'80s Movie Montage

Near Dark

Anna Keizer & Derek Dehanke Season 6 Episode 18

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0:00 | 1:10:24

Welcome to this season's Halloween Series! To kick things off, Anna and Derek chat about the rules of vampirism, the criminal under usage of Jenette Goldstein, and much more during their discussion of Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark (1987).

Connect with '80s Movie Montage on Facebook, Bluesky 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.

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SPEAKER_00

Let him go, I'm looking at your body. You're looking after the mom. Damn it's my family. Let him go! The question is whether they let us go. They've been tracking us. Now they know our faces, I say kill them.

SPEAKER_01

Hello, and welcome to 80s movie montage. This is Derek.

SPEAKER_03

And this is Anna.

SPEAKER_01

And that was Adrian Pazder, Lance Henriksen, Jeanette Goldstein, and Bill Paxton from 1986's Aliens. Oh. Wait, no, no. That's 1987's Near Dark.

SPEAKER_03

That is that was good. That was good. I liked, I liked that. And yeah, Near and Dark, which is the first of the movies Halloween Halloween series.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, no. I think I think I didn't know if there was something more.

SPEAKER_03

I love it. It's my favorite. It's my favorite time of year. Yes, near dark, we are kicking things off with. And yeah, it's hilarious that you said that because it is very much a reteeming in many ways of some of the people.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it was it was intentional because at the time Cameron suggested to Bigelow like, use these people. They had good chemistry in this movie I just made that was featured on a movie marquee in one of the cities they were in in Near Dark.

SPEAKER_03

Such a great Easter egg.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That was an amazing Easter egg. I'm curious, I don't want to get into all this, but like obviously Bigelow and Cameron were married. So was he already because at the time he should have been married to Galen Heard because that was the producer on Aliens. Anyway, I'm already getting off track.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it it just said, like, future husband Cameron suggested this.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah, and we are completely bearing the lead because we have yet again another female director.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So that's awesome. And we will get to her in like a minute. So near dark, as you said, 1987. And let's start with the writers. I love this name. The first of the two credited writers, Eric Red.

SPEAKER_01

Not Eric the Red.

SPEAKER_03

That's exactly that. You just stole my joke. Not the Viking, just Eric Red. And but it does seem so the other, I mean, I'm not trying to like withhold any information. The other credited writer is Catherine Bigelow.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It I don't think that they were necessarily like writing partners, but they do have another shared credit. He doesn't have like a huge writing filmography, but a huge film that he did do that had some life beyond the original film was The Hitcher.

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, which we could do. Honestly.

SPEAKER_01

Isn't Ruper Hauer in that?

SPEAKER_03

He is. There you go. Yes. And is it see Thomas Howell? I don't remember who the kid is in it. But anyway. So The Hitcher he did, which then he has credits as well for The Hitcher 2. Colin, I've been waiting.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, if you're a hitcher, probably.

SPEAKER_03

Which I think went maybe direct to video. And then I think there was, as there always is, a reboot. There's a 2007 The Hitcher.

SPEAKER_01

Do you think that's why there was so much hitchhiking in Near Dark?

SPEAKER_03

So okay, so what I was thinking about first of all, you're absolutely right. There's so much hitchhiking in Near Dark, but I think that that was like still it I think it was definitely on its way out, but that still wasn't a completely unheard of thing in the 80s.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It kind of reminds me of how like off the record we were talking the other day about um quicksand and how quicksand was like such a thing. Yes. Um oh it was C. Thomas Howell in the Hitcher. I actually got that right. Anyway, yeah, I there's a lot of hitchhiking. I think that the hitcher would never be made today. Although I wonder what they did with the 2007 reboot. I wonder how they work that.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's not a thing where we are. I mean, maybe in some other parts of the country, there's still some hitchhiking going on. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, the synopsis for the reboot, which by the way stars Sean Bean.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

A couple from college get caught in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a psychopathic hitchhiker.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's why no one picks him up.

SPEAKER_03

That's why nobody picks him up. But to get back to near dark. So among Eric Red's other credits, we have Blue Steel.

SPEAKER_01

Not the look from Zoolander.

unknown

Not the look.

SPEAKER_01

But the cop drama with Jimmy Lee Curtis.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and that's the title that's gonna be brought up a couple times. Uh also Bad Moon, which for some reason always wants to autoplay when I don't know what streaming service it is, but if I just like put a moving movie on, I swear the next movie is always like suggested to be Bad Moon. And then 100 feet. So the other credited writer I mentioned, Big Low, she look, she's primarily a director, so she has a very short writing credit list. Uh, this is one of them. The Loveless is another one of them. And then she also does have a credit, so this is the shared credit between them. It is Blue Steel because she directed that movie as well. So, and then 10 seconds later, I'm bringing up Blue Steel again because now we're gonna talk about her directing credits. And I'd like to think that probably a lot of the people listening to this podcast are familiar with film, film history. She is forever going to be in the history books because well, because of why. Why do you think?

SPEAKER_01

Oh. Um first woman to win best director.

SPEAKER_03

That's absolutely right.

SPEAKER_01

There you go.

SPEAKER_03

I remember watching that ceremony. I'm like getting emotional about it. Because it's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01

Was it for point break?

SPEAKER_03

Thank you for raking me out of my my crying jag that is about to begin. Um it was a big deal.

SPEAKER_01

And it was for the Hurt Locker, right?

SPEAKER_03

It was for the Hurt Locker 2010, which is like insanity that it took Yes. Wow. Insanity. She wasn't the first nominated, but she was the first to win. And what's also kind of funny about it is that she was up against Cameron. Um, I believe for it must have been for Avatar. And so it is it is kind of hilarious that the two of them were up against each other. I mean, what what are the odds of being up against your ex-husband or best director? But I mean, that yeah, that's and I remember it being such a big deal that my father, who you know, what I'm in LA, he was in Chicago, not a huge movie guy, but he was watching the Oscars, and as soon as she won, he texted me about it. Which like made me just feel that much more emotional about it because he knew how important that was. Yeah. So in any case, um, her credits include so Blue Steel was very early. She did direct Point Break. Yeah. So fun film, but just outside of the 80s, so we can't cover it. Strange Days, The Weight of Water. I mean, she has largely made a name for herself for very action-forward films. Um, K including K9, The Widowmaker.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, K19, you mean?

SPEAKER_03

Oh, I'm sorry, K19.

SPEAKER_01

K K9 or something.

SPEAKER_03

I totally have it written correctly. I just I just said it incorrectly. And then, yes, so in 2010, not only did she win best director for The Hurt Locker, but also she was a producer on it, and it won Best Picture that year. So she got double double Oscars for that. So that's awesome. She got nominated again a couple years later for Dark uh Zero Dark 30. I will always say that name wrong. Um, but she got a nomination for that, and then more recently she did the film Detroit. So interestingly though, I want to say Detroit was like what, 2017, and I didn't see anything since then. So hopefully she's in the works on something because she's an incredible filmmaker and deserves to continue to work. So I don't know. Moving on to cinematography, Adam Greenberg. He is currently 88 years old, and a lot of amazing credits. Um he's I think retired at this point, but among I have yeah, all films for him. It's and this is not the first time we brought him up. Probably not the last time.

SPEAKER_01

Probably not.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I think I think there are multiple opportunities actually for us to bring him up again. Earlier in his career, he did It's a Funny Funny World, the last American Version.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

So we brought him up what, it was last season when we did the Terminator?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I think so.

SPEAKER_03

So so he was a share kind of a shared DP between Bigelow and Cameron. Um probably recommended by Cameron, perhaps. Probably so also came back for Terminator 2 Judgment Day, for which he got his one and only Oscar nomination for best cinematography. He did Once Bitten, Iron Eagle, Bla Bamba. He it's interesting because this isn't necessarily the case when you have a sequel, but he also did Three Men and a Baby and came back for that sequel and did Three Men and a Little Lady.

SPEAKER_01

Peak cinema.

SPEAKER_03

He did Turner and Hooch, Ghost, Dave, a lot of just one one word titles. Junior. He did first night. Not a great movie, no, but it hit me at a certain time in my life. That kiss. Whew, that kiss.

SPEAKER_01

That like just that movie, like some of those like um Arthurian kind of uh periods, some of them because of the casting, they just feel like like a play more than like a movie, because the immersion is not there for me when I'm watching like because like the King of England still sounds like Sean Connery. Right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I mean, but you know what? I'm not I'm not mad at his casting.

SPEAKER_01

I'm not upset about it. It's just it's just like something that I'll also like with Kevin Costner as Robin Hood. Sure. It's just like that casting sometimes it's like it's hard for me to not Was Sean Connery in that movie too? No, okay, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_03

Uh I will say though, Richard Gere is Lancelot. Yeah, no, that makes sense. It does? Yeah. I think that's terrible casting.

SPEAKER_01

No, I could see that.

SPEAKER_03

I swayed you really easily on that one. No, I I thought I he he is not. I mean, look, he's a great actor, but that is not that is not the rule for him. But he brought he brought that like uh he brought that kiss. That sass and that impotence or not impotence, um impuged. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever that word is, he brought that. So anyway, Greenberg shot it. He also did Eraser, Collateral Damage, so a couple other Schwarzenegger films. Uh and Snakes on a Plane.

SPEAKER_01

Ants Fear, which was a pretty solid uh, I think Michael Crichton book that was also made into a movie.

SPEAKER_03

There you go.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, so we have brought them up uh not that long ago. Music by Tangerine Dream.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and you know what? I'm gonna say something. I I think they're great, and in like every other movie that we've that we've seen where they've done the the score, it's been amazing. And even some movies that we can't cover because of the period that they were set in. Correct looking at you, sorcerer. But it didn't work for me as much in this movie.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, really surprising, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I I don't I feel like I don't often call out the score, but there were a couple times actually in this film where I'm like, huh?

SPEAKER_01

Like most recently in Thief. We talked about that.

SPEAKER_03

Thief it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Uh perfect scoring for that film. And that film has still stuck with me. Like that was such a surprise to me.

SPEAKER_01

It kind of felt like, hey, do you guys have some tracks left over from all these other things that can just kind of like fit in, maybe?

SPEAKER_03

There were just a couple moments in the film where I'm like, I don't feel like the music works right now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, you know, I'm just just one person's opinion, maybe two people's opinions since you seem to feel the same way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But I notice it right at the beginning too. Like right from the outset when you kind of like hear the music coming in. I'm like, oh, yeah, this isn't what I expected. I knew it was them. Right. But it part of it is just that like the tone of the movie, yeah. It never really I'm never really sure like what they're trying to establish. Uh like on one hand, and we probably talk more about this, it felt like it was potentially like multiple movies kind of like crammed into one movie, but then other parts of it, they were like taking way more time than it felt was needed.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I think confusing. I look, I will applaud this film for like it being a really interesting, and we'll get we can get into all of this, but like I'm always really fascinated on like the world that they set up for vampires and like the way that the lore that I think just by osmosis through multiple movies and stories and everything that we've like digested over the course of our lives, like what we think the lore is around uh vampires and how that gets switched up from no crosses, new story to new story.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no crosses. Not a single cross in this movie, but possibly the quickest and easiest curt to vampirism in all of cinema.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I mean, and and also just like the rules, so to speak, around how quickly you need to eat to to maintain your strength and just all that stuff is really interesting. But uh I'll just say, yeah, the score does contribute a back to Tangerine. Well, it does contribute a lot to what the tone is. I mean, you're you're right. And I think I came into the film with a preconceived notion of what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was gonna be campier and a little funnier, and it wasn't that. And I'm trying to reconcile whether or not my disappointment is like fully my fault, or if it could have been something a little bit different that would have improved it.

SPEAKER_01

I yeah, I mean, I wouldn't have needed it to be campier or funnier, but if it's gonna have a more like serious vibe to it, yeah, then I think there are other expectations that come along with that.

SPEAKER_03

And one thing that you brought up that I fully agree with is like, man, I wish I would have known more about all those characters, the non-human characters. I we get little bits and pieces. I think we get the most about Jesse. We know that he was a Civil War soldier.

SPEAKER_01

He yeah, like he was coming up with his backstory, and before they started filming, he would dye his hair black with tar, because that's what apparently like soldiers and men in the Navy would do in the 1800s. And he took broken fingernail extension pieces and covered his like fingers with them to look like like his hands were like broken, jagged bones or something, and he was driving and and brought on a hitchhiker himself, and the hitchhiker was like, Yeah, no, you can just let me out. Because he looked like a maniac and he was Man, fucking actors. Yeah, so he gave him eighty dollars. He gave him the eighty dollars that he had just to like for putting up with him and and let him go.

SPEAKER_03

That's funny. But yeah, I mean, we we know that. Um I think it's funny when I don't know if you caught it, but when Severin, which like made me immediately think Harry Potter. Uh, but anyway, when Severin was like, hey, remember that fire we started in Chicago? That was really funny. Yeah. So like there's all these like little tidbits that we learn. It sounds like May was turned very recently. She was just turned, like, I think she said four years ago, because she was still in high school. Homer turned her because he was a fifth grader, or he he presented himself as a fifth grader that needed help. Anyway, we get these bits and pieces, but like I would have loved to have learned more about all those characters. We know basically nothing about Diamondback.

SPEAKER_01

Well, that's what I what I meant in terms of like it could have it could have been longer. Like, that's that's an area where I'm like, yeah, I would have loved to have seen more of it.

SPEAKER_03

It's a really tight film, so they actually could have anyway. Okay, getting back to Tangerine Dreams. Oh my god, we're still talking about it. Yeah, some of the other credits, which we've covered a lot. Uh, we mentioned a thief. We have not yet done risky business, uh, but they scored that. Firestarter, we could also do vision quest, we could also do, but we have done also Legend.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Probably the strongest, I would say.

SPEAKER_01

What is Vision Quest? Why is that?

SPEAKER_03

That's the one with Matthew Modine and Linda Fiordino, and I think he's like a wrestler.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

And it has Jake from 16 Candles in it. Okay. I think Madonna has an appearance in it. In fact, she was like getting so popular at the time that I think in some countries the title is more about Madonna, I think, than anyway. And then uh they also scored a film which I love. It's the 1989 Catch Me If You Can. Nothing to do with the Spielberg.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, moving on to film editing. Howard E. Smith, he's gonna turn 80 this year. So well done. Also, I think retired, maybe at this point. So some of his credits. Um we probably we probably did bring him up because I do think we were covering most of the people from this film. Twilight Zone, the movie, he specifically edited segment four. So isn't that the 10,000 feet, whatever one?

SPEAKER_01

Oh is that the last segment?

SPEAKER_03

I think that's the last segment.

SPEAKER_01

Of the William Shatner thing on the plane. Okay.

SPEAKER_03

I think that's the last one.

SPEAKER_01

I yeah, I think it is because then he's like leaving in the ambulance, and the driver of the ambulance is Aykroyd. There you go. Brings it back, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So we covered him for Baby, Secret of the Lost Legend. Go check that one out. We did that one with Chris a couple seasons ago. He cut at close range, he also did River's Edge, which I don't know if I'm gonna ever want to cover that one. Um, he also we covered him when we did The Abyss. Oh. That one was with James, so go check that one out. So he reteams with Bigelow because he cuts Point Break. He also does Glengarry Glenn Ross.

SPEAKER_01

Amazing family comedy.

SPEAKER_03

That's a hard movie to get through. I mean, it's a play that was turned into Yeah. So it's just oh, they're all so awful to each other.

SPEAKER_01

That scene with Alec Baldwin, though, yeah, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_03

They're it's a great film. Yeah, they all do great.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It's a hard movie to watch.

SPEAKER_01

It is.

SPEAKER_03

So anyway. Strange Days, so he teams up with her again. She must have liked him as her editor. He does Dante's Peak again, because he cuts the weight of water. Blade Trinity.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my god, that movie. That the movie's kind of grown on me. Oh my god, it's so bad.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It's so bad.

SPEAKER_03

It's kind of grown on me. He also, uh, this is kind of a funny like teeming. It's not, it's not Catherine Bigelow, but whereas um Greenberg shot Snakes on a Plane, Howard cut it.

SPEAKER_01

So there's always one movie that just like always pops up.

SPEAKER_03

Kind of a weird, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And today it's Snakes on a Plane.

SPEAKER_03

I had to just bring this up because he cut Nights of Bad Astom.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, we never watched that.

SPEAKER_03

We've like um Yeah, it's come up before.

SPEAKER_01

We've looked, we watched the trailer. We've always considered watching it. We've not done so yet.

SPEAKER_03

We have not done so. And then lastly, he cut Vengeance Colin. A love story.

SPEAKER_01

I love it.

SPEAKER_03

Alright, we're at the stars of the film. Starting with, and you just made sure that we would say his name right, Adrian Pazder. Yeah. Who plays Caleb? Caleb Colton.

SPEAKER_01

Kind of two first names, but Yeah, Colton is the first name. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So interesting because in many regards, uh unknown lead. He he had like a bit part, so he played a character named Chipper and Top Gun. I think he had like one line because I was like, who the hell is that? In Top Gun. And I think at the like graduation ceremony, he's the character who's like, Where's Maverick? I think that's his line.

SPEAKER_01

Amazing.

SPEAKER_03

So that's like Chippa. Mostly what what he had done before this movie comes along. Um, and yeah, he's he's very much sleeds. He's the human, which like, look, I was saying this a couple times at the beginning of the film. I'm not a huge fan of the way that he was coming on to May.

SPEAKER_01

He comes on real strong. So much other bullshit happens that you kind of forget that this dude was just like kind of predatory.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, kind of gross.

SPEAKER_01

I I honestly I don't know what was going on between him and May because I assumed that she was just gonna like kill him. Like feed off him, but I mean she just wanted she just wanted to night out, it appears.

SPEAKER_03

It was clear that you know he was gonna survive what was gonna whatever was gonna happen because he's the lead. We start with him, so I didn't think he was gonna die, but you know, it's interesting, like knowing like you said the same, like it's pretty clear, even with her introduction, that like right away you kind of know she's a vampire. Um it seemed like the original intent of her evening was just to find a kill, but she seemed to be attracted to him or interested in him, or I could totally see why she wasn't like total jiving with the rest of her crew. Like she's very different than the rest of them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So it's it felt like you know, she kept hesitating to bite him, and it felt like she on the one hand, and very quick quick turnaround, felt enough for him that she didn't want to do that to him, but also didn't I don't know, want to leave him. Like, I don't know, it was a very interesting opening. I couldn't quite get the sense of what her intention was.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and that's like that is kind of a common thread that you can like pull on and unravels in a lot of other scenes in the movie where I'm like, I'm not really sure why this person is acting the way that they're acting, but I'm willing to just kind of accept it and watch it because we didn't really know. Like it it seemed, like you said, really obvious that she was just there to like bait a victim and then I don't know why. Like, was there something special about Yeah?

SPEAKER_03

I'm like, why are you all of a sudden caring about this guy? He's kind of treating you horribly.

SPEAKER_01

And and like she was freaking out because it was near dawn, which would have been, I think I said, a better title for this, because it's constantly always near dawn in the that is something that I do need to bring up about this film is that there seems to be a lot of loosey-goosey with like what time of day it is. Dawn is in five minutes, ten minutes later, high noon.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's it is very all over the place with like what time of day it is. And it seems to like be a little convenient that like you know, the sun's out when when they need to get out of like anyway.

SPEAKER_01

It was um so it was about to come up, yeah, and he's like, Okay, I'll take you home because she was really nervous because she's gonna fucking like die or undie or whatever it would be called. Um and he's like, sure, but you gotta give me a kiss.

SPEAKER_03

Gross.

SPEAKER_01

What? Yes, gross. It is, yeah. Yeah. Like so I my my what was just like my reaction in the moment to that, like to him saying that. That's why it's like, what do you like?

SPEAKER_03

I didn't look, I didn't like fall and hate the guy throughout the entire film. I was able to move on from that. But it's hard because this was a film where I didn't really the person I cared the most about was actually his little sister. She was a little badass. Yeah, she was. She was amazing when she's like, like she didn't drop the F bombs, but basically she's like, I fucking do what I want when I want.

SPEAKER_01

Like that was amazing.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. But that was the moment where she just, where Mae just kind of like nicks his neck.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

And she's in kind of peril because the sun's coming up.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Like, not a whole lot about that. Like, there were so many other opportunities during that interaction they had, which I guess was the entire night, that would have made sense. I don't know if they were trying to like rush him to so that he would be in the daylight, so that now suddenly he's like immediately like smoking because of being in the sun.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Because like Homer full on is on fire within seconds of being outside. Yeah. Whereas May, I guess a a blanket cures all things as long as you're under a blanket and you're fine.

SPEAKER_01

Always have a blanket.

SPEAKER_03

Always have a blanket. Um, because she was outside exactly the same way Homer was, but like it looked like Caleb had just covered her in a blanket and she was fine.

SPEAKER_01

Well, look, I got news for everyone here. There are things called hoodies and gloves.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, wait, now that Jesse was driving and his hands were out fine, like just pull your sleeve up, man.

SPEAKER_01

Why don't I why don't they have why don't they just have gloves?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I didn't really understand the rules around how much the sun affects you.

SPEAKER_01

Because then also like After an undetermined amount of time, you will fucking explode.

SPEAKER_03

Like when they were having the shootout with the cops, yeah, and the cops are shooting holes into the hotel, yeah, presumably like the vampires are clothed. And so even though the sun was shooting in, it felt like, but if they have clothing on, that part of their skin still sets on because like you were seeing little things of fire on them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, not sure.

SPEAKER_03

And and yeah, so like I didn't understand the rules about what you need to do to protect yourself if you have direct sunlight on you.

SPEAKER_01

That's something that I don't know if a single vampire movie addresses that the same way, because the the moment where like all the bullet holes were creating all these separate shafts of light, it reminded me of like the end of From Dust Till Dawn, where where that's happening, and sometimes it's someone inside a building will just start intentionally shooting to create light to protect themselves.

SPEAKER_03

They do that in Fright Night.

SPEAKER_01

Sometimes, sometimes just like a single beam of the sun hits a vampire and they immediately turn to dust.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

That wasn't the case here, but we weren't really sure how it's supposed to work.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. But within that rule, I wasn't understanding the sub rules.

SPEAKER_01

Like this is this is kind of what I meant when I'm like, if it's campy or or not, like it doesn't really bother me, but if it's just like campy and funny, then I don't care as much about some of these things.

SPEAKER_03

Well, that's the reason why I brought up the campy thing, because like if there was some camp or some humor, I could let a lot more slide. Exactly. But because they're if they played it pretty straight, and what I was saying just a couple minutes ago about Caleb, it was really hard for me to like root for any character.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And so, and especially like, look, that bar scene is really brutal. I I completely acknowledge that that was probably absolutely the intent of it. Yeah. You know, but as like a viewer, it's just hard to like really care what is the outcome for any of these characters because they never set up anything that's that's really sympathetic for any of the vampires.

SPEAKER_01

You don't get to know any of them enough to even start feeling that.

SPEAKER_03

Like, you know, it's the whole save the cat thing where it's like, give me one thing for each character that that captures my like affection or attention for them.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You know, give me something. Like Homer's a little brat from the outset. Severin is just a maniac.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like Bill Paxton, his character was probably the most complete because it was just a complete maniac.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Like I didn't really need to know a ton because that was his thing, is he was just the crazy one.

SPEAKER_03

And you know what? Like, he could have still played it that way if I had had something to latch on to for Homer, Jesse, or Diamondback. Yeah. I then yeah, let Severin be the crazy one.

SPEAKER_01

But I got nothing from any of them.

SPEAKER_03

But I got nothing from any of them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And honestly, they did such a disservice to Diamond Back because Jeanette Goldstein is phenomenal. They gave her almost nothing to work with.

SPEAKER_01

She had very little to do. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And I was like, come on, I want more. Like I love her. Like I'm obviously um thinking of her role as Vesquez and Aliens, and she is fucking phenomenal in that film, one of the best performances ever. Like it's crazy that more people still don't bring that up. I know that there's a lot of kind of like, you know, around the fact that she's essentially in brown face for that role. Yeah. But she plays the role magnificently. And I'm like, give her more to do in this movie.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. That wasn't it wasn't as as uncommon as you would think, particularly in the 80s. So just go look up Short Circuit.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah. I mean, like, look, his uh Hollywood has a long history from its very first days, and it's this is not this is not acceptable, but it did have a very long history of whether or not you know characters are actually put into brown or blackface, but at the very least, characters who are not of a particular ethnicity were played for that ethnicity. So like Mickey Rooney playing someone of Asian descent. Oh, yeah. Like insane, insane casting in some cases. Um, but also say, like, I I just wish I would have seen more from her and and just for many of the characters. But getting back to Adrian. Yes. So Chipper and Top Gun. Um, he, I mean, he has been so busy. Uh, I have like a lot of TV for him. I do so a couple films earlier in his career, still Carlito's Way, the puppetess of love. I love that word. Okay, so here we go. A ton of TV, a lot of like one-offs, two-offs, but also a lot of longer stints on certain shows. So he was on the show Prophet. I think he was a lead character on that. Mysterious Ways, Judging Amy, Heroes. He was on Heroes for a while.

SPEAKER_01

That's where I remember him from. Okay. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03

So here's what's so interesting. He does a ton of voice work in the Marvel world. And guess what character he plays for like animated series?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I know it, so I won't guess it, but you can tell me.

SPEAKER_03

Tony Stark slash Iron Man. Yep. So he is Tony Stark in the animated series Iron Man. Um, he's done Marvel anime, the lying game game. I'm sorry. Avengers assemble, again, like Tony Stark slash Iron Man.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

Colony. So some of these are either behind the scenes doing voice work or in front of the camera, and then more recently, Agents of Shield. So that's funny because like he's still in that world, but now he it's like live action, he's in front of the camera. So I think that's all really fun how that ties together.

SPEAKER_01

He is deep into the Marvel universe.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. So moving on to May, Jenny Wright. Um, not a huge filmography for her. It I I was doing like a little bit of a dive into her history because I really wasn't super familiar with her. It sounds like there was a lot of repeat casting with her and kind of like a I don't know if I'd go so far as to saying femme fatale, but kind of those types of roles, and I don't think that was really driving for her.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Um, but that was kind of all she could get. So I think that maybe she just decided to peace out. Uh however, what I do have for her, the world according according to Garb. Oh, really? Okay. She's in St. Elmo's Fire, which we might be doing later this year. Uh she's in the 1989 Twister. So not not the Bill.

SPEAKER_01

Oh.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't know there were okay Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So she's in that. Young Guns 2. A TV show called Capitol News, The Lawnmower Man.

SPEAKER_01

That was not good.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I've heard I've never seen it, but actually. It wasn't her not her fault, but it was actually and then um, and lots of like TV appearances, but then I think her last credit, it was I I she's she's I think out of the industry. It was a short called uh Nadja Yet. It's from 2007.

SPEAKER_01

She played the role of Nadia Yet.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, she was I didn't even look at her her title. Okay. Getting to, is it all three in a row? Yes, it is. Our aliens crew, starting with Lance Hendrickson. He is 85 years old.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03

Still going strong. I mean, he is working, working, working. He currently has over 250 credits. And yeah, he plays Jesse Hooker in this film. Yep. And I mean, would you agree that as little as we know about the vampires, we probably in some ways know the most about him? Like with the little things that they drop about him.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, we know that he was a Confederate soldier before he became a vampire.

SPEAKER_03

It seems like he's the eldest of the vampires.

SPEAKER_01

I think so. Yeah. And we don't know a whole lot more than that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, he presumably started the Chicago fire with Severin in 1871. So he did that. Um he is brutal, but it does seem like he also like look, some things I do understand. You know, he's upset that um what the hell's his name? Caleb. That Caleb didn't kill that kid in the bar because now that kid, and that's exactly what he does. He goes to the police, and now he can identify them. So he does have like um a rational logic about him for his own survival.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, he's a survivor, which was kind of interesting for you know a vampire that had been around that long. I feel like in most other like vampire stories, they're like successful financially. Yeah. Like they're not just scavengers living off the road, which is what they were doing. So that was something where I'm like, okay, I I can get on board with that, but without the backstory of understanding like why that's their like that's their lot in life.

SPEAKER_03

That's a really interesting point, because you're absolutely right. Like, I think that is what we see a lot of, even most recently when we um we dumped it after the second or before the second season, but um a discovery of witches.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my gosh, that was like that was a discovery of something for sure.

SPEAKER_03

That first season was so good. And then as soon as they like went back in time, I was like, I'm gone. But yes, I mean the vampire in that story, they're extremely wealthy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because they've been around so long. Like apparently, apparently Jesse Hooker made some real shit investments.

SPEAKER_03

But that's yeah, that's such an interesting point that they kind of just they they live on the road, they don't put down roots anywhere. I thought it was kind of funny that the motel manager was like, Don't I remember you? Didn't you come through here? I'm like, are you seriously telling me you remember somebody from like 50 years ago? He is quite a distinguishable. I mean, sure. I don't know if I'd remember somebody 50 years down the road.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe there's that weird rat tail he had in the back of his.

SPEAKER_03

But those little things were fun. Like I like when those little things come up. And yeah, but he he is still very brutal. You know, he immediately shuts down the idea of letting Caleb's family go. Um, kind of for the same reasons, but there's like there's just not even a consideration of keeping them alive.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because they were they successfully tracked them and they know what they'll look like.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah. So and and he's also very hard on Caleb. Like it's kind of interesting to me because like really this is all May's fault. She turned him.

SPEAKER_01

For sure.

SPEAKER_03

And and they give him like no time to I thought that that was interesting, is that they it's very calculated in the film that he never kills a single person.

SPEAKER_01

He does not. Yeah. He kills he kills a few vampires, but real quickly, I just want to point out they never use that word a single time in the movie.

SPEAKER_03

A single time.

SPEAKER_01

Nor do you see a single thing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I mean, they do that a lot in different films. Like, there's a ton of zombie movies where they never mention the word zombie.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You know, I think that was the whole thing with uh The Walking Dead. That term is never used.

SPEAKER_01

So is this a universe where no one's ever heard of what a vampire is?

SPEAKER_03

I well, that's so interesting because like Caleb seems to pick up. I mean, once he's turned, maybe more specifically, once he drinks from May, he seems to immediately understand what what is happening. But so it's like there seems to be some understanding of what this life or uh undead life is like. I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

This undead life. This undead life.

SPEAKER_03

So Lance Hendrickson, uh what a career this guy has had and continues to have. Early in his career, he has a very bit part. I'm trying to remember, is he? I think he's one of the guys that um at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, he's like at that final where they're communicating with it, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So he's in that. He's in Damien Colen Omen 2.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

He this went off the air a long time ago, but for a while he was on that uh soap opera Ryan's Hope.

SPEAKER_01

Never heard of that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, exactly. I don't know if this would have been the first time he would have interacted with Cameron, but he was in Prana 2 The Spawning. So he's in that. The Right Stuff, which we could cover at some point. Oh yeah. I do really love his little part in, and I'm not trying to say that rudely, but like his smaller role in The Terminator.

SPEAKER_01

He is what is he? He's a he's in the cop station, right? Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

He's like, I don't know if you'd call him a cop or a detective, but he is the one that is kind of communicating with the head guy who is also phenomenal in that role. God, they really they gave so much to those roles. Um, he's really good in that. He's in Jagged Edge. So, as we have mentioned multiple times at this point, he is Bishop in Aliens.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

And this, you know, his his uh part in this role then has a huge ripple effect. Because he's been in a ton of other alien properties. Um he is an alien three, probably not for very long though, right? He's you know that movie better than I do.

SPEAKER_01

He um I think they they do something with his head kind of similar to what they did with Ash.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So there's something like So like what get information? Yeah, but then it's either like another another synthetic, but it's like it's him. I I couldn't remember if it was like the human or like the person that Bishop was based off of. It's Bishop 2, is like what he's cast as in that, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03

But yeah, he's he has parlayed that role into like other to involvement in other alien properties.

SPEAKER_01

Wasn't he in um Alien versus Predator? The first one?

SPEAKER_03

Yes, he is.

SPEAKER_01

And did it not really make sense?

SPEAKER_03

Or or did it it so okay, it's been a minute since I've watched that movie. But um is he supposed to be a human and maybe a human based off like that they used to create a synthetic? I don't know. I don't know. I don't remember, but he does Oh, you know who?

SPEAKER_01

He's Charles Bishop Whalen.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So he's part of the Whalen corporation. Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so that's why, like, did they create a synthetic off of him?

SPEAKER_01

That seems like something someone with that ego would do.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah. I think something like that. So anyway, um, and then his other franchise, Pumpkinhead. Yes, what? We're not doing that this Halloween series because we did that way back for an earlier Halloween series with Sarah. So please go check out that one. And he also has returned to that for Pumpkin Head colon ashes to ashes and pumpkin head for colon blood feud.

SPEAKER_01

I always love the the colons in these uh horror sequels.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, me too. Sometimes they're real fun. He is in house three, colon, the horror show.

SPEAKER_01

There you go. We haven't seen two yet, have we?

SPEAKER_03

We watched Do we own it? Did I buy one and two?

SPEAKER_01

I think so, because we watched the first one. It got it it gets weird. It gets real weird.

SPEAKER_03

I've heard two's even more bonkers.

SPEAKER_01

Well, we saw the did we see a trailer for two after like immediately following one? Probably. There was something weird about it. It's like, what is this? Back to the future two or something? Where they like would show you the bits from from three at the end of it.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, oh. He's also in Jennifer Eight. I didn't so I never watched this one, but he is King Bowser in Super Mario Bros. Not the one that came out a couple years ago, but the one from the 90s with what Bob Hoskins? A live action one? Yeah. He's in a couple like infamous movies.

SPEAKER_01

Nintendo is like, we're not fucking making a movie for decades after that.

SPEAKER_03

Uh Color of Night, he is in. The Quick and the Dead, Dead Man, Powder. He is he is mostly TV, but he has done, or I'm sorry, mostly film, but he has done some TV work. He was on the show for a while, I think. Millennium, which I think was like the main guy. I don't know that show.

SPEAKER_01

It it had like uh an X-Files kind of feel to it, I think. Or was that other one? Fringe? Like they're they're kind of that kind of a style of show, I think.

SPEAKER_03

He is a real swarmy guy, but he's really fun in Scream Three.

SPEAKER_02

Hmm.

SPEAKER_03

He's like kind of uh amalgamation of every CD gross, like director slash producer in Hollywood. Like that's kind of the character he plays. Okay. Yeah. He, to your point, Alien versus Predator. He did some voice work on the TV series Tron Uprising. He was on the show The Blacklist for a bit. Uh, a film, Exorcism at 60,000 feet.

SPEAKER_01

That's a high altitude exorcism.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And just a ton more. I mean, he's just this is a fraction of the work that he's done, but he's still gone, so good for him. All right. Moving on to Bill Paxton. He plays Severin, and this has come up before because this is not the first time we've talked about him, but this one this one made me really sad when he passed away in 2017. He was only, I think, about 61 years old. Um he passed away from complications of heart surgery. And I think that was shocking for everybody. Like from everything that I've ever read about him, he was a great guy and everybody loved him.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Uh, and he was always like a joy to have on set. And it is it's really a shame that he passed away. I mean, some people might think 61 doesn't sound so young, but it kind of is nowadays. Yeah. So he he left us too soon. And as far as his work goes, um, especially earlier in his career, all films for him and a huge amount of like like huge blockbuster films, he has a very bit role. I don't we just did this one not too long ago, so I don't even think we brought him up. Stripes.

SPEAKER_01

Soldier.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, he's like a soldier, yeah. But he has a really fun little bit role at the beginning of The Terminator.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah. Uh that interaction at I think what is Griffith Park or Griffith Observatory. Correct. Yeah. When nude Schwarzenegger walks up and I think it's I think it's Paxton who's like, nice night for a walk, eh?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, which you said to me just the other day when we were at the park. Uh yeah. So he's in that. And then it's funny because there are parts of this film, Near Dark, that like the truck scene that felt very Terminator-ish.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. The truck driver's like, get out.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yeah. Both the original Terminator and T2, because they both have like truck scenes. Yeah. And there was a lot of like, I don't know, that vibe just hit the same way. So he also probab it's kind of a funny role to like make your name on initially, but he is the asshole older brother Chet in Weird Science, which we have not done yet. However, when we were watching Near Dark for this show, I was like, oh my God, he's using the same laugh. Chet laugh. The Chet laugh. Uh, which I just thought was funny. He's in commando. I mean, the whole thing about Bill Paxton is that everybody says like he's the only guy who ever was like killed by an alien and a predator and a terminator.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Xenomorph, predator, terminator. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And I think there's a couple other things that he's been killed by. But anyway, those are the biggies. Uh so commando, aliens, predator two. So he's in the second one.

SPEAKER_01

But my favorite thing about Predator 2 is how they try so desperately to make Los Angeles seem like it's New York. There's like such a focus on like film in New York.

SPEAKER_03

Like, just have it set in New York.

SPEAKER_01

Like the yeah, just like the focus on like the downtown stuff. And I'm like, hmm, interesting.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's it's weird. Anyway, he's in another kind of infamous, infamous film, Boxing Helena. He's in Tombstone.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Uh, so he's the youngest ERP brother. He has a fun role in True Lies.

SPEAKER_01

Simon. Yeah, he's great in that.

SPEAKER_03

He's great. I mean, so he reteams with Cameron on that one.

SPEAKER_01

Swarmy used car salesman guy.

SPEAKER_03

I appreciate that he is he was up for like taking roles like that, even though he's pretty big at that point.

SPEAKER_01

But it's like another Cameron Schwarzenegger movie, so sure.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Uh he is in Apollo 13. So he is one of the Apollo 13 astronauts. Yep. He's we mentioned a different twister. He is in the twister that most people are familiar with, with Helen Hunt.

SPEAKER_01

Uh, he is in Titanic, so he is not part of the mostly flashback of a film that it is, but he is the He's the guy looking for the jewel of that goddamn old lady threw in the ocean.

SPEAKER_03

I'm sorry, that will never not annoy the fuck out of me that she just throws it into the ocean.

SPEAKER_01

Selfish, selfish lady.

SPEAKER_03

He's into Simple Plan, Mindy Joe Young, Frailty, which did he direct that one as well?

SPEAKER_01

I don't know, but that's like a sneaky good movie that like I don't think it ever got a ton of attention or traction. Powers Booth is in it too. He's great too. Yeah, no, that that movie is really good.

SPEAKER_03

Well, he's in it, and I I want to say he directed it too. He so okay, so he transitions to TV and he transitions in a big way.

SPEAKER_01

He did direct it by the way. Oh, great.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you for confirming that. Confirming that. Because he is on the TV series Big Love. Oh, yeah. Which was huge while it was on the air. And then I didn't realize that he, I guess, was on also Agents of Shield for a while.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I don't think I knew that. I didn't I never watched that. There's just Me neither. I uh There's too much.

SPEAKER_03

Too much.

SPEAKER_01

Apologies. There's too much Marvel stuff. Sorry. Uh The Circle and then he was on an uh season of the Circle?

SPEAKER_03

That that film with I think Tom Hanks and Emma Watts.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I thought you meant on uh Netflix.

SPEAKER_03

That would oh my god, that would have been amazing if he had been on a circle. And then prior to his passing, he was on the TV series version of Training Day.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, so we brought her up already, but Jeanette Goldstein, Diamondback. So she is presumably she's like kind of a couple with Jesse. We know absolutely nothing about how they got together, or I don't know. It I couldn't get the sense either when they were in the bar.

SPEAKER_01

We don't know anything about any of them.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I in the bar, like look, they're brutal killers. That's how they all are, even May. But I couldn't get a sense with the waitress if she was like a little bit jealous of the way that Jesse was interacting with her, or if like, nope, that's just how they kill. They just I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

But impossible to say.

SPEAKER_03

And at the end, I mean it's so funny to me because you know, they're in the car, her and Jesse, and they're burning up, and she just grabs his hand and she's like, good times, like, or we had good times, or something like that. And I'm like, boy, you guys really succumbed to your fate fairly quickly. Like, I feel like you could have had options here to even, even just go under, like, respectively, go under your part of the car.

SPEAKER_01

Just get a fucking blanket, man.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, like you could have like cars nowadays aren't so much like this, but I remember older cars from the 80s. You could you could climb under them. There was uh there's even in the while you're still inside the car, you could go under like where your your feet would be.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

In the front of the car. Okay. Like you could hide from the sun.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

There were options as well.

SPEAKER_01

There's no reasoning with these vampires that wouldn't ever call themselves vampires.

SPEAKER_03

But she's she's fantastic. I think that um largely she has also pivoted out of acting. She has her own like set of, I think, lingerie stores. Okay. So she has that going on. Aliens was her first credit. I don't know if I actually brought that up when we did it.

SPEAKER_01

Insane because that's such a memorable, amazing character. I'm literally looking at the Aliens Vasquez action figure that I got that was just like left over in a box when I worked at Fox.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. It's awesome. I'm so glad we have it. And that again, I'm just like kind of I can't wrap my mind around the fact that she had that kind of outstanding performance and that it didn't quite translate into a bigger career. She's fantastic. Yeah. She is fantastic in that movie.

SPEAKER_01

She's in more movies than I think the average movie watcher even realizes. Unless you like look at her filmography. She's in more stuff, but she's such a chameleon.

SPEAKER_03

It's yeah, and it's also very small roles. Like I I don't know. She's so she's in Lethal Weapon 2. She is the foster mom and Terminator 2, Judgment Day. She reteams with Cameron a lot. Uh, she's in the film, another infamous film, Fair Game. She is one of the steering, would you say, is it called steering passage in Titanic? She's reading a story to her kids, like she basically knows that they're all gonna die.

SPEAKER_02

Oh.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah. Because they're trapped. Yeah. And so she starts reading or telling a story to her kids to help them go to sleep, to kind of soothe them. It's it's very sad. It's a very sad moment in the film.

SPEAKER_01

I have bad news for you. That movie is a little bit of a tragedy.

SPEAKER_03

She's in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, living out loud, cockstoppers. And she has done like a handful of TV appearances.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know how like what her role was. I know that she was in the Presidio with um Mark Harmon and um Oh my goodness. Sean Connery. I think Meg Ryan's in that too. And but that is an 80s film, so I think maybe one day we'll we'll cover that. It was a good movie. Okay. I saw it in the theater.

SPEAKER_03

All right, moving on to Homer. So it's an interesting character. I mean, it's very like very much like Kirsten Dunn's character in the interview with the vampire, where he got turned as a kid.

SPEAKER_01

Although this would have preceded all that. It did. So it's more like um someone just stole a bunch of ideas from Near Dark.

SPEAKER_03

Well, the interview with the vampire was a book.

SPEAKER_01

When was it written, though?

SPEAKER_03

I don't know. So I don't know if preceded this film. But it's the same concept, is all I'm trying to say. Is that it's a kid vampire, which that's another thing about vampire lore, is that there's kind of this like uh I don't know, unspoken rule, you don't turn kids. Yeah, I guess I've just seen that in a number of stories at this point.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You don't turn children. So, but he is, but he's seen he's like an older kid.

SPEAKER_01

Whoever the actor is that got to play that probably had a blast because he's like drinking and smoking throughout the whole movie.

SPEAKER_03

And and you know, I don't know like how old he really was when he was filming, but played by Joshua John Miller and not a huge filmography, although he has done some work fairly recently. So he is, I think, one of um uh oh my gosh, what's his name? In Halloween 3 season of The Witch, which we will be covering. Spoiler.

SPEAKER_01

My favorite Halloween movie.

SPEAKER_03

Well, we will be doing it for this Halloween series. He is one of the kids, so he's not the kid. He is not the kid that like has that grotesque uh death. He's not that kid, he's just one of the main guys' kids.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So he's Okay, that's good. Yeah, he's in that. He's in River's Edge. And as I was mentioning, uh just last year he was in a film called The Exorcism, and he's done some TV appearances, but you know, not not an extensive filmography.

SPEAKER_01

Breaking news. It appears the interview with a vampire novel was written in the uh 70s. Okay. So there you go.

SPEAKER_03

I thought it maybe was, but all right. These last two, um, I almost kind of debated, but I I was like, okay, fine. The dad. Uh Caleb's dad. Loy. Loy. Loy. Loy Colton. So played by Tim Thomerson. So presumably his name is Thomas Thomerson. I think it's awful when parents do that to their kids, but it's not a tragedy. No, it's not a tragedy, but it's like a tragedy before we coined tragedy for other types of names. Yeah. It was the original tragedy. He is still working because get this.

SPEAKER_01

That's wild. Is he 105 years old?

SPEAKER_03

No. Here is the thing. Was he 25 in that movie? Okay, so I brought this up with Teen Wolf 2 and the vice principal and how old he looked. Yes. So when this film came out, this actor was 41. Okay. He looks like he's about 61. I don't know if he had the Steve Martin thing going on or his hair turned gray early. Maybe. Or what, but I'm like, that guy was only 41. 41. And he plays this like grizzled dad.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, he looked like he was. He it felt like the role was him supposed to be like 60. But then but then Colton's sister was like very young.

SPEAKER_03

Well, he could have had a younger wife.

SPEAKER_01

He could have had a wife.

SPEAKER_03

He could have had a wife.

SPEAKER_01

He didn't there's there's no mom. There's no mom.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. But anyway, he is still very much working. He also has like over 200 credits. Nice. He's been very busy.

SPEAKER_01

And actually, I recognize him, but I'm just not sure from what.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, well, I'll bring up some stuff. I mean, what's so he has a mix of TV and film. What's interesting about him is that often, and this is not to be disparaging, but a lot of time when you see a filmography, you might see an actor who's been on a ton of TV shows, but often for like one episode, maybe two episodes. What makes his career really interesting, he's he's actually had a lot of extended stints on a pretty substantial number of TV shows. So that that got my attention that he's had that. And all these shows uh are a case of that. Starting with all that glitters. I don't I don't necessarily know these shows, but he was on them for a bit. Quark, The Associates, The Two of Us. So a couple films. I love this title. Jekyll and Hyde, dot dot dot, together again. He was in Rhinestone. Okay. With Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone. He's in Volunteers, which we could do. We should do. No? You don't like that movie? Okay. Iron Eagle. He was on the TV version of Down and Out in Beverly Hills. A couple more films, Who's Harry Crumb, Air America, and more TV series, Sirens, Land's End. He had his time on soap opera, day, daytime TV, Days of Our Lives. He also just this year, a film came out with him called The Butterfly Guard. And just beyond everything I mentioned, he does also have like a ton of one-offs and two-offs on TV.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So Marcy Leeds is the daughter. I already brought her up, Sarah Colton. She's a fun little badass. Um really is. I think in like when she first sees Caleb, after he's been missing for a few days, what did she say? She's like, I should just punch you or something like that.

SPEAKER_01

She says exactly that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So she's a little Spitfire. But she, yeah, she packs a punch for the amount of time she's on screen. She definitely has just. Just I think once she she had a lot of other roles when she was a kid and hasn't been in anything since. But she did play like a younger version of one of the two leads in Beaches. Oh, okay. Yeah, she was on the TV series The Beauty and the Beast for a little bit. The one with um Linda Hamilton.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. And oh my goodness. He was in Alien Resurrection. Ron Pearlman. There you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. And then I think it's this is her last credit. She was on a TV miniseries called Vendetta Colin Secrets of a Mafia Bride.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Film Synopsis.

SPEAKER_01

For near dark? Cracked. Okay.

SPEAKER_03

A small town farmer's son reluctantly joins a traveling group of vampires after he is bitten by a beautiful drifter.

SPEAKER_01

Well, that kind of makes it sound like they're like a traveling band or something. Like we're just a traveling group of vampires.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, I guess on the nose, that is correct.

SPEAKER_01

He doesn't reluctantly join it.

SPEAKER_03

He just doesn't really know what the fuck's going on at first. And and so he's kind of hanging with them because he doesn't really know what's happening. He does try to get away.

SPEAKER_01

Well, look. But when it's a movie that doesn't really tell me a whole lot of what's going on, I'm not going to lean on the synopsis to give me any more information because there's just nothing to pull.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I mean, it this kind of circles me back to some of my original comments, and that I just wish I understood the world a little bit better. I mean, the filmmaker is is completely free to make the film that he or she wants.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

But as a viewer, I would have liked to have understood like kind of the rules of the world a little bit better. Because that was another thing too, is that part of the reason why he could not get away from them is because he was getting progressively more and more sick. And part of that world that I wish I could have understood better, because maybe part of it is the lens through which I'm watching this, because I'm seeing other versions of Vampire Worlds that I have like ingested through other films and television.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Where they can, yes, they will weaken, but they don't get like so violently sick. There were so quickly.

SPEAKER_01

A lot of scenes involving him like uh vomiting or with just like goop on his face.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my god, the goop was disgusting. Like I was slobber? Yeah, I couldn't spit up or something. Couldn't really figure out what it was, but it was gross. And it was a very quick turnaround even after feeding to when he was like getting really sick. And so I was like, okay, so are you essentially saying that like every single night you have to feed? Otherwise, you're gonna end up that way. Like it I I guess I've never seen a vampire world set up that way where they have to so frequently feed to establish or to maintain kind of their equilibrium.

SPEAKER_01

I wish that um there was an answer to that specific question, but there are so many other questions that I also did not get answers to.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. There's a lot of questions with this film.

SPEAKER_01

But I asked those questions because I thought the cast, like it's an amazing cast. They did like a relatively good job with the with the effects for it being like an older 80s vampire movie. So there was definitely like something there, but I just wish that they had like fleshed out some more of like the lore and the story.

SPEAKER_03

It was you know I would have loved to have known more about the backstories of all the vampires. Uh I and I I think those are my two things. Just give me a quick flashback or something. Yeah, I think those are my two big things. Interesting um editing techniques. We forgot to bring that up between it's like very Star Wars-esque.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Uh, so that was that was kind of fun. But yeah, I think my two biggest hangups on the movie is like really wanting to know more about the characters, not the human characters, but the vampire characters, and then also really wanting more of a setup of the world. Because you make a excellent point too. It's like, why are they so caught off guard every time when they're outside? And like the way that they're so casual, just like spray painting. I'm like at this point, especially Jesse, you have been a vampire for over a hundred years. Yeah, you should have this on lockdown in terms of like protecting yourself every fucking day. Yeah. So, like, why are you guys so haphazard about it? Like, it seemed I just didn't get it.

SPEAKER_01

Why I mean, yeah. Why why why are they in such an unpopulated part of the country instead of with like no housing anywhere for them? Go blend into a city where like honestly people aren't gonna know like if people disappear? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So they made a lot of poor decisions and they suffered the consequences.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, they just like weren't very organized vampires.

SPEAKER_01

Disorganized vampires.

SPEAKER_03

Disorganized vampires. That's a good title for a film. So watching the film again, I mean I don't know if I need to anytime soon. Although I always enjoy watching films that that add another layer to lore.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Even if it's different and maybe something I don't agree with or understand, it's always really interesting to just see another person's take on that lore. So for that, but I don't know. I feel like I got a lot out of the it's a very short film. Maybe when I can more easily watch it.

SPEAKER_01

If I if it just ever happened to be on, sure. If I have to go through uh several steps, set sail, um, you know.

SPEAKER_03

We'll leave it at that.

SPEAKER_01

We'll leave it at that. Then uh sometimes like I don't I don't know why. I mean it's it's always it's never a good sign. It's never a good sign when you just uh there should be no difficulty getting any film nowadays. When you hit the little button on your remote to activate that little person in your Apple TV, and they have no there's like nothing. Like I've never heard of that movie, and it's like, uh oh, that's not it's not a good sign.

SPEAKER_03

In this day and age, for all the things that I could complain about, if we're gonna have things like streaming services and on-demand viewing, then every single fucking movie should be made available to the public.

SPEAKER_01

It should always be somewhere.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, like it should always be somewhere.

SPEAKER_01

If it's on some other platform, that's fine. Like there's all the all the paid for ones, and there's like ad-supported.

SPEAKER_03

I'm just saying it should be available somewhere.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So anyway.

SPEAKER_01

There's something else. Buckaroo Bonze was hard to find, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03

That's like five years ago. I don't remember. Call to action. I guess with everything we've talked about, I just would be really curious about other people's opinions as far as the lore and like, did you not need to know the background on these people? Like, was this a complete enough film for you as is?

SPEAKER_01

My call to action is if it was possible to have contacted Jesse and Jesse and the gang, I'll call them, and let them know hey, we have an almost immediate overnight cure for your condition. Oh, that's do you think they would take it? No. I don't think they would either.

SPEAKER_03

We didn't even bring that up.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That apparently the only thing.

SPEAKER_01

I mentioned that there was the there was the fastest cure to vampirism ever, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03

The only thing that you need to do to cure your vampirism is have a blood transfusion.

SPEAKER_01

Just a uh we have no idea how much because it's not like they were draining the one person for the So like they didn't even have to like fiddle around with that. It was like whatever. Yeah, if you just have like in this dirty shed, get this Oh my god, that's rough.

SPEAKER_03

That close-up of the dirty nails.

SPEAKER_01

Get this much blood out, get this much new blood in. Don't worry about blood type, it's fine.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it was it was real reckless.

SPEAKER_01

Did anyone test May to find out what her blood because between the the dad and the kid, I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_03

Sure. I mean, I don't know even what you would say her air quotes blood would be.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I I don't know how that works because she's like already I mean, I don't anyway.

SPEAKER_01

And that is my call to action.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, no, that's a great one. So if you want to get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out through Facebook, Instagram, or Blue Sky. It's the same handle at all three. It is at 80smontage pod and 80s is 80S.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. So we knocked out the first film of this year's Halloween series. We did it. Next up is a Derek pick. Oh. But not to say that you don't have, you know, agency in what we pick overall, but you very specifically wanted to cover this one.

SPEAKER_01

This is one that like I don't know how it came up in conversation with some of our friends, like maybe a year ago, and I'm like, oh, we should definitely cover that. But we've been kind of like waiting, holding on to it.

SPEAKER_03

I hope that we're talking about the same movie.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, me too. I didn't actually talk to you about this beforehand. But well, look, the movie that I'm thinking of is uh Dreamscape with Dennis Quaid.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, yes, that's it. Yeah, and I have never seen this movie. And Max Von Saddow, I think, is in it. Yes, there's a couple big time people. And it is, I was reading about it, so I'm really curious about like the snake scenes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, the fucking the snake when uh I'm sure the the effects are incredibly dated, but when I first saw that and the guy like morphs into a like a snake in the dream to attack Dennis Quaid's character, it was scary as shit. It was it was intense, but you know, effects have come a long way. I don't think it's gonna pack the same punch.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Well, that is next up on tap. And in the meantime, just thank you to everybody for taking the time to listen to our podcast. We know you have a lot of choices. So thank you so much for choosing us, and we will talk to you again in two weeks' time. Bye.