Haunted Ozark Theater

Episode 28 - Night of the Living Dead ft. Dawn of Mantis

• Paul

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0:00 | 59:54

Welcome to Haunted Ozark Theater … H-O-T … your “hot” horror podcast! This week we are joined by Joe and Ivan of the Dawn of Mantis true crime podcast. They share their thoughts on their latest episode as well as the classic horror flick, Night of the Living Dead!

Title Song: Hellfire by Alexander Nakarada (CreatorChords) https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Graphics by Jacob Hedges

© Haunted Ozark Theater 2026

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Haunted Ozark Theater H O T, your hot horror podcast. And I'm sitting here with Cody as always, but not as always. We have two special guests in the studio. We have Joey and we have Ivan from the Dawn of Mantis podcast. And I'm gonna let them tell you all about their podcast. So uh Ivan, what is Dawn of Mantis podcast about?

SPEAKER_01

When we come on every week, I say it's true crime, mysteries, and more, and it really is uh a lot of and more. But uh we we stick mainly to true crime. Um anything from uh some obscure case that Joe finds, and we might do something about some UFOs, maybe some Falk monster, which I know you guys are a fan of. But then we might do a Buddy Hawley series, uh uh and not just the death of Buddy Hawley, like we found out there his entire life. We just want to focus on that. Um, but yeah, it's it's just Joe does some research, finds something that he thinks will be interesting, and he reads the case. And Sam and I might stop and do a little tangent. We try to stay pretty close to the topic, but sometimes we stray off. There's a little banter that happens. Uh Sam makes the sound like a million bucks, though. He he he knows what it's too far and cuts that stuff out. But uh yeah, uh, we're not banter-free. So if you're if you're thinking about uh jumping on our podcast and listening, just know that we do talk, but um um we do we do get through it and and get the case um done. We've never solved any yoke, though, yet I don't think so. No, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

For our listeners, Sam, is your producer slash engineer.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, and and and just equal to us too as well. I mean, at first he was just gonna be the like the audio engineer, but it ended up. I mean, he has a ton to offer because when we can't think of the thing, what 80s show was that? And he's like, Oh, yeah, this is you know, and also just uh he's just an intelligent guy, knows a lot about a lot of different subjects, and uh just you know, really it's probably like your podcast. It's an excuse for three friends to hang out and talk, and we won't get in trouble because hey, we actually did something, we're putting out episodes, come on, you know. That way our wives are. Yeah, we're doing something. We're not just hanging out, but we're but really we are. No, uh, but yeah, it's a fantastic time. We've got 360. Uh 376. 3760. I can't even keep it out.

SPEAKER_03

We've been doing it for a while. Well, and we did a series for a short while called Minnie Mantis, where we did like shorter 30 to 40 minute episodes. Uh so if we count those, we're over for the 400 mark. But anyway, we've been we've been around for about eight years, so there's definitely a catalog to listen to if anyone is so inclined. Yeah, they're awesome episodes.

SPEAKER_00

So, Joey, how how did this project get started?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I run the water treatment facility for the same town that y'all work in. We all work at the same place. Uh yeah, so for you know, the first 10 years of my working there, I just spent all day, every day listening to podcasts because I would I worked by myself. And eventually I just got to thinking, I could do this, you know. And then I, you know, I've been friends with Ivan since 2002. And so I just called him and and we've always been into true crime and stuff, and I was like, let's do a podcast, man. And so we first got together in actually oh what what what year was it? Well, no, the first iteration of the podcast was like 2016. Yeah, I would say that's about right. And uh yeah, 2016 and 2017, and and so the first one was specifically just on missing persons cases, and it was called Where on Earth Is. But after just 11 or 12 episodes, we realized we want to talk about way more than just specifically missing people. So that's when we scrapped everything. I think those episodes are still out there somewhere, maybe you can get them. But we scrapped everything, and for like six months we just reformulated uh Dawn of Mantis, and it's just like he said, it's variety. So, you know, that's everything. We want to, you know, if we want to talk about a missing person, cool. If we want to talk about uh, like he said, a musician or Buddy Holly or or the Falk monster or someone who, you know, uh a serial killer, whatever it is, you know, now the the world is our oyster. We can talk about whatever. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Awesome. Well, uh, y'all had us on your show over the past weekend, and that episode's gonna come out next week.

SPEAKER_03

Is that correct? So, yeah, it'll come out. Actually, this one's gonna come out a week before. Yours released on Friday, correct?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so this episode they're recording right now will come out tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, and ours will come out exactly a week after. Okay, first.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So yeah, uh, please give Dawn of Mantis a listen and they're great guys and a great podcast. And um, this is a great opportunity for everybody here to just kind of get the word out to maybe some fresh ears that haven't yet heard it. Yeah, I was inspired by uh y'all telling me about how many countries that um your podcast gets picked up in. So I went and saw what is the next biggest country for Honor Ozark Theater besides America, and our second biggest uh country as far as listenership goes is Vietnam. What?

SPEAKER_02

Wow, wow.

SPEAKER_00

We know wheat voice. We've got a bunch of downloads in Vietnam. So I like it. I don't know if they like their horror or if they like our voice. The sound of Cody's sexy voice. I'm not sure. That's probably it, I would say.

SPEAKER_04

That'd be bisexy.

SPEAKER_00

Well, let's do what we always do at the beginning of a haunted Ozark Theater episode. Let's talk this day in horror history. And this one is a little obscure, but we have actually talked about this on the podcast before. Um when we did our episode about horror hosts and creature features. Yep. Today was the debut of Vampira. 1954. 1954, Vampira. Now, the lady who played Vampira, her name is Mylan Nurmy. Nermy, yeah. Mylan Nermi. She was the original first ever horror host. She's what started it. She's the one that started it all. And if I remember correctly from when I read Elvira's autobiography, it was NBC that owned the rights to Vampira. They had the idea to restart it. They hired Cassandra Peterson, and they were gonna call it Vampira. And they were literally about to hit record on the camera when they got a cease and desist from Milo Nerve. Oh wow, saying you can't use the name of Vampira. And they were like, Well, we gotta come up with a name like right now, because we're about to record. And somebody said Elvira, and Cassandra Peterson said, like the country song. Elvira. Every time I think of one, I think of the other.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so that's it's so fitting.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. She was adamant that it was gonna flock because everyone was gonna, like you're saying, associate one with the other. But obviously, it worked out just fine for for Elvin.

SPEAKER_04

And that was in Los Angeles, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, she was Elvira was the LA horror host in the yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Well, because I would say it won't out because as we sit here now in 2026, how many people know Elvira? And how many people would be like, no, that's the Oak Ridge boys song. Right.

SPEAKER_01

I would almost argue it superseded it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I I don't know, unless you're talking to somebody that's 70 years old. Yeah, it's like yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm sure Cusandra Peterson would say she was happy to be wrong about that. I'm I almost I want to name two other things.

SPEAKER_04

I did okay, you went with that. I thought you were go go go with in 1982. You know what came out today? No. Friday 13th, part two. That was today. That was today, and in 1999, a movie we've never talked about, but in its a it's a cult classic, very underrated, idle hands. Oh I remember that I've seen it yet. Oh, it's a fun time. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_00

Funny one for sure.

SPEAKER_04

Is that where like his hand gets you? It's the human hand. I have seen that. It's sent in it. Um green. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

There was a lot today, and and but I felt like I had to go with Vampire. Yeah, just because we've talked about that before. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I'm glad you did because uh not that I watched a ton of Elvira, I did, but you know, I like Spin Gooley. I still watch that every weekend on Saturday, and on me TV. There's a plug, they don't need me, but I'm gonna give it to them. Uh and also uh uh Joe Bob Riggs. Joe Bob I love that guy too. I used to I used to watch that every time it came on. I I I'd love that. He's the last of the Mohicans.

SPEAKER_00

Joe Bob is the longest tenured at this point. Sure. Really? Horror hosts. Yeah, because he's been doing it since the 90s.

unknown

God.

SPEAKER_00

Uninterrupted since the 90s. Wow, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01

So now he's on like Shudder or something now. Is that his name?

SPEAKER_04

He's got a pretty co-host. She is, ooh, she's gorgeous. He's always had the bombshell on his own.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, little eye candy on the side. Yeah. By the way, I want to take a moment just to interject. I'd learned something, so I've listened to most of your episodes, and you guys are great. I mean, that's why we're here. If you guys sucked, I would have been like, No, we could be in there. I'm busy. And I've plugged you all on our podcast.

SPEAKER_00

People will call your people.

SPEAKER_03

But what I just realized is, and I'm like really impressed, Paul has no notes. Like he's just sitting there reciting everything from memory. And I'm, dude, when I like Ivan said how to binder. Yes, you you jerk. When I do when I do our podcast, I've got all these notes, man. I do have some notes here for what we're gonna be talking about.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, but still, I But I were just remember the Elvira stuff because I think we have covered that in the past. Yeah, we have. Um, so it's kind of but once I've researched it and we've talked about it on the podcast, then it tends to still trust it. Yeah, it's good. It's it tends to stay in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I'm different because Ivan can be like, What do you have for us tonight, Joe? I'm like, I don't know if I don't have my notes. Forget it.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I forgot.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I have no idea. All right, sorry. I didn't know. No, here it is.

SPEAKER_00

Awesome. Um, so the next thing we do is what did you re-watch this past week? And uh we used to do a little setup saying we all do it, we all re-watch the classics or the favorites. But what did you pick up on this time around that maybe you didn't pick up on before?

SPEAKER_04

We want to let our guests go first. You guys did you guys watch any horror? If you didn't, that's cool. If you we both did, I know we did.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I we watched Night of the Living Dead.

SPEAKER_00

Are you are you referring to that film or are you saying anything anything that you have recently re-watched that you want to shout out? And if if you picked up something new this time that maybe you didn't ever pick up on before.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, I will I'll tell you right now I love the segment because I mean, and I'm gonna talk about it, but not really talk about it. Like when you when you re-watch something, there's there's something, it's just in your you guys, this your segment's hitting all around it, and there's just something about it like, oh, I've seen that a hundred times. I never noticed that before. Even 50 times, you know. I can't think of an example, so that I maybe I shouldn't have talked at all. But that's a magic feeling, you know. Do you got something? I got something.

SPEAKER_04

And Joey noticed this because way back in the day I came to his office and blew his mind with this. So my daughter, we talk about getting our kids into horror because I don't like it's funny how we say that getting my kid into horror. She's five, but uh the movie she's trying to finish because it's funny, you told me how your dad you had to watch what was it, aliens or something. Second world, and you like to watch it like for four. So we are on team one. Team Wolf. We're on team one. Oh no, that's a good transition piece. But one thing I noticed the second time I ever watched this movie, guys, and this is um about to get adult rated, it's in the movie. It's you, I mean I can't be part of this. I know, I know exactly what it's happening. At the very end of the movie. He wins the game in the stance, that guy pulls down his pants and starts Whoa! Yeah, and they it's in there. They just left it, they didn't see it. Nope. It's in there.

SPEAKER_03

You it's on Prime right now, and you can see it. For those of you who didn't see Cody just now, which is all of you, he did an inappropriate hand gesture towards his nether regions.

SPEAKER_01

Listen, listen, these are smart dude. I guarantee their listeners are smart. They picked up on him, but no, we need somebody like Joe too. What did they mean?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. No, I remember when you came out to work and told me that. Joe, did you know this, man? I was like, Joey, this is weird, dude.

SPEAKER_01

I just why is it much movie and uh team the last 10 minutes they fought?

SPEAKER_00

I learned about that from Family Guy. Oh, no way. There's an actual episode of Family Guy where they talk about that. And I think it's Brian who says, like, for real, like, like if you don't believe me, go rent it and watch it. So that's what I did. I actually rented. I finished that episode of Family Guy, and I I immediately turned on Teen Wolf. And I'd I watched the whole thing because it had been a while since I saw it. But yeah, when it got to the end, I was like, sure enough. Brian was right.

SPEAKER_04

There it is. Yep, all the movies, Teen Wolf's amazing.

SPEAKER_00

That's crazy. That's that's insane. They snuck it in there.

SPEAKER_03

So you didn't, you didn't you have a rewatch?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I can't think of anything that I've watched recently.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you know, uh with my eight and two-year-old, it's mainly just you know, noodling pals and Miss Rachel and Sesame Street. So I I I have to sneak off, you know, to try to watch or rewatch anything like that. But Ivan and I both did, for the record, rewatch what we're gonna be talking about tonight.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's that was my rewatch as well, was Night of the Living Dead. And that's gonna be our big uh main event here coming up in just a minute. The thing that I didn't remember from Night of the Living Dead is they actually do tell you what the cause of the reanimation is radiation from Venus.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, did they specifically say Venus? From Venus. Okay, I knew they had said out a space.

SPEAKER_01

No, they never call them zombies, they call them ghouls. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's the fact we're always talking about zombies, but they weren't. They they weren't called that.

SPEAKER_00

Um but yeah, radiation from Venus. That was that was the thing that I picked up on this time around, which I was like, man, I don't I I didn't remember that being the case. But yeah, that that was that's that's apparently if we ever do go to Venus, we better not bring any radiation back to Earth because we're gonna set off dead.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, let's not do that.

SPEAKER_03

Upon my rewatch, you know what my main takeaway was? What's that? Barbara is worthless in a crisis. They're coming to get you, Barbara.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Listen, I know something random about that. Okay, okay. So they were gonna make her tough in the original one. I I watched a little thing years ago about like the making of, and they were talking about like her character, but they said she played a better victim and a better like shell shock type of okay. Like she didn't play the tough part, but then they when they remade it in what year is that 90? Yeah, you notice how that character flipped. Yeah, yeah, she's a badass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think that was like that was like the second the retro. Yeah, no, that's actually a fantastic Tony Todd, Bill Mose lay in it for about to talk about sure.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, but no, I I actually burst out laughing one time because he's trying to ask her about something, and there's like a doily laid over the the arm of the couch, and she's just kind of like laying, just tracing the patterns of the doily with her. I'm just like, Barbara, suck it up, do something.

SPEAKER_01

But I'm sorry, Cole, that leads to the iconic the slap on the 1968. Yes, sir. And I know what that we were probably gonna get to that.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's what I was just about to say. Oh, your work was working. If I'm if I interpreted what I saw correctly, she slaps him and then he punches her. Oh, that's yeah, you're right. He whops her, he like and then she has a mark on her face for the rest of the movie. Yeah, she has a mark.

SPEAKER_04

And how Codra I know it's 1968, but and I found out they didn't hire him just because he's black. He was they uh George Ever Mayer said he was the best person. But to put a black man in that lead for that time, 1968, was a big deal. So, and I mean that really set a precedent. Yeah, because Ben was originally written as a white dude.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, he was, yeah, and so the guy, Dwayne or Dwayne Jones. Dwayne Jones, yeah. He was more like a play actor, correct? Well, let's just get into it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm just I know we're we're we're in it now, buddies. All right, so let's just let's just roll with it. Let's roll. Um, yeah, so 1968, uh the movie came out, uh written and directed and produced by George Romero. Yeah. Um so you mentioned Dwayne Jones being a theater actor. Basically, everybody in this movie were from in front of the camera or behind the camera. These are all Pittsburgh people.

SPEAKER_04

George ever married his family, friends, even high the butchers to be in it.

SPEAKER_00

So hadn't he pretty much done commercials before this? Commercials and segments for Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. You are kidding me. I'm not kidding. It was really hard not to curse right there. What?

SPEAKER_01

It definitely wasn't a beautiful day and night night.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Nice. That was that was kidding. They don't like their neighborhood so much.

SPEAKER_00

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was apparently produced by the PBS affiliate in Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. That is amazing. That is awesome.

SPEAKER_00

And George Romero cut his teeth doing those segments.

SPEAKER_04

Wow, that would come across over with that if we could have got a Mr. Rogers versus the Zure.

SPEAKER_03

Do we really want to eat people?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Do we or could we just help people? Send send these days. Send Daniel Tiger out there to see if they're dangerous.

SPEAKER_03

The little puppets. Those puppets were as scary as any lady Fairchild or whoever. Like, why do they have to make it anyway? I know I'm deregulating.

SPEAKER_00

You're anyone traumatizing. That's what I was thinking. If we're gonna do a crossover, it's gotta be in the puppet world. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's true. We could do that. We could totally do that. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, so George Rivero hired friends, and any actors that he did hire hire that had any kind of acting experience were just Pittsburgh stage players, basically. Yeah. And and even the production crew and all the everything.

SPEAKER_04

They made that movie for $114,000. $114,000. And they uh it was stuck with that domain because we talked about how it's everywhere for free. They lost so much money on that because they a little slip-up and they didn't get it registered or something, and it cost them.

SPEAKER_00

It was the title card. Is that what it was? Yeah, so the title card, the movie was called Night of the Flesh Eaters originally, and then um right before they were gonna release it, it came to light that there was already a movie called from the 50s.

SPEAKER_03

I know that one, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So they changed the name to Night of the Living Dead. So they had to hurry up and make a new title card, and they forgot to put the copyright on the title.

SPEAKER_04

That's why it's a public domain, right?

SPEAKER_00

From the day it was released.

SPEAKER_04

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

The day that it came out, it was in public domain. Oh wow.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

Which seems so wrong because obviously I don't it just seems it's why we have to have all these scuzzy lawyers. So it's like we've got to clear this up and you could be legal. Everyone knows that it was supposed to be a feature film that would be a thing you could make money off of. I mean, oh well, you you m you did a typo, so now you don't get anything. Oh, it drives me crazy. I hate stuff.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I I would imagine that there's laws in place now that protect things like that. That would help. But also I wonder um, is that why maybe George Romero was like, well, now I gotta make Dawn of the Dead, and then I gotta make Day of the Dead. Like maybe he was like to shove it in their face in a way, or just she's still like to make some money because maybe maybe this guy didn't make any money off of it.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I know George did okay. I'm wondering about the actors because I'm sure they didn't get what they should have for, right? Yeah. That's before we know George A. Romero did okay for himself.

SPEAKER_00

Eventually, but that's what I'm saying is like if it's if it's you know 1969. And the movie's been out for a year and he hasn't hardly seen a dime. Maybe he's like, man, I need to write dogs.

SPEAKER_01

Let's get this going. At least he has like the ultimate thing to put on the resume. Like, watch this. I can do some stuff. Just give me a chance. And please let me make some money this time.

SPEAKER_00

And I can do it on a $114,000 budget.

SPEAKER_04

Well, he really is the godfather of, I mean, the the uh what would you call it? The poster chop for zombies. They're slow reanimated how I mean that really came from this movie. Sure.

SPEAKER_00

100%. Yes. I think that's the too bad he got. That's the biggest and longest lasting thing that comes out of this movie is that the quote unquote rules for zombies were established in this movie and basically haven't changed.

SPEAKER_04

Like what would if we never got this, would we have The Walking Dead 28 Days Later? You know, that's crazy. No, you know.

SPEAKER_03

Correct me if I'm wrong, but before this movie, the closest we got to like actual zombies, weren't there some. I know in the 50s there were some, it was always like a voodoo theme.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Right, like people were controlled or whatever, but but specifically zombies like this. Coming back from the Great List. I think that, yeah, that was a new deal.

SPEAKER_00

There were there was a movie called White Zombie where the band gets its name. Sure. Um, I think there was a movie called Just Zombie, and it was I think it was a Giallo. And there was movies like Nile Flesh Eaters. So there weren't the the idea of a zombie is not original to George Romero, but the rules that we all know that zombies have to adhere to nowadays that started with this movie.

SPEAKER_04

I don't want to get too deep into it, but like rewatching again, it's 1968, the landscape of America's totally changing, you know. You got a lot of what's the saying political? If I mean, I know we're a horror podcast, but I got more of that as an adult now watching it, and really the undertones and there's a lot of political elements in this movie. Well, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00

For the most part, Romero says it was kind of a happy accident. Because he it really all does stem from casting Dwayne Jones in that role. Sure, right. And um, as you mentioned earlier, he just gave the best audition. Um and then unintentionally, everything hit with much more gravitas because he was a black guy. And I think George Romero, I think I saw a little interview or something, and maybe it was in a print interview, but he basically said, like, it wasn't until later on that I was like, oh, that worked out pretty good. All right, me. You know, for sure. But I also saw, and I just saw this earlier today, uh, a little YouTube video. Dwayne Jones actually didn't like the character on the page and said, I'm gonna rewrite this character.

SPEAKER_03

I didn't know the yeah, he was a hard ass at the originally. The original character was like this hard ass truck driver that was kind of a jerk. That's correct. Kind of more like Mr. Cooper was. And yeah, Dwayne. I mean, you you're you're gonna talk about it, but he just pretty much played it like himself, you know.

SPEAKER_00

And well, not yeah, he was like, I'm an educated, serious actor. I'm gonna he's a stage actor.

SPEAKER_04

You said more methodical than kind of okay. So he rewrote the lines and and good for him. I mean, it changed the movie then definitely the tone of it.

SPEAKER_00

And then um it wasn't supposed to have such a a dark ending. It was supposed he was. Well, he in the original script, Ben survives. And again, Romero has this idea in the 11th hour, let's let's kill him at the very end and make a statement. But it was more of a statement about, you know, like you said, this this kind of nihilistic, hopeless ending. And Romero again said, you know, I made this decision to to kill the character of Ben just from a movie standpoint, but then later on I realized culturally and racially symbolized, what it symbolized. Absolutely. He kind of just unintentionally struck going on.

SPEAKER_04

And that's just a horror movie, and you know when it's got these themes and everything. It's crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It's crazy. I always say um when I watched it this time, I was thinking I picked up on a different tone at the end. So he comes out and he's real lethargic, and that's how they mistake him for a zombie, obviously. Spoiler if you haven't seen it in 1960. Yeah, we say that all the time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you have you've had time. But you think about what happens before then, and I was thinking, like, wait a second, does he feel guilty for all that? And is he is he just fine with getting killed? I mean, if you kind of think about how he kind of walked in there, hey, I'm over here. Like maybe he was ready to die, like he was at peace with it. It's just a thought I had, and I didn't know you know, I was like, uh, and it's just a feeling. I mean, obviously it probably wasn't planned that way, but uh, it just seemed like if if you knew those people were there to help you. I mean, I guess maybe you didn't. I can't really think of the you know what he saw. You know, you couldn't really tell what he saw.

SPEAKER_00

Well, we heard the dogs barking. Sure.

SPEAKER_02

Saw a bunch of white men with ripes and he heard typically not a good sign. Can't we all just give them?

SPEAKER_01

No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I I did something you probably couldn't. It was a joke. Yeah, we know.

SPEAKER_00

They uh he heard the sirens and he heard the dogs barking, so I think he I think he knew he was going towards rescue. Sure. You know, ultimately. But yeah, it it's that's an interesting way to look at it, an interesting thing to think about. Yeah, because yeah, why didn't he wave his arms and speak up? Um, he was obviously wiped out. Exactly, you know, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, he didn't probably sleep. No, I mean you he was down there like the rest of the night.

SPEAKER_00

And he was the engine that was driving all the effort for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, he's probably yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Which by the way, again, Brown it's groundbreaking. 1968, the black guy is the hero, you know, is the sole survivor, not the first one to get killed. Right. But also, Mr. Cooper was kind of right the whole time when he said the safest place to be was in the cellar. Because that's where that's where Ben ran went when it hit the fan, and he did survive.

SPEAKER_01

I'm sorry. And sometimes Joe and I disagree. I'm gonna disagree, man. The answer, the answer is this, and you guys can disagree me because I'm coming on you know, I'm coming in hot. Yeah, do it. Uh you got to leave the cellar door open. That's that's just your last resort. The last until they were they were kind of about both right. You know, leave the cellar door open. And then I'll see myself as that. Yeah, that's that's why I thought you really because the other guy was right, because uh you do have at least well, they inf infiltrate the house. You can at least move around and escape. But once you're down there, then I have a question for you guys. It's in my notes, uh, but I remember it. If you get down in the cellar, and and zombies do get in the house, I mean, if they can smell you, just think about a house typically typical of that era. I mean, don't you think they'd eventually claw their way down there?

SPEAKER_04

Get in there.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's just floorboards. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if they get in the house, now I mean you might survive longer and then the help comes the next morning. We know that behind such 2020, but I mean, perhaps philosophically, maybe there's no safe space. Maybe they all were wrong. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I think that's ultimately the decision to have Ben die in the end. I think that's what they're saying. Yeah, oh yeah, very good. Isn't that there's definitely you know, there there is no so safe zone. Sure. You know, but I was thinking, you mentioned the walking dead, I was thinking um that is this where the whole like, yeah, we're surrounded by zombies, but but man is the real evil.

SPEAKER_04

And that's what the walking dead is. I mean really you don't fear the dead, you fear the living issue. But is this where that started? Yeah, is this where that starts?

SPEAKER_00

Because, like you said, Mr. Cooper was really kind of the villain of the movie. He's a jerk, yeah. And then in the end, it's not the zombies that get Ben, it's it's the sheriff outside. Yeah, and his and his militia, you know. His posse. Yeah, his posse. So I was thinking like, this is where it all started. You know, man is the problem here.

SPEAKER_03

It will be cool. That is the case here. There's one line the sheriff utters that has to have been just to improvise, and it's when they're I don't they ask him, like, is it true that they move very slowly? And he's like, Yeah, you know, they're dead, they're all messed up. Yeah. That just comes in, it's like, that doesn't sound right. Like, this is an iconic movie when improvised. You just pulled that out of your mind, my friend.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, no, he had his light and you forgot it like a screw up.

SPEAKER_01

Did that not strike anyone else? I thought it would because I didn't even catch it.

SPEAKER_00

He does, yeah. The newscaster says something like, um, well, they they move pretty slow, don't they? And he's like, Yeah, well, they're dead.

SPEAKER_02

They're dead. Stupid answer. Uh they were dead.

SPEAKER_00

I thought though I did notice that. I just think.

SPEAKER_04

I wanted to ask all of you this because I can remember being a little guy, and Halloween's real special me. It's horror time, but I remember this one just always being on TV, and it was just one of the earlier ones we talked about, but not really watching it, but it was always on the TV. Do you guys get this thing feeling? Yeah, for sure. Okay, for sure.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I think like you said, because it was in the public domain, it was on all the time. Because I don't actually remember seeing it on creature features, but I do remember it being on pretty much. Yeah, you would come on late at night sometimes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Question back then, were they allowed to get away with the zombie butts? And you know, there's naked ladies on it.

SPEAKER_04

It came out right before the MPAA started regulating things. That's why they got away with so much. They did put the split block through that. It's hard. Right under the wire. Right before the restrictions would have. Or that wouldn't have, it would have been totally chopped. I guess. Yeah, it did get chopped in other countries.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, yeah. Because I remember being really young and just being like, I'd just fall ladies behind. You know, like just being like, Oh my goodness. Yeah. I know zombie buttons. I kinda don't care. Oh, yeah, when you're a kid, it doesn't matter if you're a zombie or no. You'll take what you can get. You're flipping through natural geographic. You know, zombie buttons, Joey.

SPEAKER_02

You've been a whole time low, dude. I take what I can get. Cody.

SPEAKER_00

All right. Hey, I'm sure she was a very attractive lady. She was alive.

SPEAKER_03

When she wasn't chewing on entrails.

SPEAKER_00

Which, by the way, they actually uh ate real raw pork. Oh. It was covered with chocolate syrup, right? Well, chocolate syrup was what they used for the blood.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Oh, because that made black and white.

SPEAKER_00

Like the scene where when the pickup track explodes, and then the zombies come and get all their barbecue out of there, um, they were eating like raw pork livers and because, like you said, he used a lot of butchers from the hometown, and they supplied a lot of the meats.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. And you y'all mentioned the reporter scene. And there's a lot of various scenes of what's on the TV throughout the movie, right? All of the reporters that you see on the TV or interviewing the sheriff and his posse are real Pittsburgh reporters. Okay, that makes sense because they seem uh authentic.

SPEAKER_01

They do. Yeah. And that's why Okay. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00

And I guess in other countries they uh even said in you know, after the movie had come out, they said something like, Man, no, those reporters, that was like a real newscast.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. Yeah. And it was that was a nice touch. You said throw that in. I mean, that's it really was because if you're gonna get any kind of exposition, of course, I put in my notes like really late, you get exposition late in this movie because then they explain why the zombies and you know, then they talk about what kills them and stuff. Of course, all of us watching now are like, shoot them in the head.

SPEAKER_04

We know we have the rules of the like thinking back, like if we're all right now, but this is 1968, and we're so spoiled, we have horror every week in different movies. Back then, I mean, this is the first of its kind, really. What was the audience? I mean, you know what you're going to watch Night of the Living Dead, but you couldn't really like I wonder what that bus was like. And my gosh, I can't believe we just watched this depravity and you know, like how far we've grown. 1968 wasn't that long ago, though. No, no.

SPEAKER_00

I think that if I'm putting myself in those shoes, the most disturbing thing that happens is probably a little girl kills and eats her own parents.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's pretty hard. It's like a concrete trowel, right? And did that not strike anyone else like the mother? At first, you'd want to be like, God, what an idiot. She didn't even try to defend herself. No, it's like she almost chose not to. It's almost a baby, yeah. It's like it struck me as like she was so devastated that her own child, she almost just kind of like that'd be my wife. That'd be Haley.

SPEAKER_04

I could I even if Lil turned into a zombie, Haley would be like, eat me.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we probably all of us probably would.

SPEAKER_04

We've all got girls. I couldn't do it to my baby girl.

SPEAKER_01

Be like, bite me, I'll be a zombie. I'll be your zombie dad. You can have them bite you and then run away.

SPEAKER_03

By the way, very quickly, if my wife does happen, like listen to this episode when we're talking say if my wife becomes a zombie, I was like, What are you gonna do? Oh, I'll cap her right in the forehead. Not even a second thought. No, just kidding, Jessica. Jimmy listens to this, then here's my talk about you know, like naked zombie buttons. She's gonna be like, that's why foreplay is me coming into the bedroom holding a handbone, going, oh my god.

SPEAKER_02

Why do we have to find around fork? You know, uh you know why play your part. All right, go ahead. Where's the chocolate syrup? Where did you go when you were going to be just coming with it? Is it your birthday coming up? Is it Father's Day coming up? Just as oh, she doesn't list. Well, she just she gets an action. She doesn't list Tom Fullery.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, you're talking about the era, the 68 era. I saw a thing that was like some other guy's opinion, but I thought he made a good point. He said that in the 50s, um, scary movies chose fun over fear.

SPEAKER_02

This totally clips.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and in the 70s, they were all in on the fear part. Because of and he said two movies in the 60s are the bridge between the fun over fear approach to the all-out fear approach. Psycho? Yep. Psycho. Good job. Nice. Psycho and this one, Night of Living Death. Psycho's not fun, is it? They're the they're the all. They're the bridge between you know, the campier, I could see that happier, go-luckier 50s and the hardcore.

SPEAKER_03

And then I'm gonna say by the 80s, we got back to kind of almost more fun, just with the flashers where where every female was like, is there imminent danger?

SPEAKER_02

I guess I'll take a shower.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, just like you know, so anyway.

SPEAKER_00

The 70s were brutal in far as far as horror movies goes. And then, yeah, I think you're right. Ever since ever since the 70s, now you have your choice. Yeah, you have your choice of uh do I want to watch a just brutal hardcore horror movie, or do I want to watch a horror movie that's gory and scary, but still has some campiness and goofiness to it.

SPEAKER_04

I didn't know how high this movie was ranked. It's one of the all in critics. It's like a 97 in horror movies. That's like you don't get that.

SPEAKER_01

I would imagine, yeah, they'd be pretty critical of horror movies.

SPEAKER_00

The other thing I noticed on this rewatch is it's a smart movie. It's a very smart movie. Um it's the the script is very smart, the dialogue is very smart. Did George write it? Yeah. He wrote Ethan He wrote it with with another guy. Him and I think his production partner, they wrote this together. And he said he was inspired by uh I Am Legend. The book. The book. Okay. Um but he he said he was reading I Am Legend, and he wasn't he was thinking, well, we're we're learning the story of what happens in the middle of this outbreak. I want to make a movie about the very beginning of the outbreak. And so that's how he came up with the idea for it. But um uh what was I talking about?

SPEAKER_01

How smart the movie was.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, thank you. Yeah, just this the script, the dialogue, and what it has to say, and also the characters. The characters, a lot of them made very smart decisions as far as d doing what they needed to do to try to survive.

SPEAKER_01

Based on what they had, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

But I also think that it was smart that among the survivors, what is there, six people in the house?

unknown

I think so.

SPEAKER_00

You had kind of every archetype was represented in the six quote unquote survivors. Um you know, we talked about Barbara being just kind of catatonic and not really able to contribute much. But if you have six people in the house, one of them's probably gonna be like that.

SPEAKER_04

That's her act, you know, and more the selfies, or do you think she's more that way because she's seen her brother in the beginning? It's the brother for sure.

SPEAKER_03

And then how brilliant when the brother himself exactly. That's what I was just gonna say. Sorry, I didn't know. No, no, no. Brilliant. Go ahead. That's all I was gonna say was just like it's it's so brilliant when he, of all people, is like kind of at the forefront of the zombie horde that's just like, oh, that shit's kissing.

SPEAKER_00

They break the door down. Yes, people she's the one holding the door back. Sure. When she finally decides to do something, right? Exactly. Yeah, she finally decides to get involved, she's holding the door back, the door gets broke down, and who's there? Her brother.

SPEAKER_01

Beautiful. That was oh yeah, that was a that was a great payoff. Yeah, sure. It really was.

SPEAKER_00

And that's what I mean. That's exactly what I mean about how smart this movie is. So, and I'm sure it was panned at the time, but in retrospect, like you said, it's got a 97%. And this is just a very slick, smart movie, like just well done from top to bottom, and even more impressive that it was done with you know, people who were not necessarily professionals, yeah, and on a shoestring of a budget.

SPEAKER_01

And and I can comment on that. I I picked up on something else that was really smart. So if you go back to the beginning of the cemetery, like he's a victim of the zombies and uh philosophically, I guess, I feel, because he's like belittling the dead. You know, he's saying all the stuff about, you know, the the you know, oh we don't even remember his face anymore. You know, he's has all those lines, and that kind of builds like, well, I mean, he, you know, obviously he's a great victim because he it almost like later on. He's the first one to go. Yeah, like like he broke a rule. Like and and anytime you're talking about that's right. Anytime you talk about a scary movie, a lot of times that's uh that's a case where you're you're a victim because uh you have a flaw. And his flaw was do not speak ill of the dead. Yeah, you know, you become the thing that you're that you uh he's lamenting the money they spent on the oh yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, everything you say, well, where's the one we left last year? Exactly. I bet you they clean it up and resell you. Yeah, he totally was watching the whole you know, funeral and beyond remembrance for sure.

SPEAKER_01

That's something I'd never thought about. Didn't even rehab. That's before he picked up, dude. Yeah, yeah. That's really awesome.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Um, but can we also just really quickly who was uh I'm so I'm so sorry I blinked on his name, but the young couple that was down in the cellar with Coopers, what's the boy's name, the man's name, young man? What was his name? I don't even remember. They barely even mention it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, um the the couple that was down there with the couple of years.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, the young couple.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I just gotta say, man.

SPEAKER_01

Young couple networks.

SPEAKER_03

Young couple, like they go through this whole uh uh plan of how to get out there and they have the gap, they think the key to the gas.

SPEAKER_01

I was gonna ask you guys about the gas pump. I have it in my notes. Ask the guys about the gas pump.

SPEAKER_03

That made me want to claw what little left I have of my hair. Because there's fire out there, they've set fire, you know, fire to the zombies. Good plan. Um, bro, don't squeeze the handle of the gas pump until it's in the gas nozzle, man. Yeah. Like, what was the I'm like nervous? I'm just nervous. I'm like, what are you doing? Maybe you explained it because I just wanted to punch my TV. I was like, dude, you just screwed up everyone, basically.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and I'm like, but I even also thought, like, why is Ben setting the torch down like between the gas pump? In the truck.

SPEAKER_03

Good yeah, good point.

SPEAKER_00

So, like everybody kind of screwed the pooch in that scene.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I just was just screaming at the TV, like, what are you doing? Like, come on, man. But maybe you know what? I've never been, I've never had to do that while being chased by a horde of zombies.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe I would do it too without the I think it's great answers because yeah, you're just nervous because I'm just in that, I'm not stopping. I'm running constantly.

SPEAKER_04

Stopping at anyhouse. I'm not helping anybody.

SPEAKER_01

You're all screwed. After watching this, yeah, it's like I'm better off by myself. At least I'm not going somewhere to like draw attention, like with a bunch of people.

SPEAKER_00

If you're running next to Cody, Cody's gonna trip you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You only have to be faster than the person you're with.

SPEAKER_03

Even the wife and kids be like, hey, I we forgot something in the house. And when they go back in, leave them.

SPEAKER_02

Just wait and see a sucker sucker.

SPEAKER_00

My goodness. I'm so sorry that. No, that's funny. The last thing I wanted to talk about is the music because I'm so glad you brought that up. Yeah, so I just found a little interesting tidbit because again uh pension every penny that you can, and having some connections to at least the movie making uh industrial complex that existed in Pittsburgh. Um these you know, obviously there was stuff happening in Pittsburgh, and he did use a local production company to make this movie. Um, but they couldn't afford really to score this movie at all. And so the production company that he partnered with, they had just recently purchased a music library called High Q. H-I-Q. High Q music library, and all and what it was was uh music and sound effects that had already been used in in other movies. Wow. And they repurposed everything.

SPEAKER_03

Wait, wait, the whole score was recycled from other you want to talk about smart. Wow. There you go.

SPEAKER_02

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

They they either I don't know if this was Romero's call or if Romero had somebody that he appointed to this, but uh they either remixed or slightly altered the whole high Q library.

SPEAKER_04

That's genius, though. It really is.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and and then used it for Night of the Living Dead.

SPEAKER_01

Oh that's uh that's amazing. I was wondering where that score came from. I didn't I was gonna Google it, I never looked it up, but yeah, that's that's that's incredible.

SPEAKER_00

I actually found a website where it'll it has all the different songs and sounds used in Night of the Living Dead, and then it tells you where it was used before. Oh, that's incredible. So you can go back and I'd love to, yeah. You can go back and and watch you know the movie that the that that little sound bite or that little piece of music first appeared in, if you really want to think that there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. I just think of the the when the the the trumpets and the the rising action and when the zombies are actually banging and they're they're getting in. Yeah, yeah. I mean that's iconic.

SPEAKER_03

It sounds like such it flows so well together, yeah. For it to have been pieced together. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_04

Just George A. Romero with his friends, family, a little bit of money, yeah, and you get this.

SPEAKER_00

And a lot of imagination and a lot of determination and a lot of creativity.

SPEAKER_04

And look what this has created, like we talked about what spawned for what birthed this. I mean, right.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and and when I reached out to you two, Ivan and Joey, and said, What horror movie are y'all comfortable talking about? When y'all got back to me and said Night of Living Dead, I was pumped because this is such a landmark movie. This is such an important film, I would say just an overall movie in all of cinema, but especially in horror. Sure. Um, and I was kind of beside myself that we haven't really talked about this yet. So it was perfect. What do you think he?

SPEAKER_04

I'm not I wanted to why did he do it in black and white, you think? To save money. That's the only even that would save money.

SPEAKER_00

Well, yeah, 35mm camera. Black and white.

SPEAKER_01

Obviously, and probably it's probably a thing where it just looks a little scarier. I mean, I mean, he probably thought about that. Like because it does change the whole movie. It does.

SPEAKER_03

Well, that's what I was gonna say before we even hit record, and and we call it losing our podwad. You don't want to talk about things that you kind of thought about. But what I was about to say before we started recording was I watched the first half of the movie in black and white on YouTube, and then I looked over into the thumbnails and I saw that it was in color, and I was like, Oh, it's in color too. So I switched to color, and at the end of the whole ordeal, I was like, the black and white was cooler.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it was cooler in black and white, you know?

SPEAKER_03

So it's more evocative.

SPEAKER_00

I did, yeah. Yeah, it's more evocative. And again, I think that was probably another one of those little happy accidents. You know, he shot in black and white to save money, but in hindsight, it was the best choice.

SPEAKER_04

I'm trying to think why other horror movies haven't tried to experiment with black and white. That's a good point.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, really, haven't we? The lighthouse. The lighthouse is in black and white, yeah. I totally forgot about that. And that that was obviously a stylistic choice in this day and age.

SPEAKER_04

Not just saying, yeah, they have money.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but I think I think that again, why make that stylistic choice unless you know it's gonna work because Night of the Living Dead has already pulled off.

SPEAKER_03

Maybe that's what Clerks was thinking. Wasn't the original clerks in black and black and white and black and black. That's true.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I mean, if I'm Kevin Smith and I'm trying to save money, I I'd hey, if it's good enough for George Romero, it's good enough for the five years.

SPEAKER_04

So of all of his zombie movies, would you where would you rank Knight of the Living? I I don't know if you guys have watched a lot of zombie films in the game.

SPEAKER_01

It's been a while since I've seen any of the ones, but I've seen some of those. Yeah. I mean, it's gotta be this one. It's got I mean, I said on our podcast, like it, you know, I've rented it on VHS and snuck it in and watched it, you know. Yeah, I mean, it that's always gonna be a special place. And and now I I have a hard time hating it, even if it wasn't good. But when I watched it the other day, I was like, this still holds it does.

SPEAKER_00

It's so good. I I would say that uh for me, anyway, Day of the Dead is a close second. Definitely, but Night of Living Dead is is the gold standard, it really is.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, I know it's super divided as far as the 1990 remake. People either love it or hate it.

SPEAKER_00

What do you guys think? I love it. I love it too. Okay, I love it. I love it too. Cool, I love it. I think it's uh it's a great homage, I would say. Because it's not so much of a remake. You know, I mean it does follow all the same beats and stuff, but it does its own thing enough to the point where it's kind of more of an homage, I think. And I I don't remember off the top of my head now, but I know there is a connection between who made the remake. He was involved in the original somehow, or he got George's blessing to make it wasn't, from what I understood. Yes, there was some kind of connection.

SPEAKER_04

What you would really want to do with that. I know like Rob Zombie did that with he reached out to John Carpenter and like, hey, I'm making this. And he said John was like, make it your own. Oh, with Halloween? With Halloween, yeah. He's amazing. Yeah, yeah. And then John Carpenter in the interview said it was a pile of shit. He hated it.

SPEAKER_03

Well, why does he get to cut? I've been holding you back my S words the whole time.

SPEAKER_04

That was my one for the interview.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, all right. I haven't by the way, I want it marked. I've not cursed a single time. You've been so very good, you've been a good boy.

SPEAKER_05

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00

No, I've and unless anyone else has anything to add, I think that's it for Night of the Living Dead. And man, what a what a ride. What an awesome film. And I just think of like you said, it was always on. I think of how many times I've actually sat and watched that whole movie, many, many, many times. It's it's one of those movies where you you'd be turned, you know, for all you kids out there, you used to have to actually turn the dial to change the channel. You'd be turning the dial, and if you got to Night of Living Dead, you would stop turning the dial, and then you would sit down and you'd watch the rest of it. Yeah, you wouldn't you wouldn't do anything else. You wouldn't say you you you sit down and you finish it. Yep. No matter where you join in, you sit down and you finish it. It's that good. It is. It's a classic, guys. It really is. It's important. And to that to that point, it was uh put into the National Register of Historic Films or whatever that is.

SPEAKER_04

It's one reason we talk about horse, because this movie came out and really paved the way. Yeah, for sure. It's the gold standard.

SPEAKER_01

If it would have been for the copyright era error, I mean maybe it wouldn't have been as widely available and it might not be as known about. So that's the one. So that was a great mistake of having public.

SPEAKER_00

That's very they probably didn't see it that way.

SPEAKER_01

Happy accident. I'm eating ramen noodles every day.

SPEAKER_00

That very well could be the case, though. I mean, it it it spread like wildfire, you know, because of its quality, but also because there was nothing stopping it from that.

SPEAKER_04

I don't know. It's kind of the same boat Texas Chainsaw Massacre got robbed of all its money because it was owned by like a mafia group. No way. And none of the people who met Toby didn't get none of that money. Wow.

SPEAKER_02

Did you know that? I didn't know that. Tony Hooper?

SPEAKER_04

Yep. Yeah. Iconic movies. It was distributed, and the people who owned the uh company was a mob related, and they made sure they got all the code. They didn't share any of the.

SPEAKER_03

You know what helped Night of Living Dead was this? It was peep, peep, peep, peep. I'm sorry, dial tell back then. It didn't mean this is Jeffrey. Wait till you get even at six minutes and 40 seconds there's zombie bud. No, I swear to God. It was the zombie bud that really counted. No, it's an 80. I promise it's an 80. I can tell I think it's an 80.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And because it was a black of white, it wasn't like a greenish cue. It was just yeah, it was relatively normal. Yeah. Except you would eat your brains.

SPEAKER_00

And all of Joey's or all of Joey's cousins can attest to receiving that phone call. That's right, Joe.

SPEAKER_01

Joe's the one making the call.

SPEAKER_03

It's even better than those pages of the Hudson we had buried out underneath Uncle Noah's colour. My goodness. I want to thank y'all for having us. It's been awesome. And I never again. I want to say probably never again. I didn't even hurt.

SPEAKER_02

You didn't do that.

SPEAKER_03

No, no, no. This was great. I am surprised that y'all honored our $500 appearance fee. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Um, we've been for going on years. What what did we charge? $2,000? So we owe you.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. Joe's got the checkbook though. Right. Well, Cody was trying to pay instant lifting supplements anyway. So protein. But what am I supposed to do with this? Here's a case of creatine. Go! Yeah. My goodness. Live, Cody. Live. I got us. Well, I alright. I was about to go off on a crazy tangent, but this was fun.

SPEAKER_00

So if you're hearing this episode next week, go over to Donamantis to hear our appearance on their show. And that was super fun. But do me a favor and listen to all that Don Amantis has to offer. They got some. Because I don't want to just listen to our appearance. I want you listening to their podcast because it's really, really good.

SPEAKER_04

The one you guys did on the Fan Kinn Killer.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that was a great one.

SPEAKER_03

One on the Foul Monster. Yeah. So we've we've kind of crossed over bordering your world a few times. Oh, definitely. Yeah. Definitely.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, something I didn't mention earlier. I mean, uh we just try to have fun with it, but sometimes it'll be a pretty heinous case with some pretty grisly things. And our defense mechanism is let's make a joke of it. Yeah. Where we're kind of, you know, we're always kind of punching at the the the perpetrator, not the victim. Right. Uh that's kind of where we go. And and uh a lot of people really like that because it just kind of takes the you know, kind of the grisliness away.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and like you said, it's kind of just a natural human reaction to that kind of stuff. Um so next week here on Haunted Ozark Theater. What are we talking about? Well, y'all mentioned the Falcon Monster. Next week we're gonna be doing a whole episode on cryptids. Oh nice. So I I don't know quite what the format is. Are you gonna I'm sure there's gonna be some area in the Anderson's talk. Is there a movie about Trupa Cabra?

SPEAKER_01

I'm sure there is the Trupa Cabra.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's what uh that's are we gonna do uh the 50 cryptids from 50 states? Oh no, wow. Try to squeeze all 50 in in in a in an hour. That'd be awesome. That'd be that'd be pretty fun to be. Every state has their own. Yeah. So it's Rhode Island.

SPEAKER_04

I would say though, like 30 of them are probably Bigfoot, though, right? I mean, every state of the thing. Very well could be.

SPEAKER_00

We'll have to do our homework and we're looking forward to that one.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, nice. Hey, great topic.

SPEAKER_04

Well, what's your guys' next on if you want to plug it?

SPEAKER_03

Do you know? I don't know. Don't know yet? No, because yeah, we we record every other week, uh, so we ensure that we have, you know, um one come out every Friday. Our studio, Redbeard Sound Studio. I wanted to plug that. That's Sam Duncan Studio. It's a little over an hour away, so we kind of we go up there every other Sunday and knock out two at a time.

SPEAKER_04

And I wanted when we went, I I felt kind of bad because it seemed like we just talked about us because I was told we were going to be talking about HH Hunks. Did you already cover that or did that just get straight? We just never got to it. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03

It just went off the rails. I apologize to Paul afterwards. I did a lot of research for that. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. You know how we are.

SPEAKER_00

Now his brain is full of HH Hunts. He has nowhere to put him.

SPEAKER_01

Well, hey, you can come on, we'll talk about it. I'd love to come back to it.

SPEAKER_00

That would be super cool. Now, but y'all did just release an episode yesterday or today.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so uh so plug that. Yeah, so Friday uh what would be May 1st. Whenever you hear that uh we just uh well it's gonna be an episode on uh Alex Mengel. He had a basically a week-long murder spree in 1984. Well, 1985, but there's an 84 case that they think was his. Um, but he was partially, speaking of horror, uh uh his case lent to the um Silence of the Lambs films. That's what you were mentioning that okay, I did not know that. Yeah, yeah, he uh he abducted and murdered a woman named Beverly Capone, and after so we know for a fact that he scalped her and he wore her scalp and hair as a wig as a disguise. Wow. Like he got away with it? Yes. He got through Canadian customs that way. That's crazy. When her body was found, her entire face was also missing. But there's no definitive evidence that he was ever attempting. So what what we decided on our podcast, you will hear it, is um it was his idea was to try to wear this face as a mask, but he was a large guy, kind of overweight, and Beverly Capone was a smaller woman. So it didn't work. Just the facial, it just didn't work. Yeah. But her face was removed from her body when they found it. So that was yeah. I don't want to listen to that episode. He all put fire styles to the lambs just a little bit. Him and Ed Geen, obviously. You know, Edge. More so, but yeah. So that's that's what's coming out for us May 1st. Sweet. Check that out, guys.

SPEAKER_00

Everyone checked that out. Thank you. All right. Well, thanks y'all for listening, and we'll catch you in a week. Guys, have a good one.