Life Through a Queer Lens
Welcome to the Life Through a Queer Lens Podcast, where anyone with an open mind and heart can learn about the LGBTQIA+ Community from the people within it! We're your hosts, Jenene (she/her, they/them) and Kit (they/them).
Life Through a Queer Lens
EP57: Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun: Haunted Pixels & Horror Classics
This episode dives into digital romance, a love for Halloween films, and navigating inclusion in horror. From marrying Stardew Valley’s Shane to celebrating horror icons, it's a journey through nostalgia, representation, and real-life Halloween escapades, embracing the eerie and the endearing all at once.
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as we jump in. I have something that I feel like people will appreciate, so I've been playing starting valley for a little while. Now. I have a playthrough where I have married shane don't fucking come for me, we have a baby and it's fine. So here's the thing is this character's story when you come to the town he is a severe alcoholic literally have to rush him to the hospital in the middle of the woods while you're out foraging. You just rush him to the hospital in the middle of the woods while you're out foraging. You just find him. Those moments where they hit you like a truck because you'll just be out being like, oh, I'm going to go get some fish, I'm going to go, is that a dead body? Oh, my God, it's Shane. Today, y'all we are doing a little get to know the casters. Spooky season slash Halloween edition.
Speaker 2:Favorite movies, favorite times when we were younger. I don't know anything in the vein of Halloween.
Speaker 1:Maybe haunts that we've been through, haunts that we worked at, things of that nature, just stories about our own lives that revolve around Halloween or the Halloween season. I think a good place to start is always what is your favorite scary movie, and for years I said it was Repo, the Genetic Opera. I think it was just to sound edgy, because I was like 17 and you know wanting to sound edgy Repo the Genetic Opera. Yeah, Repo the Genetic Opera.
Speaker 2:That sounds fascinating. I've never heard of it. I want to go download it right now. What the hell is that about?
Speaker 1:It's shockingly good. I saw it for the first time when I was 12 with my cousin who showed it to me.
Speaker 2:Older movie.
Speaker 1:I came out in 2007, 2006. Okay, maybe 2006. It stars Alexa Vega, who was in Spy, spy kids. She played the older sister. It also stars anthony heed, as I think his name. He played the librarian in buffy. Okay, he has a phenomenal singing voice. I really, man has pipes nice there was not one episode of buffy, I think, where they sung and he had like a couple moments in there where I was like, okay, but the whole of repo, he hits some notes that I'm just like like damn, yeah do that yeah well, he's in an opera movie now.
Speaker 2:I mean it's a scary opera movie.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's in the title, so I'm assuming so it's basically it takes place in the not so distant future, where it's basically dystopian horror where organ failures due to the, the pollution of the environment, organ failures start happening in mass, like just all over the fucking globe. People's organs start failing in mass and there is very little to nothing we can do besides watch people die by the millions, almost like it is. There's literally like just piles of bodies outside of this, like main town area type of thing. But then a savior comes in and they are called gene co and gene co starts making synthetic organs that can be given to you know, to anyone. But because you know they're synthetic and they could be given to anyone and it's super easy, it starts becoming a fashion trend, kind of almost like plastic surgery, you see, slowly becoming a trend. Now it's literally body modification surgeries, like new eyes, new heart, the new gallbladder. Getting these synthetic organs is the new fashion trend. So Gene Co starts putting repossessions on these organs because people need to afford them. So there's payment plans, which means repossessions, which means repo men that go and repossess the organs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was another movie that was made years after this one just called Repo Men, that had the same concept, except it wasn't a musical and it was way less zany, gothic, crazy shit. This one's way more fun. This one's way more fun, it sounds terrifying.
Speaker 1:It's great. There are some moments from it that could be considered problematic. I'm just letting y'all know it came out in 2006. It's a comfort movie of mine, personally because I watched it. My cousin showed it to me pretty soon after my father passed and it just became one of those movies that whenever I'm upset, literally around his anniversary I was like I'm watching repo.
Speaker 1:I watched it, yeah, I would say, my favorite horror movie is probably trick or treat, the horror anthology with like all the different I don't know. I just I think that movie is just the essence of on halloween the freaks are winning and I love that shit, I live for that shit. So those two are pretty good. They're both a little older. They both came out in like the early 2000s itch, I believe. But yeah, okay what about so?
Speaker 2:so this one freaks me out every time, like I can't watch it alone. And it actually came out before I was born, but I think there was a of it texas chainsaw massacre. Did you see that? That movie scared the shit out of me so hard. Leather face.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, just oh wait, I have. I actually have a little leather face hold up. Oh, oh, my goodness, I lost his chainsaw. I got his chainsaw. I got him with a little horror box that I got forever ago.
Speaker 2:Oh my god oh my god, that's so rude and cool.
Speaker 1:I'm like that's rude that's so much, that's so weird he's so little he stands on my tv.
Speaker 2:He's near chucky ish yeah yeah I was gonna say that I mean, we talked about that franchise on one of our most recent episodes, but even the child's play franchise is scary geek yeah, you talked about that where where, if you switch your mindset, then you can see some of the underlying theming and it's not as scary, oh yeah oh yeah, but also nightmare on Elm Street.
Speaker 1:Hmm, classic, that's a good one Once it hits like the third or the fourth, it starts getting like really, that was the point where people were making literal kids pajamas with Freddy Krueger on them and it was like I think we lost the plot and then we just continued to lose the plot from there. It's actually so funny. I was watching a documentary about nightmare on elm street and they were talking about the fact that, as writer director, they started noticing children's merchandise being made with freddy krueger on it and like freddy krueger prominent. And they were like do people not know he's a pedophile? We should probably write that out.
Speaker 2:We should probably write that out, and then they immediately wrote that out. What? Yeah, that's insane to me. It's like you didn't bother to read the script first.
Speaker 1:Well, no, because the thing is, they knew, they understood what they were doing, but other people- just started making kids wanted. Parents were showing it without the understanding that this guy was a monster. That's why the parents killed him. The parents got together and murdered him because he was touching kids oh my god, and it's like everyone just didn't know that or didn't think to I don't know, they just didn't.
Speaker 1:So they made a bunch of kids merchandise with not the writer director but just the studio. The people who don't actually give a shit about the art, who just want to make as much money from it as possible, from the IP as possible, made as much children's merchandise as possible because kids were wanting it. And the writer director? We're just like, okay, I guess I'll just write this pivotal thing about the character's backstory out he was a murderer. That's why the parents killed him, it's? He just killed a bunch of kids. It's fun. Wow, it was the weirdest retcon I think I've ever seen that is crazy.
Speaker 2:You know what movie I just thought of when you said he's a monster. Do you ever see that movie?
Speaker 1:monster oh shit, you know I haven't, but I I do know like vaguely about the real life serial killer that that is a sick movie.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, it's a sick movie.
Speaker 2:It's sick I'm gonna have to watch that one you're gonna have to watch it and we will circle back on it. That is some sick shit. I don't. Here's the thing. I respect and honor people's creative process and when it comes to scary movies, I love the makeup artists. There's so many different aspects that go into making horror films that are just they. They're fascinating and to watch them all come together and everything. The part of it for me is that it's so real that sometimes I'm just so freaked out because they do such a good job. I think about it afterward. It just messes with me psychologically and then I have to try to reason things. Then I come to the conclusion that some of them you just can't reason. You just you can't put logic to some of the things that happen, because that that's why they're written the way they are. They're not supposed to be linear or logical.
Speaker 1:So but they're just so well done that you're now exactly yeah, to give a little love to practical effects the thing. 10 out of 10 the thing, yeah, the practical effects on that are just absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 1:On another, the way the little fucking thing like crawls on the ground, like the guy's head breaks off and then it's just, it grows and it just oh, that's so cool, the precision that to build something like that and then to make it look that horrifying. Bro, after watching that movie I imagine that thing on my fucking ceiling. Oh, that thing was so creepy no thanks it was like a head spider, but it made me also, at the same time that I was like, genuinely horrified by it.
Speaker 1:It made me want to, like, make a little statue of something similar, with a baby doll head or something. You know what I mean. Like it made me want to make something like a little homage to that.
Speaker 2:It's like you know, yeah, it kind of speaks to your creative, your inner creative. Yeah, when it's done so well like that, so cool, when it translates.
Speaker 1:Exactly, it's 10 out of 10. When I was younger like I didn't watch any of these movies until I was probably about 19. When I was younger, the only scary movies I watched were I watched some Tales from the Crypt. You remember Tales from the Crypt?
Speaker 1:Yes, I do I watched a couple of Tales from the Crypt. Do you remember Tales from the Crypt? Yes, I do. I watched a couple of Tales from the Crypt with my friends for my 13th birthday. We also watched the American remake of One Missed Call, which everyone just likes to shit on nowadays. But when I tell you, I couldn't listen to that ringtone into adulthood? The One Missed Call ringtone terrified me up until like a decade ago. This shit horrified me For reasons like it's such a bad horror movie, it's so shit, it's so dumb, but it scared the fuck out of me when I was 13. To the point where that ringtone I was like I'm dying, Nope.
Speaker 2:Mission accomplished.
Speaker 1:Truly truly that one got me. So, yeah, I was a big baby, up until 1920 probably and then I started watching a bunch of different horror movies with my ex and experiencing a bunch of different horror things and definitely got more involved in the horror sphere. But watching horror as a kid, my, my parents were like this kid was scared of ET. Fuck, am I letting them watch Freddy Krueger? No, no, absolutely not. Nightmares about ET for seven months? No.
Speaker 2:Right. So what is your take on horror versus thriller, and which one do you?
Speaker 1:gravitate toward the most. That's interesting, I think. For me personally, thriller can sometimes border almost close to an action movie. In some ways there's more happening on it. There's, you know, there's going on and, like you know, exciting faster. I think that's more like the thriller. It's like almost like horror action thriller, like they just combined those two into one and made it like the thriller category, whereas horror I find, at least for me, to be very slow burn.
Speaker 1:I think the best horrors are slow burn unless they're the solid b-list eight-legged freaks, tremors, anaconda, boa, like those really shitty large snake, large animal creature features. That's just okay. I get where this is coming. You know what I mean. Like I live for those teeth. Teeth is great, I love shit like that, but I I definitely think like that those could also be like horror comedy. That's an entire other genre, with movies like tusk where it's, it's horrifying, but there's also moments that just make you go, ah, what, what the fuck Kind of like Tim Burton stuff.
Speaker 1:Horror comedy maybe I would say Tim Burton stuff is more just like generally gothic, but also Tim Burton has a lot of his own issues. Back in 2016, he said that people of color don't belong in his universes. What?
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, okay, that's weird. I never heard of that well you know it's straight racist I mean, this is the time that we're learning everybody's true colors.
Speaker 1:You know this whole like political race and everything, and where people stand on one one side or the other, somebody say that in an interview in 2016, he was asked why in 90 of his movies, there are no people of color in his movies, and he was asked why he was at like why don't? What's the deal, man? And he straight up said it's because people of color don't belong in his universes.
Speaker 2:Slash can't be gone oh, that like ruins it yeah, yeah, I mean because like when I was little. When, when I was little, beetlejuice was one of my favorite movies no, you're real, I get it the original used to be one of my favorite movies. No, you're real, I get it. The original used to be one of my favorite movies, especially the dinner scene where they all kind of get possessed and they start singing the banana song. It was scary, but it also had humorous parts to them, you know Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say his movies would be more just gothic in general, because even if you look at Edward Scissororhands and I wouldn't, say anything about that movie is necessarily scary, but it is very gothic aesthetic yeah, it's on the darker side. Nightmare before christmas too yeah, more of a gothic aesthetic, without being necessarily horror, but either way, he's a piece of shit. Unfortunately. It's very unfortunate. I wish he wasn't. No, I truly wish he wasn't, especially since it's you know, it's very obvious.
Speaker 2:I wish he wasn't.
Speaker 1:I truly wish he wasn't, especially since it's, you know, it's very obvious, specifically with looking at Edward Scissorhands as a character, as a story is meant to mirror the autistic experience. You know it. I didn't realize that, yeah like because Tim Burton is autistic.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't even know that. So I mean those. I saw those movies so long ago like I wasn't even aware of neurodiversity. The conversation around neurodiversities has been more prominent today than it's ever been, but I saw those when I was so young that I, you know, I was a kid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it works as our hands kind is meant to be that character on the outside, constantly looking in, wanting to feel, but never being able to truly touch that metaphor. That's what it is to be autistic and interact with society.
Speaker 2:I gotta watch that again then and not pay for it. Yup, yup there it is.
Speaker 1:Somebody mentioned Harry Potter earlier and I was like fuck, jk or arc, whatever her name is, jk. You were right.
Speaker 2:Yep, okay, jk, rk rolling look, I don't even care, she's not in my sphere. You know what I mean. I don't care what her name is, but fuck that bitch.
Speaker 1:Real, real correct, correct correct oh my god no, that's so funny, but but yeah I definitely personally tend to gravitate more toward horror. I love me a good slow burn like midsummer hereditary.
Speaker 2:The menu was phenomenal did you say the cemetery? Cemetery, I don't think I have. Oh, I thought you said the cemetery.
Speaker 1:Oh no, it was the menu.
Speaker 2:Hereditary and hereditary okay because I thought you said cemetery. I was like pet cemeteries was a freaking crazy movie. The stephen king movie pet cemeteries about like reviving the dead and shit, yeah, that was a crazy. But stephen king's books his books are phenomenal, his writing is phenomenal. His movies are scary as shit no, truly.
Speaker 1:His writing style is truly fantastic and and yeah, even though he doesn't like a lot of his movies. I do so. It's okay and I get it. You know what I mean as a writer in writing my book. I don't know if I would ever be satisfied with what it ends up being, because it would never be exactly as I imagine it, and I almost guarantee you that's part of the issue he has with a lot of his film adaptations is, it's never going to be exactly what you imagined it in the process of writing.
Speaker 1:But I also think that with every single movie adaptation of carrie, they fuck up not only his original work but the story as a whole with not making her a plus-size person. They always have a skinny bitch play her. Why do you think they dumped pig's blood on her, or what do you think was the reasoning behind that? There was, it was, there was a whole entire thing into that. That meant something that matters lost. Yeah, it gets lost when you cast the same white, when you cast the same six-figure. Skinny bitch that looks like me.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not carrie, that's not carrie doesn't translate, doesn't have the same effect. Yeah, it's not getting across the same point of discrimination, right?
Speaker 1:you lose the entire message of fat phobia within here again, you lose the whole meaning as to why it's pig's blood yeah, that was.
Speaker 2:That was a fucked up movie too. I'm like now that we're yeah, well, oh my god, yeah on another stratosphere.
Speaker 1:The book is on another stratosphere from every single movie adaptation hands down really yeah I've never read the book.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I think the books are scarier than the movies.
Speaker 1:They are, you know what I mean definitely, because you just get lost in them I tried to read the stand when I was, which is like seven Bibles stacked on top of each other, for lack of a better word.
Speaker 2:7,000 pages.
Speaker 1:It's fucking huge. I got so little into it. I was into this book but I hit a certain point where I need to stop. I'm getting a little too lost in this world. It was at the point where my personal peripheral hallucinations were starting to become a problem in my life and I was like I need to chill, I'm going to wait, I'm going to wait, and I've never really picked it up since, just because it's one of those things that's like oh, that's a lot, that's a lot, even when you don't read horrors and thrillers.
Speaker 2:Even back, I remember when I was in middle school and we read Uncle Tom's Cabin and that screwed with me for a long time because what we learn in history doesn't align with the books that we were reading in literature in English, and there was rapes and just brutal scenes that were being described in detail and it just. I remember being like 13 years old, trying to process and make sense of everything, but the book was just so detailed that it hurt me. It hurt my heart. You know what I mean. I almost felt like it was so personal.
Speaker 1:That's why that art is so necessary.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Because it fills in so much of what is left out, but on purpose left out on purpose from our history.
Speaker 2:From the education system. The literature fills that in.
Speaker 1:That's why they're trying to ban books.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Uncle Tom's Cabin is a majorly banned book at this point.
Speaker 2:Oh, but this does not surprise me because it tells the truth. But not only that, it just it reaches you on a soul level that is so deep. I remember when I was 13 reading that book and it hurt, it broke me no, you're real yeah, yeah so do we have any of our favorite halloween memories?
Speaker 1:can you think of any halloween on the day before? Right around that time? That's like ooh oh, bitch, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, I could share one. It's not exactly full of horror. But my dad, when he was alive, he had a sign company and he was very, very, very artistic, very creative. He did a lot of airbrushing and he got into doing makeup, like face makeup. He actually built a lot of his own costumes with paper mache and stuff over the years when he was in his teens and 20s. He actually built a lot of his own costumes with paper mache and stuff over the years when he was in his teens and twenties and actually, funny enough, he and my mom won a Halloween costume contest with costumes that he built and he was poltergeist and he won the contest because he's just his brain is amazing. He's just so creative.
Speaker 2:But when I was a teenager, well, when I was younger, I used to jump on my bed and sing into my brush to Cyndi Lauper and Madonna and everything, and so this one year he was like what do you want to be for Halloween? And I really didn't know. And he was like why don't you be a punk rocker? And I was like I don't even know what I would do and he was like he did my face, he made a star around my eye and he did it up with glitter and everything and the one side was like a lightning bolt and he just painted my face and I wore this amazing wig and I wore a jean skirt with these pumps and you're talking about me, who's an androgynous person?
Speaker 2:And I was such a tomboy as a kid I didn't even know how to walk in pumps. You know what I mean. But my dad came up with this whole outfit and I rocked the shit out of it and it just was one of my favorite Halloween memories, just because whenever Halloween came around, my dad, he took a vested interest in just whatever we wanted to do and he was like that with anything. Even when we come home from science class and we had to build like a diorama of the solar systems or something, he would sit down with us and he would make everything with whatever. I mean, he used to build train layouts and stuff. He was just so, so artistic. But that was one of my favorite Halloweens. It wasn't scary or horrifying costume, but it was just the fact that he cared so much and he came out so good and I felt like Cyndi Lauper.
Speaker 1:That's incredible, oh my God. I love that so much. If you have any pictures of that, please send them my way, because if I turn this into a clip, I would love to put a picture of the final costume in that.
Speaker 2:That'd be so cute, okay next time I met my mom. She has picture boxes and I know there's a Polaroid in there because I was young. I was I don't even know how old I was, maybe maybe 12. Maybe, maybe, maybe 11 or 12. But it was back when, before. I don't even know if you know the 35 millimeters before digital or whatever, but it was a Polaroid picture of me dressed as a punk rocker.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's perfect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm totally dating myself. But when you see the picture you're going to be like oh my God, that that fucking rocks.
Speaker 1:I can't wait. Yes, Please send me a picture of that please.
Speaker 2:I will, I will. What about you? What's your favorite?
Speaker 1:Oh God, I mean, I wouldn't necessarily say this is my favorite, but it's still pretty cool. So one year I was like 13. Um, and I had planned with all of my friends this group of five-ish people without me, six including me to go trick or treating. Right, and they were going to come pick me up and then we were going to go and I was getting ready, I was getting in my costume and I was messaging with one of them I can't even remember how it happened at this point, but basically one or two of the girls in the group who just decided they didn't like me at that point because I was autistic and they were tired of using me for laughs. So they just were done with me, that's. They told everyone else in the group that I had my own ride there and ditched me and they all went to the trick-or-treating spot without me and by the time I realized what happened, they were already there and there was nothing I could do.
Speaker 1:So I watched the halloween episode of supernatural and I was sitting in my room because I had all the seasons on dvd calling myself out. I had all the seasons on dvd and I was sitting in my room and I was watching my supernatural dvd and I, just like I was staying in my costume because I put all this. I was a broken doll. I think I painted my whole face. I was wearing this really not uncomfortable but not comfortable dress. It's very frilly, somewhat itchy, but very cute dress, tights.
Speaker 1:I had gone all out and I was just sitting on my bed watching supernatural in full costume and my mom peeked in and was like hey, when are they getting here? What's going on? And I'm trying not to cry, looked at her and was like they're already at the trick-or-treat spot. Veronica told her I think it was veronica who did it I'm naming you bitch, I'm name dropping you. I won't last name drop, but I'm name dropping you bitch.
Speaker 1:Veronica told them all that I had already had a ride. So they're all there already and I don't even know if I want to go at this point. Because that's and my mom was like, yeah, that I don't know if you should go at this point, even if you got a ride, or because they were obviously. My parents were like we'll take you and I was like I don't know if I should go. So my mom told my stepdad what happened. My stepdad went oh, fuck this, get in the car. He starts blasting halloween music and we went to the richest neighborhood that he knew about and I got like 20 full-size candy bars. I got a whole fucking pillowcase. He took me to every Ritchie neighborhood that he could think of within a 10 mile radius.
Speaker 1:And I got a whole fucking shit ton of candy. And the next day my friend had come in the one who had told me Veronica said you'd be here came in and felt really bad because obviously she had nothing to do with it. So she came in with half of her candy, being like I'm so sorry, I didn't know, you know what I mean. Like they just felt really bad and I was like, oh no, you can keep that. I have this whole fucking pillow. I made bank at. Halloween. All thanks to my stepdad.
Speaker 2:I thought you were going to say your stepdad said get in the car and he was going to take you to them and tell them off or whatever, but you wouldn't want to hang out with them anyway because obviously they didn't have your back before you got there. They're certainly not going to have your back on Halloween after you get there. So the fact that he took you himself is baller.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we all went trick or treating. We saw a bunch of dogs in costume. We ran into people that we knew in an old neighborhood we used to live in. We ended up having a great fucking time. He was blaring like the chainsaw sounds and the screaming from his car radio. It was incredible and by the end of the night I was like I don't even care that I got ditched. That was the best Halloween ever. It was so cool.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. I love that.
Speaker 1:Another stepdad win moment. We used to go down the shore for Halloween or Halloween in August. It was basically we would go to this campground that would do a trick or treating around the campground they would have a costume contest. It was a lot of fun. So it was like almost a little prelude to Halloween, which is why now, in my brain, halloween starts in August. Like the spooky season starts in August, starts in August. Nice, love it.
Speaker 2:August is the beginning of the season.
Speaker 1:It's just that's how that works I think for many queer people it does exactly there was this trolley tram thing that would take you around the campground and it was on halloween, I think. Either that or it was like the night of the halloween dance at common campground area thing it was really cool. They have have the whole Halloween dance thing. It was fun. They did movie nights where they would show like Hocus Pocus, stuff like that. It was a great campground.
Speaker 2:I was going to bring that up earlier, but yeah great movie.
Speaker 1:That's a great one. I have some pins over here from it. I love that one. We were on the trolley and we were near the back and he saw this girl walking. I think she was dressed up as a prom queen or something and he had his mask his whole nine yards and this man, who nowadays can barely even stand up without groaning and letting out little oh, oh, god, my oh, jumps off the moving tram to scare this girl, just launches and she screams, everyone laughs and the guy from the front of the tram in between trying not to laugh please don't jump off the moving trolley. Oh shit, it was moving and he launched himself off of it to scare her, as though he was an actor working at the campground that's great yeah that's good shit.
Speaker 2:All right, I gotta tell you one more. It's just, it's a short one. So one year for halloween, my dad did my brother's makeup for his costume and he gave him a black eye. And a couple weeks prior to that, one of my really good friends who played field hockey you've seen it and felt a field hockey ball right. Well, somebody hit the ball during a game and literally that ball nailed her right in the eye and she had a legit black eye for like a month.
Speaker 1:I used to play field hockey.
Speaker 2:Oh, me too. So, but everybody was like, oh, look at Amanda's eye, it's so awesome and everything so fast. Forward to Halloween my dad did this awesome black eye on my brother and as he's doing it, I'm watching him because I told you my dad's super artistic and so I'm watching like how he blends, and he did like the vein that was popping out and the whole thing Right. So the next school day that we had I can't remember what day of the week it is, but the next school day that we had I went and I snuck down, I took all the makeup and everything, I put it in my room and when I was getting ready for school I did my eye the way my dad did my brother's eye, and I went to school like that.
Speaker 2:Do you know my geography teacher? She went to call on me and I was like you know, I had my head down because I don't normally do that. But she knew something was up and I saw her. She was talking to my English teacher on the break of the class or whatever, and I'm like, oh shit, they're talking about my eye Like fuck, shit, they're talking about my eye like fuck. And straight up. My teacher had called my parents that day and was like, is there something that we need to know about? And this is before the child abuse the laws were all in place, because nowadays you just go on the hotline and you like you make a formal complaint and then you let them do the investigation.
Speaker 2:Like you don't actually call the parents yeah, because if there is abuse like right that could exacerbate it right uh-huh that will exacerbate it actually it was so funny because my dad was like, what are you doing?
Speaker 2:you're gonna make them. And I was a kid, I was like 13 or something, so I didn't think about that. But it was just so funny because I wanted to be cool, like my friend who got hit with a field hockey ball man. She got so much attention Like I was legit, so legit Not everybody could be a school teacher. I'm just saying it takes a special kind Because you know we want to experiment.
Speaker 1:We want to figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're testing the boundaries.
Speaker 1:I'm not bleeding, it's fine yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh man. So, last but not least, you want to discuss some haunts. I mean yeah, yeah, let's do it. Have you ever worked at a haunt?
Speaker 2:So I used to work at believe it or not, it's a honeymooners resort in the Poconos called Well, it's not Caesars anymoreers resort in the Poconos called well, it's not Caesars anymore. They had licensed the name Caesars, like the casino. And there was four sister resorts in the Poconos and I worked at this one called Paradise Stream, so it's called Caesars Paradise Stream and it's the one where they have the champagne tower, jacuzzis and the heart shaped tubs and the round beds. So I used to work there when I was in high school and then throughout when I was an undergrad, when I came home on breaks and shit like that, and every Halloween they did a haunted house and this thing was legit. It was legit and I was cool. I know it was so scary, but they did a really good job and I was so fucking cool. I know it was so scary, but they did a really good job and I was the person who was in the coffin and so whenever somebody would come over, I had to be really, really still and people were so weird the things that they would do. One guy actually put his fingers up my nose. I was like you're so weird, but I used to just reach out in the dark and grab people and would freak them out. It was just so much fun.
Speaker 2:Our whole staff just really got into it. We all got dressed up and we all did different roles every year and we just scared the shit out of people and we had a really good time. And then they had this extra staff housing thing that was on the campus but up this hill and they use it for if one of the CEOs or whatever had to stay overnight for something and I'm like wink, wink, that's not what it's for. You know what I mean. So they would open it up for the staff to stay on the nights.
Speaker 2:We worked the haunted house and it was so cool because we would just go out staff to stay on the nights. We worked the haunted house. Then it was so cool because we would just go out, we would load it up with beer and whatever people drank before we would work that night, so that by the time we got done with the haunted house we would go up there and we would just party and stuff and everybody's dressed up and we would blast the music and it was, I don't know. It's just such a good time.
Speaker 2:But that's fucking awesome, I live yeah it was scary as, Like the guests that stayed there, they would write reviews and they would be like that's one of the scariest haunted houses we've ever been to. I love that. Yeah, it was legit. What about you.
Speaker 1:I have to check that place out because high key, high key. I want to stay there on Halloween.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds fun. Like some of them them are really the histories of them and stuff play a part. You know what I mean. Like they play into the stuff that you're doing with the spooky stuff for the season, just by the nature of their history and who they are, you know you know, even that abandoned one that I went to.
Speaker 1:It was eerie. That pool area will live in my nightmares forever Because there was still water in the pool and it was not good. It was the type of water where, just by looking at the surface of it, you could imagine things reaching out for you, whether it be hands, a creature Like it was that kind of water.
Speaker 2:Just by nature of existence, you are horrifying you didn't even go inside and you were already freaked out oh no, like we looked in at that pool and I was like who'd you go in?
Speaker 1:there an old friend of mine who I don't really yeah, I don't really talk to anymore Four years before we went to visit and was scheduled to be demolished relatively soon, so we decided to check it out before it was gone forever.
Speaker 2:You know what? There's a lot of haunted places in the Poconos. Come to think of it.
Speaker 1:I know this is basically me on record, admitting I love to commit crime, but I fucking love exploring abandoned buildings. Guys, I love it so much. I love it. It's kind of cool. I love exploring abandoned buildings. But haunt stories.
Speaker 1:I've worked at a couple of haunts. I worked at one for an entire season. It was called Pure Terror Scream Park. Back when I worked there they only had I think it was five or six haunted houses to walk through. Now they have 13, which is crazy. Yeah, I worked there like a decade ago. That was a lot of fun. I was in the witch house. We were the witches and Kevin, because there was a guy there. He was the warlock, but we'd call ourselves the witches and Kevin.
Speaker 1:I wasn't really out to too many people as trans in that environment, but the people I was out to, including the one makeup artist, did their best to make sure that I was respected, so they helped me find like more masculine leaning costumes. There was one night that they did prosthetics on my face and usually when they do prosthetics they put on enough spirit gum to make up for what you sweat off. For some reason, my sweat doesn't break down spirit gum, it just doesn't. The makeup artist was like I don't know what to tell you, your sweat just doesn't do what normal sweat do with spirit gum. So I had the same amount of spirit gum on my face at the end of the night as the beginning of the night, which means it took two hours to get the prosthetics off my face.
Speaker 1:Wow, oh, they're just slowly peeling and applying it, because I didn't sweat any of it off. It was just as stuck. It was horrific. So from that point on, even the boss was like, yeah, we're never putting this kid in prosthetics again and they let me paint my face. So they just did like airbrush face paint and I basically became like the skeleton or like the voodoo doll of the witches. And I was in the snake room and I would tell people I was going to turn them into snakes, or I would want them to touch my snake or I would yell at them about snakes, and a lot of people are scared of snakes, so it works.
Speaker 1:And sometimes there was a guy with a real snake there and those were my favorite nights when there was a guy with a real snake there, and those were my favorite nights when there was a guy with a real snake in the snake room with me.
Speaker 2:I love those nights yeah, and the thing is, the people there, they don't know the difference, they don't know if there's going to be a real one or not. But just the thought of it is scary enough it was.
Speaker 1:It was perfect and the snakes were so cute. They were really sweet little ball pythons. So in between people I would walk over and pet them. Yeah, and he had two of them, so he would trade them out, and when one became too cold, he would trade out for the one that's been on a heat pad.
Speaker 2:Oh, nice, nice.
Speaker 1:And then the other haunt I worked at was only for one night and it was volunteering for my college. It was either their paranormal club or their GSA that put this on, but it was toy box themed and my ex was Little Bo Peep and they were a tour guide for everyone and I was the creepy clown. And a week-ish before the haunt was supposed to happen, a week before Halloween, I sprained my ankle. Bad, like bad bad.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was on crutches and I was 18 and stubborn so I said, fuck you, and I'm not being a clown with crutches. So I racked my ankle twice and then I wore my heavy-duty Doc Martens and I was like being a clown with crutches. So I racked my ankle twice and then I wore my heavy-duty Doc Martens and I was like there, I'll be, fine, that's good enough.
Speaker 2:Nice, that's fitting the Doc Martens. The Doc Martens are so Halloween.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was like I don't need crutches, I'll be good. So I was a creepy clown, and what was cool about being the clown was I could be anywhere. I was one of the only actors that didn't have a fixed room. I was a wanderer. I could hide behind the theater and scare people as they're coming in. I could hide wherever I wanted. I basically saw the entire attraction by wandering. It was so awesome. I loved it. I loved it so much I'd go behind stage. I would find the same group from beginning to end. If one person said oh fuck, I hate clowns. If one person made the mistake of saying oh fuck, I hate clowns in front of me, I made them live to regret it the rest of the time they were there.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's so wrong. Oh my God. I would love the wandering position though, because doing the same thing for the entire duration when I was working the haunted house for example, when I was in that tombstone the one year it was fun but it was like a lot to lay there for hours.
Speaker 1:So I can totally appreciate the wandering position and it was awesome, cause if it was slow I would wander to the front. I would take a minute outside and get some air and everyone would be like bitch and I'd be like I didn't mean to be a clown.
Speaker 2:None of y'all wanted to be the clown yeah, exactly, now you can suck it.
Speaker 1:I'm the clown. I was annoying the fuck out of my ex with my little horn. Every time they'd hear that horn I would just get the. I got it taken away from me like two days before halloween because I brought it with me out of the club and they were like I'm keeping this until night off and that's what oh god I got it taken from me. But there was only one point in the night when things went kind of wrong with the fact that I actively had a sprained ankle.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was. I was behind the theater and there was a group coming through and my ex was leading the groups because they were one of the main guides. So my ex was leading the group and they had gone down the stairs already and so they were pretty far up ahead and I scared the front of the group. But this was a pretty big group so I figured I would get the end of the group too. So I jump out at the end of the group and this man who was like six, two like this guy, was fucking massive. He was so big. He looked at me and went and then pushed me oh my god, that what?
Speaker 2:just because it's a haunted house, you could push people like oh my I have a sprained ankle and I have guys for context. I'm 4 11 oh my, really tiny. Wow, that's so messed up.
Speaker 1:I basically re-sprained my ankle. I was like it sounds like the medical center's gonna kill me. That nurse was so mad at me. Go to the front and I let them know. I'm like there's some guy who's with. It was with aaron's tour. He just shoved the shit out of me. You gotta kick him out. So they immediately go. You need to get out. Sorry, dude bounce. And oh yeah, they didn't mess with. Most of us were cut. We were volunteer college students. This was like someone's dad this wasn't even a student.
Speaker 2:That's creepy, though you're someone's dad and you volunteer to push people around. That's some aggressive, I don't know so yeah, thankfully it was fine.
Speaker 1:I sat for 20 20 minutes. Pizza had just arrived, so I was like cool, I ate. It took some Advil Within 30 minutes with some ice. I was like, okay, I'm fine, we're good, I got this.
Speaker 2:Nice yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I ended up in the doll room for most of the night, which was great because the doll room had empty chairs, so for one I could chill. But for another, when there was a group coming by, I would just people thought I was fake, I'm small, so people thought I was just a prop clown, until I would get up and start walking behind them and they'd see me in the reflection of the ballerina mirrors uh-uh, that's creepy that was my favorite thing to pull in that room it was the dance rooms.
Speaker 1:It was lined with mirrors so all of a sudden I'd get up behind them and one of them would go oh, look at the mirror that was great mirrors.
Speaker 2:Mirrors freak me out. They have to be facing a certain way and they yeah. Sometimes I can't look at them in the dark, it just depends no, I feel that we can't be on certain walls reflections in the dark, yeah I wouldn't recommend the horror movie mirrors.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna. It's a list in concept, b list in in execution. Does that make sense? Yeah, like the concept is, it's basically your own reflection can murder you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I won't be watching that. Thank you, no, thank you.
Speaker 1:Eerie bro. I remember my parents were watching it when I was like 12 and I came out and I was like what are you guys watching? And they were like I don't know some horror movie, go to your room, cause I guys watching. And they were like I don't know some horror movie, go to your room. Because I was afraid of everything. And I was like no, come on. And I watched it for two minutes and I was like, okay, I'm gonna go now. But the moment the main, cold, opener death scene, the moment he looks down and his reflection is still looking at him, I was like fuck, I'm out, I'm out.
Speaker 2:Peace, peace, peace oh my god this reflection just starts smiling and it's like yeah, you're like I should have listened to you, mom. Fuck, the damage is done now literally oh shit I should have listened.
Speaker 1:Now I have mirror trauma. We'll see you next time.