Oddity

This week, hosts Frank and Andrew discuss the Irish horror Oddity! What happens when your sister-in-law comes to visit with a giant mannequin?! Please join us for a scene by scene break down of this iconic film. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome to You Killed Clyde. I'm your host, Frank, and today we're going to be discussing what happens when your sister-in-law brings over some pretty funky luggage. Folks, today we're talking about the horror film Oddity. I, however, am not alone here with you on this journey. With me today is my dearest co-host, Mr. Andrew. And fellow Oddity here.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Uh, how's it going? You are odd. This should be like your biography. I mean, I don't think so. I think this uh the movie is uh not really about an odd person, I'd say. But uh No, I don't mean like this particular movie should be about you. I mean the term oddity would be the name of your biopic. Yeah, well, I don't know. I think uh I think there's several words I could describe my my if I was to call my biopic a name, I'd probably call it like uh like uh hell in a handbasket or something. I don't know. Or I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

How are you? That's the question.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Uh yeah, I'm I'm very good. I uh just got off a long day of work. It's uh oppressively hot here. I just want to say too, I'm gonna go a little rant here. I I think people are starting to catch on, but I think that like we as people um really have this nostalgia for the summer, but the summer's truly terrible at times. Like the summer sucks a lot of the time, in at least where we live in in southwestern Ontario. I'm sorry, I know that might be like crazy to some people, but like I much prefer fall where I can wear a sweater, I'm cozy, I have a coffee, tea, nice rainy weather, some nice cool breeze. You know, it's like 15 Celsius. I'm not taking a lonely person. No, I would I I don't think I definitely don't stand alone. The way the this today, dude, today 36 Celsius is a humidex of 41.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

So that's the telling you, like, I don't do your job, so I'm not like I can't imagine how that heat must have affected you. But I'm the type of person that doesn't turn the air on until nighttime. Like it's probably like 40 degrees in here, and I'm like loving it. Like, I love the sweaty, exhausted, like just disgusting. I think the problem with summer for me, and you're right, it kind of does suck in some ways, is I just get this like massive feeling of FOMO all the time. Like, I feel like I need to be like out of the house, or like this is the only thing like wait, hang on. I look across from my building. Sorry, I need to go on a rant too. I look across from my building, there is a rooftop pool for the building next door, and all I see is like these fabulous people like having drinks and swimming. And I'm like, fuck like I'm working and it bothers me. Like in the winter, I wouldn't give two shits.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

I also feel too like in the summer, there I think when it's a nice sunny day out, there's a lot of people out there who feel obligated to go outside. And I like going outside, I like having fun outside, but like it's like today's weather, like cool. We can go outside, but I don't want to eat outside on a patio. Like it's so oppressively hot. Like, or like faux. It's like faux with like like extra hot sauce on it. Like, can I have the patio, please? Have like a hot cocoa and a hot Caesar, like like it's just what's I feel like it compels us, it compels us to want to be outside, but my hobbies, I got like to play board games, like to watch movies, you know, go figure.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

And like the thing is, like, I'm a beach person, so I do love to be at the beach and love to be at the beach.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

The beach is so overrated. The beach is fun for like one hour.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

I'm seriously the beach is four hours on Saturday.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yeah, no, maybe I because the beach here just sucks. I think in Mexico, you have some beautiful beaches around there, though. Like, think of Lake Erie, man. Yeah, but like you have to drive out of the city for it, I guess, is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

A couple of broken eggs makes a great omelette. Sorry, that was very stupid. What the hell does that mean? I had four coffees today. Just for the audience, like, we don't normally record at this time, so I don't know what you're gonna get, but I am hyped.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Yeah, I've been up since 4 30 in the morning, so I'm on my 14th hour now.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

I do think back to the back to the weather, Andrew, but uh no, just kidding. No, I I do think like with summer, I just wish I could relax more. And I think that people listening, like horror movie fans are like I said, people like board games or like films. I often feel like at night I'm doing activities that are indoors, like I'm going to like dinners and movies and shows and things like that, but those aren't really summer activities, I guess. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

No, but like we're we aren't like you know, we're not 10 years old. Like it's like like I can go outside and play pickleball or you do any of the other little activities, you know, paddleboarding, whatever, but like at nighttime, like as an adult, what is there to do outside? You can go for a walk, but you probably already done that today. The pool? Like, I guess. But how many, how much time in the pool, though? It's like, I don't know, I want to settle in, cozy up, watch a movie or something like that. So and this movie, by the way, not to wrap loop this into what we're what we're talking about tonight, but that I actually found that this movie in some ways is cozy.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Like on my oh, a hundred percent. Do you notice too? This movie feels like it's five minutes long.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Yeah, like I don't even get it. You said that so we talked you briefly said that, I think, on text, and I was watching it with uh Sharon, and this is my it was my second watch. I I saw it like a while ago when it came out, and I was like, that movie was like 10 minutes long, like it just moves along so quick that it's over. By the way, that's a lot of complaints. So like it just really doesn't waste any time with any scenes whatsoever. And no, I actually I when I saw this, I liked Caveat, but I love this movie a whole lot more than that movie. Do you know? I never saw Caveat, and not until I started to do some research for this movie did I even know that it was done by the same person. I didn't know that until uh what's it called? Uh Hokum came out that it was the director that did the all three movies.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Uh I see Oddity, I really love. I didn't really love Hokum. I love Hoke. But again, I think I don't know if I told you this, but I was in a theater again, not to go on a big theater rant again, but I was in a theater and these three teens, this is different than the story I told last week or two weeks ago. That these teens sat behind me and they started talking. So I turned around and said, dude, shut up. And I was like really aggressive. And then I turned back around, but then I had to like sit with them behind right in the row behind me, like his feet were touching my chair, kind of thing. And I'm like, fuck. So I think I just sat in like discomfort for the rest of the film. So I don't think I gave it like the shot it deserved, but man, I didn't I didn't love it.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

I I I think I'm just realizing now I'm saying this out loud, but like I think he's just this director really excels at doing single location horror movies, like because all three are single location, pretty much. Um, and Hokum was was wonderfully creepy. I would like it Hokum was like had some really good, well-done jump scares. This one, even on second rewatch, got me a couple times again. I was like, I was surprised by this movie's uh ability. I like, yeah. Sorry, no, all good, man.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

No, I have to stop interrupting here.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

We both it's just like this is conversation. People do something like we're both excited, right? So we're like, yeah, I want to fucking.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

I think it's just because like when I look at the ending of this movie, and we'll talk a lot about the gothic influence of the ending of this movie because and I'm actually gonna talk about this right out the gate. You know what's interesting about this movie, which I never sometimes I watch movies and I'm like, Frank, are you watching this movie at all? Because when I'm watching these movies and writing the script, I didn't realize that like as soon as she gets to the house to meet them, she is she wants to kill them, like she's coming to kill them. Yes, and I never really realized that. And another thing I really loved, which is we'll talk about like Chekhov's glass eye, I guess, but and Chekhov's bell, yeah. But I love how she as he gives her the one thing that can tell the truth about what he did without even realizing it.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Yeah, no, I know that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Yeah, so cool. Like, I just I think the way that his similar to like Richard from The Lodge, actually, like his inability to like even consider a supernatural aspect in the universe is what totally is his undoing. Like he yeah, yeah. Do you know every every decision he makes is like I don't believe in this. Well, we'll talk like well uh well sorry dude, and that's all folks.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Uh yeah, that's me starting five sentences in my head. Uh we'll talk about this more later as we do our scene by scene. Um, but I that whole the whole interaction in the antique shop that Timmins uh uh has with uh Darcy, right? I think Darcy's the twin. Darcy, yes, yeah, yeah. So Darcy is like a really great scene to sum up, sum up his downfall as well. And it he's so skeptical, he's condescending about it. I fucking hate him.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah, and also like he enters the store as an ally, yeah, and he leaves as an enemy. Yeah, like he what he does everything in his. You know what's funny? She asks him to give her that eye, and he does so willingly. And I and I wonder if it's just like he's always thought of her as someone who struggles with mental health issues. Like he's never, you know, she's weak and weak.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yeah, exactly. She's blind and she's frail and she needs, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

But she's so powerful and she's so charismatic and she's so intelligent. And I love like, and we'll definitely get into like conversations that she has with Jana later, which I think are really hilarious. But I have to give, like, I think that the thing that pulls this whole movie together is the actress Carolyn Bracken. Like, she's the one who gives this movie like everything it has, like, she's so amazing as these two characters, specifically Darcy. Yeah, but yes, very, very, very cool movie. I enjoyed it. Did you realize too that she never actually kills anyone in this film?

SPEAKER_01 11:09

So it's like, did she? Well, she does, but by by projecting herself into the wood golem.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

No, but she but that wood golem like doesn't kill anybody.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah, it kills uh what's is it Booth? He kills the guy with the crazy eye. The wooden figure? The wood golem crushes the skull of the guy with the crazy eye, and uh Darcy even says, I killed him, I'm gonna have to pay for that somehow. She realizes after she's touched the eye, she realizes that she fucked up.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Okay, let me save this because I totally fucking forgot about that. Okay, I did not get that at all. Yeah. Okay, awesome. All right, okay. Are you ready to get into it? Yeah, I'm I'm so ready. I'm very excited. Okay, folks, it's time to get some background for our research heads out there. It's my big titular line. Okay, Odity is a 2024 Irish supernatural horror film written and directed by Damian McCarthy, who also directed Caveat. The incredible underground success of his 100% independent debut feature caveat from 2020 caught the attention of horror streaming network Shudder. They trusted his vision and stepped into finance Oddity as his official sophomore project. The film was shot across late 2020 and early 2023, eventually making its global debut at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 8th, 2024.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

That's crazy, eh? That's that's to start at 2020, not come out till 2024.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

You know what's weird too? We'll talk about this later, but this movie was done on an incredibly small budget. I can see that. But what he was able to achieve with that budget is pretty interesting, and I think it mostly surrounds the way he uses sound design in the film. And I'll kind of break this down later, but this was very much like a shoestring budget, yet what he produced was absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Uh, some good, like where it is in this movie, uh, some pretty good, a little bit of good gore of the one scene and some good blood effects, though. I'll give it that. Like, for it's it's so and it's well shot, it just looks so nice.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Yeah, I think that's the thing. Like, between the shots and the sound, those are the things that convey the creepiness. Yeah. And it's like, I think his whole idea here was like, I'm not gonna use, like, we can't afford CGI, right? We can't afford CGI, and we can't make this Gollum move. We don't have the budget for it. So, like, how can we make it super scary and effective with just using different camera techniques, you know, meeting a position or two.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Whenever we do see it move in the end, it's like it's mostly obscured by a door frame or a wall, and you're seeing it come around the corner.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

And that's a really cool way to hide a guy in a suit in like a brown suit, especially with darkness and lighting.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Um just like one of the most effective ways is like he's sitting on one side of the dining table, and then he moves to the other side of the dining table. Yeah, and like it's though, it's just those like subtleties, or when she says, Did you take him out of the box? and she says, Darcy says, No, I didn't. Like, it's it's those small maneuvers in the script that make it super effective.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

And it kind of gives it a kind of if though for those who've watched uh Doctor Who or or you've heard of like SCP, where it's like the that kind of creature where as as long as you're staring at it, it can't move, and then whenever no one's looking, it moves. That I think to me that reminded me of that and made it extra creepy.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Yeah, it's like a T-Rex.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

No, because that that's the reverse of that, Frank. So like a T-Rex, you if you're not moving, it can't see you allegibly. Oh, I see. Okay, and then when it looks the way I move, yes, but as you're looking, like but the wood golem doesn't move while you're looking at it until the end of the movie. Okay, that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

All right, well, uh, I want so director Damian McCarthy, he builds entire stories outward from one single striking image, a method he attributes to filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. For oddity, yeah, no kidding, eh? For oddity, that central image was the mannequin. And in a Reddit, Ask Me Anything, McCarthy revealed that he does not write scripts with formal structures or detailed scene outlines. Instead, he lets the narrative evolve naturally from his selected central imagery. Now, I find that slightly hard to believe only because this movie's structure to me, if we're talking about like every single scene being like perfect, it is this movie.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Yeah, I don't really know what it means. I like I'm my brain might just move in my brain might be just moving this a little slow right now, but I don't even know what that means. Like, like I know what it means, but like it's like like okay, but you get ideas in your head and probably put pen to paper. So is that not still writing for the script? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

I don't know either. And and like that was just a quote that I took from that ask me anything that I thought was really interesting, but I didn't dig too much into it. But I'm like, girl, you gotta be writing some like like she has lines, she's not like an improv, like it's on SCTV. She's not like it's like Will Farrell and John C.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Riley, just Oddity version.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

All right. Uh, according to the Austin Chronicle, to keep the indie budget focused, McCarthy shot Oddity inside a converted barn on the historic Bantry House estate in County Cork, Ireland. This was the exact same barn, and this comes up a lot, Andrew. Used to shoot his 2020 debut feature caveat. Well, caveat used the barn as a sound stage to construct completely separate interior sets. Oddity stripped the sets away to film the structure's real moody stone architecture. So this is not a set, this is they are literally inside this cottage or home, and they are filming within this very limited space, which makes it more real and creepy.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

That's that is weird. I'm surprised. Like, I guess maybe that's just another name for it. I thought you'd call that a barn, though. But maybe the other that's what you get at yeah, like so. This this this like fort thing, like it's pretty cool when you look at it because uh you have your front gatehouse gateway into it. There's a courtyard, and then it's four walls, like it's a mini castle fort. And the house they this whole movie is set in only the right wing. The right wing is a is a closed house in its own, and it's very modern. They've obviously modernized it inside and did work on it. But you know what I was thinking?

SPEAKER_00 18:46

I was like, there's no way I would live in that house. And the other thing is there's no way I would have set up the furniture like that. Like there was no flow, it was super dark, it felt like very sad. And I get like we're in a film, but like no wonder Yana was like, I don't want to sleep here.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

The only interesting thing I found about the set that I think about it is we get the main living room area with like the dining room table and like there's shelves with some stuff on it. You get the little staircase to the right that leads up to a one-bedroom, a long catwalk to the trapdoor landing, and another room we don't ever see inside of. But we also never get to see the kitchen. Like, there's this little down the left side, there's a like I think there's a veer off into like darkness, and I think that's supposed to be like where the kitchen's supposed to be, but we never get to see it.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

So I wonder if it's just like they their inability to film in such a small, tight space.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Because it's like it's like the movie is very, we said this before the movie's very economical with its time and its scenes in terms of like it doesn't waste any time, it doesn't waste scenes. So we didn't we don't need to see anything else. I just thought it'd be kind of cool to see what this rest of this house looked like.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Why does this movie feel like it's 10 minutes long? Like, I know that we talked about that, but I don't I can't really pinpoint like every time I watch this movie, I'm like, oh my god, there's like one scene left.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Yeah, I don't really know because like you we even get like typically when you have a movie that does like the out of chronological order, which does the first like 20 minutes of this film does a little bit of that. Um you I always find that might make the movie seem longer because you're kind of like jumping back and forth. But this movie, I just it's like brisk, it just like moves along every scene as a purpose. The dialogue is like it's just yeah, it's that's a good word for it. It's tight, it doesn't waste any time, it's not self-indulgent that way. It's just very much like in service to this plot and the characters themselves. Not to say that this dialogue, it is it's awesome. I'm just saying that it's very like it, it's tight. A good great word for it.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

It's it's well why why do you think that sometimes I mean this is a I could possibly cut this out, but like, why do you think like some films like this are just like every word that comes out of someone's mouth is like dropping a clue or moving the plot forward, or it's yeah, there's like this especially on rewatch.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

On rewatch, you I caught a lot of things that um that Ted says to Danny at the start, and I'll we'll go over it in a minute in a few minutes here.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

But that's like you watch Supergirl, which I actually didn't mind too much, and there's just so much, yeah, there's just so much like exposition and like see it's it's almost like there's a giant action scene, and then there's a scene where they need to talk about how like they believe in each other, or like I believe in you, I believe in my it's like I just don't know like why there are such wildly different ways of this sounds so stupid, but it's like I don't understand why some films are just so bloody effective at keeping my attention and like maintaining interest and and just everything is important versus. Like you're just killing time between I don't know. I don't really know what I'm saying. It's because I just notice that a lot.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

This is a movie, I think. To to sum up some of what you're trying to say, I think is that this is a movie that sucks you in and keeps you hooked the whole time. And uh I really like it for that.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Okay, well, to add to the moodiness of the architecture, according to an article on RogerEbert.com, McCarthy is famously vocal about audio, stating that sound design is 70 to 80% of what makes a horror film scary. Because Odity takes place inside a vast, quiet, converted stone barn, the soundscape serves as the primary tool to build agonizing suspense. The core reason the six foot four wooden mannequin was carved with an open, gasping mouth was specifically to leave the visual open for the audio team. Again, conveying horror without needing to actually spend a whole lot of money.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

I think it's it's so what I I I said this out loud and watched it. I was like, I will say, I think this is not a criticism, and this is not like this is a nothing burger comment, but uh I will say that I find the Ted and Yana underreact to this thing's appearance.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

Yes, me too!

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Like if you whipped out this fucking wood golem of a mannequin, I'd be like, Frank, what the actual fuck, dude?

SPEAKER_00 23:36

But also, like, imagine you asked me if I moved it and I said no, and then you just went about your day. I just get a gun. There's no follow-up question to that. She goes, No, and that's it. End of discussion. All right, that's okay. Am I making it food too?

SPEAKER_01 23:55

I was like, that thing is primed for blowjobs. Jesus Christ. I don't just know wait, the splinters, dude. No, because it's sand, it's wood.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

I wrote that in my notes.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

I was like, its mouth is a gay ball, right? It's a blow-up doll.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Yeah, I don't think it would. I think it's not that I don't think it's nice. It can be whatever Darcy wants it to be. Yeah, I know she takes control of it. I still don't think exactly. I still don't think it'd be a great experience, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Well, I might have to remove that.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Yeah, maybe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

It's all the stuff I say I'm gonna remove that ends up making the cut, the final cut. Um, okay. McCarthy knew that if the creature ever did something supernatural, a face locked in a silent scream meant they could inject any terrifying, unpredictable audio cue they wanted during post-production. And we'll talk much more about the mannequin when we deep dive into the film. I have a I have a lot to say about like uh its creation, how much of the budget went to it, etc. And we'll cover that. So to create the highly disturbing, unearthly noises associated with the mannequin, the film sound designer Aza Hand experimented with a legendary Hollywood horror trick. Taking inspiration from how the 1990 film ghost created the sounds of dark spirits, the audio team took recordings of crying infants and heavily slowed them down, morphing them into deep, guttural, and highly unsettling ambient groans.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

That's metal AF. That's awesome. I know, it's so cool. One of my favorite facts surrounding that kind of sound design, this is like not horror-related, but you remember the movie with Carl Urban Dread? I've never seen it. You're obviously joking. So uh oh, Judge Dread.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Oh, yeah, peach trees. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just it's just dread. Oh, okay. Yes, I have seen it. So whenever in that movie, speaking of the awesome, slowed down, reverbed, like creepy, you know, stuff, but so what in that movie, whenever they use the slow-mo effect, um, I think I remember reading that it's actually Justin Bieber's baby song dramatically slowed down and stretched out and reverbed for the slow-mo. Like this, you you there's this weird like choir, not really choir, it's this weird, like uh in the background that's obviously of some voice that's slowed down, and it's it's actually that. It's Justin Bieber's baby. Oh my god, I want to watch that.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

You remember I used to leave you those messages and I'd be like, hey P trees, this is mama. I love that movie. I do too. She had no charisma as mama.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

No, she didn't. She just they put her in there as a hateable villain. That's all she really did. Yeah, I actually enjoyed that movie too. I I mean, if this wasn't like, I don't if that movie had even like a slice of like horror in it, I'd say we cover it, but that's for no sure. Yeah, that's all that's gonna be up for my up-and-coming action movie podcast that I uh we'll uh we'll talk about later. I was just kidding. I'm just joking.

unknown 27:17

I'm just joking.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

All right, Andrew. How do you think Oddity was received?

SPEAKER_01 27:26

It's funny because uh I always expect when you ask this that I've I feel like this movie is a movie I was gonna know that. And I now that you asked me, I'm drawing a blank. So uh I'm perfect. I'm generally guessing here. I'm gonna I this has gotta be a high B plus. I'm gonna guess. Horror is always weird that way. Like, I think I think this movie's deserving of like an A plus. I think it's like scored like a 78 on Rotten Tomatoes or something. So you say 78.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Yeah. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film debuted to a rare, perfect 100% score from Chris. Oh, awesome!

SPEAKER_03 28:03

That's sick.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

It eventually settled into a highly impressive 96% approval rating based on over 130 reviews.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

That's really that's impressive for that many reviews, and to keep that score is unreal. That's fucking awesome because this movie deserves every penny of that. And Frank, let me ask you a question. How do you think mom found it? I bet she hated it. I actually think you shouldn't even watch it. I might, I actually might have watched this the first time. No, I watched it with uh with a she who will not be named. Never mind. I was gonna say, maybe I watched it. Did she listen to this? Yeah, yeah, I watched it with my dear friend Renee. Um I I'm pretty sure I watched it with her, but uh um what was I gonna say here? Okay, so there's no script. I thought this is it. Without the script, we would be fucked, don't you think? No, I would lead I would lead the charge here. I'd be like, listen, Frank. So so we open up on a panning shot over a like green-filled lake over a hillside that rests upon a barn house, apparently. Um barn house.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

All right, on Metacritic, Oddity received a metascore of only 78 out of 100, which falls under the site's official designation of generally favorable reviews. I think that's bullshit. Um bloody disgusting. Oddity received a highly positive four out of five skull rating. I like this critic, Megan Navarro, because I feel like every time she says something, I am in full agreement with it. She praises director Damian McCarthy for crafting an incredibly effective, tight, like I said, an eerie tale centered around supernatural retribution and ghostly karma. Which I agree with.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Yeah, this movie like this movie pulls a bit of like a you're disappointed about something, and then you still get your you still get the ending that you you wanted out of it in a in a roundabout way.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Yeah, I think because when Darcy dies. Well, spoiler, Jesus. Well, I mean, like, come on, like you said before, it's like if you haven't fucking seen this movie, like why are you listening to this?

SPEAKER_01 30:30

Yeah, no, that's so true.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

Right?

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Yeah, exactly. Like my friend, like I said, we should really put a spoiler. Uh dude, this podcast is two hours long.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Yeah, like what do you want?

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Okay. According to box office mojo, we're just gonna run through some numbers and then we're gonna pop right into the scene by scene. So, again, if you haven't seen it, pause it, go watch the movie, come back, and enjoy. Even though you know you now know that Darcy dies. And so does Danny. Whoops, I'm just kidding. Okay, according to box office mojo, Oddity brought in $1.2 million domestically and $650,000 internationally, resulting in a total worldwide box office gross of $1.8 million. So not a ton, but it did okay. Not bad. And while the official exact production budget for Oddity was never publicly disclosed by IC IFC Films or Shudder, industry reports and tracking analysis indicate it was a micro budget indie film made for under $1 million, with estimates placing the cost around $750,000. According to industry analysis from The Verge, a substantial portion of this limited funding was dedicated entirely to building the terrifying life-sized wooden golem centerpiece.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Does it did it use the word golem in that quote? Yep. Awesome. Yeah, I like that. I didn't know what to call.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

I've been calling it wooden figure. I would call it a wooden man. Well, you know, we'll use all types of terms. I'll try and keep it a golem. Well, I don't know what the hell. What's a golem?

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Like golem's like it's like a construct of whatever it has to be like there's like flesh golems, like like there's uh metal golems. Like basically, it's a uh like an animated construct brought to life by nefarious energy.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Okay, okay, cool. I did not know that. So it's not like like golem from Lord of the Rings. That's just his name.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Absolutely. That's just a serious question. Yeah, his no, his like golem. Like it's like golem, whereas like a golem is like an actual word.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

Okay, all right, fair. Are you ready to get into the oddness of it all, Andrew? Absolutely. Okay. We open in an old stone cottage or barn. We're inside. We're introduced to Danny, played by the exceptional Carolyn Bracken, and she's toiling about with various projects as she and her husband get the house together. When we get to Darcy Andrew, I'm gonna talk a lot more about Carolyn Bracken because I have a lot to say about how she approached the role of acting as a blind woman, how she felt about acting alongside the golem. There's a whole bunch of like cool little tidbits that I'll throw. Yeah, I'm excited, but not until later. So hold your horses. Hold your horses. Okay. So currently, the only piece of furniture in the home is a bright yellow tent, which is actually iconic, and a digital camera snapping pics of the environment while Danny toils.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Creepy as well.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

So super creepy, but super effective and beautiful. Yeah. From here, we cut to a psychiatric hospital where Dr. Ted Tinnis receives a phone call from his wife, Danny, who's found a cell signal within the house. She confirms she's staying at the house tonight alone while Ted stays in town to work at the hospital. He confirms he'll see her in the morning and she bids him, I love you, before letting him go. So Danny is indeed alone in the old stone cottage for the evening.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

And it's important to note here too. Uh, maybe you're about to say this, but you'll notice the tones here. Like one both Danny and Ted are surprised by a cell phone signal. So much so that uh Ted's first question out the gate in this that conversation is, Oh, I thought you were staying at the house tonight. He doesn't he thinks that she left the house already. And you'll notice, like, obviously, this is easier, this is easier to notice on rewatch or when you've seen the ending, but um, you've seen the movie, but he's very much like he really confirms that she's staying there alone tonight. He's like, you want to make sure his plan is in motion.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

That's why it's like watching these movies for a second time, it's so hard to unsee those things.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Like you said, he wants her to be in that house alone at night, and it adds to the tragedy of the film, it does like you you actually you actually get a little like it actually that's one of those movies that's really cool on rewatch because there's scenes like that there are just extra tragic because you know what's coming now, and Danny is such a sweetheart already in this like this little scene. And she really loves him. Yeah, I don't like what the fuck fuck this well.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

We'll talk about his reasoning behind this later. It's so dumb bullshit. Yeah, anyway. So I made a comment here that the entire next scene where Danny is alone, so this was in the trailer, and the reason I ever watched this movie in the first place was because it was reminiscent of a slasher. So when I first watched Oddity, I thought this was going to be like a straight up slasher film. Oh, the white masked guy is in the trailer, isn't he? Yes, and heard like the whole tent, the door, the whole opening fabric of this movie, which we'll talk about, is in the trailer. And so, at least the trailer that I saw. So when I watched it, I was like, oh, this is gonna be like a slasher, and it also looks really cool. But I didn't know it was gonna turn into like, you know, an amazing film, but but that's kind of what initially drew me in.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

So yeah, I saw I saw the same trailer. I definitely saw like the tent part, the the guy in the mask. I didn't know what the hell I was signing up for when I watched this movie.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

And I mean, sometimes they put out a trailer instead of like a bit of a bait and switch. It's like they put their best shit in the trailer and you're like, oh, this is amazing and it sucks. Unlike the movie, it was a pleasant uh yeah, yeah. You hate that, eh?

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Like, yeah, I'm not gonna. We're in the movie, we're talking about Oddity right now. I'll just say as an aside, that was clearly a movie set up for a reveal, and the studio had no idea how to market it, so they just blow their load all in the trailers. So you're like, oh, I'm watching a vampire film. Cool. Yeah, that's I'm not saying the movie I'm not saying the movie would have been better for it, but I think the movie wouldn't have been better for it to know that this wasn't like I think the premise that a team of people did a heist to kidnap a girl for ransom only to find out she's a Hellraiser is awesome. Uh so truly awesome. Yeah, and like that's our little segue here. I just I have a big I think we all do, I think people who listen to this, if you're into movies, we all feel strongly about movie thrills and especially from like the big studios like Sony and stuff, like they will show you parts from act one, act two, and clearly act three, and you're like, oh, I just saw the whole effing movie.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

Yeah, in two and a half minutes, their goal is like let's show them like the plot, the climax, and the dating.

SPEAKER_01 38:23

They have no, it's horrible data that supports doing that. That's what's so sad.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

That's why I never I never watch trailers anymore. I go by light reviews, I get like I the only time I watch a trailer is if I'm in a theater watching another film. I'll give you an example. I'm going to see Evil Dead Burn tomorrow. I have not seen an iota of a trailer. I don't know what it's about. I don't want to know. I just heard it was like pretty good. You saw it? Yeah. Oh, damn.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Okay, don't tell me. I liked it, but it doesn't mean much to you, I don't think. So no, it usually means the opposite to me. It's probably gonna suck. I thought Rise was better, but I liked this one a lot.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Don't tell me that!

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Oh that actually means burn's probably really good then. I don't know. I like I liked Rise a lot. I loved Rise. Yeah, I think I think Burn. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about later. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Let's uh let's start. Back to the trailer thing.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

I'll just say like this just my last little thought here that it's just sad that like I think this plays into like media litus literacy and like the the person's ability to like not need to know stuff and just go in blind, and people don't like that, so it makes you sad. Yeah, it does make me sad.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

Okay, later that evening, Danny begins to settle in the yellow tent for some sleep, locking the big wooden door. She stands for a moment and stares at it, deciding to pull the small metal door cover aside. I want to pause here because I found this super interesting. Well, she stares at the door cover, that eye-level door cover, music plays, and she sort of like clues into something prior to opening it. And what I thought was so cool about that was I was like, does she share her sister's clairvoyance? And that's how she knew to like approach the the little thing and open it. Like there's a moment there, there was no sound, there was no indication.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Also, Frank, we have to mention that she doesn't just lock up for the night, she goes out to her car first. Um, this is important to say because she leaves the door open. The camera lingers on the door being left open, goes out to her car to look for something, and we don't know what she's looking for right away, but she seemingly goes to her car, returns back to the house, and this is where this scene begins with the door locking and then her checking the door. And yeah, so I wonder if she does have some kind of like she she heard noises outside, she heard a scuffling in the rocks, so she was already a little bit on edge. So I'm wondering if she just heard a little or clued into something behind that door.

SPEAKER_00 41:06

I I believe when she looks at the door, there is nothing to indicate that there's anything there. Like, I like it's almost like there is a moment where it's like dee, and she opens it, and there is Olin, which we'll talk about. Yeah, so pulling aside the door cover reveals a man. I P.S. I did not know what to call the door cover. So I was like, I I don't know, is it a peep? I don't know anyway. So she pulls that aside and it reveals a man, a man with a glass eye peering in at her. He asks her to open the door, saying, You're in trouble. I saw you come out of the house just now, and somebody went inside. He says they're in there now. And Danny retorts with I didn't see anyone. She says her husband will be back any minute now, and he confirms Dr. Timmys works nights. So she recoils slightly at this and asks him if he's a patient. He replies with would you just open the door? And that he's only trying to help her. She begins to call out, asking, is someone there? And of course, receives no response. He tells her to call the police. And at this point, in my mind, if there was any doubt, if there was someone inside the house, I started to believe there might be.

SPEAKER_01 42:29

Yeah, this is a this is a fantastic. I love this scene. The predicament that she gets put in. Yes. Because he is he honestly comes off as like by the time because she's like, I'm gonna call the police as a threat, and he's like, Yeah, call them. And this is where she reveals she couldn't find her phone in the car. Yeah, so she doesn't have a phone, and then he he he's so sincere, or at least he sounds sincere, right? Yeah, he could be a good actor, and he sounds so sincere that she has to then that would be fucking awful. You the the gamble here, you're inside the house with a potential guy with a bad dude, or you let this guy in and you're a woman alone at night, no one around, isolated. Like that's a that I can't even imagine the extra tarid feel.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

I mean, personally, I would not let him inside the house. No one would, but you are right. The thoughts going through my head would be he's pretty convincing, though. He is, but it's like a lot of psychopaths are really convincing. This just happens to be a case where he is not a psychopath.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

Yeah, and he's like it's just the way he says, Yeah, call the police, like call them. Yeah, yeah. He's like eager. Like he's yeah, he's eager. He's not like call the police then.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

Like I actually wrote, he seems to actually want her to contact the police and get the fuck out of there. Like he seems and we know that we know after, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

We know we know that he ends up, he is being earnest, but at the at the moment of when you watch this scene, you're like, Oh my gosh, this is like. I remember the first time you watch it, you don't have the the curse of the knowledge to come. So you really get this like like oh man, what would I do here? And I I love this part, it's so creepy. And but he's like, he's like some like he's disarming in some way, but then he's also like he's got that weird face in the eye, like, oh fuck, I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

Like he's sketchy, like he's not like a normal, like if it was a gentleman, like a Ted Bundy gentleman, it would be more scary. Like there's something a little bit off about this guy, which almost makes him seem more genuine, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. You know, but yeah, I you know what's too cool too, is like the door is locked, yet I still am I'm just as scared for her as if there was no door between them. Like, I don't know why. It just it's like I know she's safe in the house, but I was like freaked out for her.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

At the start, he says this he says, Um, I heard them in the walls, so he makes himself sound like he's a crazy person, right? Yes, I I heard them talking in the wall, and I came here to save you because they're and like like you have to get out of there now. He kind of just sums it all up for her. But what we really learn later, he's he did hear a plot to murder her through the vent, yes, and had like escaped to go try and save her.

SPEAKER_00 45:20

Like he's such a good dude here, but he's just but the reason, like I again I want to nod to the filmmaking here because another reason I love this scene is like if we go back to the slasher element, I know this is not a slasher film, that is my favorite genre of work. This scene plays out kind of like that, though. It does, and that's what I love about it. It's like this guy could do two hours of a gripping slasher. Like, I thought this was fucking awesome. Because when you're in an environment like that, like you're you're alone, you're out in the country, you're in this barn, you're refurbishing it at night, it probably is creepy as is. No, and now someone is telling you, like, hey, you need to be creeped out by X, Y, and Z. Like, that's a big that's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

So yeah, I I I don't I would not like to stay there alone at night. I and that place with the stone walls seems like it might be cold. Like, like what I just what I mean is like that's your concern. No, like no, what I mean is like maybe a little cuckoo. I just that's an old house, an old fort, or whatever, barn for some reason. Um, and like the wall inside is the same texture the outside. I think it's like that stonework.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

And so there's no it's gonna get fleazy wheezy.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

I don't think there's really much insulation. Like I just think it would be a creepy. I know, I know. I just think it would not be, I don't think it would that place would come off as cozy at night.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

No, no, not at all, especially if you have no furniture, like they haven't furnish it. Yeah, it's funny, even when those fuckers furnish it, it is the coldest goddamn place you could enter. Yeah, like anyway, and we'll we'll we'll talk about that, but like Jesus. Okay, a place needs like 40 rugs. Danny's so Danny says, if I open the door, what are you going to do? He says earnestly, he'll look around. He says he'll leave if he doesn't find anyone. As she approaches and puts her hands on the keys in the door, the scene cuts to the title card with oddity. And so we are left wondering, what happened?

SPEAKER_01 47:40

So what happened indeed? We're about to find out.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

We're about to find out. Yeah, so we return to the hospital where we're introduced to a patient, Declan Barrett, whose walls are plastered with images of Olin, the man with the glass eye. He starts to explore outside of his room and is confronted by sounds of screaming. This leads him to a room. Then as he kneels to touch the floor, finds a headless smashed torso. I the reason I think this scene, this is why I fucking love this movie. This scene introduces us to so many different ideas. One, the idea of clairvoyance. Sky's obviously gifted and can see the future, and we see this on multiple occasions. The other thing is, is the sound design here when you think about clairvoyance, it almost pulls him to the location to find this dead body. I just thought those elements were really neat, and we don't really see enough of this character.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

It's important to note that he opens the door first, sees something, retreats into his room, hides under the bed, and it this thing briefly opens the door and enters the room before it retreats. And this is when he then finds Olin's headless corpse. And this is fresh. Oh, it literally just it happened, like we heard it happen. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:11

But what does he also find? The glass eye. So we determine that the man outside of the barn door talking to Danny is indeed deceased. So we cut to by far our most intriguing character yet, Danny's twin sister Darcy, also played by Carolyn Bracken. So she plays two distinctly different characters in this film. This is where I want to delve a little bit into her, because I think out of respect for her and respect for our listeners, I want to give you a little insight into her because she is probably my top 10 favorite actresses of all time. I think she is blew this role at the park and was fantastic. So, according to UK Film Review, rather than relying on simple hair and makeup adjustments, Bracken completely altered her physical posture, vocal cadence, and boundary awareness so that viewers could immediately identify which sister was on screen by movement alone. Bracken was incredibly vocal in interviews about avoiding the standard, melodramatic Hollywood blind tropes, such as staring blankly into space or acting entirely helpless. She spent hours researching how visually impaired individuals navigate unfamiliar spaces. Because Darcy is also an occultist, Bracken played her blindness not as a weakness, but as a heightened sensory gateway that allows her to see the history of an object merely by touching its textures. So she did more than just phone it in.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

That's so obvious. You know, it's funny that last part you said about her almost having a sixth sense, well, she does, a sixth sense into possessions and being able to see. She, I I'm not just saying this to like to to tammer your point home. I think anyone who watches would agree that she nails that. She very much, she it very much seems like there are times where she's seen things that are not there for us, but that are are there, but we we just can't see them.

SPEAKER_00 51:24

So it appears that Darcy owns a curiosity shop and is holding one of the objects, a bell. And as she places it in her hands, Ted enters. Thinking he's a regular customer, she warns that if items in the store are stolen, they'll carry with them a curse, only to be lifted at the time of purchase. She soon recognizes this is her sister's husband and gives him an embrace. Like I said, he enters as a friend. So she says it's been a while, and he mentions he's been trying to settle back into things. He asks her specifically about the bell she's holding, and she tells him it's one of the more interesting items that's been brought to the store. It's haunted by a dead bell boy. And you can tell Tim doesn't believe in any of this and encourages her to ring the bell. She warns it's not something to be played with, and that the last two people that rang it are dead. And Andrew, I ask you, is this Chekhov's bell?

SPEAKER_01 52:30

Absolutely. This is the ultimate Chekhov spell. I actually have it in my notes. Darcy explains Chekhov's Bell.

SPEAKER_00 52:38

But I'm also like when you're watching this, you're like, I'm not sure why they're going into so much detail around this.

SPEAKER_01 52:45

Yeah, because otherwise you kind of if yeah, I mean, we know why G is, but uh we know now. Yeah, some it's some great setup for later for sure. And also to like after it's like it's you really I will sit, I will say that the only the only piece of dialogue I found that was like I think maybe it's a little expositional, but maybe not. I don't know. Ted outright says, I'm a man of science and logic. Like, like that's like the very much like the cliche of a a non-believing atheist, right? Like I'm science and logic, which is fine. I just found that like I think she wouldn't have known that by now.

SPEAKER_00 53:24

Anyways, also dude, he like gave her the well, we'll talk about it, but he gives her the eye. Like, clearly, he doesn't believe in this shit.

SPEAKER_01 53:30

And like, this is what I said here. He's by the time after that explanation and why they should not play with it, he says okay, and he says it like just the word okay, his face and the way he says it, it's the most condescending.

SPEAKER_00 53:44

Oh, this guy you have fucking evil.

SPEAKER_01 53:47

Yeah, it's it's the most condescending okay delivered by this guy here. It's it's really rude.

SPEAKER_00 53:54

So he's brought her one of his own curiosities. He presents her with a handkerchief, and in it, none other than the glass eye of Olin Boole, the man at Danny's doorway. Darcy wants to see what's going through his head while he was dying. And this, like I said at the top of this podcast, I found super interesting and pivotal because by him handing her this item, he has sealed his fate. Like his inability to believe in Darcy's power. Like he hands over the key to Danny's death, like he doesn't care. Yeah, it's it's I just found that so cool on third watch.

SPEAKER_01 54:40

Yeah, I it's it it and it also reframes her entire mission. Like she thinks that she's completed what she had to do, and this is just like I the reveal for her, I can't even imagine what went through her mind of just like holy shit, I screwed up. I there's more work to do now.

SPEAKER_00 54:58

You know what's interesting? I I find this character like super calculated, although kind of not, I guess, but why would she go through with the murder of Olin Boole without knowing this information first?

SPEAKER_01 55:12

It's because anger Tim explains this. I I'll I'll I'll say two things here, or two reasons, main reasons why. Um uh one, she knows her sister. We know Ted says later in the movie that he even names the detective who I can't remember now, but the police conclude and they tell her, they tell everybody that it was Olin Boole, that's his name, right? Yeah, that murdered her sister, definitively. Like, based on the evidence, all this kind of stuff, it was him that did it. So at this point, she's basically a heat seeker missile, and that's just the the police just light up that target red for her. So I I think having the conclusion of the local police department, that's all she needs to be like, okay, well, that they're sure about it, so why would I not be?

SPEAKER_00 56:01

But it's interesting though, because like if you could go the one step further to like triple make sure before you murder someone, would you? Or was she just in the like you said, in the heat of the moment, she's just angry, she's passionate and she has her answer.

SPEAKER_01 56:16

And she can't exactly like she can't find Boole and like like touch him or touch his possessions, like she's in an asylum again, right? So the police have concluded that like this is the guy that did it, and she's like, All right, that's good enough for me, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 56:32

Andrew, I have probably the most important question I'm ever gonna ask you out of any podcast we've ever done. That's traumatic. So buckle in. How did the Gullum get into a high security hospital?

SPEAKER_01 56:48

I mean, this is I mean, one, so the movie can happen, but really if I had if I know that's that's an answer for a lot of stuff in a lot of different movies, but I would say this thing possesses supernatural strength. I think that's that's on display several times, or at least a couple times. And I'm gonna guess it would have no issues ripping or punching punching a door open or pushing the door open.

SPEAKER_00 57:12

All right. Well, I don't want to dig into it too much, but there may be an alarm system or two. But okay, yes, no, I'm like yet.

SPEAKER_01 57:17

No, the guy from Collector disabled it already.

SPEAKER_00 57:20

Oh, yeah, that guy. Yeah, that's our lowest watched episode.

SPEAKER_01 57:25

That's okay, dude. They can't all be hits.

SPEAKER_00 57:28

Hey man, the one after it picked us right on up. All right. Before he departs, Darcy mentions a potential visit to his home. And Tim says he'd like that perhaps in a week or two. Darcy also learns of Tim's new girlfriend Yana, a pharmaceutical rep from the hospital, and she seems super put off by this news.

SPEAKER_01 57:52

Yeah, I I I'm gonna we don't this is one of those movies where you don't really get a definitive time frame, but I'm gonna guess it was way too soon.

SPEAKER_00 58:02

I don't know though, because okay, this is where I I saw such crazy parallels to the lodge, and I was thinking like it doesn't seem like from Yana's perspective that she was hooking up with Ted. I think I called him Tim. So she was hooking up with Ted prior to Danny's death, but then he tells Ivan later that they were.

SPEAKER_01 58:32

So I don't think it's clear that they were. We we get dialogue. Um, we get dialogue from Yana. When Yana calls Tim, she's like, she's also asked a lot of questions about when we got together. And the way she says it is very much like she he was clearly cheating on Danny.

SPEAKER_00 58:51

Yeah, that's true. But okay, I want to save what I'm about to say for when Yana leaves. Okay. Uh sorry. Later that evening, I love this part. So Darcy opens a handkerchief, removes her gloves, begins to touch it, and we have fabulous music playing while this happens. She's immediately plunged into the events surrounding Danny's death, including a masked intruder. She rises immediately, heads back to the store, and approaches a mysterious box in the corner, and she leans over it with a heavy heart. And we find out that this box becomes vital a bit later on, and we close out this scene not only on the bell, but of a myriad of objects within the spooky store. And quick fun fact the film heavily rewards fans of the director's passports because Darcy's Curio Shop contains the exact same creepy drumming toy rabbit with human eyes from caveat. Yes. You know what's interesting?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:02

And the scene even closes out with it slapping its cymbals together.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:05

Yeah. The thing I was gonna say about her acting is when she leans over the box, that is when we we don't know yet, but that's the realization that she fucked up. Oh, yeah. And that she has to go after the right culprit. But she has a heavy heart and she conveys that beautifully. We transition to the old stone barn where Ted and Yana preside. And Yana, this is what I wrote. Yana seems like a giant, stuck up fucking bitch. Like she has just her facial expressions alone and her disinterest in seemingly everything is just so bloody fucking annoying.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:55

Yeah, she has RBF, and it's I'm I'm sorry to say that to I hope it's not the actress's actual face, but uh definitely resting bitch face hard. She looks she looks snooty, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:08

She does, she looks snooty and like aboard with the world. Yep. So that's actually a credit to the actress. Like maybe that's how she is, but I'm pretty sure she's acting. I think I think she's acting. We'll just, yeah, for sure. There's a couple things. So the reason a couple things I wanted to talk about here. So we learned that she's found Danny's camera. And there are a lot of photos of Ted and Danny of their past life together. She says it would be weird if he didn't want to keep some photos of them. And because we know who murdered Danny, this one sentence made me realize that she is unaware of anything nefarious and like almost seems genuine.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:53

No, I agree. She she's full. There's two things to hear that I I love here is that one, I like that she is still just despite we just talked about that snooty appearance, she understands that like someone would want to keep mementos of their dead spouse. Like that you're sorry, but you have you do have to they have to live with their ghost for a long time. And like that's like, and I mean that like metaphorically, like the in this case, literally, yeah. In this case, literally, but it in but uh it's a great, I think it's a very understanding point of view, and I think people who go on to date people who've lost spouses uh will probably sympathize or understand that more than anybody. But uh and the the second thing here I'll say is Ted realizes like that he's like, Oh, that is he basically tells her that she can get rid of it, but after she retorts with it's normal, he says, Oh, oh, okay, then like it's if like he's trying to keep appearances, like he's not actually he doesn't give a shit, he's just trying to keep him appearances like I should keep something just in case, like it makes her look normal.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:58

Oh, there's no part of me that thinks that this guy has any remorse or gives two giant fucks about any. It's not like oh I made a mistake or I, you know what? No, no, no. No, not at all. I I want to point out something else weird about this is because we find out later that like not only does Yana look at these photos or videos, but she seems to look at them over and over again. Yeah, we get that. Like she seems like mildly, not mildly, she seems wildly interested in their past life in Danny. Like she seems obsessed with her. That's my take on this.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:39

I think I think that could I there's probably like people who would obsess over if like I don't maybe not in Ted's case, because he probably doesn't ever talk about her. Yeah I imagine if you were if if you were dating into a relationship with that's a widower or a widow, um, and then you found something like that, you probably would be really curious to go through it and see like like I get maybe it's insecurity, maybe it's curiosity. I don't know what it is, maybe combination of both, but yeah, she does seem to really dig going through that camera.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:12

It's funny, like your perspective is of someone who's like been in relationships, and mine is like, why? What are you know what I mean? Like, I've been single for so long that I can't even imagine. I don't know. Um, another thing I want to mention about this scene is Yana shows Ted some photos she took of the house trying to get him to see quote her. Ted asks what he's supposed to see in the photos. She zooms in to reveal Danny. And we learn, yeah, and we learn that Yana took this two nights ago, a full year after Danny's death.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

Oh, okay. So that's I missed that part that it was a full year after.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:56

Yeah, it was just a couple days ago, and this is Danny's anniversary. And Yana says she doesn't really like sleeping here. And we learn it's because the house is actually haunted by Danny's ghost. Which is also creepy.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:13

Yeah, and like that picture. I actually found I know Danny's like a benevolent figure that we know, like we know she's a nice, she was a nice person, but it's the camera itself, the way that it uses this camera in this movie was so effective at creeping me out this entire film. Oh yeah. Like the camera gave me the the the the number one time I had literally a goosebumps with a hair standing on the end was when the camera was on the was in the scene.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:40

Oh yeah, me too. All the times that I got goosebumps were through the camera lens. Whether that was seeing Danny's dead decomposed body, whether it was seeing the masked man in the house, whether it was seeing Danny's ghost. Like the camera is really your throughway into these like really scary moments. Yeah. And it's actually kind of Of a grounding consistent force throughout the film. It's almost like it's taking photos of various scenes as they happen. Like it's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:11

And like it's what I like about the camera later on, too, is like you know, as she's flicking through it, something as creepy as gonna happen, but it's just as effective anyway. It's so good. It's me like a selfie with no makeup. I picture like that scary movie scene with the detectives having uh Sydney look at the photos and it's him like underwear like exposing. How about these? No, nothing works.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:40

So Yana says last night when she was going to bed, she saw Danny at the end of the hallway when she turned out the lights. Ted is such a fucking prick. He dismisses her and says he hears enough of this at the hospital, essentially implying she's nuts, even though we just saw the photo, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:01

Yeah, I he even like he tries to play it off like it's some trick of the light or something stupid.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:07

But it's not.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:09

No, it's not. No, he's no, I know. He's just like this is someone so unwilling to believe anything that like he'll justify anything creepy with like some explanation, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:23

It's to the point where he could have gotten away with this had he believed uh like 10% of like the possibilities of what can creepy. Like ugh. Okay, so here's this is kind of funny. So as they argue over who's crazy, we see the mysterious trunk from the curio shop inside their house. It was sent by Darcy, and indeed, Darcy has arrived for an unplanned visit. Yana and Ted agree to let her inside, and he introduces the two women. Darcy says, Ted didn't mention he invited me. He asks, When did I invite you? She says last week when you came to the store to visit on Danny's anniversary. I have a question for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:12

Did he actually say that? Yeah. Okay, I was like, I was I I know I just watched him he did not say that.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:20

No, he didn't. No, he says something to the effect of like, let's get together. This is her way, yeah, of like weasling her way. And this is where she completely plays the blind, helpless, you know, person in order to like like she plants herself in their house, and it doesn't matter what they say.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:47

She's not like they they she had a mission, exactly. And like they this isn't like this is a funny example of like they don't really try and placate her, they're very much like they're making it very obvious they don't want her there. They're like, Yes, like I'm working tonight, and Yana's going into town. Sorry, and then she's basically like, Well, I'm gonna stay here anyway. Like, it's like she literally says, It's okay if you aren't here.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:15

Like, like I'll stay. And Tim says, It's fine. He finally agrees to let her stay. Yeah, like he said, he says, he says he'll be away, and Yana will be in the city, but Darcy just doesn't give up.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:29

Like, no, she sent the package and she's on a mission, and we obviously know, like, she's planning on stranding Yana there, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:39

If I showed up at your house and ahead of my arrival, you received a box, like a huge chest. That's bizarre. That's weird, yeah. Right? Absolutely, like, no, it doesn't even matter what's in the box. It's like it's weird. The mere fact that I've sent this thing ahead of my arrival is bizarre.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:00

That's creepy, yeah. I don't know what I would do actually. But like, Frank, I'm actually well, I'd be like, why did you text me with this, dude? Like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:07

You're like, is that like French charcuterie? In a chest, Frank?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:12

There's no way I would actually like dehydrated cheese. I'd like, are you moving in? That's probably what I'm probably thinking. It's like, what's going on here? Shit.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:20

But why would I move in with a little chest?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:23

Why is it a huge chest, dude? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:25

Like, maybe a suitcase. I just thought I just thought it was. I like your term metal. I thought it was metal that Darcy sends this giant chest and pops in and says she's not leaving. Yeah. She's so badass.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:40

It's so sick. She's like, fuck you two. Yep. I I absolutely love her attitude here too. She's like, they're both the verbal sparring of like, like the niceties are barely there. And that's very like a lot of movies, like a lot of movies play on the discomfort of like having to host or being cordial to someone. Yeah. And I and I like that this is like they're both very much like, well, that's fine. I'm gonna stay here anyway. And like, oh fine. Are they still somewhat given to the fact they have to be nice to each other because they're family? I uh I I really liked the the sp what I call like the verbal back and forth of like, uh, you can't stay here. Actually, I'm gonna stay here. Oh, okay, that's fine. I just I liked that a lot. I thought it was really, really well.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:24

And then I also sent a giant chess. What are you gonna do about it?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:28

Yeah, like nothing. That's awesome. We're gonna say nothing bitch.

unknown 1:11:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:35

I find I knew I was like, you want to say bitch there.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:38

So Darcy and Ted head over to the trunk and look inside. He recognizes its content as their mom's. Darcy says, smirking, she wants him to have it, which I thought was a super clever thing to say when you realize her plans. Because she says it with a smirk, I want you to have it. Yeah, meaning she's going to give it to him, and he doesn't know it's coming.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:09

And yeah, and by give to him, she means crush his skull.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:15

So I want to mention just like a very small scene here that I could have left out, but I actually really enjoyed it. This is a thing, there were several things that I wanted to leave out of this, but then when I'm thinking about it, I'm like, I find these super pivotal because this scene ties directly to the ending. So we cut back to Ted at the hospital later that evening. He's going through Declan's file and he sees a series of drawings. Drawings of a wooden man holding the head of another, a bloodied head. And Andrew, I ask you, is this Chekhov's drawing?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:52

No, I mean I wouldn't say so just because I think this is just this guy seeing events that are possibly to come. Because by this point, we've seen we've seen a crushed, what looks like a pulverized uh Olin Bull's head. And we know that like if you've seen the movie, obviously, we know that like the head ends up in between two hands, but never actually finishes the job.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:24

No, what this drawing is is of the wooden figure holding Ivan's head on Ivan's body, like it's squeezing his head and he's suffering.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:36

I would say it's just a good foreshadowing a foreshadowing. I wouldn't call this a checkoff's device, but I think this is just like a really good foreshadowing here. Okay, I need to look up the definition of that. Anyway, but I have you here, so who cares? No, I would say like so. Like this is what I would say. This is my example here. Obviously, there's Chekhov scan itself. I would say that if it just showed a picture of the mannequin early in this film, and then the mannequin shows up later and kills someone, that's Chekhov's mannequin. But it's showing literally a scene from later in the movie. Sorry. Um and I would not call that Chekhov's. I would call this like this is like this is this is an example of a guy who sees the future and he he drew it out. Like he it's it's things to come. Just like in the lodge where those little dolls were all posed in ways that we see later in the film, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:28

I miss those dolls.

unknown 1:14:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:31

Just as just as Jana is about to leave the house, she notices the figure sitting at the foot of the table, a life-size wooden man. And she asks Darcy, like, why did you take him out of the box? Darcy nonchalantly confirms she didn't. Which Yana doesn't reply. She just, I think she's made up her mind that, like, this chick's nuts. I don't have time for this. According to an article in Mashable, the story's central weapon, the giant wooden man, was structurally inspired by Jewish folklore of the Gullum, a clay servant brought to life to execute its creator's commands, so very similar to what you said earlier, and the folk horror classic The Wicker Man from 1973. McCarthy initially hired a designer for the iconic mannequin, but the creative direction failed. With only three weeks left before filming began, he scrambled to hire Irish concept artist Paul McDonald. McDonald initially stated a proper build would take three months, but later called back saying, Fuck it. If I'm going down in flames, you're coming with me. So he agreed to do it. Oh, yeah. To make the mannequin deeply unsettling, they carved mysterious unexplained holes into the back of the skull and opened its mouth into a hollow, frozen screen. McCarthy deliberately kept these elements unexplained to make the audience's imagination do the heavy lifting. In an exclusive interview regarding the golem, Bracken surprisingly revealed that she felt an immediate sense of peace rather than fear when she first stepped onto the set with the mannequin. She noted that because director Damian McCarthy and artist Paul McDonald constructed the prop with an organic, soft and slightly spongy wood texture rather than cold artificial plastics, it felt like a real living scene partner.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:34

I actually loved I loved how much it makes you think with those five holes in the back with those runes. I loved the questions that this mannequin posits. I agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:47

Do you find it creepy? Like, would you have liked to see it move more organically? Or do you enjoy what they did?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:56

Like I said, the like I gave my weeping angel from Doctor Who example earlier. I love the idea that it moves when you're not looking.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:06

Okay, back to the plot. As Yana searches for her keys, she realizes they've gone missing. And Yana can't exactly leave as she'd initially planned. Darcy says, So you're staying then? And she was hoping the three of them could spend some time together. Now I want to say here that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:29

Yeah, I love that line.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:31

I believe this is an indication that Darcy is planning on murdering the fuck out of Yana. Like this is her intention. Like she believes at this moment this woman is a culprit. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:47

Yeah, I think there's gotta be a reason why it's either that she thinks she's a culprit or needs Jana to stay so to get Ted to come home.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:00

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:02

But I I don't know. I I could also interpret it in a sense of is was she planning to use the golem to kill Yana prior to Ted coming home?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:13

Yeah, I don't know. I know I know I don't know, yeah. No, I know you said that like don't it was she planning to kill Yana? Uh part of me is like I can see in her bitterness and and the rage that she possesses, that quiet rage, um maybe, but she also doesn't seem to want to take any life that is not directly involved. So I and by touching Boole's eye, all she knows right now is that Ivan the Orderly is the one responsible. And she puts it together in front of Ted later, but also puts together probably in her mind that why would he come here? Well, probably because of Ted. So whether she at this point is marked Yana for for death, I don't know. I just I know that she is going to use her at the very least and doesn't like her at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:08

I think she wants to talk to her genuinely and figure this out for herself. That's fair. I might I might be missing something, but that's what I think. I think she wants to interview her and she wants to learn a little bit more. I concur. So, one quick note here. One of the hardest, I just thought this was interesting when you think of like slashers or or horror movies. One of the hardest hurdles Damian McCarthy faced during the writing process was managing the logic of his characters. He noted in a Fangoria interview that one of the biggest challenges in horror is making characters stay in dangerous environments without making them look completely unintelligent. So the solution, because the central setting is an isolated countryside house with a history of murder, McCarthy had to meticulously engineer the plots of the characters, especially the newcomer Yana, felt trapped by circumstance and escalating psychological dread rather than just choosing not to leave the house.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:13

Yeah, I and I think it's it obviously conveys that super effectively. I agree. And and it's a very simple plot device. I like this the plot devices that keep Yana there. I think they're very organic, and I think they're very like reasonable within the scope of what um Darcy is capable of.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:32

She does, Yana does seem to give up pretty easily on the idea of leaving.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:38

She's like, God, my keys are gone. I guess I'm stuck.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:41

I'm gonna I'm gonna guess too that where this house is is enough in the county that it'd be very scary to start trying to walk at night.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:47

Oh, 100%. Oh, yeah. There's no question that she can't walk somewhere for sure. But but yeah, so yeah, keeping her there, vital plot point. So Darcy tells Yana the wooden figure in the trunk was a gift from a witch to Darcy and Danny's mom. And Yana says she finds it a bizarre present to give to somebody. And right here is where Darcy just gets right into it. She asks if there was anything going on between Yana and Ted while Danny was alive. Yana looks shocked and assures her that they were just friends. We learn that Darcy is a psychic and that objects that have close contact with the skin work best. She divulges this to Yana.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:37

Darcy asks Yana if she'd open the door if one of Ted's patients arrived. And Yana says, Do I look stupid? Yeah, this is Darcy says, and I fucking love this line. I have no idea what you look like. You sound stupid. Darcy says Danny would never allow a strange man into her home in the middle of the night, and that Olin Boole, the man with the glass eye, did not kill her sister.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:09

Yeah, this is like Yeah, Yana doesn't Yana doesn't realize what she's answering or what she's saying when she's like, Do I look stupid? And then she's basically my sister wasn't stupid. Basically, that's why she's saying like to the audience now, and to Yana, like she wouldn't have opened the door to Boole, and Boole didn't kill her anyway.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:33

And we also learn in the scene something that we've seen already, but we're learning in real time with Jana, is that Darcy has special abilities. We're also learning, and I think this is possibly one of the coolest points in the entire movie. I don't know why I find these little gems so interesting, but the fact that that wooden figure was gifted to their mom by a witch just adds another layer of complexity and yeah, really cool lore to this universe. Like these are witches, perhaps. Okay, so this is where I want to flash back to Danny's murder. So while Yana is speaking with Darcy, we get a flashback. So we cut to the pass where Danny does not allow Olin into her home. We learn that Olin was going to head back into town to contact the police. And if Danny hears anything, she should pull the door open and run. She opens the door viewer and calls out to Olin pretty much as soon as he leaves. But he has indeed left. And Danny is alone inside the stone cottage.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:39

I think, too. I'll just jump in here. I think she almost took some comfort that she had someone to talk to through the door. 100%. Like, I think even though she wasn't gonna let him in, I think she was happy with him just staying there and talking for a while. Yeah. And almost, I think, didn't believe he had left.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:57

Yeah, I think there's that. There's and then there's that too. Like, like knowing that, knowing that he left for a reason, like knowing that, like the impression that I got was like she knew he didn't leave and go hide in the bushes. And that she felt bad that he wasn't there. Like you said, like she, I think she was scared. So tragic, eh?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:16

Like, what a sad little Yeah, it's like it's a rock and a heart, it's a rock and a hard place for her, and she definitely checks that like if he's still there or not. But you see in her face that she's almost like she doesn't like that he's not there.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:32

She's uncomfortable. So I wrote this. So she finds a hammer inside a toolbox and decides to search for anything strange. Finally, Danny enters the tent and begins searching through the camera's images.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:50

I think this is just a side note. This is the only thing in the movie that I find dumb. In terms of what I would do as a character, I would I would stand in the corner where I had full view of the house and start going through my those photos to confirm or not.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:06

Well, I don't think that she's oh, so she's using the camera to actually confirm.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:11

Yeah, she she realizes she knows that she thinks to herself, she realizes that she can prove whether someone jumped in or not. And yes, that's true. And I and I just don't think I would limit my senses by getting into a tent. Why did she get into the tent? Like, what was she thinking? I this is what I'm saying. I think this is the only in terms of character decision making, probably the weakest point in the movie for me, anyways. That and I know again, we obviously say things like so the movie can happen or whatever, and it obviously is a lot scarier for it for her being in the tent. Um, because again, we only hear sounds, and then we have the inevitable terrifying death scare.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:57

Maybe with that hammer, she felt I I'm protected.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:02

Can you hang out in here? I always think too, like I thought this too. If you were in a tent, how easy would it be for me to circle the tent and start beating the crap out of my feet and just kicking you in the tent, right? You would have no defense against that. And if I had a bat, if I had a bat or a hammer or a knife, I could just you would never see that coming before it's already inside of you, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:23

So, and this brings up another interesting point. So I I want to say this one thing, and then we can just go ham on this, but she stumbles upon an image of a masked figure hovering above the tent, and she trepidatiously opens the tent zip, and standing before her is the masked man. Now, before he proceeds to bludgeon her to death, did you notice his demeanor is one of playfulness? He has his fingers on top of the sledgehammer or hammer, and he's pushing it around side to side, and he's sort of moving, like he is relishing. Yes, like he loves this, and that's the disgusting because he does this, but he does one other thing at the end, which we'll talk about, which is even more disgusting, and it just they do such a beautiful job through subtlety of showing how fucking psycho this guy is.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:30

Yeah, amazing. Yeah, and I love the uh I I was mentioned earlier for a second, but I love the close-ups of this mask and then her face looking at the mask, how uh horrifying this mask is with these two little black pinholes and like almost leaky cracked ink on the mask. It's just really, really that's an effective serial killer mask. Like I said, they could have they could have made a slasher film out of this character.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:56

Oh, thousand percent, man. Like I putting it out into the universe. Please do that. It would be amazing if Ivan went on a killing spree. Amazing. Okay. Yeah. So we cut back to the dinner table. So Darcy confirms Olin did not kill her sister. And Yana asks, who did? And it's here where I I don't know about you, but I kind of felt like they started to maybe this is just my like naivety, but I I felt like they started to have like a genuine conversation.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:33

I think they were. Like I think it is. I think they were having a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:36

Yeah, and maybe this is where like Darcy realizes Yana genuinely didn't have anything to do with this.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:44

I think I agree. I I actually liked, I liked that they settle into what starts as kind of an uncomfortable, like back and forth small talk into not small talk, but back and forth. And they just end up having a conversation, which I kind of like I like that a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:02

Yeah, it kind of becomes like girl talk.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:05

She's like, oh my god, you wouldn't believe what Ted did last night. She's like, Do you want to see some photos of your sister? She's like, I can't see. She's like, I forgot about that. Either that was a genius joke, or I'm like the biggest idiot in the universe. I swear to God, I was not making fun of her inability to see. I forgot for like a split second.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:35

No, I can tell I can tell by her voice that it's genuine.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:38

Oh my god. Okay. Remember when I was like, dude, how do we know that Olin's head got smashed after incident?

SPEAKER_01 1:29:48

Yeah, that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:50

How would you know, Andrew?

SPEAKER_01 1:29:52

Yeah, you know, there's nowhere to tell. I'm just guessing.

unknown 1:29:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:58

We enter another flashback, this time at the hospital. We're introduced to an evil orderly, Ivan, a character I haven't mentioned previously, opening the door to Olin's room. We learn that Olin is being released next week and that he's transitioning to a halfway house. Ivan asks, What the fuck are they doing, letting someone like you back into the world? And he orders him back into his bed.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:27

We sorry, we so there's something essential here. Back when Darcy is speaking with Yana, at some point it's mentioned that Olin beat his mother to death. And this is important that Darcy says, because obviously she knows this from touching the eye. Well, she abused him, like basically abused this kid, Olin, when he was little and took it. That's how he lost the eye. He's being beaten to an inch of his life with by his mom. So yeah, when the mom came for the other eye, he he defended himself. And that's when we learn that like this guy didn't mercilessly beat his mom because he was crazy. It was he was raised by an abusive mother who almost killed him and lost an eye because of it, and he fought back.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:14

I also think this scene is like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:16

Sorry, just to finish off here, Frank, really quick, is I think this this to me this made Ivan's words like kind of sad. Like I felt for Olin here. Yeah, is that like these he's saying untrue stuff? Like, who will let sound like you? It's like you don't know the story, dude. Yeah, and not that he would give a shit. We we obviously know all he's like a disgusting pig. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:37

I also think the thing that's most important, and this kind of goes along with your point, is this scene tells us that he's free soon. Like he's been deemed safe for society. There's no indication he's like struggling through anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:52

Like he he's free, and we're also seeing elements of Ted's plan starting to come to fruition by timing this with someone's release, right? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:04

Conniving shithead.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:06

Yeah, he's such a prick.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:09

So after these two kind of pivotal flashback scenes, the scenes are meant to exhibit what Darcy is telling Yana. So Yana asks how she knows this, and Darcy reveals the glass eye. And I think it's so cool to go full circle that this all started because Ted gave her an object that could tell her the truth, a truth that he wanted to do anything he could to conceal, but he just didn't believe that she had any power. And this sort of like he's he's like, here you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:44

And I want to say too, I think what I love, we mentioned this at the start of this, uh, at the start of this podcast here, is that this movie seems to be very short. And I think this is this is where the movie does this so effectively. I think a lot of movies, when they try and do like a flashback for exposition, they get it wrong, and that we get a long-winded flashback that really isn't a big exposition dump for a dumb audience. And I think this movie's so effective at giving us quick, they're not long, they're very quick flashback scenes that get essential stuff across and awesome character development. Oh my god, yeah. I love I even on second rewatch, I love the way this movie puts its timeline together for the audience, and I I really enjoyed it in this movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:35

Okay, so later that evening, while Darcy sleeps, Yana proceeds to poke and prod at the wooden man's head. She decides to pull out various objects, a lock of hair, a tiny image of the twins when they were girls, a tiny image of the twins as women, a tooth, she immediately returns, and finally a vial of blood. Now, what I wanted to talk to you about briefly is I like the idea, and as aforementioned, that we don't really know what these things are for, but they're definitely conveying ritualistic vibes, right? Like this is kind of witchery, it's interesting, and it doesn't need to be explained.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:27

Yeah, I think here to sum this up, I don't think I really didn't think about this too long because I love the questions it does pose. We do get five slots, five runes with arrows, kind of arrows pointed to these five slots. I sum this up in my mind as this is the control center of how an owner um will can project itself through this thing. It needs to have objects that are close and personal to its creator or controller. And these are just like the control centers, which are why I think all five objects are all to do with Darcy and her connection to her uh her sisters. Whose fucking tooth is that? We don't know. That's the only the only question I the only question I don't know is if that's a tooth belonging to Darcy or if it's a tooth of of Danny, or neither. I I don't really know. We get a really cool booming voice of Darcy saying, put those back. Yes, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:25

And Yana quietly asks her after she says that, what are they? Darcy doesn't respond. When Yana heads to bed, it's you know what I love about this? Darcy will say something to Yana, and Yana will not respond. Like she just doesn't have the time, like she's like, whatever. Like, I need to like I need to go to bed. Like, I love that. She's very like, even that in and of itself is like very bitchy. Like, she doesn't have the time to argue. She's like, whatever, bitch. Like, so yeah, Yana heads to bed. When she heads to bed, Darcy takes a position across the table from the figure, positioning herself in the exact same position. Yeah. And so later that evening, Yana is preparing for bedtime, tucking herself in before a good night's sleep, but she decides to take a peek at the camera.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:20

And I want to say, to me, this was top two the creepiest series of events here. Like, I was my hair was on end for for a bunch of this these scenes here.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:31

And also, like, not cheesy. Like, it was really well done. Yeah, it was scary. Yeah, scary. So she shuffles through various images and finds a video of Danny and Ted freezing inside the yellow tent, a memory of a life before her. Now, this is why I said that she is mildly obsessed, because she begins watching the video again. I don't know why, but she does. But this time, when Danny turns the camera over to Ted, it isn't him, but a dead decomposing Danny.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:11

You know something's gonna, you know, yeah something's coming. This this I think they call it like Hitchcock in horror, where like you the scene is set up in a way that the audience clearly knows that there's gonna be some kind of like scare on the camera, right? Yeah, but it doesn't matter because it happens and you're still so scared.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:33

It's like yeah, because we don't know what it what it's going to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:36

And the camera does this like this is now the second time from this camera that like you know they're the the viewer. First, it's Danny with the in the tent, and you know the viewer is about to see something horrifying, and you're still horrified anyway. Like, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:49

Yeah, I would say we have three distinct images on this camera that are horrifying to various people that are looking at it. That in and of itself is very Japanese horror, like very cool. So she immediately drops the camera, and as it snaps another photo inside the bedroom, I'm goosebumps right now, dude. Danny appears again, and she tells Yana to run.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:20

And it's so this is like the the whole camera with a illuminating something in the corner with its flash. I I find this like some of the most effective scares I've ever seen. Like it's just so creepy.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:36

100%. And and what I find the thing I want to talk about, I just want to get through one thing and then I want to ask you a question. So, startled by this, Jana descends the staircase and into the living room, where a sleeping Darcy and the wooden figure both rest at the table. Yana hears footsteps approaching and tries to wake Darcy, but she's fast asleep. She raises the lid of the trunk. I don't know why, and she locates her lost keys. She immediately steps outside, gets in the car, and hightails it the fuck out of there. Not before Oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:16

But not before what I love about this really quick little scare left over. Before getting in the car, she looks back at the open doorway one last time. Except this time the house is filled with blackness. We we don't see anyone at the table, we just see a black framed door, and the ghostly appearance of Danny uh appears one last time yelling run. Oh, and I love the idea that Danny using this ethereal form is scares her out of the house on purpose, like to get out of here. Because we have the scare in the in the room, we have her running down the stairs all the way to the point where she shows up one last time at the door to like get don't even think about coming back in here.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:02

So we transition to Ted arriving home early from work. He discovers Darcy upstairs curled in a beetle position in the exact spot where Danny found the signal. He says Yana called him earlier and that Darcy told her about the Porter Ivan. Darcy asks if he knows who she's talking about, and Ted confirms he does. But he says Olin Boole killed Danny. Darcy disagrees, saying he came out here to save her, and I dragged him from his bed and I killed him. You know, we were talking last time about gaslighting. He says this too is not real. And he reminds her of the past when she wasn't well and would believe things that weren't real. And he encourages her to come to the hospital for testing.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:00

That kind of I know he's just like this character is so evil and also a gentleman. And she knows that's up too.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:12

Like, no, no, you're right. Like, he's never like he's not outright antagonistic.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:17

He there's no hair at a place on this guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:20

Yeah, he's methodical, at least he he tries to present himself that way. And I like this because I like this little exchange here because one, he never admits anything to her. He keeps this ruse going, and we we never get anything out of his mouth to Darcy, and we never will. And definitely, yeah, and I also like that Darcy says a couple things here about it. She's like, You you want me to come with you to have me committed. And he's like, Well, I could only have you committed if you're a danger, immediate danger to yourself or others. And she asks him like to bring Ivan here. I think he says, like, what would you do? And she's like, I'm gonna kill him. Like, she tells him, like, yeah, yeah, she tells him she wants to kill Ivan, but also knows that he's involved. It's interesting how like she doesn't really beat her on the bush about what she wants.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:14

No, he asks her to like why Ivan would kill Danny that they never even met, and Darcy says, because you asked him to. Yeah, oh my god, and that's the secret Darcy has been hiding. And this is the really the first part in the entire movie where we we learn that this is true. So we flash back to Ted and Ivan discussing details of their plan. And when Ivan asks why he just didn't divorce her, he says if Danny found out about him and Yana, he'd never get to keep the house. He even asks Ivan to do it inside the tent while she's sleeping to keep the mess to a minimum. And he does say, however, he wants it to be quick and painless. While they're talking about this master plan to kill Danny, we also see Olin overhearing them hatch this plan.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:23

And we also this is really gross. Ivan poses the question to to uh Ted, what would be the motivation for me breaking in and killing her? And Ivan says, Well, what if the motivation was sexual in nature? Yes, exactly. It's so evil, and then I do at the very least, Ted's like, no, nothing like that. Like, no, not at all. And Ivan then doubles down and says, Well, if it just so happened it went that way.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:56

Like, he's basically that's what I mean. That's like trigger warning here.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:59

We are talking trigger warning about to about to mention sexual assault here. Um, but he basically saying, I know, like this, it's obviously the husband, like it's it's Danny's husband wants her dead. I get that. But he's basically saying, like, hey, like, since like I'm gonna kill her, like, do you mind if I just like do a little rape if that's okay?

SPEAKER_00 1:44:19

Like, it's just like yeah, really dark, crazy, really fucked up and gross. That's kind of what I was saying, like when he was being playful with that hammer, like he is truly a disgusting psychopath, which in my opinion differs from a hitman.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:36

Oh, yeah, right? He's like or an assassin. We find out we find out later that um Ivan's a reformed, like former tenant of the asylum. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:50

Darcy says she had plans to kill Ted, but it would be much worse to expose him. He says he's gonna head back to the office and call the detective on Danny's case, and Darcy can talk to him in person. He urges her to answer the phone when he calls. But Ted isn't heading back to the hospital to call the detective, but to try and kill Darcy. Before he left, he removed the trap door between him and Darcy, leaving a giant opening to the floor below. When she hears the phone, she slowly approaches, falling for his trap and falling through the gap in the floor. This is so sad to look. This was so terrible because he's exploiting the one weakness she has.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:45

Yeah, no, uh and it's horrible. It's absolutely that, and it's like we like I've really at this point. You're really rooting for Darcy.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:54

A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:55

You're like, bitch, kill this guy, and this is just so it's so sad. I I it's hard to watch.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:03

Yeah, her her ending, we'll talk a little bit more about this in a paragraph, but her ending it is bittersweet, and I'll and I'll tell you why I think that in a moment.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:18

No, it is absolutely this.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:20

So Ted sends Ivan over to the home to determine if Darcy fell for his trap. And as Ivan enters, he flashes his light on the wooden figure, who at this point is on the opposite side of the dining table. He continues his journey and discovers Darcy bloodied and nearly dead from the fall. He doesn't do anything but call Ted and confirm Darcy has fallen and can't be fixed.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:52

She's beyond yeah, they speak in code here so that way he can't be sewered by the cops later or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:58

I find the interesting thing here is he doesn't do anything to make it quick and painless for her. He leaves her there to die. You could argue, wait, you could argue that he doesn't because he can't, it can't, you know, he can't look like he's done anything. But you could also argue that he relishes in the torture of this.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:30

I think it's both. I think I think it's one, he's probably happy, okay. I'm not, I don't, I won't have to leave evidence behind here. And two, like, he's perfectly fine to know that this girl is like suffering while she dies.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:44

Ay, ay, aye.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:46

So as Darcy lies bleeding, she reaches up into the air and says, We are connected. Closing her fist and touching the center of her chest. Her final act seems to awaken the wooden man, who is now positioned with his head facing up at Ivan. Ivan sees the wooden figure in the corner of the stairwell and it tilts its head. Now, I want to take a quick break and say we talked about CGI and budget, but I wanted to give this to you from a perspective of McCarthy. Because they could not afford digital post-production fixes, every single scare had to be captured practically on set. If a prop malfunctioned or a jump scare timing was off by even a millisecond, the scene had to be shot repeatedly. So to save money, McCarthy had to strip away completely built sound stages and shoot entirely inside a raw, cold, converted stone barn on the Bantry House estate. The crew had to work around the rigid, unyielding architectural layouts of the real property rather than adjusting walls like a traditional Hollywood film crew. The reason I bring that up is the subtle movements of the Gollum were the way that they conveyed fear as opposed to like meeting CGI. I know that I mentioned that before, but this is this is a direct quote from uh an article that I read.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:18

So just like too. That's an awesome, that's awesome. And like I think it's really, really cool that like I guess you don't really think about how like in Hollywood on on sound stages and sets they can move a wall if they need a better camera angle. Right? 100%, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:34

Yeah, we would have saw Yana making dinner in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:37

Yeah, so I think that's really, really cool that it is filmed like for real, like in that little like house they built.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:44

So the Gullum follows Ivan slowly and grabs his head on either side, just like Declan's drawing. But before we learn the fate of Ivan, we're Treated to you. Honestly, Andrew, I thought the scene was so beautiful. I almost cried. From Darcy's perspective, she sees her sister Danny peering in through the floorboard above, the one she fell through, down at her dying sister, and it's a tender, beautiful moment just before Darcy dies.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:22

It is like it's it's this is why you said earlier this is bittersweet, because it's very clear in this movie, in the lore, that there is an afterlife for these two. And that like we know that her ghost, Danny's ghost is in the house, but it's nice seeing Danny lit up in this like her original form. Yeah, she's sitting at smiling like nicely, a welcoming face to say, like, you know, let's go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:48

So we cut to the hospital where we learn Ivan has not died. However, Ted has decided to lock him up. He says to Ivan that no one asks questions at the hospital, and that patients die at the hands of another all the time. And we see the door to Ivan's room open slowly, revealing another patient, another psychopath who begins to eat his feet. And that's a wrap on Ivan, who did not die at the hands of Darcy, but rather Ted.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:25

And it's very clear, I think it's very clear to me, anyways, that that Ted had a contingency to deal with Ivan afterwards. Like, I don't think Ted was ever really gonna let the witness and the no and someone who knows about these murders walk around freely. I think he, I think he was gonna make sure he was taken care of as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:45

I think it's interesting too because I read, I don't have this in my script, but I read somewhere that like the gothic nature of this movie is that Darcy didn't manage to kill Ivan or Ted, but through means otherwise, they end up getting their come up ins, regardless. Yeah, and and that's very much a gothic trope of karma, of like full circle. Yes, exactly. And like I thought that was cool. I do, however, think, and I think we know that like once Darcy passes over to the afterlife, she probably is aware of their fate. Because I mean, part of me was like, well, one sad thing is that I feel like she just didn't get to like execute her plan, and that made me sad.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:35

The jump scare of the door opening to the inmate's face next to his feet. That got me uh what a way to go! Like licking me lick.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:46

I mean, I don't like feet, I don't know about you, but I know especially like man feet. Like, oh I'm good. Same dude. I was gonna tell you something really disgusting, but that's okay. I'm gonna hold out. Okay, let's wrap it up. Okay, in our final scene, Ted returns to his abode and places a package on the table. I love this. I know he he opens it and reveals the bell from the beginning of the movie. Check off's bell. Now, what he does next is quite surprising. He sits at the table and decides to give it a ring. Now, I want to ask you, does he do this to test his theory that the supernatural doesn't exist?

SPEAKER_01 1:53:32

Yes, this is so you can see it. I love this scene for the main reason that he's alone, there's no one to impress, there's no one, there's no one around him to act for. And he hesitates, though. He does, and you can tell you can tell he's gotten in his own brain about this thing. Do I really want to push the limits here? Do I really want to test it? And then I think he's just at the end, is like, fuck this. Like, I'm not this way. Nothing's gonna happen, and he decides to ring it. But he he does, there's an internal struggle struggle here that despite everything he said before about logic, I'm a man of logic and science. He obviously is creeped out enough to not for a second, maybe he's thinking about not tempting fate, but then he's like, no, this is me. I can I this is gonna be fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:16

I know, like what an arrogant fucking little shit. But it's that, but that is his his and that that's ultimately the undoing. And and I love that because Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so a pawn a ring, nothing seems to happen right away. However, as the camera pans away and returns, we see in our final jump scare, Andrew, the scary Bellhop standing behind him, ready to collect his soul.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:48

Yeah, it's a a very like, it's a very like it's almost not scary for the audience, but it's a very like what a great way to end this movie. Like, just like such a clever, yes. Yeah. I just I love I love that we don't see him lunge, he just stands there, and Ted is so ignorant of the fact that this ghost is there, and we obviously know that uh Ted's about to um have his ending and it it ends delightfully that way. And I think you know what? Yeah, sorry, go ahead. I'll just say too, I think I think you can look at this. I think part of me wanted to see this golem absolutely fuck shit up uh and and kill these two, but I also do love the bittersweet of and the ending of having Darcy join her sister and also both, like you said, through other machinations, and like you said, actually said this, like you said, like you said at the start of this podcast, you said that post-humous uh post what's the word posthumously? Post yes, is that the word for post-death? Yeah, so posthumously has had this package shipped with the best like I just love that.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:58

Unless she had sent it through the afterlife, yeah. We or or she sent it before she died.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:04

Maybe like we think she for sure sent it before she died, but like why? Well, then it wasn't post-humous.

SPEAKER_00 1:56:11

Well, like the revenge is, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay, I wanted to talk about one quick thing here. First of all, I don't think now that we've talked about this movie that mom would like it. Because it doesn't have a happy ending.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:26

No.

SPEAKER_00 1:56:27

Okay, I wanted to talk about the song that plays us into the credits. So there's a song that plays, in fact, it's the only song that plays throughout the film. It is a 1961 song, Now You Know, by American RB singer Little Willie John. So McCarthy first discovered the singer's music through the movie Blue Ruin. In Oddity, the vintage track is played casually within the environment, providing a stark, eerie contrast to the quiet, ancient Irish stone estate wrapping around the characters. I just thought that was cool. It ends with that song on a very light note, considering it is like such dark material. You know what? I see 100% why this movie got 100%. Like now that we've talked about it, like usually when we talk about these movies, my rating changes. And I think, like, ah, like, you know, either you talk me into something or you've said something, and I'm like, oh, actually, that sucks, or I'm not super into that, or whatever. But this one, I'm like, I would give this like probably a 10 out of 10. Like, and this high, like the only other films in my top 10 are Nightmare on Street 1, Alien, Kill Bill One, this, and then I can go on with the others. But yeah, like it's in it's in high company.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:49

I will say, like, I think I saw Oddity and I think after seeing Hokum, I was like, Hokam was my favorite of the three. Um but after relax. Okay. Um Jesus. I'm but I'm about there's a but here. I think I've appreciated this film so much more on a second rewatch. And I think maybe it was maybe it's the headspace I was in. I don't, I don't know. I just I was in a really good zone when I watched this movie the other night, and I I love, I adore this film, I would say, after seeing it for the second time. I think I put this as like a horror classic and a must-watch for anyone who's a fan, even a passing fan of the genre, should see this film.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:32

Yeah, I agree. I think this is a must.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:34

If you're into horror and you haven't seen this, I mean, this is the end of the podcast, but yeah, like the people that aren't listening, I promise you, if if you're listening to if you're listening to this and you'd like maybe you just saw the title, you didn't feel like watching the film, but you listen to this podcast for some reason, um, which is great, thank you. But seriously, just set aside like an 84 minutes or whatever it is, set aside less than an hour and a half and watch this movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:00

No, it's an hour and 38 minutes. Oh, it is an hour and 38. Jesus, it's fucking long. That's what I mean. It's long, but it feels like it's five minutes. Yeah, it does. This movie does feel short.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:08

I and I I give this film a 10 out of 10. I think this is probably quality-wise the best horror film we reviewed so far. 100% it is, yeah. And I say that as like I love Evil Dead. I I mean, I'm I was talking with my friend Caleb the other day about it. I love Evil Dead 2013, but I still think this film is just so it's like I adore, I adore this movie. Do you know that Evil Dead is our highest listened to episode? Even if it's popular, I mean, I can see that. I I can see why it's a big one.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:38

Even though, in my opinion, it's not the best episode, but I'm happy that people are listening to it. All right, y'all. That is Oddity. Join us again for our next feature film.