The Horror, The Horror! with Patrizia Dahlia Thompson

Ep 8 : Nico and Patrizia go Sicko Mode II (Scrapbook)

• Patrizia Dahlia Thompson • Episode 8

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0:00 | 54:21

Get sick again baby!! Nico Wylde returns! 

This time it's less disturbing (than Mordum), but it's another entry in the 00s underground horror cannon- Eric Stanze's Scrapbook! 

It's a really good chat that starts off a film you may think isn't that discussable. 

PLUS

Discussion of The Bride! 

Lots of Princess Wylde ASMR! 


Follow Nico on socials - https://bsky.app/profile/nicowylde.bsky.social

https://www.instagram.com/nicowyldewriter?igsh=MW4xYWM2ZTd3NmI5Ng==

BUY NICO'S STUFF HERE- https://nicolettawylde.square.site/

You can follow me on Letterboxd as Padzdahlia and follow Nico as Nico 

If you're listening (and anyone reads this far) interact with me, let me know what you think! 

SPEAKER_04

And the winner for Lifetime Achievements Award at the 98 Academy Awards is let me check this. It's FtopMovies.com. Hello and welcome to the eighth episode of The Horror of the Horror with Patrizia Dahlia Thompson, the second episode in our ongoing series of Patricia and Nico go stick out mode or alphabetically to be alphabetically popular, Nico and Patrizia go stick out mode. But we've started, so we'll we'll we'll finish. We heard your feedback about what films cover and we ignored it!

SPEAKER_01

Shut up, don't tell us what to do.

SPEAKER_04

Shut up, don't tell us what to do! Because this is not a democracy. So we watched Eric Stanzi's 2000 movie scrapbook. You can hear the princess. We are in Hackney. Uh Princess Wilde is here looking at me.

SPEAKER_01

She says meow.

SPEAKER_04

She said meow. She had a kind of a scare over Christmas or her, so I'm just very delighted to see her.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, this cat is 20. Um, and she was born in my laundry basket, like when I moved out of uni halls, which is older than I would even admit to being, usually. My favourite thing to do is be like, oh, cool, your your kid's 13. Uh my cat's older than that. It really freaks people out.

SPEAKER_04

But yeah, so today we didn't watch Douglas Pook's family portraits, and I did not feel mentally up to going to like the ultimate mode of Seiko mode, which is uh Melancholy Dear Engel, Mariandora's movie, which we are gonna cover eventually, but it's also two and a half hours long. So we watched 2000's scrapbook directed by Eric Stanzi, starring Emily, the brilliantly named Emily Hack, uh, who plays it called Clara? And Tommy Biondo, who wrote the film, plays the kind of kidnapper. He wrote the movie, so which adds a disturbing element to um knowing that. Oh yeah, okay. First of all, what what what did you think of this movie? This was a film I could only watch with you.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my god. I mean, I think I definitely enjoyed Mordem more, which is not a sentence I thought I would ever say. Um was horrific in a different way. Yeah. Like Mordem was like completely gross out, where this was just like relentlessly horrific. I don't I don't know that I liked it.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, fair time. I think I definitely I liked it, and I think I definitely liked it towards the end. I was kind of like, yeah, like it was too long for sure. It's basically about it starts like the the opening is brilliant. It's against black over the credits. You can hear the sound of Clara, this woman being in the back of a of uh this van where she's been abducted, and she's talking to another woman who's been abducted. So this film passes the Bechtel test. Yep. This deeply deeply misogynistic movie, which is also A, deeply misogynistic, but B, I think says something about misogyny.

SPEAKER_00

Do they not have to be talking about something other than men though for them to pass it? They were talking about something. That's true, yeah, they were talking about men.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but I think it still does.

SPEAKER_04

But they she's talking to this woman, and then when the door opens and like you see that like she's basically nearly dead, she's catatonic, her guts are like splayed out, and this guy Leonard, he has abducted her and brings her back to his like disgusting ass shack that uh house with a barn. That looks like if you've ever kind of like found yourself at a really grimy East London uh after and after party, just just just if you find it's a filthy K-hole of a place that you've woken up in after an after party, that's what it looked like.

SPEAKER_00

Or a sex club and east tag name. Alright.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And uh charge you 60 quid to get in, and you'll be like, I think this place has holes in the wall. No, that's vibes, it's vibes. It's vibes, vibes, it's vibes.

SPEAKER_04

And then he is like creating this titular scrapbook where he is putting together photographs and kind of writings of these women that he's abducted. And then like there's not a huge heap more to the film, like, it's a lot of her trying to escape. This guy shows up who is like a neighbour who was asking about putting his horse in Leonard's barn, not euphemism. And she escapes, and there's just a lot of like sexual assault, uh, her, him raping her, her kind of seemingly going into kind of like kind of experiencing Stockholm syndrome, but I I then you kind of realize that she's playing him and kind of playing into his kind of wants to kind of distract him. But there's not a there's not a huge heap more, and I I will say, like, I think I don't know if the film has much to say. I think it can just kind of accidentally say a lot, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean I thought it was really clever in the way that it did it. There was a lot of attention to detail that you don't normally see in films like that. But I think for me, there were a lot of times when I was like, oh my god, I know what's coming next, and it didn't go there. Yeah. So I guess in my head, maybe I'm more of a sicker than I realised. Absolutely. But like, especially when your man turned up, can I put my horse in your barn? Like, that would be perfect to go in that direction, and it just didn't. And the toes, like, you know, just for someone to eat them, like do you know what I mean? And I was like, oh no, oh no, no.

SPEAKER_04

If you're unsure of what Nico is referring to, just look up Mr. Hands and uh you'll know what they're talking about. Um but uh also by the way, we are so rough doing this today, so uh I I apologize, but you don't pay for this, oh like it is what it is. I came over to Turf Island for the Changeling concert on Thursday. Went to that with my girlfriend Jamie, who I realised last time I gave Hazel a shout out that I haven't actually named either my girlfriends, I've just referred to them. But we did see Changeling in Lewisham on Thursday. I met aforementioned loyal listener and uh member of the Polycule Hazel and the various members of her polycule. Great time, and I was like, while I'm here, I'm gonna pop up and see an eco and we're gonna record some more Siko mode stuff. So this is it. One I wanted to ask you, you know, I'm I'm kinda just like springing this on you, but one thing we didn't talk about last time that I had you on was we didn't talk about your novel. Just how much do you want to talk about that?

SPEAKER_01

Or Oh gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, they called Furious is dead?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Farous is dead with a question mark at the end because that's pretentious and I like it. I like it. Um yeah, I mean I'm currently it's it's like a I'm hedging on calling it dystopian these days. Yeah, right. I read it a couple of years ago, and it's just about a world where electric prices have gone up so much that nobody turns on the lights because it's pivoted to a Peas you go model and what would happen if someone bought infinite power that was free to that situation. And yeah, I'm looking for a publisher. If anyone wants me, they wants me to send a bit. But what I think I'm I haven't even told you this, what I think I'm gonna do at the moment is like build out the world a little bit, just like put some short stories up and stuff.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, sick, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, probably on YouTube because that's where they are. So that's where I am with it.

SPEAKER_04

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01

There's so much more to the world that I feel like I want to talk about, and what I've written is just like a tiny, tiny bit. It just seems, yeah, it seems unfair not to expand it outwards. Yeah. So that's the plan.

SPEAKER_04

I need to properly finish the novel, but the bits that I've read are fantastic. I'm just terrible at reading stuff off a computer. Yeah, it's it's very hard. But yeah, that that's awesome. It's it's been I mean, I think it's it's this has somewhat kind of like done your knot in is how prophetic it's turned out to be.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04

As you said, dystopian, but it's just becoming increasingly reality.

SPEAKER_01

Every time I turn on the TV, I'm like, wow, we're just getting nearer and nearer. And even even the internet blackout with with what's going on over there, like they have a blackout on media. They're an illustrator for the state, and it's just a bit like, oh, this is getting in the you know, in the past two years, it's getting incredibly close. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Good s good for your book, bad for your book. Good for my book, bad for actually publishing it. Bad for the world in general.

SPEAKER_01

Well, because people keep going, people don't want to read that right now. They want to read that.

SPEAKER_04

Well, this is what this is what we talked about. I talked, we kind of talked about with Louise last week, was like how or in the last episode was like, how do you do transgressive film in a in an era where we are just constantly bombarded by you know the horrors of reality, and it's like the torture porn cycle in the kind of mid-2000s. You can see it's still kind of relating to like a desire to see that kind of torture kind of footage and everything like that reflected because people were hearing about this stuff, but they weren't seeing it. Yeah, and so that was kind of filling like a fictionalized kind of niche. But now, you know, we're we're bombarded, like like I was we were talking about today or someone, it's like fuck Charlie Kirk, I have no sympathy for that guy. Fuck him and his wife, who is just doing the ultimate shill after his death. But like, I have have some sympathy for us as people because like we witnessed a public execution, and within half an hour I was just writing Charlie Mercked on the internet and posting, hey man, nice shot. Like, I don't think I'm better than anyone, I am as broken as anyone. Which brings me to like why I continue to watch these films like Scrapbook. Scrapbook was like, I'd heard of it because Fred kind of mentioned in interviews when he was talking about people who had done kind of similar kind of underground horror, he had mentioned Eric Stanzi's scrapbook, and I'd heard other people kind of talked about it, and it's unlike August Underground, it's not done in the faux kind of snuff kind of style. There is a scene where the Leonard puts on a camera and films him horribly washing down Clara. I will say, but but yeah, but it still looks like pretty crappy. But the the the quality of it, it looks degraded and kind of amateur-ish, but I do think there's some really good filmmaking in there as well.

SPEAKER_01

Definitely.

SPEAKER_04

So it's kind of different in that style.

SPEAKER_01

Like I said, I think it's it's It was very close to reality in a way. Like it was very like I was like, wow, I could imagine this actually happening.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Which I guess with the other Sicko mode was a bit it was so exaggerated that I was like, come on now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Exactly. It's Hello Princess.

SPEAKER_00

She says she agrees.

SPEAKER_04

She agrees. So it was like I said, it's you know, it's it's it's a deeply misogynistic film that I then think turns it it kind of turns it around when Clara I think Clara's performance is really fantastic. Like the kind of pathology of Leonard is that like after the opening sequence we see like this kind of Halloween POV shot of him walking on and on his sister smoking and looking at her tits in the mirror, something every girl does, you know, that's just what you do. And then she like invites him to s lie down with her and does some insensual incestual stuff, and she didn't even get stuck in the washing machine. Like, I mean, like that definitely had the timbre of like stepsister porn.

SPEAKER_01

Definitely. I was thinking age gap anime, age gap anime, age gap anime. And then there's their dad, I think that was supposed to be their dad, runs in, but the bit I didn't quite understand until a bit later on was like his dad then fucks him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is that is quite high on the childhood trauma.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, and then kind of sets up that's that's as much as we kind of get, and then he he references like his dad's fucking boys in the basement, which I was like not sure what that's meant to mean, whether he was like in a well, he clearly is an abuser, or he's just gay and was fucking around. Like that that was an element where I was like, I'm not sure what's going on there. Did you find it? Did you find it hot at any point?

SPEAKER_01

I was gonna say that there are bits that are filmed very, very much like you know, quite decent porn. Yeah. Right. And there are bits where I was like, should I be enjoying this?

SPEAKER_04

I yeah, swear down. What has estrogen done to me?

SPEAKER_01

Like, especially those bits with the sister, I was like, man, she's really, really, really hot. And then that kind of bled over to me because Clara looked a lot like the sister. Yeah, definitely. Very similar.

SPEAKER_04

He is like Leonard is the proper definition of a serial killer in that he has a a definitive type of woman that he is trying to he is trying to kidnap and imprison, which is like girls with blue eyes and clearly the short hair like his sister.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_04

Um, which Clara kind of fits into. I think as a performer, the actor who plays Clara, yeah, Emily Hack, she I think she's brilliant. Most of the film, she's completely quiet silent. She doesn't say anything to him until very late in the movie when she writes something in the scrapbook.

SPEAKER_01

She doesn't speak to him until she makes the choice to take her power back.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Which I think is really good. And I think it's really good, yeah. There is one there was one bit where she said like something like okay, or but like we can that doesn't really count as speaking. She only addresses him directly once she's like, I'm gonna get myself out of this. Yeah. Which I think again is really good. Like really, really empowering.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, 100%. I think like her her performance is really strong. She, it's worth saying that she has said that she felt, you know, completely safe and kind of respected during production, which is good. It's not a, you know, unlike some extreme horror filmmakers, Lisa for Valentine. No, um, which is good to know to know. I I I thought it was like some of the filmmaking is really uh good. Like there's a kind of moment where Leonard is kind of breaking down and there's like these kind of really fast cuts that I thought were really good, and there's like a lot of detail, like the tag on that's left on her dress, or like there's these constantly just the radio playing, and it's got like playing like these kind of like conservative kind of talk radio things. There's like a an American flag in the chair that Leonard sits on a point. And like I don't think that these are like incredibly well thought out or deep kind of meaningful stuff, but I think it's interesting the kind of things that it it it's suggesting at. There's a moment when the kind of like background conservative talk radio is saying it's someone saying, like, oh, we need to return to Christian values, and we've gone too far in terms of entertainment, which is like a kind of like meta commentary, I think, on on the film itself.

SPEAKER_01

I guess in a way, and I hadn't thought about that until you just write this second, like that is what makes it different for me from like maybe other, not just the other film we watched, but just other like extreme horrors. Like they've actually put thought into the characterisation, and maybe that brings it back to me to being like way more in reality, seeking reality. My one major complaint is that there's not much scrapbooking in scrapbook.

SPEAKER_04

You said that to me, they said that to me, and literally in the next scene, she was writing in the scrapbook again.

SPEAKER_01

I mean I still don't withdraw my complaint.

SPEAKER_04

No, fair enough.

SPEAKER_01

It's like Shutter Island. There are no shutters on Shutter Island. Are you serious? Why are you calling this film this?

SPEAKER_04

Like the cane from Citizen Game.

SPEAKER_01

Literally, where's the cane? But yeah, I mean it did what what have I written? Yeah, what have I written down? I know you had some diggers in the game. I think, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that again I really focused on um the idea of it being very, very rooted in reality, you know, like um he has got that thing of evidence, he does go back to the crime scene, even to rehide the body. Um I've written he's the incel final boss. Yeah, no. Definitely, it's like vampires, like if you kill this one incel they all die, maybe.

SPEAKER_04

I think like that's definitely something that I I wanted to talk about because it's it's so like the way that he talks, he's like such a little insipid rat-faced fuck with a tiny dick. Right, don't want to shame anyone for having a tiny dick, but he deserves it. And he's he's so pathetic with his shitty little bum fluff tash and his like his uh his little rat face.

SPEAKER_01

It reminded me of those, you know, like uh cringe videos, like cringe accounts are quite popular. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It reminded me like he was it wasn't that exaggerated, but it could have easily been, you know, because I know they overact. Yeah, but it was very much like that sort of character.

SPEAKER_04

And he like, he he sounds a lot like Quentin Tarantino as well. He does. He kinda has that kind of high voice. But the way that he's like, the way that he talks is like he talks about like this scrapbook being his project that's gonna get him like movie deals and get him on talk shows because this was like 2000 and Jerry Spring and everything, but he's like he he's so obsessed with his legacy, and he talks about like I don't want them to just call me like the babyfa killer because I'm 27 but I look 14. He's like, I wanna be the scrapbook killer, and I wanna he's like trying to curate his own story and create his kind of own identity. And I think it's like interesting, like we both this week watched the Louis True Manosphere documentary, and I think like oh he's he he is so and it's like this is before kind of like the popularization of like incel ideas, but it is so much like that incel core thing of like I this world doesn't respect me for how special I am, I am going to make this world see how special I am. I cause cause I can't have he talks about you know the first time that he kills somebody going for a walk from the house and seeing this girl and not being able to talk to her, and it has that like entitlement to it, but it's like this kind of thing of saying, like, oh I'm gonna show the world who I am and I'm gonna make a name for myself. Like, this is just something that it is still happening with just guys who you know shoot up a school or shoot up a synagogue. Like, we are just constantly seeing these people and like this this male entitlement and you know fucking male loneliness epidemic, like you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Maybe just stop being such creeps, like it is quite interesting because I one of the things I really thought about was like the tech in that film was old for 2000, but I was like, man, this is probably like one of the last points where you could get away with using Polaroids on a video camera that recorded on tape, right? And I was like, even like even if you found Polaroids now, okay, I'll give you that. You could scrapbook, but the video camera would like update, right? Yeah. And it would record onto it. So I was thinking, wow, this is really of its time. And isn't it interesting that that sort of character and that sort of person gets framed as a serial killer and now they end up with an influencer? I don't know if there's something in that because there's more availability to put that out there. 100% maybe people don't spiral to that point. I'm not saying what influences are murderers, but maybe a little bit.

SPEAKER_04

I think that I think I think that it's just like what it shows is that like these things that we kind of like these the kind of like you know, influencers in the modern age and like the you know, the modern day kind of incel culture, which is obviously there like there's been a lot of talk about in the last year because of adolescence and and all these kind of things that people have been talking about, but it's like that is a kind of guy who has always always existed. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm. Um and maybe in the 80s it it manifested in robbing a corpse, right? Yeah, yeah. It's really interesting, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, you know, and it's like just skill issues, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Like I like I did quite enjoy the level of like I felt like he was a true psychopath, like he was just completely off the planet. He wasn't like I'm doing this because it's sick and I'm having fun. It was well, he was, but it was like this is I'm just genuine, genuinely a crazy person, and I'm not I don't even understand what I'm doing is out there. I'm just doing what I want, and that's fucking gross.

SPEAKER_04

He has like it kind of like articulates like this kind of like his own weird way of interacting with her, which is like very much about him being in control, but if there's any kind of chance of kind of intimacy or anything like that, not that there can be intimacy in a victim scenario, but he it's clear that he has a fear of people as well, you know what I mean? Like, I think like the film says this kind of stuff. I don't know how intentional it is. I think like it is still somewhat a very like let's make it a disgusting movie that has a girl being raped a lot and is really gross. I don't think that there was like a high degree of intentionality in terms of I did write down rape fest 3000. Oh god, so much rape. And that the the worst part is the rape with a glass bottle. That's that's disgusting. Uh that in the moment where she escapes and she runs, she's like hiding in the barn, and she hides behind a door with her toes just sticking right out, and the fucking peats get chopped off, the f toes get chopped off. I was like, why?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but if that was my film, I definitely would have made her eat them, and I don't know what that says about me. You know, my brain kept going, I don't know what's gonna happen next, and then it didn't. But maybe that makes it more real. Maybe if she'd eaten them, I would have been like, no, that's cheesy. Maybe that's what they were doing. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04

I think like having started with with mortem, I don't think I've just been so primed that like this movie, there was stuff that was unpleasant, and there was like definitely shaking my head to show I don't agree. But at the same time, like I wasn't it did I don't feel like like my you know, like I've been put through the ringer in terms of my souls being destroyed in the same way as with a movie like Mordem, do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I felt like I needed a shower after that. Whereas this is just like I don't know, but I quite enjoy feeling graced out. Yeah, 100%. And I enjoy watching a woman get assaulted for like 90 minutes well not even not 90 minutes, it's less than that, probably 45. I don't know. It's it's definitely like it did like it, but it but and it did border on pornography, I think. Oh, 100%, yeah. So it's a bit like, wait, she is gorgeous, but should I be enjoying this? Yeah, should I not? I'm not that it brought up those questions.

SPEAKER_04

The degree to which it's kind of like also like all the the girls in this wear like the like most Bridget Jones asked knickers that nearly like I thought the sister was wearing a diaper at the beginning. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And the way that you couldn't tell if it was uh like somebody that was female or male or in between. Like I was like, what is going on? Like, is this gonna start with him wearing a diaper?

SPEAKER_04

Like, yeah, and it's got like this kind of like like you said, like it it it borders on. pornography in terms of like the the the way in which it's been presented but at the same time there's like very unsex it's very unsexy as well and and somewhat kind of like de-eroticized and like I said like you know fact that we found it hot maybe that reflects I I I was kind of like trying to untease that in my mind of like well how much of this is just how much I've grown up to a certain degree as a sick on the internet with you know this kind of content like have I just been primed to kind of see this kind of content as erotic do you know what I mean? I do know what you mean which is a big thing you know it's like how I mean to be frank like have I just become so used to seeing women in pain being represented as something that is meant to be erotic that you see these horrible kind of like horror imagery and it it seems so close to what's meant to be represented as erotic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I did actually write down five minute crafts present scrapbook and by that by that I meant because you know how and and this is a deeper topic you guys can dive into if you want but you know how a lot of those like five minute crafts make videos are not only rage mate but like softcore for people that in countries that can't just go and look at porn. It reminded me of like the next step of that like it was not quite porn but it's horror but you could you know it was like a like a gateway almost or a stepping not a gateway a stepping stone yeah it's like we felt very much like oh watch this and you don't have to buy porn kiddos it's like if you live in Australia. But again I mean I guess I don't know anything about porn in the year 2000 because I was too young to be looking at porn in the year 2000.

SPEAKER_04

You said on the on the last one of these that you did that you were more likely to be sent gore content than a dick. Oh absolutely yeah a hundred percent a hundred percent which definitely could say a lot look I can call anything you want but there's a lot of sexuality Look I mean look leave me and my folder of people getting murdered in peace I don't have one of those you'll be like this will be evidence yeah no this is what it seems so normal until then it worked until it weren't photo goes into negative oh no that's when they ate ten people's faces uh ten sounds like a lot I don't eat that much nah I don't eat that much but yeah I mean it's it's a very like nasty film in that regard and like because Mortem had Krusty our our beloved crusty lord and saviour we we we we we are hap happy for you Christy Wiles that you are a half happier person now. Yeah your pat was different to mine but at the same time when I heard that like she's doing better and has a family and stuff I'm like someone who cuts themselves that easily on camera wasn't doing very well at the time and like she was an artist she is an artist still always and she was an artist who was clearly feeding off her own mental illness and her own anguish to create that kind of art and that's what makes Mortem brilliant but anyway to say I I am sad that I don't see her anymore but I respect her privacy and I am happy that she is doing well. I think that's great. But I think Mortem having a girl be the most depraved sexually makes that difference in terms of like it just feels different and feels kind of more objectionable to see a guy just repeatedly doing this to a girl. There is one other character who shows up who as I mentioned was the guy who kind of shows up and asks about putting his horse in uh Leonard's barn. When he shows up there's a scene of them talking outside and it is the most obvious worst Adior that I've ever seen in my life because there is no relation between the words that they are saying and the dialogue and and the way that those people's mouths are moving. I don't know if you notice that but it's pretty fucking obviously like overdub.

SPEAKER_01

But yeah like I said there's there's there's really I'm not really sure what his function was right like Yeah because he kind of just like he kind of turns up and is like yeah buddy can I put my horse in your barn and I was like uh uh as he said yeah Google it if you're in public. Um maybe don't Google it at all save yourselves.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah don't Google it at all but also I I know footage of that nature is highly controversial and like banned around the world right of course yeah just because my sicko brain went there maybe but yeah he just sort of turned up and was like yo can put my horse in the barn and he wasn't even like yes he was like come to my house like there was a great bit where is the horse what happened to the horse I know there was a great bit where he steps into the house though and he sees like all the pictures from like really grotty looking I I I assume it's a mixture of really grotty looking porn and like Polaroids that Leonards have has took. And there's this great moment where he's just kind of looking around and very quickly realizes like what the fuck he stepped into and I I thought that was really good. But then he just gets he gets kind of like beaten up really badly and then put in the closet.

SPEAKER_01

But we never see him again.

SPEAKER_04

No we never see him again. Are we meant to believe that he's died or he's just gone catatonic you know?

SPEAKER_01

I don't know but then when she got in the cupboard I was like is that the same cupboard is it I'm so confused.

SPEAKER_04

It has to be yeah I liked you know when at the basically how it ends is that she starts writing in her dar in the scrapbook that like she's forgetting her old life he is everything she needs and she kind of like starts to tell him that like he needs her that he needs her to like take charge and she starts to kind of it's quite a long scene and you see that see that the knife is there. I was surprised that like when she takes out the knife while he's still into it but she's like cutting him a little bit and then she gaffer tapes him to the bed and then she stabs him in the heel heels and smashes his face up with the camera which is like a really satisfying kind of poetic justice to like take the thing that he's been using against her taking her image and using it to like beat him up and she escapes and that's kind of it but it I I I thought that the way in which the kind of like it flips the kind of balance of power is quite interesting. Whether that justifies you know the prolonged sexual assault I don't know like but I will say that like I did re I did enjoy this one I have to be honest. Yeah I mean I don't know if I feel good about it.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't hate it and it was very like there were some very clever choices. I was just trying to find you know it said based on a true story at the start. I was trying to find yeah well apparently some woman after it came out tried to sue them claiming it was based on her. Oh wow yeah yeah but that I mean this is just on some random some random forum after the film was released someone in Georgia filed a lawsuit claiming the film had been based on her life story and demanding compensation. Shit can you imagine because I know a lot of those things that have happened like in terms of um there's been a lot of situations in true crime in which the person has suddenly flipped and it always fucking works. Yeah yeah it always works there's a really famous one about somebody that was abducted in the car and she just flipped and she was like thank you so much for getting me away from the situation and then she was like I need to go pee can you drop me off and she just ran. Yeah really good so I really like that and I thought that was super accurate and that kind of is the only way you're gonna get out of a situation like that really like you can't she'd already tried to escape a million times and failed like this is this kind of story of like a a man keeping a woman captive is not it's not the only one.

SPEAKER_04

There's like broken there's pig both of which movies are directed Adam Mason which I don't know there was that one recently when she was in the barn. There's the woman the woman Lucky McKee is the woman which is actually fantastic. Yeah that's really great.

SPEAKER_01

That was really really cool.

SPEAKER_04

Eric Stanze kind of like he it's interesting because you know there's always that kind of degree that conversation about how much is someone who's like working in this underground feel kind of outside of the industry like a total outsider. Eric Stanzey is falls into the category of people who work in the industry and then also have their kind of like sicko art that they make. Eric's worked as second unit director on Stakeland and the American version of We Are What We Are so he's like frequently worked with Jim Mickle. His website has a a whole list of kind of different credits that he's done in in various different roles and he the last film that he released was in 2024 so like he's continuing to make stuff. This is the first one of his movies that I've seen so I I don't know a whole heap about like what the rest of his kind of work is. But the kind of like thing about this podcast is and it's it's been something that I've kind of said to people is that from the first episode talking with Louise to like us covering Mordem like it's diving so much into this level of kind of extreme horror has been kind of a new thing for me. And like the podcast isn't always gonna be extreme horror and like I reserve the right as we did today of completely changing it up on you and doing something completely different. But tell us what to do. It's been a very interest like it has been very interesting to like come to this level of like underground horror at 3536 and it's been really interesting journey for me and and and whether like I had ended up liking this one or hating it was just another kind of important part of like the kind of canon of like this kind of underground kind of splatter stuff to check off and to kind of to check off and and to to kind of explore you know yeah I did really like that it was quite like a set piece as well like it didn't we didn't find out what happened to the scrapbook.

SPEAKER_02

No.

SPEAKER_01

We found out what happened to the guy no even though it was confusing kind of like that I like that it was just this is happening and this is a snapshot into this person's life who is mentally unwell scrapbook she didn't even take the scrapbook with her.

SPEAKER_04

No I thought she was going to destroy it that that was gonna be like her her moment of reclaiming power you know but that again made it more real to me like because you wouldn't be thinking about the fucking scrapbook you'd be like I'm leaving yeah like yeah yeah yeah see this is the thing is that I'm very like I I don't know like I'm very wary of like having criticisms of the m of a movie where it's like well if I had written this it would have gone like this and like any kind of like cinema sins type like oh well it doesn't make sense but like I don't know there was moments where I was like like or or moments have been like and you know maybe this speaks to like my like physical privilege of being a tall ass girl or something but I'm like isn't there mo like there was moments where I'm like would you fight back more or like what like or or I don't know or like I mean how she gone to that carpet on extended I don't know I think she fought back quite a lot I disagree with you there.

SPEAKER_01

I think that it's more fighting back than somebody actually would personally yeah fair enough okay yeah yeah do you have any other thoughts what else did I write down? Okay let me just finish my big book of evidence and then big book evidence listeners who did not no he did not he did not he did not I think it's like I mean do you know what first thing I wrote was at least he's got his reasons and commitments straight I know I've been murdering since I was what was it uh 15 Sword of the soul in this book or I pieced the actor who plays Leonard because he actually died before the film came out.

SPEAKER_04

Oh no really yeah he died between production and and the the movie being released yeah like the drama I know of what? I don't know but he he he was dead but the other thing kind of like piece of trivia is that this was released when it was released in the UK it was like cut by 12 minutes which I'm like why do you release this movie and cut it by 12 minutes? It's only an hour and a half now it's a long an hour and three I do feel like we were watching it forever. Yeah and not in the like the August Thunder Grand's mortem way where you're like every moment of this is torture and I feel like this will never end. More just I'm like come on now let's let's wind this up a little bit like this is this is going long like it have a lot it's one of those films that used a lot of silence didn't it wasn't to make it feel design it's got like that like classic like underground horror industrial hum kind of like churn sound which I I wondered kind of at the beginning like if it was kind of like serving a brown note effect because it really really needed made me need to poo. Yeah but then I went to the toilet and was like oh but it's probably just because I've eaten a lot of Chinese food. But yeah it's effective definitely like it's kind of like it's kind of like like I said like underground spooky sounds spooky ambience.

SPEAKER_01

It just like draws everything out. Yeah it just it felt kind of itchy I guess.

SPEAKER_04

And I like I like the way in which it kind of like the details like you said but also like in the room where she's being kept he's written um I'm winning in blood on the wall.

SPEAKER_01

That's by the way in like three people's worth of blood three people's worth of blood.

SPEAKER_04

But I think like that just sums up his like that desperate like fucking like I said like incely need to control like and it's like him being like no I'm winning I'm I'm in control. And like I and I think that the the the kind of like the fine line for me is that I think some films like this even if they're like textually presenting the killer as being like a loser there is an element where it's kind of fulfilling this kind of control fantasy where it's kind of like it feels like I don't want to cast this person anyone I don't want to say wish fulfillment but it's like even if you're portraying this person as being a loser the way in which you're showing it is still like oh they are in charge and they're in control.

SPEAKER_01

There's like a kind of like sadism to it that that feels furthermore to that the pivotal point is when she gets him to Neil.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Right? Like that's and I don't I'm not you know you know I love my my fetish community but like I'm not saying it was a good representation of that because it's not but there was something in his submission from to Neil to her that kind of flipped the thing that was the bit that was the bit listeners that I thought was sexy just so you just just so that you're aware and I don't sound too much like a wrong and look we're way past the point of that.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah when I was l editing the last pot episode uh I could hear my neighbour next door coming in and I was editing the bit where uh I was talking about newborn where the director in the Serbian film says Newborn porn newborn and I was like oh dear lord like this is where I'm at now I have new neighbours as well Welcome to the book welcome to the book baby bless them well they need to learn everybody's gonna learn sometime yeah so Scrapbook it was a film that I feel like now I've talked about it and it settled in my brain I feel like I'm gonna move it into life.

SPEAKER_01

Okay good yeah I just found it hard to watch but I feel like it actually had a lot of artistic merits that films that portray lengthy sexual assault don't.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah I think now it's settled I'm gonna move it up I think there's who like there's like that thing of of and I think I I said it before it's like what the girls on Transpanic do really well is like that thing of like well what can this film tell us but also like realistically what was the director's intentions and often the intention is nothing more than like won't this be fucked up to make. But I still feel it can tell us a lot about a type of guy who still unfortunately exists. Very much so Incel boss I promise it's like vampires you kill the one absolutely you just sire the one where's Louis when you need him where is Louis the other thing that I wanted to talk about and I don't know if there's gonna be like we're gonna talk about for long with just the bride we loved it we both were on the side of really liking this movie that everyone has decided to kick around.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah I mean I and I said this earlier to to pads I'm not sure that I watched the same film as everyone to the point like I could see why people didn't like Folia d'hum. Like I can get it I totally understand it was very I can you know move my boundaries to understand why people wouldn't like it. I did but but this like it's just a fun romp. The Bride is just a fun romp.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah absolutely film doesn't have to be meaningful or even really make sense to be fun right I mean this is kind of like what I've I I feel like in a sense is kind of what I've been saying is just I'm not saying but I feel like in the same way it's like a film exists as its object and it can be fun or it can be depraved and you can not agree with the message of it and and and still find it enjoyable or you know these things kind of have all these different kind of things.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah I mean what I really enjoyed as well is like obviously Frankenstein's a fucked up person or the Frankenstein's monster's a fucked up person right as as is the as is Frankenstein himself. But like having a bride that was sane doesn't really make sense. Like he needs someone that's unhinged did she have the ID was it actually Mary Shelley who fucking knows love it anyway either way love it but it's very much like couldn't have they couldn't have really had fun together unless they were fueling each other in this like horrible cycle um I don't know I just I I I really liked it and I thought that I wasn't bored start to finish one second it was weird as hell it was weird as hell but I felt like if you go with these concepts yeah I don't think it was supposed to be anything other than super surreal yeah and super like yeah I I liked it a lot. I liked it a lot I'm telling you Jennifer's body situation.

SPEAKER_04

I don't understand why this you know it's yes it's it's kind of inspired it's taking inspiration from obviously Frankenstein the novel but also like James Well's Bride of Frankenstein it's kind of a response to that based on it's a response to how little screen time the Bride of Frankenstein actually has in the Bride of Frankenstein and it's trying to position the story from her point of view. I turned to D at one my girlfriend at one point during it and I said I don't know if this is great or awful but I'm loving it and it just went to places that I just felt were it was genuinely camp and just genuinely so crazy that I was like I can't believe Warner Brothers gave Maggie Gyllenhall all these millions of dollars to make this film.

SPEAKER_01

And that I mean wouldn't you yeah I would but like this is why I'm not in charge of a studio because we would I just feel like a lot of it was quite about that kind of like unbridled mania and maybe people haven't experienced that but I definitely have. Yeah. Just being fucking feral. Yeah absolutely got that a lot a lot maybe maybe that's where I'm falling down like I've had my moments where I've just been like yeah let's run away with this person and scream in the street and maybe maybe that's not a normal human experience.

SPEAKER_04

I don't know but I just think it's strange as well for this like for this you know film that's not part of like an existing modern IP and is you know directed by a woman and this very kind of different film that for that to be the thing that everyone's deciding to to you know kick around at the moment it feels almost as if like people are angry that this movie kind of deigned to exist and it kind of deigned to exist in this space and like there was stuff that I felt was half baked about it. There was stuff that I didn't I felt didn't work but like you said like there's different levels to me when I'm watching a film and on the first level if I'm not bored then I'm like okay it's achieving that basic like the things that I felt didn't work didn't detract from my enjoyment.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah and I don't think it was trying to like prove a point or change your life right like those two things it was not trying to do. No by that I it just allowed it to be really fun and really I don't know I love films that have got like a sense of impending danger in them and then you just feel like they're spiraling and spiraling and spiraling to the end and you know it's gonna end badly but you still kind of want them to not but they definitely will.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah absolutely no that's that that kind of madness fatalism that kind of like pretentious kind of nihilism.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah I mean I well I would I would really love to see somebody's like in-depth takedown of it because I genuinely at this point I'm like did I watch the same film as everyone else? Yeah. Like did I yeah I would love if if there is one out is there's all around please send it send it in yeah like rather than people just going oh that was rubbish I want to hear actually somebody tell me why they thought it was rubbish.

SPEAKER_04

I just find it funny that that's you know the villain that people like it's the same as like now everybody loves Sinners and you know I referenced at the beginning that we're recording this the same day as the Oscars. But before Sinners came out when people were like saying about the deal that Michael B. Jordan had had to make this film and that he was going to get the rights back and they were kind of reacting almost to the audacity of this and I was like but why should we not be happy that a creator particularly a black creator is getting this opportunity like why why are we acting like studio execs and considering this from like a purely monetary like the whole business is fucked it's fucking morally bankrupt. Why not just like let's create some fucking fantastic art while we tank the ship that's my perspective.

SPEAKER_01

Literally I know yeah I agree with you yeah I feel like I definitely feel like it's gonna be a Jennifer's body situation. 100% and actually the makeup was done by somebody that a friend of mine was like second in makeup to so all the films that uh they have assisted on I I'm not sure I'm not sure if I assisted on the bride but like that that style of makeup and the outfits are always like very cool inherently linked to us growing up. So it's like forella he did the makeup method oh safe yeah yeah and I was just like wow so maybe maybe that drew me in a direction because it felt so familiar. No because that was like you know I feel like I hadn't considered that maybe some of it was based on it was very dear to me.

SPEAKER_04

There's a lot of uh films that kind of like try and approach this kind of thing of camp and it doesn't work but I felt that did it very well and it's it's funny a movie that I watched recently which had out uh my friend Molly and her girlfriend Sarah was over and we watched Caligari the 1980s movie which you'd seen is brilliant but it's like Caligari does an interesting thing of like hinting like Sarah was like oh you should see this like unhinged surrealist softcore masterpiece and while we were watching it I was like I don't know how softcore it is like but it it keeps suggesting it like going down a kind of more porn route and then it just doesn't to the like almost this kind of absurdist thing. And like not that scrapbook is similar but I think it's interesting seeing where the kind of line is in in that film language between porn and something that is otherwise. I mean Louise calls these movies gore porn and like to a certain degree they are satisfying that urge. Which I and that goes as far as like the Deuce for Valentine stuff where it's him indulging his very particular fetish.

SPEAKER_01

I also think again the timing of it is really sort of integral in that like now you can just go on the internet and see that sort of thing but maybe in the 2000s it was before making these films filled that slot where you if you didn't know where to go, you know, information and images and films weren't so readily available. And I guess maybe the reason you don't see that in 2026 is because you don't need to get that far. You can just go on the internet and get it.

SPEAKER_04

It is it is kind of like maybe this thing that when I cut I I said about kind of reacting to like maybe I've I've just be kind of become programmed to the way in which you're meant to respond to images of women in pain but it's almost like well the majority of porn has now taken on that focus on degradation and and that's I mean you don't even have to go to porn to see right you can turn the news on and see people get embombed like that also like but like Louise was saying like the the you know you can go on a kickstream and see someone like being goaded into suicide and it's like literally that focus on that like tear of cruelty has kind of just entered the mainstream. You know what I mean? In in a way which sometimes makes watching films these films from the 2000s you know feel somewhat like as much as they're like mentally scaring it makes them feel somewhat quaint sometimes I think like it definitely it does feel yeah there's a nostalgia there that I don't think you would get with any other type of filmmaking.

SPEAKER_01

I think found footage there's a nostalgia with old found footage definitely and that is a genre that becomes harder and harder and harder to to reproduce the more the better technology gets right because the less scarier it is if it's crystal clear right but yeah I think there's definitely they are quite quaint they are quite quaint and it's the way they would act as yeah I think like one thing and it's like I wrote I wrote that article about why extreme horror would I quote you in one of the two most referenced people on this podcast.

SPEAKER_04

But it's like I feel like since I've I've I've written that it's like I feel like that's a topic that I uh well that I can continue to return to as as my perspectives on that stuff changes. But I do think that for me it is like I I've compared it to like the experience of watching a stream horror movie to like the catarsis you get from getting tattooed or BDSM or piercings or you know all these other things but it's like I feel like maybe the appeal to a certain degree is like it's like that feeling of like making yourself feel alive by putting your body into shock. Yeah. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely yeah and it relows allows you to release the anxiety about like I can't stop war happening but I can process my anxiety about if I'm gonna get it and you can st you can stop this film and then end it up you know or just end it and then walk away. Or I can be like wow if that was me I'd do this.

SPEAKER_04

Like it's it's it's a processible level of I think trauma whereas if I go anywhere like you know like I said this morning let's turn on the TV and see who shot at who like it's just just can't even get my head around that like Yeah and I think that there is I I don't know I think that there is something as well you know for me it's like as a trans woman there is like I'm gonna try and articulate as well you can do it. As a trans woman you essentially are giving up the privilege of not thinking about your safety a lot of the time. Like you go from being able like I didn't realise the privilege you have as a man walking around the world not worrying about your safety until it was gone. And I think one of the reasons why I see you know a lot of people in the extreme horror space are wit are you know mostly cis but but but are women is because fear of living with danger of being sexually assaulted being murdered is very real. I mean you're non-binary but you experience the same yeah I mean I you experience the same you have grown up with this in the same way as anyone who's I mean I'm AFab and I I get it all the time.

SPEAKER_01

Like still still I get it all the time. And it's not it's it's weird because it's not just one thing it's the little microaggressions that just build up and build up and I mean I'm quite you know me I'm quite good at telling people where to stick it but I see people who are younger than me or more nervous than me. Like that's why I'll always be the first one to step in right if anything's ever happening I'll run towards the danger to save someone right pads see me do it. And uh I I don't know what that says about me or why I ended up this way. Is it from growing up being I'm gonna say it now being quite attractive from quite a young age so I've developed that shield of being like don't even I don't know I'm not sure but it is you know you walk down the street and you're like oh you get on a bus and you're like wait who am I gonna sit next to that's not gonna harass me right it's just constant and I guess yeah a lot of true crime is like playing out the scenarios of how they happen to you to try and figure out what you would do.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah absolutely I think it's it's it it's it's the catarsis of playing through the worst case scenario.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah you know like when you if I get on the bus and someone's kicking off next to me I'll just get up and walk off. You know and people I know people that are so scared they'll sit there and it's like just get up and walk off. Like it's it's you know but but that maybe has only come from consuming so much true crime and horror and being harassed you know because I was running around at like 4am wearing a gasp right you have to toughen up but yeah absolutely by the way no that I'm not justifying being fucking hit on because of how you're dressed that's not okay but no 100% not.

SPEAKER_04

And it's like like I said like it's it's it's a thing where it's like when talking to someone like yourself who is like non-binary but afab someone who's non-binary but afab and has grown up in this world is going to experience a lot of the same things as as you know cis women do. Uh even trans guys experience the same stuff do you know what I mean? Like and I'm always kind of like it's a complicated one to talk about because you don't want to you know not acknowledge someone's gender as as being true but it's also the fact that I I think I don't think any anyone who's non-binary and has grown up with that is like claiming stolen value or something. By talking about that and I do think like these like worst case scenarios there is something Qatar I can living through them and like I think with things like scrapbook scrapbook is more relatable to that kind of true crime perspective because this happens so often a Serbian film unless you go to Serbia and get involved in an in an avant-garde underground porn film like that's easier to dismiss it's disturbing in another way but that's easier to dismiss whereas you know this is the reality is often the reality of of of existence like this shit can just happen.

SPEAKER_01

And I think the really important choice of not really giving us much of a backstory like we got that one scene at the fr at start so we could put because you need to make your villain you know multi-night but you have to have at least one scene to believe that he's an evil person.

SPEAKER_04

But we had nothing about Clara but I think that it was a conscious choice in terms of this playing out the this is what would happen if you were in a danger scenario yeah catharsis like and I guess maybe that's why it's so satisfying when it does flip actually yes it is yeah absolutely yeah actually yes it is yeah because you don't know anything about her or him really and but you do just want her to get out yeah naturally yeah as I was like talking my kind of experience of this you know having to navigate this stuff as a trans woman and and there will be a full episode or something coming about possession but that's a movie that is one of my favourite movies I have a tattoo of a Johnny screaming on the back of my leg that I got done last year just before International Women's Day. But I think like the reason why that movie is so like has become a meme in terms of like trans girl comfort movie is because that's a movie about female psychosis and experiencing the extreme emotions and the thing is one of the most difficult things to learn as a trans woman is that like you will experience all these extreme emotions but as a woman you're not expected you're expected not to acknowledge that. And you're expected not to to to not to acknowledge that that's having an effect on you which is really difficult.

SPEAKER_01

And I think as well it's a lot easier when you're a child because people want to naturally forgive children like even when you're a teenager like moody teenager is a stereotype right so you can act out and you can when you go through that second puberty everyone expects you to be chill about things. I wasn't chill about those things when I was going like I remember back I did some crazy ass stuff when I was like 15. Yeah and you don't get the but you don't get the privilege of of being able to fuck up and being able to be given that space to and I think it must be really fucking hard.

SPEAKER_04

It must be really like I mean I still go nuts when I'm getting my period yeah for like the few days before like let alone yeah you know that is the thing of like you're given license you're given that space to fuck up when you're a teenager when you're 30.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah in your 30s it's just like what the fuck you know you're expected to fuck up but in your 30s everyone's like you gotta be sane it's like come on now and I think that's I mean for me I'm I'm vaguely perimenopausal as well and that's been something I've struggled with a bit around around that time is like whoa I actually feel different right like it like my head is fuzzy and like my hair is thinning and I'm like oh my god this is all linked to going in that direction which is a whole big other topic well nonetheless nonetheless nonetheless thank you that was uh a quite in-depth discussion inspired by Eric Stanzie's scrapbook but thank you for listening um and shout out as I said at the beginning to F Dub Movies the Criterion channel for perverts God we love FDP movies whichever beautiful perverts are running that website we couldn't get subtitles for this one but they usually have subtitles like they are just doing that for love of the game and uh we salute you maybe fdupmovies.com can sponsor a season yep god bless them whoever's running that I love them because they've been running it for so long and it's so good.

SPEAKER_04

That's amazing thank you so much we salute you and until the next sicko mode it's goodbye from me and goodbye from Nico.

SPEAKER_01

Bye