Strangers in the Alps: A Movie Podcast
Four friends are forced to seek shelter in an abandoned cabin in the alps when their road trip is unexpectedly cut short. To stave off cabin fever, they’re slashing through a pile of VHS tapes left behind. Tune in every Thursday as they argue, discuss, and enlighten each other on the movies waiting within the tapes in this podcast mysteriously set up and left behind by someone…or something…The fireplace is lit, the tv is on, and the slashing has just begun!
Strangers in the Alps: A Movie Podcast
S03E19 - The Innkeepers
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The Strangers check in at the spookiest yet most charming hotel in town! This week they're checking out Ti West's "The Innkeepers" starring Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, and Kelly McGillis!
"The Innkeepers" is available to stream on Tubi and PlutoTV!
During the final days at the Yankee Pedlar Inn, two employees determined to reveal the hotel's haunted past begin to experience disturbing events as old guests check in for a stay.
#haunting #film #reviews #commentary #movies #strangersinthealps #satellite12 #moviepodcast #theinnkeepers #TiWest #sarapaxton #pathealy #kellymcgillis #ghost
Follow all of our relevant links here: https://linktr.ee/satellite12
And welcome to another episode of Stranger Than the Alps, a movie podcast, where every week we discuss movies. A movie. In an in-depth, comprehensive ramble. About movies. And now we're doing themes. What is our theme this month, Sam? Movies.
SPEAKER_00Movies. More movies.
SPEAKER_01You can get through it, Sam. Try it.
SPEAKER_04Strangers go to haunted houses.
SPEAKER_01Yes. I'm Dan. I feel like at this point. That's Travis. Stand across from me and to the right of my radio dial is Frank.
SPEAKER_03You're proving my point. You'll be all like, y'all go in the house. I'm waiting in the car. You're like, Where are you? Okay. Since you said Scooby-Doo, this is secretly a continuation of 13 Ghosts. Because it was meant to say the name correctly.
SPEAKER_0413.
SPEAKER_03Oh, no.
SPEAKER_04There 1, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10.
SPEAKER_01We're all ghosts. So do you have the back of the VHS tape ready to read?
SPEAKER_03I say that is because Dan, we technically. I thought the reason why you kept making Scooby-Doo Scooby-Doo jokes was. What?
SPEAKER_04Scooby-What?
unknownScooby-Doo.
SPEAKER_04Scooby-Doo. Did you hear what he said? I said Scooby-Doo. He said Scooby-Doo. I said Scooby-Doo. We're winding the tape.
SPEAKER_01Scooby-Scooby. I'm talking five, Father.
SPEAKER_03I thought the reason why you kept bringing making Scooby-Doo jokes was because you knew Mather Matthew Lillard was shaggy. Because afterwards you're like, you played shaggy and Scooby-Doo, and we're like.
SPEAKER_01I'm glad you brought that up because I'd like to say something. I would like to apologize to Matthew Lillard for making fun of his name last week. I've already got John Liguazama on my on my his. They were going to both listen to this together. Courtney Cox is probably hating on me. Were you making fun of Matthew? Oh, Mark, you didn't care about his name.
SPEAKER_03Mark Lillard. And then he said, I said that's not his name, and he said, who the fuck cares?
SPEAKER_01So I'm apologizing. But not to me. To Matthew. Not to me. And Courtney Cox. Thank God she's not going to be in another Scream movie. Oh crap, she is, isn't she? Mm-hmm. Okay. Enough about that. Could you read the back of the VHS? VHS. Scooby VHS. The back of the DVD.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Do you know what? This actually just gives away all we need to know.
SPEAKER_01It gives it away?
SPEAKER_03It's a movie. Yeah. About ghosts. After the Yankee Paddler Inn decides to shut down, Claire and Luke, two employees at the inn, decide to prove that the place is haunted. However, they begin to experience strange and disturbing events. I will correct and say one of the people starts to experience strange events.
SPEAKER_01That's a simple sentence fix they could have done.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because uh But that was a twist. Many twists. No, no, no. I'm saying, but as it's riveting. No, no, no, because the one character says. No, because Luke says it's happened to me before. But none of it's happening to him then.
SPEAKER_01Right, but you don't find out until after. How about a red vine?
SPEAKER_04I'm past red vine. I'm a Twizzler gal now. Wow, okay. Assuming with red vines.
SPEAKER_02I think most you gotta wet them a little bit and crush them, and then they still Oh wait, never mind. Are you talking about Twizzlers still? Yes, of course.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03Tweakers.
SPEAKER_01So one of the actors in this movie who played like the desk guy, the her friend, the girl and the guy. Pat Healy. Pat Healy, who was also in Killers of the Flower Moon.
SPEAKER_04Oh, what was he?
SPEAKER_01I don't remember. He was Pat Healy. He was also in Magnolia. Wow. He was also in Better Call Saul.
SPEAKER_03You know what I know about the stuff? So I mean this guy's done this guy's done some work. I know him from my movie. Probably none of you have heard of Cheap Thrills. Never heard of it.
SPEAKER_01That's not listed here. You've mentioned it before, actually. I've mentioned it on here before. Well, here's his filmography. The only reason I brought it up is because while I was watching the movie, it was in Pearl Harbor. While I was watching the movie. He's still alive? I kept yeah. I get it. The only reason I kept looking, going, God, that guy looks so familiar. And it was really bugging me. Like she didn't look familiar to me. I know all the time.
SPEAKER_04And she was more of like a Disney. Well, she was also Disney gal. She was in weapons.
SPEAKER_01I thought she was more of a vinyl girl gal.
SPEAKER_04No, she was giving very Disney Channel acting.
SPEAKER_03And she was in Aquamarine, right?
SPEAKER_01Disney, Disney, Disney Channel acting. Yeah, she was in Aquamarine.
SPEAKER_03She was and she was originally, well, they they were thinking about casting her instead of um for Lizzie McGuire instead of Hillary Dunn. Wait, really?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I could totally see that. And um And then of course the great Go ahead.
SPEAKER_03I was gonna say, um Well, I knew her two from well, the the actress from um from Weapons that I just saw like two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_04She's in weapons?
SPEAKER_03She's in one scene, she's Justin Long's wife.
SPEAKER_04Her? Yes. Sherry Paxton.
SPEAKER_03She's in the city. I knew she looked familiar. She's Justin Long's wife. She's in one scene in the movie. That's why I'm not sure. She's still pretty young, isn't she? She doesn't look like and she's because that's Zach Krieger's wife. How old is she?
SPEAKER_01Maybe 40?
SPEAKER_03Maybe.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Kelly McGillis? Did that mean anything to anybody in this? She was in that name sounds familiar.
SPEAKER_04She also looks familiar to me.
SPEAKER_01She was in Witness.
SPEAKER_04Nope.
SPEAKER_01With uh Harrison Ford. That's a great movie. Um I've seen. She was in a bunch of movies. Back in like the late 80s, early 90s. She had a a pretty good run. She was with Tom Cruise?
SPEAKER_03Oh, she was in uh Top Gun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03The new one? No, the original.
SPEAKER_01She did a lot. A lot of stuff. I'd say within like about a 10-year period, she actually did quite a few A-lister movies.
SPEAKER_03This movie's not A-lister.
SPEAKER_02Oh, she almost also came out as a lesbian in 2009. How do you almost have to be? She retracted? I mean, sorry, she came out as a lesbian in the last one. I was like she was going to. Why did I say almost? That's weird. Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_04What movie did we watch? What's the name of this fucking movie?
SPEAKER_02The Innkeepers.
SPEAKER_01The Innkeepers. Innkeepers. Oh, right, sorry. We never said the name. Innkeepers.
SPEAKER_03The Innkeepers from 2011. Directed by Ty West. We did two episodes on his words.
SPEAKER_01Where are we in Ty West's career when this movie came out?
SPEAKER_03I think this was his third? This was his third movie because Oh, I did not expect him to look like that. He did Who?
SPEAKER_02Ty West. I just looked him up.
SPEAKER_04He looked like Ty West. He looks like a Ty West.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So basically before this one, he did The House of the Devil. And then before that, he did Sacrament. This was his third feature. And actually the hotel that they filmed at, the actual hotel for this one, they were staying at it while while filming The House of the Devil. And they had started to hear ghost stories about the hotel. So then they decided to make a movie at this hotel because they're like, oh, it's creepy. The Sacrament was a little bit more. Yes. Oh, yes, you did. Has anyone here any ever experienced any paranormal sightings? Activities.
SPEAKER_01No, I haven't. Okay, moving on.
SPEAKER_03You said I have one.
SPEAKER_01I have one. That's all I have. I want to hear it.
SPEAKER_03And then Dan's gonna then at the end, Dan's gonna start running away. I lied! I made it up!
SPEAKER_02What is that a reference to?
SPEAKER_03You're so funny. State of the episode. Alright, so Dan, you wanna go first? I can. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We're telling you you must. So I was living in Pasadena when I first moved out here many, many years ago.
SPEAKER_05That is scary. She's rich?
SPEAKER_01I moved into a very old apartment complex in Pasadena. Was it the first one ever made? It had been, it was one of the original apartment buildings on El Molino Avenue, right down the street from the Pasadena Playhouse. It was built like in 1915. And it was cool. It had like a formal dining room.
SPEAKER_03So these were big apartments too then.
SPEAKER_01It had like glass doorknobs. It was like really Yeah. Oh, that's cool. It had a formal dining room. Yeah. And I think I was paying $160 a month. Stop. Stop. You bitch. But there was something really it had this really cool vibe, obviously. But at the same time it had this kind of weird, kind of creepy vibe just because it was it was old and not really kept it up that well. Like I could have used some paint and some plaster work and maybe some new carpet and a few other things. It had what my mother would call the character. One night I was in bed asleep, or close to falling asleep, and as I was sort of drifting in, I kind of heard something that it was odd. I opened my eyes, and I swear to you, there was a person standing over me.
SPEAKER_03Did you stop living in that?
SPEAKER_01I stared long enough to believe that I had a person standing over me, and then I squeezed my eyes shut thinking, well, I'm just gonna die now. You accepted it? I was literally frozen. Like I could not move. And I kept my eyes closed for the longest time, and then I squinted back open and it was gone. I got out of bed, turned on all the lights, and sat up in the living room pretty much the rest of the night.
SPEAKER_04So how old were you at this time?
SPEAKER_0119, 12, 20.
SPEAKER_03Last week. Did you how long did you stay there?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I stayed there for I mean it was 160 years. I was there for the last year. I was there for the school year, so they stayed for the rest of the school year.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. He just slept with the lights on.
SPEAKER_01I still remember I still remember it so vividly. I would do that's so vivid.
SPEAKER_04What do they look like? What did it look like?
SPEAKER_01It was like a figure of like a man.
SPEAKER_04Shadowy silhouette, or you can actually tell details.
SPEAKER_01No, I didn't really get details. It was more like this sort of like not vapor. It was definitely formed. It's like head, shoulders, and body standing over me.
SPEAKER_03You saw like the details and everything.
SPEAKER_02It wasn't You You didn't see the details, but you saw a mass. Like you saw what looked like a human.
SPEAKER_04Did you do that whole trope where you like researched?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you hopped on your hopped on your roller coaster.
SPEAKER_01You go down to the PDF. Go down the library and find that there was a fire there back in 1916. Did you take a microfilm? That's the only thing this movie didn't have today. Nobody went to get a book or a newspaper to actually read about it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm surprised that they ended up that they needed to do this. Yes, they did in this movie.
SPEAKER_03Yes, they did. Remember they were like, oh, we're building a website, so they go on the website for the hotel and it gives the background story about the hotel and about so anyway, that's my ghost story.
SPEAKER_01Who wants to go next?
SPEAKER_04Well, I'm I don't have any. You don't? Mm-mm. Interesting.
SPEAKER_01Oh, and by the way, I want to add one more thing. I want to add one more thing to that because when you said that made me think of anything, I don't believe in ghosts. Yeah. Even though I swear to God I saw one.
SPEAKER_04So okay.
SPEAKER_01I get what you're saying. Yeah. And here's the reason why I've convinced myself of that. Because I firmly believe that if I completely do not believe in them, I will never see another one. You know what they say? Do you know what I'm saying? Oh, damn.
SPEAKER_03So I'm kind of tricking myself. Well, what's the expression believing is seeing? What is it? Seeing is believing. No, it's the other way around. Believing is seeing.
SPEAKER_01No, seeing is believing. No, but he's talking about like with ghosts and spirits and stuff.
SPEAKER_02Refusing to talk to is seeing to not believe or something. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01That's my thing. You've never seen one. Me? You have no ghost story.
SPEAKER_04I well, I I hadn't seen one, but I know your neighbors with one. Yeah. Um I was the most experienced probably just like at work at a theater. I was like, I was closing, I was counting money, and I felt someone squeeze my arm. But the thing is, for me, I'm like, if you're here, it's fine. Just don't mess with me when I'm counting cash.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No. Don't make me start over again.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'm counting cash right now. I'm I need to really concentrate. Just bother me later. But then she never bothered again. But we named her Linda. Because there were they she would like mess around in our office. Linda the ghost.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so she was she was like a known thing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. At our old stomping ground, apparently.
SPEAKER_02The ghost.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, every like theater, there's always like a ghost story.
SPEAKER_02What if Sam had felt that and also heard what's up, sweet cheeks? Would that have changed your perception at all?
SPEAKER_04You know, I don't know. Let's see where this goes.
SPEAKER_01I feel like Sam would have still said, can you please just hang on? I'm counting.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, let me just run this money through really quick and then we'll talk about it.
SPEAKER_02You do have that energy that, like, not right now. Yeah. I'm counting.
SPEAKER_04When it comes to work, just let me do my thing. I can't mess this up.
SPEAKER_01That's fair. Do you want to go next, Travis? I don't have to. Frank, if you do want to go on the first time, well, do you have one?
SPEAKER_03Yes, I do. Okay, I want to hear it. I'll go. Okay, so um, this is one of mine. I um so this was in the year 2007. Oh boy. And because I just well, I just remember because I was in San Diego. I was in San Diego.
SPEAKER_01Is there something up there?
SPEAKER_03Yes. A ghost. And you keep looking up there.
SPEAKER_01What are you always looking? What are you looking for up there?
SPEAKER_03That's how I do my That's how I'd start my flashbacks. Okay, good. So it was 2007. Some friends and I went to San Diego and we went to Old Town. And have any of you been to Old Town since I've been? Of course, many times. Okay, so you know how they have the Whaley house there? I sure do. Okay, so uh my friends and I, we were just like, it's cool. So we went, we went inside the Whaley house, and it was like right. The Whaley House is basically like town square of like old San Diego. So it's where a whole haunted tour and everything. It's where the mayor lived, they did the courthouse. But the thing is with the Whaley house with old San Diego, is they started expanding it and building around it, but they didn't. This is very like poltergeist, they didn't move any of the bodies. So when you're walking down the street in old town, you're walking down, you'll see little pebbles on the floor, and they're the gravestones. Oh shit. Yeah. So we went bodies. Old town is really cool. Yeah, so we went once, I don't know. We went right, we got in there like right, maybe like 15 minutes before they were supposed to close. Oh, you're one of those, huh? Well, you didn't want to, and they were like, we're like, oh, you're gonna close it, like that's fine. They were like, that's fine, come in. So because it was really slow that night. They're like, we're just here, so you can just hang out, just like, you know, just the ghosts. Yeah. So we went in and my friend and I, we were walking, and we went out to the courtyard, and we looked in one of the windows on the lower, and we saw two people in there, like, staring at us. But they looked like they were dressed up. Yeah. As back then they were looking. So we went walking back and we were talking. We're like, oh yeah, so like we saw the other people, like, what are you talking about? We're like, they're like, no, we're the only people in here.
SPEAKER_04I don't know. I feel like they're lying to you. No, because I feel like they were pulling your legs.
SPEAKER_03They were too. There was that's probably part of the tour. No, it's yeah. We were not part of the tour.
SPEAKER_04Like, it was literally said it that they didn't have anything to do, so no.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But there was that I'm not biting. Oh, yeah, you don't have to. I'm not crazy, man. I'm not crazy. Um there was that one. There's more. No, that's that's the thing. I'm saying that's the one I'm telling today.
SPEAKER_01I I I hear you. I dig that. That would have freaked me out.
SPEAKER_03It didn't like, but that's the thing though, is it didn't like freak me out. I was just like, I was just like, oh, that's cool. Like after the fact, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like you'd have been laying in bed almost asleep, woke up, there was a body standing over you.
SPEAKER_03I would have been like, I would have been like, I would have called you up. Dan, it just happened to me. Same guy, man. You know that thing you're looking for? This is it.
SPEAKER_02Frank. Um, I have several, but I I I guess I can just talk to you. We're gonna dunce one. So we just moved into a house. It was uh um it is It's the last house on the left. Oh no, it's the second to last house on the left. Gotcha. Um uh so we just moved into a house. It's my my husband's mom's house. Uh they've lived there for a while, and um uh she recently retired, so she left us the house. So we've been moving in, and um a couple of uh like a week or two ago, I started feeling like there was something staring at um staring in through the outside kitchen window. Um and then I got like a glimpse of a like a figure standing next to a uh uh the uh water fountain that's out in the front yard. Uh and so I told my husband about it. I was like, yeah, it was kind of weird. Um and he said, Oh, where where did you see it? And I told them this spot right here. And he's like, Oh, that's funny, because there was a tree there, and one of the previous owners hung himself on that tree, and then when we moved in, we cut it down. And I was like, Okay, that's great. I also heard knocking that night on the window. So uh he's like, Yeah, that happens sometimes. I'm like, okay, cool.
SPEAKER_04Happens every Thursday at 7 30. Was this his childhood home?
SPEAKER_02Not his childhood home, but he did live there for a little bit um as a teenager.
SPEAKER_04So he's heard these things before. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Uh as a matter of fact, figure next to a fountain and someone's tapped my window. I'm packed and mom headwind halfway home. Who's who was that then? What comedian is that Eddie Murphy Murphy? We can't say.
SPEAKER_02I'm so used to it at this point that it wasn't really scary. Uh it was just more like I'm trying to like do stuff and this is like in the way. Like he his his just story was worse. It involved like a TV turning on and um Jose's story is worse, isn't it? Oh. And like an imprint on on the uh on the bed of like something sitting there. So like his was worse than mine.
SPEAKER_03That but it happened to my other friend when we're at the Whaley house. Oh, yeah, he was they were sitting on the bed and went on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that happens a lot. Yeah, um is it happening to him now? But I also did like two days ago, uh, I felt uh something tug at my t-shirt while I was in the kitchen trying to like clean. And it happened twice, and I like I I tried redoing it and it didn't happen. I'm out and so I was just like, look, I'm trying to do stuff, just don't bother me. Are you responding to us the guy in the front of the house? And are you ready to start? Are you ready to start recording there? I am not. I was also napping in the living room a couple of days ago. Oh good God. Well, you're gonna have to. Dan, you don't believe, remember. We can zoom. I'll be like, you're gonna get a walk in from me one of these days.
SPEAKER_01I don't believe it.
SPEAKER_02You're gonna have to say I don't believe in ghosts. Oh, um I was taking a nap in the living room and later um and I heard the so I'm at the far the far end of the living room, close to my computer, because um there was some rendering going on, so I was taking an app. And uh at the the furthest uh end, next to the laundry room, next to our our bedroom where the um the incident happened years ago, yeah, um I heard the uh the table that's sitting there like kind of rock. Oh, whatever. You know, like it could have been the cat, and then I'm just trying to nap, and I hear there's boxes behind me, and I hear them shift a little bit. And so I was like, you know what? I don't have time for this right now. I'm not seeing anything, I'm not seeing anything, I'm not hearing anything. And then I didn't. Yeah. But it's just like I like I've told you guys before outside of the podcast, like at our old house, I did also feel things like following me into my room sometimes. Like you could, you know, when you when you can feel that someone's behind you and like breathing down your neck. Like I felt that a couple times.
SPEAKER_03Okay, Mr. Six.
SPEAKER_04But I feel like you you're more open to like receiving these things.
SPEAKER_02Uh sometimes. Yeah, sometimes it's kind of annoying. Writing is seeing.
SPEAKER_04Dan's on the opposite end of the spectrum where he's like believing it's not seeing.
SPEAKER_01This is this is me.
SPEAKER_04Rick.
SPEAKER_02Rick, and it's okay, you get used to it eventually.
SPEAKER_04And then Frank's just like, alright. Anyway.
SPEAKER_02Not right now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'm taking a nap.
SPEAKER_02I think specifically what I said what I said was um for the shirt pulling one, is like, I don't want to play right now. Please don't bother me. So speaking of not playing the Inn Keepers.
SPEAKER_01Yes, for those of you who are keeping notes, the movie we saw was Innkeepers. Inkeepers.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so if you did if you were they keepers or inkeepers.
SPEAKER_01So who had seen this before? None of us. No, no one initial thoughts. We already established that. If you follow us, we established that last week.
SPEAKER_03I'm just letting people know.
SPEAKER_01Follow us, like us on Instagram. Okay, pre thoughts. I'll start. Yes. Never heard of the movie. We should say it at the same time. I'll literally never heard of the movie. You hadn't heard it either.
SPEAKER_04I'd heard of it.
SPEAKER_01Well, but I will say I like the title.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You got excited when you heard the title.
SPEAKER_01I thought the title was cool. Right. And you said I like the title. And you know how much I hate titles. Yeah. This title works. Nice. Um, I'll go. So please say I just never heard of it.
SPEAKER_03So we're not going to be able to do No, I had heard of the name, and like you like and like you, Dan it said, Oh, that name's kind of cool. I never heard of it. And then I knew Ty West had done it. You knew Ty West? Yes. Don't don't encourage him. I was gonna say, because of though a movie that I heard was terrible, was I think he even like tried to take his name off the movie was Cabin Fever 2 Dose Spring Break. That's true. So that's why I was like, uh that's why I just put it up.
SPEAKER_01But then after seeing he did the sequel to Cabin Fever. Yeah. He can't even be responsible for the first one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I well, I think it was one of those he was just up and coming, and they're like, hey, like hey, don't watch the first one.
SPEAKER_01Here, just make this.
SPEAKER_03So, but then and that's but then after seeing like X Pearl, I always wanted to come back to it. So I'm glad I finally did. Yeah. But I knew zero, all I knew was the name of the movie. That's it. I didn't know anything.
SPEAKER_01Okay, uh, Sam.
SPEAKER_04Um, yeah, after X and stuff, I was researching his phonography, and that was on the list, but I had never seen it.
SPEAKER_01See, nice and concise.
SPEAKER_02Frank? Uh yeah, I didn't know he was directing it. I didn't know anything about the movie until it was suggested. I did also like the name. Um, but that was about it. I kind of guessed that it would be about innkeepers? About like a hotel. A haunted hotel, just because of the name and the theme. How did you put the two together?
SPEAKER_01That kind of gave it away.
SPEAKER_02I didn't know. Um, but I think that that that was pretty much all I knew, and I was like, okay, let's see where this goes. Yeah. I'm gonna start if you're gonna be.
SPEAKER_03A lot of people kept saying that. It's like a lot of people kept saying that.
SPEAKER_01With something really positive, meaning something that really impressed me about the movie. It was like this movie was made for $750,000.
SPEAKER_05Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01So I thought that the the movie looked like the cinematography, the camera work, not the camera work, but like the the lighting, the sound, the score. Way above a $750,000. 100%. Way above. I mean, we've had movies that were twice or more that had crap sound, the the terrible acting. And we can discuss the acting, but I mean these were these are actors. I mean, you didn't get the feeling that they just pulled their friends together to make a movie. Like paranormal activity. Yeah. This was like what's going on.
SPEAKER_03And I was gonna say, and I was gonna say maybe less than half.
SPEAKER_01I feel like I mean you gotta really commend the movie for that. It looked it looked really good.
SPEAKER_03Comparing it to last week's movie where it was 13 Ghosts. Where it was a movie that was made. That was my big Hollywood budget. That's what I'm saying is that movie was made on 40 million. This was made on 750,000, and I felt like this one was like sort of a better. I mean, yeah, like you I feel like with this one because it had that limited budget, they had to stretch the money more. And like I said, it felt more further. It felt more resourceful, like, and I felt more tense. Well, it kept it in one basic location.
SPEAKER_01Meaning the house, it had a very small cast. But if a director, an up-and-coming director makes a movie like that looks like that for $750,000, you are going to work again. He's gonna make another Marvel movie. You're going to make well no, you're going to make another movie because of for I mean, regardless of content, look what you did with $750,000. And and and Lisa Fields, who casted, I know her, she's been casting for years, and she does a lot of commercials and stuff, as well as as features. Um it's you know, she's a quality casting director. I mean, this is 2011. I mean, obviously, this is an extremely low budget. For 2011, that's an extremely low budget. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, and it's a little bit of a few. And it was shot on film. Yeah, and it made it. Oh wow, I didn't know that. It looked really good. Fantastic.
SPEAKER_03Because in the thing, lighting, it's every and all the casts, everyone they were living at that, they were staying at that hotel while they were.
SPEAKER_01I don't know why you would. But where was this filmed? Do we know?
SPEAKER_03It was filmed at the at the like at a hotel. Well, I don't know. Yeah, it was actually filmed at the Yankee Pedler. What what happened in the past? I don't that I don't know. Um New Jersey, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Connecticut.
SPEAKER_03Connecticut, yeah, I knew it somewhere around.
SPEAKER_02Torrington, Connecticut. Beautiful. Far Ring. Connecticut. Connecticut.
SPEAKER_03Farring. So that's my but you get what I'm saying, Dan. Like the two movies. I felt like with 13 Ghosts, you kinda had that over-reliance on just like the big money. Yeah. But with this one, it's just like, hey, no, we're just tone it down. You know, we're they I feel like they accomplished a lot more because they didn't have forty million dollars.
SPEAKER_01Well, and they kept the story very simple. So simple. So simple. What was the story? So simple. What did you rename the movie?
SPEAKER_02The Snooze Keepers. Am I right? So right. Okay. It's it's not entirely accurate how I feel, but right. Of course. Going into it, I was going like, oh no.
SPEAKER_04I would tell people it's a slow burn.
SPEAKER_03It's a very slow burn.
SPEAKER_02It's a slow burn. But once you've got no payoff. Once you clue into the slow burn, it flows better. And then when when it ends, you're like, why? Why was it a slow burn?
SPEAKER_04What? What happened?
SPEAKER_02Usually a slow burn builds up to something. It doesn't just slow burn itself out.
SPEAKER_04This one did.
SPEAKER_02But I I I I understand that this was written to take advantage of well not take advantage, but it was written in inspiration of what he's gone through. What they had gone through while staying there. So I understand that like.
SPEAKER_04Right, but also fib a little, you know?
SPEAKER_02What? Oh yeah, yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_03What do you not think it paid off on?
SPEAKER_02A satisfying conclusion.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Or like explaining, I feel like this did a lot more telling than showing. Because there's this one scene where um Luke and Claire were going into the basement or something, I don't remember what exactly. And she was like, Madeline's right behind you. And instead of showing that, they just run out.
SPEAKER_03But I liked though, but that see, for me, I see that I liked because it kind of showed I like how you think any movie, like you said, you think it would show what their ghost is gonna be, and I think it really seen it built up, but and that's just jump to the you had already seen it, but that's what I liked where it looks like now when Luke has a chance to see, he just runs out.
SPEAKER_04But I feel like if you had shown that though, it would have kept the audience enticed. I don't I don't know. It was more of like, believe me, when I say the ghost is behind you. I yeah, but I would have been like, right, but I want to see that. But and not so I don't know why you're scared. That's what I have to pay off.
SPEAKER_02The buildup in that moment is oh, you're gonna see something, even if it's not like a clear look at the ghost, some kind of like silhouette, a shadow. Right. Well, you know, a quick cut movement, some of them.
SPEAKER_03Frank, for me though, I like like I said, I thought it was a good character moment for Luke because Luke. Well, that's the thing, and I think, and I think that's what it should be because I guess you can't. I get what you mean because he hadn't gone through everything. Well, no, no, no. What I mean is he because he had seen the ghost. No, he had never seen the ghost. We as the audience had seen the ghost. Then when he has a chance to see the ghost, he runs away. And to me, it ties back to the beginning when he tells her, Hey, I got this ghost on camera. You gotta watch it, you gotta watch carefully because it ends up being the jump scare where he scares her. So I think for I I don't know. I don't know if I'm looking too much into it, but for me, I thought it was a good one I think it's a good character moment.
SPEAKER_04I just don't think that was the case. I don't think it was executed well.
SPEAKER_03But that's not the big, but that's also not the big jump in the movie. Like we do see the ghost afterwards.
SPEAKER_04But that was when things started revving up, though. Supposedly.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, I felt okay. I'm not sure when things really started revving up because earlier when she's in her bedroom and gets the ghost thing, that was cool. That was like a really cool moment, but then we just kind of we just kind of kind of went right back to like this not we're not going here. Let's get going here. I kept thinking, come on now. I know you're gonna get I know we're gonna rev this baby up. I know we're gonna do it. Because we're not just gonna drag us through this and then never really rev it up. I thought before they went down the basement when he's trying to express his feelings for her, and then her thing is let's go down to the basement and find this fucking ghost. Oh, that was pretty funny. I thought that was a really cool moment. Yeah. Like the movie had moments.
SPEAKER_02It had care it had it had little characters.
SPEAKER_01I thought the first, like the first act, I was okay with what was going on. Because I was like, okay, I accept this. It's kind of moody. We're kind of getting to know the characters. You know, you have the mom and her little kid, you have the the weird, like who's she? Oh, she's this actress from this old TV show. Uh oh. She goes to the coffee shop. I thought that was really Calvin's. I just I just ran out.
SPEAKER_03Who is she Lena Dunham? What does she do? Or Dunn? She's too much or so, I hope. I know. She was what do you do?
SPEAKER_04She directed Tiny Furniture, but then she also created the show Girls. Oh. But then also she wrote a book where she said that she harassed her sister, so she's cancelled.
SPEAKER_02Molested her sister. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_01When they were both. Pretty bad, yeah. So when she starts talking about her boyfriend, I just thought it was really funny. And she's like what did you think about it? It was pretty funny.
SPEAKER_03It's like it's like it's like they ran out. It's like saying it on instant message. It doesn't count. Like when it's like, oh, she it's been a year. He hasn't said I love me, and she's taking him on this really important date.
SPEAKER_01I really liked him, Pat Healy. I thought he was cool. I could have done without the hairdo, but that's okay. After a while, it's like wait, that was a weird ass faux hawk.
SPEAKER_04It was a faux hawk, like it wasn't at your age.
SPEAKER_01It also felt very it all felt very on purpose to give him this sort of look. It didn't feel natural to me. Like you didn't seem like you were a naturally weird guy. Yeah. Because your hair's like this. Right. But I really liked him. I thought he was really good. I I thought she was fine. She was kind of like a few. I thought they were both fine, yeah. Yeah. I mean, and I thought the writing, as far as just dialogue and stuff goes, I never felt there was too much dialogue where I kind of went, oh come on, man. We're not having this conversation. Why are you guys talking about this? It was it was not any of the above. It was not the dialogue or the acting or the way it was shot or the sound or the music. It was just there. It just the motor just didn't rev up. No.
SPEAKER_04It just I wrote like I wrote on my notes three to four jump scares in around the 35 minute mark, and like really no real development. I did, I did.
SPEAKER_01I think I was at 37 minutes in going, okay man, we're out of act one. Yeah. We're well into this act two. What's going on?
SPEAKER_03Right. The one thing I didn't see, I almost thought the movie was gonna be an anthology piece almost about different guests because the title cut the chapters. The chapters are very deceiving. Right. Because it didn't do I mean, other than in in the second one where it said Madeline? Madeline, and then I was like, okay, we're gonna learn about her, even though we had a little bit. And then the other ones, like epilogue and all the other ones, I'm like, the third one I'm like this doesn't do anything.
SPEAKER_04It was like after the fact that's added in.
SPEAKER_01What were we to make of the we're gonna talk about Kelly McGillis in just a second, because there's a couple scenes that are worth mentioning, but what were we to make of the old man, the final guest? I thought we were going somewhere clearly tied into the story. I think his mind, I think his white. But I mean that's so obvious, and yet like all the things that seemed obvious to me, was it just the writer going, well, that's just too obvious. I'm not gonna do that. Yeah, it's like, well, maybe you need to do something.
SPEAKER_03I figured, like you said, it was like I I see because that's it felt like development. The twist that I thought the twist that I thought was gonna happen was you were gonna find out that all the people staying in the hotel that weekend. Dead. Yeah, they were ghosts.
SPEAKER_01100%. So including the two innkeepers. Yeah, yeah. I literally thought we're gone, we're all dead. So with that the others, yeah. Except she went to the coffee place.
SPEAKER_03So with that, I thought when the old man came in, I was like, oh my god, it's the ghost of the the the guy. And then you and then I guess you come to find out. First of all, I understand she's trying to be nice, but I'm like, you know what? It's my last bag in here. This guy's weird. He's not staying here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I'm certainly not gonna go out of my way to give him the room. No, so that didn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_03So I think the whole thing with him, he was just an older gentleman, I think, who I think his wife maybe recently died, and he just didn't have the will to live anymore.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because he rolled the suicide.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's the only thing. Yeah. And he was one of the three ghosts that was predicted. Oh, that's what you wanted to happen. Well, no, that's what it was. All the three of the ghosts were pr were they announced all of them were there. What ghost he wasn't a ghost? What are you talking about? Yes, he became a ghost.
SPEAKER_01Okay, but he did become a ghost, but he didn't start off as a ghost.
SPEAKER_03No, I'm saying everyone became the three ghosts.
SPEAKER_01What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_03Is remember when they first go to Carrie Gillis? She's talking and she says, and she thinks. I don't care. I got it back. And she says, remember she says, Oh, I see three ghosts here. Oh, yeah, and she says, Who are the other two? Okay, so Madeline? No, no, no, no. Okay, the ghosts are Madeline, the old guy, and then her at the end, because she dies. The girl. So she becomes the girl. Yeah, the girl becomes the third of the movie.
SPEAKER_01That is so cool. I don't remember that. Yeah, because she because that's the thing. She's like, What did you think of that scene? With the door closing? No, no, no, no. The scene where she pulls out the three. That's what I thought too. And it was just like I'm holding this up and I'm asked the question. See, ask it again. I thought, okay, we're going somewhere.
SPEAKER_03I thought it was either crazy.
SPEAKER_01I thought it was either she was gonna be hypnotized or that was a big tool, though.
SPEAKER_03Or I thought it was don't do this. I thought it was gonna be a way because she was like, oh, what do you want? I thought it was gonna be kind of like a insidious conjuring, oh, like they're gonna agitate the ghost.
SPEAKER_04So then I'm good for any of that. That's what I thought. Oh, going back to how I was saying how things were said rather than shown, when she when Claire went to wake up what's the what's the character's name? The actress. Oh, Leah. Lee. Lee. And she's like, hey, help me, help me. So she was doing that thing with the with the thing, and then she was like, We need to get out of the house, or we need to get out of this place. Oh yeah. You're in danger. What did you see? You know?
SPEAKER_03She saw her dad.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but where was that implied? Did you get that frame? I didn't pick up. I need more.
SPEAKER_03It was shown, it was shown help me out. It was shown at the very end when she was standing on the side.
SPEAKER_04I absolutely understand that, but you had to watch at that time.
SPEAKER_03Sam, so I don't disagree. It's my it's it's my problem with that scene is what she says. Something very bad is gonna happen in here. Don't go into the scene. She says it's happening. It's not like, oh, let's go, but hold on, I have to go get my things. And she goes back at her room, she's like, oh, get your things. I was like, everyone should leave now.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_03And then the other problem I had with it was then at the end when it sort of implies, like, oh, Lee saw her death, like she knew she was gonna die. She didn't know who wants my problem with that is is, but I think it's kind of the character Luke then yells at her and it's like, oh, you knew she was gonna die. It's your fault. You could have saved her. We didn't have to do this. But I'm like, remember when the ghost came and you left her and drove away? You said I and you said she was scared, and she's like, you left, and was like, no, you just I can't do this right now. It's like uh you kind of left her there. True. At the same time at the most pivotal moment.
SPEAKER_01That was not very well constructed. The things that have bothered you bothered you because it wasn't good construction script writing. At that point, the script started failing. It was almost like I did Ty West, he didn't write the script, did he? Yes, he did. He wrote edited. Okay, so he he well, he did a good job editing. He did. Um the the writing felt very much like this is one of those movies where I feel like you you gotta know what what you're what you're ending at. Like what am I what am I clearly doing here? And then figure out how to get there. It felt very much like it just kinda and it's it's it just kind of it kind of started failing. The writing kind of started failing in the third act. Yeah, so I Which is too bad.
SPEAKER_03There are a lot of holes for sure. Okay, yeah, because I think you had it didn't need to be there. No, because I think it's it's you had the general you had the beats of where it had to go. So it's like, okay, you know that she has to like it kind of hints in the beginning when she's like taking out the trash or whatever, and then she's opening up the basement door there. Yeah. And the bird comes out, you're like, okay, there's something eerie about this basement. After you find out that they got hidden. So you're like, okay, obviously the climax or something's gonna happen in this basement. And I said, okay, now the writer Ty West knows, okay, she's gonna die in the basement. You have your ghost, you have all your beats, but there I think there was just too long of bridges between the beats. Yeah. That it just kind of started because I've seen this movie, I heard this movie compared, and I don't think it's a bad comparison. Is someone said it almost felt like an episode of the show Are You Afraid of the Dark? I can see that. You know what I mean? Like, I think it might have been better as like a short, like for sure. Give me like a 1520.
SPEAKER_04Or like you said earlier, like an anthology, that'd be really cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I think that would have been or just follow the beats that you're setting up. Well, I think it was just and following the thing.
SPEAKER_03I think it was just getting to the beats. I think getting to the beats, it just flubbed because it didn't know where to go. So it's like, oh, it was an hour for three.
SPEAKER_01Act, yeah, hour forty. Act three. It just it fails completely.
SPEAKER_04What was the story behind Madeline again?
SPEAKER_03She was gonna get married.
SPEAKER_01Husband didn't show up, or the fiance didn't.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so yeah, so basically she was gonna get married there. Fiance didn't show up, she hung herself. The hotel was like, oh, we don't want to bring any attention. Mortified, so they hide the body in the basement for three days. Then after the three days, um, they tell everyone about it. Everyone's mortified, so they shut down the hotel, and then someone else buys it and they reopen it. I felt super which and you know, and you want to know something? I feel really sorry for Sarah Paxton. You know why? Why? Because they're gonna tear down the building, right? Yeah. So she's gonna be like a parking lot ghost. You know what I mean? Oh, I'm gonna let the parking gate open.
SPEAKER_01It's gonna be like the uh the junkyard that begins 13. Oh, 13. There you go. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, she's gonna- No, that's the thing. I'm like, I'm like, wow, she really got the short of I'm like a parking lot or just an abandoned, like a vacant lot ghost. You know, you know, you didn't even get something cool to haunt.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that is truly a terrible ending for her. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know, it's and oh sorry. And oh Go ahead. Just speaking on that, I will say because no, because I feel like the one thing that I think they could have done better with, I think it was just kind of like a fail-safe almost, was just she's like, and they're just like, and then she dies at the end.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I feel like even if she does, they could have done more with it. I was just kind of like, yeah, like it's the whole, oh, I get it. It's a slow burn tragedy ending. She died. It's like, okay, but like what else? I feel like they could have done it. That's me throughout the whole environment.
SPEAKER_01Okay, but Okay, let's talk about that. Because I read about afterwards and I went back and looked at that ending five times, and there is no idea where it's not on the window.
SPEAKER_04I did wait. I stared at the window. It's in front of the window.
SPEAKER_01I stared at the window. Find it for me, then freeze it.
SPEAKER_03What are you trying to find?
SPEAKER_01Like, her image.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I thought you were saying the door closing.
SPEAKER_01No, her image. Oh, you didn't see that either. Her image faintly. I saw it. I stared at that thing five times and then I gave up. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Initially, when I watched it, it's like, oh, this is like a callback to that video in the beginning of what dumped.
SPEAKER_02I was expecting the same thing.
SPEAKER_04So then I went on Wikipedia and I was like, oh, and then you see her ghost. I'm like, what ghost? So that'll go back. And I stared and I saw it.
SPEAKER_03This is a Game of Thrones thing, Dan, where you have to adjust the color on your TV. I guess so.
SPEAKER_01I was so I I'll tell you what, we I I watched the movie. I think it might have been believing a sing for me. Got to the end of the movie, and this is before I looked up the Wikipedia stuff. So I got to the movie and I credits started, and I went to my I said, hang on. I rolled back 15 minutes and watched it again. Wow. And I was like, what did I miss?
SPEAKER_03Oh, you're like something there has to be more to it?
SPEAKER_01I missed something. I must have been daydreaming. And I got through it again, paying really good attention. Nope, I didn't miss anything. This is just the way the movie played out. How do you think you rewatched the movie five times just to watch that one? Yeah, I looked at the reocapea thing, I looked at that last shot five times. I never saw how.
SPEAKER_03Just because you said you rewatched 15. Minutes and you're saying, What did I miss? And you we've seen you've seen a few of them now. I mean, I don't know how many haunted house movies you watched before we started this podcast, but how would you say it compares to like Hell House LLC? Which was the one about the hotel where they yeah. Where they do the haunted house walkthrough. It's another low budget single location.
SPEAKER_01But that was a found footage thing. I'm just saying in general, like This is a much better looking movie than that. But I mean, just I didn't find that movie scary.
SPEAKER_03Well, I mean, but do you feel like it was a more fulfilling, like story-wise? Or is it or they can they No, didn't that also have like the how it happened? So it kind of falls in the same category.
SPEAKER_01Okay. A lot of these haunted house movies don't have great payoffs to them. The best, to me, the best haunted house movie is Ghost Ship. No, I'd like to see it. Is Alien.
SPEAKER_0413 Ghosts. Oh.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. The original Alien is a Haunted House movie. And it is so freaking good. And it doesn't, you know, peter out at the end. Oh, we don't know what happened to the Alien. It's like, no, you know. Yeah, it can't swap on space with the heck's going on.
SPEAKER_03Everyone's IQ just lowered.
SPEAKER_01So I mean, there's there's the uh what's it called? The Haunting, which was in uh Robert Weiss film in the mid-sixties. And then they rebounded where a lot of stuff Yeah, I've never seen it. It's horrible. But the original one is a classic, and there you don't really see stuff, but it's really super creepy and really super scary because it feels really like a haunted house.
SPEAKER_03Is that the case?
SPEAKER_01You don't see ghosts, you don't see that stuff, it's just possession and things that are.
SPEAKER_03Is that the movie? I've seen this clip because I remember I was talking about it's kind of madness all tied to it. I was watching and they were talking about sound designs in movies, and it like I said, it was showing how like sound just amplifies the scene. And is that the movie where at one point um there all the characters are literally right here.
SPEAKER_04Right there.
SPEAKER_03It's a jump scare video.
SPEAKER_00It's a jump scare video. They closed the door, I didn't see her. I still don't see her. Hold on.
SPEAKER_03Dan, you gotta you gotta zoom in on your glasses. I guess I do.
SPEAKER_02I don't see her. I think I saw something move near the the drapes. Is she there the whole shot?
SPEAKER_04No, she shows up halfway.
SPEAKER_02Right there. Right there. Now you kind of see her.
SPEAKER_04They could have saturated a little bit more, Mr. West.
unknownI mean, I'll take it.
SPEAKER_03I told you believing.
SPEAKER_01It ain't that good. Um, Dan. She should turn a gun.
SPEAKER_03Boogie Boogie Boogie. Apparently she does. She does turn around. I love that scene. She does turn.
SPEAKER_01Um did um I feel like John Voigt and Anaconda kind of looking wink at uh wink at J Lo.
SPEAKER_03Did um so is that the movie, Dan, where they're outside, like the characters outside like a ballroom or some kind of room, and they're standing and they're sitting outside the door and they have the door closed. Yes, and you just hear the Yes. That scene is freaky. And you never uh the original haunting. The 13th Ghost Haunting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01There's a scene too where uh she's in the bedroom, they're together, two women, and and this the the door starts like moving, there's all this stuff going on, and and and uh at the end of it she's holding her hand, but they're they're holding hands, but they're on opposite sides of the room. Oh, it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen that. It's just it's cool. It's fun, you know, it's it's creepy fun stuff.
SPEAKER_03You should definitely watch that movie, Frank.
SPEAKER_01And they're all like scientists and you know, uh spiritual, what do you call those people who study after life and spirits and stuff? Spiritual scientists, yeah. Yeah, that's the technical term. I was thinking of the land started.
SPEAKER_03I was an actor, but this is my true calling.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That that whole Kelly McGillis, that was all just I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Oh, did you want to talk about her?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, she's a good actress. She plays an actress. She did a good movie. And she did a good job. I think it was just more I I just I guess I felt that was also really incomplete. That whole journey, that whole thing was very everything, everything was so incomplete in this movie.
SPEAKER_03So I feel like she was. I don't think they did enough with her character's backstory either.
SPEAKER_01No, no, I agree.
SPEAKER_02It was like believe with all the dialogue this movie had.
SPEAKER_04That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_02They don't really like and then the whole like, oh, my mom used to love your movies, like they don't touch on that after like initial.
SPEAKER_03So Sarah, you find out Sarah, so I guess she comes in, checks out the hotel, checks in out Sarah knows who she's. I'm assuming that like when she was younger, the actress she was in like a little house on the prairie. Yeah. That's what I don't think. She's not just like that. So she started off as that, she did some movies, and I guess Sarah, her mom used to watch her movie. So Sarah knew who she was. She kind of confronts her, does like a fangirl moment.
SPEAKER_01And then she blows her off.
SPEAKER_03She blows her off. And then she kind of confronts her, Sarah. Like, why'd you do that? And then you find out the actress Lee, her name's Lee, right? Lee is actually not there for an acting convention. She's there because she's like a spiritual guide now. For healer too. And for heal, she does healing, and she says, Well, I don't like ghosts don't exist, or like there's not they're not dead. Basically, she does the whole theory that like everything kind of just like coexists in this plane and everything's connected. No, I'm just saying. Just to say, hey, watch out, there's three ghosts in this hotel. Get out of here. Get out of here. You're in trouble.
SPEAKER_01And in trouble. That's it. Except the vision of the three ghosts is she knows the girl's one of them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So where's she gonna go? At some point, she does say something about how like she needs to be careful with what she says. Mm-hmm. Right. Um, based on what she knows. Same scene. So it's I I feel like that works to imply later that she did know, you know, that the other ghost was um Sarah's character. Yeah. But she did for whatever reason, she didn't this this feels like uh like patchwork, like of someone someone like paved over like an obvious issue or plot hole by um saying, oh yeah, but she like has to be careful, so that's why she didn't do it. Right. You know?
SPEAKER_03Well, because that's the whole thing. It's it's like it's like she says, she's like, oh, it's not like super clear, so like sometimes like she explains it as like almost like a deja vu. So like, oh, when it actually I'm guessing, so when it actually happens, she pieces it together. Oh, so that's what it was. So she she gets a glimpse, but she doesn't know exactly, but yet she knew Sarah had to leave because she was in trouble. But I guess I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Doesn't make it any better.
SPEAKER_03Your explanation didn't I'm not trying to honor it.
SPEAKER_01Go ahead.
SPEAKER_04I'm grateful for like this insight, but I would rather whether it was just in the movie.
SPEAKER_01I'm the innkeeper. Okay. What was the deal with the mom and the kid? Why were they there? Just for comedic relief. To be annoying, it's a comedic relief to run from your husband.
SPEAKER_03Hey, that was not comedic relief. I don't know, but what was the point of the thing? I'm saying because I think in the To be annoying. I thought they were gonna then be ghost.
SPEAKER_01But the point it just didn't it didn't make sense. No, anything in comedic relief.
SPEAKER_03Anything in comedic relief, I mean like the interactions that they have with oh look, she told us. Yeah, I think that's like not her story because that's the thing. It's like the first, I guess, chapter of this movie almost is like a little bit of like a comedy, a little bit with the way I think they're talking, they're interacting, they're making jokes, and then it suddenly kind of strays away from that.
SPEAKER_02Which is weird.
SPEAKER_03So I like I almost thought it was gonna be a different kind of movie, and that's the thing. It's like some people are like, oh, it's a slow burn because it like turns into a horror movie. But I'm like, does it fully ever turn into a horror movie other than a movie that kind of starts out as a comedy and kind of gets a little more serious? But is it because it's running out of steam? Like, I don't is it doing that full transition?
SPEAKER_01To me, a slow burn indicates we're going someplace hot. I wouldn't call this a slow burn. No, I would call this just slow.
SPEAKER_03And saying that's an excuse. That's what I'm saying. It's a movie where stuff happens because I feel like the term I feel like stuff does happen. I feel like the term slow burn is very, very loosely thrown into movies just as an excuse. Like, Dan, like if I were to if you were to see a movie and you tell me to watch it, and I'd be like, Oh, I didn't like it. I thought it was boring or nothing happened. And I feel like they always excuse people say, Oh, it's because it's a slow burn. But I'm like, no, you cannot say that about everything.
SPEAKER_02I agreed. The more we we talk about it, and the more I I because I didn't see the budget at first. I I'm starting to think that maybe one of the issues that the film has with not starting is because they probably wrote for the budget they thought they would get instead of writing for the story they wanted to tell and then adjusting later. It just kind of feels like it limited, like it limited itself from the get-go, and so it never really got anywhere because it didn't think it could get anywhere.
SPEAKER_04They picked and chose where they wanted to spend. And for sure with that.
SPEAKER_02We needed more action with the ghost, though.
SPEAKER_01Straight up. More spicy action with the ghost. A lot more with Madeline. She needed a lot more action in act three.
SPEAKER_03And with that said, do you think now with everything going digital in this movie being widely more accessible? Uh in the sense where I mean when what I mean is when this movie first came out, it came out in like 10 theaters. You saw it in a festival, if you didn't catch it, that was it. Maybe you saw it on a home video. So I think it's one of those that when it came out, it was just a small movie, but now that it's available everywhere and everyone's able to see it. Now I'm like, well, I don't know. And I'm not saying it's an excuse for a movie, like it was ever intended to be seen with like as big of an audience as you can now, if that makes sense. I don't think you should make a film that millions of people see it. But I'm saying I think that like well, I don't think that's it.
SPEAKER_02Are you saying that the film was made and written to not really get a wide release?
SPEAKER_04A wide release?
SPEAKER_02That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04Like if you make a movie, I was gonna say nobody's gonna give you money to make it.
SPEAKER_01I think that's a terrible way to approach it.
SPEAKER_04I just watched his other movie, The House of the Devil. That one is better than this one. So if that came first, that one sounds interesting. Yeah, if that one came first, then I don't think that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_03But I think this is a product of that because I think I think they made this movie as almost just like a side project, like after so then you're saying he's uh he ha half-assed it.
SPEAKER_02I'm not saying that. I don't know what it is. I think I think it sounds like they just kind of rushed into it without giving it some more time.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think it's odd because the the movie looks really good. Oh, it looks great. So clearly they spent time making it look good. I just don't think they spent time preparing it really working on the script. Yeah, yeah. I think they just kind of threw the script together and started shooting. That's how it feels. Yeah, yeah. Because they got all the rest of it right. Well, I think it's like casting that we got a lot of.
SPEAKER_02Some of those tracking shots when um when um she's the when she first uses the uh the recorder and she gets to the piano were really cool.
SPEAKER_01I agree. I thought the piano sequence was really good. Again, these are like little things that you expect in a haunted house movie that's going to gonna end somewhere. Where we're gonna get to some point where it goes kinda apeshit crazy. Yeah. And it just didn't at all.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the jump scares were definitely a waste.
SPEAKER_01You know, commendable for sure.
SPEAKER_04If I had like followed his his films from the get-go, by this point, I don't think I would have like jumped at um X. I wouldn't be the first in the theater to watch X.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_03Did you see his other two?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. The after X?
SPEAKER_03No, af before.
SPEAKER_04No, I only saw House of the Devil.
SPEAKER_03Oh, because I yeah. So you would have said the other one? Yeah, so you would have Sacrament with that. Oh, so you would have really been like, oh, I didn't like this, I'm just gonna stop.
SPEAKER_04Not stop right. I wouldn't rush out. I would like to.
SPEAKER_03You would have been like, hold on, let me hear what people have to say. Yeah. I don't even think you're just not gonna watch it.
SPEAKER_04No, no, no. I would have I would have waited, but I'm glad that didn't happen. I'm glad I backtracked.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's weird going backwards with this guy's career. Yeah. Because I feel like that's what I've done.
SPEAKER_03But a lot of same. But it's weird because I feel like that happens sometimes with like I mean, Ty West, I think, like I said, if you didn't like and I if you didn't like this, I feel like some he's kind of come back because I feel like some like a lot of film like they have that one movie and their second one or stuff after just never. I forgot.
SPEAKER_04My first exposure to Ty West was VHS. And that was a good that was a good segment for sure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but the problem with That was a slow burn. Yeah, well I I don't even know about the biggest. So he's a fan of Slow Burns. Oh, wait, wait, wait. I actually do like Slow Burns. No, but I would like to know that it's Slow Burn before going in. His segment. Oh, I thought you meant the movie in general, right? I'm like the problem over the place. I'm like the problem with VHS movies is the segments that are bad are like really bad. Bad. That's not slow burns. No. No, he did the one slow. He did the one with the family vacation. There's a couple vacations. A couple vacation. That was a good one. That's the one I couldn't do. Because it was boring? I thought that one was so boring. I loved it. It was so like bleak. Boring. Oh. My favorite was the different bulls. Who was the one everyone liked? Yeah. The first one? The succubus one. The alien or the the girl at the bar? Yeah, that they bring to the hotel room. Yes. The succubus. Alright, so let's go back to Innkeepers. I think I'm good. I'm ready to wrap.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, do you want to go first? Sure.
SPEAKER_02Are you ready to check out?
SPEAKER_01When this where you can check in, but you can't check out. Oh sorry, that's an Eagles song.
SPEAKER_04That's Travis's favorite band.
SPEAKER_03No, it's not at all. I know that. Uh the Eagles are alright. It's fucking hate the Eagles, man. Damn. I'm just kidding. That's the big lapazi. I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_04Hotel California came out of my car. He goes, change that right now. I was like, oh, sorry?
SPEAKER_01I don't think that's an overplayed song. Oh, for sure. Well, most of their hits are overplayed.
SPEAKER_03Here's the first one.
SPEAKER_01But when they came out, I really liked them.
SPEAKER_03That first album's great. So Innkeepers.
SPEAKER_01I had high hopes for this movie ten minutes into it. Because of the title. I just thought this movie looks it looks cool. I like the vibe. I liked the kind of characters. I did like that first sequence. He goes, You gotta look at this thing I found. You gotta really stare at it. And I had that sort of jump thing, and he's sort of laughing, and she's freaking out, and go get the coffee, comes back, and the whole thing, just the whole vibe of the hotel. I thought this could be really good. In fact, I was a point in the movie, maybe 30, 40 minutes into it. Or I actually stopped it maybe for a little while. I was chatting with Joni, which was yesterday, and I mentioned it. I thought, Oh yeah, this movie said I'm I'm actually kind of excited to see what what happens because I'm I'm really enjoying this uh this sort of this sort of journey I'm on this movie. And then it just it just didn't stop. I mean it's we've seen it Was that your conversation later? We've seen it so what happened, nothing she she she never brought it up, and I didn't either. But it's just like I said at the end of the movie, I stopped, I went back 15 minutes to watch it again to see okay, I must have just dozed or something. What did I what did I miss here? Nope, I didn't miss anything. So that's that's too bad. Especially afterwards looking at the budget and then realizing what how what a great job he did with that budget. Like we've seen so many of these movies where it's so annoying because like I said, they're like the sound is bad, you know, the acting's terrible, the writing's bad. And then we just sort of hang on and do, oh that kill was kind of cool, or that kill was okay. But that's this movie had the opposite. Yeah. This movie had everything going for it except any kind of real payoff. Yeah. Any kind of really great third act that we all sort of were hoping for, at least I was. So because of that, I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna score it fairly, I think. Um it's gonna get more uh points, it's not gonna sound like it when I say it, because of the way it looked and and that. I'm gonna give it oh, what did I what was my thing?
SPEAKER_03Oh 1.2.
SPEAKER_01What was my no no no no? What was my thing? Oh, uh I'm gonna give it 2.5 front desk service bells out of five. Okay. You have to run up to I actually thought that was funny.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I'll go. Yeah. Um, so I am a really big sucker for these like slow kind of I'm I know this Please don't say burn.
SPEAKER_00Please don't say burn.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm gonna say burn. I'm tired of the bigger. No, no, no, no. I'm not saying this movie is. I'm just saying in general, I really like the slower, like haunted house, creepy house style movies. Like, like, like the one movie. Was uh Last Shift.
SPEAKER_04Yes. Like I really like it.
SPEAKER_03But I'm saying it like kind of takes its time though. You see, you go in the characters go in.
SPEAKER_01Somebody couldn't call a shining a slow burn.
SPEAKER_03It's a slow freeze, am I right? Maybe this is a course.
SPEAKER_01Of course, it's because of the book and everything, but that movie to me is freaky from the first one.
SPEAKER_03No, but I don't know. I but I think it's just because it has a big payoff. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Here's Johnny.
SPEAKER_01This movie needed to have that kind of payoff.
SPEAKER_04Just an ounce of that, please.
SPEAKER_01Just an ounce. One ounce of that payoff.
SPEAKER_03No, but I like I said, I've always really liked these kind of movies. And that's why a lot of times I watch them. Sometimes I just won't tell people I watch them. Like, you know what? I liked it. I'm paying. You don't like it? No. I'm probably gonna be the only person. I wouldn't recommend this movie. I've always been like a real big sucker for these kind of movies. Um I think it's just because like sometimes like these haunted house ghost stories in general, like I kind of lean toward these kind of stories. When I was in like middle school, like high school, I was kind of like friends and I were like actually like we were like into the whole like ghost hunting kind of thing. I thought it was funny.
SPEAKER_04Okay, nerd.
SPEAKER_03Guess where I was on Saturday.
SPEAKER_00What you score, dude? A weird album.
SPEAKER_03No, so with that said, I mean, like I said, I can say the faults of the movie. You guys are gonna you guys are gonna think I'm real crazy when I say this. For sure. No, there were scenes in this movie where it was kind of tense for me.
SPEAKER_04What? What? Really?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was just like, ooh, there's a little this is a little scary. What what scene?
SPEAKER_01Some of that wandering around that she was doing, you were like, Yeah, I I will in the moment when she was in the middle of the channel. But in hindsight, I kind of went, oh my god, I get it, yeah.
SPEAKER_03This had no payoff. Um, but and like I said, the only thing that like really just bothers me in the movie was it kind of just for me, and this is someone who's like, I said forgiving another. I don't know. I just felt like they really I was like there there has to be more than just and then she died. I agree. That's the real thing that I'm just like uh you kind of went to the house. Telling more than showing ending right there a little bit. For lack of a better word.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you knew that inhaler was gonna have a payoff. Yeah, she inhaled the shit out of it.
SPEAKER_03Um so I I mean, I my object is gonna be because I had to live through this and I hated it, heavy trash bags, trying to throw them into the dungeon. I didn't know about that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It is so hard to do what she was doing.
SPEAKER_03And then no, and then the worst part too is the thing. And then throw the bag in. That's what she's doing. I know, but I always do what she does.
SPEAKER_01I do with my garbage can in the back here. I always try to flip it and throw it.
SPEAKER_03And then the worst part is when she finally gets it, then a hole and the liquid starts coming in. I was like, oh, I hated that. That's funny. I hated that.
SPEAKER_04Why did you tell us your item before you get it?
SPEAKER_03Well, I'm gonna say, because I'm going into like three point, like I'll do like three point three. Like three point two, three, somewhere between there. You know you want to give a three point. Trash, trash bags, heavy trash bags. There you go.
SPEAKER_01Okay, cool. Sam.
SPEAKER_04I think my biggest my biggest gripe I had mentioned. This fucking sucks. Yeah. Where they do a lot of telling rather than showing, and I think if they were more careful or if they decided to show more, I think it would have been a lot better. Even if the story didn't go anywhere. But it didn't, I wanted to see something.
SPEAKER_03It could be more forgiving.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, exactly. Um, I don't think I was that drawn to the characters. I like the chemistry between them, but that and then the underdeveloped story, I didn't really care for any of it. I agree with you, Dan, the way they shot it, very interesting. I think that was one of the very few pros of this movie. Um the jump scares, they relied too much on it, even though there were a few. I don't think it was necessary. Again, didn't lead to anything, so it was just kind of like useless.
SPEAKER_01Um is the jump scare the biggest haunted house best friend of the haunted house movies? I feel like I feel like that's what you have in haunted house movies is jump scares. It's its own trope. Frank even lives jump scares.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. You know how to jump scare.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like it's it's its own trope and sometimes it just overplayed. I agree. Um it works for a few, not for this one. And there were many things that happened, like events in these in this film. But there weren't anything that bridged to the original story. Even if there were, if you could find out what that is, I don't think anything that happened made any sense. Um so overall, I'm gonna give it two point five Y2K ghost hunting websites out of five.
SPEAKER_03Why do you think? What were those other what were those other websites on his computer? Oh yeah. Yeah, go enjoy your porn.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the the way she said, go enjoy your internet porn.
SPEAKER_01The way he stood there kind of staring and then walked by the camera like he went, oh my god, you are going out there to do porn.
SPEAKER_04Alright, Franklin.
SPEAKER_01Frank?
SPEAKER_02Um Take us home.
SPEAKER_04Please.
SPEAKER_02To my home. No. My haunted home. Frank is actually moving into a hotel now. I There's not much more that I can add that you guys haven't already said. Oh, it's so next week. Uh I I I found the movie to be made really, really well. All the technical aspects aside from the writing were fantastic. The um cinematography was great. The acting was uh generally decent uh to good. Uh there's there'sn't anything that was weak uh uh apart from maybe that lady and her kid.
SPEAKER_00But it's just weird. So we are leaving.
SPEAKER_03Forget about it. I'm gonna go see I'm gonna be a husband.
SPEAKER_02Let's go back to your abusive father. That would be better than being here. Weird. So weird. But um I did enjoy enough of it that I would consider it a good movie. Uh not enough that I would re-watch it.
SPEAKER_01The snooskeepers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the snooze keepers. There's just not enough going on for me to want to re-watch it. Right. Um, it was it was a one and done, and I I don't get too many of those. Um, thankfully, other films in Ty West uh filmography I've enjoyed, so it's not like it's gonna scare me away. I just I think uh from a development perspective, I can kind of see how a movie like this could could be made where it's not you know, it doesn't reach its its its potential because it's not written to reach you know further than it goes. So I guess that's okay. It's just I I I at the very least I'm glad that it seems that that that wasn't um uh something that continued throughout his career going forward. So um I'm gonna give it three what pointless jump scares. You know what? Three early 2000s. Watch the screen jump scares out of five. That was the race car.
SPEAKER_03It was a car driving through the hills. I knew exactly what that was.
SPEAKER_04Ooh, let me show you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you could see that jump scare a m a mile away. Yeah, I was like it was that that was my first inkling of like I don't know how I'm gonna feel about this because it just went on for too long. It it built tension past where I think it would have been necessary, and it was just kind of like okay, just get get on with it. Let's get that first jump scare where with a chair, like, oh, I I saw this ghost video. Look at this. Yeah. It just goes on for too long.
SPEAKER_04Keep watching.
SPEAKER_02Oh, before her face shows up. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, that was uh that was it.
SPEAKER_01And what's this I'm watching? Oh, it's uh it's a car commercial.
SPEAKER_04You gotta really pay attention.
SPEAKER_01No, it's not. Don't scare me. Okay, we're watching a commercial that you guys can't see. So this is a really good podcast.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you can see we can put the put it on the screen. Your mom's really good at podcasting.
SPEAKER_05Jumped.
SPEAKER_02God, what a loser.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, you know, we jump. Dan, get it yourself a fresh one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's the uh that's we don't need to.
SPEAKER_03So what are we talking about? What are we talking about next week?
SPEAKER_02What are we talking about next week? So what are we watching next week?
SPEAKER_04Um this okay, here's the thing. It's a grudge. But are we doing the American version or are we doing the Japanese version?
SPEAKER_02I feel like we should do the Japanese. Uh the American version.
SPEAKER_04Okay. The grudge.
SPEAKER_02The American grudge.
SPEAKER_01The American grudge. Not the Japanese grudge.
SPEAKER_04No, no Japanese grudge, just the American grudge.
SPEAKER_01That sounds good. What year did it come out? 2003, 2002. Okay. The grudge. You'll post it on our group chat. Alright, cool. This was fun.
SPEAKER_04This was. We had a lot of say. I didn't think we would have this much to say.
SPEAKER_01Well me neither. Think about how much we talked about the nothing to do with this music. And think about how it's first like 20 minutes.
SPEAKER_03Think about how much I had to make out of assumptions. I know.
SPEAKER_01Well, you went there.
SPEAKER_04Assumptions. Of assumptions. But Travis. You were the 13th layer.
SPEAKER_01I mean this as a compliment, not as an insult. You're really good at doing that. Like you'll fill in a lot of holes and your brain will fill in the holes. That's what she's saying. My brain goes, you didn't show it to me, so I'm not gonna fill it in for you.
SPEAKER_03It does you yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh, the movie is from 2004 and has our girl Sarah Michelle Keller in it.
SPEAKER_01I love me some Sarah Michelle Keller.
SPEAKER_04Oh, and um Claire Duval from Love Her. The faculty.
SPEAKER_03I've only seen the same. The faculty. Alright, so don't drink that water.
SPEAKER_01Don't drink the water in the faculty. Oh, yeah, that's right. He was in that.
SPEAKER_03I forgot about it.
SPEAKER_01And didn't you think that that Paxson? Is that Bill Paxson's daughter? I thought the same thing.
SPEAKER_03Is it not? Right? Is she not? She kind of looks like a big thing. No, they're seven, their seventh cousin. Like their seven Is that an assumption? No, are you true? Are you saying that?
SPEAKER_01I looked her up on Wikipedia that said nothing about her being related to Bill Paxson.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, by like seven separations. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Let's just stop making it. Seven separations. This was fun. Or maybe Bill Woolman, I'm thinking. The Grudge. American version. The American Grudge. The American Grudge. Let's just have the Japanese version called Juan. I can't do that.
SPEAKER_03Juana watch the grudge. We're watching Juwanaman.
SPEAKER_01You know, that's the second time you've made you did this, Sam.
SPEAKER_03I've never made a Juanaman joke.
SPEAKER_01No, but you said something like that. But he's seen it seven times.
SPEAKER_03No, this is Juwanaman. He's gonna be Jew. Alright.
SPEAKER_01Oi.
unknownWhat?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. See y'all. See y'all next week. Hang on, hang on. This has been an episode of Strangers in the Alps, a movie podcast. I'm Dan. Travis.
SPEAKER_04I'm Sam.
SPEAKER_01Spooky. And I'll see you next week. Haunted R.
SPEAKER_04Haunted.
SPEAKER_01Out. Oh, okay.