starts kind of making out with the dog. It's gross and typical of this sort of thing.
Pete:the people around him in the the film, they're all thinking this is amazing, fantastic and they're all in there with the cameras, of course, and and at the end of it all, he wants them to delete it and they're like no way. We're not deleting this sort of thing, you know, right, and and once again, that goes back to that whole thing about everything being filmed and you're not necessarily in control of what happens to that, to that media, you know.
Brandon:I liked the attention to detail because when he comes out of it and he's standing up, you can see all the dog slobber on his mouth and the dog hair stuck to his face. So that's you know.
Pete:They used to they used a prosthetic dog head. Did you realize that? Oh, no, so that I was wondering. In some of the behind the scenes on the blu-ray there's a little bit where it's just like a puppeted head. It's basically covers most of the hand of the of the guy doing it. It's just like one of those you know things. But it looks quite realistic and that's what they used because there's no way you're gonna, you're gonna make out with a real dog.
Pete:But but this is the part of the film where we get this sort of grossness and then they get rid of the dog and you know, and and he gets possessed again and and then we get the bit with with uh riley when he wants to do it and his sister keeps saying no, and she's probably the only person in this film that's kind of sensible in that regard with her brother she's like no, he's so young. I think he's 13 or 14 years old, but of course he, I think, is a little bit motivated by wanting to be one of the one of the guys and wanting to kind of you know, show that he can do that as 13 year olds do and 14 year olds do well, peer pressure is is certainly a big theme here and they establish that whenever riley and his friend are sitting on the curb and his friend offers him a cigarette, you know, and he's going to, I don't smoke.
Brandon:Just that idea of you know, not wanting to be seen as a wimp, you know that I can handle it, I can do this. So just that I mean. I mean you can kind of see the germ of Riley's need to be uh yeah to, of Riley's need to be seen as part of but also capable. You know he's not a kid, even though he is, but he can handle it.
Pete:Well, even his friend says to him I think I need to find a new friend in that scene, oh yeah. So he's obviously got this pressure on him right and that's why he wants to do it. Of course, mia fucks it up because they were just gonna. They were like the agreement, I think was it 40 seconds or 50 seconds they were gonna have him do and then they were gonna stop it.
Pete:I think it was 50 yeah and the scene is excruciating to watch. It's like it's the only bit of full-on gore, I think, in the film. And yeah, yeah, the way that it. It's totally only bit of full-on gore, I think in the film. Yeah, yeah, the way that it's totally unexpected. I remember the first time I saw it, the first time he smashes his head on the desk in front of him, the table in front of him. It's like shocking, right, it's like shit, I didn't expect that. And then he keeps doing it and then he tries to pull his eye out of his eye socket, which is gross yeah, it's gruesome, it's a pretty gory film in some ways.
Brandon:Yeah, with, especially with, uh, with riley, because he early, he's always like trying to hurt himself in some way.
Pete:The possessed riley yeah, I wonder what the reason is for that, though, like why it's obviously the spirit that's doing it, but why would the spirit be doing that is? Is it to really get at mia? In some way or is it just that he's got some bad spirit inside of him?
Brandon:I was thinking about this today and I it seems like they kind of get at this at the end. Whenever Mia has Riley in the wheelchair on the side of the road and the spirit that has taken the form of her mother that's telling her to essentially push him out into traffic. It seems like that they have a hold on his spirit, but they can't have it permanently until he dies. So I don't know that. That's. That's all I can really.
Pete:That's all I can think of, too, yeah.
Brandon:Yeah, so maybe that's why he's always trying to hurt and kill himself, and so I don't know.
Pete:Well, there's that scene where she gets that little, remember she holds the hand, I think, in the in the hospital and there's that little scene of him being kind of like covered by all these people writhing around. It looks like hell.
Brandon:Yeah, it's a very like Nightmare on Elm Street kind of image.
Pete:Apparently they shot a lot more of that. We're told if you actually want this to get through the ratings board you have to cut it like massively. The the riley thing is really interesting and and the way that her mother is not her mother but the spirit is kind of manipulating me or into thinking her mother like she manipulates her into wanting to kill Riley to release him. But I think I'm not sure if that's Mia's kind of like. I think she's sort of pushed into that position where she kind of feels like I have to kill him to release him. And right and um, we didn't mention the kangaroo at the start of the film.
Pete:Oh, because it comes back a bit later on where they hit a kangaroo when they're driving. Uh, mia's driving riley home from something and and they hit a kangaroo and the kangaroo is kind of just like on the road. Uh, it's still alive but obviously not going to live. And r Riley's like says to Mia, why don't you run over it? Run over it just to finish it off. And she just can't bring herself to do it. And I think at the end of the film where she's going to kill Riley with the scissors, then she sees she has this vision of like a kangaroo in the hallway of the hospital as well, which is interesting as well because she doesn't go ahead with it, but instead she rolls him out in a wheelchair to push him out into the street, which I think is worse.
Brandon:It seems almost fitting that that's where she would do it Again, thinking about the kangaroo it's like this is like she can give mercy to that kangaroo, in a way, by going through with something she wasn't willing to do earlier in that space. I don't know, there's something there too. I think is interesting.
Pete:They even manipulate her so far as to kill the father. Well, I don't know if he's actually really dies, right, right, but she eventually. She has this. There's a scene where she's in her room with the hand and has the uh, has the banging on the door and it's like awful vision of a father attacking her when no one's really there and her father's trying to get into the room because he can hear all this kerfuffle inside and when he eventually comes in, she mistakes him for the spirit or whatever it is and kills or stabs him in the neck right, which is quite a shocking scene as well.
Pete:There's a lot of stuff we we're not even thinking about the foot sucking, oh, that's right, yeah, which is so uncomfortable to watch. That whole scene where she's in her room with whatever the guy's name is and she's like lying at the opposite end of the bed, maybe because they're trying to not be too close, because he's the ex and they're supposed to be just friends, sort of thing. Right, she has a vision of this spirit sucking on the foot of the guy and when she comes out of it all it's her, and it's so gross. I don't know why they decided to go with foot sucking yeah, maybe because it is gross.
Brandon:I guess.
Pete:So, yeah, like the dog, yeah, yeah it's really weird, pseudo-sexuals kind of stuff, right.
Brandon:Yeah, it's strange.
Pete:Yeah, that's interesting, but I guess we should talk down about the ending, because you know we eventually go through all these periods. Riley's fucked up totally, Even in hospital. There's a bit where he tries, does she? I can't remember now. Does she actually trigger that by holding his hand or putting his hand on the hand? I can't remember.
Pete:But there's a bit where he basically bites into his own wound on his arm right, and then he falls off the bed to start smashing his head the back of his head into the tiled wall as well, yeah, and then he starts licking the blood as it's running away. It's that poor guy having to act all the time. I know it's pretty glorious. He'd probably do well in an Evil Dead movie.
Pete:Oh yeah, he gets really fucked up anyway. So she decides like, okay, I have to kill him, I have to end his life to release him, or something like that. But, like you said or alluded to, I think that's kind of what the spirits want. Yeah, it's like, just do it, it and then he'll be with us forever. Yeah, that kind of thing, and your mother will be back for some weird reason, and oh sure, yeah.
Pete:And so she goes through this great ruse and the way they shot it off it was great. They had this super close-up of her calling her friend and telling her to come around to the house, or something like that, because she's at the hospital with Riley. So she gets in a car and drives over to her house, which obviously must be, I don't know 20 minutes away, or something like that and then all of a sudden we see that Mia's in the car park. So the way they shot that was really good because, like you, didn't know where she was calling from and it was. It was quite well, quite well done, I think.
Pete:She's effectively gets riley in a wheelchair and wheels him to the roadway and is going to basically push him on the road and for some reason, at the very last second. She doesn't do it. Now I'm not sure if it's because she had this clarity or something, because there's that last second where the spirit of her mother inverted commas leans over and says to her I'm proud of you. Which is kind of the spirit, I guess, saying yeah, we're really happy you're doing this right. But then she doesn't get through with it. And then all of a sudden you hit this crash and you're not sure exactly what happened. And then you see Mia lying on the road Right, and so I don't know if she's put herself on the road or whether what's happened.
Brandon:Yeah, I'm not sure either. Yeah.
Pete:But there she is lying on the road and then we have the scenes in the hospital and this is where we're getting into major spoiler territory. So if you haven't watched it, you really need to go and watch it where she starts walking through the hospital and she sees Riley there, and then she sees Riley again packing all his stuff up and going home with his mother and sister and obviously is okay. Then she sees visions of her father in a lift and things like that. She walks in to a bathroom or something and looks in a mirror and can't see a reflection, which is a callback to earlier in the movie where she's talking about a dream she has where she can't see her own reflection. And it was at that point I think I was thinking and I probably should have thought it earlier. I was like, oh, she's dead, because it just put me back to the old vampire thing you can't see your own reflection, right?
Preview Time Dude:Because you're in the dark.
Pete:Right, yeah, the bit I love the most, which still comes out of the blue, even if you kind of think she's dead is she goes, there's like all this darkness around her and she sees this white light and she goes towards the light and all of a sudden this hand comes out and holds onto her hand and that's somebody else that's conjuring, basically conjuring her up from the spirit world, and that's the end of the movie and I thought it was a really good ending yeah, it is.
Brandon:I mean, I like movies that end ambiguously, but I also love movies that tie up all the loose ends and provide real closure to the narrative in a satisfying way. And I like this ending a lot, because the tables kind of turn here and the movie does that a few different ways. But I'm thinking about now Mia, now that she's dead. She's now the genie in the bottle, so to speak. She's the one that's caged and going to be used as a party trick, right?
Pete:Yeah.
Brandon:And it's like the idea of the abuser becoming the abuse, the one being exploited, the clown who's being made to dance. You know that's interesting.
Pete:I think it's a really good ending.
Brandon:It's actually I found it quite satisfying yeah, that's the word I was looking for. It was a satisfying ending and it wasn't presented to us as like a gotcha, like a twist, like oh, I bet you didn't see this coming. You know it wasn't. There wasn't a lot of fanfare around it, or it wasn't presented to us in a way that was heightened. You know, it was just that sea of darkness and that light that she was drawn to and then found herself kind of on the other side of the table and I just I like how simply that was done, but in a very, you know, evocative but beautiful sort of way, and it kind of just closes the whole loop right, Exactly, exactly.
Pete:It's fantastic. So on to the hype of this movie. This movie was massively hyped, as many movies are these days. So how did you feel as I think you've already kind of given your answer a little bit, Like you know do you feel like when a movie is super hyped, that it changes your perception of the movie when you start watching it or it changes what you think about the movie when you've finished watching it?
Brandon:hmm, I don't know, I'm a little torn. I was trying to think of some, some recent examples of movies that were hyped and kind of what my reactions were. But I feel like because if a movie is really hype, like it's setting a bar and sometimes like, yeah, we'll get the, it's the scariest movie of the year, and you're like, yeah, we've heard that before, so you just kind of take that with a grain of salt. But when everyone's talking about it, like oh, oh, you've got to go see this. Oh my gosh, like I couldn't believe it. Like uh, or movies that you know are are like big, you know big awards films like barbie or oppenheimer, which I I'm I'm glad that's all over, because I'm tired of hearing about both of them, even though I liked both films a lot. But I'm like, oh my gosh, just the awards fatigue still still there. But anyway. But I was going to say is it does affect your expectations going in, and if you, if it doesn't meet or exceed those expectations, I mean you're going to have a bad time. And there have been films I'll give you one example and this is uh, kind of a an internal hype factor. I'll explain what that means.
Brandon:So, like uh, when I saw the most recent scream film in the, the opening of that was so different than what we had seen before and I was like, oh my gosh, this is, this is. I don't know what to think about this. Yeah, I loved it, yeah, and the way it ends, that cold open ends, you know, with ghost face saying you know who gives a fuck about the movies, and I was like, holy shit, like this is going to be totally different. I don't even know what I'm in for. And then at the end I was like this is this ending was really a letdown.
Brandon:But anyway, that opening really hyped me up and established my expectations and so I was like I'm, I know I'm going in for something that's really different and I don't know what I'm in for and I'm excited about it. So I like when movies, I like when it's the hype is justified. I guess I mean, even if I don't like the film, if I feel like the hype was worth it, like it was worth talking about, I don't know it feels like, yeah, okay, that's fine, but uh, but you, you know, you, I don't trust the, the marketing machine, at all these days. I mean, I, I, I actually despise most modern movie trailers too. Uh, because they're overhyped and they give away this like a three minute version of the movie.
Pete:I know, they give away so much.
Brandon:I know, but, but I digress, but I'm, I, I I like when movies are sincere in how they are establishing your expectations and I and I'm I'm not sure that the scariest movie of the year thing was effective, but the thing that made it worth the hype was that it was an A24 film and they carry a lot of credibility because of the quality of their work and it does. I will say this. I'll end this by saying quality of their work and it does. I will say this. I'll end this by saying yes, it, you know it belongs in the catalog of a24. You know it's an, it's a body of work because it it is of high, it is a high quality film and it does push the envelope. It does things differently and it's not just a run-of-the-mill horror film or supernatural horror film. So yeah, so I I feel like, yes, the hype was legit yeah, I always find hype really interesting.
Pete:Another recent one that I can think of. Another funnily enough australian movie uh, late night with the devil, have you seen that? Yes, I liked that. That was overhyped Not overhyped, but that was super hyped up by the fans.
Brandon:Yes, it was.
Pete:And I really liked it and Umbrella are just releasing. I've just bought another $160 or whatever. It was the thing and it's. They've actually got like a vhs with it that you can actually play that has footage from the film and stuff on it oh, that's awesome yeah, so that's all coming soon.
Pete:And, um, I found that was another movie. I don't know if we'll cover it on here, but we might one day. But that's another movie that was really hyped up and I watched it. I missed it at the movies because it had fairly limited release here. For me to go and see it I would have had to drive about an hour and I just didn't have time at the time. And then I found out it was on Shudder and then I thought, oh, it's not on Australian Shudder, but that's okay, I've got a VPN VPN. It was on Shudder. And then I thought, oh, it's not on Australian Shudder, but that's okay, I've got a VPN VPN.
Pete:So I watched it a few weeks ago with May and we kind of really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it, but to me the hype was a little overdone and I think this one's actually the better movie. Talk to Me. But the other ones they're both very different movies, though I just think this was really good. And the hype, yeah, I don't like hype with movies. So I just last night, while I was lying in bed, I was scanning through what movies are coming up soon. I was like, oh, furiosa is on in a few weeks. So I jumped on, I bought tickets to that and then I thought to myself right, I'm not going to watch one trailer, if I can help it, and I'm going to try not to read anything about it until I've seen it. And because I know it's, it's already hyped, right?
Brandon:oh yeah and everyone's talking about it.
Pete:Yeah, although the reviews are really good and we can talk about it. Here's a strange film, yeah, and it looks like it's going to be a fantastic movie.
Brandon:I'm very excited about it.
Pete:I can't wait. I'm really looking forward to it. So it should be good, yeah, but I think the whole thing with hype and you know, I don't know it is a concern. And moving on from hype to other hype like this is like this is obviously a supernatural movie, although it has some drama and horror elements in it as well. And I'm just trying.
Pete:I was thinking the other day like how does this sit with other supernatural movies of recent years? And in most cases I think it's probably better. Because when you think supernatural movies of recent years and in most cases I think it's probably better, because when you think supernatural movies of recent years, what are you thinking? Conjuring, what's the one where they have the cameras set up all around the house, paranormal Activity, paranormal Activity, all those sort of things. I think as far as if you stack it up with any of those films, I still think it's a much better film than any of those films, although I do like some. I like the original conjuring, I think it's good, but I think it's just a little better than most of those. I don't know supernatural in the past yeah, there's, there's a few, but I noticed there's another supernatural film with the movies and there's a tar, but I noticed there's another supernatural film with the movies. Is it Tarot or Tarot or whatever it is?
Pete:and it's based on Tarot, but it's getting absolutely panned. I was going to go and see it. I saw a trailer for it where I went and saw the first Omen a few weeks ago which is really great.
Pete:It's really great, really good. It has some jump scares, but the jump scares are in the right place and they're not overdone and it's a really good prequel. And anyway, I saw the shorts for this tarot movie and I thought, oh my God, this is just like it was almost like. I think the premise is something about they get these tarot cards from somewhere that they shouldn't have, or something like that, and the cards sort of show the way that each of the characters is going to die, or something right. And I'm like, oh, this is just like a retooling of Final Destination, Right. That's what I was thinking. So I didn't see it and the reviews are like it's being panned. It's probably a good one for streaming later, like just leave your brain at the door and have a good time, maybe. Um, so there's quite a few good horror movies in the abigail. I haven't caught up with that yet.
Brandon:That yeah, I haven't seen that one.
Pete:It actually looks really good. So yeah, um yeah, it's probably it's a pretty good time for horror at the moment, actually yeah, I haven't seen.
Brandon:I can't think of the last one I've seen. Well, besides, uh, late night with the devil, but um, it's been a while it.
Pete:I think it stacks up pretty well against some of the other supernatural movies.
Brandon:Because I'm not I never like paranormal activity because once again it's just a jump scare fest and pretty boring when you think of it yeah, it can be kind of dull because a lot of what you're watching is just very mundane domestic life and then some weird shit happens and then you're back to you know it's definitely supernatural, but I think it stacks up really well with supernatural movies of the past.
Pete:I think it's pretty good actually well, it dare.
Brandon:it dares to do something a little bit different, or at least do it in a different way, and that was really refreshing. And with it being a genre film or you know, we've. I mean, you could like just look at your watch and be like, okay, we're at the 20-minute mark and these are the things that that are going to happen, yeah, yeah.
Brandon:Yeah it's so true. It's so true, yeah, so even though I mean it has structure, but it's not. Everything was Well, it has nothing to do with predictability, I guess. It's more that you become invested because you're like, I'm just interested From a conceptual point of view. Just being possessed as a way of kind of socially getting high was like that's really different.
Brandon:It's a great concept actually, yeah, yeah, instead of going to a party where everyone passes a bong around, everyone's passing a hand around this time, even though we have these conversations in the movie about, uh, you know, using cigarettes or you know you better not be drinking and things like that. You know, at least we're not doing drugs. But it's that idea. It's like it's kind of the the stand-in, uh, for that. You know, at least we're not doing drugs. But it's that idea. It's like it's kind of the stand-in for recreational drugs. You know even the language that Mia was using when she is telling Riley what it was like. She said it felt amazing, like I was glowing, like I was in the passenger seat. It felt incredible. You know, it's like it's that same kind of transformative experience. You know, to feel different, to disentangle ourselves from reality, you know. So just that was pretty cool.
Pete:Any final thoughts on the film you recommend?
Brandon:the film. I would recommend the film. I like it. I mean there's a lot of kind of big picture stuff that's worth looking at and kind of zooming in on, just from a social and cultural point of view. I mean it's a great film. It's a tight, 95 minutes, there's not a lot of exposition. Great film it's a tight, 95 minutes, there's not a lot of exposition. Yeah, I mean the even the way the film ends.
Brandon:It's like this is gonna keep happening. You know we've seen that before evil never dies, right, you know, but it's it's much like, you know, this film's concern with life and death and and grief and trauma. It's cyclicalical, but it's like this thing that's happening around this hand will persist or it will endure, and I think the act of using the hand as a means of possession is interesting because it's entertainment for young people. But in a way and I could be wrong, you could tell me what you think, but it may be something that the film may be saying to me is that the scary thing isn't really the unknown, the supernatural entities or whatever known, the supernatural entities or whatever it's. You know it's us or it's it's human behavior or the corruption of human behavior and how we, how we corrupt and abuse things that were previously shown as scary or harmful to us, you know. So that's a turning of the tables a bit too like tiny digression I was thinking just now about, about I can't remember who pitched this, but it was a Nightmare on Elm Street sequel that never got off the ground.
Brandon:It was just a pitch, but it was that it would be in the future and kids were, because Freddy is weakened in the dream world and kids were going into the dream world to abuse Freddy because he was weakened and it was about him finding enough power to come back at them, but not that he was the hero of the story, but anyway. But that idea of turning the tables in a way and making the, the the boogeyman kind of the the puppet in a way, I don't know I just thought that was really unique and original, and so I applaud the filmmakers for for taking some, uh, some bold steps, and I'm glad that they got this widely distributed so, brandon, what's happening in your world at the moment?
Pete:I think we we chat a little bit before we start recording. Oh yeah, be quiet on the podcast front yeah, a bit quiet on the podcast front.
Brandon:I I've been as, as I've mentioned this, on the two shows of which I'm a part Vericon Video and the Gory Picture Show, which are kind of on a break right now, an indefinite break I have been with my job very busy. I have a lot of commitments. It's just taken a lot of my time and resources. So I am hoping to get back into it very soon, since I have a lot more time on my plate, or have a lot less on my plate and free time to hopefully do some podcasting this summer.
Pete:That'd be good. Corey Pictures shows what was the last episode you did of that. I did listen to it. Oh shoot, Was it Nightmare Sisters, Something like that yeah, they're always fun because they're always really great, like movies that not many people have heard of.
Brandon:Oh, I know, I know that's what I like about it, and it's usually Lewis saying like, have you heard of this movie? And I'm like no, but let's do it. And then it's something like necromantic. Yeah, you know.
Pete:What was the one you actually? I listened to the podcast. I thought I've got to watch it. What was the one about the guy? He was in New York City, I think. Was it Butcher Baker, nightmare Maker, or something like that? He was in new york city, I think. Um, was it something?
Brandon:was it butcher baker, nightmare maker, or something like that butcher, baker nightmare maker is one of my favorites we've done it's really good. It just got a 4k release, uh, from severin it's amazing.
Pete:They have these movies that hardly anyone's seen and they give them 4k releases. It's amazing, I know.
Brandon:So how did they even find like a print of this obscure movie.
Pete:The thing is, though, it's a collector's market. Now, right, like, oh right, yeah, traditionally, people that would traditionally buy media don't buy it anymore. Like you're seeing it in retail. You're seeing less discs in retail. There's still quite a few. I see it. My local JB Hi-Fi. They still have quite a decent amount, but some of the stores the JB Hi-Fi stores I'm hearing are cutting back or cutting out physical media altogether, which is really sad, especially when they're also quite happy to sell vinyl LPs now, yeah, which is quite odd. So I think it's amazing that it's really, and I think, in a way, it's good because, yes, all these editions, like the one we talked about for Talk to Me $160, or the Late Night with the Devil, which I think was about the same price, right, these things are fairly expensive, but they're catering to a market that's passionate about physical media and, and, yeah, wanting to have physical media and, uh, I think it's.
Pete:It's fantastic that you know that's available for people in companies like Severin Umbrella yeah. Who do I buy stuff from? Quite a bit Arrow, arrow, kino, lorber yeah, they always have great stuff. I've got Rollerball from Arrow the original oh yeah, such a great movie I've never seen it. It's so good yeah.
Brandon:Yeah, it's great. It's very 70s Nice. I think it might be Arrow or Kino, I can't remember, but there's a 4K. Someone has that's on sale right now and I thought about picking it up, so maybe I will. Yeah.
Pete:I just bought a 4K set from Arrow for all the Psycho films. I think they were all in 4K.
Brandon:Oh yeah.
Pete:And it was a nice set. So yeah, it's pretty good. The only thing with the arrow stuff it's pretty expensive for me because the exchange rate so oh but. But all this stuff, because it's a british company, all this stuff's in the same region for me so I can buy it without having to worry about it whereas okay if I see stuff on shout factory, it's probably not going to work because even with 4K they region lock it, which is a bummer.
Preview Time Dude:That's a bummer.
Pete:But, yeah anyway, but yeah, so that's it. Any socials you want to share?
Brandon:If you like, you can follow me on X, the app formerly known as Twitter. It used to be good, the Brandon Hardy. Yeah, it used to be good. It used to be great. Now it's kind of a graveyard.
Pete:All right. Well, thank you so much for Brandon. Thank you so much for Brandon. Thank you so much, Brandon, for coming onto the show. I appreciate it. It's great having you on. It's been so long. Maybe we'll try and sneak another one in before you get back to work.
Brandon:Yeah, I'm ready, just let me know.
Pete:and we'll do it again. Sounds great. Well, thanks for coming on and good to see you again. Yeah, you too, and when we return we'll see what's coming up next.
Preview Time Dude:And now preview time. When it comes to entertainment, you can't beat a good film, so let's take a look at what's coming your way. I know nothing about politics, senator, but I do know about magic. I know there are powers at work in the universe. To those higher powers, the dematerialization of a given target would be child's play. A top politician disappears without trace An accident or assassination, mommy, a dying child recovers without reason. Do you want to die To rot? A miracle or fraud? Only the Harlequin knows the answer.
Preview Time Dude:In the old Italian comedy, the Harlequin couldn't be seen by other characters, only by members of the audience. It's moved. The senator fears him. The woman loves him. The manipulator wants to destroy him. There is the edge. Only the wind separates you from the rocks. What do you feel? I think you push people into the deep end. The deep end is always with you. All you have to do is fall. Alice In our own house, alice right Now. Was that before or after? He slept with you? I'll hold him. I'll hold him if I have to nail his hands to the wall. Harlequin, he's the ultimate paradox. Find him, and he isn't there. Kill him and he will not die. He's the man with the power over mind and matter. Love and hate, life and death. Harlequin is he the new messiah or a demon from another world?
Pete:Thanks for taking the time to listen to this episode of A Dingo Ate my Movie. I want to thank all my guests who give their time to make this podcast possible, and a special thanks to you for listening. Don't forget you can follow A Dingo Ate my Movie on social media On Twitter, it's just Dingo Movie. Facebook and Instagram is Dingo Movie Pod and, of course, you can check out our website, dingo movie pod dot com. So until next time, stay safe and I'll see you soon.