Mandy

Cage, Chainsaws, and Cults what more do I need to say? Find your inner tiger and give us a listen!

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Music produced by Joey Prosser. X @mrjoeyprosser

Transcript

Welcome & First Impressions Of Mandy

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hello and welcome to the We Recommend Podcast, a movie podcast where every week we recommend a movie for you to watch, and then come back here and listen to us discuss. I'm Jesse. I'm Jason. A psychotic drowns where the mystic swims. You're drowning. I'm swimming. Because this week we recommend Mandy!

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Yeah, baby. What'd you think? I just have one question. Yeah. What? What?

SPEAKER_01 0:38

It's just like a what if a movie was LSD?

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Yeah, it was nuts. I I kind of liked it. Yeah. Oh. It was dark and gritty and squishy and gross.

Tone Shift: Dreamlike To Heavy Metal

Influences, Direction, And Beyond The Black Rainbow

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Kind of dreamlike, hallucinatory as a movie. Well, especially the second half. The second half, just like, hey, I'm off the rails, by the way. It's kind of weird. Um, because one of my questions I had for you is like, is do you think the second half is as successful as the first half? Because to me, the first half, I'm like, I know exactly what we're doing here. I get it. It's like a weird, dreamlike movie. And then she burns. And then it's like, hey, metal. Right? It's like every in the second half, every shot of the movie is a metal band's album cover, right? It's wild. It really feels like um what's that show that was on Adult Swim? Metalocalypse. Yeah. Right. Like some of the environments when they go there, I'm like, is that from it's not like something that would be on that show? Because it kind of feels like it a little bit. Yeah, or Mad Max Fury Road or something. Oh, and the uh yeah, there is a one point where he's on the ATV, yeah, right, and it like slows down and then like zooms up. I'm like, fuck, that's what they did like all during Fury Road. Yeah. Um it's directed by Painos Cosmados. I hate if I said that wrong. He did a movie that I've been really, really, really, really wanting to watch called like Beyond the Serpent Rainbow, I believe. That sounds crazy. Uh I actually think I got that title wrong. Let me make sure I get it right. Beyond the Black Rainbow. I don't know where I got Serpent at, but either way. They both sound pretty cool. Should have added that in even more metal. But Beyond the Black Snake Moan. Yeah. Um, so like do you like like the slow mind-bending films like this? Like, does it like how did you watch it? Was it just like early in the morning or this morning? Or did you watch it like high or drunk or something?

Real Or Not: Supernatural vs. Drug-Fueled

SPEAKER_02 2:52

No, yeah. I was completely sober and I did like it. Like I dropped the kids off from school. I was like, oh, I'm gonna check this movie out. Um I had to watch it on my phone because uh somebody signed out of my Amazon account on the TV. Oh but whatever. It was also on like Hulu and Disney Plus, I think actually. Oh, I don't know. I looked when I Googled it, it just said AMC Plus.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Yeah. Cause I really like these, I don't know, like it's weird doing Predator and then doing a movie like this, both having Bill Duke in it, which is hilarious that how that works out. But it's like this this machismo crazy action movie of like animalisticness by the end of it where it's like two animals just fighting each other to see who's the best animal. And it's not too far from what this movie ends up turning into. Yeah. Where like Nick Cage's character becomes just kind of a he's a tiger or a lion, just on the hunt. Yeah. Tigers there's Lizzie. Yeah. And I do have a fun fact about that. So apparently the Lizzie was supposed to be just like a big lizard, like a giant lizard.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Like a colour of a dragon or something?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

So I they didn't specify on what lizard, but it was supposed to be pretty big. And then um shit, I'm blanking on that guy's name, but the guy who plays the chemist, he shows up to set, and the director is like, oh, by the way, it's not a lizard anymore, it's a tiger. And he's like, uh, we're not changing the name. Yeah, it's still Lizzie. I think Lizzie's actually a you think it's a better name for a tiger or for a lizard.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

I mean, it's kind of on the nose for a lizard. Yeah. But I like it. I mean, I I guess the tiger's name could have been Elizabeth.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

I didn't even think of that. Yeah. Lizzie's a hilarious name for lizard. That's good. I didn't even think about that. I would like if the original idea was just like it was just gonna be a little salamander or something. It's like, I like and because everybody's like high on LSD, it's like this magical thing to them. I let this salamander go. And but then it's not like that.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

They are I I understand that they're on LSD, but it's also kind of like they're their brains are fried. Their brains are just fried. That's what it seems like. But there is like a sense of supernatural, yeah. Definitely even because the one dude just gets shot in the neck.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

And then he pulls it out of himself and doesn't even move.

Eyes, Wasps, And Practical Effects

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Like, that's that's kind of one of my questions I I had is like, is anything in this movie real? Or because the first half of the movie seems pretty normal. Right? Just like everybody, it's just like slow motiony, you know, or it's like very slow and until he brings up the ocarina of death. Yeah, and then it's like, oh, wait, is this real or is this not real? Like, I it's because like you're with them and they're all you can see in their eyeballs that they're high out of like their minds. Because I that's which is something I absolutely love in this movie, is the use of people's eyes versus like let's say whenever they're about to burn Mandy, and but they're beforehand they're talking to Nicholas Cage, all their eyes are so big and black because they're obviously high as fuck. Yeah, yeah. And but then you have Nick Cage who kind of has like those bluish-looking eyes, and he's like, oh whoa, he seems normal. They seem like psychopaths, and they are. Yeah, it was just like a great use of something so small, but tells a lot in the story.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Yeah, man. Eye stuff is gross. Yeah, they do a lot of it. So are wasps. That was like a murder hornet. What the fuck was that thing? I don't know.

Cage’s Performance And The Bathroom Breakdown

SPEAKER_01 6:36

That was a scary bathing it in LSD. And guess what? It's not CGI and it looks great. It's not fun. This movie just looks great. Like six million dollar budget, and did anything look bad? I mean everything looked pretty. I mean, for six million dollars, this movie is fantastic. I think yeah. And it made like one million in theaters. So that's but it's also a small indie movie, so that's how that works. Um, what did you think? Uh oh, I don't even think I've finished saying anything. Is anything in this movie real? Um so like with the demon bikers, right? Yeah, you could say they're either just demons, right? They have like squishy voices, like weird demons, or they've done so much drugs and mutilated their own bodies that they just sound and look like that, which part of me also kind of thinks that's what it is. Yeah. Like I think could be it's I don't know. That's what's so fun about this movie. It's like, is this anything real, or is everybody just high off their minds and they just like went insane? Like these bikers just went insane. It kind of seems that way. Rapey knife penis thing.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Yes, the blade penis.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Poor old man.

unknown 7:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

How does he even walk around? Reminds me of uh, which is why I wanted to do Zodiac next because it made me think of David Fenture in the movie Seven.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

That was yeah, that was gonna be my double feature. Yeah. Stay tuned, yo. Stay tuned.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Um, so what do you think of Nick Cage's performance?

SPEAKER_02 8:07

He's classic Nick Cage, I guess, but like turned it up to 11.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yeah. There's there's a couple of points in this movie where I was like, this is a fantastic, like real performance, but also with like um that mindset of Nick Cage, like, is not afraid to overdo it, which is nice.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Which is great because everything seems to overdone here.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

And I think like the best part of like really seeing his performance is the bathroom scene, right? Where he fucking goes loses his shit.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Drinking, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

And at first it's kind of like, aha, this is Nick Cage, but then he sits on the toilet and he zooms in and is like, no, this actually might be a real performance here. Just because like you just see him kind of lose all hope of everything in that scene, thanks to the cheddar goblin. But then you also have the scene where he talks to Bill Duke and he's kind of explaining that they burned her and stuff like that. And I was like, even though it's amped up, it I mean, would we do any less? I could see myself drinking myself into the bathroom if I watch Natalie burn alive right in front of me.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Yeah, that'd be tough.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Sleeping bag.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

How are we supposed to get a hold of Bill Duke to get the Reaper?

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Which is just a crossbow. It's like a cool name for a crossbow, guys. Maybe name the axe the Reaper. Um that's true. We'll have to f I think he's dead. So it might be tough to find Bill Duke, but we'll find him. We're gonna find you, Bill. We'll find your grave. Just like on it, he has like a he in his grave, he's like smiling with the Reaper in his hands, like, take me.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Yeah, it's just his bones surrounded by bullets and like belts of ammunition and crossbows.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Yeah. Um, would you amazing would you kiss the cheddar goblin?

SPEAKER_02 9:47

I mean, if you tasted like cheddar, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Yeah. What do you think the point of the cheddar goblin is in this movie?

SPEAKER_02 9:54

I don't know.

Cheddar Goblin: Absurdity And Meaning

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Um so I did end up finding because I was looking like really hard. I was like, what the hell is the point of the cheddar goblin, except for being like one of the best things? Also directed that scene was made by the guy who did Too Many Cooks. He also worked on Your Pretty Faces Going to Hell with Henry Zabrowski. Um, but yeah, Too Many Cooks, like one of the best things ever put to Earth. You've never seen Too Many Cooks? Man, maybe we should watch it after this.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

I guess maybe that was like his transformation into a killing machine. Like maybe he's becoming the cheddar goblin.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Well, so the uh director said via movie web, I wanted it to be a moment where the horror and the absurdity of the universe slaps him in the face at exactly the wrong time. So you come in and you just saw your wife burn to death, and then you come into this absurd, insane thing trying to sell you macaroni and cheese. And it's like, what the fuck is the point of any of this? I want to murder and be vengeful. So I was like, oh, that makes sense. It's just like, did it hurt the movie by being so silly and kind of the best part of the whole movie? No, I don't think so. I think it was it was awesome. It fit perfectly in the world.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Yeah. Nothing's even that show that he and Mandy were watching, yeah. That like sci sci-fi stuff. A real movie, apparently. Oh, is it? Yeah. Like that fit pretty perfectly too.

Grief, Cult Parallels, And Manson Echoes

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yeah, these these knuckleheads would be watching this at night. Just like, yeah, we could have watched something normal, but we decided to do this. So in a 2018 UK Guardian interview, Nicholas Cage described his performance inspiration only just before shooting started. His 14-year marriage to Alice Kim Cage came to a sudden end, which was a shocker for him. He didn't see it coming, and those feelings had to go somewhere, so they went to his performance. Nice. And I'm like, ah, yeah, when you lose someone, you kind of do go a little insane. Especially for boys. He's like, we're single, but all we want is the person that we lost. No, scream in my bathroom and drink a bottle of booze. Ah, Richard Brake, that's the chemist. Um that's who uh was like uh yeah. He he's in a lot of usually when he he's in Barbarian. Nice the movie. He's he's the the guy. He's the barbarian under in inside the little the bunker or whatever rape den or whatever he has. Um and I think he's also in a lot of Rob Zombie movies, I believe. So he's kind of like he's one of those people that shows up, you're like, oh shit, what are we gonna do with this guy? We gotta watch this guy constantly. He's about to do something wrong. So according to co-writer Aaron Stewart on, when he and the director presented Manity at Mandy at the Cannes Film Festival, the director described it as a film about the death of his parents. Don't know where that's at in there, except for just like I it's definitely probably a movie more about love and loss than what I actually took out of the movie. Um, I think probably like the thin line between uh like love and anger when you lose it. It's like sadness and anger, I guess, after a death or something like that. I'm assuming grief, just yeah, the seven stages of it. If you killed seven people, I'd be like, oh, this is a movie about seven stages of grief, but it's not. So um there are several similarities between Jeremiah Sand and a real life cult leader, Charles Manson.

unknown 13:24

No.

Symbolism: Eyes, Quotes, And D&D

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Like Sand, Manson was a failed musician who reportedly took it very personally when his uh musicianship was insulted enough to stab uh, you know, some people in a house, apparently. Sands uh refers to his victims as pigs, as did Manson and his followers. Psychedelic drugs were also used before acts of violence. Um, let's see. And so the song Jeremiah Sand plays in the scene where he tries to seduce Mandy is called Amulet of the Weeping Maze and was actually released in real life on the music site Bandcamp, becoming a bestseller on the site shortly after the film came out. Also, on the single is a 17-minute track in the style of an interview called My Journey, which details Sand's life and his views of the world of God. I should have listened to that before that, but I didn't have time. That'd been great. That sounds nuts. Um, so though the use of either contacts or CGI, Mandy's right iris is darker and enlarged in several scenes, whereas Jeremiah's left eye has the same treatment in some scenes. No, not only does this serve to make both of them look more ethereal and a bit off, it's relying on the subconscious symbolism of the eyes as windows to the soul. The right side has long been associated with the righteousness, the left side with the more sinister forces. So she's more righteous, he has more sinister forces. And that's probably why he's like, I needed her to complete me. I guess my uh watching it on the phone, I couldn't really see the eyes and stuff like that. Yeah. Luckily, I see it like real close to my TV. Um Towards the end of the film, Red tells the cult leader that the psychotic drowns where the mystic swims. This is a variation of a quote by mythologist Joseph Campbell. He quotes, the psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight. Um, it means that there's a fine line between psychosis and spirit spirit spirituality. Oh my god, I'm losing I'm losing the ability to talk.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Yeah, I feel like that line has been muddled a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Yeah, right. Um, and uh Brother Swan shows Red a blade he will pierce his side with as he is tied up and tells him, Take a good look, you piece of human excrement. This is a tainted blade of the pale knight straight from the abyssal lair. This is a reference to Dungeons and Dragons, fantasy role-playing game. Pale Knight is the mother of demons and abyssal lord. There's a little Dungeons and Dragons in this.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Yeah. Oh man. Or at least the director and rising. I got this at the Renaissance Fair.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

And it's totally sick. Stab, stab. Yeah. And um, like I I guess um I don't know if you missed it, but since you were watching on your phone, the his shirt, his favorite shirt, the 44 shirt. Um I'm assuming that's his favorite shirt because that's the that's it's all yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

You read my favorite shirt!

Plot Walkthrough: Love To Cataclysm

SPEAKER_01 16:09

But I'm assuming that's the same shirt that he wore like while meeting Mandy for the first time at that raw concert. So that's probably why he wore it after she died. It's like, I'm gonna kill everybody with my favorite shirt. But yeah, that's all the facts I got. Fucking fantastic ass movie. Love it. Which we will get into right now. But before, I want you to tell us what is the point of this movie for people at home. You gotta have some sort of opinion on it. And if you message us, we will say it on the podcast. You can click the link in the description if you want to text us from your phone, or go to the very bottom where we have our email. We recommend mailbag at gmail.com. Just like put it in like the damn deal. Gmail shit or whatever and send that stuff. Uh and I will tell you what I think the point is. It's a very I I wrote like four paragraphs about it. So can't wait to go on and rant about it. Cool. So stay tuned to the end of the podcast to hear what I think the point of the movie is, and Jason's point of the movie is let's get into it. Mandy 2018, baby. Woo! Everything seems so much better. Wild time. It's like yeah, everything seems so much better back then. So the film begins with a bizarre text which reads, When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, wrap some speakers around my head, and rock and roll me. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

Meow.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Nice. Actually, dude, that would actually be pretty fucking sick. It's like, hell yeah. So it then opens on a scene with a lumberjack named Red Miller, Nicholas Cage, working in the forest before leaving in a helicopter or fusing a beer. It then turns to the show his wife, Mandy, sketching predatory animals fused with herself and smoking marijuana, baby. Hell yeah. Yeah, I really like the art that she makes.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Yeah. I know. It honestly seems like something that you would like, uh, I don't know. If you went to like a little fair or something. Oh yeah. Like this is like, you know, like small town, like you have it in your like your your town square where they're just having like, oh, a whole festival that day or something. You go there and there's like, hey, yeah, the wizard chicks here with their cool drawings. Let's go over there. Seems very much like what it would be. Yeah. And then we get something shown on the screen: the Shadow Mountains, 1983 AD. Red returns home to Mandy and talk about planets. Her favorite is Jupiter because of a raging storm that never ends, and his is Saturn, probably. Or Galacus.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Oh, I love it when he walks in and tells her the knock-knock joke.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

So weird.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Yeah, I did have that. Knock knock. Who's there? Eric Estrada. Eric Estrada from Eric Estrada who? From chips. It's like, it's actually a fucking good joke.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

What?

SPEAKER_02 19:00

What? How is it a good joke?

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Because it's because it's not a joke. The joke is there's no joke. It's just like, who am I? I'm just Eric Estrada from Chips. Okay. At your door. All right. It's like an anti-joke. It's like there is no punchline. It's just the punchline is that it would just be wild if Eric Estrada was.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

And uh what do you think of how they have like their bed set up where like it's nothing but just like windows like all around it, like to the sides and front and above. So it's just like they're in like where you can just see all of nature. Creeps me out or hate it.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Yeah, it's not fun. Think about.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

And then like you know anybody could just watch you sleep.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Yeah. And then you know it's also gonna really suck when the sun comes out. Yeah. It's like, God, it's so hot and bright. It's a great alarm clock clock. It's like, oh, it's sunny outside, time to get up.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Can't lay in bed and roast.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Yeah. Um, so Mandy and Red are then shown in a montage that shows them in a beautiful lake on a boat and then looking at each other through fire, looking at each other as if they know something terrible awaits them. Um, I love how it kind of cuts to like these beautiful mountains on this lake, and it's like it's kind of got like the stars where there's no light pollution. It's just like beautiful, and then it just transitions to daytime, and it also looks kind of fake and beautiful. And they're just kind of on a boat, and then this is where you see like the one crazy eye that she has, or like smaller eye versus her bigger eye. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

I never know what is real at any given moment.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Yeah. Well, this is real. Now whether it looked that beautiful, I don't know. Um, but yeah, so like this is obviously just like them just hanging out on a leg. It's but because of the way it's filmed, it's like, are we sure this is real? But I feel like when you're there's kind of like at this point, it's like how it's like, oh, she's kind of more in tune with nature. You know, like we see that she finds a fawn a little bit later and it's like dead. She's almost kind of like a pagan, almost. So it's like nature's beautiful and special, and she thinks about space and animals. She draws herself as an animal or like what she thinks like type of animals they might be. So it's very like, it's like we just got long dresses and we're spinning around in the forest. Breastfeeding unicorns. And so I think that's kind of where we're at here. Um, and then the fire is between them, and they look at each other like something bad is about to happen. So Mandy then wanders into the woods and finds a dead fawn symbolizing the death of innocence. Cut to Red, telling Mandy he thinks they should move for some reason. Then Mandy tells Red of a time in which she was younger and almost peer pressured into killing a starling. Her dad wanted to show her and some friends how to kill baby starlings with a crowbar. Each kid takes a turn killing a starling. Sterling. Sterling. Thanks, Dad. Fun, fun afternoon with my friends.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

He's like, I love it. He's like, they hit him so hard that it buried him in the ground.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Yeah, it's like, uh, well, I don't even think you needed to show anybody how to kill a tiny baby. I think it's uh animal. I think it's pretty easy to think of how to do that. It's like, here, kids, let me show you something cool. And it's like, oh, what Jesus. But she did not hit it. She refused because she's strong and independent and powerful mentally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

I would be too. That sucks.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Yeah. So then when you cut to her reading a dark fantasy novel, Mandy begins to fear that something evil will happen to her. And then upon traveling the road, she passes a truck with passengers, Jeremiah Sand eyeing her mysteriously. It's like, hey Mandy, if you see a car coming and you just already have bad feelings, duck into the woods real quick.

Black Skulls: Demons Or Damaged Men

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Just real quick. And the guy's is he just constantly on LSD? Is that why he can't ever get up and move or do anything? I don't he's a narcissist.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Uh I mean that seems legit. I feel like he just doesn't feel like he has to do anything. Yeah. So even hold his head up. Yeah. He just kind of calls people to him. He's like, come here, do stuff. Um, so then we get the title, Children of the New Dawn. Jeremiah becomes obsessed with Mandy and yells at his uh caller like uh what's her fucking name? Shit. Sister sister. Well, the older lady is like uh Mother Marilyn, which I don't know if that's his actual mother or not, but it doesn't seem like it.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

If it is, then and she's the most sensual lover he's ever.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

He tells her how he needs Mandy. He's like, I don't think you fucking get it. I need Mandy. Um, and then he like there's this part where he tries to make like a demonic sounding voice. Uh, because you know he's like, You're not fucking lazy anime. Type it like that, and it's like, what a fucking poser. Cringe, baby. Cringe. Speaking of tongues. It's like, I love it, because it's just like you just immediately like you're scared of him because everybody's following him. Right. But you're also not scared of him because you're like, you're just such a tweet. You're just you're nothing. You're no one. You just think you're someone. Yeah, it's fun. He uh then tells his like guess right-hand man, Swan, to get Mandy, and then they touch the horn of a Braxis. I don't know. That's just there.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Yeah. I know, and when they all love it when he's handing it over, and it's like grow glowing green. Yeah, the flashing green lights. Like a rock. Yeah, it's uh it's the Ocarina. Yeah, it really is. It's got like two little holes in it. I thought it was gonna sound like that Aztec uh death whistle. Yeah. You heard that thing? Oh. Instead of like people screaming, yeah, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

I fucking love. I remember watching that video and being like, ooh, don't like this. I feel like I uh you're summoning something with that. Um and then he uh man, you saying that it reminds you of the Ocarina really is putting like a different perspective on this movie in the way that it was an ocarina. Yeah. This guy obviously is.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

And then he didn't even call it Pona.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Yeah. I don't know. It's just now that I'm thinking about that game and this movie, I'm like, oh, there's kind of some areas here. Hell yeah. That's kind of crazy. Huh. Well, he didn't uh it's like they're definitely nerds that wrote this movie and like that listen to metal music played Ocarino Time and uh likes Dungeons and Dragons, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:45

Although it sounds that's I like those things too. Fuck. I mean, not as much metal music. I don't really care for metal music.

Blood, Chainsaws, And Metal Imagery

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Yeah, but I mean, you know, like Black Sabbath Metallica type metal. Not like death metal. So he then has Swan sending Lucy, who he's gonna have sex with, I guess. Um, but yeah, and then I just put he's just a loser, falls in love with every girl he sees, probably, type of personality, Jeremiah is. Yeah. Um he red pilled himself. And like one of his lines, if you are not with me, you will not ascend. If anyone ever says that, don't listen to him, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Kind of looks and sounds like John Malkovich.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

No, I can see that.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Like in that scene.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Uh like a young John Malkovich with uh hair. Yeah. Yeah. I can see that. Um poor Lucy.

unknown 26:34

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

So we see Mandy working at a convenience store talking to the older lady, Marlene, in the cult. She tells her that she tells her where she lives, which is like, Mandy. Jesus Christ, man. Come on, girl. Stop drawing and think a little bit. You know that. I love it. There's the line. It's like, see you later. And it's like, no. This is why you never tell anybody where you live. Where do you think they live? Like Oregon? Yeah, I mean, it'd have to be somewhere. Like Pacific Northwest, yeah. Upper California, maybe. But it definitely feels like Oregon or like wooded Washington or something like that. So Brother Swan blows into the horn of Abraxis, which uh calls up a team of satanic deformed bikers. Swan gives them a jug of gross-looking LSD, which they take and demand another sacrifice, stating blood for black.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah, I thought he just gave them blood. I couldn't really see. It was great. No, that was like uh because we'll see the jar later, and it looks like gray. I thought it was like Molly Manaes.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

It definitely looks like it. Um, which we'll learn a little bit more when we meet Bill Duke. So, Brother Swan blows in uh I already said that. Uh the demonic gang appear in the woods with glowing red lights and like an SUV, an ATV, and a dirt bike. They then appear in the house. Oh, yeah. This so this is we're cutting back to uh Mandy and um red. They're sleeping in their little uh oven that they made for their bed. And so we kind of just cut to the forest where there's a little red light, but then it like grows brighter, and then you see the the demon bikers and the rest of the cult behind them, and it's like it's kind of why I like these like weird dreamlike hallucinatory movies, is because like you can just do whatever you want. Yeah, right? It's like there is because this movie is complete fantasy, like almost like a cosmic fantasy horror movie, it's like anything can happen. Fuck yeah. The lights can be in the middle of the woods and get a bit brighter, the lights can change. It doesn't matter because that doesn't matter. It's we're trying to make a mood here instead of like telling a story in a more normal way.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

Trying to induce people into psychopathy.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Yeah, pretty much. So yeah, and they appear in the woods behind glowing red in front of red glowing lights, then they appear in the house where the lights kind of strobing on them a little bit. It's like, oh, they're so crazy they make lights weird.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

It's just the guy in the back flipping the switch. Yeah. I'm doing the best I can, right? You're doing great, man. Very supportive. Yeah.

The Chemist, Lizzie The Tiger, And Omens

SPEAKER_01 29:13

We gotta get to like find some old people, do weird stuff to them? Yes. Man, making my dog upset over here. Oh, sorry, snakes. Um, and then like they attack Red and Mandy, they throw them on the grant ground, and Red and Mandy are lay on the ground staring at each other until Red is knocked out, and it's just like kind of a terrifying scene. Even in this weird, dreamlike state. It's like, damn, is there anything more nightmare-inducing? Yeah than it's like you getting knocked out, and then it's like, what are they gonna do with my life?

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Why aren't they screaming like crazy whenever they wake up and then the they put the bag over Mandy's head? Like, why aren't anyone yelling? Right? It's like because they're I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Maybe there's confusion, yeah. They're just like, what the fuck is happening? They're probably also high on me. They're shit wrecked. Yeah. Um, we see a heavyset person being taken by the demons, also, because she kind of looks over Nick Cage, and there's this one person that was the one person that was with them that's like heavy set that I guess Jeremiah didn't like. I don't I don't know why he's this. He's like the DoorDash guy. He's a he essentially is just kept around to be a sacrifice for the demons, because I guess that's how they pay, they pay in gunky LSD and uh people. Um, so Mandy is kidnapped by Sans Apostles and uh Marlene among them, where they drug Mandy and Marlene, uh they where they drug Mandy and Marlene stings her in the throat with a giant wasp, calling it the cherry on top. Lucy says it's all a beautiful dream. Yeah. Like, well, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Yeah, that uh and like when they drop the acid into her eyeball, yeah. You can hear it like sizzle.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

God. And it's kind of the same thing with the LSD a little later in the movie that Nick Cage does. Like you can hear the LSD kind of sizzling. It's like, I don't know what that means, but it's like battery acid in it. Um but yeah, and they would struggle so hard trying to drug drug me through my eyes because I'm very I you just flinch a lot. Well, like I can like I don't have an eye thing, but when I try to put eye drops in, it's so frustrating to do. Now I don't know why, because like I could touch my eye with my own hand and doesn't really bother me. But as soon as I look up, something's put in front of my face like that. I'm like switching out. It's so weird.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

Like I could, but it was very difficult.

Ending Visions, Jupiter, And Afterglow

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Yeah, it's like that's what that would be the problem with me and contacts is like I'd have I'd be fine putting them in, but if I ever had to like drop some water because they're like drying out, like me no like you that. So a delirious Mandy is brought before Sand in his accolash, just chilling on a couch. Sand puts a song on that he made. It's like, hey, do you like the carpenters? Well, this is fucking better. It's like it is in the 80s, so I guess that was popular then. Sand explains that he was a failed musician who found God and founded a religious cult before exposing himself to her. She then asks if he made the song and if it's about him, to which she laughs hysterically, enraging Sand into believing that he's being rejected. Um probably my favorite scene in the whole movie. Yeah. This scene fucking goes. Just this because the actor who plays Jeremiah is a fantastic cult leader guy. He crushes. And it's just, I don't know, I like to hear him talk. It's like, yeah, I might join this cold. I don't know. No, no fucking way. This is crazy. But I love it when he kind of like bends down and gets face to face with Mandy, and then as he's like going on ranting about nonsense, essentially, like her face kind of starts forming on his face because it kind of look very similar, weirdly. And I wonder if they did it on purpose, but like it keeps kind of flashing in and out where and the but the dissolve is so slowly dissolve into her face and out of her face towards like, what the fuck? Why does this look so much why is this working and me not even because you kind of watch and you're not even realizing it's happened, and then all of a sudden you're like, I'm looking at Mandy. When did that happen? It's just fantastic, it was great. Um, and then I put my notes. Oh, um narcissist thinks God told him he should have everything. Big surprise.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

I love the his his whole story of how he found God was like he was crying a lot. Yeah, because his music sucked. And then God and like somebody kissed him on the mouth. And then he probably just kissed himself in the mirror. That's probably all he did. One of those really dirty guys that they deal with.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Thing is, song kind of not too bad. Yeah, it's not that bad. I was like, damn, somebody give him a record. Give everybody record deal. Like, how many people do we have to if only YouTube would have been around back then? For real, yeah. He'd be like, people love my music. Or like people would be joining his cult throughout all across the land, probably. Because uh turns out that happens. We have plenty of documentaries about it. Oh, Jesus. What's like that one is like a relationship thing? Oh, yeah, yeah. Uh twin flames. Yeah. Versus hey, they started a cult online. How fucking insane is that?

SPEAKER_02 34:18

So crazy.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

See, this is back in the day, people who wanted to start a cults had to get some dirt in their fingernails. You had to really put in the work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

Just make a video.

The Point: Love, Wrath, And Transformation

SPEAKER_01 34:29

Fucking lazy ass cult members these days. Jesus Christ. Oh, sorry. So we see Red typed up with uh tied up with barbed wire. We see sand crying and asking what to do in the mirror. What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? Then he calms himself. Tell me what to do. Don't ever doubt yourself. Because he's like asking God for like what to do, and it's like, but then he's like, Oh, he's speaking to me, but it's like this is fucking you. It's just you. So Sand brings Lucy before Red.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

That's what I think when people say that they're that God talks to them. I mean, that's what I think. Yeah. They're just hearing themselves in their head.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Yeah, because I believe like whenever I used to go to church a lot, there is a line in the Bible that said, like, um it's tough because you know, there kind of is a lot of contradictions in that thing. And I can't remember if it's Old Testament or New Testament, so yeah, you know, we're not supposed to we're supposed to kind of disregard the Old Testament and the New Testament or not, or something like that. So I don't remember which one it is, but I do remember there's um unless I'm just like making this up, but I'm pretty sure there's like a line where it's just like, you know, they're like he's heaven and hell aren't supposed to interfere, which is why I'm always like confused when people are like, Oh, it's the devil, or it's like, oh, God's like bracing you. And then I'm like, I'm pretty sure like there's a part in the Bible that says like that doesn't happen, or it's not supposed to. So then it's like, what are y'all talking about? Yeah, there's a lot of wild shit in that thing. I should have looked it up before this because that's kind of what I was thinking during every time he kind of brought that up. I was like, especially the mirror scene. I was like, I'm pretty sure he's not allowed to, it's not supposed to be one of those things where they don't interfere. It's just like, I made you do what y'all wanted to do. Yeah, right. I don't know. So yeah, San brings Lucy before Red. He seeks to demonstrate Lucy's love for San by forcing her to shoot herself in the temple, but only one bullet was put in the gun. It's a very Russian roulette situation. And he's like, You see, she did it. I was like, Well, yeah, you only put one bullet in the gun. I mean, they're all dollar. Um and everybody's pupils are so large in this, it's crazy. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Well, the I was looking watching her do that. Do you think was she really kind of in on this thing, or is she is it more like she's just forced to do it?

SPEAKER_01 36:46

She and she's she's brainwashed, she's just brainwashed and on drugs at that moment. And I think when she heard the click of the gun for just a split second, she's like, What the fuck am I doing? Oh my god. I was like, Oh, I can't believe I just really did that.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

So Red says for her to I need to think about my life. Yeah.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, The Fine

SPEAKER_01 37:02

Red's like, stop, don't do it. She pulls a trigger, nothing happens. Swan then comes and presents Red with a blade. Zane compares himself to Jesus and calls Red a soulless pig before stabbing him with a blade. Stabbed him pretty deep. Yeah, I was like, surprised he got him walked away from it. And of course they did it like the same side. They like Jesus was stabbed on the cross. Supposedly. Supposedly. Hey, there's a painting. I've seen it. Mandy is then dragged out in a bag, hung by a tree. This scene reminds me of Jason Eddie's. I don't know if you ever saw it. Or the sleeping bag. Yeah, like the robot girls in a sleeping bag or something. That's fucking crazy. So he's hung by it, she's hung by a tree and then burned to death before red. Kind of like a witch. Uh the um uh what was his fucking name? Crap, but uh Swan. He had the line the darker the whore, the brighter the flame.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

They love fire.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

Yeah, they also love Beavis was there? Yeah, fire sand, stop it. This is so lame. Cool, cool. I knew Beavis and Butthead wouldn't end the conversation at some point. You could see Beavis and Butthead like watching this type of music video on in one of their episodes. Yeah, it's be like metal.

SPEAKER_02 38:27

Beavis turning into cornholio and like having a cult following. Yeah. I think they may have explored that.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

That actually might have been that actually reminds me of something. And then, like, because he puts it like DP for my bunkhole, and then like everybody does the same thing. That actually might be an episode. If it is, let us know out there. We're not gonna look it up. You have to tell us. So the cult leaves without saying anything. Red pulls himself free from the bonds, ouch. Yeah. Uh, and mourns over Mandy's ashes, which kind of crumble in a weird way.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Yeah. You know, if that fire would have had to be 1200 degrees at least. Like that's where you start burning human bodies. That's how you get the bone. Bones wouldn't just break apart. Wait, what is real?

SPEAKER_00 39:10

Well, he did say the darker the horror, the brighter.

SPEAKER_02 39:13

What do you think that blade was tainted with? Was it LSD? Probably. They put that shit on everything.

Double Feature Picks & What’s Next

SPEAKER_01 39:18

Honestly, probably nothing.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

But he uh yeah, maybe just evil. He said it was tainted. Maybe he just rubbed it on his taint. Hell yeah, Jason.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Good joke. Fucking good joke, baby. Put that in the joke hall of fame. Which happens to be here. So congratulations. So a broken red returns home and watches a bizarre trailer of a cheddar goblin.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

Everything tastes better with cheddar.

Closing Credits And Listener Mailbag

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Hell yeah. Love that little guy. Boy fucking rules. And if you watch how they made it, it's just there's literally just a guy with the his arm in the head of the cheddar goblin spewing the cheddar out. Um, then he falls asleep and has an animated nightmare of Mandy decomposing before awakening, having an emotional breakdown in a bathroom where he drinks nearly an entire bottle of booze and screams and flip out. The only way Nick Cage can. Time for revenge, baby. I love that he's wearing whitey tidies. Yeah, yeah. His little tight Bingle tiger shirt. Which I'm pretty sure that's a it's like I'm pretty sure that's like Princeton's a Princeton shirt. I don't know. Because I think that it looks a lot like their their shirts they have for their mascots for their teams. Um, but that doesn't matter. So um, but yeah, I love this little scene. It's like the bathroom, it's something else that kind of like trips me out about this movie is that all like the sets are like 70s-esque style houses because it's filmed in like the 80s or it's set in the 80s, so you know everybody's still living in like 70s-esque houses in the 80s, and it's it's kind of trippy. So it's like while all this wacky stuff is happening, you have all these kind of like weird interiors and stuff, especially when we go to like the biker gangs like hideout or whatever. I'm like, This is a really dirty. It's just like they're just in a 70s house. It's just like it's kind of bizarre, and that's what makes me feel like they're not demons. Um, but yes, it's misunderstood. It's just I fucking love the scene. It goes so hard, it's shot very well, the performance is great, it's like wacky, but then also you kind of feel bad at the same time, and it's just like you want them to grab a giant chainsaw and go after some people. Um, so he's gonna forge somehow. It just seems, you know, it just seems like there are people that like to be outside doing hobbies, you know. It's the 80s. We didn't have YouTube and video games like we had real hobbies. Yeah. So he goes to his friend's place in a camper looking for a cross pole crossbow called The Reaper, who tells Red that the satanic backer biker gang is called Black Skulls, who became deformed after taking some terrible LSD, which made them hideous. It's all done by Bill Duke. Cage is great in this scene. And I guess, um, so Bill Duke kind of tells a story of like, yeah, people in the big rigs have been talking about how there's this biker gang going around and like just killing people and uh killing truckers and prostitutes and like leaving bodies on people's doors and stuff like that. That was before the LSD. And like I guess they're getting their drugs from uh Richard the chemist from later who did not like him. So he gave them a bad LSD. Yeah, they loved it. And then it turned them into this, apparently. Yeah. It's like, I don't know. Like a metal. It's like, are you a demon? Uh it's like, what's the difference between like, let's say, a real life demon versus someone whose mind is completely wiped and all they have is evil and vengeance and like darkness inside them. It's like, is there really a difference between the two? Well, I think uh except one can actually grab you.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Most demons don't have like recreational vehicles.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 43:06

Although they would, I think. That would be smart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

But you know. It's just like whenever we think about like evil, you know, we think about like Satan and devil and like demons and stuff, but then it's just like, well, evil is just some fucked up dudes on a motorcycle and ATV and had decided to maybe potentially deform themselves. Still a theory, I'm on here. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

It's like they covered their faces with other human faces or something.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

Yeah, or it's just like they just like, I actually just melted some plastic on my face, and now this is how I look. Hell yeah. It does look like they had a bunch of leather on and then they got in a fire, and then it just like you know, fused the body, yeah. Godchy. So Red forges an axe and heads after the biker gang. The title screen of Mandy spreads out on the screen like roots. Let's fucking go. Yes. So Red chases after the biker gang. One off his bike with a cross crossbow before ramming him into him with his like SUV or car. I mean, how did he flip? Uh well that guy's like covered in like spikes and stuff. I don't know. Still. Well, I think you know, it's like the otherworldly being man. It's like, did he actually flip that hard or did he just like hit his head on the steering wheel potentially, you know? And just like knocked himself out. So he falls unconscious from the collision that flipped his SUV. He has another animated nightmare of Mandy in water with red eyes. Red like vengeance. Hell yeah. And Red reawakens in the black skull's lair, his left hand nailed to the floor. Um, pretty good method of making sure no one leaves. Just nail their hand to the floor.

SPEAKER_02 44:46

That was awesome. Yeah. This all kind of reminds it reminds me of like some kind of epic. Like guy going into the hell to save his the spirit of his it's like Hercules.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

Yeah, it's like a cosmic horror, I guess. I don't know if cosmic, but um religious horror. I don't know. It's uh Dante's Inferno or something. You gotta go into hell to fight your way out of hell or something. Yeah. Never read that book, so I don't really care. Yeah, neither.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

Yeah. But I get the whole I get the point.

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Yeah, I get the idea. Seven layers, Harold. That's what we're talking about here. So he is sliced and beaten by a black skull guard before gaining the upper hand by beating him down with a pipe, sending him down a deep chasm nearby?

SPEAKER_02 45:30

What is it? Yeah, the big the elevator shaft. Like, what did he say? They're in a house. Where'd they get the hell? Uh it's kind of it also reminds me a lot of Fallout, like the game flaw for. But no, um, what does he say when he pulls the pipe down and hits her with it, right when he kicks her, like when he's starting to escape? He says something really dumb. You're a vicious snowflake?

SPEAKER_01 45:53

A vicious snowflake.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

What?

SPEAKER_01 45:57

Because he's uh because they're not as uh they're not as strong as they think they are. Oh they're just they're just an angry little snowflake. A murderous snowflake that all it takes because they think you know, you know, because they're built up to be like these demons, and they're this demonic biker gang, and then all it takes is hitting them with a pipe and throwing them down a hole and then they die. Yeah. That's all it takes. It's not like they're actually, you know, as like powerful as we're thinking they are. They're just people still. Yeah. Which makes me think that like they're not actual demons, you know. Though the guy did have a um crossbow on his neck, which we'll get to in a second. Um, but it's like, you have a death wish. I don't want to talk about that. That was my favorite shirt. I love it. What a great line. I don't want to talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

What are we doing? What are you talking about? That's so good.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

I know, I it was, but it's so it's like who would have thought that would be the reaction to that question? Well, it's because it's like it was it's funny, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

It's just like I don't know, it's hard to explain because it's like it's it's all the one-liner is almost kind of lame, and I feel like that's the point. It don't make any sense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

Um, you're a vicious snowbody.

SPEAKER_01 47:21

Fucking love it. So Red arms himself with a box cutter and some body armor before investigating the place. He finds a dead elderly couple, obviously the victims of the biker gang. The old man has a bloody butt.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

Yeah, what was that all about? Uh knife guy? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

Aye, aye, aye. Woof. He enters another room seeing a black skull watching pornography, pornography, and snorting cocaine.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

He's getting he has a blade for his beans. He's scarfacing.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Yeah. He's like a melt of cocaine or something. Um and um, yeah, but like all these demons just living in a 70 styles house. It's kind of hilarious. With a giant pit to hell, I'm assuming. So a red attacks this black skull and slits his throat with a box cutter after a brief scuffle, the black skull's blood drenching into his face with red laughing maniacally.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

So good. Right in his mouth, too. Yeah, and he's just like opens it up. It's great. It was really great. And the blood is red, not black, so they can't be demons. But then like he's attacked by another black skull who just enters the room with a shotgun and like shoots at red. Red attacks him and snaps his neck. Smiles because he's getting caught up in the joy of the violence. You ripped my shirt. You ripped my shirt. Take his face off. Yeah. Face off. Oh, so good. Then he rewards himself by snorting some cocaine off a broken glass shard because metal. Then he grabs his axe that the demons thought was so cool enough to immediately hang up. Yeah. They're like, this fucking rules were hanging this up. So it makes me think they're just some like edgy ass like teenagers that just wanted to murder, so they did, and then as they became adults, got the into LSD and then just became like, you know, edgy, murderous demon biker people. And they're like, because they're still like, This is this is cool. What's up, you know? Are you a kid? Um so yeah, and then he notices a jug of LSD the bikers have been drinking and takes a small taste of it out of curiosity. He immediately sees blow. Yeah, he immediately sees bizarre series of apocalyptic nightmares. Uh face melts off, sun exploding essentially.

SPEAKER_02 49:43

He also get kind of gets visions of the future.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

Yeah. So it's just like, hmm. It's like what? And like, I don't know. Have you ever done LSD? Yeah. Have you? It kicks ass. Like, what is it? What what does it do? It makes you see crazy shit. Like, all right, I do want to talk about this for a second.

SPEAKER_02 50:03

So so like when you touch it, is it just like it's not immediate like that, unless because that's what made me think this is super powerful LSD or something.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

When you see when you start seeing stuff, is it like in the space that you're in? Or do you like your this let's say if you did LSD in this room, would the room disappear and it just start forming into something new or no?

SPEAKER_02 50:24

You just like the walls start like melting and the patterns on the ceilings start forming into different shapes. Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 50:33

Oh man, it makes me really want to do it right now. Yeah. So I guess whenever so let's compare it to like mushrooms, something I also never did. I'm assuming you've done. Yeah. So like uh when you do mushrooms, like what do you see? Uh it's kind of the same. I mean, it's similar, except similar stuff.

SPEAKER_02 50:48

Um I I like mushrooms better because then they just make you feel incredible.

SPEAKER_04 50:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:56

If you take the right amount. Yeah. Never taking like too much. Gotcha. So I mean you just see some stuff. Like when I was in the woods on LSD, I I saw like something tunneling under the le under the stuff that was on the ground. Like the the the litter, like the leaves and shit. And I heard I was having like auditory hallucinations too. So it my friend turned around with a flashlight and I heard a car coming at me. So I thought he was a car, and I jumped out of the way. We're in the middle of the forest.

SPEAKER_01 51:27

That's awesome. It's nuts. So it's not like it's not like what happened in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

I don't know. It seems like what they're taking is a lot a lot of LCD.

SPEAKER_01 51:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:39

I'm never taking that much.

SPEAKER_01 51:40

So have you seen Midsummer? Yeah. So like let's say taking mushrooms, you know how like the flowers kind of pulsate and stuff?

SPEAKER_02 51:49

Is that kind of how it feels or looks? Yeah, or like uh what was that movie with Johnny Depp where they take a bunch of drugs? Blow. Oh, okay. Not the other one.

SPEAKER_01 52:05

Uh not not the cocaine one, the uh every other drug one.

SPEAKER_02 52:10

Yeah, he's taking like mescaline and stuff like that. Yeah. It's yeah, it's similar.

SPEAKER_01 52:14

Gotcha. Didn't see any lizards?

SPEAKER_02 52:16

No, I didn't see any lizards.

SPEAKER_01 52:18

Okay. But you know, everybody's like, I've never I've never done it, and I always kind of like to, anytime someone says they took like a hallucinary hallucinatory drug, I'm always like, what'd you see? How did it act like with you? Like somebody at work that did mushrooms, they're just like, well, it's kind of uh like when they said they did mushrooms, they're like, it feels like light, like light or colors are emanating from things. Like whenever they they did like their hallucinations, it's just like there was just like extra colors like flowing from things and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 52:53

I'd say one of my strongest hallucinations was I went to go make a bowl of cereal and I was on mushrooms. And you jumped in the cereal. I opened the cabinet and a leprechaun handed me a bowl. Well, really, it was just me getting the bowl out, but it looked like a there was a face with a hat, and he was like handing me the bowl, and I was like, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 53:12

Thank you. Have you always lived here? Please let me know. Damn, that makes me want to do mushrooms. So that was drug talk with Jesse and Jason. Where Jesse has never done any drugs, so he asked Jason the experiences. All right, so back to the movie. Um so yeah, he sees apocalyptic nightmares uh before coming to his senses. Red exits the lair and kills the remaining black skull with his axe and reaper. Black uh he shoots first the uh black skull with the reaper like straight through the throat, and he just kind of pulls it out, and you can see Nick Cage's face like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 53:55

Yeah, because it didn't look real at first. It didn't look like it was uh real like a human. Yeah, it was just like a body.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

Which is on LSD. Maybe he never even actually hit him. Maybe he just thought he hit him. Um the black skull states she's still burning, twitching enraged. Red hacks him to pieces after setting him on fire.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

Yeah, then lights a cigarette with his head.

SPEAKER_01 54:15

Head of the black skull to light a cigarette and stares into the camera. Yes. Yeah. So wild. So then Red approaches a nearby tower where he meets the chemist who had made the LSD wish to form the biker gang. The chemist has a pet tiger which he frees from a cage after the chemist chemist receives telepathic information, tells Red to head north to find Sans Lair. You exude a com cosmic darkness. You see like black centipedes all around his feet and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 54:46

I love this scene. Yeah, Richard Brake nails it.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

It's wild to me that he was just sticking his hands in the liquid.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

Yeah. It's like I I mean, like, are those just like little I've never done LSD. So he's obviously those are like little LSD little stickers that you put on your tongue. So he's just soaking it in LSD, I assume. And then he like licks his finger and then he starts hearing things, and it's pretty fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 55:10

I feel like he does it a lot.

SPEAKER_01 55:12

And I think like hearing voices. Yeah, and when you're watching kind of Red, he's can see him being like, oh, this guy's just fucking chill. Yeah. Because like if you think about it, the chemist never did anything to hurt Red except for the actions that pre-past actions that created the hacker game. Where you reached for his like the gun at first, golden gun. But it's like he telepathically was like, No, he's not here. It's like I'm just gonna tell him he's the oracle. Yeah, he's like, he's not here to kill me, he's here to kill the cult. So he's like, and then he's getting his thoughts from something, I don't know. It's not from Nick, not from Red. It's like he's uh Kimmus is like, I'm hearing things, so he lets the tiger go, and then he's just like says a bunch of mumbo jumbo, which kind of fucking rules, and then he's like, ah, what they did to your girl, it's terrible and awful and shouldn't have happened. And then it's just like, all right, uh, they're up north, by the way. Let's kill them.

SPEAKER_02 56:12

So maybe there is something to this.

SPEAKER_01 56:14

Yeah, I know, and it's it's kind of the fun part of this movie. It's like, what's real, what's not real? It's like, was this guy just thinking he was hearing things, but really it was his hallucinations? And he's like, Oh, yeah, they actually told me earlier they killed your wife, so uh that's why I have this already in my head and thought it was shitty, so go kill them, they're that way. Um, and then so Red rides off on the ATV, the environment starts to look like a wasteland, almost like uh Mad Max Rerow to literally put that in my notes. Uh he goes through the tunnel. Yeah, everything is becoming a metal cover throughout the film. Oh like and it's kind of crazy because the whole movie is very the first half of the movie is grounded, more realistic, like except for like small little things. And ever since the bathroom scene where he immediately got drunk on a giant bottle of liquor, um, now everything's kind of warping and changing, and it's like we've come a long way since the bathroom scene. Um, then we see his ATV get stuck in mud and he has to walk. It's like, hey, just push it. I know it's an ATV.

SPEAKER_02 57:16

I got him stuck plenty of times. Where he gets stuck is I couldn't I couldn't really see what he was stuck in. Just I think some mud. Maybe, but there's also like cars sunk in the mud and shit.

SPEAKER_01 57:26

Yeah, so it's like I don't really understand what's going on there. It's like it's a quicksand or some shit. It's like, is that just like a place where they whenever they captured their victims, they just drove their car into this area? I don't know. Oh, it's all really fucking cool. Yeah. So um we get another animated short where Mandy pulls a glowing green thing from a dead humanoid cat creature. Don't fucking know what that is. I don't either. Right? And she's like staring at it like, oh and it's like pulling from like a wound on the side of the ribs, like almost how Nick Cage was stabbed. So it's like, is Nick Cage? And then later we'll see after the after credits, there's like a shot and it's just like some pictures like that was drawn by Mandy, and it has him as like a he's like in front of a lion that's over on him. I'm like, is he supposed to be the cat in this? Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 58:16

I didn't see, I didn't wait until after the credits.

SPEAKER_01 58:18

Yeah, I didn't know this was the I was just you know finishing some notes and let the credits play because I was like, oh, there's no sound. This is nice. And then I'm like, oh, I didn't know there was an aftercredit scene. So he wakes up from the night and is luckily right where he needs to be. The Colt is just down a mountain. It's like, well, that was lucky. So Red catches up with Lucy and Swan by putting spikes on the road. He kills Swan by impaling him through the mouth with the bladed handle of his axe. Hell yeah. Because he's like talking, then like in the middle of talking. Slowly goes, got your ass. And I love it. It's like, oh, like, hey, oh, please don't hurt me in the head, but somebody's like, ow. It's like, yeah, now you're about to be the victim, bro. Hope you enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02 59:03

Oh, yeah, that's and the girls just sitting there watching, like, shit.

SPEAKER_01 59:08

She's like, what the fuck? And she really do anything. And then he kind of leaves Lucy, realizing she's probably just a puppet of sand and no real threat to him. And then Mexican music starts playing. Yeah. He's like, huh? And then uh he nears the lair of sand, a converted uh converted satanic church where he kills sand's attacking apostles with his axe and a chainsaw. Throws axe at uh hanker, hitting him right in the head. It was pretty good. He then chainsaw picks up a chainsaw, but the guy he's facing has a really long chainsaw. They fight, and then uh it's pretty dope. It's just awesome. Apparently, they had to film that whole scene in one night, and they said it was hellish to film that scene, apparently. Apparently, it was very hard to shoot and not fun. Um, but uh Nick Cage gets knocked down, but he uses a giant chain to swing around the neck of one of the apostles, and then falls on the chainsaw. It's like, dang it. How'd you know my weakness was metal chains around my neck?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:06

Yeah, but he falls onto the chainsaw. Yeah, and it rolls. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:13

That was the first image I saw of this movie, and it was the whole it's the only thing I saw before I watched it. And it was guy with a really long chainsaw. And I was like, there, and then Nick Cage with the chainsaw, and I was like, chainsaw. I have to watch this movie. Hell yeah. Um, so yeah, he enters the church with Marlene who offers her services to him. First, he walks in, there's a red giant room, there's a red room with a giant cross. Then he takes a ladder down into a tunnel, and he goes in an area where there's a chair and lamp sit, and Marlene is there. Red instead decapitates her and taunts Jeremiah's sand with her severed head because he like throws in the room.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:48

He's like, ah no. He's such a little twerp. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:55

Suck your dick. Suck your dick. And it's kind of like a pulsating pinkish, red, and purplish lights. The whole movie then. Um, but then he went sand at first declares that he is protected by God and will not be hurt by Red. And then Red puts his hands on him and he's like, uh, uh, actually, no. And then uh some of the quotes like Jeremiah to Red after Red finds this underground lair, you're just meat without a soul, without a brain, without anything. Animal. You have just no spirit everlasting, no, no radiant light. I possess the elucidations you will never know, Rhett. A psychoti a psychotic drowns where the mystic swims, you're drowning. I'm swimming. Um well, it's because he's like the, you know, because he's he thinks he's like enlightened and he's like this leader and he's like with God, but instead he's drowning, and he's like, I am actually the smart one here, and I'm swimming.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:54

Crushing your head.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:55

Yeah. Red instead seizes him by the head. Sand screams and even offers him oral sex so that he will be saved, telling Sand, I'm your godnet. Red crushes Sand's head into jelly before?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:08

Yeah. Fuck yeah, man. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

And then he uh he's just like, I'm gonna burn this shit down.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:13

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:13

And then he does. He enters his car and has a vision of what I'm assuming is when they first met. She smiles, but then it turns into a cry. Now driving, imagining that he sees Sandy's Mandy sitting in the passenger seat, smiling at him. It is revealed that Red is in a bizarre, bloody state of deformity in real in reality, obviously deformed by his revenge quest in the LSD and his hallucinating Mandy. As he drives off, it is revealed that the world is now in a bizarre inferno madness that is not our own. Credits are Red Text on black screen is mute as there is no background music to be heard.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:47

He's gotta take the spirit out of the underworld. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:50

Fuck yeah, man. Yeah, it's like because when watching this movie, it's like, is the environment like, where are they at this point? It's like the environments are becoming more wastelands, and it pans up and it's like, oh, I guess we are just in a wasteland.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:04

Like the ninth level of hell.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:05

Yeah, it's like, uh, this is where people go after they commit their revenge. They're just in a wasteland now. Hell yeah. They have no feeling. Yes, burn and arrow. Did not realize that there was a ghost face mask behind me. That kind of freaked me out when I turned to get my vape. But yeah, that is fucking Mandy, baby. Oh, the scene, the wide shot of him in the driver's seat, just smiling with blood all over him, and like this red lit car. Insane. They almost kind of look like dolls at that point because he's got like a crazy smile, and then it cuts to her, and she's like not really moving. There's like just very slight movements until he moves his head. Something very eerie about it, and it definitely does not feel like a happy ending.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:48

No, no, nothing is happy in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:51

But like, I kind of think maybe there is a slight happy ending to it. And the fucking got his revenge. Yeah, the fucking like fade into them at like a rock concert together. Yeah. At their first met. I was like, oh shit. It's like I was just like, kind of like a wave of emotion came over me. I was like, ah, damn. It's kind of I don't know, there's something about being in a relationship, right? Where it's just like it's kind of like harkens harkens to the beginning of the movie where they kind of all look a little scared like the whole time. Yeah. Like when they're just kind of walking around the woods, it's they looking at two each other through the fire and they kind of have a look of worry on them. I'm like, well, it's kind of like the more you fall in love with someone, the more you're like worried like anything will happen to them. So it's just kind of like, I don't know. It was just like a weird feeling to me. I was like, it kind of caught that emotion perfectly. Oh, yeah. I feel like.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:47

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:48

That's just what I thought. It's intense. Yeah. So let's get to the point of the movie. Do you wanna say what you think the point is first? Or you want me to go? I know it's probably harder since you like you know, you don't have like a computer to like say everything you thought.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:02

I guess uh I guess the point of the movie is like uh some kind of maybe it's just like a retelling of you know some epic hero's journey of some sort. It's like uh anti-epic hero's journey. Something really like Dante's Inferno.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:24

Yeah, it's like instead of like becoming a hero, you're like you just became as low as the people you're killing, which is usually what like revenge movies kind of are. Kind of like the Punisher, but darker. Yeah, more chains, more LSD. So I was like an axe.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:41

I have an axe.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

And my axe. And my weepa. And then my penis knife.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:50

Yeah, how do we know the thing? You're not coming. Also, uh we're full. We're full of um a fun fact about this movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:58

So Elijah Wood loves. horror movies he directs he uh produces a lot of indie horror movies um he was he helped actually get this movie made that's he convinced nick cage to actually take the role because at first um nick cage was just burying his face in a mountain of coconut they wanted they wanted Nick Cage to be Jeremiah at the start okay but he wanted to play red um but I guess like the original script was um the cult was actually gonna be an older coat cult and like the couple was supposed to be younger supposed to be like an age an age thing too in it but you know they got rid of that obviously and I guess at first they didn't get a or they didn't agree with each other so they're like all right Nick Cage isn't gonna be in the movie and Elijah Wood made them all meet again and like they talked through it and I guess because all the things that they were going through personally like they found a way to like yeah you can be red we can fix this. Elijah Wood probably got them all to drop acid together. Yeah they came up with this I still look like a child so um someone give me a ride to Mount Doom yeah please you bet I heard there's eagles I don't know why I had to walk here have you heard the quote from our uh from Tolkien about that question uh he's like I'll tell you I'll tell you what I tell everyone when they ask me that question shut up it's just like that looking rules it's like always this thing like when it gets to that point and it's I never read the books but I've seen the movie it's like in the movie it's just like or in the books it's just like man I've been writing for years like uh eagles I don't want to have to ride their journey back.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:37

Eagles get them people have been asking him this they asked him this question since like he wrote the books.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:42

I feel like it's not even that hard of a thing to really like now that I'm older and I'm like why are there eagles all of a sudden like well yeah they kind of killed evil. Yeah. So it's like the watching eye you know they would just seen them on the eagles I don't know. Right? But then it's like well if you just fly real fast you just throw in the thing. Anyways what I put for the point is like I think Mandy represented a witch pentagram on shirt loves natures and animals and drew herself and red with animals also hung and burned like one Jeremiah a false prophet who used religion in heaven for his own narcissistic reasons. Red is more of like a Christlike figure who is sent to make the cult pay for their actions or it's a movie about how easily our minds can be warped. The cult fell for Jeremiah's schemes red easily becomes became a twisted man looking for revenge after he started drinking. He met with a chemist who seems insane but at that point of the movie it just seems like normal like our brains have already been manipulated into what to think and how we view the world that they're in. We're like, oh this is the best guy in the movie the chemist and it's like he's kind of the whole reason any of this is happening because of his drugs. Mandy is the only one who seemed like she had her head on her shoulders because of her defining moment to not kill the baby birds. She at a young age fought against what she was told to do and became who she was in the film. Also I think there's a fine line between love and anger and that the film uses it it's uses the light to show that sometimes flashing harsh reds for anger and then shift shifting to pinks and purple for kind of love and like more like happier times. When we lose someone you have and then I put it like when we lose someone you might have the emotion of being sad and angry at the same time which I also think is they use the lighting to do. Also they did a lot of lighting the ending I believe is on Jupiter Mandy's favorite planet. Oh hell yeah I think like in his head he's like on Jupiter with Mandy and that's when it pans up you kind of see like the two other planets. And he's like the planet devouring these galactic yeah galactic after like deciding after the credits roll I was like what is this air world? And I'm like oh I bet it's Jupiter. Mandy's favorite planet. It's all red.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:49

And if you if you go the spiritual if saying it's more spiritual I guess Mandy is kind of like a nature spirit and he's like the spirit of wrath.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:59

Yeah yeah she definitely had like you know uh pagan S vibes for her um but yeah that's kind of what I thought and let us know what you think the point is there at home or in your car or at work. So we're gonna hit our next category the good, the bad, the ugly, the fine it's where we discuss the good of the film something we like the bad something we didn't like the ugly something that didn't age well the fine something that did age well. For the good I put cinematography obviously I love the music um trippy unhinged feeling of the whole film.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:28

Yeah the unhinged all that was good yeah it was all very good and the directing obviously yeah I really like the the lighting well everything you said was also good um but I thought they they used lighting in a really special like cool way yeah all the time and it was it's weirdly because usually when people use lighting like that it's very distracting but for some reason I don't know if it's the way they introduced the lighting that made it seem so natural but but they they did use it to make everything feel fucking unhinged and crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:02

Yeah it's just like I don't know because sometimes if you do lighting like that and it's like well this isn't really vibing with the movie but this one it's like no this vibes with the movie. For the bad I really I didn't have anything I mean the worst thing is it's just like is it real is it not type of situation but yeah there wasn't really which can be frustrating with drug drug related movies.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:24

It's like what's real what's not yeah I didn't think there was anything to say that was bad. Yeah just the the horrible feeling I got when I saw the guy with the blade penis.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:34

Yeah it just immediately immediately I feel like shit um for the ugly I put cults they suck yeah Jesus freaks for the fine I put cults love to love to watch movies and documentaries about them I do too they're so fucking crazy. It's just like I love well I don't love 'em obviously but like I don't know I love seeing how how just destructive and chaotic manipulative and how how they work right and like seeing the similarities in other religions or even just like workplaces. Right? Because I mean a lot of workplaces use similar techniques. Yeah and wording right like yeah it's it's like the the reason things get so big is because they manipulated our brains thinking we need these things.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:24

Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:25

Like I gotta go to Walmart. The only reason they're so big is because they're like they advertise the hell out of you and like hey we also have everything don't you love this place? Yeah and we all keep going to it even though we fucking hate Walmart. Everybody hates Walmart. I hate it. But yeah like in our minds like we have to keep going it's Walmart. They have everything they'll never do it's wrong. Um also I put Nick Cage you can't count the man out.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:47

No he was really good in this like he didn't have a lot of lines yeah it's very expressive. It it's a movie where it's like oh yeah he acts he's a good actor but yeah there's a lot of eyeball work yeah as far as the actor acting went which is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:04

It's great whenever you can like I like I sometimes I feel like in movies you can really feel like when he like knows he's got a good script here or he's like ah he's I got something good here. It's like I met Elijah Wood so like I think we got this here. Um so yeah uh anything else to add for I know I kind of cut off the ugly and fine for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:27

I think you we had a lot of good points.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:31

Cool so we're gonna hit up our next category it's where we're double it's called double features where we recommend a movie to go alongside this movie. I'll go ahead and let you go since you already we already kind of spoiled it.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:42

More blade penises and it answers that question of what's in the box.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:46

What's in the box seven box yeah what's in the box I was actually gonna say we should do seven next but then I should do seven but some point. And then I was like well I mean it's very similar movies I feel like so yeah we can roll it we can weigh a few we're picking a different David Fenture movie. Um I put uh a movie Nick Cage movie called Pig it's where a truffle hunter who lives alone in Oregon wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped so sweet the movie is uh it you just you know weird stuff happens in it that sounds awesome weird stuff happens it's uh it's a wild movie it's very slow you know dogs can also be taught to hunt truffles that makes sense yeah it it honestly makes more sense than pigs being that's that funny the pig would just eat it yeah right they eat everything guess you probably have to really feed the pig before you go truffle hunting it's kind of interesting it's a very interesting movie I do recommend it it's kind of rolls I want I want to watch it it's also an hour and 30 minutes nice perfect movies are fun when they're an hour and thirty minutes but we will not have that benefit of our next movie but it is one of my favorite movies ever made I remember watching this when I was younger in like 2009 being like I feel bad now because this week we're doing Zodiac it's one of those movies where you watch and you're like I feel bad but I just watched one of the best movies I've ever seen in my life. Nice so it's kind of it's one of those sensations where it's like this is a weird feeling to have a ton of joy and a ton of real sadness in me. Also has one of the scariest scenes ever put on film. Really? Yes happens broad daylight in the park too that's cool but it's can't wait it terrifies me every time I watch it I can't wait to David Finger's Zodiac it's on Paramount Plus for anyone wanting to know. And that's it. That's our discussion. So join us next week for Zodiac and leave some likes some subscribes use a chainsaw and smash that like button baby do some LSD and make 50 billion accounts and follow us and review us and like us on all those accounts baby and let people know hey there's a small podcast out here with some guys that seem goofy enough to be enjoyable hopefully um yeah so do all those things um I'd like to thank Joey Prosser for our intro and outro music. You can find them on X at Mr Joey Prosser um this has been the We Recommend Podcast I'm Jesse I'm Jason um you ripp my favorite podcast by the