Little Bracket of Horrors
A horror movie review podcast that puts the fight in fright. We review a film every other week and at the end of the season we'll have a tournament to see who is the champion in the Little Bracket of Horrors Death-match.
Little Bracket of Horrors
Mandy
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Welcome to Little Bracket of Horrors. The pod that puts the fight in fright!
In this episode we go hunting and find Mandy. Co-written and directed by Panos Cosmatos and staring Nicolas Cage, this film follows two lovers (Red & Mandy) and we find that their world will soon be torn apart by some Jesus freaks and a murderous biker gang. Is there revenge and how sweet is it?
So throw on you favorite shirt, grab the Reaper and join the LBOH crew as we deal with The Children of the New Dawn, The Black Skulls, and one vicious snowflake.
Welcome back, everyone. I'm Derek. I'm Matt. And I'm Jamie. And Jamie. What? We got we we called an audible for this episode. Uh Shelly is feeling under the weather. She had to go uh take care of her health, which is much more important than a podcast. It is a little more important. Yeah, it's a little bit more. Your health is way more important. But uh Jamie is gonna be filling in. If anyone listened to the introduction episode or our little uh you know five-minute first episode, they know Jamie's backstory. Without Jamie, little bracket of horrors would not exist. Because take it away, Jamie. Yeah, because we had the gear. Yeah, you had the gear and not only the gear, but uh you and Matt also had a podcast before this. It was called In the Shed with Matt and Jay. Oh my gosh, you already forgot. I did. It's been so long. So did I.
SPEAKER_02We did.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, we'll call that the podcast pilot to building up your experience in podcasting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. We had fun. We had fun. It was good. It was it was fun, it was enjoyable. A lot different than this podcast. Yeah, this is a little different, different format.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I like it. So I thought we would kick the episode off. You know, in our introduction episode, we we did some questionnaires with each other, me, Matt, and Shelly. So I figured I'd throw some of those questions at Jamie just so you guys can get nice, you know, your hands around the man a little bit. Who is Jamie? Who is Jamie? You said hands around the man. I know, did you? Yeah, Jamie. It's more than one. So, all right, Jamie. What's your favorite horror film?
SPEAKER_04Oh, so yeah, my favorite horror film. So I just got to separate it for a second. So my favorite horror film, I have to say, the one that scared me the most, Poltergeist. Oh, yeah. It's probably my scariest film.
SPEAKER_01Did you see that in the theaters when it came out?
SPEAKER_04I did not, because you know, back in the day, I'm really old, so we didn't have theaters. Oh no, we did. Wait a minute, what? You would have been very young. You would have been very young. I was I was probably too young to see Poltergeist, which is probably why it scared me so much. So if you watched it today, it would be ridiculous, right? But uh back then, like you know, the tree coming alive and stuff, that was like those were real scares for me. Like that would that really existed. So uh that was probably my number one horror movie of all time. Scared crap out of me.
SPEAKER_01That's that's legit. I remember just seeing it on like TV, and I think it was when the little girl and the TV was just the static, and she's like, they're coming. That freaked me out when I was a kid, and also that tree reaching into the kids.
SPEAKER_02It was all sorts of stuff. Yeah, there's tons of stuff in poltergeist, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01So that that's that's a uh that's a pillar of funny thing isn't it?
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah. Like I had two sisters, and I'm like, yeah, you could take her into TV, but I was more afraid of that tree and the clown. Oh, under the bed, yeah. That's right.
SPEAKER_02Long arms, right? Yeah, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01Always looking at you, reminiscing. All right, so next question, Jamie. What's your favorite horror subgenre? Do you know what I mean by that? Do you want me to do that?
SPEAKER_04I do know what you mean. Yes, oh, subgenre. So uh there I I would like to say maybe mash up uh comedy and uh zombie. Oh, okay. So that's kind of like where I live. Yeah, I love like Zombie Land's probably my favorite all-time movie. Like that's you know, it has just a perfect amount of humor, gore, and and and thrill and scare. So it's like yeah, one of my favorites. That's awesome. Did you ever see Shauna the Dead? Oh my gosh. Okay, my second favorite movie is Sean of the Dead. Yeah, so good. It's brilliant. Brilliant movie. Yeah, I love that movie.
SPEAKER_01All right. Uh, how about so far? Good answers, by the way. Oh, this is a good one. Good answers so far.
SPEAKER_04So if I if I win this question around, I can go on to the next one. Yes. Okay. All right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Let's do let's do one more. All right. So uh this was a fun one. Uh, if you would rather be bitten by a vampire, zombie, or werewolf, which one and why?
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah, this is a tricky one. So I yeah, I recently discovered, well, you know, we've all been dealing with COVID, right? So everybody's COVID. I re I told my wife, I said, you know what? I think I would be the guy that would get bit by a zombie and not tell anybody. Because I'm like, I think I have COVID, but I'm not gonna say anything just yet. So I was like, uh I'd probably be that guy, but uh, it wouldn't be a bite, a zombie, that would be that would be terrible. But uh, I think vampire, I think for me is a natural thing because eternal life. Yeah, and I'm talking about the Patterson type, the like twilight.
SPEAKER_00Oh, the twilight, like the twilight vampire.
SPEAKER_04You know, not the not the top cruise, not the top cruise vampire.
SPEAKER_01That's pretty that's pretty the emotional yeah, the one that's sparkling. Super sunlight, yeah. The he's gonna be a sparkling teenager. Yeah. Oh my gosh, great answer. All right, so I I think it's uh I think it's time we we get into the meat of Mandy finally. So first and foremost, Jamie, thanks for filling in. I appreciate it. You know, last week we did the Demented, but just Matt and I. I feel like this is much better when there's three people bouncing back and forth and it's not just us.
SPEAKER_02And last of the minute, too, by the way. Yeah, seriously. This was we appreciate it, Jamie. Thank you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, my agent called me today and said, Hey, what are you doing this afternoon? And I said, Podcast.
SPEAKER_02What do you think? You were like, I gave that shit up a long time ago. I've moved on.
SPEAKER_01I moved on to tap dancing. Yeah. Done with this podcast show. All right, great. So, first segment, dig up the bones. And this Matt just introduces the movie. We watch, gives a brief little synopsis. So, Matt, tell us what you jotted down.
SPEAKER_02All right, so Mandy, it was a 2018 action fantasy horror movie. The enchanted lives of a couple in a secluded forest are brutally shattered by the nightmare hippie cult and their demon biker henchmen propelling a man into a spiraling, surreal rampage of vengeance.
SPEAKER_01With Nicolas Cage as Nicolas Cage. Right. That's awesome. Yeah. Alright, so you guys are gonna get into Feasting Fiends. And this is just a uh round table discussion where we discuss overall pros, overall cons of the movie, favorite lines, most enjoyable characters, most annoying characters, favorite kills slash scares. So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna throw it to Jamie and let Jamie take the sprows. If you got your pros, Jamie, let us know.
SPEAKER_04Well, fortunately for me, it's a small list of pros, but I do have some I think that are that are brilliant. I think the movie really brought out. Yeah. Uh first pro cheddar goblin magic.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. I had that as what the fuck. I made I made a what a great commercial. I made a separate segment on my list where it was like, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_02It was like cheddar goblin. A gob goblin vomiting mac and cheese on children.
SPEAKER_01And it it was it came on at the most odd time in the movie. Yeah, just after Mandy was burned alive. There was really no reason for it, right? After after Red was left for dead, he comes stumbling in the house and we see Cheddar Goblin on the TV. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So yeah. And so I had to pause and then Google to see if that was a real thing. Uh-huh. And it's not, unfortunately. I mean, you can buy shirts that say it, which is pretty amazing. Yeah. So that's cool. That was disturbing enough for me to take a pause and say, What the fuck did I just see? It was just it was it was pretty crazy. And so my and I so I only have two. Cool. Uh, this one I think is very important, especially for all of us. But uh, props to the uncircumcised penis showcasing itself. That's what I thought. I thought it was.
SPEAKER_01That's what I wasn't gonna get that close. It was like, yeah, there's a there's a little roast beef hanging off the tip of that club. Yeah, that man's in a club.
SPEAKER_04So I thought, you know, Jeremiah's penises. Jeremiah Sand, the leader of the cult. Yeah, that's been underrepresented in movies, and I think you know, in order to normalize uncircumcised penises, I think it did a good job.
SPEAKER_01I think the penises overall are underutilized in films. We always get boobs and stuff like that, but not that. Well, because no one wants to really see it. Well, not that I'm equating penises to penis.
SPEAKER_02Not even girls, not even chicks want to see that. Yeah, put that shit up. The ladies don't want to see wieners. It doesn't look right.
SPEAKER_04No, so it's just a weird thing.
SPEAKER_03So those those were by really those were my pros.
SPEAKER_04The goblin and a penis. An uncircumcised penis.
SPEAKER_02You know, it's about time.
SPEAKER_04It's about time. It's about time. Hashtag Torskin.
SPEAKER_01Very European of them. Very European, yeah. Thanks, Jamie. That was great. I'm so glad I called you. Yeah. Matt, go ahead and press.
SPEAKER_02So so my pros, I definitely so I I really dug the way that the movie was just sort of presented with this like gritty, you know, like the cinematography. Yeah, the cinematography. Like you've never seen that before. At least I haven't. Again, you know, I'm relatively new to this world. Never seen anything quite like that. So yeah, just the gritty and darkness of it. Um, I thought Nicolas Cage's performance as another person actually playing himself. I mean, he did a phenomenal job. I I I just think he's an insane person, and he and he and he does a great job playing an insane person. So those are my pros. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Alright, cool. Uh I'll jump in. Just like you, I thought the cinematography was awesome. It was done by uh Benjamin Loeb, and you know, they just created this unique and you know, visually immersive movie where a lot of the shots like at the end when he's driving in the car, like you feel like you're in the car. Yeah. And they use like a lot of wide lang wide-angled lenses and stuff, but it just it was really cool. Some parts of it you felt like you were like in a painting, and it was just it was awesome. And then also the score was done by Johan Johansson, and you know, it was harsh and brooding when appropriate, but then soft and delicate when it needed to be. And uh unfortunately he passed away in 2018 before the release of this film, so we never got to see the finished cut, but uh I thought he killed it and it was awesome. And then one final point, but uh I thought it was a great premise for a revenge action/slash you know horror film, good versus evil, with a side of like Mad Max esque like motorcycle gang that was hopped up on LSD. Right, and yeah, it was just fun and entertaining. The director was Panas Cosmados, and then he he directed and co-wrote it with Aaron Stewart Ahan, and I think you know those guys killed him. People I don't know. Yeah, you didn't do your research. Elijah Wood. Elijah Wood was uh producer in it, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Wait, is that the guy from North? Nope, not the guy I'm thinking of. No, North was like a movie from like 1996. Frodo Baggins.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was Frodo. Yeah, yeah, okay. That's uh I got the right Elijah Wood. No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01I was saying a movie for when he was like seven years old. Not the movie he's known for. You know, his mouth is Lord of the Rings. He's the most popular one, you know. I so let's move on, guys. Let's go to cons. Let's just keep the the uh table going the way it is. Jamie, what do you got for cons?
SPEAKER_04Uh yeah, so cons was interesting for me. So I had I think though most of the mooning movie, I was watching it, I thought, what am I missing? I felt like there was a backstory. Oh, yeah. I felt like there were like pieces, like I didn't know what was going on half the time. I felt like they were gonna explain things. When he went to the trailer and got the random weapons, yeah, the weapons. Like that needed to be explained to me. Who's that guy? Who's that guy?
SPEAKER_02Brothers, just yeah, just a r like a random, like, hey, I'm gonna go to this place.
SPEAKER_01It was a buddy. There weren't like you know lines drawn directly, like how they knew each other. It was just like a buddy.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but I get you. I felt like the prequel to this was The Rock, and that was that was Stanley Goodbred, and he had like you know, decided he was gonna cut down trees and move in the woods, and then he just got insane. Um but because you know, because that did a piece of together. I'm like, oh, he just he quit the FBI and he decided to go move in the in the woods and be insane. Right. Uh and that's why he had like all these action, like he has action capabilities because I was like suddenly he was a superhero. Yeah, right. And so uh yeah, but I I felt like the whole movie was disjointed. I was trying to find a way to follow it and understand where where it was going and where it came from. Like it just it was so abrupt to me. Everything was so abrupt.
SPEAKER_01I think there was a lot, there was a lot of like uh there was some sort of trauma and read Mandy's past. Right. Like Mandy had that scar on uh underneath her left eye. What was that about? And there was a lot of like, you know, there was a lot of darkness to him. You knew like, you know, there was probably some sort of backstory there. But yeah, we didn't we didn't get it all like painted out for us, but uh I could see I could see you feeling like that.
SPEAKER_02Um same same I wrote that down too. Wish there was a little more backstory on some things, you know. Even even backstories on the uh cult itself, not necessarily the the demon bikers, because you kind of you kind of heard that. The are you talking about the Jesus freaks, the children of the dawn? Yeah, children of the dawn, those those people. I wish there was a little more backstory on them. Yeah. Like, you know, uh maybe just not a whole nother movie on it, just a little more like where did where did this guy come from and then how did he recruit these people to just to just be insane and stuff. And uh not so much on the on the demon biker guys, because those were already sort of explained. Yeah, they were explained.
SPEAKER_01They hit a this like insane amount of LSD and that's what turned him into these like and that's what Carruthers did when he went and got you know the weapons he was he gave the backstory on those because his his you know he he was a pivotal character, even though he had just like he was in there for two minutes, it was just like he connected a lot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then like you said too, you know, even with even with uh Red and Mandy, wish there was a little more on them, you know, maybe like little you know flashback sort of things. I guess at the end I won't I won't I won't I guess it's not giving the ending away, but no, there's that he has a flashback at the end.
SPEAKER_01I believe it's the when they first in the bar. Right.
SPEAKER_02And I was like, oh, that would have been nice.
SPEAKER_04Even then they just stared at each other and smiled.
SPEAKER_01Did they smile though? She did. Okay. It was more of a smoldering look to each other. More of a smiled, yeah. Giving each other FIs. Yeah. So yeah, they I'm I'm with you.
SPEAKER_02A little more backstory on some stuff.
SPEAKER_01But yeah. Alright, so my cons is just like it's a little thing, but uh the voices of the Black Skull Gang, uh, I could they were so distorted I could rarely make them out. You know, and I like their voices, and I get that they're fucked up and the reason why, but you know, just from chugging at LSD lemonade, but uh it should have made it a little bit more understandable. So there there was only one one of the moments when I could tell what of them one of them was saying, and that's when you know there there was the uh fight scene between uh red and the final black skull, and it just said she's still burning. And that was the only that was the only part I could hear.
SPEAKER_02All the other stuff when they talked, it was just like because I thought I thought too that that somebody said like they get off on pain and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01Oh see, maybe you could have heard that, but I I couldn't catch anything.
SPEAKER_02But I thought that I thought that that character was just like going like, oh burn, burn, like telling itself to burn. I don't know. Oh I could be. I think it was just taunting red with with the whole mistake. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I I searched for captions. It did not have captions. You know what?
SPEAKER_02Damn it. That's the one that's the one time I did not use captions. I watched it.
SPEAKER_04I watch well, the platform I watched it on didn't have captions.
SPEAKER_01What did you watch it on?
SPEAKER_04I don't know, was it Plex? Flex, yes. Yeah, okay. It's just like Tubi, but yeah, yeah. No captions.
SPEAKER_01So let's move on, guys. Favorite lines. Jamie, you got one?
SPEAKER_04Well, it's the opener.
SPEAKER_01Uh oh, okay, cool. It's the opener.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, I the the first words actually spoken is knock knock. Who's there? Oh, okay. Eric Estrada. Yeah. Eric Estrada Who.
SPEAKER_01Erica Strata from Chips.
SPEAKER_03I thought that was such a good joke. You thought it was a good joke? I loved it. Oh my god. Because it's like Eric Estrada, Eric Estrada Who. And it's like, you know, the guy in the delivery was like, you know, not that great.
SPEAKER_04Eric Estrada from Chips from Chips, like the guy that nobody knows about because he's completely irrelevant now. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01This took place in 1983. He was probably was he hot in 83?
SPEAKER_04Oh, he was hot in Chipotle. Chips was, yeah, Chips was around then. Eric Estrada was the was the man in 1983. I got you. Eric Estrada. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I thought, see, I'm gonna I'm gonna jump in with one of mine because I thought when you were saying the beginning scene, I thought you were talking about the text, that little like poem that popped up. Oh, like it's not really a line, but I thought it was cool. So it it just said, When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, wrap some speakers around my head, and rock and roll me when I'm dead. It was a cool way to kick off the movie just with like a little text because with the music, it there was a lot of like heavy stuff, yeah, and then just like the whole feel of the film. I thought I was like, Oh, it's okay. So that's a fun way to kick it off.
SPEAKER_02So that quote they they can they can either say it's definite, but it was they took that from a guy who was on like on like a murder who was on like death row. Oh that's what he said before he before he died.
SPEAKER_01All I could find was like uncredited. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But yeah. But they said they can't, you know, say whether that's true or not.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, well, I thought of the technical capabilities of it. Like the battery eventually died. How do you do you keep a charge going to you, you know? How does that even work? Can you do that legally? Like bury something like that. Like I had all sorts of questions on that one, sir. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh, I had a second one and it was when he was talking to Carruthers. So I'll I'm just gonna read it out. And it just basically broke down like the black skulls and their history. So Carruthers said, Black skulls, look at man, for a while now, world's been coming down from the big rigs. Something dark and fearsome with out there. No one knows where they came from. First it was stories from interstate, leaving truckers for dead, prostitutes vanishing, and gutted bodies on the doorsteps. And always the same. Biker gang. Black bikers. Only seen at night. Weird shit. There are stories there was a chapter that ran a courier for manufacture of LSD. He took a disliking to them and choked them up with a special batch. And they've never been right in the head since. I've seen them once from a distance. What you're hunting is a rabid animal animal, and you should go knowing in that your odds ain't that good, and you'll probably die. So Gruthers just broke down a quick little you know, like I said, he was there for like two minutes, but he gave a lot on the backstory of the black skulls. So I I I enjoyed him and his weapons that he gave.
SPEAKER_04Until that point, I thought they were aliens on Quad Runners. Uh oh. Yeah, I was like, that's why I was because I they didn't speak anything that I recognized, and that was like, yeah, they look like they're gullying some ooze out of their pores.
SPEAKER_01So I did kind of enjoy that because you know, even though it took place in 1983 and it was clearly on Earth, it did have this like outer, you know, different dimensional, different planet type feel, especially with like the exterior shots and like the skies. It was just it was an interesting movie.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, Matt, what's uh what's your favorite line, Zenny? Oh gosh, there were a lot in there. But uh I I wanna I wanna stick, I wanna stick with one. Uh I'm gonna try to do it, and I'm not gonna be able to do it like like Nicolas Cage at all. Okay, go ahead. But uh where he's uh I think it was his first battle with one of the the demonic bikers. Yeah. He goes, uh I'm gonna try it. You rip my shirt. You rip my shirt. Again, no no no justice was done, but but he just like he goes like insane and just yeah, just starts you rip my shirt.
SPEAKER_04So that was that was my he pulled out some Bruce Lee moves out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Snaps a neck.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh, and he called the uh the uh first one he killed a snowflake.
SPEAKER_01A vicious snowflake, vicious snowflake, snowflake. That was pretty good. When he I did I did watch an interview with him and he was saying he sees things very musically, and a lot of times when he's like saying things really odd like that, he sees it with like a crescendo and like changing the audio. And when whenever he does all that stuff, it's very planned out. And he was talking about that scene where he said, You rip my shirt, you rip my shirt. Yeah, yeah. He was talking about how he saw that part as music, and it was very hilarious.
SPEAKER_02I didn't know. That's great.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Alright, guys, moving on. Let's go to most annoying characters. Jamie. Annoying.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so uh New Jesus. What was his name? Jeremiah. Jeremiah. New Jesus, yeah. Yes. Yeah, I thought I thought he was particularly uh annoying. Um I I did not like enjoy his character whatsoever. Even even though he did bring awareness to foreskin. I think ultimately ultimately he set us back a little bit.
SPEAKER_01So with the sweet record of folk pre Prague music, I don't know what you would call it. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04I I just yeah, I did I I found his character to probably be the most annoying out of all, and I would say with a very close second was the uh gray-haired woman.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Marl Sister Marlene.
SPEAKER_04Yep. Uh not a fan of Sister Marlene at all. Um I I guess you could say she had a good character because I hated her. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, you could say the same about Jeremiah, the guy who played Jeremiah, which was Linus Roach, but yeah, absolutely. When they do a good job is you know you hate them. So absolutely.
SPEAKER_02So I did not like Jeremiah. Most annoying character. I'm tagging with you there. Yeah. Same thing. Again, I didn't I don't I thought he I thought he played a a good bad guy. And that's why I didn't like him. Because I thought he did a good job. Yeah. So those are that was mine.
SPEAKER_01We're all saying the same guy. But uh the only thing I'm gonna add to it is there was a ton of similarities between him and Charles Manson. With uh you know the the wanting to be a rock star in the failed musician stuff, and then you know getting all these people to do his bidding and not him doing it himself. So there's a lot of similarities there, just being a narcissistic douchebag. Alright, guys, let's move on to most enjoyable characters. Jamie?
SPEAKER_04Well, I mean, we're probably gonna echo the same thing, but I after the first hour, like I was like, where the hell is Nicolas Cage? Uh-huh. Because he was absent in in most of the movie, but he came out in that bathroom scene when he pulled out that bottle of vodka. Yeah, yeah. And he was, you know, take it a sip and take it a sip, and I was like, that that's what I've been waiting for this entire and it once he got into that, he never got out.
SPEAKER_01No, it was it was through the all the way through. It was great.
SPEAKER_04It was like classic Nicolas Cage all the way through and I enjoyed that character immensely after that. What about you, Matt?
SPEAKER_02Same thing. Yeah, red. Red. How can you I mean what other character? Even uh even I didn't I didn't I didn't uh I didn't really care. I guess I could have put her because I didn't really care for Mandy that much.
SPEAKER_01Oh see, I I had Mandy, but go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but uh but um but yeah, Red was my was my favorite character. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01All right, so with Mandy, you know, who was played by Adria Rosebaugh, and then she just it was one specific scene for me that cemented my love for her, and it was when Jeremiah was playing the music for her after they drugged her up, and then she's just started laughing in his face. In reality, she damaged him more than anyone else in that film could have. Oh, yeah, because she took away the one thing he had over everyone, which which was just this power, and she was just laughing at him in front of all of his disciples, and I was like, oh hell yeah. And then he yelled at his disciples too to stop looking. Don't fucking look at me.
SPEAKER_02Don't you fucking look at me?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's going crazy. Yeah, yeah. So it it tore him down. Even the scene where he got his vengeance on her and they set her on fire, you could see in his eyes that he he didn't get the he didn't get the uh pleasure that he was looking for. Yeah. Because she already damn it. She owned him. Yep. She owned him that part. And I love Mandy's.
SPEAKER_04Speaking of the fire scene, I I had a hard time believing that she was really in there because when they threw the body down, it just looked like a bunch of pillows. I mean, it was like, I mean, it just floated down to the ground. I was like, I was like, that's don't don't worry, Red. That's not really her. And I was like, oh, after this movie went, I was like, oh, maybe they really did burn her.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's I I was hoping that it was some bullshit and they really didn't kill her.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, I was like, as we went through the film, I was like, oh, she's really well after the bouncing when when she was burning, she was bouncing around. Could have been an animal.
SPEAKER_03No, but the guy's like doing this on the rope, yeah, where he's kind of jerking and I was trying to watch him do that, but I didn't maybe I didn't care.
SPEAKER_02I was trying to watch that because I'm like, I bet she's over there just doing one of these, but yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But at the so after they left and Red got out of his barbed wire handcuffs or whatever these were. Yeah. Um, when he went over and there was the ashes and her skull was there. I thought they did a really good job on creating that like ashy skull because it it did have like a tint of still looking like her. And the wind blew and it and it broke apart, and I was like, holy shit, they did a really good job on that. That's some hot fire, by the way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's some hot ass fire, by the way, too. Yeah. To burn bone like that. They just it was a it was a depot light.
SPEAKER_01What do you know about setting bodies on fire? I was just saying, come on.
SPEAKER_04But you haven't seen it? No, I guess I haven't. When I was when I was a teenager, I worked at a gas station uh midnight shift, and then the guy used to come over from the crematory all the time to fill up his big gulp, and he's like, Hey, you want to do a tour? No shit, but so I got to do a tour of the crematory crematory, he opened up the kiln or whatever it is, and uh you know, you see it for a second and it closes right back. Yeah, it meant meant to stay open, but I was like, ooh, holy shit. Yeah, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02So it's just excuse, Matt. I lot of I watch a lot of uh like murder shows. All right. You can't like you set somebody on fire, their bones are not becoming like dust like that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like there's 1500 degrees, I think.
SPEAKER_02It's probably that. I don't know what the temperature is, but it's not that. Like you burn a body, it the bones don't turn to ash like that. Like it needs to be like a crematory and it needs to be like jack the fuck up, not just somebody with a zippo lighter.
SPEAKER_01They also had Jesus on their side. This is so true. Don't forget the power of it. This is true. Jesus, can you take the wheel on this one? Yeah, turn up this temp.
SPEAKER_00Crank it up, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01All right, uh, let's let's move on to favorite kills slash scares. Jamie, what do you got, Jamie?
SPEAKER_04So I have two, and I feel back going first because I feel like I'm trumping everything.
SPEAKER_01You are the visitor.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely. Well, for me, there were the movie wasn't particularly scary, but there were two scenes that really jumped out to me. One was that murder hornet that she pulled out of that jar, which was unrecognizable as any kind of insect I've ever seen. And that when that came out and shot, I was like, I actually turned my head. I was like, I can't, I can't witness this. Yeah. Because whatever's happening here is some voodoo bullshit. I'm I'm done. Um and then the second one was uh, you know, it was more of a um jump scare, is when he you know decided to stick his finger in that moldy cream cheese, and then he licked his finger and instantly you know, and then I was like, holy shit, like that scared me.
SPEAKER_01His LSD trip where his face like melted away. Yeah, that was crazy. That was trees. That was that tripped me out, yeah for sure.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02So I'll if you're done, I'll go on to mine. So it's funny you say that with the with the wasp or whatever. Yeah. That didn't, it was anything with eyes drops me up. Fucks me up. Anytime somebody's like, okay, you know, anything like that, I'm like, oh, this I mean it it was just a drop, but I'm just like, I don't want to see nothing. That so that kind of tripped me out. But I personally I liked all the uh the kills of the of the uh black blacker gang, yeah. The black skulls black skulls, yeah. I liked all of them. I thought it was really cool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Alright, well, I got so I have a favorite kill and then a favorite scare. So my favorite kill was when Brother Swan was killed. Yeah, that was good. Being the one that physically carried out Jermaine's demands and setting Manny on fire, it was only fitting that he should be extremely rough in the demise that he got. So impaling his mouth with the you know, the blade handle of that axe was just awesome and really gory. And yeah, and the like him choking on his blood, the whole sound and the visual of it was was extremely that was a pretty good one.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and they let that the other woman live, which I yeah, uh sister Lucy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but I think you could tell that like you know, she was being forced into sheeping. She was much she was much more innocent and she wasn't as complicit as the other members. And she was a young girl, it looked like you know, she got pulled in just to be a plaything for Jeremiah. So yeah, I I think that's why he let her go and everyone else got theirs. But uh so for favorite scare, you know, it wasn't like you said, there's nothing really scary, but uh it was the scene where the children of the new dawn and the black skulls abducted Mandy, and just that whole scene, uh you know, it with them hiding in the woods, and then that red light flashes, and you got Johan Johansson's like horn sounds and uh and then when they got in the house, just the flashing blue lights, the electrical surge sounds, and them slowly moving towards Red and Mandy just created this like powerfully you know moment of dread. And I it I thought it was frightening, just the whole scene, because it was just like you know it was coming, but I thought the way they shot it and the way it was happening. It was like inching closer and closer, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like the flashing blue lights.
SPEAKER_01You're like, there's more people in a house now. Oh no. Yeah. So I thought I thought that was pretty good, and uh I enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_04There you go. So I want to talk about one death scene since you brought it up. Uh, one of the scenes that I thought was uh particularly disturbing was a scene when they killed one of the skull guys in the living room. Uh this was when Red, and there was like the pornography going on in the background. Yeah, that was like pressed up against the TV and there's porn going on, and then he basically ejaculates blood all over him.
SPEAKER_01When he sluts his throat, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I I was like, I mean, that to me that was like that was a that was a disturbing that whole thing was so disturbing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that scene alone, that whole that whole when he enters in there and you see the couple on the bed and the old guy with his ass just bloody and stuff, and then he goes around the corner and there's that guy watching the porn with this freaking like it's like a dagger penis or something. Yeah, like a sickle penis or something. That's weird.
SPEAKER_01Is that what that was? It was like a sickle, yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's like a sickle penis.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's why the dude had the bloody butt. Well, that's I had to I had to double back on that scene because I thought when he fell on the ground when they were tussling, I thought that his penis stabbed red. I was like, oh no, it's in the carpet, but it was just in the carpet. And I was like, oh, wait a minute. I guess so that's why I had to double back because I was like, oh, I thought he got penetrated.
SPEAKER_02That was uh that was a that was a pretty disturbing scene.
SPEAKER_04That scene. That scene probably messed me up. Like I'll be honest, I'm gonna have to talk to my therapist after that scene.
SPEAKER_01Alright, moving on, let's go to final cut. In this, I just revealed a shocking ending of the film, and we all discuss and give our final ratings of one to five stabs. One stab, atrocious, no redeeming value, waste of time. Two stabs, forgettable, bad, poorly done. Three stabs, mixed feelings, mediocre, okay. Four stabs, good, interesting, enjoyable, and then the creme de la creme, five stabs. Masterpiece, excellent, perfect.
SPEAKER_02Now I'm gonna I uh if you're done reading the uh stabs, I'm going to say we let Jamie do his last. Okay. Only only because I'm very interested. Oh, because your dog about his other ones? Because the last one we watched was was the Demented and Jamie's rating on that was a four. Okay. And I talked to him afterwards about it. I said, What the fuck's the matter with you? And he did explain why. And I you know, it's it's all personal.
SPEAKER_04I'll be defending it today.
SPEAKER_01So I just want to see. Alright, cool. All right. So we'll we'll do it that way. But alright, here we go. So Red chases after the black skull, shooting one off a motorcycle with a crossbow before ramming into him with his car. He falls unconscious from the collision and awakening in a black skull's lair with his left hand nailed to the floor. He is then beaten by a black skull guard before gaining the upper hand after calling them a snowflake. Beating them with a pipe and sending them hurling down into a deep hole. Red grabs a box cutter and body armor before investigating the place. He finds a black skull watching pornography and snorting cocaine, so he attacks him and slits her throat with a box cutter after a brief scuffle. The black skull's blood drenching his face, and Red insanely laughing. He is then attacked by another black skull entering the room with a shotgun. Red fights back and snaps their neck, seeming to enjoy this sudden violence. Red rewards himself by snorting cocaine off of a broken piece of glass. Wandering through the lair, he finds a jug of LSD the bikers have been drinking and takes a small taste of it out of curiosity. Red starts tripping balls, seeing a bizarre scene of apocalyptic frightening scenes before coming to his senses, so he leaves the lair and kills the remaining black skull with an axe. The black skull taunts Red and says she's still burning. So he decapitates them after setting them on fire. Approaching a nearby tower, Red meets the chemist who is responsible for the LSD which deformed the biker gang. The chemist has a pet tiger, Lizzie, which Red frees from the cage after the chemist receives telepathic information and tells Red to head north to find Sans lair. Before that, Red catches up with Lucy and Swan, and he kills Brother Swan by impaling him through the mouth with the bladed handle of his axe and leaves Lucy, realizing she is innocent. He finds Sand's location, a converted satanic church, where he kills Sans buff minion with his axe and chainsaw. He enters a church with Marlene, who offers her offers her services to him, and Red instead decapitates her and taunts Jermaine Sand with her severed head by throwing it at him. Sand first declares that he is protected by God and will not be hurt by Red, but then whimpers and begs Red for mercy, and instead he seizes him by the head, and Sand screams and even offers him oral sex so that he will be saved. Telling Sans, I'm your God now, Red crushes his head into mush before burning the church. He enters his car and drives off. Imagining that he is seeing Mandy sitting on a passenger seat smiling at him. The end. I was a little long-winded on that one, but there was so much too much. Where do you start on the end?
SPEAKER_02You can't just be like, okay, well this no, well, this happened too.
SPEAKER_01Like I always try to find like the the third act, but like there was so much the third act was like halfway into this movie. So what did you how did you guys feel about the thing?
SPEAKER_02I'll suck your cock. I'll suck your dick.
SPEAKER_01Did you say dick or cock? I think it was dick. Okay. I'll suck your dick, man. I just made an X-ray into the arc. So how did you guys feel about the ending?
SPEAKER_02I liked it. I thought the ending, I thought it was a it was a good ending. This so I mean so this movie, it wasn't really like Jamie said, it wasn't really a scary movie. No. Even a lot of the stuff, I mean, even like the way he killed, you know, killed these uh these people, but I I thought it was good. Just got just went in, annihilated everyone, and then and then that was that. And then I did like at the end where they're sitting, he's back in his car and he's driving away, and he sees, you know, and he's having this like you know, flash of Mandy sitting next to him or whatever, and you you go back to Nicholas Cage and he's got this like psychotic, like just huge fucking grin on his face. And he's like, Yeah, this guy is mental. Yeah, here's something not right with him. So covered in blood and and and guts and everything. It was amazing. Yeah. So I liked it. What about you, Jamie? How'd you feel about the ending?
SPEAKER_04Oh, the ending of the movie. Uh I I I'll probably align with Matt a lot on this. I ultimately I I thought that you would really enjoy not in not just the ending, but the middle and the beginning of this movie if you were like definitely participating in some illicit activity like drugs or something, because it was I mean, it was like on a different plane. Like, you know, you see like the difference of like you know, Mandy sitting in the car and then him like you know, fantasizing about like this, you know, this meeting and this meetup after accomplishing his mission of vengeance, and then and then it cuts over to reality, and you see him completely psychoed up with the you know the blood all over his face all all stuck up. It was it was a really I thought it was a good min a good ending for that movie. Right. Yeah, right, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, when you get into the revenge flicks, that's you you know what the ending's gonna be. It's gonna be sweet revenge. So I thought the revenge was pretty sweet, honest. So I I did enjoy the ending as well. So I say we move on to our stabs. Right. Jamie. No, I said. Oh, you wanted him last? I want him last. So, all right, Matt, give us your stabs.
SPEAKER_02I'll go, I'll go. I'm giving see, I'm giving it a four. Right away, I thought, I thought, uh, minus, you know, some some little things where you know some backstory would have been nice and would have been helpful. I I like the way the movie was filmed. I liked the action in it, I liked um the the gore in it. I mean, I just thought I thought it was a great movie, so yeah, so I'm giving it a four.
SPEAKER_01Oh, cool. I'm I'm pretty I I agree. I just said it w it was a little too long and and slow for the build-up, but you know, I get it too, because they would have ripped it right out the gate. It probably wouldn't bend too much and hitting us over the head with it. But uh, you know, overall just enjoyed it and uh I'm going four stabs. Nice Jamie. There you go. Oh, it's on you.
SPEAKER_04Lots of pressure. Well, I should tell you that I came in with a different rating. Oh not not hearing your definitions of what each step like I was thinking, I was thinking Star Search, right? So Star Search, you get two stars, three stars. Right. And so I originally said two stars because I don't want you going to the next round, you know, and things come back. Right.
SPEAKER_01So that would have been hilarious if we went by star search, though. Now that I've thought about it, that'd be hilarious if I did.
SPEAKER_02I'll let you go ahead.
SPEAKER_04So so three stars means like two stars is forgettable, definitely not forgettable. Like I will never forget this movie ever in my life. So three stars is where I land.
SPEAKER_01Mixed feelings, mediocre, okay.
SPEAKER_04Yes, definitely mixed feelings, mediocre, and okay. Yeah, yeah. I like that. Okay. I think that's fair. It would have been a two, but it was not forgettable. It was not forgettable.
SPEAKER_02So did you use that rating on Demented? Was that your was that your idea on Demented? I did. Well, I didn't know the rating on Demented. I mean, you're not that far off from what we're from what we're saying. Not on this one.
SPEAKER_04Not on this one. Look, I've done a lot of trip advisor ratings in my life, and I know I know I know what the star rating is, uh, but I just didn't know like the like it wasn't it wasn't forgettable. So that edged it up to me to another stab, so that's why I gave it three stabs. But I'm being frank and honest here, if I didn't have this as an assignment before this podcast, I probably would it took like an hour and 15 minutes for me to get into this movie. That's when there was 45 minutes left. Yeah, it's a slow break. Yeah, and so like 10 minutes, 15 minutes in this movie, I would have called Uncle.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I could keep going on about it. So Demented, you gave it a two. No, he gave it a four.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So he's yeah, he likes it.
SPEAKER_01I know.
SPEAKER_02I know. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01Just move on, man.
SPEAKER_03Oh, you want to talk about it?
SPEAKER_01We could talk about it. This is the Mandy podcast, not the Demented podcast.
SPEAKER_03You're obviously bothered by this. All right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, let's move on. Let's move on. All right, guys. So next up we're doing voices from beyond. And this I'm just gonna go through cover for Shelly, uh, grab some thoughts shared by our our listeners on social media. First one is gonna be from the ever contributing Lisa C. Lisa. Lisa says, just wasn't my favorite movie. I didn't see this as horror, just a revenge gore movie. I get it. I didn't really make connections to characters with this movie. I do not like Cage as an actor. He's crazy and sucks. But his role fit fit this movie, so she gives it a 2.5. She gives a 2.5 for a lot of movies. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We only got two this week, and my homie Travis uh gave me a book. So this is gonna cover like four contributes. It's all mostly prose for me. The movie really just appeals to all my senses. Soundtrack is a hundred percent visually. I've love the way it is filmed. It looks the way I think horror movies should look. It's gritty, but without being low quality. The cast is perfect. You have Nick Cage basically being in a role design for him. This was my first encounter with Andrea Riseboro, and uh it made me an immediate fan. Her performance was so intense that even after character is no longer in the film, it stuck with me. I think all the character development was great though. Some of the henchman characters didn't get evolved, but they didn't need to be. Sneaking Bill Dukes into the film really put it over the edge for me. He's the guy who played uh he played Carruthers. Okay. And uh he said uh I felt like it was a throwback to his character in Predator, which got me really fucking stoked. Cons. I didn't love the animated sequences, which although they added a cool flavor to the film, it just wasn't anything I needed. So he thought that was just some fat unnecessary. Yep. So favorite character, uh, he said it's definitely a toss-up between Jermaine Sand and obviously Red. Uh he thinks that in their own way, they're both super powerful in creating the villainslash hero dynamic. Uh I think the mutant biker squad is also really intense and important. Would love to see a film just about them and their horrible shit. So uh next up he has favorite lines. See, I told you he gave me a poem. Yeah, favorite lines. Uh there's a lot of great dialogue, but also the dialogue is sparse, so it feels like everything said is really intentional and delivers what is what it's meant to. I do love when Nick Cage is talking to Bill Dukes and delivers a back and forth about the Reaper and going hunting. Uh when Nick says he's hunting Jesus freaks and is it's great, but when he follows it up with their uh bikers, gnarly psychos, crazy and evil, shit is awesome. But the whole dialogue is chock full of great shit. Finally, his favorite kill. Uh he said, uh definitely the scene with the chainsaw fight, it's everything you wanted from a chainsaw chainsaw fight, but really the entire movie is a perfect kill. All the violence is perfectly placed and tasteful. Nothing in the film seems out of place or even oddly unrealistic. Right down to Jeremiah Sand offering oral sex in exchange for his life. I feel that it is really how a coward like him would act in that moment. So that is Travis. Thank you. Thank you, Travis, thank you, Lisa, for sharing your thoughts. It's always appreciated. You guys can find us on Facebook by searching Little Bracket of Horrors or on Instagram, just put the at little bracket of horrors and you can find us there. So you guys ready for the wheel? What do you want to do?
SPEAKER_02Fun facts? I didn't really have too many. I just had one. Yeah, go so um The Guardian is a UK um newspaper. Newspaper, right. So they interviewed. uh Nicolas Cage about this this movie he just said how they asked him his perf like his inspiration in this performance and he had just gotten off of a of a divorce with his wife they were married for 14 years um he was married to uh Alice Kim Cage and uh he said which it was a shocker to him that they got they got divorced and he said he just pretty much used that for this performance for for the pain and stuff so the loss of love yeah yeah yeah yeah so that was pretty much it other than Elijah Wood was a producer so the only thing that I found that I I thought was interesting was uh the axe uh weapon that Red forged uh it was inspired from if if you know the death metal band uh Celtic Frost uh it's it was modeled off their F in the logo so if you if you look up Celtic Frost interesting the F looks like Red's axe that's I think that's it for interesting facts.
SPEAKER_01That's that's pretty much it. Jamie you didn't come with anything how dare you interesting facts two hours and four minutes. Yeah yeah this is a movie. Alright guys let's move on to Wheel of Death and this match just spins the wheel for our movie but before we do that we got to pick from the Frankenstein monster and replace on the wheel why don't you let me talk no I'm gonna I'm gonna talk over top of you why don't we let our guests do that yeah that's what I was going to do.
SPEAKER_04So Jamie stick your hairy knuckled hands in there and pick us pick us the next movie to put on the list this is exciting yeah it's an actual Frankenstein it is oh Jamie what do we I am super excited okay what are we putting on the on the wheel knight of the living dead classic night of the living dead George Romero.
SPEAKER_01I mean that you don't have to say you don't have to say too much about this but yeah so Matt you add night I'm adding night of the living dead perfect you just take your time I will with your half thumb do you spell knight in IT no I don't abbreviate anything I don't use abbreviations okay abbreviations are for quitters that's right all right Matt read off the movies we got on the list so here's what we got on the list The Cabin in the woods Itchy the Killer Itchy Ichy I say it wrong just just let me actually Itchy the killer is another movie I don't know if you've seen itchy anyway I don't know what that is yeah it's about someone who breaks out in hives and then kills it's a dad joke all right so then we got high tension the newly entered Knight of the living dead mother wolf cop sinister ginger snap nosferatu yeah and thirst thirst all right all right spinning it let's do it wheel of death wheel of death do it with wheel of death wheel of death wheel of death what is it Maddie and the movie that the great and almighty wheel has selected for us is Ginger Snap Ginger Snaps awesome so let's see where ginger snaps is available you know I made a list a long time ago of like where all these films could be streamed and ever since then everything's either been dropped or it's moved to something else so now I'm like that that list was a waste now I just gotta I gotta look on the old handy dandy googles the googles the googles so Jay J me I called you Jay hey yeah so that's uh throwback to our old podcast so what do you think so far?
SPEAKER_02Did you enjoy it?
SPEAKER_01I did have fun with it this was uh yeah more entertaining than trying to watch the movie during work hours but yeah it was tough all right guys so we got it available on Peacock it's on Tubi we love tubi yes uh looks like it's also available on Amazon for free so if you have an Amazon subscription then you're you're good to go. I'm not sure if it's on shutter I I would have to check but you know if you pay attention to our socials we'll share where where you can catch it all.
SPEAKER_02So this is right.
SPEAKER_01So guys make sure you tune in because our next episode will drop July 6th and then uh make sure you stay with us and tune in to the end of the season where all these movies we watch will be thrown into a tournament to determine which movies get cut and which movies will be crowned champion of Little Bracket of Horrors 2022. If you listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts please hit the follow button and give us a ratingslash review if you like what we do. You can find us on Facebook by searching Little Bracket of Horrors or on Instagram by typing at Little Bracket of Horrors. Thank you everyone for tuning in I'm Derek.
SPEAKER_02I'm Matt and I'm filling in for Jelly and you're Jamie and I'm Jamie's Jamie that's right and we will catch you on the other side of the dogs all around here I go here I go Jamie keep it doing here I go. Here I go here I go I never go I never go uh check it check it out uh uh here I go where's my snare where's my snare where's my snare my snare my headphones break you off something here I go let's go what do we le we left off on lines I think we all gave our lines right okay yeah moving on the cast give it uh lay it down yeah here I go here I go it's gonna hit it about to spit fire here I go uh one two one two uh turn it up my mic I can't hear it I'm gonna snare what's my snare snares in my head folks hey uh uh yo turn that up here I go here I go here I go yo uh weak come on one more wait here I go about to spit it