The Black Phone: Does this film get enough attention? Spoiler Alert: It does not!

This week on Slasher Bash, Maddi and Ben review The Black Phone (2021) and ask themselves if the supernatural elements are too much.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Let's do this, bitch. What's up, everyone?

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Welcome to Slasher Bash the podcast. If you've been listening along, you know that we typically say we dissect horror franchises, but I think at this point we just talk about what we want with horror. So I'm just gonna drop that dissecting a franchise film by film, bit. We're just rolling it with rolling with it from here on out, and we're gonna talk about whatever the fuck we want uh as it relates to horror.

SPEAKER_05 0:52

Horror.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Film, television, books.

SPEAKER_05 0:55

Yeah. Is that why you wanted to do the intro? Because you wanted to change it up.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Yeah, I was thinking about that today. Because we're still doing that.

SPEAKER_05 1:02

I mean, we're just we're tonight, today we're reviewing the black phone, and then next week we're gonna do the black phone too.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah, but then uh we have a couple of one-off movies coming out that are just new movies. Like uh did you watch the trailer for uh Hokum?

SPEAKER_05 1:14

No, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna watch the trailer.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Well, we we should see it that way.

SPEAKER_05 1:18

Maybe I'll watch the trailer. I'm I'm so in rel in regards to the movie we're reviewing today, I had I had to see nothing about this movie. I went completely blind other than having seen the poster.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:30

So I had I don't even know what the trailer says, and I'd be interested to hear what the trailer says because we'll talk about it once we get into it.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

But and if you've listened to past episodes, you'll know that the only reason we're doing this right now is because I mentioned that Joel King wrote The Black Phone, and you were like, What? Joe Hill. Joel Hill. Thank you. Joel Hill. Joel King. Let me retake that. Don't make me sound stupid. Joel Hill wrote The Black Phone.

SPEAKER_05 1:52

Yeah, nice. That won't sound like we just edited that in.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Whatever. Yeah. I fuck names up. I don't care. It's all good.

SPEAKER_05 2:01

I've also had the benefit of looking. I've written like all of the shit down over here.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

I should start doing that.

SPEAKER_05 2:06

I should just send this to you.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

IMDP. Do you have it? Yeah. Start sending me your docs with all your notes so I don't look like a fucking dummy.

SPEAKER_05 2:12

Yeah, that would be better. But then I have my own personal notes in there. I don't want you to see those. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Well, so before we get into the black phone, Hokum. I don't care if you don't watch the trailer. I had not heard anything about this movie. Saw the trailer yesterday. Saw it came out May 1st. And I was like, that looks fucking creepy as fuck. We should go do it. So you should just go in totally blind if you want, but I think we should definitely do it.

SPEAKER_05 2:34

When's it come out?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

May 1st.

SPEAKER_05 2:36

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

So I've penciled it into our our little schedule. I've pretty much pulled everything out of our schedule, and now I'm just Who's the team behind it?

SPEAKER_05 2:43

Do you know? Was there anything?

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Uh it's a neon production. Okay. And Adam Scott is the main character.

SPEAKER_05 2:53

Okay. Cool.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Uh, do you want like just like the like tagline? Nothing? No. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:58

Tagline? Okay, I'll take a tagline.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Well, I don't know what the tagline is. But so like the one line is Do you want do you want a tagline? Adam Adam Scott is visiting an Irish countryside in where his parents honeymooned years ago to spread their ashes. That's the setup for this movie.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

Alright, yeah, I I can know that.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Yep. And I think it's gonna, it looked fucking. I literally had not heard shit and then saw this trailer and I was like, I need to see that. Like, I know the mummies coming out right now, but I I don't want to, I don't want to watch a dead kid movie.

SPEAKER_05 3:35

First of all, who's excited for this mummy movie? Because now that they've announced Brendan Fraser, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Exactly. Horrible timing for them.

SPEAKER_05 3:43

Or maybe people will get confused and think this is that. Well, I'll go see it.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Did I tell you though that I've got Chloe like really excited now for backrooms? I'd never heard about it.

SPEAKER_05 3:51

Background, have you have you dove into any of the lore?

SPEAKER_00 3:54

I yeah, no, I've watched all the YouTube videos and like yeah, no, and now I've got my wife into it, so we're like pumped for this one to come out next month.

SPEAKER_05 4:02

Hell yeah. Hell yeah. So I'm excited for that.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Some things to look forward to, kids, hocum.

SPEAKER_05 4:07

Yeah, kids, adults, whoever you are, whoever you may be, back rooms.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Yeah. Yeah. But tonight we're here to talk about the black phone. Yes. Based on a short story written by Joe Hill, aka King. The son of Stephen King. King's gotta be his last name.

SPEAKER_05 4:28

I don't know, actually.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Maybe it's like a different I'm sure he uses a different last name to like not be like to be like, I want to make it on my end.

SPEAKER_05 4:35

Stephen King divorced or something, you know what I mean? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah, but he would have his dad's last name. Maybe I don't know. Who knows? I don't know. Modern times. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_05 4:43

Who knows?

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 4:44

But I love so first of all, I I didn't know that this was based off a Joe Hill thing, and I love Joe Hill. I guess I don't love him enough to know that this was based on the short stories. But I I love Horns, the book. I I never saw the movie, and I I did see the movie, but I just don't remember it. And I love his lock and key series. So good.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

So we got bad on board with that.

SPEAKER_05 5:08

So I was like, I'll watch this now. But real quick, let me just go, let me let me give the rundown here right now. So Blackphone came out in 2021, produced by Blumhouse, who I didn't know this, but Scott Derrickson, the director and writer, one of the writers, has like a deal with Lumhouse now. I guess they make most of it interesting. His movies. But his writing partner, C. Robert Cargil, I guess. Cargill? Cargil? Uh they write like all their movies together. They wrote um Sinister together.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_05 5:42

Um, or maybe maybe just Cargil wrote Sinister. Yeah. And they uh uh co-wrote and obviously Scott Derrickson directed Doctor Strange, the first Doctor Strange movie.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Um and then he walked away from the second one, right? He left it to do this movie because of the for creative differences, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:02

But then they brought in Sam Raimi. That movie's polarizing too, but I'm a Sam Raimi fan.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Justice for Wanda.

SPEAKER_05 6:09

I was happy about Sam Raimi. Yeah, I guess so. I don't know. She's she's not dead.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Anyway, um I want my Scarlet Witch movie.

SPEAKER_05 6:18

Uh Casta, Ethan Hawke, Mason Thomas Thomas, Madeline McGraw, Jeremy Davies. The budget was 16 million and made over 160 million dollars.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:32

Blumhouse knows how to do it. And then Metacritic is to me, surprisingly, a 65.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Surprisingly, in that you thought it would be higher or lower?

SPEAKER_05 6:42

I thought it'd be higher.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Okay, so you you had good thoughts about this movie.

SPEAKER_05 6:46

Oh yeah. This movie's great. Okay. This movie is great.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Before we get into the movie, so you know Hawk and Derrickson did Sinister Together. Totally. And so then when Scott Derrickson was doing this movie, he wanted Ethan Hawk to play the grabber. And Ethan Hawk was like, I don't really want to get like typecast as a villain. He'd just played a villain in something else, and he like just was like, I don't know, like the script would have to be really, really amazing for me to do it. And then have you read this in interviewer heard of this story at all? Not at all. So Scott Derkson sends him the script, and then that night Ethan Hawk leaves him a voicemail in the grabber's voice, like basically telling him he's gonna kill everybody. And so that's how Scott Derrick soon was like, Okay, I got him.

SPEAKER_05 7:32

He's in. Nice, that's awesome. I didn't like I don't know why he's scared about being Tyfecast.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

It's like he's a good serial killer. Remember uh the one with Angelina Jolie?

SPEAKER_05 7:42

The Cell?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

No, that was the Cell. That was just Jennifer Lopez. Oh, you're right. What did you say? Angelina Jolie.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

And Ethan Hawk and uh uh Gina Girl Interrupted. No, uh is it? Nick Cassavetti's dad.

SPEAKER_05 8:08

Are you talking about Along Came a Spider? Gina Roland. Gina Roland. I don't know what this is.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Oh god, what was this? Taking lives. Taking lives. That was the first thing I ever saw Paul Dano in.

SPEAKER_05 8:20

Wow. Never seen that movie.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Oh, well, you got young Paul Dano grows up to Ethan Hawk. Spoiler alert, and is a serial killer.

SPEAKER_05 8:30

Okay, well, now everyone now I know the ending of watching.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Spoiled by Angelina Jolie, my number one for life, after my wife.

SPEAKER_05 8:40

Nice save.

unknown 8:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:42

Uh anyway, yeah. So this movie, I don't know how you should we just give our overall thoughts first and then we'll jump into more details.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Like, but I'm glad you thought it was great because like I I loved it. I've seen it a couple times now, I loved it. And then when I was watching it again last night and taking my notes, I was like, okay, there's no way Ben's not gonna like this one.

SPEAKER_05 8:59

This movie rocks.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Yeah, it's really fucking good.

SPEAKER_05 9:02

This movie is so good. And I so after I watched the movie, which I watched today actually, I wanted to be super fresh on it. I was looking up the Metacritic and I saw I I couldn't help but be tempted to go look down at some of the reviews. And I'm just like flabbergasted at the quality of criticism these days. And how you can watch this movie and genuinely think that this is void of character development and boring.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

What's interesting is that um I went and listened to the short story today.

SPEAKER_05 9:34

Um, real quick for everyone, I want to know. So, like just you've seen this a couple times. I had never seen it until today. I know nothing about it, I went in completely blind. Um, and then you uh listened to the short story, right, today, which you said was like 45 minutes long or whatever, which is like super short.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Super short.

SPEAKER_05 9:52

Yeah. So tell me what first of all, tell me, was there big differences that we should know about?

SPEAKER_00 9:58

I mean, the the dialogue of the grabber was like exactly the same, and it's funny because the voice um of the person who read the audiobook actually, I don't know like if this was before or after Ethan Hawk, but very similar grabber styles. Um I missed this in the audiobook, but I read it somewhere that uh the grabber was a clown. And so Joel Hill immediately when they went into production, Joe Hill was like, Yeah, like we can't do a clown right now, especially with like it coming up back out and being big again and everything. So it was Joel Hill who said change it from a clown. So they made him a magician. Um my favorite line from the movie uh was not in the book. I caught that. I love weird. I love in the very beginning. Well, I love, I mean, you get the whole Stephen King and Joe Hill coming of age horror, which you know I love. Exactly. So I love that setup, but I love Bruce Yamata's line, Your Arm is mint. I love that line. Not in the book.

SPEAKER_05 11:03

So does he say anything to him?

SPEAKER_00 11:05

He says you're dirty, or something like that. Like you played dirty, or like you're dirty.

SPEAKER_05 11:10

Oh, you played dirty, like in a good way.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Yeah, like it like he's Finney's proud of it. Um, but it starts bad. But the orders switched a little bit. It starts with Finney being taken, which the grabber's name is Al in the book. Um, and they refer to him as Al. Like with one's Finny? Is that the paperboy? Finney's the main kid.

SPEAKER_05 11:30

Um, okay. Uh oh yeah, I yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

So when they're talking about the grabber, his name is Al. Um, if they're talking about the experience that Finney's having in real time, they refer to him as Al. But like the media refers to him as the grabber. So that one I thought was a little distracting. I was like, no, I don't want to hear him as Al. And he always refers to him as the fat guy, the big fat guy.

SPEAKER_05 11:49

So are is the is it the short story like from the perspective of like a news report after the fact?

SPEAKER_00 11:54

No, it's it's not. It's just like Finney um like remembering when like other boys were taken and how the news was talking about the whatever grabber situation. So he would kind of in his memories go back to a year prior when other kids have been taken. But it's been like a year since somebody's been taken when Finney gets taken. But it starts right with him being taken with the balloons and the van and oh, so wow, in the book, like his friend gets taken a a year before he gets taken.

SPEAKER_05 12:22

Yeah. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Well, his friend's his friend's not in it. Bruce Siamata's the only one in it.

SPEAKER_05 12:27

Oh, interesting. So there's there's these other there's other kids that are taken.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Um, but unless I totally missed it, to be honest, I was listening to this at work, so I might have. Um, but I'm pretty sure Bruce is the only one who like actually like calls him.

SPEAKER_05 12:39

So Robin, his friend, like his friend that helped that character is like not um all. Oh, I'm so happy they added that character, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

That character is 100% a Treyu from Never Ending Story to me.

SPEAKER_05 12:53

Funny.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

He is. Like I watched him and I'm like, it's a Treyu.

SPEAKER_05 12:57

But it should remake that with him.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yes. No, I can't ever live through Artax's death again. That's the most traumatic moment of my childhood.

SPEAKER_05 13:04

I doubt they would do that again. Um it was the sister, the sisters in it too.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Yes, but not a very big character at all.

SPEAKER_05 13:13

What about the dad?

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Um, yeah, like mentioned by name, um, but they're not characters at all.

SPEAKER_05 13:20

That's crazy because to me, like a big theme of this movie is like if I was actually gonna think about it critically, as like this is a movie about abuse and how this kid is getting abused at home, at school, by this kidnapper from himself and his like non-belief in himself. Like, to me, it's like all of this, like the even the grabber is like the manifestation of abuse being done to this kid.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yeah, it's if you take So like it sounds like that wasn't even in the No, it's it's pretty much all just Finney getting taken in his experience in the basement um with a little bit of backstory about Bruce and the baseball game.

SPEAKER_05 13:54

Um, I wish I would have read maybe about Joe Hill's opinion on the on the changes then, because like I think that this movie without those would obviously not be anywhere near as good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

I mean, I was in Goodreads today reading people's thoughts on the book or the short story, and they were like, really wanted to like it, love the movie, there just wasn't much there. It wasn't bad, it's good writing, there just wasn't much there.

SPEAKER_05 14:23

Interesting. Okay, that's cool to that's good to know.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

But it but but all the basement scenes with Finney and the grapper are like verbatim, what happens in the book?

SPEAKER_05 14:33

Well, there was a moment where I was like, why is this called a black phone? I thought this was about a cell phone. I'm like waiting for a cell phone to show. And I'm like, well, it's the 70s or maybe it's the 80s, actually, I'm not sure. But um, yeah, I was like, there's no cell phone here.

SPEAKER_03 14:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 14:48

So you're so what is your opinion on this movie? I just gave you my like I love it, I think it's great, and we'll get into more detail on the story.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

I mean, I I love this movie the minute I saw it. I I love um I like that it was thrilling and kept tension, but you didn't have to ever actually see kids get murdered. I actually greatly appreciated that. Um one thing that's just distracting for me because I live here, so they're like, it's set in North Denver. That's literally where I live. Like, I don't know if you recall where you and Victoria dropped me off after dinner that one time, but that's that is North Denver. Yes, I do. Uh you know, the the fake mountain shot added in in the background, like, yeah, that looks like Colorado, but everything else about this setting, like I could tell it was not filmed here.

SPEAKER_05 15:32

Yeah. I was gonna say it doesn't look like Colorado to me.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Like I looked at the trees and I was like, nah, this is like Georgia or somewhere.

SPEAKER_05 15:39

Vancouver, probably.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Uh, I think they said it ended up filming in North Carolina, I think I read afterwards. Yeah, but as soon as I saw the trees, I was like, eh, that ain't Denver. Um but uh I guess um Derekson I read afterwards, uh grew up in Colorado. So it was funny because there was like an interview where it was like he was super instrumental and like bringing that like Denver feel, and I was like, well, anybody who lives in Denver doesn't think it feels like that.

SPEAKER_05 16:05

Yeah, but I feel like you could say that to the people that don't know Denver and be like, yeah, okay, yeah, that makes sense. That's Denver.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Yeah, fair. You got those mountains in the background, those rocky mountains.

SPEAKER_05 16:13

Yeah, those mountains. It seems like a suburb. I don't know. Yeah. They're like baseball there.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

But I mean it's just I think it's just a really good film. And the grabber is such a creepy character, and as I was re-watching it, I was like, fuck, I really wish that we had put him in our March Gone Madness.

SPEAKER_05 16:31

Next time.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

I think we're gonna have to do another one with him and like uh long legs and I think it's good that we didn't put him.

SPEAKER_05 16:37

I think we shouldn't have put anyone we hadn't seen in that March Madness bracket. And now that we've seen him, we could add him for next year or Halloween, maybe. Who knows? Yep, yeah, but yes, I so things that stood out to me like right off the bat were like this opening scene. I remember so I started it up and I was in one of those movies like I don't really want to watch a movie right now, but I I have to. Um and like I like Sinister and I like Doctor Strange, but no offense to Scott Dirkson. I've never been like this guy is a director, you know what I mean? Like he he's good at he's he's great at this. Um this opening scene like does so much, I think, just visually. Like round the bat, I was like, this is awesome. Like, I know exactly what this kid who's pitching feels like, who's our lead, you know. When he gets he's he's about to strike this guy out, he gets a home run or whatever. Like, I know like that whole scene. I'm like, this is a visual movie, this is a real film. Like, I am getting so much information just from the visuals and not the dialogue.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

I'm so happy we're getting away from the Netflix directors and getting back into the conference.

SPEAKER_05 17:41

And maybe that's why this got criticized is because people are expecting that now. Like, and when you don't have constant dialogue, you're like, this is boring, and you're on your phone because no one's talking, and then you're missing everything. Anyway. So uh I so the directing I think is great in this movie. I think he does a lot just visually and with that performances without dialogue. Um because you know, you know who this kid is right away. Yeah, I feel like you know what he's worried about, you know that he's stressed, he's scared, he's getting picked on, or whatever, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

And a lot of it is seeing him alone in a basement, and it's not like he's like talking out loud to himself. You're just watching him function.

SPEAKER_05 18:25

But even when he's like walking through the high school, you know, and he's getting bullied and he has those conversations with his sister about um again, it's not holding your hand, like you're listening to this conversation, you're like, I don't really know what they're talking about. The grabber, who's this? Yeah. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

One thing um that you made me think of too, um, Ethan Hawk said that he ended up like really like loving like what this role did for his craft because wearing a mask the whole time, he had to like like develop his skills of acting with his body and his voice and not being able to use facial expressions to act in a scene.

SPEAKER_05 19:03

Mm-hmm. He's great in this too.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Oh god, yeah, he's so creepy.

SPEAKER_05 19:07

What do you so like okay, the mask that he has, he like changes the mask. He's got like a yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

I want to know what do you think the like different why does he show different parts of his face at certain times or is it So at the so we're full spoilers on this movie, by the way.

SPEAKER_05 19:19

So anyone who doesn't want to listen, watch the movie first. But yeah, when he takes it off the final time, when he actually takes the mask off finally at the end of the movie, it to me it conveys that he's he's like got a split personality or he's got some sort of sh shattered personality. And I I interpreted it originally that he was coming into the room and depending on what his face was, it was like a different which version of him he was. Well, maybe a version of him, but I was thinking like a different personality, yeah, even. So like when he came in, like at first he had the no-mouth thing. I don't know exactly what they represent, but like he came in with a smile one time and he acted completely different when he came in with the angry face. Sometimes he had the eyes not covered.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Was the naughty boy mask? Was that that was like the full big horn, full coverage one?

SPEAKER_05 20:10

I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

I don't I didn't when he was sitting in the chair waiting for him to come upstairs to play naughty boy.

SPEAKER_05 20:14

Was the naughty boy stuff in the in the book, by the way, or in the short story?

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Um I don't think so.

SPEAKER_05 20:22

I gotta read it maybe just to just to see.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Like I feel like I like I mean full disclosure. Like I was like, I really want to like listen to this before we record tonight, and it's only 45 minutes, so I'm gonna sneak it in at work. So I was like messaging and distracted, so I was like catching bits and pieces, but I I would go back and listen to the whole thing. I mean, it doesn't take very long, obviously. Like it'd be worth giving a listen.

SPEAKER_05 20:42

Yeah. Um so I don't know. So like I'm kind of seeing it as like he he there's a persona of his that is taking over. Whether it's like deep-rooted desires or whatever, this mask is allowing that to come out without his normal face when he goes to work or whatever, being affected by these things that he's doing. It's almost like he's not even aware he's doing these things. At least that was my interpretation when they he takes his mask off at the end where he's like, what he's like completely disoriented and confused of what the hell is going on.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

Interesting.

SPEAKER_05 21:18

Why what do you think?

SPEAKER_00 21:20

No, I'm like, I'm I'm like, yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 21:24

I was just I mean I don't like I wish like why does he have his eyes sometimes?

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Like it was like does uh each mask signify a different progression into his like steps of torturing and killing boys.

SPEAKER_05 21:43

Yeah. Um just keep track of like when the actual end of the game is or whatever?

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Yeah, like for him it's just like he has a different face he wears for each phase of his game.

SPEAKER_05 21:56

Yeah. Yeah, I mean that could it could be as simple as that too.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 22:01

I don't know, but I I did like that.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Um I'm just reading this note here. Uh totally well on topic, but not what we're talking about right this second. But um it actually was scheduled for a January release and then it tested so highly in the previews that they pushed it to a summer release.

SPEAKER_05 22:23

Which I think you never hear that.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

No. Well, and then so it's interesting because when I was reading that, I also read that um Scott Derrickson really, really likes like the um sneak peek testing or whatever, and he was like He does, but so here's the thing, he was like, I don't really give a shit about like the scores or anything. Uh these tell you what is confusing people, and that's what I know I need to fix. And I was like, okay, that's like actually a really good like way to look at like tool to have.

SPEAKER_05 22:52

Yeah. Yeah, I I I I guess like everything, everything is just more data, and you can do what you want with it, right? You don't necessarily have to change anything if you do these tests and it tests poorly. Um so that's interesting. I like the way that we're introduced to the dad. Like we just see like shots of his uniform, like close up of his tag on his shirt, and we have sh like a shot of his hand or his foot, and then we have a shot of his newspaper, and then we don't see him until he rolls down the paper to like uh to yell at the kid. Yeah, right. That's the first time we see his face is when he's yelling at the kid for making noise or whatever. Clearly, this is a house of tension. Yeah. Um, and then the sister also makes a lot of noise.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Derrickson told him to play the dad um not as like a violent abuser, but as somebody who was in pain and suffering.

SPEAKER_05 23:42

And like his pain is hurting hurt people, hurt people.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Yeah. Um Do you think that came across where you're like, nah, he's just kind of a piece of shit.

SPEAKER_05 23:51

I mean, I yeah, I think there was pain there, but like he still was a piece of shit. I don't think there's an excuse for really but also I guess you have to play into the time period too.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Like, yeah, well, that was one of the things is like I guess one of the notes was like to remove that scene, and they were like, this wasn't even an illegal thing in this time period.

SPEAKER_05 24:09

Yeah. Yeah, don't remember that scene. I think that's the one. Also, the girl who plays his sister, I think, fantastic actress.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Oh, yeah. She um was they offered her the role, timing didn't work. They delayed production to have her because of how impressed they were with her.

SPEAKER_05 24:25

Yeah, she was great. I've never seen her before or since.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Well, we'll get to see her in the black phone too.

SPEAKER_05 24:32

Is she is it the same cast? Uh-huh. I don't want to know anything. Don't tell me anything. I wish I didn't know that actually. Um, but again, like it just feels like this is not a streaming movie. Like, and I maybe I harp on that too much, but like the way that they're introducing these things, you have to be watching it. You have to be engaged in it visually. You can't be on your phone when you're watching this, or you're gonna miss the stuff, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:52

You're gonna miss the way it's engaging enough that you're not getting bored and turning to your phone to fill like a lull in the story. Like, I I don't think so, but I think I think it pulls you in the whole time.

SPEAKER_05 25:05

Yeah. Um, so anyway, we we get these like we see him at school getting bullied, and then we find out like the tough kid or whatever is friends with him. Um Robin to his rescue. Yeah. And then he goes missing. Yeah. Yeah, that's Rayu. Um then he goes missing. So at this point in the movie, I'm like, I don't know, where is this going? Like, is he like I didn't think that the kid was gonna get, I didn't necessarily think the kid was gonna get snagged, like our lead character.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Um he's coming up from seeing the trailer, I knew the lead character was gonna get snagged. Exactly. Robin's getting snagged, I did not expect.

SPEAKER_05 25:41

But I I didn't even know that because I so I'm like, where is this gonna go? Like, I know that they have this whole subplot with the with the sister being able to like see things in her dream. Which I gotta say, I like the fact that the cops kind of believe her.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Yeah, meanwhile, the dad's like, You're not your mom.

SPEAKER_05 25:54

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Um, but it is nice though, because in a bunch of movies that we've talked about, uh like my notes are constantly like, I'm so fucking tired of people not believing kids who've been through traumatic experiences.

SPEAKER_05 26:06

Yeah, so it's cool that like we don't have to go through that whole conversation is like, you really think that girl's a medium to another? Like, it's just like they're just like, What do you see? Okay, I'll just keep that in the back of our heads. Maybe we'll we'll need you later. But then he gets grabbed. You see, you know, we've seen this black van appear, and so like the fact that he's a m a magician, I thought I immediately thought, Oh, that's cool. But you don't see a me a a magician killer a lot, but knowing what you had said about originally it was a clown. Like, I'm glad they changed that because I think this this works more. They snag him, they put him in this basement, and then this is really where the movie, the most movie happens, is like him trying to get out of this fucking basement, and there's a black phone on the wall that doesn't work. It's it's you know, no wires. And again, I cannot stress this enough. I don't know anything about this movie. So it starts to ring, and he's picking it up and talking to kids. I'm like, this is fucking awesome. Like, because this is all a surprise to me. Yeah, I'm like, this would be like if you turned on a Black Mirror episode, right? And just started watching it, and you're like, oh, this is cool. Like, I didn't expect this to be like about this. I had no idea. So, like, I'm I figured out pretty quickly that these are oh, these are like the ghosts calling him and stuff like that. And it's so good. It's so cool, it's like a weird twist on sixth sense in a way. Um at first, I was like, I wish they weren't showing like the the visions of them sometimes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

At the end, the end they were showing all the original endings like showed all the kids after like Finney had killed the grabber, and then they were like they do that in this no, it's too much. So they no, like they showed them all like being like freed together by Finney essentially. It's too much, and then they went back and were like, Nope, take that out.

SPEAKER_05 27:53

Yeah, that's that was smart. They do show them all at once, like stopping the sister from going too far. Like they stand when they're standing in the sidewalk, yeah. And she stops, and then that's how she finds the house or whatever. Um but after seeing them a couple times and the c how the conversations evolved, I was like, actually, I'm glad that we're seeing the kids a little bit in this too. Um, especially the one of my favorite scenes was the uh the scene where he's like practicing the punching with the phone with Robin like saying, like walking him through it, raise the phone, take a step back, yeah, punch him or whatever he's saying, like over and over again. I'm like, this is awesome. Here's a kid who who's trying to help this other kid from this abuse and this potential murder or whatever. Such a cool movie. Um I'm talking so much. Well, no, I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Well, because I've I've seen this movie a bunch, so I like getting I love that you like this movie and that you're excited about it.

SPEAKER_05 28:52

Yeah, at one point I wrote, does the grabber represent the multiple types of abuse the characters experience? Verbal abuse, physical abuse, manipulation. Um because like he always it seems different every time he interacts with him, depending on the face or whatever. And then the the the whole twist of him wanting the kid to try to get out, yeah, so you can punish him. Um but he doesn't fall for it right away, right? Um, there's a lot of these moments. Like he I think it's cool. I don't honestly like to nitpick it now, and I'm sure you have nitpicks too. Please don't let me just do a constant stream of speaking.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

I actually don't have nitpicks on this one. I fucking love this movie.

SPEAKER_05 29:34

Really? I I think there is a lack of suspense for me in the majority of the times that he's like trying to escape. Yeah. Because I I know he's not going to until the end.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

But there were more like little jump scares with like ghosts popping up in certain spots. Like I did get some jump scares from that. Um, but more so I just felt the constant stress of the situation where he's doing something, and it's like, is the grabber gonna come? Is he gonna come? Like more I felt more of the stress and the suspense in that than whether or not he would get out. Like, obviously, like you said, we know he's not getting out until the end.

SPEAKER_05 30:07

See, I didn't even feel that. Every time he would he would be digging in the hole in the ground or going through the wall, I'd be like, I guess this guy is just not around. Yeah, and he's never walking in on him. They did, but he's doing these.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

I read that they built the set on four foot risers so that they could actually like build like the dig into the set.

SPEAKER_05 30:26

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Yeah, I thought so too.

SPEAKER_05 30:28

Um, but yeah, I think there's like clever different ways of him and getting the help from the from the kids, right? Like, oh, I hid the cord under here.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

So we just like, where did that fucking cord come from? And how did you just like tuck a cord into like the wall crack, uh like the floor where the floor meets the wall? That one was the only thing that I was like, yeah. Yeah. Oh, also no, this is the one thing that I really was like, nope, is when he takes the carpet and he shoves the cord up the carpet and the way that it wraps up.

SPEAKER_05 31:03

Oh, the way that it curls around. Yeah. I I was like, wait, is the ghost helping him?

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Yeah, I was like, nah.

SPEAKER_05 31:10

Yeah, I I just let that go. I was, but I get it.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Yeah, I think it would have been more believable to like just like fold. There's like three things of carpet, right? So fold them in half and kind of make enough of a like pad to stand on to give yourself just that extra. It wasn't that high. Like give yourself like an extra two, three feet, and you can jump and you can grab that fucking thing.

SPEAKER_05 31:32

Yeah. Well, he jumps and grabs it like the first day. So I was like, I don't know why you need to climb this cord. And then it pops out anyway. Um, yeah, so I I don't know. I like I I there's a dread the whole time, and I, you know, I just I never feel like on the edge of my seat really until the very end when he's it's time to attack.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

Um what'd you think of the uh cooked out brother storyline?

SPEAKER_05 31:58

So yeah, so that I'm glad so that was another one where I was like, uh does this work?

SPEAKER_00 32:03

They so I read that um essentially they were like we need to give the audience like a break from just Finny. Thread? Yeah, yeah. Uh so they wrote that character in to break it up.

SPEAKER_05 32:18

I th I I don't necessarily think that the the idea of of having a brother not working, but it to me it was sort of like he was so over the top.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Mm-hmm. The fact that more disruptive than part.

SPEAKER_05 32:32

How would you not know that this was happening in your house?

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Well, he does figure it out.

SPEAKER_05 32:37

To a door he never opens, he never goes what's behind that door, by the way. There's all these I'm I'm trying to figure out where this hidden these these kids are been stolen. I have this whole fucking serial killer yarn board, but I but there's a door I in my own house that my brother doesn't want me to go into.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Like so I just don't.

SPEAKER_05 32:54

So I just don't like it just doesn't work for me.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

The other thing that doesn't work, well, so the test audiences, I guess, got really confused about the two houses. That I was like confused for a second, then was like, oh, okay, got it. He lives in torches in one house, they're buried in the house across the street, got it, whatever. Not good.

SPEAKER_05 33:09

That worked for me, actually. I like that almost. I wish almost that was the twist.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

I did like that. What didn't work for me is the idea that a magician can afford two houses.

SPEAKER_05 33:21

Well, wasn't he a cop?

SPEAKER_00 33:23

The grabber?

SPEAKER_05 33:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

No, he's a magician.

SPEAKER_05 33:26

Isn't he an ex-cop?

SPEAKER_00 33:27

If he is, I have completely missed that every time I've watched this.

SPEAKER_05 33:30

Yeah, because remember there's the flashback when they're taking that that the more bigger kid, who the pinball pinball or whatever his name was? Uh-huh. They they put him in a cop car and they take him to the house in the cop car. Why would they be dropping him off?

SPEAKER_00 33:42

Wouldn't they be dropping him off at his own house?

SPEAKER_05 33:45

You're saying the cops wouldn't take him to jail? They would take him to his house?

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Yeah, and that time, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:51

I interpreted it as like the grabber is a cop.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

Oh, I didn't. I'm gonna go back and watch this now.

SPEAKER_05 33:57

And then there's that line where he, you know, the cops come over to talk to Max, and they're like, you might want to clean that up before your brother gets back. Because he had cocaine on the table. I go, oh, that's because his brother's a cop, and he would be like, You can't have cocaine here, I'm a cop.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Uh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 34:15

Uh I just I could have just interpreted that wrong, but I literally thought that's what he was that was going on.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

Well, I'm a I'm a cop moonlighting as a magician.

SPEAKER_05 34:26

Maybe the magician thing is just his his disguise for kidnapping kids.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

Okay. Fair. I'm gonna go watch this again now and try to figure out what I think he looks like a cop because I did not think that entire time. Not once was I like, oh, he's a cop.

SPEAKER_05 34:41

I guess they never resolved that, so maybe I am wrong. But I literally I was thinking he was a cop, which also made me think that that's why he's getting away with this so easily. Maybe that's why he has sway over his brother to not go into the basement, all this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

I just thought he was a fucking weird dude and his brother was freeloading off of him, and so that's why it's a big thing.

SPEAKER_05 34:58

I mean, he's definitely a weird dude. I guess that's true. The brothers probably only living there temporarily and just started to, so like maybe.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

I'm gonna post a poll now and be like, okay, who's wrong, Maddie or Ben? Is he a cop?

SPEAKER_05 35:10

No, it's not even uh I'm not saying I'm right or wrong.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

I'm just saying I I was under the impression that he that he might be a cop, and that was I gotta rewatch it now and see if that I want to rewatch the the pinball kid taken again. That kid reminded me of um the brothers, uh Max's brother from Yeah, same Stranger Things. I don't I never remember his name because I just call him Dakers.

SPEAKER_05 35:33

Isn't his name Max?

SPEAKER_00 35:35

No, Max is the girl.

SPEAKER_05 35:38

Billy! It's Billy.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

The actor's name is Daker Montgomery or something like that, but I always called him Dakers instead of Daker. Dakers.

SPEAKER_05 35:47

So now he did remind me of that kid as well.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:50

Good old Daker. Um, what do you think about the brother twist?

SPEAKER_00 35:54

I thought he was funny. I thought it was a nice little break. It reminds me kind of of um Barbarian when you suddenly cut to Justin Long on the PCA scene. So confused. Ricky Tiki Tivy. What is happening? Super confusing, but fucking hilarious, and a nice little breakup in the story. Like, I I don't mind that.

SPEAKER_05 36:14

Yeah, I think it just felt so cartoonish. But what I do like about I just here here we go. Here's the thing where you're like a different kind of I couldn't suspend my disbelief that he would not put it together that why is this weird door here? It like maybe if they didn't make him obsessed with like trying to figure out who the killer was.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

I mean, I guess there'd be a bunch of locks on it, but his brother's like, never go in the basement. I don't know. I mean, if you were staying at your sister's house and she was like if someone tells me never go to the basement, I'm gonna go in the basement. That's true. I lived in a house in college. Um, it was a weird ass. We called it the meth house because it was so fucking run down. It was on the hill and boulder. And our lease was just like taped to the ceiling. Like she had written like the rules of the house and taped them to the ceiling, and that was just considered the lease that you agreed to. Um and she lived next door. She was crazy kooky lady, and she was like, Whatever you do, don't go in the basement. So immediately, like, one night we got drunk and went into the basement, and it was just like a hoarder stash of shit, but it was so fucking creepy.

SPEAKER_05 37:17

There's dead bodies down there, you never found them.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

Probably.

SPEAKER_05 37:22

You're haunted since that day. You picked up a curse.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

There's still a bunch of people living in that house. That house is still like, I'll drive by it every once in a while when I'm in Boulder, and I'm like, wow, they still haven't repainted my college bedroom that I painted teal with like a peachy pink ceiling because I wanted it to feel tropical. Did it work?

SPEAKER_01 37:42

No, that place was a shithole.

SPEAKER_05 37:45

You're like, this doesn't feel like the beach at all.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

10th in college. If you want to go see my old meth house home, I'm good.

SPEAKER_05 37:54

Um I do here's where I do like the twist with the brother, though, is like having the Ethan Hawk kill his brother at the end there. I thought was really surprising. And totally to me, knowing nothing about the sequel opens up the possibility of why Ethan Hawk would still be alive and not in jail. Would they think that his brother was the one who was doing all this shit? Like, did he frame his brother in that moment?

SPEAKER_00 38:24

I can't respond because um So yes, no. I'm right, aren't I right? I'm not right? Okay. I'm not responding. I'm not telling you.

SPEAKER_04 38:31

That would be such the perfect way to do it. The only the only hook hiccup uh hiccup would be obvious.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Are you gonna watch the trailer for the black phone too, or are you gonna go on completely blind? Completely blind. Okay, then I'm not gonna say anything. But but just distinguish-reach the audience though. This is coming on the back.

SPEAKER_05 38:50

Is that why? If that is true, say that the brother gets framed for all this shit. Did that does that mean that the kid didn't have to go identify to make sure that was the right guy? Wouldn't he be like, How'd you kill him? Oh, I broke his neck, not him in the head with an axe. Do you know what I mean? Like the there's definitely holes there. But if you were making a sequel, it's it's right there to be like, oh, he's not dead, he's he survived that and he's framed his brother.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

Uh when they did that scene, apparently there's not a lot of axe through head scenes where you're seeing like the full on shot. Um They CGI'd it. It looked real to me. Yeah, so this was like the first time they like really tried to do like the full like from a distance look at the head go through the axe and use like practical effects, and they had to use a combo of practical effects and CGI.

SPEAKER_04 39:41

I thought you were saying like it doesn't he didn't really get hit.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

No, Scott Derrickson was saying how like uh nervous he was to do this shot because when you go back and look at films, like when they do axes into heads, you don't really get the actual like shot of the axe in the head.

SPEAKER_05 39:54

Hmm, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 39:55

And so it was a hard one to pull off. It was like apparently the hardest pull off.

SPEAKER_05 39:59

It definitely looks fake when it the contact is made, but cool, cool shot, you know.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

Yeah. So go Scott Derrickson.

SPEAKER_05 40:08

Man, so you already know what happens. Have you seen the second one?

SPEAKER_00 40:10

No, but I've seen the trailer. The trailer made like so this one's PG 13, I'm pretty positive, right? Yeah. I had to um the second one, when I s when Chloe and I saw the trailer, we were like, oh my god, like it's R now, and it actually looks really fucking scary.

SPEAKER_05 40:24

Um I think this one was R too.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

I don't think it was.

SPEAKER_05 40:29

I think I mean that axe went into his head.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

That's true. But there was only fuck said. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

Maybe.

SPEAKER_05 40:42

Yeah, I bet you it was.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

The the trailer of two makes it look really scary. I don't expect it to deliver on that. Um the only person I have based their opinion of it who saw it was my 15-year-old niece. So um Well, did she like it? She hadn't seen the first one, so she didn't really have the backstory. And she was it was like a teenage, like all the teenagers going out to a scary movie together, so I think they were being more goofy than like watching the movie. So Yeah. I'm not gonna like be like, I heard this movie was great, or I heard this movie was terrible, because I'm like, I heard a bunch of 15-year-olds went and saw it together.

SPEAKER_05 41:18

Yeah. I don't know. Okay, fair. Um yeah, I I'm excited to see the second one. But I I don't even know if it's just a direct sequel, like if the kids are in it again. I don't know any of that shit.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

Well, good. I'm excited for you to go in blind, and I'm excited that I haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_05 41:37

This is um, okay. What else do we want to do? We want to talk about the relationship between the brother and the sister.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Sure. I well, I mean we like talked about how good that of an actress that girl was. I mean She was great. I kind of actually played up that like she was the tougher one. Like when he was getting his ass kicked and she comes in and gets rid of the bullies.

SPEAKER_05 42:02

Totally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Props to that. Yeah. And I'm glad he found his toughness. But I love that his like I like that his sister defended him against bullies and was clearly the tougher one, and he wasn't like embarrassed by it.

SPEAKER_05 42:16

Yeah, exactly. And also, like it's one of those things where like this he he's probably taking the as much of the abuse at home.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

That was one thing that made me sad, but it was like also like a character thing is when his sister's getting the belt and he's standing in the hallway being like, dad, stop, but not like he's clearly running in to get involved in it and stop it, like in any way, like not grabbing the dad's arm or anything.

SPEAKER_05 42:40

But I think that's realistic. Yeah, I think that's realistic, and I think you know, we're so used to seeing these movies like no, and that like you know, hitting the dad for the first time or whatever. But like, I think if this is truly a movie about abuse, like that is what it's like. Yeah, and then there's that there's that scene, there's that shot that I think alludes to a lot, and obviously you can make up your own opinion on it, but where she's in bed trying to dream or whatever, or no, she's like she's she gets out of the dollhouse, all the stuff, and she's trying to get you know, su pray to Jesus Christ to get a dream where so she can find out where her brother is, and then she hears her dad coming, she jumps in bed, turns on the light, and like the terror that she is has with him being outside of her door.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

She literally dreams about ghosts and murders and sees all this shit, but she's scared of her dad.

SPEAKER_05 43:24

Exactly, yes.

SPEAKER_00 43:25

But I do love when she's like, God, what the fuck? I asked you for a dream.

SPEAKER_05 43:30

Yeah, that's hilarious. Um, yeah, I guess I don't have much more to say about this. I thought this movie was great. I don't understand the bad. There's plenty of good reviews on this movie, too. So I I think that overall people get it. Don't sleep on this movie. Try not to. I texted my sister today. I was like, you need to watch this movie and don't even just go into it blind.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:50

Um it's good. I want you to I feel like I'm the only one talking on this episode.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

Okay. No, I'm I'm slipping in from time to time with facts.

SPEAKER_05 44:02

Well you're more the fact giver, but I you're not sure if you're here's another fun fact.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

Do you like the band Brian Jonestown Massacre?

SPEAKER_05 44:09

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

You should check them out, particularly their song Anemone. Um okay. But I read today that they are Scott Derrickson's favorite band, and so we asked them to write a song specifically for the movie, and they did for the credits.

SPEAKER_05 44:26

For the for the second one or for this one? For this one. Oh, I didn't know that. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 44:29

I thought you would, as a music guy, know Brian Jones sound massacre.

SPEAKER_05 44:33

No. I'm kind of a music snob.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Well, that's why I'm surprised you don't know them because they're like not as known as they should be.

SPEAKER_05 44:42

But are they good?

SPEAKER_00 44:43

Yes. I used to listen to them in college. I don't know if they're I mean, they never got I feel like I feel like in terms of like being like this really solid influential band who never got as big as they could be, they kind of like are in par with the pixies, but I think even the pixies are bigger than them.

SPEAKER_05 45:00

Okay. Yeah, I'll check it out. I will say the soundtrack was cool. I liked how like they didn't really use a score. I mean, I think there was some score, but it was more like tone, like e like creepy tones. But like they use like Pink Floyd just just the like the instrumental parts of it to like add tension and stuff like that. I thought that was cool.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:19

Um but I I'm biased. Like anytime it's a supernatural mystery that's maybe slightly slow, I'm in. Full stop.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

Like, this is exactly what I like.

SPEAKER_05 45:32

This is why I like long legs so much. Like, this is uh fucking long legs.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Same thing. We gotta do that movie because I was so in until I was so out.

SPEAKER_05 45:40

Yeah. No, I was I just kept getting more in, more and more in that whole time. It's I love that shit.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

It's funny because I'm I'm figuring out a way to word this without giving you any spoilers. When you don't watch, don't watch the trailer, right? Going blind. But it's funny because when I saw the trailer, I was like, wait, what? And I was like, okay, that actually does totally make sense, but what?

SPEAKER_05 46:10

Okay. It's not like the girl is just having a dream.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

No. Well, I don't know. Could be.

SPEAKER_05 46:16

I I don't know. I haven't seen the movie. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

I'm excited. I'm very excited to do the second one because we've been wanting to watch it. I see.

SPEAKER_05 46:22

I didn't even realize this movie took place in like the late 70s. Yeah. Or early 80s. I think it's the early 80s.

SPEAKER_00 46:27

This one is definitely a hit that not like, I mean, it obviously was successful, but should have been more successful than it is. And I think part of that was the timing of when it was released, and like theaters still hadn't like I mean, theaters still haven't really fully rebounded, but this movie is really fucking good.

SPEAKER_05 46:46

This is the weird thing about movies today, because I think technically this is really successful. I think the issue is we're so like siloed into what we're seeing, advertised to all this stuff, that like enough people were advertised to for this movie to make $160 million. Right? But I didn't see a single trailer.

SPEAKER_00 47:08

That is interesting you say that because nowadays when I like go to like buy tickets to a movie and I have no fucking idea about like half the movies that are playing when I used to know everything releasing every week and would see a significant amount of them.

SPEAKER_05 47:25

Yeah. And now I'm like now it's like so targeted. Like I know about this movie called Drama or The Drama or whatever it's called that's coming out.

SPEAKER_00 47:32

Yeah. Well, that one's getting some flack.

SPEAKER_05 47:35

Yeah, don't tell me what happens, but it makes me want to see it more, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 47:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 47:40

But I want you to say more about this movie. I this isn't the Ben show.

SPEAKER_00 47:47

What?

SPEAKER_05 47:49

Where I just talk about how I just blaze this one.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

I feel like I talked about this movie a lot.

SPEAKER_05 47:53

I feel like like I mean okay, here's a question. Do you feel like this subplot with the with the sister being able to like see things happening in dreams is like what do you how do you feel like you think that's too much? Do you think that works in this movie?

SPEAKER_00 48:07

I think it totally works. And I th you know, knowing that it is Stephen King's son who wrote the short story, I buy I buy all of the elements. I buy like it feels like he writes like his daddy.

SPEAKER_05 48:24

Yeah, I I it's funny, like, and if it is as so different from what he actually wrote, to me the whole time when I was watching this, like this feels like such a Stephen King thing in a way.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

And it's not so different from what he wrote. Everything he wrote is in it.

SPEAKER_05 48:37

There's sister has like powers in it?

SPEAKER_00 48:40

Yeah, there's just a lot added to it. But they didn't change what he wrote. What he wrote is just a small portion of the story.

SPEAKER_05 48:47

Oh, I yeah, but I thought I'm sorry, I thought the subplot with the dad and and the daughter having dreams that sh they come true or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 48:54

Yeah, I mean that's not in the story, but everything that's in the story is in the movie.

SPEAKER_05 49:00

Right, but it does but in the story that he wrote, does the sister have like supernatural powers? Oh, okay. Okay. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 49:07

But it's not a big part of the story. It's like literally like a couple sentences about it.

SPEAKER_05 49:12

She doesn't find him at the end or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

No. That's all him. You know, it's funny, it's funny how she's not involved in the ending at all. He um like does it's the same kind of kill scene, and then he the phone keeps ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing, and he rips it off the wall and hands it to the grabber and says, It's for you. I love that scene. And that's how the short story ends.

SPEAKER_04 49:35

Love that. I we didn't even talk about that. When that happened, I was like, fuck yeah, this movie rocks.

SPEAKER_05 49:40

Like, it's for you. Oh my god. That was a moment, man. I loved it. I loved how he fucking tricked him. He rips off his mask, he becomes super pathetic in that moment, right? The killer, not the kid. And then he gives him the phone, and it's for you, like it's and it's ringing, right? But he has the phone in his hand because he was just like fighting him with it. So cool. And then he's like walking up the stairs so fucking slowly. I'm like, is he still alive? Is he not gonna make it? Is he gonna be one of these ghosts? Is the twist gonna be this is like his sister finding his body and not him?

SPEAKER_01 50:12

Oh, that would be oh, that would have been fucked up.

SPEAKER_05 50:15

Yes. Well, and like that's why like she was having the dreams not to find save him, but to find like where he's buried or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 50:21

That would have been a really good twist, but oh, it would have been.

SPEAKER_05 50:23

I mean, it would have, but I would have been pissed, man, if they shot multiple endings to it.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

I wonder if that was something that if they explored going down that path every yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:31

Yeah, because he's walking up those stairs so slow, and then like doing the combination, I'm like, he's gonna get grabbed and killed. He's gonna get grabbered. He's gonna get grabbered again. I love that though, when she sees him and he runs, she runs across the street and hugs him.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

What do you think of the name?

SPEAKER_05 50:46

I love him walking into the school the next or the whenever he goes back to school and like everyone's like talking about him. He sits, he sits right next to his crush, and she's just like, hey, what's up?

SPEAKER_00 50:55

What's up, Finny? So cool. What do you think of the name, the grabber?

SPEAKER_05 51:03

I mean, it works, right?

SPEAKER_00 51:05

It just it always made me laugh, but this is just so random. But like there was like a remember the like the Mike Tyson, maybe it wasn't the Mike Tyson wrestling game. It came out afterwards. When we were like in middle school or high school, there was some wrestling game where you could create your own wrestler.

SPEAKER_05 51:20

Yeah, and so like uh No Mercy.

SPEAKER_00 51:23

Yeah, so I'd like to play it with my friend and her brother after school, and so we thought it was so funny to create this wrestler with a mullet, and his name was The Toucher. So I just think of that when I hear the grabber.

SPEAKER_05 51:36

I kind of wish you would have named him the grabber because like you they grapple in that game.

SPEAKER_00 51:40

That's a good point, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:41

They really are they're grabbing each other.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

Yeah, I forgot you're like the big wrestling fan. Learned that recently.

SPEAKER_05 51:48

And I mean, in middle school, like I'm not still watching it. I mean, uh, maybe I would actually if it was on. I guess it's on Netflix now, right? Okay. Final thoughts. This is a bash of good fun. This is great.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

We didn't have we didn't have to bash it. We had a bash of a good time.

SPEAKER_05 52:07

We're really trying to shoehorn this movie. I know, we just gotta give it up.

SPEAKER_00 52:11

It worked. We like this movie.

SPEAKER_05 52:12

Yeah, this movie's great. Don't sleep on this movie. If you like horror movies, you like psychological movies. To me, it was like it's funny. We were having our stream conversation. There's that in five where Jenna Ortega is talking about like her favorite movie and like horror movie being Baba Duke because it's really a metaphor for grief or whatever. This falls along those lines a little bit. Like that maybe it's not as strong. It's not as strong.

SPEAKER_00 52:35

There's no maybe about it, but um but the crapper's a metaphor for abuse in the different photos.

SPEAKER_05 52:42

100%. A hundred percent. That's what's happening in this movie. So it's a heavy movie, honestly. This ain't no light-hearted movie.

SPEAKER_00 52:49

Yeah. But it's done so well that it's like there's balance in all of the emotions. It's not super scary, but it does have suspense and a couple little jump scares. But it's just it's a good movie.

SPEAKER_05 53:04

Yeah, I'm really I hope that the second one. It's funny when I always watch we're watching all these back to back, which is probably a different way to digest things than like say waiting two years to see it. So, like when we were reviewing the babysitter, seeing those back to back, to me, I was like, this is clearly the better movie, the second one.

SPEAKER_00 53:21

But I could see why people what's funny, uh, today in our comments, um a lot of people like all the reviews that we read were like, oh garbage, the second one's terrible. It got like totally panned. In the comments, everybody was like, love the second one. Like some people were like, the first one's good, but they were both great movies. Like, people love it still.

SPEAKER_05 53:43

Yeah, yeah. Good. I'm glad we're not crazy. Yeah, but um, so my point being is like I wonder not having to wait like two or three years, I guess four five years since Black Phone 1 came out in 2021. Damn, it's been that long. Am I gonna have a different experience? Am I gonna enjoy it less because I just watched this movie that just like blew my socks off?

SPEAKER_01 54:09

I don't know, because I haven't seen it, but I can't wait to find out with you.

SPEAKER_05 54:13

Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. Well, that's all I have. Go see this movie. Obviously, you've seen it if you're listening to this. I feel like this movie's great. Do you agree? Yes. Let us know.

SPEAKER_00 54:25

Also, I I've been thinking because um you added me saying, Let's do it, bitch, into our intro music. Now I kind of want our outro to be, we did it, bitch.

SPEAKER_05 54:37

Just did it, bitch. But it's gotta be candid. Like we can't just we can't plan it.

SPEAKER_00 54:42

We can't plan it. All right. I I mean there was one in the last episode that was kind of funny. I said something along those lines.

SPEAKER_05 54:47

I'm gonna I'm listening for it. If I if I ever see a perfect thing, it has to be what you're not expecting, otherwise it won't work. Because you weren't expecting that.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

No, but when you cut it into the credits, I thought it was hilarious. Or into the opening song.

SPEAKER_05 55:00

Yeah. I don't think we need an outro, really. Who knows who's listening? I mean, people have already probably stopped listening at this point because we said we're done. Fair. Yeah, we're still rambling on.

SPEAKER_01 55:11

Well we hope you enjoyed our presentation of the black phone. Tune in next week when Ben discovers how the fuck they bring Ethan Hawk back.

SPEAKER_05 55:23

I think I called it.

SPEAKER_01 55:25

We'll find out.

SPEAKER_05 55:27

I think I called it.