Cine-Critique
Cine-Critique
TOUCH ME director Addison Heimann talks tentacles + writing body horror
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Gloriously gross, obscure TOUCH ME an impressive indie film written-directed by Addison Heimann. Enjoy our extended conversation on ideas and visions bringing the movie to life.
TOUCH ME starring OLIVIA TAYLOR DUDLEY, PAGET BREWSTER, LOU TAYLOR PUCCI rent / buy digital platforms; Lightbulb Distribution
https://youtube.com/@movieanalystshaneadambassett?si=nZyw5fHIS4t_KgXj
Ah yes, the Manthe Fox Touch Me, I Want Your Body. And as far as I remember, that song doesn't appear on the soundtrack of Touch Me, directed by Addison Heyman, who we're gonna hear from shortly. Uh, the director of this unusual obscure, gross, slimy, uh body horror, but independent movie that I just loved. Really enjoyed it. The second time it was even better. Uh and a lot of it has to do with the lead actor. Although the atmosphere, the music, the formula of the story telling also grabbed my attention to because it is not straightforward, and it's also a practical effect. The story kind of keeps a guessing as well. And according to uh one, two, three no story. I love the lead acting now. Researching idiot lead rolling one. Enjoy it in our conversation. And it's a movie that I think horrifying horror if you know that isn't going to rewatch it over and over again. Well, I hope so anyway. I hope it gets discovered because it is what I want to go. It's one of those under the radar films I think Alison's joking about, and it might just disappear and I don't want it to. Particularly for Addison's sake, creating such a a weird movie that made an impression on me, but uh as I mentioned before, uh Olivia is a good performance in this. I mean, she's got some good co-styles too, but uh Olivia Taylor Dudley wanted to watch. Thanks for listening to another edition of Cine Critique, by the way. My name is Shane A. Bassett, the host, and you can find me at movie underscore analyst.
SPEAKER_04Brian invited us to his house for the weekend. Didn't he like really hurt you?
SPEAKER_05My lady, you're such a prepossessing site. What in the Shakespeare does that mean? Once I get into my device, the tracks do things a little weird, but look at that. Now, Craig, it is true what Joey says. I suppose I have the capability to be dangerous.
SPEAKER_04I feel like these days it's impossible to deny the existence of aliens. I just never thought the way that I find out would be a live action anytime.
SPEAKER_05We both need to leave it. Excellent.
SPEAKER_01Uh yes, it's it's that kind of movie. Erotically challenged and sometimes erotically charged for all the wrong reasons. There are moods and urges in this that aren't gonna sit well with everybody, but uh that's the movie. Expect the unexpected. Have you ever been to Australia or or come down under for any particular reason?
SPEAKER_00I actually have I actually have been on down under. I was just down under last August. I was there for the the for MIF for the Melbourne International Film Festival.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's right. Yeah, I forgot you had uh had touch me showing, of course.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was super cool. I mean, fortunately, like the cool thing about sorry, my cat's gonna say hi. Um my uh the the film festival world is very international, especially in the horror world. So when I was going down there, I you know I got to hang out with Sophie Hyde, who made Jim Pa and uh Leela and Emma, who made Lesbian Space Princess, and uh and just a bunch of filmmakers who I'd met over the years. And you know, I got to my film, my filmmaker friends came in hand and made Sissy, and then I got over to I got to go over to uh Sydney to to see them and say hi. So really great food, I gotta say. I tried kangaroo for the first time. That was crazy to know that you you you ate that, but then it was delicious. So I was like, oh, I understand, because you're they're like deer, because you're they're everywhere. Um, not that this needed to be a conversation about you know Australian uh cuisine and and things, but yeah, it was yeah, it was so fun. I I love Melbourne and I love um I love Sydney. Those are the two places I've been. I and I I'm at one point I memorized all seven, six, seven provinces that you have. Um but yeah, yeah, and uh maybe I can remember them still, but yeah, yeah, yeah. So the the long answer is yes. I went last year.
SPEAKER_01Uh well myth, uh the Adelaide Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival. They're the four, they're the three. And I mean, Gold Coast is also growing as well, the Gold Coast Film Festival. So we have a lot of really there's really good film culture down under yeah, yeah. Yeah. Uh I noticed in the end credits, uh, it's a glowing tree films. What was the movie was Touch Me, the movie we're talking about today, uh focusing on was that called uh was that called Glowing Tree, or was it just is that's just the name of the production company?
SPEAKER_00I thought so the glowing tree is in reference to the trees in the film. Uh usually when you it's just it's the the the dumb answer to the to the question is essentially you have to create an LLC whenever you make a movie in America. So it was called Glowing Tree Films, but I turned out I actually kind of liked the name. So every other movie you know I make well'll be my moniker for my my pseudo-production company that is literally just me. Um, but yeah, it was it's all in relation to the glowing trees that Brian kind of creates and grows his uh his uh mysterious uh redacted spoiler uh for that's okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we we can spoil it because some of my questions are gonna be a little bit great.
SPEAKER_00Let's spoil it then. Yeah, I guess it's out in America and it'll be out in in in Australia in literally two weeks. So yeah, why not? Let's do it. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01My verbal and uh written reviews will be spoiler-free, but in our discussion, I've got a few questions I want to ask you, which might end up getting spoilers.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so so really the point of my question was was it always called Touch Me, or did you have other titles in mind?
SPEAKER_00No, it was it was actually from the beginning always called Touch Me. I mean, I think uh for me, like the whole movie was written about um kind of a time in my life where I was just wishing because I have obsessive compulsive disorder. And you know, I my first feature was about me going through a mental breakdown and kind of getting through it and and like choosing to like continue to work on my life. And then I went right back into that hole and I was so mad about it that I was like, I would just like to fucking have just anything, just the quickest fix, you know, that would just suck up my anxiety and depression. It's kind of like when I was a kid and I had a terrible acne. I wish my superpower could have been just like pop my pimples no matter how deep. Like similar, I guess similar in in that vein. And so when I when I decided to write about this and through the lens of a uh friendship breakup and um you know Japanese exploitation cinema, touch me just made sense. And you know, I think there's like two versions of like when you write a script, you either say the title once or never, or you say the title a bunch, and I was like, Well, they're gonna say touch me a shit ton. And when I was writing the script, I was like, stop saying there's no good way to be like touch me. Like you have to say it, you have to say touch me. There's no other way to say uh, like, you know, there's the synonyms sound, you know, not like a real human. So yeah, so that's kind of how the title stuck.
SPEAKER_01Okay, cool. Yeah, I was wondering about that. Uh and Olivia's well, firstly, where did you find Olivia? I I don't know if I'd seen much of her work, but now I really yeah, Olivia's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00You know, we actually she came. This movie was quite difficult to cast, as I'm sure everybody who's watched it might might glean just from the fact that it's a very, you know, I don't find it that strange, but yet I'm a freak. So, but like it's a strange movie, right? So Olivia was on the show called The Magicians and uh American Show, and my producer, Dave, um, knew that she liked weird. And so, like, about about a month before production, he texted her, being like, Hey, you like weird. Do you want to read this tentacle sex movie and also meet with the director in two hours? And she was like, Oh, okay. And then uh we met at a bar, and rather than talk about the movie, we basically just talked about her. She has obsessive compulsive disorder as well. And and so we talked about that. And I'm I'm very much of the of the um mindset that like I know you can act usually, like actors who've been working for that long have like a good kind of grasp of of text and performance. So I was just figuring out if like we could be together on set for a month and then continue on. And oh boy, could we? And so I offered the role there, and then um it's a good thing we did because you know I'm sure we'll get to this, but I can cut to it now. The monologue that starts the whole movie was the first take that we did on the first day, and we used the first take that she did. So it's it's it's pretty much a testament to her that that scene works, like because it just totally rides on her performance and her ability to ride the wave in an eight-minute monologue on broken take. So I'm really glad we ended up getting her.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you've answered well, you've answered asked the question before I asked it.
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And that's okay because there was that monologue to open the film, and then there was another one that she did I noticed in the in the crystal room, a little bit shorter. But uh and you wrote you wrote that you know, after casting her or before, like because she just came in and nailed it, like you said.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it was totally before, and it was something that got a lot of pushback on because everyone's like you're really gonna start the movie with a it's written four and a half pages, you know. We're really gonna start with a four and a half page monologue. And I was like, I don't know. The thing is, like the movie is about a uh uh uh you know, two best friends who like have to like fucking alien because they're so sad and depressed and traumatized. And you're like, in order to get even get you into this type of movie, you have to you have to, I think, prepare an audience. And so much of the edit was massaging that first act, but we had a lot like taken care of for us in that monologue. And so if you go back or like if anybody, if there's any, you know, like film nerds in the house who want to buy the Blu-ray that comes out early May, like, you know, I I have a whole commentary about all my like all my um, you know, uh like influences and such. But I think mainly it's just like there are two movies in which I think a monologue completely changes the entire the entire energy of of the film, and that is uh, you know, Pearl, uh with Mia Goth at the very end of the movie, and the other resurrection, which is Rebecca Hall, which is like I think arguably the craziest shift halfway through a movie I've ever seen. Tim Ross, you know, yeah, and it's just like literally, it's so unbelievable. And I was like, this can work, and it works specifically when the concept completely shifts, right? And so that's what I wanted to start with. I was like, there's an we're gonna, we're like, it's gonna end with like with like a a like a uh a giant puppet alien coming through and they're gonna throw a sugar-free lemonade powder on him and he's going to explode. So to get there, we need to ease you into it and like completely shift. Like, this is the movie we're talking about. And for any filmers, you want to go back, rewatch that monologue, everything is set up in that monologue. And I think for me, it was like really important to do that rather than just kind of thrust you in a world that like you wouldn't be able to attach yourself to without having a really grounded performance of someone who's gonna ease you into something as ridiculous and and high concept as it is.
SPEAKER_01Uh, the house, it's like a roundhouse, and it has like a Easter Easter Island uh thing in it, like a big statue. And uh, is that a house? Was it a set because I kind of wanted to stay there? It looked cool.
SPEAKER_00I know. No, that so the house is real. Uh the the drone shot when you see it, and it kind of looks like the Millennium Falcon slash UFO or whatever, it's completely real. Uh, we were all shocked it existed, to be honest. And not only were we shocked that it existed, it existed in LA 20 minutes from my house. We were all like, because originally the script was written to be in the desert. So there's a place called Joshua Tree in uh just east of LA, which is like you know, a very alien kind of landscape, but it was very cost prohibitive to shoot there for the budget that we had. And so we started looking at all these strange houses, and a lot of them were just outside of LA, where it was like it was like leaning in on cost prohibitive. And then we the last house we saw, we walked in and we saw that Easter egg island, uh uh Easter egg uh head. Easter island statue. Yeah, yeah. We're all like, what? And then we walk in and we see these like curved hallways, and there's these TVs playing just like like the like a the wake of a of a of a speed boat. Like, you know, it's gorgeous looking outside. It feels so isolated, and it's literally 20 minutes from my house. And also, like, it was very, very thankful. My cinematographer hates shooting in bathrooms, and the bathroom that we shot in like during the dream sequence when she gets her uh q-tip in the air, is the bit like we walked into that bathroom, and I went, Oh, Dustin, is is this too small of a bathroom for you? And he was like, No, no, that's it's a good bathroom. So we just got really lucky, and and the owners were so lovely, and you know, he's an architect, and they their kids just moved out and they were looking to like use this house to like do film sets on and uh to film things on, and the only thing that had shot there before us was a Christmas movie. So I was like, We got it, we got it, we got we got we'll be the first to shoot something creepy in this in this crazy house. But yeah, very, very, very lucky um that we were able to secure that, and they were so they're so lovely as as people. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But you didn't use the swimming pool though. I was waiting for it. You saw it, but you didn't I was waiting to see, I know, I know we didn't use the swimming pool.
SPEAKER_00We used it to light like all the blue, all the stuff outside the pool. You know, I didn't it's funny because it was like set in the desert. I was like, at most these desert houses would have a hot tub, but maybe that is my one regret. Maybe for the sequel, she'll go back to the house and we'll have a whole pool scene. Oh, so they potentially is a sequel. Well, people ask about it, you know. And I listen, if anybody wants to give me money for it, it would basically be like a kill Bill style style like revenge flick, where rather than it just being a single location, she attaches like a you know, chainsaw or katana to her nubbin that she's missing and go off and talk with the clones throughout the world. Um, you know, that might work. That could work, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh oh my cat. Love, love her. She really wants to be involved in this interview.
SPEAKER_01Oh, look at uh your cat, what's its name first?
SPEAKER_00Alex. Alex is her name.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you've only got the one cat. Well, you can bring it up.
SPEAKER_00I've got two cats. The other one named Gertie, she's a tuxedo, and they both hate each other. So but one's here and the other one's in the back room.
SPEAKER_01All right, well, um one's one's fine, or two's even better, not a problem.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I w yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh Pageet Brewster. Uh The Big Bad Swim was a is a movie like this independent movie that she did that was I really enjoy and always tell recommend it to people. Um her little role, do you know her previously? How did it all happen?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So Paget's a friend. She was in, she was a friend of my producer, and she agreed to do a little cameo for my first film. And so when it came about with the second film, I I texted her and be like, Hey, do you want to do this again? There are two rules I could see you being. And then she read it and she's like, I'm in, let's do this. And so she's such a she's just such a good, like, good egg, just a huge supporter of indie film that she's off to in her little famous, her famous TV show, her little, her huge famous TV show. And you know, my goal is for future movies is to write her the biggest role in the world because she's incredibly talented, so gracious, so lovely to work with, and um, you know, is really game for for the weird and the crazy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That was a really fun day on set too, because she had to play, you know, quite a nasty woman. But we were having fun. Like, you know, we were in this like uh kind of upscale coffee shop slash um slash like store.
SPEAKER_01It looked like a bottle, a bottle shop and uh yeah, lick had liquor and it just had a bit of a screen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And and we were just like, we were just like, let's just like we were like screaming and yelling, but in like a fun way. Like I was like yelling action, like you know, like really at the top of my lungs, and we were like jumping around and having this like you know bubbling energy of the world. And it was like the end of the day where we and you know we got to do like a bunch of different angles because like when you have Padri Brewster there, just like let's get every performance like possible from all these different angles and figure out how things cut together, and it was it was such a fun time.
SPEAKER_01Was the oatmeal lady based on anyone real?
SPEAKER_00I have never been slapped by I've never slapped or been thrown coffee at, but yeah, I mean like I grew up in a um suburb of San Francisco where she was really rude. I call it I call it like the Mean Girls suburb, like the movie Mean Girls, because like that's where I grew up. So it's just like those people. My sister used to work at the Starbucks like by the by the grocery store, and we've we've encountered those things. Although the funny the the funny the funny tidbit from there is um she so she we know she has to throw the coffee in in Olivia's face, and I was like, oh god, but if she has an iced oat milk latte, like you know, there's gonna be ice in it, and she's not gonna we're not gonna throw ice in her face. So I was like, okay, say iced no iced oat milk latte, and she was like, Oh, that's great. And so like we were able to get around the fact that so there's no ice being thrown at anybody's face, just good, really watered down car.
SPEAKER_01And what a waste of red wine, you know, like uh oh I know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00What a sad moment for Joey.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, oh yeah, it was, it was. Uh I love that scene. It was great. And I as soon as I saw her, I I'm like, I know who that is. She's great. Uh I've got to ask you about the black and white sequence. I love movies, love movies that go into black and white, you know. I think that's underused. Uh yeah. Was that a a choice? Because it was sort of like a flashback, or did you want to do more of it in black and white? Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, so I mean, like the all the stylistic choices throughout the entire movie are all predicated off of Japanese cinema from like the whole kind of lexicon of the entire century. So all of the stuff, because you know, we have three different aspect ratios, which was deliberate to have, you know, the very specific worlds, because um Japanese film, a lot of the time back then, they would build these sets and they would film on sets and they would look like sets because they're films that are telling stories. So it's like I wanted it to essentially kind of treat the whole movie as a story within a story. And whenever we entered the alien world, You know, whenever like we entered the crystal room or the what we called the Eden Room that's all blue and has the bridge, and then the cage room, those are all kind of homages to the lexicon that is like 60s and 70s exploitation film. And also Mishima, a life in four chapters, which uh which uh has a story within a story where uh this production designer Eko Ishioka designed very elaborate theatrical sets that made it feel like more emotionally evocative of the storytelling that we're that you know we're trying to like emulate. So the black and white sequence is specifically kind of the hearkening back to like old squat old school, like Japanese noir, like Kurosawa High and Low. And then we got to my cat. I swear, I don't know why today she really, really Alex. I love you. I would rather you cry outside. I feel terrible.
SPEAKER_01She might be reacting to my accent or something.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah. They love, you know, I hear cats like just feel soothed when they hear the beautiful dulcet tones of the Aussie accent.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, so it was basically it uh, you know, kind of a hearkening back to like high and low and like the noir of the 40s. And when we were on set, my cinematographer and my gaffer and my grip were like, let us cook, you stand in the corner, we're making art. And I was like, go off, go, get do your thing. And it was it was really cool because like every picture was just uh every like picture basically they were painting was just so incredibly beautiful, and you know, I I this movie's a huge swing, so I was just like, let's just make every choice and see what's and and like try to stick it all. You know, I'd rather take the big swing than you know, sit on my hands.
SPEAKER_01Well, I appreciate the swings, I appreciate the black and white sequence in anything. I just think it underutilized, like I said, so it worked. Uh, and there's an Austin Powers reference in it as well.
SPEAKER_00I mean, in that sense, I know, and that my uh my friends come from well when I when I we I was on acid uh in Joshua Treat, uh, and I decided to put on all three Austin Powers to see if anybody would notice, and so I was just kind of running that. And my friends who were with me came to the premiere, and I was the the what I like, it was all silent, and then the line gets says, and he starts cracking up first, and I was like, um, so yeah, that's where that came from.
SPEAKER_01Uh the creature design was interesting. Uh, did you have to like map it out with storyboards, or how did you figure that, figure it all out to perfect?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So we worked with WrestleFX, which is uh an SFX house in L in LA. They did the most recent Hellraiser, amongst litany of other projects, and they just happened to love Alien Tentacles. So they were like, we're on board. And yeah, so basically everything, everything special effects-wise was storyboarded, um, kind of completely to the T because they needed to know what they were showing. So that was the first thing I did in every in all those scenes. And the big one that I did kind of like, you know, to add to this, like answer to to add things is like during the sex scene, the first like kind of the big sex scene that had to be completely um completely shot listed because everybody kind of had to know like what I was thinking, how like what kind of nudity like I was I was like, you know, like in the terms of the storytelling was necessary. And so uh so everything was kind of storyboarded, and then uh like afterwards, like you know, everybody got to see it and weigh in to decide if like this is what they wanted to do. But um, going back to the alien stuff, I the alien design is so funny because I drew it in stick figures and they basically recreated my stick figures, which is so which is crazy because it's like that's that's how like you know, like they they always talk about the athlete state when everybody's kind of working in the zone, and like that's how connected we were with that they were able to pull the image out of my brain with like my mediocre drawing and create something that worlds like only in my wildest dreams. And it was such a we we shot for like 20 days on set, and then we took an extra day to do all the inserts and a lot of the effects of like the the alien when he appears at the end, because it's all done with a two-foot puppet that we that we put in water, and then we have puppeteers kind of controlling the controlling the tentacles on the side, uh, and somebody kind of opening and closing the mouth um as we're doing a a close-up of that. And so we had one in the water, and then we had one on a stand outside of the water for the close-ups, and then we had a third one that was kind of made more of like, you know, that was more stuffing that we could explode, um, you know, and then shoot uh goo out at goo outside of it. Um and that was it, it's always so funny when you try when you're about to explode something and you hope it works, but you hope nothing catches fire. And then neither were neither did. So we were we're all set. Um, but yeah, so like when the sugar-free lemonade powder gets thrown in his face, it's a straw with the powdered sugar, and you like blow on it, and that's how it gets covered. Um, but those little things, like that, that's the the like kind of practical, cool nature of filmmaking, I think is what makes this film for me was so fun to make because every day, practical like the practical effects day were like my favorite days because they would come in and murder it and leave. I remember when uh you know uh Noah, the man, the man whose head explodes, um, his head explodes because we only had one head because uh so it's like we're like, okay, action, and then the head just exploded, and then I was like, oh, cut. And he's like, All right, there it is. Josh was like, All right, there you go. And I was like, oh my god, and I was like so happy that it worked so quickly, but like that's the thing, or you know, it's like the or when when the alien explodes at the end and and and and Jordan and Olivia get covered in the goo. Um, the first two times we did it, it only it only went on Jordan. The whole and the the funny thing is he's Canadian, so he's so sweet, but it's his first horror movie, and that man had so many different versions of Liquid just caked on him the whole movie, and he's just Canadian giving that whole Canadian like Did did anything not go right?
SPEAKER_01Did any was there any mishaps, injuries, anything like that?
SPEAKER_00No injuries, thank god. Um, I think nothing honestly, I had such a good crew and cast that like anything anything that would have gone wrong would have been immediately like you know, kind of fixed um fixed, but but only in the way that like I think I think the the best thing about filmmaking, uh especially indie filmmaking, is like, or like the smartest way to do it is to not is to um lean in to the things that you have and don't worry about the things you don't have. So it's like okay, so we had so like the the worst, the worst quote unquote thing that could have happened was like we ran out of time, and so this scene that was going to be six shots, six different setups, now is gonna be put on my cinematographer's shoulder and we're gonna do one shot. And you had to do that a few times, you know, where potentially like that was gonna have to do. But no, nothing, honestly, nothing. Um, nothing went thankfully, nothing went wrong. But it's a testament to my crew and it's a testament to my producers because and if something did, like I didn't know about it because I'm not supposed to. But like, you know, uh the closest, the closest thing that went wrong is like my cinematographer got COVID like five days before we were shooting. Oh no. And we were like, oh no, what do we do? But then he recovered before we started, and me and him both wore masks the first week, and then we were fine. Um, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's good, good to hear. And and did you uh name the alien? Did the the puppet alien have an actual name at all on set?
SPEAKER_00Other than other than just Brian, yeah, I feel like we should have named him something, but I do have a very, a very actually I'll go get it because this is kind of cute. Uh 15 seconds before. Okay, so Josh and Sierra, I feel like I haven't even taken it out of my gift box. Uh have have uh 3D printed Brian the Alien for me, a small different version. And then they hand painted it, so it always kind of lives with me.
SPEAKER_01That's so cool. Uh what a memento to have.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh and I saw that Olivia had a t-shirt on it or a shirt on at one point that said Austria. Uh I thought it might have said Australia. I had to like stop and look a couple of times, hoping it was saying Australia, but it was Australia.
SPEAKER_00I know. Yeah, you know what? Just for just for you, Shane, next movie I'm gonna have that I have Olivia, and she's gonna have a princess in Australia.
SPEAKER_01Please, that'd be awesome if you did. Thank you. Uh I've got a list of movies here. I mean, you call it cross-species intercourse. I don't know how you came up with it and and what full inspirations you had, but were there any movies over the years or books or something that really made you want to write this story at all?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. I mean, like, you know, we can't ignore the possession of it all. Like, we can't ignore, like, you know, brain damage or um really, I mean, and then it's a lot of like, you know, Japanese inspired cinema and you know, like uh, you know, anime and all that kind of stuff. Like, I wouldn't, it's so funny because everyone's like, look at this little hentai freak. And I'm just like, I just find the I just find the concept of it more fascinating than I do find it more sexual because the the way the reason um tentacle porn was kind of created was to get around the sensors of the time. So you couldn't have, you know, like the bottom half of any human shown. It was always has to be blurred, but you could have tentacles shaped like shaped like things that could fit in orifices that looked like things that were not of the human anatomy. So that's kind of a creation of it to get around the like censorship of of the time. And you know, it just it was such a fascinating kind of like wow, what a creative way to do this. And thus Hentai was born and kind of like made its way across the world, but like definitely, you know, like you know, uh in terms of like its tentacleness and also the untamed is a huge one, obviously. Oh, yeah, which is a Spanish language film from the 2016 about you know the tentacle sex monster, um, and uh Murder Me Monster was another one came out of can. Um, you know, I just try to find all of the tentacle sex monsters, but the untamed was the biggest inspiration for me because I watched it when I was super sad and I saw and the concept of just like having sex with a tentacle monster making it feel euphoric was so like, oh yeah, I absolutely want to go to there. And then I kind of threw the entire lens of it through like like a sm smattering of my Japanese influences and then my own relationship with OCD and Thus Touch Me was born.
SPEAKER_01Well, there's a is a British movie that just got released a few weeks ago that has a tentacle monster that lives in a cave and attacks a whole heap of uh cave like explorers. And I interviewed uh the director and the the lead actor, and yes, so there's tentacles are a thing. It's called the bone.
SPEAKER_00And it goes with it. Listen, the more the more the weird could become mainstream, like I'm all for it. Because that's the thing is it's like movies like this, like will always kind of live under the rock of like you're not necessarily obscurity, but of like, you know, like you know, I think of like Gregoraki's movies, not that I'm comparing myself to a master, but his movies for me, I remember like discovering them when you like got someone's like DVD that they randomly found because they weren't available on the internet forever, and you're like, Whoa, what are these like amazing like visual landscapes of alternative reality? And so, like, like I just like the more that we can find, like, people are like, I want to watch movie with tentacles, and you're like, you Google, and then you're like, Yes, here are the six, and then have fun, and then we found more of a community of kind of like the weirdo horror comedy people, and then like we get to make more because people are hungry for that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01Uh, just re-watch nowhere, the Greg Araki film.
SPEAKER_00I mean, yes, I love nowhere. It's probably my favorite of his, I think. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, also the under the underviewed his stars show Now Apocalypse. I absolutely love. It's such a shame it only got one season. But like, you know, yeah, I think everything he does, like I'm so I'm so looking forward to his next movie because it's just you know, like the the queer cinema of it all, him and John Waters kind of leading the charge from the past, all of us standing on their shoulders to like continue to create the strange, the strange alternative reality art. Like, we would not be here without them, and I'm so grateful. Like, I was able to view that as a kid, right? And then, or like as a teenager and be like, oh yes, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like a Gregoraki. Um, I'm really glad that he's got a new one coming out. So thanks for dropping his name. Um reminds me. I'll look him up and watch some of more of his older movies. Speech for movies, alien sex movies. Okay, I don't know. These are a bit more lightweight than yours, but this is what came to mind while I was watching Touch Me. Uh Amanda and the Alien. I I watched that. How of the Duck, another one. There's sex in Howard the Duck.
SPEAKER_00You know, yeah, you know, I didn't think about it, but I think you might be right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh Cocoon. There was there was a different kind of sex in the cocoon. My stepmother is an alien, is another species of I was like, Where's a species?
SPEAKER_00Where's species? There it is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh there's a soft porn movie called C T. Instead of ET, it's an AT ripoff called C T coed teasers.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Oh, of course, of course.
SPEAKER_01Starman, uh, Jeff Bridges.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yes, yes, of course, yes.
SPEAKER_01Extro, which was a British horror movie, extra, and it also had the thing going through the mouth as well, very similar to yours. Oh, yeah. Uh Rocky Horror Picture Show, Frank. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, I mean, Rocky Horror, of course. I mean, and that's like Lou talks about it and plays Brian and how he like, you know, obviously not quite as uh insane uh insane as can't be, but like, you know, it was funny too, because like before one of my screen theatrical screenings in LA, they showed there's a documentary coming out about Rocky Horror and how they're like, you know, he's just like, yeah, when it came out, not that our movie bombed, but like it came out and then it like went into obscurity, and then people were like, Let's play this at midnight, right? And then it just became the sensation. Then I was like, Yes, you know, that so you know, but yeah, absolutely rocky horror.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, you know, Frank sleeps with both Brad and Janet in that.
SPEAKER_00Yes, exactly. Our bisexual king, you know, we love that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh, two more, uh, Earth Girls are easy, which was you know, Jeff Bridges, uh, sorry, uh uh Jeff Goblum and Gina Davis, of course. Uh Jim Carrey was in that, and the TV show Pluribus as well.
SPEAKER_00I mean, yes, absolutely plebis. There's also Lovecraft Country, which has a little bit, it's not it's more like cosmic tentacle sex for sure. Um, you know, oh wait, I was just gonna mention another tentacle sex. I was like, wow man, but who don't there's listen, there can never be enough.
SPEAKER_01Uh are you worried that your movie is going to be just limited? I mean, I don't think it will. I think it'll break out. But personally, when you're showing at all the film festivals and yeah, you know, people like myself who go and watch these things and it's right up my alley, but do you think it'll break out? Like, are you worried that it it'll sort of not sink into obscurity but have a limited audience?
SPEAKER_00I know it's going to be like, you know, I don't know. I think I think I think the beauty of, I mean, I think maybe the benefit of, you know, obviously there's a lot of downsides to streaming, but the benefit of it is like the benefits of it is like it has a chance to reach a wider audience. And you know, my I I I take kind of like, you know, my my producers, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have made like five sci-fi kind of movies that have that slowly like leaked its way up, depending on like through the world, and now they've kind of known, and because of that, they're now direct, like, you know, Daredevil. And so it's like, you know, not that like that's my goal. I mean, I would love to, but like, you know, it's just like I think movies like this, they're they can't be judged or like aren't judged by the initial release because inevitably, like, um, you know, Paramount is not gonna buy this movie. However, you know, like as it kind of unfolds and we have our like, you know, physical media releases, like, you know, I think movies like this can find a crowd, and that's why we're doing stuff like we have a 35 millimeter print that we can travel around and start, like, you know, getting the word out after this release. Wonderful, you know, and and and such like that. And I think, I think hopefully, like through the grapevine, you know, this because movies like this are so word of mouth based. Because, like, you know, like no one's like actively seeking out. Well, people are, but you know, like it is one of those things where it's like I'm hoping that it like creates that kind of like word of mouth buzz, like it, like like movies did when I was a kid, like watching Hedwig in the Angry Inch and Pretty Monster, and and you know, all the Gregoraki movies, all the John Water movies. It's like I want the I want the like 19-year-old college kid at midnight, they're all like, what movie should we watch? And all of a sudden they come across like the the visual of like Olivia with a tentacle around her neck and be like, What the hell is this? And then not only are they gleefully like laughing, but then all of a sudden they're like, I didn't expect this to get so real. And it's just like, who knew that you were gonna cry during a tentacle sex movie? And I'm just like, let's keep it going. Um, so yeah, let's hope. Let's hope. You know, the the the best thing we can do is just get everybody to tell their their friends about it, you know, rate it on IMDb and letterbox and rotten tomatoes, and just try to try try to get as big of an audience as we can, even if they hate the movie. It's actually kind of fun if they do, because that means I I instilled something into the uh a powerful something in them that made them go, fuck you. And you know, that's kind of nice in a way.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think the the monologue uh locks you in anyway. I think most people will be like going, maybe not taking as much notice at first, but them feeling is it's like oh this story, and then the reaction of the the lovely actor who plays the the therapist as well. He's good, so uh I think it'll lock people in early. Do you have a uh cameo? Are you do you pop up in it anyway?
SPEAKER_00I do actually, yeah. I mean, I'm not I'm not visually in there, but I'm one of the Duolingo voices, it's me and my tutor, Iko. Uh, and then at the beginning earlier in the movie, when um uh Craig gets rejected by a grinder guy, that's also me. Oh that's you so I'm vocally there, but I'm not physically there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Uh and what's next? You're looking at you were talking about a sequel before, but are you looking at anything?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I mean, realistically, that's probably far far off. But yeah, I've got a few projects that I'm like working on actively like that are in development. You know, I've got a movie about a gay couple in purgatory who are told that the only way to get to heaven is to go through couples therapy. Um, and so we got that there. Uh, but it's like a really wacky world. Like there are puppets, there's the couple musical numbers. It's like set in like a Jim Henson fun land of the 80s nightmare. Uh, and then another one that I have is about a group of gamers who want to live in a video game forever. And so they said, do somebody to sacrifice to a demon to make their wish come true.
SPEAKER_01Um was the choreography, the dancing in in Touch Me uh original? Like, did you come up with it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Meredith, no, Meredith Kirkman came up with it. Her and her and Lou Taylor Poochie together um kind of made it, made it, and then um LP of Run the Jewels kind of gave us gave us this like boom boom boom boom boom to do over and over and over again. And originally it was supposed to have lyrics, but then like we kept in the edit, and we were like, this is actually kind of in and of itself just amazing. So it's it like really gets set in your brain. You're like, there's not even words, but for some reason I can I just want to sing along to the bombs, you know.
SPEAKER_01Uh uh, isn't Ariel Cooper who designed designed the costumes as well? Yes, yes, yeah, great, great designs. And you just remember to speak about maybe put throwing in an Australia shirt next time.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I'll I'll I'll make sure to tell Ariel, yeah, be like, make sure it's Australia and not Austria. Yeah, no shade to the Austrians.
SPEAKER_01I love the Austrians, but it's and the more uh of course, of course, but uh the more uh Olivia's the better, you know. If there's more than one Olivia in the next film, too, I I won't.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we also had Lou Taylor Poochie and Olivia Taylor Dudley, so I need to find more people with Taylors in their middle name as well.
SPEAKER_01I guess a little bit more of a Samantha Fox there, Touch Me. I want your body, which did not appear in the movie Touch Me. Hope you enjoyed the conversation with Addison. If you have made it this far, you've probably seen the movie already, if not rent or buy on digital platforms. Uh it is a movie that I think will end up getting as kind of disgust uh a special edition and lots and lots of extras and just something to put in the the uh physical media collection. I have a bit of you know strong sense that I'll be buying it for sure. I want to see it again, and you know, I just think there are so many aspects to it that are bizarre. I don't mind. Alright, I'll like that's it for now. We've had another movie for sure. This is Shane A. Bassett saying thank you very much for listening to another edition of Cinicritique at movie underscore analyst is where you'll find me. Bye for now.