Mondo Bizarro
From the paranormal to cryptids, heavy metal and horror movies. It’s a big weird world and your hosts Thick Nick and Andrew are here to talk about it every week.
Mondo Bizarro
Amalgamunculus -or- This was supposed to be the Halloween Episode
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This week it's Halloween!
Kinda.
It's Summerween and we are feeling the spirit deep in our toes and have to shout the praise of the most splendid and wonderful time of the year, Halloween. Sit back, relax and let us try to talk about Halloween and some of our favorite spooky things.
Welcome to Mondo Bizarro, it's a weird world, someone's got to talk about it.
Music Credits:
Misfits - Halloween
Hyperdrive - Devin Townsend
All music appears respective of their labels and owners, usage under fair use act. Mondo Bizarro is a copyrighted entity and none of the content may be used for, with or in conjunction to train AI in any way shape or form.
For a thousand years, the Indians of the Great Northwest talked legendary monsters called Bigfoot or Catfoot.
SPEAKER_01Like these youngsters, thousands of others will be dressed in their favorite costumes on Halloween night. They will all be excited, but they must be careful when they go trick or treating and they don't want to story beats out of our news cats.
SPEAKER_06Thank you for tuning in. I'm your host, Thick Nick, and with me I've got Andrew abducted. Say hello, Andrew. Hello, Andrew. Thank you so much. Today is a special day. We've officially made it halfway to Halloween, so it is summer ween. And what better way to kick off summer ween than to just talk about Halloween? Why not? It's time. It's time to get spooky. So we're talking Halloween today. We're talking all things Halloween, why it's the greatest holiday, the best time of the year. Christmas and Thanksgiving can suck it. It's all about Halloween. But before we get started, there is some very sad news. As we're recording this earlier in the day, Anthony Head, who is, I guess, would the the best way to um best way that he would be known for the why the fuck am I phrasing it like that? The the the biggest roles people would know him for would be uh Giles from Buffy and uh the repo man from Repo. Um it is incredibly sad. I've seen him in a lot of different things. He was in Ted Lasso, I would say the most recent thing. Um so that's an absolute bummer. We both are huge fans of him. Um so you know, our hearts and and everything goes out to his family and and the millions of fans that are, you know, just not feeling too great. So pour one out for a real one.
SPEAKER_03Yes, indeed. He's with Don and Xander again.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Yeah. That's such a that's such a bummer, man. Like I I saw I I think it was IGN had posted um all three of them as a like a m in memorial thing, and I was just like, damn, dude. Like none of that feels like it should be happening. Like Michelle Michelle Trachtenberg. Trachen Trachenberg? Trachtenberg? Trachtenberg? Trachtenberg? Michelle Trachtenberg absolutely should still be with us. Um but it's it's just one of those things, man. You know, life is a short and fickle thing. But it is all not sadness today. We're talking about Halloween. We're talking about the most wonderful time of the year, besides the Toyota thought.
SPEAKER_03It's funny that you say that.
SPEAKER_06So Andrew, what makes you love Halloween? What what about it is the the that feeling? When I say Halloween, what is what goes through your mind?
SPEAKER_03So growing up for me Halloween for me, more or less, was kind of like the beginning of fall. Especially here in Texas, where the weather works very differently. It was starting to cool down, leaves are falling off the tree, leaves are changing colors, we're starting to transition to fall into winter, and you know, I get to dress up, I go score some sweet, sweet candy with my friends. Because I'm a bad person.
SPEAKER_06Did you ever have did you ever have a costume that was like just your default go-to every year as a kid?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. I was a ninja for six years. I was Darth Vader. The only difference was the color.
SPEAKER_06I have no idea why I was just so fascinated with Darth Vader. Why wouldn't you be? But I didn't want to be anything else. I just wanted to be Darth Vader. That was it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was a ninja. I didn't know. That works, man. I was a ninja. Ninjas are fucking cool. Yeah, but I never learned how to do a backflip.
SPEAKER_06It's never too late to learn.
SPEAKER_03I mean, true, but I think I'm a I think I'm a little too old for that. I'm gonna pull something.
SPEAKER_06We if we get a thousand plays on Spotify, we'll do backflips.
SPEAKER_03Well, if that's the case, we'd be better mark whatever episode we post that week that it's our last one, because we ain't living through that ordeal.
SPEAKER_06We can record from the hospital.
SPEAKER_03I don't know how well they'll appreciate that, but we'll try.
SPEAKER_06They'll have to get used to it real quick. Not because I'm not missing a week for nothing.
SPEAKER_03But in all seriousness, though, Halloween Halloween was like similar to Christmas to me. Like, you know, biggest thing about Christmas, I get to spend time with my family. With Halloween, there was always a group of us. We'd all get together, we'd always go to the same place, we'd always score big, come home, hang out, watch movies, eat candy, and stay up until 4 a.m. with my mother screaming at us because we're being too loud. You know, and I and I get to I get to dress up. I mean, I could do that now, but it wouldn't be as well received.
SPEAKER_06You know, I I am a big I'm a big trick-or-treat guy. So from the time I I can remember of being a child, I was trick-or-treating. When I got to that age when I didn't have to go with a parent, I was trick-or-treating. Yeah. And then that last year. I'm leaving it in. The last year that I was either No, I I had I had just turned 18. Uh no, it was I had just turned 17. So that was like the last time I had a like I went out and all of my friends were like, oh, we're gonna go to this party and we're gonna do this and do that. And I was like, guys, hold on. When are we going trick-or-treating? And all of these 17, 18, and maybe a couple 21-year-old people just looked at me like I just shit myself. Like, what are you talking about? Halloween is for partying. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. Halloween is a sacred holiday, it is not for partying. And I said, Okay, well, you guys go have fun. I am going to go trick-or-treating. And I walked home and was very upset that um I didn't have a a friend group to go trick-or-treating with. And and and my mom saw that I was upset, so she bought some candy from the grocery store. And I sat at home and ate candy and watched some scary movies. And that following year, I became a dad and was got married and everything at 18. So then I had a kid to take trick-or-treating, and I was like, ha ha, we're back, baby. Like, this is great. Um, yes. And um, and so you know, since then, with with having kids, and my my oldest will be 20 this year. Um I still don't believe that, but go on. Um, and my youngest will be 15. Uh, they trick-or-treat on their own. So my wife and I stay home and we hand out candy because we live in a neighborhood where there's a good amount of kids and a lot of like new parents. So I, you know, I'll play some I have a Halloween mix of music that I like to play, lots of typo negative. And um, and we hand out candy and uh and just talk with everybody. I think it's important. I think it's a rite of passage, man. Um, you know, there's something so like I I I always am harping on about like the good old days, right? Like how how perfect the 80s and 90s were. And part of that is there were less cars, so walking was easier. And you had less psychopaths, right? So your kids or you as a kid could go trick-or-treating, and it wasn't a big deal. Now people are a little bit more cautious, and and you you have to be. Um, so I just want to try to like nurture that environment to where people are like, oh yeah, that fat dude at the house on the corner, he's always giving out candy on Halloween. Let's swing through, you know. I and and I don't know. I there's just something for me that like Halloween for me was never a big family holiday. Um, it was just the time of year. And and and and we both have a of a a very skewed view of like Halloween and fall because we live in Texas, whereas every other state has seasons. We just go from hot to about a week of mild weather, and then we freeze until it gets super hot again. That's it. Is there do you have any like Halloween isn't complete until I've had like this candy or I watch this movie, or do you like do you have certain specific things that have to be done in order for you to be like, okay, yes, it is Halloween now.
SPEAKER_03First things first, Halloween is never done. Let's get that right. It's always Halloween, but realistically, no. Um I don't really have like a set thing that I do. I just look forward to the time. I look forward to being, you know, now in my age, uh seeing all the kids running around, trick-or-treating, all the costumes, everybody having fun, having a good time, kind of kind of living vicariously through everybody else's lives. Just a little bit. I'm in my 30s. It's there's no more tweaker tweeting for me. I have my little ones, but I don't get to go get no more free candy. That's just not fair.
SPEAKER_06I am I'm I'm gonna say it right now. If you are an adult listening to this, I hope you're all adults listening to this. And you for some reason live relative to where I do, and you come through as an adult and say trick or treat, you are getting candy full stop. Like Halloween for me does not have an age limit from the time that you are able to comprehend what's going on, candy in hand, period. And I even I I go I go above and beyond when Pokemon started putting out the trick or trade Pokemon cards. I get a couple bags of those. I get good candy, like not those ghetto orange wrapper peanut butter candy things. And I'm sorry, if you like those, fucks wrong with you.
SPEAKER_03All I heard was circus peanuts and Toblerone.
SPEAKER_06Like, okay, Toblerone fucks. All right.
SPEAKER_03It's the name, it's the name.
SPEAKER_06So, but I'm like, man, I've got I'm gonna give you Snickers, I'm gonna give you Reese's, I'm gonna give you MMs, all the varieties. Like, you're not gonna come through my place and get a Tootsie roll and an apple, you know what I'm saying? But what I do do is I get like allergy-friendly candy as well, as well as like a natural candy, that way, if you're kid or if you're a parent who are like, oh hey, you know, my kid's allergic to nuts. Cool, man. I got candy that does not have that, that has also not been in the same bucket. Because I I spend a stupid amount of money on candy, like way more than I should, but I do it for the love of the game.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, but you gotta make sure that whatever doesn't go out you get to keep and that there's leftovers. That's the whole point.
SPEAKER_06100%, 100%, man. All right.
SPEAKER_03Well, you mentioned allergy free. What about sugar free?
SPEAKER_06100%. So I I like to have like you're just run-of-the-mill, typical, you go to the candy aisle at a grocery store, you've got it, right? I do Pokemon cards for kids that either don't like candy, which that happens, or kids that love Pokemon or whatever the situation may be. It's just a nice non-consumable.
SPEAKER_03It's it's a nice alternative.
SPEAKER_06Right. And then I do a like a chocolate-free, nut-free option. Usually it's like a gummy, like Skittles or gummy bears, gummy worms, stuff like that. Those little Krabby Patties, those things are so good. Uh, and then there's also the hey, here's a gelatin-free, in case, you know, hey, vegans, you do your own thing, but if you love Halloween, you know what I'm saying? I want everybody. I want everybody. You know what I mean? And I don't do scary costumes or anything. For me, man, Halloween isn't about being scary. It's about that feeling, that festivity, that warmth. That's that's Halloween to me. Like, I remember living, I live I used to live south, way south of where I live now. And there was a dude on our street who would who I mean, he basically would build like a haunted house in his front yard. And it was great. But my youngest was terrified of it. And so I was like, okay, no shade on him. Like, if that's how you want to do Halloween, there's not a wrong way to do it. Right. That's great. But, you know, so for I'm I I started to have that realization. I'm like, okay, so for every like one scary thing, let's have one not scary thing. And you know, I mean, like like I've said in in almost every fucking episode, I was a scared kid, man. Everything scared me. So I'm very sympathetic to kids that are like, oh, that's a weird sound, that's a scary face. Why is there a body on the floor? I'm not into this. So I would rather play Alice Cooper and just sit outside and hand stuff out and everybody have a good time. If you're looking for a haunted house, there's options, you know what I'm saying? I want to be that neutral zone.
SPEAKER_03Right. One of the things that uh that I did on Halloween after becoming an adult is uh would spend Halloween at my in-laws house, uh, because at the time they lived in an area that has its own elementary school, and so there were kids everywhere. And uh even kids from outside of that development area would come in. Like families would bring their kids in because they know, hey, this is a hot spot. Let's go, let's go. And so they had this uh this huge tree in their front yard that went right up and over the uh sidewalk to the front door. Uh and what I would do is I would climb up in that tree, and you know, I wouldn't I I would I would double check age and you know, I would make sure that I'm not, you know, you know, causing a three-year-old to crap on themselves and faint in the middle of a yard. But you know, 14, 15, 16-year-old walks up and then my 200-pound ass comes sailing out of this tree and just lands right next to them. I don't make a sound, I don't move, I just land right next to them. The reactions were some of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life. You're talking about you're standing there waiting in line to get your candy, all of a sudden, just a 200-pound human falls out of the sky and lands next to you. What do you do? How do you how do you react to that?
SPEAKER_06That's just a Tuesday to me, man.
SPEAKER_03I don't it was something I did for a couple of years, and uh you know, we started getting uh repeat show-ups and they started catching on to my shenanigans, so I had to get more creative.
SPEAKER_06Gotta get into a different tree.
SPEAKER_03No, no, no. Uh I bought a costume and I spent a lot of money on a mask. And one year I went as Leatherface.
SPEAKER_06Oh, very cool.
SPEAKER_03And I had I had this like goofy spirit Halloween, you know, chainsaw. It was like a third the size of a normal chainsaw. You pull the trigger, it's got this cheap little, you know, 25 cent speaker that's that's making chainsaw noises, and the blade would just go in, you know, slowly rotate and make just the most awful sounds. But what I did, and I only did this once for one year, but I had the full I had the shirt, the the the apron, I had the pants, and I had this full-blown like latex mask, form fit, had the hair, everything. Uh and I was standing just offset from the porch holding the chainsaw, and I would move myself back and forth. Almost like I was one of those animatronic statues that just kind of moves in place. The amount of people that fell for that was unreal. You'd be standing there, you know, people come up and go, wow, this is really cool. And they'd want to get a picture, you know, get a picture. That's when you stop moving. And you lean down. Scare the daylights out of them. But my favorite interaction is this woman, she's got her. I want to say he was like eight. Eight or nine, your old little boy. And you know, he was a little scared to come up, and she comes up to me, she gets right up in my face, and she can see if you look close enough, you can see my eyes are real. If you're not paying attention, you can't see my eyes. And you know, she pats my face, pulls on the mask a little bit, pushes me around, and I still continue moving, and she gives me that wink. Like, please do this for me. And in my brain, I'm like, this is the best day of my life. I'm about to ruin this kid's whole existence. You know, I'm standing there, I'm standing there, and you know, she she does this stuff to show him that I'm just a statue. I'm still doing my movements back and forth, just looking from left to right. Throw a little wiggle motion in there to make it look like, oh, the it's a cheap animatronic. So he walks up, and my mother-in-law is already pissed because she doesn't want this to happen. My father-in-law's trying not to laugh because he knows what's about to happen. And he walks up, and she gives him extra candy because she knows what he's about to go through. This kid turns around, and when he turns around, I step forward, pull the trigger on the chainsaw, which this thing was loud. It sounded cheap as hell, but it was loud. And I started screaming through the chainsaw up in the air. Think he was gone. He wound up running straight across the yard and in a hurry to try to get into his car while his mom is on the ground next to me, about to pee herself laughing, slams into the car, bounces off of it, and just goes, damn it. One of my favorite moments for Halloween. That's right. She high-fived me and we gave her some candy too, and it was it it was a great moment. She was like, he pranks me all the time. I'm sick of his shit. I said, Good, you came to the right place.
SPEAKER_06Right. That's excellent. I love that. I fucking love that.
SPEAKER_03One of my favorite stories. I wonder whatever happened to that mask. It's somewhere. I just don't know where.
SPEAKER_06One of the things that, and I I still will even not during Halloween time, we'll watch Halloween specials, right? So like the biggest or the I guess the best example would be like the Halloween episode of Roseanne or every every show, uh, sitcom, whatever, had that. And we talked about this kind of before recording, and that wasn't something that you really like partook in.
SPEAKER_03I mean, I'm familiar with like uh the the tree house of horror, the stuff that the Simpsons did, but I think the last time I watched a treehouse of horror was in the early 2000s. To be fair though, I I honestly don't watch a lot of television. And so I I honestly couldn't even tell you what new shows are out right now. I couldn't tell you what new shows were out ten years ago. You know, in my mid-teens, if I was watching TV, I was watching Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. Yeah, I I lived on I lived on cartoons, I lived on Dragon Ball Z, I lived on uh here's a reference for all you old heads out there, stupidvideos.com. You know, pre-Youtube era stuff. And then once YouTube became a thing, that's that's really where I spend most of my time if I'm consuming any physical media outside of using any of the the streaming services to watch a movie. And so when it comes to television series, television specials, I'm pretty well disconnected from that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I mean, you know, valid because I I don't really unless there is something that it sp that specifically falls in one of the genres that I am into. If I'm watching television, it's usually stuff that's 20 or 30 years old. And that's just how it how it is for me. Like that's like I love Twin Peaks. So I re-watch that, you know. I don't there's just not really anything new that has caught my eye. Um and not not that not to say that stuff now is bad. I think things were just a little better. Back then, like recently, I was I I don't I don't know if I was at work or if I was it was after work, but I was watching a I you can tell what flavor of autism I have. I like to watch vintage Halloween commercials, like just all the time. And occasionally on YouTube there are like three-hour compilations where somebody will take um Halloween specials and then enter splice commercials like you're watching TV 35, 40 years ago.
SPEAKER_05That's cool.
SPEAKER_06And I love it. I cannot get enough of it. It my my wife, who is a fucking saint for putting up with my shit, because I will sit up in bed watching these commercials, and as they come on, I will say what commercial it is. So I'll be like Dunkin' Donuts, Energizer, Count Chocula. And she just sits there and nods her head politely, like, aww, go to bed.
SPEAKER_03But um, I'm so I'm watching what you better watch out because I'm gonna start singing the old school Dalworth clean commercial jingle. Uh just to mess with everything.
SPEAKER_06I still do, I still do. And so I'm I'm watching a compilation, and the Halloween episode of The Adventures of Pete and Pete comes on. And I I've seen it before. I I love The Adventures of Pete and Pete. That was my first introduction to Iggy Pop, as well as a lot of music, because they just would play different bands on there, and I thought that was super cool. Um, but it's such a great episode, man. Like it's there's falling leaves and trick-or-treating, and the whole idea of are you too old to trick-or-treat? You know, like what's what's important? And and it's on YouTube. You can watch this episode, it's like 15-20 minutes long, but it's excellent, man. I that is one of my favorite shows of all time. That is one of my favorite Halloween episodes of all time. Cartoon Network used to air the Halloween tree, which is a novel that was made into a cartoon from Ray Radbury. Leonard Nimoy. Again, that's weird that his he's come up twice in so few of episodes, is uh like the main narrator, storyteller of the show. And I, you know, that was the first time as a kid that I got exposed to like Halloween through the centuries and how people celebrate Halloween in other countries. So I was learning about like Day of the Dead and Sawin and all these things as a child. And I I don't know, man. I just there is not a more perfect time of the year to me than when the air starts to get cool and the leaves start to fall, and there's that warm tone of orange and browns and dark deep greens, and everybody just gets a little festive, and and in Texas it's a weird one because that means it's the first time that hasn't been 115. So that's probably why everybody's in a good mood. But you know, there's just something cool about you know rocking up to Walgreens and seeing those two big center aisles just full of black and orange and candy, and just it it just gets me pumped, man. And now, and the whole reason that we're talking about this is Summer Ween is a thing, thanks to Gravity Falls, which it that's there you go. That's a newer TV show, but it's a cartoon. But it's it's like kids' twin peaks, essentially. Like it's it's a fantastic show if you haven't seen it.
SPEAKER_03I haven't, but it's one that I do need to check out. Uh, because I believe it's similar to uh like uh Star vs. the Forces of Evil.
SPEAKER_06I don't know because I'm not familiar with that.
SPEAKER_03That's a good one too. It's funny.
SPEAKER_06It's like um I don't know, like if you ever watched like eerie Indiana as a kid or oh man. Anybody anybody else watch Eerie Indiana or was that just me?
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna be honest, I don't even know what that is.
SPEAKER_06So it's uh it was a TV show in the 90s. Um, I think the main character is the same guy from Hocus Pocus, if I'm not mistaken. Umri Katz, I think is his name. Um, but it's just some you know kids' paranormal TV show. It's like kid X-Files, kind of, is the the best way to phrase it. But yeah, Gravity Falls, I started watching that because my kids were watching it, and then I was like, holy shit, this is excellent. This is a great TV show. So but yeah, Alex, Alex Hirsch is an incredible writer. This this show was so good and got so many kids into the paranormal and parodies and stuff like that, and I love that. It is such a good show. Um, but yeah, summer ween. We're halfway to Halloween, and there's nothing cool or big or important that goes on this time of year anyway, other than trying to survive the sun.
SPEAKER_03So, like this is slowly getting more and more difficult as we go.
SPEAKER_06Oh, it's awful, man. It is awful. But um but yeah, man, Summer Ween, like we're gonna carve some watermelons and watch some scary movies. That and so, and that's that's something earlier beforehand, before we kind of got rabbit holed to where we are now. That that is there's two movies that we always watch in my household, and we watch Halloween three, which everybody that's listening is going, what the fuck? That is not just one of my favorite horror movies of all time, that's my favorite Halloween movie, like of the franchise. That's one of my favorite movies of all time. Halloween three, I will not stand for any slander. That is a fantastic movie. It is time we put some respect on it. But we watch that and we watch Trick or Treat. And both of those just send it home. My kids are older now, so it's not as a big of a deal, and they're everybody in this household are just horror hounds. We're watching the Hellraiser series right now. I got a beautiful, beautiful 4K um quartet of terror, I think. It's it's uh it's an arrow video release. It's a beautiful slipcase. First four movies, and admit admittedly, man, and I I don't know if you or anybody listening is is big into Hellraiser. The first movie is great, the second movie is okay, the third and fourth are movies.
SPEAKER_03Are they are they doom level movies?
SPEAKER_06They're not quite doom level, but they you know my my wife's days off are during the week. Mine are on the weekend, so the two days a week we stay up and we'll watch a movie or two, uh, all together as a family, and I I've been begging, begging them, please let's sit down and watch this 4K restoration of Hellraiser. Like I I want to see this. So we watch it. It's beautiful, it looks fantastic. I've never the first time I saw it was on a VHS tape on like an eight-inch TV, and I thought it looked great as a kid. As an adult seeing this, it's fucking beautiful. It is so, so beautiful. We watched the second one last night, and I turned and looked at him and I said, Okay, guys, this is as good as it's getting. We're gonna we're gonna finish this. We're gonna see it through. Because the fourth movie, Bloodlines, that's the last movie that Clive Barker was involved with, and then the rest are direct TV sequels. And there's Charm Tune. They're not gonna win an award, they but they're fun. I watched almost all of these on the sci-fi channel, and when they came out, right, sponsor us, please. You know, dude, I'm I'm gonna be a hundred percent with you. I uh don't even know, number one, if the sci-fi channel is still around, and number two, if they haven't gone the way of like MTV, and if they even play the shit that I remember watching on there. But yeah, so we're we're we're watching the the first four Hellraiser movies as a family. As you do, it's family bonding time. Let's watch the fucking Hellraiser quadrilogy, please. What is my life? I I haven't had anybody complain, so at this time I think we're gonna take a little break.
SPEAKER_03We're gonna leave you guys with some killer tunes, and we will be back here in just a few minutes to keep the spookiness going.
SPEAKER_06Thank you for listening to this Halloween just I mean, I it's almost like just like the the clip episode. You know what I mean? It's just we call that an amalgamation where we're from talking about what an amalgamation is the homunculus episode. Yeah. So uh earlier today, uh before we got on here, there was a uh video game showcase thing that was going on the last. Hour at my job, and there between this and the Sony state of play showcase that came out earlier this week. Uh leaving it in. Um, there's been a good amount of horror games that have been announced, and we had kind of touched on games last episode, um, talking about like Dead Space and Outlast. Um, and so I just wanted to like kind of rapid fire a few of the games that that are coming out. Uh, there's like a RPG, I guess, is the best way, because we really haven't seen too much of it called Blood of the Dawnwalker, where it is a vampire game. You play as a vampire, it looks like an action RPG, and it goes through the various time periods from what looks like uh could be medieval Europe up to modern day. The trailer looks pretty cool. Go check it out. Uh, the next game is 1666 Amsterdam, which looks like a devil may cry bayonetta esque, kind of not quite a beat-em-up. There wasn't too much that they showed, but you look like you play as a witch during Puritan times, and I'm pretty stoked about that. I'm I'm curious to see what comes out because that it looks quite fun, and if not, then at least the subject matter is something I'm interested in. Um then there was a new announcement for Saw Genesis, which is a asymmetrical multiplayer horror game, a la Dead by Daylight, the Friday the 13th game, the Halloween game, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre game, the killer clowns from outer space game. Um basically it seems like you just point to a franchise and they're getting an asymmetrical horror game. I am not a fan of those. I prefer single-player games. Um so we'll see if it I'll I'll probably end up playing it. The the only thing that is really interesting is it's set a hundred years before the Saw franchise starts. So it looks like post-World War I-ish. Um in the same team that did Silent Hill 2 remake, and now they're working on a Silent Hill remake. Bloober Team is doing Saw Genesis, so I've got pretty high hopes for it as far as the quality of the game. I think it's gonna be pretty good. It's just that style of game is not really my thing. Um the I would say this is arguably what people were most excited for, not what I'm most excited for, but the Alien Isolation 2 got announced. That's got a trailer, people are super excited. I played the first one, I thought the first one was great. Xenomorphs just don't scare me. It's not something I I don't know, like it's just not something that is scary to me, and the gameplay is good. You want that fear fact, you know, more or less. I if you haven't played it, play it. Yeah, like there's there's I mean, the the the xenomorph in the game is highly intelligent and it's a lot of fun. It just I'm playing it because I'm like, oh, I like the alien franchise. I'm not playing it because it's scary to me. Um but what I'm most excited for, and this is a recent trend, of course, with games that are getting remakes, and specifically with this franchise, but the Resident Evil Code Veronica remake was announced today as of recording. Uh, they're just calling it Resident Evil Veronica, which I am sure that there is a very large portion of the population that is just now getting into Resident Evil or is into Resident Evil but aren't aware of any of the games that aren't remade or aren't numbered and are gonna be going, who the fuck is Veronica? You'll find out. I'm so excited for this. I've loved all of the Resident Evil remakes, and including three. Um it's not the best. I prefer the original, but it was still a pretty decent remake. Um still Resident Evil 2 remake. Fantastic. It's a 10. Perfect game. But Code Veronica, I'm so stoked for. But in that same vein of upcoming horror games, what what what spooky games have come out that you're wanting to play? Like this is this is coming. So what's out now?
SPEAKER_03One for me that I can think of that seems really interesting, and I meant to pick it up sooner, but I have other games in my catalog that I'm dealing with and other commitments with games that I'm dealing with. Um, but I really want to pick up Scorn. I really want to try out Scorn. I've seen some videos, I've seen some gameplay videos, and it looks really cool. I just I love that that H.R. Geiger uh inspired artwork. And so I'm that's that's one I'm I'm interested to pick up and play.
SPEAKER_06And my oldest very much loves that game, but she she's an artist, and opinion of the game aside, she loves the I guess you could call it biomechanical style that the game is in. I mean, and it is so violent and gory and bloody. Um and yeah, I it's it is.
SPEAKER_03As long as nobody's getting cut in half the long ways, I think I'll be okay.
unknownAs long as nobody's getting cut in half the long ways, yeah.
SPEAKER_06You know what, man? I am almost a hundred percent sure somebody does look in half the long way in that game. If there is some sort of grotesque way of dispatching somebody, they do it in there. But it's a it's a it's a pretty looking game. What's what's funny? I for the longest time was getting that game confused with a game that came out called Agony. And that is like a notoriously shit game. Um it's it's one of those. I I guess the best way to describe it is like it's an Edge Ward game. When it came out, they're like, this game is so violent and so upsetting that it's not even going to be able to get an M rating. It's gonna be rated adults only. And it's it's not, it's it's absolute ass. Like, if you offered a free copy to me, I would not take it. And that's I I am not a I don't like I I don't see anybody that has liked that game, except for like that specific type of person, like the same person that's like, I like August Underground, I like Agony. I'm like, oh okay, that tracks. But it's you know, man, it's scorn worth playing, agony, we and you didn't even know what it was until I said something. Yeah, yeah. And there's a reason. Nothing is is man, that yeah, that game fucks.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna look up a video when we're done here, just to be like, okay, I get it.
unknownOkay, I get it.
SPEAKER_06Dude, it's it's you know what, man? It's not even a matter of like, oh, this is like hardcore edge lord bait. It is a game that cost way too much and took way too long to develop, and it does nothing. Like there, and what's what's even funnier though, is if I'm fucking getting the names of these games wrong, and Agony has nothing to do with any of this. No, I I'm I'm I'm a hundred percent sure the game's called Agony. The cover has got this little demon-looking thing squatting on the front.
SPEAKER_04Yep. That's it.
SPEAKER_06If that doesn't say agony, I'm gonna be so fucking mad. And I'm not even I hate I hate having like a negative opinion on something like that, but it is such a fucking awful game. If you want something that's visceral and violent and gory and has something to say, play fucking outlast. Like and I I I truly cannot sing high enough praises. If you want a game that is scary and fun and well made and has a fantastic story, I'd love to pop in outlast. Play that shit. I can't play Friday the 13th on NES.
SPEAKER_03At least at Dead Space I get guns.
SPEAKER_06That man, and that's I've I I'm not a gatekeepy person by any stretch of the imagination, but when it comes to horror games, I am particular. And I love the Outlast franchise, and I've had a hell of a time trying to get people to want to play it, and I I tell them everything about it, and they're on board, they're frothing, they cannot wait to get their teeth into it. And then when I say, but you cannot fight back, they're like, fuck you. I'm not playing. And that, and that's I think that's what makes it even scarier, though. You know, I mean we we play games, and when we feel that we have a sense of power or control over a situation, I don't think it's as scary as when our only form of defense is hiding. And when the computer AI is smart enough to go, okay, same like case in alien isolation, it knows to look under tables or open the locker. I I like that. I I like the idea of you know, there's plenty of games that give you that power fantasy of I've got a bigger sword or I've got a bigger gun, I don't have to be worried about shit. Um there's not a lot of games that take that away and make you feel incredibly squishy, and then there's even fewer games that do it well. Like take Doom 2016, right? It's it's a first-person shooter, and I would consider it a horror game. It's got a fantastic soundtrack, fantastic game, but the whole point is you are a one-man army, you have a arsenal and can just shred through the armies of hell, right? That's awesome, it's fun, but things like Outlast, where it's a slower pace, is a different feeling. And I shit, dude. I could do an entire episode on Outlast, to be honest. But uh yeah, uh look, it you know what? I should I should do like a s we should do a a Steam key giveaway for Outlast. Yeah, we'll so two things coming up. One, we're gonna figure out some sort of goal, and then when we hit that goal, we'll vote, we'll leave, we'll leave it to you guys to vote for terrifier or faces of death. And when we exceed a goal, we'll do an outlast giveaway. So and it and it can be for whatever whatever system. So if you've got a PlayStation, Xbox, whatever, we'll we'll figure that out. Um and we'll we'll touch on this real quick. I was gonna do a hundred followers on Instagram. We're at 125 at time of recording. So that was not expected, but thank you. We appreciate that. And if you haven't already, follow us at mondobizaro underscore podcast on Instagram. We have that's that's kind of that's where I like to post. That's I like Instagram. We have a Facebook, uh, but whatever I share on Instagram goes onto the Facebook, so whichever you want to do, man. Um so I mean, I don't know, maybe a hundred downloads or a hundred subs on Spotify or something. I don't know, but we'll figure it out. But just so you guys know, coming down the pipeline, we're gonna have a goal. When we hit that goal, you're voting on what we watch, and then we will we can't live stream it because copyright. Yeah, I don't think I don't think YouTube or Twitch will let us watch faces of death. But um we will record our reaction and and upload that. So either either one, like I I'm a little better set in that situation because I've seen Terrifier and I don't dislike it. I dislike two and three more.
SPEAKER_02But do it for me. But faces of me scared, little boy. Do it for me.
SPEAKER_06Like, faces of death. I I have I have I don't I've not gone out of my way not to watch it, but I've been pretty careful of going, you know what? This does not look like something I should be watching. I'm gonna go ahead and do it.
SPEAKER_03I don't need that kind of negativity in my life. I need puppies and rainbows. No.
SPEAKER_06I don't even I'm fine with hellhounds and and blood. I just don't want to watch people dying.
SPEAKER_03That's fair. That's fair. I I can drink to that.
SPEAKER_06But but you know what? Terrifier's got something that faces of death does not have the long way. Let us know on the the whenever you listen to this and the the first post or the post of when this episode gets announced. Um do you want us to make shirts with the stupid shit that we say? I I'm it's up to y'all, man. We're we're just two dudes on TV pretending to be dudes. And we're just recording the bullshit that we would be talking about anyway. But we are we're gonna shift gears a little bit, and we're going to have a listener submitted story, and this week's story is submitted surprise, surprise, by Andrew.
SPEAKER_03Excuse me. So I kept this one out of episode one because I kind of wanted to save it. It's a simple story, um, it's nothing crazy, but it it does embellish on I don't even know if that's the right word. On my experiences. But growing up, uh our our family's house was my great aunt, my great uncle, and my great-grandfather's house. And you know, we always did holidays over there, Thanksgiving, uh, Christmas, everything like that. Anytime there was a family get together, it was always over there. Um, I spent a lot, a lot of time with my grandfather. Uh I to this day attribute him. He's one of the people that helped raise me and helped me become the person that I am today. One of the people that helped raise uh become one person. He passed away 21 years ago.
unknownHe passed away 21 years ago.
SPEAKER_03But one of the things I always remembered from childhood is every year for his birthday, they'd always get him a pair of hush puppies. Real nice shoes, and he always had to have a real nice pair of house shoes. And he would always get up at the same time every day. So if we were staying over, you'd always hear him get up, and he'd start walking down the hallway, and you would hear those those house shoes shuffling through the f the the hallway, just t as he wandered off to the kitchen and start making himself some breakfast. Uh after he passed, you know, a couple of years went by, and you know, when my aunt and uncle would be out of town for something, they'd, you know, be somewhere visiting, I would go over to uh be somewhere visiting. Go over to take care of the dogs, take care of the cat, you know, make sure they have food, love on them, give give all the babies love. And there was one day I was looking for the cat because he loved to hide. And I was in the room that we would sleep in growing up when we'd stay over. And it's quiet in the house, nobody's in there, it's just me. And then all of a sudden, just real faint, I can hear it down the hallway. It's it's it's it's it's and I'm thinking about it for a minute, and I walk out there and the cat follows me out. So I sit down in the hallway and love on him and pet on him. And I can feel the footsteps walking through the hallway. And I can audibly hear those footsteps walking through the hallway. Walks down the hall, rounds the corner, walks past me, and goes right into the kitchen. Like the schedule had never changed. And in that moment for me. It was I I know it sounds goofy, but it was a comforting moment. It wasn't, oh I'm scared of this, or oh, this is, you know, this is something bad. This is going to, you know, this is something that's gonna lash out and hurt me. This is no. I don't know if maybe it was a sense memory or if it could have been something that actually happened, but I remember feeling and hearing those footsteps walk past me. And it happened more than once. Anytime I went over to to take care of the animals, I would hear it. And it it it was comforting to know that you know, he was still keeping an eye out on things. Like we always knew he would.
SPEAKER_06I love that. And there's just there's there's comfort in that, you know. And that that's that's uh that is that is one of the reasons why I'm I I'm very much into like the paranormal and stuff, is you know, the Bigfoot stuff and aliens and all that. That's that's cool and everything, but you know, our our our loved ones checking in on us is my favorite action. For sure, for sure. You know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely, you know, it's thank you for sure. One of those things where, you know, any other situation, anywhere else, and I hear footsteps, that's nope. No, no, no. I don't know who those belong to, those aren't go away. Jeez, me no leggy. But in this in this circumstance it was Hey I miss you.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely. Absolutely. And if um if any of you want to have your paranormal encounter shared, it can be anything from a cryptid encounter to ghosts or just something weird and unexplainable. You can always share that either by sending us a message through Instagram or an email at contactmondobizarropodcast.com.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely, and please reach out because we want to hear from you and I want to be able to read your stories. Nick wants to be able to read your stories. We want to know what experiences you guys have had out there.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's I I love I I get like good chills reading when people send stories and then I read them. Because they're they're just it's fun, you know. And of course, if you wanna if you want to be anonymous, just let me know in the email if uh whatever information you want me to omit, but you're telling to best convey the story, I'll work with whatever to make it as comfortable for you as possible. And thank you to everybody that has shared a story up to this point. We very, very much appreciate it. I'm leaving that in. No, I'm not. That is gonna do it for us this week. Thank you for joining us in this whatever the hell you want to call this mess. Our amalgamunculus. That's what this episode's gonna be called. And and uh we we appreciate you for hanging out. We'll be back again next week. Be sure to follow us on all the things. Instagram is mondobizarro underscore podcast. We're available on all podcast platforms. If there's one that we're not on, we didn't want to be there anyway. We're gonna play some music, and before we go, Andrew, do you have any advice for our listeners?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. I thought you would never ask. Just remember, it's not the house that's haunted, it's you. Good night.
SPEAKER_06We'll see you guys next week.