'80s Movie Montage
Breaking down our favorite decade of flicks. Hosted by Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke.
'80s Movie Montage
The Gate
With special -- and returning! -- guest Chris Sexton Fletcher, Anna and Derek chat about the cuteness of demonic minions, good ole satanic panic influences, and much more during their discussion of the very young Stephen Dorff starrer The Gate (1987).
Connect with '80s Movie Montage on Facebook, Twitter/X or Instagram! It's the same handle for all three... @80smontagepod.
Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke are the co-hosts of ‘80s Movie Montage. The idea for the podcast came when they realized just how much they talk – a lot – when watching films from their favorite cinematic era. Their wedding theme was “a light nod to the ‘80s,” so there’s that, too. Both hail from the Midwest but have called Los Angeles home for several years now. Anna is a writer who received her B.A. in Film/Video from Columbia College Chicago and M.A. in Film Studies from Chapman University. Her dark comedy short She Had It Coming was an Official Selection of 25 film festivals with several awards won for it among them. Derek is an attorney who also likes movies. It is a point of pride that most of their podcast episodes are longer than the movies they cover.
Chris Sexton Fletcher is a filmmaker and educator who just really loves talking about movies. You can find him and his work at www.chrisfletcherpresents.com.
Wait a minute. See, the lyrics in the album tell you how to summon the demons. There's this certain time when these constellations are aligned, when you can open the gate and let the old gods, those are the demons, come through. Well, I checked, and it's like now. Terry, but... What? Terry, this is a record album.
SPEAKER_01:Hello and welcome to 80s Movie Montage. This is Derek.
SPEAKER_02:And this is Anna.
SPEAKER_01:And that was Terry trying to explain to Glenn about some demon problems that they were experiencing in 1987's The Gate.
SPEAKER_02:As one does.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, look, everyone in the 80s was convinced that metal or rock was from the devil.
SPEAKER_02:Satanic panic.
SPEAKER_01:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. High time satanic panic.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And this movie is just like the epitome of that. Like,
SPEAKER_02:down to every stereotype. Yeah. With, like, playing a record backward and the whole deal.
UNKNOWN:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:It was incredible.
SPEAKER_02:It was great. Yes, The Gate. This was a new movie for both of us. It was. Which, it has been a while because...
SPEAKER_01:It has.
SPEAKER_02:Because you and I have been, for most, well, all of the season up to this point, been doing each episode solo, so to speak. We haven't had a guest on until this episode. And so this lovely, awesome person we love, returning guest, suggested this movie. Because I don't think you and I, I don't know, maybe we'll get to a point where we'll Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when Chris suggested the movie, I mean, I was never going to say no, because any chance to have him on the show, I will gladly take. But when he was giving me a heads up about what it was about, I was like, well, it has kids in it. Even though it might be horror, it probably isn't that bad. And so anybody who follows the podcast knows that we have our dedicated Halloween series that we do around that time of year. Yeah. I think if I had taken it more seriously as straight horror, I would have wrapped it into that series. But that's why, although I've been making quite a few exceptions already this season to sneak in a horror movie here and there.
SPEAKER_01:This entire podcast is nothing if not an opportunity to make exceptions.
SPEAKER_02:So in any case, it is actually, the second half of the movie has some pretty legit... horror so it
SPEAKER_01:does yeah and like pacing issues or potential pacing issues aside like the second half the movie is a lot of fun oh it's bonkers in the best way it yeah takes its time a little bit getting there yes but once it gets there you'll know it because it's gonna get crazy
SPEAKER_02:yes So just want to throw out that little disclaimer. But yeah, it is, I would say, a horror movie, in
SPEAKER_01:fact. Yeah. I think a movie about opening a portal to hell.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But those little demons are pretty cute.
SPEAKER_01:The minions are... The minions? Yeah. They were. Look, I loved them. The
SPEAKER_02:80s were a great time for little scary creatures with the gremlins and critters and all of that good stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the minions... I think they were called minions. We had laughed together at the moment where Terry falls into the gate or into the pit, and it seemed like one of them said, hey. I had watched that scene over and over again at this point, and I think it was just a noise. So Terry does look at it and say hi, and then it bites him, but they weren't saying hey to
SPEAKER_02:him. The minion wasn't... Given... What's up?
SPEAKER_01:There were no genuine attempts at communication by the minions. I think that would have
SPEAKER_02:been amazing if there had, but...
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I wish it had been what we thought it was. What
SPEAKER_02:we thought it was. Good... Because I think you do bring that up with Chris.
SPEAKER_01:I do.
SPEAKER_02:So you watched it over and over, you say?
SPEAKER_01:After we had our conversation, I went back and, you know, trying to find... Looking through different clips and scenes, I went back to that in particular because I just had to know.
SPEAKER_02:I understand. Yeah. Okay. So we have one writing credit for this movie. And this seems to be an individual. This is very common where somebody maybe is more focused on one aspect of production, but they, you know, they just wear multiple hats. So Michael Nankin.
UNKNOWN:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:is more so director. He has 58 directing credits, and he has 14 producing credits and 14 writing credits. Okay. So he kind of dabbles in the producing and the writing, but he's mostly director. I know. I know. Okay. Gate 2 sequel.
SPEAKER_01:I got to see it.
SPEAKER_02:The Trespassers. So that's the subtitle. Oh, okay. Gate 2 The Trespassers. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I thought they were totally separate, but no.
SPEAKER_02:And then what's funny is that he definitely taps into a couple different genres. He wrote on Life Goes On. Really? Yeah, the family melodrama type with Kelly Martin. And it was, at the time, pretty groundbreaking television because there was a main character who happened to have Down syndrome. Yeah. So that show, he wrote on the TV show a flipper. I'm
SPEAKER_01:sorry, what? There was a dolphin. There was a TV show? Yeah. Was it always a TV show? Or was it a movie?
SPEAKER_02:There... So there was, I think, the original TV show, which was, like, maybe in the 50s.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And then maybe based off that, they did a couple movies, and then they had, like, I think a reboot of the TV show.
SPEAKER_01:Flipper was basically the lassie of the sea. For sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, 100%. And then also a TV show called The Protector, which I do not know.
SPEAKER_01:The Protector. Okay. He protect.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So directing credit, I... love this guy's filmography. He just seems like he's having a fun time. The director's name, apologies ahead of time if I am not pronouncing it correctly, Tibor... Tibor... Tibor... Ticox? Ticox? How would you say that?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. I don't know. Mr. Tibor. Mr. T. Mr. T. Mr. Double T.
SPEAKER_02:Mr. Double T. I'm sorry. I try really hard, but sometimes I'm just not going to nail it with some of the names.
SPEAKER_01:No, this is a challenging one. It's a challenging one. Look, I don't want to call him Tibor T'Cox. I feel like that's not how you pronounce it. But it might be. I feel like it might be. Look, there's a little mark, a little accent over the second A in his last name.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know what that means. What is that instructing me to do with this name?
SPEAKER_02:I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not a linguist or anything close to those worlds. But in any case.
SPEAKER_01:Moving on.
SPEAKER_02:He directed it. And the reason why I said I love his filmography is because he seems to just swing between horror, for the most part, swing between horror and holiday films. And it's really fun. That's lovely. That sounds like kind of a dream career. So some of his other credits. I did list a lot of TV movies, which I never do, only to to basically demonstrate my point about the type of stuff that he does. Got it. So as far as just theatrical films or maybe straight to video, Metal Messiah. Oh,
SPEAKER_01:Metal Messiah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so that's fun. I, Madman.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I think that's fun. So he was the director. He came back to direct the sequel. He did Gate 2, The Trespassers. Nice. So that's fun. So he worked on the TV show, directed on the TV show The Outer Limits.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:So I guess, I didn't know this. I never watched the Melissa Joan Hart Sabrina series. The Teenage Witch.
SPEAKER_01:I'm aware of its existence, but you've watched more of the new one than I have. Yes, The
SPEAKER_02:Chilling Adventures, which, man...
SPEAKER_01:Started off good.
SPEAKER_02:Started off real good, and then it just went kind of off the rails. And also I'm very sad because one of the actors on that show has recently passed. But he... I guess there was a TV movie prior to the TV show, and he directed that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, if you don't like... streaming shows that start off great and then turn to crap, then you just don't like streaming.
SPEAKER_02:So, he did the TV movie Sabrina the Changed Witch, and then he did, I think this is so fun, he did the TV movie Once Upon a Christmas, and then did the TV movie Twice Upon a Christmas.
SPEAKER_01:Do we get a Thrice Upon a
SPEAKER_02:Christmas? No, not that I'm aware of. He did a super fun TV movie, at least I assume it's super fun, called Mansquito.
SPEAKER_01:What's that about? I
SPEAKER_02:think it's kind of like The Fly. It sounds like it does. With a mosquito?
SPEAKER_01:Mansquito.
SPEAKER_02:He did a TV movie. So I have all TV movies except for one TV series and the rest of the filmography I pulled.
SPEAKER_01:The titles are fantastic. The titles
SPEAKER_02:are amazing. Yeah. So he did Kraken, Tentacles of the Deep. He did Ice Spiders. Ice Spiders. I mean, these are fucking fun sounding movies. Mega Snake.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I like it. I'm in.
SPEAKER_02:I'd watch any of these. I mean, last night we watched Killer Mermaid, so we are not above
SPEAKER_01:any of these. We watched Killer Mermaid. Was it Killer Mermaid? I think
SPEAKER_02:it's singular.
SPEAKER_01:I think it's singular, although there were, spoilers, many other Killer Mermaids at the very end, at the conclusion, and possibly if you look for this movie, if you decide to look for Killer Mermaid, you might find it in either title. You might find Mermaids or Mermaid, but either way, probably the same movie. And we got halfway through it before we were wondering, like, is this fucking Mervy going to kill someone?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, she kind of, like I said, got other people to do
SPEAKER_01:dirty work. Really took her time.
SPEAKER_02:He did. So here's the other TV series I have for him. My Babysitter's a Vampire.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, I like that. I'd
SPEAKER_02:watch that. And then the remaining TV movies I have for him. So this is what I was pointing to in terms of holiday films. Well, besides the Once Upon and Twice Upon a Christmas. He did... It's Christmas, comma, Eve.
SPEAKER_01:Get it? Okay, I get it. I get it,
SPEAKER_02:yeah. Memories of Christmas, A Christmas Miracle, and The Christmas, and
SPEAKER_01:A-U-N-T. I like that you brought up ice spiders, but then six years later, he came out with another one, just spiders.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, did he? Without the ice. I missed that.
SPEAKER_01:Hold the ice.
SPEAKER_02:But talk about a fun fucking filmography. It
SPEAKER_01:is fun. Yeah. I
SPEAKER_02:think that that is amazing that he just is doing shit that like makes like just probably silly stuff or sentimental stuff. And look, at the end of the day, that's the stuff I'm going to watch and probably come back to. I'm not trying to take away from most of the films that nowadays are like Oscar, you know, contenders and that sort of thing but those are typically not the films that uh i'm gonna think of what i need a movie to just watch and relax with
SPEAKER_01:that look that is a fair point and i agree i occasionally would want to watch a good movie but you're right like if If we just want to watch something that's fun, I'm more likely to watch Ice Spiders or Spiders. I don't know which one than whatever was just like in the best picture category.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. I agree with you.
SPEAKER_01:And that tells you a little bit about our taste in movies.
SPEAKER_02:So moving on to cinematography. Um... I think I could probably... Okay, Thomas Vamos?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So, he... A
SPEAKER_01:lot of Hungarian filmmakers involved in this. I
SPEAKER_02:was actually just going to say. Yeah. Yeah. He was born in Hungary in 1938, so that gives you a little bit of an inkling about the very interesting period in time in which he was born. He is still with us, but I think he is definitely retired at this point. His last credit was in 2005, so he hasn't worked in 20 years. I mean, at this point, he is in his late 80s, I think, if I'm mathing right. But some of his credits... Now, to your point...
SPEAKER_01:You are not going to be able to pronounce... many of the films that i see in his filmography
SPEAKER_02:yeah i just have lots of european credits
SPEAKER_01:yes yeah
SPEAKER_02:because it's not just like okay so yes he was born in hungary but it's not that he was focused on like hungarian cinema or entertainment like it seems like he did a lot of things across europe
SPEAKER_01:yes
SPEAKER_02:i was seeing different titles that may have been french or me but you know so like i think he dabbled in a lot of um different countries entertainment you know whatever, productions.
SPEAKER_01:I think that is correct. The Gate is one of few titles that I can actually say.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and of other ones that presumably are English-American slash American-type productions, I don't know most of them. No. But we have... I have all films for him that I did list out. Age of Illusions. I might have... written this incorrectly. I bet it's Viva La France. I think I have Vive here. I think it might be Viva. The one that was vaguely familiar to me was The Peanut Butter Solution. Really? Yeah, I know I've heard of that before.
SPEAKER_01:Is it for like gum stuck in hair? Is that the solution? Is that the problem?
SPEAKER_02:I don't know the movie. I just have heard of the
SPEAKER_01:movie. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Captive Hearts, Summer of the Cult, The Return of Tommy Tricker.
SPEAKER_01:Just real quick on the Summer of the Colt. Sure. It appears to be about horses.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, I figured.
SPEAKER_01:Not guns.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:I figured. It could be about a colt.
SPEAKER_02:Sure.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but... I
SPEAKER_02:figured it was about a young horse.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's what it looks like from the key, yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. And then lastly, Summer with the Ghosts. Okay. Sounds kind of interesting. Okay, so moving on to music. Music is by Michael Honig, which I believe is a Dutch last name. So he does have... For sure are there credits that I would say a lot of people would be familiar with. And I think there might even be a chance, and this actually isn't even the first time we've brought them up. Yeah. But it has been a while. But it also may not, I was going to say, probably not the last time we'll bring up. I think there's a couple opportunities there to bring them up again. Namely, and I always say it wrong, it's the wrath, right?
SPEAKER_01:The wraith.
SPEAKER_02:It is the wraith. I think I say it different every time and you correct me with the other one every time. That sounds like something I would do. So is it the,
SPEAKER_01:I don't even see it in his, uh, I don't see it in his, uh, filmography. Well, what are you? Oh, you know what? Because I was looking in the crappy music department instead of the strictly composer. Yes. Oh, very, very interesting. Now that I'm looking at the correct list of titles, the interesting stuff, great stuff,
SPEAKER_02:great stuff.
SPEAKER_01:And it is the wraith. Okay. It is the Wraith. I'm
SPEAKER_02:sorry. And that movie has been coming up a lot for whatever reason the last couple episodes, I
SPEAKER_01:think.
SPEAKER_02:He also did music on the TV series Max Headroom.
SPEAKER_01:Fever dream of a show. Like, if you watched it now, you would be like, what is happening? How many drugs were involved? I
SPEAKER_02:imagine so. Yeah. And I just remember that, like, at the time, that whole... cultural touchstone
SPEAKER_01:yeah
SPEAKER_02:of max headroom was like a really big deal i
SPEAKER_01:don't i would say that he would be almost unwatchable if you if someone had never like been part of like this thing turning into a thing and just was like hey i'm gonna see what this max headroom's about you would you would turn it off immediately
SPEAKER_02:yeah um He worked on, and here's the other film that we covered, The Blob. I love The Blob. The 80s
SPEAKER_01:Blob. Yeah. I love it. I love The Blob.
SPEAKER_02:I do too. We were trying to... I wonder why he didn't want to watch it. I mean, no big deal. We can watch it again on our own, but like we were trying to convince our friend to watch it last night with us.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, well. And then we ended up
SPEAKER_02:watching Killer Mermaid and
SPEAKER_01:stuff. It wasn't, you know, like it was only available for like a rent or purchase. Oh, I
SPEAKER_02:have it in my queue on Amazon to buy the physical media.
SPEAKER_01:Excellent.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. He did Class of 1999, Terminal Justice. And then I have a couple TV series and I almost never list these, but I did this for you. Thank
SPEAKER_01:you. So
SPEAKER_02:he worked on the TV series. I'll do the TV first. Dark Skies, District, Strange World. His last credit, so I think he presumably is retired, Dracula 3000. I had
SPEAKER_01:no idea there was a 3000. I've seen Dracula 2000, and it was terrible. I didn't know there was a 3000.
SPEAKER_02:I've not seen it. But he worked on the video game Baldur's Gate.
SPEAKER_01:He worked on... The first and second Baldur's Gate. And there's a lot of time between like two and the third one that came out. So I'm less familiar with the second one as compared to Baldur's Gate 3 that came out last year. Okay. But that's super cool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I thought you would like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So... Michael Honing is not actually the only credited composer on this film, which is kind of unusual to have two of them. Not so unusual to have two editors or, of course, writers, that sort of thing. But I don't think we often get two composers. The other is J. Peter Robinson. Not even the first time that we have... Oh, wait. It is the first time for him. You know what it is?
SPEAKER_01:What is it? I don't
SPEAKER_02:know why this is. But I keep thinking we've already done the film Cocktail. We haven't. But I think it's because somebody that we've had guest on the show has brought it up to us. And for some reason that has like inceptioned me to think that we've already done it.
SPEAKER_01:Another ridiculous movie that we will talk about.
SPEAKER_02:For sure. For sure at some point.
SPEAKER_01:We just haven't yet.
SPEAKER_02:And what is interesting about the two of them is that they're not like a composing partnership. But he also worked on The Wraith. Slash. Wrath.
SPEAKER_01:Whatever. The Wrath of the Wraith. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Wraith Wrath.
SPEAKER_02:So he worked on that as well. He did Return of the Living Dead 2. As I mentioned, a film that we have not covered, but probably will in the future. Cocktail.
SPEAKER_01:We have to.
SPEAKER_02:He did Cadillac Man. I do have. I mean, he also worked on a ton of stuff. Or has worked on a ton of stuff. He did a TV movie. I just did this one.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my God. I already know what it's going to be. I got a good guess. Just say it. No, I want you to say it, but I think I know what it is.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Deadly intentions, dot, dot, dot,
SPEAKER_01:again. So good.
SPEAKER_02:I think that's really fun. And in a lot of range. He worked on the TV series The Wondery Years, the original, with Fred Savage. More films, very notable films, Wayne's World, Encino Man, New Nightmare. I included this one on your behalf, Highlander, The Final Dimension.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, you don't sound very impressed by it.
SPEAKER_01:The first movie... Really good. I think the like the TV series probably better than any of the sequel movies. Oh,
SPEAKER_02:OK. Another vampire movie, Vampire in Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. With Eddie Murphy.
SPEAKER_02:Correct. He did Detroit Rock City. I included that one for you as well. Thank you. And then TV work. He also worked on The Outer Limits, Charmed, Deadliest Catch, and Cleaners. Okay. Okay. So moving on to editing. Actually, we talked about this gentleman not very long ago at all when I slipped in my first horror film. because of Valentine's Day. So, Rit Wallace. Now, I... Look, except for when they first come out or when I'm QCing them, I don't tend to go back to older episodes, but I feel pretty confident that I also brought up During that episode for My Bloody Valentine, the fact that he died extremely young, and I couldn't really get much information on why. So he died in 1991 when he was only 33 years old. So his filmography is not that long. But I'm going to say if your filmography includes My Bloody Valentine and The Gate, good on you.
SPEAKER_01:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:It's a good career.
SPEAKER_01:It is. Even if it was
SPEAKER_02:very much cut short.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So some of his other credits, we have The Surrogate, all films, The Boy in Blue, Nowhere to Hide, and then his final credit was Iron Eagle 2.
SPEAKER_01:Which I haven't seen, but we had the first Iron Eagle on, and I think your first comment was, is this movie still on? And then the second comment... It
SPEAKER_02:was really long, right? Yes. Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And my second comment was?
SPEAKER_01:I can't remember. I don't remember either. I
SPEAKER_02:was like, what did I say? I have no recollection of that. Okay, so we're already at the stars of the film. Really of anybody in the film. The one who is very, well, that's rude. I shouldn't say it that way. It's rude, but there's a shred of truth in it. I was going to say notably the lead. So Glenn. Yeah. Stephen Dorff. A very young Stephen Dorff.
SPEAKER_01:You can barely even see the Stephen... He's just a baby. Yeah, he was just such a little kid.
SPEAKER_02:But it's funny because it is just... I mean, you know, puberty go through a lot. Like, when you think back to, like, Jerry O'Connell, for instance, between Stand By Me and... and like Jerry Maguire. It's kind of the same time difference between those two. And he is totally different. And the same can be said for Stephen Dorff between this film and blade. It's like 11 years.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. What happened to those 11 years?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. So yes, a baby Stephen Dorff, um, It is the first time that we have brought him up and probably the only time we'll be bringing him up. You know, just for this decade of film. But, yes, he has had a great career, still very much working. It's not like he's that old. And some of his credits include, so when he was still very young, he did have, I think, a couple episodes of Roseanne.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, really? Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So he was on that. He was on a TV show called What a Dummy. Really?
SPEAKER_01:That was the name of a show?
SPEAKER_02:That was the name of a show. Wow. Yeah. So now, kind of in the middle of his career, I have films. SFW. Never saw that film, but I have heard of it. I shot Andy Warhol. Of course, Blade. Yeah. What's his name in Blade? Is it Deacon? Deacon Frost. Deacon Frost. Yeah. So he's really good in that. He is in Cecil B. Demented. Yeah. Public Enemies. Bucky Larson, colon, Born to be a Star. Okay. Leatherface. Hmm. So kind of like all these like late stage... either reimaginings or sequels, I guess, to Texas Chainsaw. Yeah. And then the rest of what I have for him, I mean, he has been on a lot of different TV shows.
SPEAKER_01:A ton of TV. Kind of like
SPEAKER_02:guest star roles, but
SPEAKER_01:as
SPEAKER_02:far as shows where he's had maybe a little bit more of a recurring role, a TV show actually just called Star, so he was on that. Oh, okay. True Detective. Yeah. So he's on a season of True Detective. Deputy, I think he was the headliner of that TV show.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think so. Was he the deputy? I
SPEAKER_02:think he was the deputy.
SPEAKER_01:He was the deputy. Yes. Let's just go. No, he was sheriff. He was the sheriff. Oh, he was the
SPEAKER_02:sheriff on a show called Deputy? Son of a bitch. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Yes. And then also The Righteous Gemstones. Really? I can't remember. Probably the season we haven't watched yet. Fair enough. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He was in a ton of TV. The reason we probably won't talk about him much again is because he was on a lot of TV when he was a kid.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:A couple episodes of Different Strokes, Family Ties. He
SPEAKER_02:was 1,000% child actor who has transitioned into an adult actor. All right. We're going to fly through the rest of these people because- Let's go. Very small cast. I'm curious. I don't really look at- So I don't know what the budget was for this, but considering that it's all children for the most part, and it's like one location, a very small cast, like probably all the money went to the practical and special effects.
SPEAKER_01:Of course. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:So probably a fairly economical film, I would say. Christina Denton, or not Christina, Krista. I apologize. Krista Denton. So she plays Ale, who is Glenn's older sister.
SPEAKER_01:Alexandra. Alexandra. Yes, she would
SPEAKER_02:prefer to be called Alexandra. Correct. Her IMDB credit is L. And we do talk about this with Chris about the nature of their sibling relationship.
SPEAKER_01:We do.
SPEAKER_02:It's pretty good. You know, it felt like pretty normal. You know, like she's older. She wants to do her own thing. She has her own friends. She's like trying to kind of be cool. She throws a party at their house. It's
SPEAKER_01:super lame. But it is a
SPEAKER_02:super lame party.
SPEAKER_01:My
SPEAKER_02:God. But she still is like a caring sister. Like when Glenn cries, she is sincerely like concerned about him, tries to make him feel better about it. When she's kind of a jerk to him and leaves him home alone, she feels bad about it, comes back. tells him that she's bought... Like, he's into rockets. So she had bought a rocket for him. So she's not a terrible big sister. She's not like Chet from Weird Science.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, she's not.
SPEAKER_02:She's just like a regular teenager. And she does have other credits, but her last... I think she... was probably a child actor who, this happens a lot. Child actors are like, yeah, I don't want to do this anymore. And they like phase out and they just like start the next chapter of their lives. And I think that's what happened with her. So some of her credits, we have a film called Mickey and Maude. Mickey plus mod. Okay. The TV movie only because, um, this must've been a remake of there's a, the film, the bad seed. So I think it's just another version of that, that film, 8 million ways to die. Uh, a couple of TV appearances. And then her last credit was all the way back in 1990. So almost 35 years ago. So that's why I feel pretty confident saying that she just like phased out of this. And it was a film called Ellen's father. Hmm. So that's it. All right. Okay. So very interesting person who's up next. You did ask, like, is it Louie or Louis? I was just going to call him Louis. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:probably.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So Louis Tripp, he is Glenn's buddy. He is his neighbor and friend, Terry. And he, to me, is a super interesting character. He was amazing. Yeah. I mean, honestly, he's more interesting than Glenn. Yeah. Stephen Dorff's a great actor, even as a kid. So like he is an interesting character to follow. But Terry, as a character, just had a lot more interesting stuff about him. He lost his mom. that is referenced in the film
SPEAKER_01:yeah
SPEAKER_02:he is a little kid who is still figuring out his grief and how to channel that it seems like in this moment in time he is channeling it through like metal heavy metal music
SPEAKER_01:amazing
SPEAKER_02:uh yeah and uh you know it seems like from the brief glimpses that we get of his home life his dad's also struggling with um the loss of his wife and being a single parent the house seems to be very much in disarray there's like garbage everywhere. He's left home alone, which is why I think he's constantly sleeping over at Glenn's house.
SPEAKER_01:And
SPEAKER_02:Glenn's
SPEAKER_01:dad, they know. They know that whole family's going through it. They're
SPEAKER_02:kind to him. They're letting him have a soft place to land at their house. So he's a really interesting character, to be quite honest. Not a ton of acting credits, but he's the only returning character for... gate to the trespassers.
SPEAKER_01:I'm so happy to hear that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I'm so glad for that. So, um, and then, yeah, I mean, he has nine total acting credits. One that I have listed here is actually uncredited, but I brought it up because it's Detroit rock city.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Um,
SPEAKER_01:and it's all about kiss, right? I mean,
SPEAKER_02:yeah, it's like, it's what, it's kind of like, um, is it kind of like the kiss version of like grateful dead where it's like these fans who like chase the band?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And it has John Connor in it, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. It does. I think John Connor is in this movie.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And then the reason why I listed that is because his next credit was over 20 years later. And in 2020, he was in a short called Sacrifice. Okay. So... OK, so moving on. And you know what? I only included these two people because otherwise I would have already been done with the cast of characters. And that's the show, folks, because it's pretty much those
SPEAKER_01:three. However, it really is those three plus all the minions.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, it really is. But I did think it was fun because they were quite annoying, especially the one with the hair. And I don't know which is which. I'm going to say that real, real honestly right now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:There are these two girls that are friends of Ale.
SPEAKER_01:God, they're so... They're such awful people. I mean, they're good actors, I guess, because... Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:they're annoying teens.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. They're good at acting like annoying teens.
SPEAKER_02:They're just like teenage girls who are interested in boys and shopping and trying to be cool. So they are... Although, are they twins? I don't think they were supposed to be. But maybe like a year apart then or something like that? Maybe. So one is called Lori Lee and the other is called Linda Lee. The character names.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, let's just say they're twins.
SPEAKER_02:So they may be twins. And... My apologies because I don't know how to... I was looking at the adult pictures of the actresses who respectively played each.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I don't know who's who. It's tough because they were kids. Yes. And then IMDb usually uses more current photos of everyone. So especially for Steven Dorff, yeah, that actually... I can recognize him easier in IMDb than in the movie. Correct. But... If you don't know who the actors are and were watching stuff from the 80s and they were kids in the 80s, you look them up now, you're like, I have no idea. Exactly. Yeah. But here's the thing.
SPEAKER_02:Outside of Stevendorf, these two have had the most robust... Okay. All right. So we are going to start with Kelly Rowan. She plays Lori Lee.
SPEAKER_01:I have a quick break on the financials associated with the movie. Oh, yeah, sure. Breaking
SPEAKER_02:news.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Budget of$6 million. Box office gross of$13.5. Okay,
SPEAKER_02:so it made its money back.
SPEAKER_01:Enough to make a sequel.
SPEAKER_02:That$6 million is honestly, to me, surprisingly high, especially in 1980s money. But it must have gone to all the practicals.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Back
SPEAKER_01:to the show.
SPEAKER_02:Back to the show. So Kelly Rowan, among her credits, a little bit of a mix of film and television. Earlier in her career, mostly films. I have The Long Road Home, Hook.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay. Nice. With Robin Williams and Julia Roberts. Who is Hook?
SPEAKER_02:Hook, I think, is Dustin Hoffman.
SPEAKER_01:That's what I thought.
SPEAKER_02:Robin Williams is Peter Pan.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And isn't Julia Roberts Tinkerbell?
SPEAKER_01:I think so.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. She is in Candyman colon Farewell to the Flesh.
SPEAKER_01:That sounds awful.
SPEAKER_02:So I've heard that the Candyman sequels are not that great.
SPEAKER_01:God, you've already said it twice. How many times do you have to say it?
SPEAKER_02:I think it's like five times.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay. We're good. But
SPEAKER_02:the most recent... And it's not a reboot. It's just a... And it's not a reimagining. I guess it technically is. It would also be like a sequel.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But it's a really interesting sequel. Anyway, this isn't a podcast about Candyman. But I think that they did a really good job of bringing it back to the original story. Okay. Good. Yeah. The original Candyman is more psychological and has more cultural implications than being really a horror movie in the conventional
SPEAKER_01:sense of it. They definitely were trying to go back to that kind of storytelling for the more recent one. But
SPEAKER_02:even though the original Candyman was successful, they were like, great, we're going to make it more of a generic horror film. And so I think that it was kind of a return to form, so to speak, with the most recent film. Okay. She is in Assassins. She was in the TV miniseries Lonesome Dove, The Outlaw Years, 187, Three to Tango, and then some TV work. We have Boomtown. She was on the show The O.C. for quite a while. She had a pretty major role in that. TV show called Perception. And then just a lot of one-offs for TV appearances or... Being part of like different TV movies.
SPEAKER_01:Was that Laurie or Linda Lee? Laurie. Laurie. So that was Kelly Rowan. Okay. Correct.
SPEAKER_02:And then we have Linda Lee played by Jennifer Irwin. So she also has a pretty robust filmography. Some of her credits, Mrs. Winterborn, A Cool Dry Place, Superstar. She's in that. I put this one in and it's not too... embarrass her i just think it's atrocious that this is the credit that they used for her she's in a film called meet prince charming
SPEAKER_01:and
SPEAKER_02:her
SPEAKER_01:credit oh no oh no that's unfortunate oh i'm sorry i'll let you go ahead
SPEAKER_02:no that's totally fine
SPEAKER_01:yeah do
SPEAKER_02:you want to say what her credit
SPEAKER_01:is sure i'll say it she so she was in 1999's meet prince charming as herpes woman
SPEAKER_02:yeah
SPEAKER_01:yeah
SPEAKER_02:Of all the credits, that's what you go with?
SPEAKER_01:That's not what I'm guessing for a Meet Prince Charming. Yeah, it must
SPEAKER_02:be a very modern take.
SPEAKER_01:If you told me that there was a movie called Meet Prince Charming, the fact that there was anyone cast as the herpes woman would be like last on the things I would guess.
SPEAKER_02:She was also in the film No Strings Attached. And then the other credits I have for her, all TV work, Inside Schwartz, The Gavin Crawford Show. Still standing, breaking in. You will appreciate this one. I don't know who she is in it, but she was in Eastbound and Down.
SPEAKER_01:So she's Cassie Powers. So she was like a relative maybe? A sister? She's in like 16 episodes of it, so she's in a lot of it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, I loved that show up until I didn't.
SPEAKER_01:If you don't like streaming shows that start off great that turn to crap.
UNKNOWN:Yeah, I know. I know.
SPEAKER_02:She was in iZombie and then the show that I like to throw shade at, The Goldbergs.
SPEAKER_01:She is also in one show or one episode of a show that we both really enjoy that we are currently watching, in
SPEAKER_02:fact.
SPEAKER_01:Pax?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I wonder who she is in Hacks.
SPEAKER_01:And my last credit that I'm going to give her because I have complicated thoughts on this movie because I like some of the music. I like, I guess, the legacy, if you will.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:She was in Blues Brothers 2000.
SPEAKER_02:Oh,
SPEAKER_01:okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
UNKNOWN:Gotcha.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Which while it was generally like just not great compared to the original, still kind of fun. I still had some fun moments. Sure. Yeah. Film synopsis. What do we got?
SPEAKER_02:Kids left home alone. I should preface. Accidentally unleash a horde of... I can't say this word. Malevolent. Thank you. Demons from a mysterious hole in their suburban backyard. That works for me. That's pretty much it with a bow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I was a little worried at first. I don't know. No,
SPEAKER_02:it's actually pretty accurate. And the funny thing is that... Even though we've talked about– honestly, I don't even think I can really call them strong subplots because it's just, like, we get little glimpses here and there of, like, Ale, you know, wanting to be this, like, popular teen and Terry going through this, like– Grieving process of his... Use my words. Grieving process of his mother.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It is really focused almost exclusively on this hole and these demons that are brought forth from it and the kids trying to survive it. Yeah. So it is a pretty, pretty tight synopsis.
SPEAKER_01:Huh. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Okay. Yeah, I agree. All
SPEAKER_02:right. Well, on that note, let's get into it with our special returning guest, Chris. Let's do it. All right. Oh, my goodness. I'm so thrilled for a lot of reasons. I'm thrilled because this is going to be our first guest of season five, actually. Yeah. So this is so fun to return to this. I'm also so stoked because we just love this person. This is actually going to be his third time on the show. And of course, I think at this point, A lot of people know that horror, horror adjacent films are some of my favorite. We've had him on the show for those very type of films. We had him all the way back in season two for Day of the Dead. Then we had him return in season three for The Fly. So we highly encourage you guys to go back to those episodes to check out his thoughts on both of those respective films. And today we have Chris Sexton Fletcher back on the show, filmmaker, associate professor of film at State College We are going to talk about and break down The Gate. Chris, welcome back.
SPEAKER_03:Wow, that's the best introduction I've ever gotten. I'm going to clip that and put that on my website.
SPEAKER_01:It's also
SPEAKER_02:true. We love having you on the
SPEAKER_01:show. If you do that, though, you have to clip that music that the Chicago Bulls would use when they were doing the intros. Just sync that up.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, it'll be like the splash page before you get into the website you have to
SPEAKER_02:listen to. You have to watch it or listen to it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, every
SPEAKER_02:time. Thank
SPEAKER_03:you very much. I'm so glad to be back. And I didn't know I was the first for season five, you said?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you know what? I will put this out there. First of all, you know, hopefully at this point, you're always welcome on the show for anything. Sweet. Sweet. That we are friends with a good number of people who have a love of cinema and in particular love sometimes calling out films that aren't as well known. And that's why I'm really excited to talk about this film. That's cool. You introduced us to this film. What? Yeah. Never seen it before last night. Never had seen it. Yep.
SPEAKER_03:Amazing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I have a lot of questions. First of all, who do you think you are?
SPEAKER_02:No, let's dive in because I'm... Very curious. Chris, how did this film come on your radar?
SPEAKER_03:Every time I've been on here, I feel like I basically tell the same story about I didn't watch horror growing up because I was afraid of it. So I'd walk through Suncoast video and see the video covers and be like, I have to leave now. Hyperventilate, you know, and then think about it for two weeks. All the covers that I saw of the VHS tapes. So I was like not a horror person at all. And so I didn't see The Gate. I saw it last October was the first time I saw it. And so it wasn't that long ago. So I'm like, oh, I feel all kinds of pressure now. I got to have some good things to say about this movie that I recommended because I think I emailed you and said we should talk about The Gate and you were like, Derek was just talking or you were listening back to something that he just said something about The Gate on.
SPEAKER_02:That is true. You brought it up in one of our episodes, Derek. Oh, it kept being referenced on our like suggestion list.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think at one point it was available on Netflix. Now it's not. It's on Amazon Prime, but it kept it kept popping up in like the recommended.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like movies. Yeah. Netflix. We just, we just didn't watch it. So Mike, we talked about it. We were going to, I think we would have probably given it a shot later this year if we hadn't been covering it for this. Cool. So Chris. Yeah. So how I
SPEAKER_03:found it. I can tell you. So my friend John and I, he lives elsewhere. He lives in Milwaukee. We like to watch movies together, and we thought, let's try to sync up. Let's watch movies in a watch party on Amazon. I don't even know if they have that anymore. But we actually sync up our movies. It feels very much like kids with their... boomboxes in separate rooms or something you know so we'll do that and then we'll like chat online and watch movies together every once in a while and so but we spend like forever going like do you want to watch this one do you want to watch that one it's like there's too many options so i think that's just like the gate was on amazon and i was like what's this like this looks like it's a good length and it has people in it and i don't it's got a the poster's crazy it has people so yeah it was definitely like i don't know i've never heard of this movie before um and so i thought oh we'll just give it a try and i'm not like i haven't watched a bunch i'm not like a horror completist like i've seen a lot of the big ones and then This was like kind of a deep cut I hadn't heard of before for me anyway. And so then we watched it and as I was watching it, I was like, I can't believe I haven't seen this before. And this is like the best movie I've ever seen. Well, I was having a really good time watching it. So that's kind of, I don't know, even know how I remembered to like contact you guys, but I think I had just listened to the Ladyhawk episode.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_03:And I was enjoying that so much. I was like, I want to talk to them about the
SPEAKER_02:gate. So when you guys decided on this film or just in general, do you always pick a film that neither of you have seen?
SPEAKER_03:That's what winds up happening. I think we just did it again the other day and we were like, oh, we should watch a movie together. And then as soon as it was like, oh, I've seen that, I've seen that, we usually end up on something we haven't seen. So we just watched the ninth configuration the other day. I don't know if you've seen that.
SPEAKER_01:No. Have you? I'm just up to the fifth configuration.
SPEAKER_03:I think we actually needed ten configurations to figure the movie out because...
SPEAKER_02:Well, I want to say something really quickly before we dive into the movie proper because that's actually one thing I really love. And you have brought up before the fact that you're not necessarily... quote a horror guy or horror completionist that's why it's been so fun to have you on the show because you always pick something really new and different I mean I knew The Fly but I actually hadn't watched Day of the Dead and so now this being your third time on the show each film is so different from the one previous and I really love that
SPEAKER_03:yeah that's cool I'm glad to hear that yep I actually don't even like I thought it was funny to realize like oh yeah every time it's a horror film when I'm on here but it's because Because oftentimes my wife and I, Bethany, will watch movies together and we're not watching horror movies together. So every once in a while I can push it and be like, we should watch The Babadook because it's very feminist or something, or it's very psychological. But then if it's a dumb horror movie, if I may say so, or a movie that's really gory or something, She's not going to go for it. So I'm like, I got to find somebody to watch this movie with. So then it's like, I'll watch it for this podcast. That'll
SPEAKER_01:be great. Which one of those would you call the gate? Would you say that it's overly gory or dumb?
SPEAKER_03:I don't think it is either
SPEAKER_00:one.
SPEAKER_03:I am currently teaching a horror film class online. I think some of my students think that it's dumb. So they're writing reviews about like, oh, well, this must be for older people who lived through this period. And they might not be wrong. People lived
SPEAKER_01:through this period.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's interesting. It almost felt like it was two different movies to me. Yeah, yeah. The first half of it was also a movie, and then the second half, it really gets going in the second
SPEAKER_03:half. Yeah, it does. It's also another movie.
SPEAKER_02:It goes bonkers in the second half, which I absolutely love. To rewind just a little bit, though. Okay. I would say that this is a horror film. It is an interesting horror film to me because, I mean, for all of our episodes, just so if anybody hasn't ever tuned in before, spoiler alert.
SPEAKER_01:And welcome.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and
SPEAKER_01:welcome, first of all. Also, you've never been listening to us for a while, but okay.
SPEAKER_02:But spoiler alert, we're going to obviously go through it. And so I preface that because nobody dies, right?
SPEAKER_01:Or am I missing something? Nobody stays dead. Nobody stays dead.
SPEAKER_02:That's a great way of putting it. Nobody stays dead. Not even the dog. Not even
SPEAKER_03:the dog. We need to talk about the dog.
SPEAKER_02:We do need to talk about the dog. Actually, you know, we can go all over the place in this podcast. So there's no linear anything. Let me find my agenda. So, Chris, what are your thoughts on the role of Angus? I love that
SPEAKER_03:name. So, yeah. So Angus, the dog– is probably one of the things that I love about it. Because I'm not usually like a... If I see a dog in a film, I'm like, oh, well, that's just... That's a cheap trick to use a dog. Like emotionally? Yeah, you threaten the dog and people love your movie or if it's about a dog or something. So I attend a lot of film festivals and if I see a short film with a dog in it, I'm like, this is exploitative and it's trying to manipulate me. But Angus is great because Angus dies. So it's like, now we're going to like really go for it. It's like, we're going to have a dog. We're going to kill the dog. And then we're going to walk around with the dog wrapped up in blankets. Oh my God. I just like, I can't believe like, and then also we're going to use the dog in this sequence where somebody thinks that they're hugging their dead mom, but it's actually the dog. So the dog is used in like a lot of interesting ways. So
SPEAKER_02:I'll say this, and this is something that I think is because I, I, I'm putting a pin in it for a second, but I'm saying it out loud because I don't want to forget about it. I think this film is also an homage to a lot of other 80s films or films. I will say that what this film is is so in line with other kind of like air quote family friendly or kid friendly type films where it's still super dark. Yeah. And I, I do appreciate that about the film is that like when you think about things like the dark crystal or, you know, just, um, gremlins,
SPEAKER_00:like
SPEAKER_02:it back in those, like back in the day in those days, like even gremlins or trying to think I'm getting, uh, was gremlins one of the first PG 13 or was it because of gremlins that we went to PG 13? It's one of those. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I think it was Temple of Doom. So
SPEAKER_02:maybe it was the first thing.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe Gremlins was the first PG-13.
SPEAKER_02:And this film too, PG-13. So it is intended to be seen by a younger audience, but it still goes to a very dark place. And in particular, Terry, that actually is a very horrifying scene where he thinks he's... with his mom and realizes.
SPEAKER_01:What I liked about that scene is that it went from just like strange to incredibly creepy to then like what?
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:I did not look every time you think it's going to be like a demon or like a minion. Cause at that point you don't know that the little minion demons are so cute and tiny.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like, Oh, it's going to be the fucking dog. What is happening?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. It's, it does feel like the, the, I don't want to say they threw the kitchen sink at it, but I was making a list of things that I enjoyed about this movie. And it was like, oh, they've got Treefort with a baby doll in it. That's kind of creepy. That
SPEAKER_02:doll was so creepy.
SPEAKER_03:They've got the eyeball in the hand, which doesn't even really make any sense. I was trying to figure it out this last time I was watching it. I was like, I guess it's where he was held up by the final boss demon. whatever his name was. Um, he's like, that's where he touched him maybe. So he had the eye in his hand.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. I was trying to figure out the
SPEAKER_03:logic.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And so I was like, and so the thing about this film is I think the fact that every time you turn around, you're not exactly sure what you're going to, see or what you're going to experience but it'll be in the house it's like sort of like contained within the house and it just becomes increasingly more bonkers as you said Derek it's just
SPEAKER_01:it really does it just
SPEAKER_03:kind of dials it up and there's just a sequence where it's like then this happens and then this happens and then there's like a gun in the closet that we're going to play
SPEAKER_02:with oh my gosh yes
SPEAKER_01:no no Glenn's dad doesn't like it when they play with the gun he doesn't
SPEAKER_03:no he doesn't like
SPEAKER_02:that actually I think of I mean each of the Three main characters, so Glenn, Terry, and Al, have interesting attributes. I would actually like to first dive into Terry because, I mean, this isn't necessarily fair of me, Chris. It sounds like this probably was your second viewing of the film.
SPEAKER_03:I have seen it two and a half times now.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, two and a half times. Which half did you see? So Terry lost his mom.
UNKNOWN:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:And so he is going, like, you said this to me, Derek, because I think I might have missed. Glenn's
SPEAKER_01:dad mentioned that Terry was having a hard time. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:He's having a real hard time.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So I thought Terry's character was so interesting because, so this is 87. And, you know, like the sequence where he plays the record backwards for Glenn. Like, I felt like his whole character was a commentary on, like, the satanic panic.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Definitely.
SPEAKER_02:Of the 80s. But also it was so funny to me because he's kind of this nerdy kid.
SPEAKER_01:You'd be surprised how many nerdy kids are metalheads. It's very nerdy. I was kind of
SPEAKER_02:thinking about you
SPEAKER_01:a little bit,
SPEAKER_02:Derek. Because you actually have... I mean, you have...
SPEAKER_01:I have those tastes. Yeah, exactly. Did
SPEAKER_02:you see you
SPEAKER_03:have those posters up?
SPEAKER_01:Well, not... What poster did you say you had, Derek? Oh. Oh, no. I had a picture. So Glenn is obviously like a big science, space, rocket man. Space guy, yeah. Yeah, so... I noticed that we had the same poster of Kitt Peak Observatory just south of Tucson, Arizona. There's like a poster with like this crazy lightning strike over the observatory. And I'm like, holy shit, I had that poster in my room. That's awesome. Deep cut. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. That makes me think of something. I know why I realized now like why I connected with it after my student was like, this must be for people
SPEAKER_00:who
SPEAKER_03:– who grew up to have nostalgia for this. And I was like, nostalgia? I gave them a good grade for the review, just so you know. I wasn't getting offended. But usually, I'm not a big nostalgia person. So I'm much more likely to watch or make a movie about a character returning to their childhood home and finding their decayed toys and then reminiscing than I am to be like, I need to watch a movie about something that happened during my childhood or was made during my childhood like i don't need that but then i realized i think i'm getting to an age where the gate is working on me in a nostalgic way and i and i don't care so maybe i'm i'm ready for the nostalgia because i was like i had a tree fort i remember geodes in like everybody's house somebody had a geode like i The idea of a sleepover and Walkmans and comic books and landline phones, model rockets. I had model rockets growing up. There were no guns in the closet that I know of.
SPEAKER_00:Right. But
SPEAKER_03:even like suburban developments with big yards. Now, now the yards are like a tiny strip between two gigantic houses. So in the satanic panic, like I remember all that stuff, at least I'm more of a nineties kid, but like it was still in the water, you know? So.
SPEAKER_01:It was mostly Ozzy, right? Like Ozzy Osbourne. A lot of other like. He was like the poster child for it because he was literally called the prince of darkness. Right.
SPEAKER_02:But even other bands that were honestly fairly innocent were, adults of that era looked to it
SPEAKER_01:as... Now you look at some of those older 80s metal bands and you're like, they were honestly fairly wholesome. Exactly. I was just thinking
SPEAKER_03:about KISS. As a kid, I would have been like, KISS, they're bad.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Because of the makeup.
SPEAKER_01:Even Gwar seems wholesome by some standards. Actually, that's really
SPEAKER_03:funny.
SPEAKER_01:If you listen to a
SPEAKER_02:Kiss song, it's kind of poppy. A lot of them.
SPEAKER_03:Let me tell you about the first time I actually listened to Bat Out of Hell. I was like, what the heck is this?
SPEAKER_02:And so that's why Terry is such an interesting character to me because... I actually can see that he's trying to channel something in a way that seems a little bit conflictual. Conflictual? Is that a word? No. Okay, well, is it a word? Okay, thank you. Let's
SPEAKER_03:say it is. I think it is.
SPEAKER_02:You guys know what I'm saying. So that conflicts with like what... he seems to be like he is trying to work through his feelings but also i think it's hilarious that oh
SPEAKER_01:my god it is a real thank you characterized by conflict or disagreement
SPEAKER_02:okay thank you
SPEAKER_01:yeah
SPEAKER_02:um but i do appreciate that terry just happens to have the album yes a record that explains the entire situation
SPEAKER_01:was it like the dark book or something or yeah
SPEAKER_03:the dark book
SPEAKER_01:yeah and
SPEAKER_02:and
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, go ahead. Sacrifice, it's called. Okay. The band. But basically...
SPEAKER_02:Something dwarfs on his jacket that's also, I guess, a real band. I
SPEAKER_03:guess that is a real band.
SPEAKER_02:From
SPEAKER_01:Canada, I think? Something.
SPEAKER_02:I
SPEAKER_01:don't know. Desperately, I know that there is a gate too, but I kind of want a gate prequel. And I want it to be all about that band.
SPEAKER_02:To your point about nostalgia, I do love that... I always appreciate in films when they show kids with kind of these like interesting kind of nerdy interests that might just be my own kind of leaning. But like the fact that Glenn is really into rockets and he's really into geodes slash rocks.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. No, he's in a nerdy kid stuff,
SPEAKER_02:right? Yeah. Like, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I, I haven't gone down this rabbit hole, but even from the jump, because I think this ties into nostalgia and especially how, as of late, referencing 80s anything is really popular in both film and television. I swear that, like, the font and the look of the opening credits is, like, almost exactly what Stranger Things uses.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah. I was wondering about that because, actually, I haven't watched Stranger Things. Oh, fascinating. I watched part of the first episode. So I haven't seen much, but I remember the little bit of Stranger Things I've seen. I was like, that looks like the basement in the kid's house. It feels like a Stranger Things set or something to me, but I haven't watched any of it really. But there's an element of that.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. And there are a couple other references where I was like, oh, I do really feel like Stranger– I know it's been on record that Stranger Things has pulled from– more well-known films and television shows of that era. But I feel like this has to be something that inspired them. But also I think it's really interesting then when you watch a film like this, like I, I didn't know this film until literally last night. Well, we hadn't seen it until literally last night. I've known about it for a couple months because Chris and I were talking, but seeing this film, it's like a weird, I don't know if I'm going to be able to articulate this, but it's like a weird kind of backwards, nod because of shows now like stranger things where you like there's almost like a deeper appreciation because i'm seeing how it inspired more recent works if that makes sense
SPEAKER_01:that makes a lot of sense so i
SPEAKER_02:just
SPEAKER_01:i love that um so you're almost like i i enjoyed the gate more because yes of of seeing something like stranger things yes yeah yeah and seeing yeah Makes a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, go ahead, Chris.
SPEAKER_03:One of the things that I do like about it is it has a very... It feels like a pretty lived-in, real kind of space. Yes. And one of the things I like about movies is when you feel like there's a tactile, textural quality to it, you feel like you might be able to walk into the space and kind of live there. It doesn't look set-dressed. It doesn't look fake. It looks like a real kid's... kind of dirty, probably grungy bedroom with like just stuff everywhere. And that's at one point there's like a whirlwind inside his bedroom and there's just like crap flying everywhere. And it feels like, yeah, that's just all that stuff. That's like all over his room. But it doesn't feel like somebody went in there and was like, we're going to make this look really eighties. Cause it was, you know, it was made in the eighties. So they weren't thinking about it in that sort of like retro thing way. And so it doesn't, it has a much more of an authentic feel now. that were like kind of 80s obsessed there's no pink anywhere really you know but now like the 80s is filtered through um like a vapor wave sort of aesthetic and so things look different which i really like that aesthetic but this feels like an actual you know like place i would remember being in like it's mostly like primary colors and and things and like the telephone on the wall is not a pink one. It's a red one. And it's like, I just, and I'm like going like, I don't know. Nostalgia wise. I'm like, I don't know if I remember everything looking like that, but this is like really does strike a chord of like, this is a different time in a different place. And I really just enjoy the fact that we stay in that house most of the time. And we just kind of move from room to room and things are happening in that house. And there's, And even when it goes completely bonkers by the end, you feel like you're kind of cycling through different weird things happening. But you get the cool parts of a bunch of different movies. There's definitely a Lucio Fulci kind of weird... like demon, like not demons, zombies in the walls all of a sudden. Yeah. And so I was like, Oh yeah, cool. This is like, now it's just all these like greatest hits of all these different things. I like, um, because they were just like throwing things at the wall to like, Be like, this is what's going to happen next. But it feels like a dream you're having almost. And I think that's another thing I like about it. It's very dreamlike. But it's also not explained away as it was only a dream. It's like, no, this really happened. Angus died. And this kid buried him in the backyard, completing the sacrifice that needed to be made so that the devil could come out of a hole in the ground. So it's very grounded while also being like a fantasy. So it's like that. I don't know. It's cool. I like the genre, I guess, of the 80s fantasy horror. I
SPEAKER_01:got a little confused with the different sacrifices because I view the dogs and I'm like, there's a second. It doesn't have to be human.
SPEAKER_02:What are these rules? I want to say, first of all, it's so wild. You brought up a lot of really great points, Chris, and it's hilarious because I was actually just going to go down that road about groundedness and the authenticity of what we're seeing in this world. Because in particular, I think one of the more... I wouldn't say anything wasn't realistic in terms of the way that they set up this home and this family, per se, but I loved... l's party because that to me felt like a real high school party where it's like kind of lame kind of awkward like people are kind of dancing but they're like like it felt so much more like a grounded high school party than so many other films
SPEAKER_00:i see
SPEAKER_02:and i loved that so much about it um And I will say, like, you're absolutely right. It obviously was made in the 80s. So seeing some of that apparel was so funny. The one girl's bangs.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, my God. Oh,
SPEAKER_02:my God. Like, I just I loved everything about that. I thought that that was amazing. You brought up another really good point about especially like the second half of the film feeling like it's kind of dreamlike. And when we, you know, Derek and I, we throw this film on. We don't know what we're about to watch. It opens hot. It opens hot. And I remember, like, I was like, this has to be a dream, right? And so I think that's a really interesting kind of almost like a bookend that it starts with a dream. And then essentially the whole second half of the film, you're absolutely right. It all actually occurred, but it does also feel very dreamlike.
SPEAKER_01:That opening was like a, like blood sport levels of like, how long are we going to make this flashback or dream sequence? Right, right, right.
SPEAKER_02:And it's an interest. Oh, go ahead.
SPEAKER_03:No, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:No, I was just going to say that like for the three leads seeing the, You know, obviously Glenn is kind of our protagonist and the person that's leading us through this story.
SPEAKER_01:He does a lot of standing around while people are almost dying.
SPEAKER_02:He does do... Chris, did you clock that? That he kind of just watches?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think part of it is... One of the things I like about it, I realized when... you were riffing off of what I was saying is like, it's, it's kind of told from his point of view, which is I think why the party feels real. Cause it's like, these are like older kids having a party instead of it being like, um, a fan service party for like older people remembering it. So you have to make everybody seem cool because it's actually you you're watching having your old high school party. It's actually a kid's movie. This is a family movie for little kids to be like, this is what teenagers are like. And so we can look at it and be like, no, they're still kids too. So I think because we're watching things from his point of view, he's our point of view character, that it really helps. And so maybe that explains why he's just standing around. And sometimes he sees things and people are like, what? And he's like, oh, just never mind. Like this sense in which he sort of is just along for the ride because he's the little brother. So yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:There was something really cute and wholesome, actually, during the party where, you know, he and Terry are up in his room and he's still, I think, kind of toying around with like the geode and stuff. And Terry wants to go downstairs and Glenn is not really interested at all. And that felt like a big departure as well from a lot of films that you usually see where like, you know, the air quote, annoying little sibling wants to. Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And he actually wants kind of nothing to do with the party. And I thought that that was an interesting choice made with his character as well. I really quickly, just in case, because I look, this is a little bit of a deeper cut film, I think. I think horror fans probably have it on their radar. I was doing a little bit of digging when we were watching the film and seeing, you know, for a lot of people, it's kind of a cult status type film as well. This is Stephen Dorff's first film role. And he's fairly, like he, to me, seems younger than even 12 years old. And I guess he was like a little bit older even when he filmed it. So he's kind of like a, just, he hit his growth spurts, I think, later in life. But how did you feel about him as a child actor in this role? How, was it successful for you? I
SPEAKER_03:think for me, like I, yeah, it could be, For me, I enter the film through him.
SPEAKER_00:And
SPEAKER_03:so I think the fact... I was actually thinking when I was watching it this most recent time, like, oh, he's pretty good. As far as if I had... I'm always thinking about if I made this movie, what would I do? And I'm like, oh, yeah, if he was giving me that performance in this kind of a movie, I would be happy with it. Because he doesn't really seem self-conscious about what he's saying. Like... I don't know. You can feel free to disagree. But I definitely felt like, no, he's good enough for what he's doing. And I could see how he went on to go make more interesting things as he got older. But it seems like he's actually kind of made some cult classic-y sort of stuff as well. So he just started out that way and kept going. But I like his performance. I like the fact that he has a lot of great zingers. that he gets to deliver. Like, why don't you run off and join the circus?
SPEAKER_02:Stuff like that. And what was the one about suck on my nose until my head caves in?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, suck on my nose until my head caves in. I've
SPEAKER_02:never heard that
SPEAKER_03:in my life. She's like, drop dead, or whatever. It's a great back and forth between them. He really hates those sisters.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he doesn't. I thought he was... Understandably so. He was a very believable kid in a movie where very little was believable believable like even his reaction to like levitating and then him like crying because he got scared because yeah a little kid would be scared shitless if they started levitating he
SPEAKER_03:just wants to call his parents
SPEAKER_02:oh my gosh i know actually that is a great segue into
SPEAKER_01:when i was like nice try and i think i said was it because like she's right there
SPEAKER_02:he was very
SPEAKER_01:she's gonna
SPEAKER_03:come to the door
SPEAKER_02:I think it's a really interesting dynamic between Glenn and Al. I mean, when she was convincing her parents... Look, Derek and I, we don't have kids, so hard to really weigh in from an informed perspective. But she still seemed really young to be... watching over the house but also maybe it was like more of an 80s thing not so much helicopter parenting in
SPEAKER_01:the 80s everyone's parents were going away for a few days like Terry
SPEAKER_02:was home alone that broke my heart that he was just and the house didn't look like it was particularly
SPEAKER_01:cared for
SPEAKER_02:I thought that was a really interesting choice as well to bring like another very like dark level of grounding
SPEAKER_00:in
SPEAKER_02:the film to show that like his dad's really not taking care of him and Just getting those little glimpses. Derek, what were you saying? Where he was eating old pizza?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, well, yeah. I thought just how upset he was, annoyed when he got home and his dad wasn't there and the house was a mess and he took that slice of pizza and just ate it crust-side first like a maniac.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But the relationship in particular between Glenn and Al, I thought was... I liked seeing it. Like sometimes she was very annoying with him. I felt bad for him because like, especially when like Angus died, she doesn't seem particularly concerned about like how they're like, and she's like, don't worry. Like, he's like, what'd you do with the body? She's like, don't worry about it. I'm like, don't worry about it. Like, why would you not share with your sibling? Weird thing to say. Yeah. Like just some of, some of the encounters were strange. Obviously she's acting like a, I guess typical teenager and wanting to have a party and leaving him. But then there were a lot of really sweet moments between them. Um, and the one that I thought was really nice as like a big sisters when he did cry in front of the party and she was like, it's not a big deal. Like I, I just liked those little touches of, of the interactions between them and that she does care. She's just also a teenager, you know? So, um,
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and none of it really felt like those little moments. I like what you're saying about Terry being next door. There's things that are convenient for the story, right? It's really convenient that he doesn't have a parent next door so he can come sleep over. But at the same time, it doesn't feel like that when you're watching it. And so I think a lot of the little moments that are nice in there feel organic. And then you've got, at the same time, I think some of the stuff that Al says is... expository she's like so what's under there like when they've covered the hole over so she has quite a few like lines where it's like well she's just moving the story forward and I think that's part of the mismatch but I do think you're right because by the time she's like no I can't go to the beach you know she's feeling responsible for her little brother and that things have having gone wrong she's worried about getting in trouble when her parents get home. And so there's a sense in which you can kind of see that relationship. And in the beginning, it almost feels like she's like, hello, I am the sister because she says, my name is Alexandra. It's not Al, but actually it makes sense that she's probably been telling him like, I don't want to be Al anymore. And so it's nice that there's a couple of themes that run through. One is like the loss of like a family member and like death is, you know, hanging over the film. And then also this idea of like, siblings and like growing up. Cause she, he's going like, she's not interested in rockets anymore. And, and so there's, there's these things, but they're not like, they don't really rub your nose in it. It's not like written in such a way and cut in such a way that we have to like sit there and wait for the beat to happen. And maybe it's just like a pre save the cat movie or whatever. So we're not sitting there going like, okay, this is the part where this happens. It, it, and it's maybe a little messier so that you're, when you're looking back at it, you're like, oh, those things are all actually in there. They're just not where I expected them.
SPEAKER_01:Especially like... I was going to say it certainly is not a movie where when something happens, I'm expecting something else to happen because every single time my expectations would have been proved wrong.
SPEAKER_02:Subverted.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Like I wouldn't have– and part of it when I think the enjoyment of watching it the first time was like going like, oh, I can't believe they went there in this kid's movie. Yeah. Yeah. Like stomping on one of the demons and then it's like he's kind of squished or whatever and he's like struggling on the ground like a bug and it's like, oh, that's gross. Yeah. There's a lot of gross stuff in it. Somebody's... Yeah, his dad, like his quote-unquote dad, shows up and then he pushes his hand through his face or something. There's a lot of really gross stuff going on in it. it's drippy and wet in places.
SPEAKER_02:That particular scene, I thought for sure something was going to happen because like Glenn kept looking at the goo on his hands. Yeah. And I thought, I just thought that like, Oh, is he going to get infected? Like, I didn't know how that was going to play out, but that's a great segue to like, let's get into like all the craziness of this film because.
SPEAKER_01:Can I just say that I loved the demons, uh, embracing of technology because they didn't have to they didn't have to call him on the phone just to say you've been there why did they do that why did they do it that way
SPEAKER_03:that's great it's true they don't talk otherwise except on the phone
SPEAKER_02:well okay so maybe i i gotta ask you so again we're gonna go all over the place here but chris when Terry goes down, first of all, that was another, I felt homage a little bit when Terry goes down the hole that felt very Goonies to me. Yeah. Um, the, like when they go through similar tunnels and eventually make it into the water to one, I'd really ship, but in any case,
SPEAKER_01:like the GoPro perspective. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. It was very fun. So when Terry was down there, he, you know, sees first one little demon. He says, hi, but I swear demon says hi back.
SPEAKER_01:I thought it said, hey. Or hey. Did it really? I think so. I
SPEAKER_02:thought so. I thought they were going to have a
SPEAKER_03:talk. I need to watch it again.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I thought that like the demons potentially were capable of human, like not even human speech, but like English.
SPEAKER_01:I thought the demon, like the minion or whatever showed up and was all, hey. Yeah. And that's when Terry.
SPEAKER_03:I need to watch it. I need to watch that part again.
SPEAKER_02:And then you're right. And then Terry says, hi. Yeah. Like, he responds. Yeah. Instead of being the one to instigate. And then he just
SPEAKER_03:takes a chomp out of his leg or something. Yeah, it's so great.
SPEAKER_02:So, okay, so this world, like, you know, Terry also does a lot of exposition and, like, basically reading off the back cover of the record. Yeah. And explaining to Glenn exactly what's happening.
SPEAKER_03:You know what I really liked, though, was the fact that the first time it's brought up, and I feel like they undercut themselves. So here's the filmmaker talking. Yeah. When it's first... Terry starts making the connection. He's listening to the music. And it's hard to kind of make out what's going on. I put the subtitles on to see it. But it's actually like... he's listening to the track and what they're talking about makes him think about the hole in the backyard. And there's this way that it's like really organic exposition in that way. Yeah. Of course he put on the right record, but like, you can see that there it's like almost like visually going like, Oh, he's got an idea that this is what's going on. And then he winds up reading the book, which is a little, it's just kind of nice, but then he ends up explaining it 14 times in the rest of the movie. So I was like, well, it was an organic way of doing it and beyond did it. No,
SPEAKER_02:I'm actually glad that you explained that because I just didn't catch that on a first watch.
SPEAKER_03:I didn't either. So I took a second watch to be like, oh, that's what's going on.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Yeah. Um, I thought that that, and I, I don't know. Terry's just such an interesting character to me. Like this little kid seems like he's kind of going through the shit, but like he, yeah. So, okay. That makes sense. Oh,
SPEAKER_01:I have a question. What? Yes. What was the deal with the workmen? Yeah, The Workman. Let's get to The Workman. What was that about? I felt like maybe I had just gotten up and missed a critical part of the movie. I
SPEAKER_02:feel like I might have missed some dialogue.
SPEAKER_01:They all just kept referencing The Workman. I'm like, who's that?
SPEAKER_03:You know what's really funny? It's the first time I watched it, I had the same experience, basically. There's an earlier line in the film where Terry is like... talking about trying to scare glenn about something and he's like yeah i heard it when they made your house that there was like a workman that got shot up in the walls and
SPEAKER_01:oh so there's like it's
SPEAKER_03:planted early on so then later he's like i just made the story up so um yeah
SPEAKER_01:i do i did i do remember glenn saying that like the workman it's just something that terry made up and i'm like yeah
SPEAKER_03:yeah Yeah, so it's coming true. So the movie does want to be like every kind of horror movie. And I did put this with a double bill with the color out of space in my film, the Nick Cage movie from 2019. And I wasn't thinking about it at all, but there is a lot of overlap. Like the Lovecraftian horror of like the great old ones coming out of the deep. and like the the geode has like the color coming out of it's the same color from the color out of space film um that's the one place that there's like a pink in the film is like it's inside the geode or whatever so there's this there's definitely like a lovecraft like vein running through there's definitely the idea of like dreams and i think you know, it might be right that it starts with a dream. You could read the whole film as a dream. Um, just in that way that like stuff's just coming true that like the phone starts melting. I
SPEAKER_01:love that.
SPEAKER_03:And I'm glad that they didn't make everything start melting. It's just the phone. It's like, but it is like a bad dream at that point. You're like, Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's, that's fascinating to me because it's like, I will take it a little bit at face value that this all did actually happen. But within that, um, It's interesting to me that even just Terry, if say he did make it up, he did make up this workman story just to scare Glenn, that just by putting it out there, so to speak, created this, I don't know what you want, hallucination or whatever, within the reality of the demons. Because when... he popped up, like, two things were happening. One, I was like, what's happening? Because I didn't know why this was introduced into the story, but at the same time, I thought it was so well done. The practical facts, this guy and the makeup, I loved the way he looked.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:he
SPEAKER_00:looked great.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I think one of the things that was interesting was when, like, one of the times when he's, like, I don't know if he was, like, hit or something, but he basically shattered into a bunch of the minions. Oh my god,
SPEAKER_02:that was amazing.
SPEAKER_01:But it kind of shows that, like, It was this manifestation of... That explains it. Yep. Yeah. So they were just like... I forgot about that. The connection between our worlds is tenuous. Yes. And just shattered by the opening of the gate.
SPEAKER_02:And probably for me, the most... If there was anything in this film that actually scared me or got me kind of jittery, when Al is looking in the mirror...
SPEAKER_00:And the
SPEAKER_02:workman is kind of there, but he's not. Yeah. That was legit scary. That's kind of phantasm-y. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was cool. And then he comes out of the mirror and I was like, I want to make a movie like that.
SPEAKER_02:It was so good. It was really well done.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I thought that was great. And I thought that was the one place where I was like, she's very sanguine about what is happening right now. She's like, oh, did I see that? But she threw out, the kids are pretty like nonplussed. about what's going on. They're like, oh, okay. Well, we took care of it. I mean, what is the point where Terry just goes like, oh, it's working. Yeah. So it's not a big deal. She's like, I need to go get cleaned up. And I'm like, no, you need to freak out.
SPEAKER_02:And even when they're still kind of in the mix, Elle pretty quickly is like, okay, I'm going to go outside first to check things out. They are pretty... brave little kids. Although Glenn, again, he kind of does a little standing around when Terry's getting taken. It's
SPEAKER_03:true. Yeah. He's a bit stiff. He's a little kid. What are you going
SPEAKER_02:to do? He's a little kid and he's the littlest out of all of them. So, but okay. So let me, let me try to understand. So the little demons, they are the minions of the big demon.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Now
SPEAKER_01:there was that one scene with them.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. I found that fascinating. I have never seen a film where a little kid or anybody, for that matter, can reason with a demon to let them go.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. He did do
SPEAKER_02:that, didn't he? How did you feel about that, Chris?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's a good question because I was watching it last night again and going like– Hmm. He just said, let me go. And you let him go. It's kind of this like nice moment where you're almost like, feel like, Oh, this is just like a big animal or something that got mad. And then he's having a moment where he gets to talk to the wild animal and then it left him alone. And, and then he has to summon it back by like stabbing the eye and, and like sort of bring it back. But it's almost like, I guess the way I read it this time watching it was like, okay, so like, There's all these rules about all the sacrifices, so he doesn't actually need this little kid, so he's going to just let him go. But it is also very convenient that he went away so he can come back later. I
SPEAKER_01:think he didn't really let him go, and that's why he had placed the eye or whatever was associated with that. But I think aside from that, I don't know if it was a combination of that in recognition that this little kid is partly why I've been like let loose upon this world and I'll get back to him later. Or my last hypothesis is that I am looking too deeply into this moment of the film.
SPEAKER_03:That may be the case.
SPEAKER_02:I thought that was so interesting. I mean, like all you both bring up really good points. I don't, you know, really know what the impulses behind the demon letting him go ultimately but I thought that that was just because that's just something I haven't seen before
SPEAKER_01:yeah and that to me is what made it
SPEAKER_02:yeah it is what made it really interesting to me I was like oh and you're right like this moment of just the eye-to-eye contact where they're kind of like Actually, okay, this is a really weird comparison. Go ahead. But it's a little bit like Aliens. Oh. Where... A little
SPEAKER_01:bit like Alien 3, if you think about it. Well,
SPEAKER_02:I don't know what Alien 3 is.
SPEAKER_01:Well, the alien gets super up close and realizes that she has impregnated. Oh, that part. Well, I was
SPEAKER_02:going to say where Ripley is with Newt, and she's in the... Like the egg incubator area. The nest. Thank you. That's a much better word for it. And she kind of has this moment with the queen. Ultimately, it's Ripley who goes back on her word, so to speak. But they kind of have this moment where it's like, we cool? We cool? I'll walk away. I won't do anything to you if you don't do anything to me. It's not quite the same because Glenn has no power in this situation. But there's kind of this understanding for a moment. Yeah,
SPEAKER_03:definitely. Yeah. It feels like Bub or something in Day of the Dead. There's a sense of the big scary thing. Maybe I misjudged it, or maybe it's capable of reasoning in a way I didn't expect. And maybe the filmmakers just needed it to go away for a minute so it could come back. But it's a cool moment. I actually really like it. Because the... that puppet, like there's certain things about the special effects where you're like, you can kind of see like the edges of things where they like, um, uh, used optical effects to put it in, put things together. But like when you're looking at the closeup of that thing, it's eyes are pretty good. Yeah. Like it's got like teddy bear eyes, you know, like there's some depth to it. You could see it's like got actual like glass eyes or something. And you almost feel like you can understand it when you're looking at it. And so I, I, yeah, I enjoyed that moment. Um, And I think it also just really helps like his like character arc was like, no, I actually have to do something. So you're right. He is standing around a lot. So he has to actually like do something by the end. I'm just glad that the script isn't like, I'm just a little kid. And then by the end, he's like, I have to grow up now. Yeah. But you can see it happening over the film. It's like, he's got to take some responsibility. He feels guilty. At one point he's like, this is all my fault. He says to himself, like, that's the only thing you really get like that. But I did like that moment. where it's like, he feels responsible for this, even though like watching a couple of times now, I'm still like, I don't know how this initially started out. Like I missed something. Cause they're talking about like Terry earlier is going like, Oh, this is all happened because we did this. And it's like, but what was the first thing that started in motion? I don't think you did anything.
SPEAKER_01:They like, uh, they cut open the geo and they put some, some moths in a jar and like the geo put some like weird, like magnetic message on their etch a sketch and not as just hilarious. That was
SPEAKER_02:so funny to me.
SPEAKER_01:Like, Hey, let's read this
SPEAKER_02:language on the, it was like the cheap out. Yeah, yeah,
SPEAKER_03:yeah.
SPEAKER_02:To me, again, this just showed what a sweet little kid Glenn was because he says to Terry, he's like, that's cruel. And I was like, oh, I really appreciate that for an 80s movie. He's already aware of that and saying that to his friend. I don't know. Such a small moment.
SPEAKER_01:That moment was great. And I think the moment with the big demon was intense. But for me... I just have to bring this up. There was no moment more dramatic than a zoom in on the minions holding onto the stairs. The railing. The railing, yeah. There's this moment where they just zoom in on them.
SPEAKER_02:We like replayed it.
SPEAKER_03:I love those minions. They're
SPEAKER_02:fantastic. It's
SPEAKER_03:really funny that I love them because as a kid, it was like, I think I saw a commercial on TV for like Mac and Me and had nightmares. Like little gremlin-y things was like the thing I was most upset about. But watching these minions, like they're kind of gross, but they're so great. And you know, they're guys in suits. They use like forced perspective. So I kept trying to pause it and figure out like how they did it. Yeah. But it's like, they're really great.
SPEAKER_02:They're great.
SPEAKER_01:Adorable.
SPEAKER_02:They're great. I'm actually shocked from just that perspective. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. reason why I kind of felt like look I'm sure that these films were made in so to speak like such quick succession that like maybe there wasn't time to really think of it as an homage so something was like in the zeitgeist you know something was in the water but I just thought that this is right up there like obviously Gremlins is like has its own top of the level you know like there's documentaries about how hard it was to do it you know so they were on another level with it and you're right like this was these creatures were made in an entirely different way but still just executed really well
SPEAKER_01:very effective
SPEAKER_02:very effective like obviously you can tell that it's an effect but for me
SPEAKER_01:they were not in fact real demons they're not
SPEAKER_02:in fact real demon minions but it felt on par with like what i in this is several years removed. I think it's 81 clash of the Titans.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, it had kind of that similar visual for me and I embrace that. Like, I think that that's actually really fun. It doesn't bump me in the least to, to like be very aware that I am watching in effect happen. So I, I love them.
SPEAKER_01:That's where like seeing it, oh, this must be a film for someone who lived in it. That's where you have an appreciation of how, at the time, seeing something like Clash of the Titans or this would just have such a different impact. But there's something about just this tactile, visceral feel of the practical effects. Even though it can look a little janky at times, the digital effects, they can do so much with them now that it just doesn't I think probably the common refrain is that it's like you're watching a video game. Right. Yeah. So that's what I liked about the little Minion. Yeah. They were just so cute. I loved them.
SPEAKER_03:I think you kind of have to– there's got to be something. I don't know if anybody has done any research on this, but there's got to be something to do with the fact that like– People don't entirely suspend their disbelief when they're watching a movie. So you know that somebody made this thing. You're not sitting there going, I can't believe I'm watching this portal into another world where something's happening. You know you're watching a movie. So if you're like, well, somebody sat on a computer and made this thing, it doesn't feel the same as there's a guy in that suit saying, Or their claymation, because they kind of look like claymation or something. Knowing that it's a physical thing that it was made with makes it feel more, it has more weight when you watch it as a film. I think we know we're watching movies, so I think there's a way in which the fact that that actor and that other actor occupied the same space, you subconsciously know that. So it is scarier because you are, you are willing to go along with the horror of it. It's not actually scary. Like it's just, it would be scary. So you're going along with it. I think subconsciously the audience must know, like, this is actually, this happened in a real space. I don't know. That's my theory.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. No, Chris, I think that's amazing. What you just said. I think you're spot on. And like, I was thinking, God, that would make such a fascinating thesis project. Um, I was just listening– gosh, I can't believe I can't remember which– I listen to too many podcasts. But I was listening to one recently where they were talking about just that. And they were– again, I feel useless because I can't remember any names. But they were quoting someone who was referencing– just the world of CGI and computer effects nowadays, even as advanced as we've become with it, they were specifically calling out Marvel movies and saying like, you know, when you're watching a scene of Tony Stark talking to somebody, you know, he's talking to Thor in the room. You know that Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Hemsworth were actually there to film that scene. And they were talking to each other in on that soundstage or wherever they are. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. however that was accomplished versus something that was computer generated. Yep.
SPEAKER_03:Even though computer generating stuff is actually really hard. Most people don't know how to do it. So it just doesn't, I don't know how to do it. Yeah. It seems like it might be just magic.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. It doesn't. And I'm, thank you for saying that because I don't want to take away from just how, how, fucking hard it is to be a VFX artist in all its many forms. So not to, not to be dismissive of the work that they do.
SPEAKER_01:I'm not saying it's not hard. I'm just saying that it's often not quite as satisfying. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:exactly. But sometimes it is. And honestly, like that's the only way that, you know, Marvel gets most of the attention for it, but that's the only way that those stories would come to life in any capacity, because you just like, You're going to build an actual, like, Mark, what number is his suit? I can't remember anymore. Whose suit? Tony Stark's. Mark something. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Mark,
SPEAKER_03:who's this guy, Mark? What suit are we talking about?
SPEAKER_01:Mark three. Mark four. I don't know which number the suit is. But yeah, it's come an amazingly long way. But you can still tell. That's why Fury Road was so just critically acclaimed because of just the look and the feel of it. You can still tell a difference even now as far as it's all come.
SPEAKER_02:No, absolutely. I mean, I think, first of all, this has been an amazing conversation. Could not have asked for a better guest. And just so thankful that you did introduce us to this and we got to have this conversation with you, Chris.
SPEAKER_01:This pinnacle of practical effects. Yes, that's right.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, like the whole second half of this film is just like off the rails in the very best way. It makes
SPEAKER_01:the first half, it's like, okay, I kind of suffered a little bit through that first half of the movie, but it's all pay off. It's
SPEAKER_02:a lot of setup, but the payoff is massive.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:And especially like at the end where I love it so much. It really is like this pinnacle of the hero's journey for Glenn, where he's like looking out at the sky. It's like so damn dramatic.
SPEAKER_01:I spent so much time inside. I think I said like, wait, where is
SPEAKER_02:he? It's amazing. Just the, just the, like, it's almost like, um, The Luke Skywalker moment when he's looking at the scale.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking about when you said that. I was like, yeah. Binary sunset. Yeah. Yeah. It's so good. And then, like, the sky changes. Yes. It was like nighttime in the whole world. Yes. It's like, everyone's going to know that this happened, or they're going to... That's what I was wondering next. I was like, okay, so, like... That's a great question. Did people notice this happening, or... That's what... Did they know it was Glenn?
SPEAKER_02:I love that because that didn't even occur to me, but you're absolutely right. I mean, I think what I'd like to kind of close the conversation with is it kind of came up in conversation earlier, but this idea of it being a horror film, but made for kids, so to speak, and also being largely devoid of any adult Um, the, the parents are totally periphery. So you've been bad. I, I'm just curious from your perspective, Chris, you know, who, who do you think could enjoy this film the most? Who do you think it was made for? Do you think that like, I mean, you referenced your students and, and how maybe some of them felt about it. So we're talking like, very, very late teens or early, early twenties. So who do you, who's the sweet spot for this kind of film, especially since it's largely just composed of kids?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think this is probably, I was, I was thinking like, man, I wish I had kids. I'd make them watch this movie. So I definitely think that's the audience is like parents sitting down with their kids or kids that just discovered it on their own. in the eighties and got traumatized. Cause if you go online, a lot of people's reviews are like, I watched this when I was a kid and it scared the crap out of me. And so I think it definitely was made for kids, but it feels like it was like a, it is a family movie. And I think if you're somebody who can like either put yourself, I'm pretty good at like putting myself on the level of the movie. Like what is expected out of me here? Am I supposed to judge this or am I supposed to like go along with it? Um, And so I think for, but somebody like, I know my friend John would be like, I'm pretty sure he went and showed this to his kids afterward because it is like a kind of like, if you're into horror and you have children, this is like something that you could show them and you could traumatize them a little bit, but nobody actually dies. Right. So they're not going to have existential angst after watching it. They'll just be upset about the closet. Right. Which is fine, right? Everybody should think there's going to be an arm that comes out from underneath the bed and grab you. So it's already stuff you're afraid of anyway. So here's someone who triumphed over it. So I think it's for the young and the young at heart.
SPEAKER_02:And it's a good gateway horror, you know? It's in the title. It is in the title. It is in the title, yeah. Well, Chris, this has been... As always, you have brought everything to this conversation. I have had a smile on my face the entire time. It's true. Talking to you. Yeah, Derek can vouch. And, you know, when I introduced you, filmmaker, professor of film, and I'm just curious. It's been a minute since we've had you on the show. So wanted to throw it over and see if you wanted to share with anybody what you've been up to, where they can find you online, anything at all.
SPEAKER_03:Sure. Yeah, you can find me at chrisfletcherpresents.com. And on that website, you can just see some of the films I've made, stuff that's currently in film festivals. We currently have two short films that are actually three that are like out and going to festivals.
SPEAKER_02:Congratulations, friend.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you. One is still like we're like at that very last part of like the run for sharps. And then we have a film called Redundant and a film called Monitored. They're out right now. And so they're just at festivals right now. So I can send you a link to it if you want to see it. If anybody wants to see it, I kind of reached the point where I'm not going to put it online, but if anybody contacts me and wants a link to it, I'll share my films with people that
SPEAKER_02:way. I was just going to say, can you please send me a link?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I'll send you some links. And then... I've just been thinking more lately about like oh so if I were to do a feature like what would it be and thinking in terms of like trying to do like a horror or a horror adjacent feature so we'll see Chris
SPEAKER_02:please do it I know that that's like the easiest thing in the world for me to say and the hardest thing to actually do is make a film but
SPEAKER_01:hey just make it happen just make it happen
SPEAKER_02:but you would be tremendous I would
SPEAKER_03:well thank you
SPEAKER_02:absolutely I'd be your biggest cheerleader like make it if you can make that happen and And everybody, you said Chris Fletcher Presents is the website. So everybody go check that out. Chris already said if you want to see more of his work, you can reach out to watch the work. And again, Chris, just thank you so much for being on the show. It's truly been our pleasure. We always love having you on and you are always welcome back anytime.
SPEAKER_03:All right. Awesome. I'll see you tomorrow then. Perfect.
SPEAKER_02:Christopher, thank you. We absolutely loved having you on the show.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for introducing to us The Gate.
SPEAKER_02:Well, on that note.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was amazing.
SPEAKER_02:A question that I haven't actually had to ask you in a while.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_02:Derek.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Would you watch this film again? I want to watch it again, but I want to have like a little movie marathon with this and The Gate 2. Trespassers. What is it? Trespassers from Hell? just the train
SPEAKER_02:really adding something to it
SPEAKER_01:there
SPEAKER_02:it's just the trespassers okay okay yeah yeah but sure i would do that
SPEAKER_01:yeah i i really two
SPEAKER_02:for one
SPEAKER_01:i enjoyed it i i don't know how i would feel about watching the first half again like now that i know that it'll get crazy if you just sit there and wait but i was a little concerned at the beginning wondering like i was too sure they're like setting up some stuff is there actually going to be a payoff boy was there Yeah, there really was. It gets crazy.
SPEAKER_02:Great payoff.
SPEAKER_01:So that would give me a little bit of hope going into the sequel to that. Like, even if it starts off a little slow, just give it some time, especially the benefit of the doubt. Like same director. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. OK, sure. Call to action. So here's what I'm honestly very curious about. Chris did admit that, like, this wasn't a film he grew up with it's just a film that came on his radar about a year ago
SPEAKER_01:yeah
SPEAKER_02:and it only came on my radar when chris brought it up although you did mention that we've like seen it suggested to us
SPEAKER_01:it was on our radar but we were just ignoring our radar
SPEAKER_02:a little bit more on your radar because i think you mentioned it but i wasn't i just if i'm being honest wasn't really thinking about it
SPEAKER_01:so i brought up a couple times because it kept on like netflix kept on pushing it i think either netflix or amazon like it's on amazon now but i think I think it was on Netflix for a while.
SPEAKER_02:Well, once, once we like confirmed that we were going to cover this film and I started researching it a little bit, that's only when I came across the fact that like, this is like a cult film for a lot of people. And, and I'm very curious who out there, like, I'm not saying that like, Oh, if I didn't know about it, nobody, but like I, who, who, who knows this film? Who grew up with this film? Um, Is this a beloved kind of like a little bit earlier for different reasons? We were talking about the Goonies and kind of the element nostalgia and watching a film when you were a kid. So I'm super curious to know if other people out there like if this is a film like a kid's horror film from their childhood they love.
SPEAKER_01:That's a great one. I'm just going to ask for everyone's collective information on what they know about geodes.
SPEAKER_02:So if you want to get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out through Twitter, Instagram. Apparently, I can't call it Twitter anymore because even the domain name has changed.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, the domain to what? To Twitter? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I'm
SPEAKER_02:just going to keep calling it Twitter.
SPEAKER_01:Let's just keep calling it that. Just
SPEAKER_02:keep calling it that. It is the same handle for all three. It is at 80s Montage Pod and 80s is 80S. All right, sneak peek. What do we got? Well, you've been incredibly gracious with me. I feel
SPEAKER_01:kind of bad because I think I know where we're going with this.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And my fear is that there's been so much buildup, it can't possibly live up to what are already kind of low expectations.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know if I'd call it buildup. If anything, though, I just am like, okay, you've hung with me. for films like mystic pizza and probably even the very first episode of the season, like Peggy Sue got married. Like you've, you've been cool with that. And I
SPEAKER_01:enjoy it. Look, I enjoyed those movies and I'm going to go out on a limb and say, sadly that I enjoyed those movies. probably more than you're going to enjoy dragon slayer and
SPEAKER_02:that's it that's the next film we're gonna watch dragon slayer i don't know anything about this movie i've never seen it
SPEAKER_01:it's it's definitely a movie that is interesting in terms of this like literally literally being a disney movie okay with like a much higher degree of violence than you would expect to see in disney movie because in the 80s they were a different
SPEAKER_02:80s movie
SPEAKER_01:yeah it was a different kind of like company back then But some of the effects, I'm curious to get your perspective on some of the effects they have with the dragon. They were revolutionary at the time. Okay. And that's what I remember is when I first saw it, in my head, it's kind of like what Game of Thrones would have been for people now. Oh, okay. In terms of seeing the dragons and what they could do.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Well... I know you've brought this one up several times, so you are due. You are due for a Derek film. And in the meantime, thank you to everybody out there for hanging with us. We know that you have so many podcast choices, so we really do appreciate you taking the time to listen to ours. And we will talk to you again in two weeks' time.