Movie RX
Dr. Benjamin prescribes movies that help and heal through his own experiences or the experiences of others.
Movie RX
Cabin in the Woods (2011) ft. Derrick of Mortal Dezire
What happens when Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon lock themselves in a hotel room for a weekend with a mind to make a horror film? Cabin in the Woods is what happens. Join Dr. Benjamin and Derrick as they discuss this gem, given to The Good Doctor by his guest to watch a flick from a genre outside of Dr. Benjamin's comfort zone.
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Hello and welcome to MovieRx Recreational Use, where we set healing aside and watch just to feel good. I am the prescribing doctor, dr Benjamin, and joining me today is Derek Welcome, derek. So we're trying another, something new. Today we're doing recreational use. So I've been running into this trouble, derek, where there have been people that have wanted to come on the show and they've wanted to do, they've wanted to do certain movies, but they said they didn't really have any medicine in it, that it was just movies that they really, really liked. So I came up with recreational use Because I don't know, I just think that that might work.
Speaker 2:Which that in its own form, could be considered medicine.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, and maybe it's medicine for somebody else and maybe that'll spur them into getting a hold of me and being like, hey, that movie's medicine for somebody else and maybe that'll that'll spur him into getting getting a hold of me and being like, hey, that movie's medicine for me. Well, let me know, I let you kind of throw some ideas at me and, uh, ultimately you let me pick. Uh, I think what was it between? Was it between scream and cabin in the woods? I think was kind of the.
Speaker 2:I think that sounds right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something like that I was trying to go with something that was definitely Halloween yeah, and well, I've seen Scream and I had never seen Cabin in the Woods, and it was an opportunity to watch a new movie that I hadn't seen yet, so I went with that. Today we're talking about Cabin the woods. Uh, basic movie info on this one it's MGM pictures, released in 2012,. Uh, directed by Drew Goddard. Stars Christine Connolly, uh Thor and Anna Hutchinson Hutchison. The IMDB description on this one a group of kids go to a remote cabin in the woods where their fate is unknowingly controlled by technicians as part of a worldwide conspiracy. Where all horror movie cliches are revealed to be part of an elaborate sacrifice ritual.
Speaker 2:I'd say that's relatively accurate.
Speaker 1:Nothing like, yeah, nothing like giving it all right up front, like I mean, that is, that is the movie like the whole movie all right. Well, uh, we'll see at the next appointment. I'm just kidding, so. So tell me why. Why was this one that you had kind of suggested?
Speaker 2:so, yeah, the the thing with this one is that, like it is yeah, I mean it definitely does talk about all of the, the, the various like horror movie tropes and horror movie cliches, right uh, but it puts a lot of that shit on its head and it has this uh, this underlying story that that winds up like taking all of these those uh cliches and tropes and it does something actually like really interesting with them. Uh, this is, you know, this was an example of like Joss Whedon, like actually doing something good, uh and uh, and not like like doing the doing the Joss Whedon, that like we expect.
Speaker 1:Right, right. Um, well, I mean because there's. There is one notable thing from Joss Whedon that we've, that we've talked about. That isn't. It isn't so great.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, we're coming right off the heels of doing you know, doing the Alien Resurrection episode, so like trying really really hard not to beat the shit out of Joss Whedon right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's he. He had some questionable judgment for that one, but but this one he kind of goes back into into what we expect from joss whedon, and that's interesting storytelling. This movie caught me off guard because when you, when you, told me to watch this, I I started watching this movie thinking that it was just going to be a, a horror movie at a cabin in the woods. And then there's all this corporate shit going on at the beginning of the movie. You know, when we get the title card and I'm like what the fuck? Does this have anything to do with a cabin? And then I started seeing all the stuff, as they're putting everything in and all this other stuff, and and then and then I'm like wait a second, like okay, so so is this like have you ever seen the game? Yeah, yeah, how, how his brother pays for this giant elaborate game where he's in real life being like fucked with by people Like he's, he thinks he's being chased by people trying to kill him and all of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah totally.
Speaker 1:But at the end it just ends up being a complete, a complete game and just yeah, whatever. I totally thought that that's what this was Like. That Crimson, chris Hemsworth's cousin, had bought them this trip to a place where you get a thrill at a cabin in the woods and they just didn't tell him that that's what that was. That was, but it. It just keeps going Like so. Every time something happens, every time some new goddamn thing comes up, I'm just like Whoa, what the fuck? And so now I'm looking at like Illuminati shit and I'm like what the fuck? You kind of threw me for a loop with this movie. Cause you kind of threw me for a loop with this movie because I didn't know what to expect and I still didn't all the way up to the end of the movie. I'm like what the fuck am I watching?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's the good thing about it. Yeah, because it gets. It gets deeper and weirder and deeper and weirder and you're like, wait, what the like? This started out as like a bad, fucking evil dead ripoff and now it's turned into like fucking, like Lovecraft, like what the fuck am I looking at?
Speaker 1:here, man Right, the like the Tim design character, the the Mordecai. I thought for sure he was just going to be some goofy actor or whatever, but then they called him on the phone and then they started giving him shit on the phone, like you know, when he starts talking about, you know the god, the old gods, and, and you know he starts telling him are you wait?
Speaker 1:do you have me on? Do you have me on speakerphone? You know they're just fucking with him and it's like wait a second. This guy sounds like some kind of a true believer, like right exactly and these other, these other people don't so many, but but they are you've got so many like weird juxtapositions in there.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, you know where you've got like some of this. Uh, you know you've got like, yeah, the, the government guys, the like manhattan project, you know kind of a thing like it. Like these guys that are working in like you know, fucking they. They seem like they're working in like Los Alamos or something like in New Mexico or some shit Right Like on Area 51, they're building a bomb, kind of a thing, right. But, then you also have, you know from that environment.
Speaker 2:You have like some of this like office space kind of like fuckery, that you know that winds up happening throughout, the throughout the whole thing. You know that that you see from these guys and yeah, yeah, that that bullshit, the whole thing. You know that, uh, that you see from these guys and yeah, yeah, that that bullshit of. Like you know, am I on speakerphone right now? Uh, no, no, I wouldn't do that to you as he's, as he's doing this to you I love it.
Speaker 1:It's so much fun. So about this movie you got uh, it looks like it had a 30 million million budget. Now the box office return, the $66.5 million return is that US and Canada, or is that worldwide?
Speaker 2:I think that's worldwide is what it wound up getting is $66.5.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it actually didn't make a ton of money. I mean, it doubled its money. But like in the grand scheme of things, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, like this, this has a hit, uh, an interesting history when it comes to like the release behind it, because it was an mgm movie. It was mgm and united artists, that, uh, that originally created this movie and then mgm went bankrupt like in the middle of the, uh you know, like the movie came out and they were going to try to make it 3d, even though like nobody wanted it to be fucking 3d mgm's like no, we have to make this 3d because they're stupid and uh, you know and like you, understandably enough, because they're fucking dumb they wound up going bankrupt in the middle of this, uh, this whole thing, and they shelled the movie while they were going through bankruptcy and so the movie sat on a fucking shelf and collected dust for like two years until Lionsgate bought it and then they actually put the movie out.
Speaker 2:So it didn't get an opportunity to make the money that it did until after like two and a half years after it had been done and, like Chris helmsworth uh had already became like thor by that point. So like it was actually like it was made before thor was released, but then it was released after thor. So like that might have been part of why people actually noticed the movie and like actually decided to watch it because hey, it's that Thor, fucking guy.
Speaker 1:He just looks younger yeah, well, and he would have too, because I mean he was playing what like a high school kid or a college kid or something in this, and by the time you see him in Thor. Yeah, by the time you see him in Thor, he's like I mean, well, he's Thor, you know like mid 20s, yeah, so easily and you know and like and he had.
Speaker 2:He had bulked up by, you know. I mean he was the size of at least three other people by the time he came around to being thor right, right, um.
Speaker 1:So drew goddard. What do you know about him?
Speaker 2:uh, so traditionally that, uh, he's a, he's a writer. Uh was mostly what he was associated for. Um, yeah, he, he worked on actually, he worked on like shows with, uh, joss whedon, so, uh, you know he was a writer on buffy, he worked on lost, alias. You know a few other shows. Uh, he is the guy that brought us uh, daredevil from like the netflix daredevil the one that's actually good. Uh, he is the creator of that. So, uh, you know that, that's actually you know that was pretty cool, but I mean, that's kind of the gist of it. He's mostly known as being a writer, uh, instead of a director. This was actually, I think, like the first movie that he ever did where he was directing oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. Well, it gets him kind of into a different, into a different scope on on the movie business, which I mean. Well, it gets him kind of into a different, into a different scope on on the movie business, which I mean any any actor who's gone, producer and director, will tell you the more, the more, the more positions that you know how to take in in Hollywood, the better, like the more relevant you're going to stay over a course.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean there's totally that whole like grab your ankles position that hollywood loves, yeah yeah, and I mean if, if you can get out of that position and get into the you know where you're, not the one grabbing your ankles, that's, that's always better for you. Um, but uh, but yeah, I mean the well I mean we kind of already talked a little bit about. I mean, drew Goddard didn't do the writing, he just directed the film.
Speaker 1:But the writing was done by Joss Whedon Both of them wrote it Right Now, joss Whedon and Drew Goddard writing it like. I see that you have it on here and I remember putting it down in my notes, the the screenplay was done in a weekend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, like both of them. Both of them came off of movies that like didn't do well, I don't remember what the movies were, but like Joss Whedon had a movie that like shit the bed, drew Drew Goddard had a movie that shit the bed, and then, as like a coping mechanism, they locked themselves in a fucking hotel room and just banged, you know, just banged out this fucking, uh, this script in like a three-day weekend that's like I mean, doesn't that just sound like a fun thing to do, like if, if you were yes, if you had clout in hollywood as being able to write, write a a screen like, wouldn't that just be something that you'd want to do Like once every couple of months?
Speaker 1:just be like, hey, I'm going to go and get a hotel room in you know Bora Bora and I'm just like, leave me the fuck alone and all goddamn weekend I'm just going to do nothing but right, and then then just just pound out a fucking script for a movie, like, how fucking cool would that be? I'd I'd just thinking about having the opportunity to be able to do that. To me just sounds like it sounds like a dream it could be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:It could also be uh, you know, it could also be a special kind of hell. Um, I don't know. It depends on, like, what kind of movies you're making. If you're writing a movie like this in that kind of a three-day ground and pound, all right, yeah, no, that could be a whole lot of fun. If you're doing dramas or something in that kind of a time span, I don't know, man, that sounds very Bukowski.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well and just Well. Well then you're not putting enough thought into something like that, cause I mean that when you start making those kinds of movies, like, could you imagine how different like, like, like, uh, goodwill hunting, if that would have been written in a weekend, how different do you think that movie would have been? Like?
Speaker 2:um, yeah, yeah, that that potentially could have been extremely different. I don't know. Uh, like Affleck's character might've been different, you know it might've.
Speaker 1:You know his, his character may not have been like even remotely likable as it was right, but he was the bomb in phantoms yo um applesauce. Yeah, uh, actually, I saw that that's up on paramount plus, I think, uh, as phantoms, uh, a movie that you can watch, phantoms, yeah, so I might have to give that a watch, but, uh, but you're also. I also like the. The commentary you have in here is that this movie was meant to be both a love letter and a middle finger to the modern horror genre.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could definitely see that this particular movie was like. He is a huge fan of horror movies, right, big fan of like classic horror, you know, enjoys the, the, the suspense and the, the effort that people put into the monsters and the buildup and everything like that. What he didn't like was some of the cliches of like teenagers being stupid, right, you know, like slasher flicks where it's always the. You know the kids that go off into the woods to smoke a little bit of pot, nope, nope, they're all fucking dead. They're sinners.
Speaker 2:You know, like he wasn't a huge fan of that kind of nonsense and he definitely wasn't a big fan of like the horror porn, the torture porn that we were running into in like the early 2000s, like that porn that, uh, that we were running into in like the early 2000s, like that. You know, with like the other, um, oh, god damn it. Uh, what the? What the hell is the, the fucking? You know like the eli roth kind of, uh kind of horror movies of like hostile, where you just you watch people die in like horrible fucking ways, but there's nothing, there's nothing supernatural about it, there's nothing suspenseful about it. Really, it's just you're watching somebody getting like garrotted on, uh, on fucking like reality tv, right. Uh, it just it takes all of the artistry out of it.
Speaker 2:So he took all of these cliches and then he really just like put them on their head. So it was like, okay, I'm gonna make a horror movie that I actually want to make and we're gonna, you know, we're gonna bring in elements of like shit that made horror, horror, which is why you've got like a lot of like Lovecraftian kind of things in here. But then we're also going to take all of these cliches and we're going to make them actually mean something. And that was, you know, built into as being like part of the ritual.
Speaker 1:Right, and like the well, in the ritual itself, like it's pretty obscure through most of the movie. Like I mean, they did and they do it purposely, like you know, after, after the first death, then they, they pull the thing and then you know the, the, the basin fills with blood and then it fills up. You know these little troughs and you know the whatever, but it's like they're only showing you little bits and pieces at a time. Uh, you, you kind of get a general idea of what's going on, but but they don't really show you until until, like, until you're really ready to see it, uh, until you're, right, almost frustrated with how much you don't know.
Speaker 2:um, yeah, yeah, like everything goes like completely off the rails and like the, you know, in the, uh, the third act, when just everything goes completely to hell. But if you're somebody that's used to watching these kind of movies, you start to figure it out and like they, they subtly, and you know it gets mentioned as like commentary later on in the movie, but like suddenly they kind of all start to fall into their roles that are like those cliche kind of roles where you get like the other, the jock leader guy, and you get the chick, that's kind of the whore person, and you get like the other, the, the innocent virgin chick, and like the good guy, nerd guy, you know, and like all of these, uh, you know they fit into the, the positions of all of these like horror movie tropes that you start to recognize, even if they weren't those people at the beginning of the movie, except for the stoner dude, like that guy. That guy was the fucking pothead like at the very beginning of the movie and he was the pothead at the very end.
Speaker 1:I love that character. As far as all the characters in this movie, I think he's probably probably my favorite. Yeah, um, and well, okay, him and the, uh, the quote unquote good guy, um, but that's just because, like, oh man, I'm I'm really putting myself out there now but uh, but he's, his character in Grey's Anatomy is one of my favorites. But, uh, but he's, his character in Grey's Anatomy is one of my favorites. Um, and so, like when, when he popped up in this movie, he was a lot younger but I was like, oh wow, like he's in here too. Um, he does a really good job. Uh, actually, what I really like about him is the healthy masculinity that he shows.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Healthy masculinity that he shows. Yeah, yeah, yeah, where he's like the jock.
Speaker 1:that's not a piece of shit yeah, and well, he's, he's respectful, he's not afraid to show affection, he, um, he's uh also honorable, like I mean he, he. He struggled a little bit there with the, with the mirror, the one-way mirror yep, yep but some somewhat under.
Speaker 1:Someone understand like he may have had like a little bit of a little bit of a struggle there, but no, you're absolutely right yeah, he uh he was like no, no I can't be a dick, I can't do this yep, and then he traded her rooms and that was cool, um, so yeah, I really I really liked the healthy masculinity part of of um, uh, of the holden um. But marty, oh jesus, his conspiracy theory, shit from the beginning all the way through to the end it was just. It was great.
Speaker 2:I love that I'm gonna go look at a book with pictures. Oh hey, the bond mug. Yeah, the the, the fucking the bond mug.
Speaker 1:You know that thing, really, that was a real thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah it was functional as both.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, five grand to make that damn thing. That's's so awesome. Uh, I mean, they're they're totally uh going to have to figure out how to make that not so expensive, um, especially especially as everybody starts legalizing that shit right Everywhere. Um, but, uh, yeah, that mug was. Oh, yeah, I see that you have. I see now that you have that as as a thing on here thing on here, the bong coffee mug thing. Yeah, okay, so we kind of talked about Mordecai a little bit, but tell me what you think about Mordecai.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I mean, when you made the comment about the true believer, yeah, it's totally nail on the head, right. And when you're talking about, like you know, horror movie tropes that you have to have, you know, yeah, the creepy gas station attendant that is, that's absolutely a fucking requirement, right, like you would have, uh, you would have had that thing in like stephen king movies.
Speaker 2:You would have had that um I, I think you had a creepy gas station attendant in um, well, you might not have had that in um evil, but you definitely had it, like the Jason movies, or you would have, you know, some some like creepy local that was around. You had to have something like that. So definitely like checks the box right of the, the guy that says creepy shit while you're on the way. So, yeah, it totally worked. And then I mean that the actor that they used for that is just perfect for for that particular role. And then when they, when they did the whole speakerphone thing, uh, where it turned, you know, it devolves into this like office space, you know, like shtick, um, I thought it was fucking great. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:Uh, it was probably a little unnecessary, but it was still funny I still loved it because it it was like I mean, what if you took one of what, if you took that character from those movies and put him into the real world, like I mean, that's exactly what that was, because you know, every time you see that character in a movie, he's not the kind to have a cell phone, you know.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, see that character in a movie. He's not the kind to have a cell phone, you know, yes, exactly, but they're just like you know, the, the attitude that they have towards him is like I can't even with this fucking guy is, uh, you know, is where they have. You know, is where they have it because, like the, you can tell that some of the people that are actually like working at the office, um, or at the base or the center or whatever the bunker, whatever the the hell it is, um, you can tell that they're a little bit jaded at the whole process. Like none of them are like true believers. It's just a job at this point, right, whereas you've still got this guy, this bumpkin, where he is completely bought the fuck in, where he's like no, no man this is all gods and monsters and the lambs and we're doing some shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, the the backwoods, the backwoods, true believer? Um, like uh, the the guy on on uh south park, you know? Oh, you don't go down that rod right, exactly um now, uh, talk to talk to me about the stoner conspiracy theories.
Speaker 2:Oh man. So I mean, he's got quite a few of like his various you know conspiracy theories, but like he starts to, at the very beginning, he's starting to recognize that like wait a minute, there's like shit that doesn't make sense here. Because you know he starts to recognize, you know, when everybody is starting to fall into the trope that's needed for the ritual, right, you know where you've got like the guy that falls into being the scholar and the guy that falls into being the jock or the leader and the chick that falls into being the whore or whatever. He's like these people don't act this way. You know like he's talking about you know chris, chris helmsworth character, uh, and he's like you know when, when did he start acting like all, like misogynistic and shit like I, I know this guy, he's a sociology major. You know like he's on a full ride scholarship. Why is he acting like a dumbass? Right, you know he starts to. You know he starts to see this shit and he's like wait a fucking minute. Like, right, this isn't, this doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1:And that's where he makes the comment of like we're not who we are, um, and then he's like I'm gonna go look at a book with pictures and it winds up being finding nemo well, and with that whole like everybody's falling into these, into these categories that they need to be, for you know, a horror flick, I'm like with all of that stuff, I was like, okay, so is everybody in on it except for you know? Like, except for these people, or whatever. Yeah, like is the stoner and the the virgin girl? Are they the ones that are that are not in on it, or whatever? And then, like I, everything from the.
Speaker 1:I think one of the first things that crossed my mind was is this how is this? How this studio makes horror flicks is that they put kids into this situation and they film it from all angles, and then they, and then you know, after it's all done, then they go oh yeah, we just made a horror movie. You guys are the stars, you know, or whatever. Like I just I didn't know what the fuck was going on, um, but but my question is is that, like it was, was this kind of one of those things where it's like people fell into those categories because they were supposed to, or like I mean, I did, I guess I didn't catch if there was something that was happening to them that made them go into those, into those roles?
Speaker 2:so some of it, some of it, they showed that there was a little bit of manipulation in there. They they had talked about you know there were pheromones that they were spraying into the rooms and you know things to where they were trying to control the variables a little bit. Or they had, like, extra spiked you know, some of the, some of the booze, or they were messing with, like you know, the, the dude's weed, you know, like things like that. Where they were, they were messing with certain things to try to steer variables as much as possible, uh, to where maybe they might have, they might've had, like a potential predisposition to some of these, uh, these particular, uh like roles or particular attitudes. Uh, and they were uh, messing with the variables to steer them in that direction, whatever direction they needed them to be in, as much as possible.
Speaker 2:Like you know, using Chris Helmsworth's character as an example, to where you know, okay, yeah, he's, yeah, he might be a sociology major, but he is also a jock and he is also, like you know, this guy that's like natural leader kind of a thing.
Speaker 2:So what do we do to kind of steer him in the direction of potentially being a bit more jock? Ish, right, uh, you know to where we have him as the athlete and less as like the sociology guy. And so there were certain things that were manipulated that had him falling a little bit more into that particular role instead of going like potentially being the scholar, right, because they needed that, they needed that to be the other guy, uh, you know, the, uh, the, the, the other, the, the nerd, right? Uh, so they, you know they needed to make sure that people fit into the particular roles, and so they just messed with the variables as much as they could to kind of get them to naturally fall into those places, because the kids themselves still had to make decisions, they had to choose to do the certain things that they did. But, uh, they could fuck with the variables as much as they could to like get them to fall into those roles, right?
Speaker 1:well, and yeah, I, I kind of remember that with, like the, you know the, the pheromones coming up out of the ground and stuff like that. For you know, when they were, uh, when they were trying to get busy and they were trying to get the obligatory, uh, boob shot, you know, and all of that stuff, and that's when I that's when I thought they were making a movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the the problematic sex scene that probably wouldn't sell in today's day and age. Right.
Speaker 1:So, like, I mean, that scene made me think that maybe they were making a movie, because that's like, oh, checking a box, you know, got to have the topless hot girl, you know, or whatever. So I thought maybe that that's what they were doing. But then you know, but then things keep going, you know, like uh, well, I mean she gets killed, so, um, but yeah, I, I do love, I do love how, how, like the uh, that everybody just kind of fits into those roles, even though they didn't really at the beginning, like I mean they, they were just kind of a well-rounded group of friends that didn't really have. I mean, because because if you, if you go, if you put those people into those categories right from the beginning, then there's no way that any of these people are friends.
Speaker 2:But right, Exactly that's where it starts to become like a horror movie stereotype or horror movie cliche. At that point, even with like the nerdy innocent chick right, the chick that's supposed to be the virgin character. Even like towards the end of the movie, when they say the virgin and they look at her and she's like what the fuck? You mean virgin? They're like we work with what we've got.
Speaker 1:Right. So let's see here Some of the, some of the quotes you have on here. Like I, some of the, some of the stuff was really good, like the I'm going to go for a walk. Like how he heard heard the whisper, I'm going to go for a walk and then like yeah, I'm the boss of my own brain.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go for a walk and then like, yeah, I'm the boss of my own brain.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna go for a walk. Yeah, that's good stuff, um, and husband bulge from oh, my god from the book. Yep, that's a husband bulge, by the way. Yeah, um valiant effort with the mug bong. Oh, when he pulls it out into a baseball bat, he starts using the mug trying to kill the other, the redneck zombie yeah, what was that family called? What was it? It was like buckner's buckner family I don't remember that, oh buckner, that's right. Yeah, because, yeah, yeah't remember that, oh Buckner, that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause he's like, yeah, it's the Buckner family.
Speaker 1:He's like. He's like oh, here comes Jonah Buckner to the, to the rescue, or whatever.
Speaker 2:Like yeah, and that was like mentioning the Buckner's is actually a really important part of the, the, the, the, the storyline a little bit of of like the choose-your-own-adventure story, right, you know, like when they're in the bunker and everybody's betting as to, like, what kind of story this is going to be, whether it's going to be zombies or if it's going to be the Merman, or you know if it's going to be like the Wishcom Hellraiser crew, you know, like they're all you know they've got these bets on like what the story is going to be, and they're in the basement with all of these various uh props, right, and, and it's going to be okay, whichever one decides to stick on this, whether it's going to be like the puzzle ball or the creepy fucking doll in the jewelry box thing or the diary, and it winds up being the diary and it's like, oh, we got the Buckners All right, cool, here we go.
Speaker 2:This is the story that we're going with and that winds up being extremely important because they, you know once again messing with variables, but the kids still have to make the decision right. The group in the, you know, they still have to make the decision right. The group, they still have to make the decision as to where this is going to go, and so they make the decision as to what kind of monsters are going to wind up, killing them and making them the sacrifice to the old gods.
Speaker 1:Right, and the way that they do that, the things that they way that they do that, like the, the things that they can choose to to do, that ends up being like a nod to everything that you've ever seen in horror flicks. Now, I'm not, I'm not well-versed in horror movies like that. It's, it's really not my genre. I think the whole point of my podcast is finding meaning in movies and I've always kind of felt like like you don't really get a whole lot of that in horror flicks, because the point of a horror flick is to scare you, right, I'm sure that for plenty of people they are, um, but it's like, but from from my, my experiences, it's like if I want a good thrill, then I watch a horror flick, you know, and and like I don't know, I guess I'm just not really much into it. But I mean not saying that I don't like horror movies because I do. Uh, it's almost every time I watch one, like, even if I don't want to watch it, by the time I'm done I'm like that was a good movie, um, but but even even I recognized some, some of those uh nods to other, to other franchises, like the, the hellraiser puzzle ball, yep, you know the, the guy with the, with the saw blades coming out of his head and all that shit um yep yeah, there's, there's
Speaker 2:references to like other horror movies, like all over the fucking place. Uh, you know the the the part in there where, like she's reading the diary and uh, you know, and like there's something in latin in there, and the stoner dude's like I'm drawing a line in the fucking sand, do not read the latin you help? As she proceeds to read.
Speaker 1:Of course she does and then that's when shit gets fucked up. Yeah, right, no, that's uh, that's really good. I like that. Um. Well, and there at the end you kind of see everything coming together. You know, like the uh, like you've got the under underworld with the, with the werewolf um yeah, you've got the the werewolves in there.
Speaker 2:You've got like every zombie movie ever. You know that, uh, that pops up um the other. You know the the weird, like people in the mass. You know that, uh, there's probably a reference to like the strangers or something, um, and the other rituals that they're talking about you know, with uh with like stockholm, japan bonus eras, uh, you know, that's obviously like the thing. Uh, the ring and king kong, you know, uh like, you've got like references to that kind of stuff in there yeah and uh, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I just thought that was really kind of neat how they it was. It was almost like an explanation for why these are horror movies like that. They're all that. All of the horror movies that have ever existed have been inspired by something that is, quote, unquote, real. You know? Um, right, yep, exactly, just, I don it. Just it added a little bit of a comedic level to it for me. And speaking of comedic level, I love how your note simply says Hemsworth's death. Lol.
Speaker 1:Just I mean, it was so ridiculous, right yeah, just fucking going crazy and being like okay, I'm gonna save you all, I'm gonna make this, I'm gonna make it count and I'm even if I get across that thing and I have to crawl my way to help I'm gonna get people to come back and help you I'm coming back with guns and cops and choppers and he's just, he's got this big fucking hero speech right, just uh, just for him to like slam into the fucking thing right, the the force field wall or whatever the hell it is right, he slams into that and just fucking, just brutally just dead.
Speaker 1:Not just, not just kind of dead, just fucking dead and immediately just as soon as he hits the fucking thing where he's like, fuck yeah, and then boom, just smashes on that thing and just fucking all the way down, just fucked yeah, yeah, that was, that was really good, like I mean, I I had kind of thought about it before he did it because of the because of the Eagle at the beginning.
Speaker 1:You know into the wall. So I yeah, so I was like, oh well, maybe I mean maybe they, maybe that was just an oversight or something like that. But no, nope, nope. Then as sure as shit, boom and it's like, okay, never mind, fucking. Yeah, hems withstead was uh, death was really good in this movie. Um, uh, the good guy deserved better yeah, he just yeah that was kind of a shit death, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, it was just a very unceremonious thing we're like and you you knew because there was a reference in there.
Speaker 2:You know, you see the bloody handprint on the camper when they get on the camper, on the camper door you know that, like you know, you know there's a buckner in there somewhere that's gonna like pop up right, some redneck zombie that's gonna do something, and you made it all the way through the tunnel. You made it all the way to Hemsworth's death. And then they're driving. You know that somebody's coming out of the woodwork somewhere, but it's just like out of nowhere, stabbed in the neck, bleeds out, crashes the camper and he's just dead. That's all there is to. It is just dead. Come on, man, you could have given him something right if it felt cheap, um yeah I'm like you.
Speaker 2:I mean, like I said, he was one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:You got a better death right, and it was just like god man, like seriously, like can we, can we just like give him something a little bit better? I mean, the guy was in Grey's Anatomy, sure.
Speaker 2:I'll give you like I've actually have never seen a single episode, really.
Speaker 1:It's not too bad, like I mean, my, my niece would really be upset with me for hearing me say it, but it's. It's not the greatest show on television, but it's not bad. It's not the greatest show on television, but it's not bad. And if you want, if you want to watch a TV show with your girlfriend, that you're conceding something you know like you're compromising, but it's something that you can actually watch and it's not too horrible Then then it's a good, it's a good series for that, but that you'll have it for the rest of your life, because, oh my god, there's like 30 seasons of it or something. But um, but yeah, this, uh, but like I mean he, he just gets killed for like no, like, with no entry at all, it's just boring, boring, boring death, and then that leads very quickly into, uh, into the last one.
Speaker 1:Well, what? What we perceive as the last one?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, yeah, you know, yeah. So it leaves us with the, the quote unquote virgin Right, virgin right. And that that also leads into probably one of the more insane parts of the whole fucking movie. Uh, with the like the post cocktail party, right, because they're like the death of the virgin is optional. Everybody else has got to fucking die, but this chick is optional. Uh, as to whether or not they die, you know she dies and they leave her to potentially be like just beaten to death by zombie redneck while they're all going through their fucking cocktail party, right, you know where? Like, you got people drinking and they're hanging out and they're talking shit and they're they're lamenting about, like, the bet that they lost, and you've got the intern that's like trying to be cool. You got the one guy that's trying to get laid like and it's just. You have this like mundane office party going on, while in the background, on the giant screen, you have this chick that's being just brutally beaten to death by a redneck zombie being beaten.
Speaker 1:It's just fucking nuts. Yeah, yeah, uh, and and I don't, I don't know that most people would really have caught that, but uh, but yeah, that was something. That was something that just kind of wow, how sick are these people like what the hell is this exactly? And that's when I mean when I still, like you know, was it illuminati? Was it know what the fuck is going on here?
Speaker 2:And right, and it goes, yeah, and even at that point, you're still clueless.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you are pretty, uh, you are pretty clueless as to what's going on and it does, you know it. It goes back towards that commentary, uh that underlying commentary, for the, uh, the people that are in the bunker, of how kind of blah they've become to the whole thing, uh, which goes more towards, like, towards the end of the movie, where they're like, well, fuck it, let's just let it end, uh, because they've, you know, they've just gotten so used to the whole thing and so complacent to the whole thing, uh, to the, the, the ritual that, like, they've made it a, you know, you get used to it. And the other, the black dudes, like, should you like, are we supposed?
Speaker 1:to get used to this.
Speaker 2:You know, are we supposed to just become complacent into this? Because it's pretty fucked up when you think about it. Like this whole thing's really fucked up. We should not be just taking this as like it's another day at the office. We shouldn't be making bets on this or anything along those lines. Another day at the office we shouldn't be making bets on this or anything along those lines. So, yeah, like that, you know that, that cocktail party with the other, the debt, you know the, the beaten to death on the big screen, like that's just continuing on the commentary of you know, yeah, as you said, like how fucked up are these people to where? Like they just they have nothing. They have like almost literally nothing as far as like empathy is concerned for these, these five people that have pretty much just been brutally killed so that the rest of us can continue to live right, I mean in the grand scheme of things, like yeah, it's, it's the needs of the many kind of kind of an argument.
Speaker 1:But right, like, at what point do you start enjoying it? Because that's, that's what they were doing.
Speaker 2:They were enjoying it at certain points it totally turned into entertainment.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, and so it's like I despise the idea that humanity could get to a point, that, that humans could actually get to a point where something, where they're so desensitized to something like that that they're like oh wow, this is oh well, we're already fucking there, man.
Speaker 2:You remember the movie series back in the late 90s that was like black market movies, Faces of Death. Do you remember hearing about Faces of Death back in the day when we were like middle school, early high school? Like we're already there, man, you know, it's just being able to separate yourself.
Speaker 1:Right and well, we're separating yourself or being able to hold on to yourself, I guess really, Because I mean Jesus. It kind of takes me to a whole, to a whole different franchise with Harry Potter. You know how do you split the soul murder. Or I mean, can you, can you really like, do you really have to go as far as murder can like just simply drinking a cocktail and watching a girl get beaten to death and feeling nothing about it? Is that a possible way to split your soul, or has it already been split, like I don't?
Speaker 2:know, seems pretty fucked up to me. And then we get to the other, the stoner lives. Yes, we get to the big red phone that starts ringing and they're like somebody's not dead. Wait, what the fuck do you mean somebody's not dead? I watched him fucking die and you're thinking like, well, it can't be the good guy because, like he got his throat ripped out. It's not the horse, she got her head cut off. I doubt it's Hemsworth because he, like he bounced like all the way down right, so like he's not just dead.
Speaker 2:He's fucking dead, um, and then of course, it's the goddamn stoner. It's the fucking stoner that lives man. You know he's the uh, the. You know all of his conspiracy theory. Shit just pops up and winds up being true, and you know yeah, he pops up out of nowhere where it's like he's still there I mean seriously though.
Speaker 1:like think, think about, even in our circles, you know, like if anybody's going to survive some shit like that, it's going to be the pie, is going to be the burnouts, like uh, probably, you know it is yeah, yeah. Most of the uh, most of the burnouts.
Speaker 2:I knew they're either going to be the first to die or they're going to be the ones to live.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, and going to be the ones to live, yeah, and, and the ones, the ones that die, it's because they're, they just don't know their limit. The rest of them, it's because. It's because there's they're. You know, oh, man, like we all, we all know that pothead, that one pothead who is like he's high functioning, the high functioning pothead. You know where he's not normal unless he's high functioning. The high functioning pie head. You know where he's not normal unless he's high, right, so, yep, you know the guy who gets high. And then that's when he notices, when you know when he starts seeing the patterns and, and you know, keeps everybody safe, um, but yeah, yeah, he's, uh, then he finally gets, and then he finally gets the win with the, with the mug bonk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're, they're in the other, they're in the elevator and like he's figuring out how to fucking like hack his way into the other the maintenance elevator, and shit. And you've got like the pile of dead zombie that's over in the corner and he's like oh yeah, I had to, I had to disassemble that guy with a trowel. And you can tell he's kind of fucked up about it, but at the same time he's also really just kind of even-keeled about it. He's like oh yeah, I had to chop that guy into pieces with a fucking trowel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, his little one-liners. You know, like the, you know, good job zombie hand. You know like the, you know, good job zombie hand. When the zombie hand grabbed the security guy's leg and all of that shit, His one-liners were just crazy awesome. Really good writing there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is about the time in the movie when they get into the, when they get into the elevator and they start going around like, like you have down here that it's very 13,. 13 ghosts, like, uh, I would, I would definitely uh, agree with that it's. This is about the time that I started to think maybe maybe I need to start thinking about this movie from a different perspective. Maybe this is not a horror flick, maybe this is just a fucking hilarious movie, and it really starts to. It starts to look that way, you know, cause. Then they they, you know get in there, they start seeing all these other you know horrors and things like that, um, uh, other stereotype. You know movie stereotypes and things like that, um, uh, other stereotype, you know movie stereotypes and things like that, um, and then they just then, they just say fuck it and they release it all and just carnage.
Speaker 2:And then you got a big fucking mess in carnage yep, oh my god, that was so good yeah, where you've got like all of the other, the SWAT team guys that like they get into the hallway, they're looking around and then there's like the ding from the elevator and the one guy's just like fuck, and then all hell breaks loose and it's just absolutely perfect and everything comes out.
Speaker 1:Everything, just everything goes wrong or right, or whatever it is that you want to call it. It gets everywhere, even up into the control room.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, totally. And and you know, and it's, it's. It's kind of funny. It's almost like a just desserts kind of a thing, because they've gotten so like complacent on the ritual and so complacent on the monsters that they unleash on the kids, that they sacrifice all the fucking time. Well, now, now those monsters have come after them, right, you know. So it's like you know they're, they're finally getting what they deserve, kind of a kind of a thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah and and then, uh, you know, you like, uh you're, you're doing really good with the, with the shekhov's gun thing but I like how you're how you're giving, giving him different tools. So, uh, I'll let you take take over on that well, like the other, you know.
Speaker 2:So that that guy's character and I can't, uh, I for the life, for the life of me, I can't remember that actor's name, but that guy is like, he's always like that fucking guy. He's, uh, he's a bit actor, like every time he shows up in a movie it's he's always like that fucking guy, he's, uh, he's a bit actor, like every time he shows up in a movie it's a he's always like that fucking guy, uh.
Speaker 1:But he's in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that fucking guy, exactly, yes, um and uh, yeah, he's uh, you know, like he's talking shit the entire time in the movie and he's like the uh, the, the counterpart. You know he's the uh, the, the, the Randall to the older guy's Dante. Right, if you will.
Speaker 2:And you know, he's just he's talking shit. He's fucking around the entire time, but he's also talking about you know, it would have been better if we'd had a merman, right. He's mentioning a merman the entire time throughout the movie of you know. Yeah, I wish we'd have had a merman, wish we'd have had a merman, wish we'd have had a merman. And of course, there's no fucking merman right. And then when all hell breaks loose and it gets up into the control room and all these monsters are everywhere and they're fucking people up and all this shit, and he's like fuckered up on the ground somewhere, like he's knocked back or something along those lines, and you know, you see this figure that's like crawling at him like an army crawl, that just this thump, thump, thump, and then it kind of clears out from some smoke and it's the goddamn merman. And even the actor, like he looks over and he's like are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 2:and then he gets his face eaten by the goddamn merman that he's wanted the whole goddamn movie it's like well you finally got your fucking merman you finally got your fucking deal with it yep that's so awesome.
Speaker 1:And then we get down, then we get down into the, into the chamber, yep, and that's where they finally start to explain.
Speaker 2:You know, that's that's where they, you know they explain finally, like the last little bits of the movie plot that you might not have pieced together yet.
Speaker 1:Uh, they, they give it to you and, of course, it's goddamn sigourney weaver that has to fucking do it yep, I loved it, like even even jen, when, when that popped up, jen was even like was like, of course it is.
Speaker 2:It was supposed to be jay, it was awesome it was going to be jay curtis originally yeah, it was going to be her originally and that would have been really fucking cool, but I don't know if she was, I don't know if she was booked and doing something else or if they decided to do, uh, sigourney weaver instead. But it actually just made it even better because you've got, you know, you've got sigourney weaver, who was also, you know, dana right from ghostbusters talking to yet another dana from cabin in the woods.
Speaker 2:It's fucking great, just absolutely like it was an accident kind of a work, but it fucking worked was still awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's her showing up was just, was, was just awesome, and then, and then she just lays it out, like I mean it's like what you've expected, like well, not really expected, but they've. They've been telling you the whole time what's going on, you know, but but I don't know it. Just, it just seems to seems too simple.
Speaker 2:Or something. It was something that seemed too simple but at the same time it fit. It all kind of started to make sense of like, yeah, we have this blood ritual, essentially that we're doing here, and it's for the old gods, right, and that's Joss Whedon with his winky face. Back to the other, the original horror, where it's Lovecraft. That's it. Goddamn Cthulhu man. You know where Cthulhu was?
Speaker 2:all about the old ones, was all about the ancient ones and the old gods and all this shit. And so like they turn it into something like that of like we have to placate the old gods or they'll destroy the world, and you're like, oh wait a minute.
Speaker 1:now this takes a completely different kind of a twist yeah and uh, and I mean it just kind of surprised me, um, that that it was just like I don't know. It got laid out and it was, and this is. This is when I finally decided that, yes, what I've been watching has been a hilarious movie, and maybe I take horror films too seriously sometimes, I guess, sure, but I mean, my takeaway from it was that this is a horror flick that I can laugh at, and not laugh at it because it's so absurd and ridiculous, but I can laugh at it because it, because it's just funny, it's genuinely funny.
Speaker 2:Um, right, and that was the point. And you know the like. We didn't wanted to make a uh, he wanted to make a horror movie that didn't take itself too seriously.
Speaker 1:And he, he succeeded in in in a great fashion. Now in in well, great fashion.
Speaker 2:Now tell me about, tell me about the final scene with the, uh, the old gods.
Speaker 2:The final scene is actually, I mean it's, it's kind of funny because you know you've got through the whole thing. You know you've got these guys that are just like, oh, we're just following orders, you know, kind of a thing, and then they become complacent to it. You know, with the, the, uh, the guys behind the blood ritual, right, uh, to where they, they have a very, you know, we're just following orders kind of attitude and then they, they become very like, complacent and numb to the whole thing, and then that winds up biting them in the ass and then in the end it winds up kind of being almost like ethics uh, you know ethics and loyalty, that kind of wins, where she's just like I'm sorry, I tried to shoot you, I'm sorry, you know, I'm sorry, I let you get bitten by a werewolf, and they're like well, you know, if this is a world where, like I have to kill my friend for the world to survive, maybe we just don't let the world survive, maybe we give somebody else a chance.
Speaker 2:And so then at the end they're just sitting there at the stairs and fucking dooder lights up a joint and you know he's, you know he's smoking his joint, he passes it over to her. They, you know she takes a couple of puffs and they're just like. You know, I wish I could have seen him. You know, big, fucking, big angry gods. I wish I could have seen them before. Like everything goes to shit, right. I wish I could have seen them before. Like everything goes to shit, right. And this, you know, I'd read that this was kind of Whedon's nod to one of the lines in Aliens.
Speaker 2:You know, between Gorman and, oh God, god damn it, the, the, the fucking, the, the chick, velasquez where, vas, velazquez when you know, Vasquez Vasquez and you know it's her and Gorman when they're in the air duct before they hit the grenade and they blow themselves up. And they blow up, like you know, 40 xenomorphs with them or some shit, and their last words is you know, you always were an asshole, gorman. And then they blow themselves up. This was kind of his nod to that scene where they're both sitting there and they're like yeah, you know, that was kind of a dick move where I tried to shoot you. It was a kind of a dick move where I let you get bitten by a fucking werewolf. Well, I guess, I guess we're just going to let it go to shit. I wish I could have at least seen these fucking, these giant gods before everything goes to hell. And then, of course, you know the, the, the giant hand like comes up through bedrock and kills them immediately and then all hell breaks loose and then credits roll.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's, that's well in in, that's epic, like I mean, especially when you can nod to an old flick, like, like aliens. But it's, I don't know it, it it brought some closure to the story in in a way that, like another story that you don't feel like is ever going to have closure Uh, the one with the old gods, you know, rising from from underneath and all of that stuff it's like, well, that's a story that we're not going to know anything about.
Speaker 1:Um, nobody would have saw that coming, this one yeah, but this one, this story, we, we get, we get that closure that you know. Hey, sorry, you know I'm kind of an asshole, whatever, um, it's no, it's just it, it's good, it's. It's art, um, hilarious art, but it's it's good. I like it. So, um, so, yeah, I'm going to. I'm going to say that, uh, anybody, anybody who hasn't seen this movie, go ahead and watch it. It's a good movie, especially if you're not into horror flicks and you want to watch something for Halloween. This is definitely a good one. It'll give you a good laugh. Yeah, thanks for coming on, derek. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm glad you suggested this one.
Speaker 2:I liked watching it good, good, thanks for having me you got anything you want to plug um, well, let's see here.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, if anybody, uh anybody, wants to watch like some guitar nonsense, you can find me on instagram and youtube at deke the gnome t-h-a gnome. Uh, you know, sometimes you'll find some, uh, some covers or, uh, you, or just some random guitar nonsense on there. Otherwise, you can go looking for Mortal Desire D-E-Z-I-R-E, because apparently I don't know how to spell. That's that Nebraska schooling there for you. But you can find us on all the socials. That is kind of a thrash progressive metal project that I've been attached to for like 15, 20 years and, yeah, there might be some other music stuff coming down the pipe and we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1:It's awesome, and I will have some links to that stuff in the description on my podcast. So any of my listeners who are interested just go ahead and go to your favorite platform and uh, and take a look at the description and you can click on those links there. Uh, aside from that, uh, you, you all know the, you all know the regular routine. Um, you know, if you want to be on the show, give me a, give me a text message, or uh, you can leave me a voicemail at uh 402-519-5790. You can also send me a, an email, uh, to contact at movie-rxcom. Uh, if you're anxious and and don't want to get on the, get on a microphone. That's cool, I totally understand, Uh, but you can always write me a paragraph or two and and uh, send it to me an email or any other any other form, and I can read it on air for you. Uh, remember, this movie is not intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease and we'll see you at the next appointment. Thank you.