'80s Movie Montage
Breaking down our favorite decade of flicks. Hosted by Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke.
'80s Movie Montage
The Return of the Living Dead
In this episode, Anna and Derek debate fast zombies versus slow zombies, if Ernie was indeed a Nazi in hiding, and much more during their discussion of the horror-comedy gem The Return of the Living Dead (1985).
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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.
Did you see that movie, Night of the Living Dead? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the one where the corpses start eating the people, right? Sure. What what about it? Did you know that movie was based on a true case? Come on, you're shitting me, right? I ain't never been more serious in my life.
SPEAKER_02:Hello, and welcome to 80s movie montage. This is Derek.
SPEAKER_01:And this is Anna.
SPEAKER_02:And that was James Caron as Frank talking to Tom Matthews as Freddy in what I consider to be the most unserious zombie movie, maybe that I've ever seen. And that, of course, is 1985's The Return of the Living Dead.
SPEAKER_01:That is correct.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That movie was crazy.
SPEAKER_01:It was bonkers. It was so fun to finally watch the whole thing start to finish.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't know until literally the moment we started it when I saw horror slash comedy. I'm like, oh. But then very quickly in the movie, you get that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But it's it's really good.
SPEAKER_02:It's it was fun. It was crazy. It was like really fairly early on, like the most inexplicable nude scene.
SPEAKER_01:That's correct, too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But but yeah, it was. Um, I mean, the the cadaver, I'm getting ahead of a lot of things. For the most, for the most part, the the practical effects were were a lot of fun, except there was a cadaver that I was not sure if they were even trying to not make it look like a mannequin.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, the dude who like attacked Bert?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, why do you think he looked like a mannequin?
SPEAKER_02:I don't maybe it was so realistic that it was like this um like the yellowed skin. Oh, that's it.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I'm not trying to get weird hair, but that happens to you after you die.
SPEAKER_02:And then when it was like cut cut apart. So like there was nothing in it really. Like it was so maybe it wasn't meant to be like uh like a fresh body. It was supposed to be like a cadaver that would be used for like medical purposes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was medical supply warehouse. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So but it looked, it looked really strange.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. I thought they did a pretty good job with although I I have not seen as many cadavers. Like I s I've seen some cadavers.
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_01:So that's another story for another day, but in any case, the return of the living dead, which is the third film in this year's Halloween series. So we're just moving through way too fast.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know if it's hilarious or somehow like weirdly sinister that when you mentioned you have experiencing cadavers, we just laughed hilariously. But I'm just gonna move on from it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we'll move on. So 1985, and let's jump into the writers. So we actually have four people credited as the writers on this. Uh one of them, well, okay, so one of them, as far as like the original John A. Russo, I'm going a little out of order of how they listed it on IMDB. It's a little confusing. I think you need to start with him.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because I'm sure a lot of the people listening, if they are fans of horror, they already know that name because he co-wrote Night of the Living Dead with George Romero. Yeah. So interesting, because wasn't it George A. Romero as well? So both of their middle names start with A. And iconic um obviously starts the lore and the subgenre of horror called zombie films. I mean, I okay, my guess is that probably preceding, because what that was 68. Uh, I would say that probably preceding Night of Living Dead, maybe there are other types of films out there that like touch upon the undead. But I think that one is definitely the one that like really brought it to the masses and had like just such a impactful cultural like moment for film goers. So in any case, Johnny Russo Russo. Russo?
SPEAKER_02:Russo, Russo. Russo. Russo.
SPEAKER_01:Um was one of the co-writers of that. And then as far as so here's what happened. You mentioned this off mic that I don't I don't think it was acrimonious. I think that just Russo and Romero had different ideas of where they wanted to take future films.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And so they went their separate ways. And basically, I guess I don't know if this was like a handshake deal or there's a contract written up on it, but basically Russo could use Living Dead in his films. And then Romero was like dead, so like dawn of the dead.
SPEAKER_02:Which is what the direction that he went into after the Night of the Living Dead, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So that's what differentiates uh the two of them. And as far as Russo's other credits, so uh we have the devil and and and so here's what's interesting is that when I bring up these other two uh writers before the last one, they have a couple of the same credits. So it's interesting that three of these guys actually have some shared credits. One of them is The Devil and Sam Silverstein.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:The liberation, and this is the other one that's like shared with one writer, the liberation of Cherry Janowski.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I don't I don't know. Um Santa Claus, like C-L-A-W-S. Uh Another Night of the Living Dead.
SPEAKER_02:Is it is that the title?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Really?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Amazing.
SPEAKER_01:I did get it right this time. Uh My Uncle's a Zombie. Exclamation point, which I thought was super fun. That's fun. Night of the Animated Dead. And then the night they the night they came home. So those are some of his credits.
SPEAKER_02:And they were also dead. No, I added that part.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe they were. I bet. My bet. I didn't do a dive on that.
SPEAKER_02:My guess is they someone's dead in that.
SPEAKER_01:Somebody might be dead. So the so for the purposes of this film, Russo has a story by credit. The two other gentlemen that also have story by credits, the first is Rudy Richie. Yeah. Probably Ritchie. Oh, Ritchie. You think? Yeah, no, I think you're right. So unfortunately, he passed in 2012. Uh, I mentioned already that so he had shared credits with Russo on both The Devil and Sam Silverstein, as well as the liberation of Cherry Janowski. He also has a credit for a film called The Affair, but beyond that, not an extensive filmography.
SPEAKER_02:How many movies do you think exist that are just called The Affair?
SPEAKER_01:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:At least 10. Probably a lot. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:There's a lot. I mean, look, I don't know the movie, The Liberation of Cherry Janowski, but at least that's a unique title. Yeah. You're not going to confuse that with another The Liberation of Cherry Janowski. I bet you there's just one film called The Liberation of Cherry Janowski. I'm confident of this. Yeah. So, and then the other story by credit is for Russell Striner. Striner? I think it's Striner.
SPEAKER_02:These names to me.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, right. I don't know. So these three dudes, Rudy, John, and Russell, they all worked on The Devil and Sam Silverstein.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So he has a credit for that as well. And he actually played, so this is not um, this is this is not like a writing credit, but I just thought that in case people didn't have context for who this guy was, the brother in the beginning of Night of the Living Dead. Where he's like, Barbara, they're coming to get you, Barbara.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, that's him.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That's what I that's what I thought when I saw his picture. I'm like, oh, it's that guy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I'm pretty proud of my Johnny impersonation. Barbara. It's very good. They're coming to he's actually so annoying. I was like, good, I'm glad you're dead. But he comes back too. Anyway, so those are all the story by credits. Then, okay, so here's the deal. Dan O'Bannon, who, especially once I start going through his credits, uh is very, very, very well known, I think, in horror horror circles because he is the originator of the Alien franchise.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well done.
SPEAKER_01:I know that Ridley Scott and he should get a ton of credit for being the director of that film, but it all kind of starts with Dan O'Bannon. Now I kind of wrote it.
SPEAKER_02:Like, do you think there was a conscious choice to not put as much comedy into Alien as he put into Return of the Living Dead? Because I feel like we could have used more comedy.
SPEAKER_01:An Alien? Yeah. No.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:No, I I was like reconsidering for a second, but no, it's a perfect film. Uh unfortunately, O'Bannon, he's passed too. He passed in 2009. But so they had the script and they pull in O'Bannon. They want him to be a part of the project, but he that's why I'm wondering. I mean, I thought he did a good job with comedy, but I don't know if comedy really was like his forte, but he wanted to differentiate it because he, I think, had a lot of respect for Romero.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And didn't want the film to just retread the same path. So he's like, let's make this a little bit different. And that's where the horror comedy comes in.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I love that like we're gonna bring up Ned of the Living Dead because it exists as a movie in this film.
SPEAKER_01:I really exactly I love those little meta moments. So as far as like we're he okay, look, here's the deal. He also directed this film. He did not have a robust directing career. He was mostly known for the writer of Alien, and because of that, he gets credits for the entire Alien franchise, essentially. That's pretty good. Not too shabby. Yeah. Not too shabby. So let's go through his writing credits real quick. So preceding Alien, he does a film called Darkstar. So then, yeah. Alien, Aliens. I'm gonna just knock out all the franchise films first. Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Alien vs. Predator, Aliens versus Predator, Colonel Requiem. I know we don't really love that film, but pretty heinous scene.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_01:Uh Prometheus, Alien Covenant, Alien Romulus. Yeah. And then currently, Alien Earth the TV series.
SPEAKER_02:I look, people have differing thoughts. It seems like people either really enjoy it or they're like, the xenomorph looks like it's a guy in a suit. Guess what, buddy? It is. Not a real xenomorph.
SPEAKER_01:So we owe a huge debt to O'Bannon for creating that world and that story. And love or hate some of the other movies. Like, look, as far as I'm concerned, it kind of starts and ends with Alien and then Aliens. I'm not I'm not huge on the rest of the franchise. But regardless, thank you, O'Bannon, for for giving us this franchise.
SPEAKER_02:I don't I don't hate Alien 3 as you know, once you get past the unnecessary killing of uh Hicks and Newt.
SPEAKER_01:Unforgivable.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it is it it's it's rough. But um I appreciate that we got um Tywin Lannister.
SPEAKER_01:Sure, sure.
SPEAKER_02:Um so that was fun. Um Resurrection was pretty difficult to watch. That one's pretty bad.
SPEAKER_01:Is that with Wound and a Writer?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Ron Pearlman. Um Romulus, aside from if you can get past the uh unnecessary like throwbacks with Rook and the phrase, which I can the phrase. Yeah. The get away from her, you bitch phrase. Oh no, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um that I thought it was really well done, but that's because I have such an affinity for the game, the alien isolation game, that so heavily influenced uh the guy who made that. Um what's his name?
SPEAKER_01:That guy.
SPEAKER_02:That guy? Yeah Fetty Alvarez?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Okay, yes, I think you're absolutely right. And then I don't want to forget that O'Bann, I just like went through all the alien films, but he also was the writer on Total Recall, as well as like he gets a follow-up credit for the 2012 version of Total Recall.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay. That one was uh that one was not trash.
SPEAKER_01:We'll get to her in just a second.
SPEAKER_02:But uh I I will say this much for Alien Earth. Tim Lee Oliphant as the synthetic, probably the coolest synth in the entire franchise.
SPEAKER_01:He's pretty cool, dude.
SPEAKER_02:He is. It it helps because he's already just cool. He's just cool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So directing again, Dan O'Bannon. I'm really glad he got the chance to do this. And I am honestly a little surprised that he didn't get more opportunities to direct. I think he did well in this film. It's a fun film. I'm not, it's not like it's getting any Oscars, but it was fun. I had a great time watching it. It moves at a really fast clip.
SPEAKER_02:Uh once it starts moving, it does. Like there's there's a whole like learning session of of how the warehouse is a lot of exposition in the beginning. But once it once it's like time to party, it's really fucking time to party.
SPEAKER_01:And yeah, I think he did well for an ensemble cast, but he only has two other directing credits. One is a short called Bloodbath, and then the other is The Resurrected. So yeah. Uh cinematography. So Jules Brennan, who unfortunately passed in 2021. But I'm trying to, I'm looking at credits here. Yeah, there's some. Oh, okay, there's one that's a little in- I don't know if we'll do it. So I'm talking to myself right now. Sorry. Sorry. Um, so I have a little so he did a ton of TV movies for one. Yeah. I did not list them out. I didn't come across any that I thought were ones that were generally known. Well, hmm.
SPEAKER_02:I'll wait. Am I wrong? Well, no. Are you did you were you gonna list any? Were there any that you were gonna mention?
SPEAKER_01:Of TV movies specifically?
SPEAKER_02:Or TV miniseries?
SPEAKER_01:No, there is one TV miniseries.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Not a TV movie, TV miniseries. I know, and I know exactly which one you were talking about.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So preceding that though, a couple films, we have Johnny Got His Gun. Oh. Dillinger. I I thought those were fun because it was like, oh, okay, so he liked doing doing like kind of gangster type stuff.
SPEAKER_02:I'm pretty sure that Johnny Got His Gun was either the inspiration for or they used clips for it in a Metallica video. Oh, interesting. I think one.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh he also shot Outlaw Blues. It's kind of a theme going on here. But then, yes, to your point, he shot the TV miniseries Salem's Lot.
SPEAKER_02:Which I probably hasn't aged super well, but it had a like the vampire was more of like a Nosferatu type of looking vampire.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I just remember as a kid watching that thinking, this is.
SPEAKER_01:Did I not watch that movie version with you? We watched that together. We did, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It just it's hard to go back. There was like this visceral practical effects, them kind of like pushing the boundaries a little bit, like kind of similar to what they ended up doing later with it, where like as a kid being able to watch something like that was super cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no.
SPEAKER_02:The movie was okay. It like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:The movie was okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Heavily okay.
SPEAKER_01:Heavily okay. He also shot Teen Wolf 2TO. The reason why I was talking to myself is because I know we've had the conversation, we were like, let's do that. I'm like, do we have to?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, we don't have to, but now I might just watch it this year just for the heck of it.
SPEAKER_01:Just to see.
SPEAKER_02:Because now he's boxing, right? And it's also Jason Bateman.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I didn't know about the boxing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he's not, it's a different guy. His thing isn't basketball.
SPEAKER_01:Are they cousins or something? Is it one of those things where they're cousins?
SPEAKER_02:Maybe like, oh, he goes to another school. But honestly, boxing as a werewolf seems even more dangerous. You're gonna kill someone.
SPEAKER_01:And just to wrap it up, he also shot the film 1969. Okay, so this was so funny to me. You and I rem both remarked at different points in the film that the musical choices were maybe a little unconventional, but also really made me laugh.
SPEAKER_02:We just made a reference to the like the time to party because there's a scene when like the the rain saturated with all of like the chemicals has seeped into the to the graveyard, and this skeleton fucking just pops up, his jaw opens up, and this song just starts blasting about like it's time to party.
SPEAKER_01:Well, yeah, I mean that's like more soundtrack, but composing. But the like you were like, oh, it's like Scooby-Doo in some of the scenes where they're like running around.
SPEAKER_02:It was like they just gave a guy an old Casio keyboard and said, Fucking go.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that guy's name is Matt Clifford.
SPEAKER_02:Well done.
SPEAKER_01:And he has only three composing credits. This is one of them. Uh, the other two are so one is a short called The Basket Case, and the other is called, it's a film, called Beijing Spring. Now, I don't hate the I don't hate the scoring.
SPEAKER_02:Look, when I said they just threw a Casio keyboard and said fucking go, that's the highest compliment for that kind of movie and for what what was happening, it was kind of amazing.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it again felt pretty unconventional, but at the same time it worked.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It was, I mean, this is a horror comedy. So I don't need like um, what is it, uh from Exorcist bell, tubular bells. Yeah. You know, like that wouldn't work in this film. So I clocked it. Maybe the goal is always that you're not necessarily clocking the score in something. But for for that being said, I thought it was fun and definitely for me made the film more enjoyable.
SPEAKER_02:What was the the tangerine dream one? That was that uh near dark.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that one felt more disjointed.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it didn't, it didn't fit like this the the composing versus the soundtrack, like it all fit the tone that they were going for way more effectively in the but to your earlier point as far as like the songs that were used, also very fun. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like kind of on the nose, but very fun.
SPEAKER_02:Like, I I just laugh so hard when that it's time the party thing happened. And I think it they they knew they knew it was gold because they do it again at the very end.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so it's it's fun. Okay, moving on to film editing, Robert Gordon. So a lot of well-known credits for this guy. And one I was like, really? Wow, okay, have all films for him. First, we have this is very much in line with what we're talking about, creature from Black Lake.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, not a not a black lagoon.
SPEAKER_01:No, no. However, he did cut the blue lagoon.
SPEAKER_02:Very different, but very different, but no less problematic.
SPEAKER_01:Correct, correct. Uh, more similar to that film, he cut North Shore. He did Love Bites. This is the one where I was like, wow, okay, he cut Toy Story. Damn. The original.
SPEAKER_02:Which is interesting because a lot of his uh filmography before that is just editing live action. And correct.
SPEAKER_01:That's why that was so surprising to me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because it is a very different beast to cut an animated film than, like you said, live action.
SPEAKER_02:Like that, that's that would have been uh Disney, right? Was that had Disney acquired Pixar? Was that like all them at that point? I don't know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Pixar might have been still on its own. I'm not sure. Uh he did Dreams Wake and also Deadline. All right. There's a lot of people. There are a lot of people. So, um, however, for for that being said, it's kind of the three senior gentlemen that are in the film that have like the longest filmographies. A lot of the younger actors, with with some exceptions, uh, have pretty short philographies. That's we've talked about this before, that that sometimes happens with horror where people are pulled into something, but they're not necessarily like looking for I don't know, Leonardo DiCaprio type careers.
SPEAKER_02:So they don't Yeah, but you need you need a couple other actors with some some reasonable history or something. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Starting with Clue Gulanger.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:What do you think?
SPEAKER_02:I liked him. Oh, you mean the name? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Am I saying it right?
SPEAKER_02:Fair enough, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, let's just call him Clue. Let's just call him Clue. So he was Bert. Bert was was he just the manager or like the owner of the medical supply? I think he was the owner. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I I think he was the owner, and then um, what no, not Ernie. Who was it? Who was the other guy? Frank. Frank. Frank was the manager. Okay. And then Freddie was just like the new hire. Apparently that morning. Yeah, poor guy. Here's how you put uh popcorn packaging popcorn into a box. There you go.
SPEAKER_01:Like, what the f so he passed, unfortunately and and for these senior gentlemen, they've all passed on. Uh he passed in 2022. And as with all these other the three senior men in this film, a huge career well before this film came along. A lot of Western work.
SPEAKER_02:So that's not surprising. I mean, Westerns were that era's uh comic book movie.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So he was uh, I mean, a lot of one-offs and two-offs, but as far as series where he had kind of a more prolonged stint on them, The Tall Man, as well as The Virginian. Uh, some films sprinkled in there. He was in The Killers. So it's been a minute since since we watched this. So I don't remember his character, but he was in the last picture show.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I don't remember that either. Yeah. But it has it has been a while.
SPEAKER_01:He was in and so seemed to have uh affinity for horror. He's in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Freddy's Revenge.
SPEAKER_02:Does Freddy need to get revenge? I mean, that's like fucking all he does.
SPEAKER_01:It is all he does. However, you know, in the first film. I don't know, the first film leaves it so open-ended because Nancy thinks that she has defeated him. And by the way, spoiler, that's our next film. Oh yeah. Uh she thinks she's defeated him, but then you have that end sequence.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He was also in part two of that huge TV miniseries in the 80s, North and South.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, that and the Thornbirds.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So North and South, book two, Love and War.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my God.
SPEAKER_01:He was in a film called Summer Heat, as well as I'm Gonna Get You Sucker. Oh. He's in that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that movie is amazing.
SPEAKER_01:So he this is funny to me. So he was part of I'm assuming this is horror. Oh my god. A film called I'm Gonna Get You Sucker was in the 80s? It is. Oh yeah. Yes. He was part of a franchise called Feast. And he's the same character in all three, which is just bartender. So he's in Feast, Feast 2 colon Sloppy Seconds. Jesus Christ. Amazing title. And then Feast 3 colon The Happy Finish.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, as people say.
SPEAKER_01:As people say. He also was in Piranha 3 Double D. Uh my guess is that he was pulled into this because I think many people know that Tarantino has like crazy exhaustive uh film history knowledge and has these like certain actors that he has in Affinity for. So he was in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. That makes sense.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then his final credit was a film called Give Till It Hurts. Alright. So all right, moving on to James Karen, who we have talked about before. Sure have. Because he is the how would you describe him in Poltergeist? He's he's just the swarmy boss.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he's the dad's swarmy real estate agency boss.
SPEAKER_01:Who didn't move the graves. You moved the tombstones, but you didn't move the graves. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:By the way, pretty entertaining uh maze at Halloween Horror Night.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it wasn't bad. I mean, I loved it mostly for the nostalgia. Um I am going to say that the production value could be kicked up a notch.
SPEAKER_02:It it could be. And you know what? That guy who tore his face off was not in the movie as much as that maze would lead you to believe. And we're not the first people to say that.
SPEAKER_01:No, we're not. That's hilarious.
SPEAKER_02:That guy kept popping up everywhere.
SPEAKER_01:He was everywhere. That was fun. But yes, James Carron. So also huge career before this film came along. And actually, so this film comes after poltergeist. So I think it's very fun that he continued to want to do these kinds of films.
SPEAKER_02:He leaned so hard into this. Like, yeah, he was great.
SPEAKER_01:He was great. So he's he had a real fun career. Uh, I have maybe mostly films for him with sprinkling of TV. He was in Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster. Fuck yes. So fun. He was in Hercules in New York. Oh, with uh Schwarzenegger. Crack. Yeah. I mean, he was all over the place. I mean, he was in the film All the President's Men. Like that is a very highly regarded movie, as well as the China Syndrome. Yeah. He was in the 1980 remake of The Jazz Singer. He so a little bit of TV here, it is enough. And yes, I think probably, maybe most people do know him as Mr. Teague from Poltergeist.
SPEAKER_02:I think so. Just that's just like such a huge popular, you know, every everyone knows the guy that didn't move the bodies.
SPEAKER_01:You didn't move the graves. He was in the film Francis, another TV series, The Powers of Matthew Starr, uh a whole swath of films I'm about to bring up. Jagged Edge, Wall Street, Return of the Living Dead 2. I don't know who he could possibly be. Because he literally fucking burned himself, right?
SPEAKER_02:So he maintained enough of his own brain power to just like Which that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01:Like, okay, like I know we have a ton of people to get through, but there are some really fascinating parts of this film. Like, that is one of them. Yeah. The fact that he held on long enough to understand what would happen if he was not taken out and he made honestly like a heartbreaking choice, especially when he takes off his fucking wedding gun.
SPEAKER_02:Apologizes to his wife.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my God. Oh my God. Like the fact that there is a moment in this film where you're like, your heart is breaking for this character. Jesus Christ. And what a what a horrific way to take yourself out.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So anyway, uh yeah. Return of Living Dead 2, Congo, Shadow of a Doubt, Apt Pupil, Any Given Sunday, 13 Days, Mulholland Drive. Uh, he was on a TV show called First Monday. I don't know what that was, but The Pursuit of Happiness, uh, the TV show Ned and Stacy. And then here's what's interesting. So he was in a film called Cynthia. The character's name was Frank Teague.
SPEAKER_02:That's very interesting.
SPEAKER_01:That was his final credit.
SPEAKER_02:Hmm.
SPEAKER_01:And he did a ton. I mean, this guy had a huge career. He he did a lot. So yeah. Okay. Moving on to the last of the senior gentlemen in this film. Is it rude that I keep saying that? I just I'm not trying to be. Um, Don Kelf Kelpha?
SPEAKER_02:Sure.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. So he plays Ernie. He is the mortician that Bert leans on to help once things start getting out of hand.
SPEAKER_02:When he brings in those uh rabid, what were they? What did he say? Yeah. Bag. I don't know. Uh are there are like rabid weasels on the loose in Louisville where they were? Maybe.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's why he's like, what the fuck are you talking about? And he so the the actor who plays that character, he passed in 2016. Now, I didn't know this watching the film. I only read this after the fact. I would not have picked up on this at all, but there are people out there who, man, they got eagle eyes when it comes to clocking things in films. Like we we clock some stuff, like we clocked the eye chart that was really funny. The eye chart was a lot of fun. We clocked the like reanimated butterflies. Like some of that was very fun. But apparently this guy was a Nazi in hiding. Didn't realize that. But people clocked it because of there was like a poster of Eva Braun. On his wall. Oh, I didn't even see that. Didn't see it. He, I guess, had that, like he just had a gun on him, and the gun was some kind of German gun.
SPEAKER_02:So I guess I noticed that he had a pistol, and I just thought it was like an oldish pistol, but you know, in in our defense, the Nazis now are more overt, so it's easier to see them.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um, but I thought that was really interesting that they made that choice. And like that is a very specific choice. I don't know if that choice really added anything to the film.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't I didn't even pick up on it.
SPEAKER_01:It bothers me that that's the case because he was the most level-headed of everybody in that fucking movie. And I hate that like he's supposed to be a Nazi because I was like, yeah, at least this guy has his wits about him. It's a it's a choice. It's a choice. Yeah. And then apparently, like, I was reading that when, and this is another part of the film that I thought was so fascinating when they capture that like the half zombie.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, and they're interviewing her. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Um, it's I thought that was fascinating. Where they're like, why are you doing what you're doing?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And she, and I mean, okay, so there's well, you tell me first. How do you feel about the fact that these zombies can communicate?
SPEAKER_02:I hadn't seen that before. Meaning in anything. So I don't really I don't know how I feel about it. I think it it made for fun moments. Like it was fun for them to like ask her, like, why are you eating brains? And it was fun for like two times a zombie walks up to the ambulance and he's like, Bring more paramedics.
SPEAKER_01:Bring more cops. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So I think they used it well for that. Like, I didn't I didn't need it to be like, let's just sit down and talk. It so they, you know.
SPEAKER_01:There are parts of like the way the the the world of the zombies in this film were both interesting, but also in some ways kind of frustrating. I hate fast zombies.
SPEAKER_02:They weren't hyper fast, they weren't like World War Z zombies at least.
SPEAKER_01:No, but they were fast enough. I mean, they were like surrounding the paramedics and surrounding the cops in like a couple seconds time.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So that to me is always annoying because they're already zombies. Like the to me, the the dread of a zombie attack is like they will never stop. You don't need them to be sprinters, they're just never going to stop. So like that's that to me is like the horror aspect is like they will keep going no matter what. You don't need them to anyway.
SPEAKER_02:That was there weren't an like I think for me at least to to have like that threat be effective when they're slow, you need like a huge number of them. And in this, at least at the beginning, there weren't there weren't as many. So adding the speed, I mean, at least it gave them a like because if it was just like some a couple slow zombies, I feel like the people in this movie would have been able to handle it, but because of that, they were like pretty quickly the number compounds, like it does, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It they very quickly have hordes of them. So that was a little annoying to me. I think that like so the scene with the half zombie, again, it was one of these like kind of weirdly, I don't know, like more emotional than I thought it would be, because the zombie is telling them that there's so much pain from death, yeah, that the only thing that alleviates the pain of uh knowing that you're like knowing that you're dead, like she knew she was dead.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:She knew she was dead, she knew she was rotting, and the only thing that alleviates that pain is eating brains. There's something really like just twisting my insides when you hear someone say that. Like, I don't even know how to explain it, but it was like something I've never seen before in a film.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I was almost too sidetracked by her uh spine wiggling around like a like a tail.
SPEAKER_01:Apparently, the actor who played SCUS was voicing her. Oh, that's I read that. Um, but that was the whole reason why I brought that up though is because apparently in that scene, once she talks starts talking about how painful it is to be dead, apparently Ernie shows some kind of like remorse or something because he's a Nazi.
SPEAKER_02:So he Well, you know, one thing that I that I don't think we mentioned, I don't I also don't like the fact that they made him a Nazi when he's the guy using the the like crematorium.
SPEAKER_01:That was another that was supposed to be like another like nod to like that's why he Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Man, that's that's dark. I don't I don't know why they did that.
SPEAKER_01:No, I don't think they should have. I I think that like there's plenty going on. Regardless of what's happening in 2025, I think that even for 1985, you don't need to go there, like it's a horror comedy, but that doesn't have to be part of the story. I don't think that ever there should be any comedy. I I I just something some things are off limits.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, we've seen that in like the Blues Brothers and Sure, but they they get their like they're never portrayed as like a good guy. No, that's fair. They yeah, no, absolutely. There it was much more like in your face that they that that's what they were. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that no, that's a good distinction. Um, anyway, so so yeah, Ernie is the guy that they come to, and then he gets pulled into all of this as well. Um, the actor, so just like the other two, he had a lot going on uh well before this film. I think that it's really funny that he was in a film called Utterly Without Redeeming Social Value. Amazing. Yep. The movie 10. Okay, the movie The Rose. I remember as a child, for some reason that song would make me ball. I would weep. The Rose? Yeah. That Bet Midler sings.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know why I heard it so much as a kid, but it made me so sad when I was a little girl. I would cry every time I'd hear that song.
SPEAKER_02:If that song would come on the radio when like my mom was driving me somewhere, then she would get emotional, and I'm just like it is such a beautiful song, but it's like so sad. Yeah, I'm I I just grew to hate that. I'm like, I don't, I don't need this right now.
SPEAKER_01:I haven't heard it in years and I don't want to hear it because it's so it's a beautiful song, but so sad.
SPEAKER_02:I prefer every rose has its thorn.
SPEAKER_01:Sure. Yeah. Uh 1941, the 1981 version of The Postman Always Rings Twice. He was on, I think, like I didn't I think I've seen maybe once in a while reruns of Barney Miller. He was on that show. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I've I've seen reruns, but that was never my thing.
SPEAKER_01:Weekend at Bernie's.
SPEAKER_02:He's the hitman, I think, right? Oh, is he? I don't remember.
SPEAKER_01:Bugsy. And then his final credit was a film called Shark Skin. Okay. Okay, here we go. We're finally getting to the teenagers here. So a huge group of them, starting with Freddy. So you meant so he's part of the clip. Yeah. In the in the beginning. He is the fresh young hire at this medical supply warehouse. Super unfortunate that this is like seemingly his first day of work. What a bad first day at work. The worst the worst first day of work ever. Frank is showing him around. He's kind of bragging a little bit. He thinks it's like super cool to show this kid. There are these like military uh I mean, how does he explain their presence? Um they were mistakenly put there.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was just an army fuck up where the transportation of these drums that included like contaminated soil from that from that um chemical were just mistakenly shipped to their warehouse. So he was kind of bragging about it, like you said, and when he was bragging about how sturdy they were, it immediately like ruptures and he like slaps it on the side. Yeah, he just slapped it on the side, and it just started like you know.
SPEAKER_01:It's also strange though that like, I'm sorry, if I was shipped something mistakenly from the US government and it's clearly like toxic something or other, I wouldn't be holding on to it. I would be getting rid of it ASAP. I wouldn't want it, I would not want it. Yeah. And so yeah, that's how everything kicks off. And it actually is kind of hilarious. There's a couple times in this movie where they go to slow-mo, and that's one of them. It's like he slaps it and then they're like, ah, all in slow-mo with the gas release.
SPEAKER_02:That, you know, I almost made that the uh intro because them like suffering from the gas was just a lot of like, oh that was that was podcast gold right there.
SPEAKER_01:So Tom Matthews, um, very much working to this day. He I am I have mostly uh films for him, but earlier in his career, he was on a TV series called Paper Dolls. He was in I you told me this, and I did not clock him. He was Tommy. Um God, I always get my Tommy's mixed up between Friday the 13th, because there's a Tommy and Friday the 13th franchise, and there's a Tommy in the Halloween franchise. Um is it Tom Tommy Doyle, I think, is the Halloween.
SPEAKER_02:Probably I don't even see a last name for his Tommy and Friday the 13th, part six, Jason Lives.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so breaking news. So in Halloween, it's Tommy Doyle. I thought so. In Friday 13th, it's Tommy Jarvis. Tommy Jarvis, okay. Isn't that so funny though that both franchises have a Tommy? Yeah. Yeah. So Tom Matthews played Tommy Jarvis in Friday the 13th, part six, Jason Lives. Okay. So he also, I'm very curious. We're gonna have to watch Return of Living Dead 2 because he comes back for that film. He's not gonna have any eyes. No, he's pretty grotesque at the end. Yeah. He was in, I put this one in for you. Kickboxer for Colin the Aggressor. I feel like that's an unnecessary sub type.
SPEAKER_02:I'm both the kickboxer and the aggressor.
SPEAKER_01:He was in, oh, this is kind of funny considering what we were talking about earlier. He was in the film The Peacemaker. Yeah, you know, very different Peacemaker.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think George Clooney was amazing.
SPEAKER_01:And Nicole Kidman, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah, that was a good movie.
SPEAKER_01:We were talking about the John Cena Peacemaker.
SPEAKER_02:The intro to that show is hilarious. It's amazing. Getting to it pretty late because this is from like three years ago. But yeah, the intro, I'm like, okay, I'll watch this.
SPEAKER_01:It's so fun. He also was in Friday 13th, Vengeance to Colonel Bloodlines.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:That sounds like I think direct to video. Uh a film called Final Summer and a film called Go Away. Go away. Go away. So moving on to Tina. Tina and Freddy are a couple. I will say this. When we were watching the film and Tina's hang-in with the rest of her homies, they do not seem like a cohesive group of friends. But at the same time, I thought it was like kind of charming that they put all these very different people together as a group of friends.
SPEAKER_02:They all got along for the most part.
SPEAKER_01:So I was like, I don't really buy that they'd all hang out, but I kind of thought it was fun that they did that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. The Thomas Dolby looking nerd guy would have been the first I expect him to get rid of.
SPEAKER_01:Uh the one that ran off with Casey, I think her name is. I think so. Yeah, okay. Yeah. So because Tina's also kind of like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say like uptight, but she's very kind of clean cut. She's very preppy. Yeah. Uh and she was no trash. She was no trash. Even trash. What a terrible name for any character. Why would you call a character trash? Why would you do that? Anyway. Well, why would you name one suicide? Sure. Yeah, that's true too. Man. So Tina, she's hanging out with her friends, and they're all friends with Freddy, and they're all kind of just waiting for him to get off work.
SPEAKER_02:They're all waiting for Freddie to get out because Freddie knows where the party's gonna be.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I missed that. Yeah, they're only gotcha. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:So there's not even any party. They're just they just want to party and they know that Freddie always knows where the party is.
SPEAKER_01:Got it. Okay. So I it must have been about eight o'clock at night because Tina's like, he gets off at 10, and then Suicide's like, that's two hours from now. Suicide's very angry.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:He has not a calm moment in this film. So Tina is played by Beverly Randolph. And you mentioned something that was kind of annoying to me. I hate when they do this to actors.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. The um there's a moment where she's like running back up the steps from the basement, I think. And during a break, they replaced one of the steps with like a false step and then just had her run back up it, and she didn't know. So her like falling through was like real, and she could have gotten hurt, but very hurt. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Not cool. Not cool to do that to your actors. I mean, I don't think that would fly today, at least on a union set.
SPEAKER_03:No.
SPEAKER_01:But in any case, and I will say this though, that scene in which that happens, she's running away from one of the coolest looking zombies I've ever seen, which I guess he's been nicknamed Tarman.
SPEAKER_02:They call him that towards the end of the movie. Yeah, Spider.
SPEAKER_01:Spider calls him Tarman. And the thought at the beginning of the film, so he was the corpse, I guess you would say, that was in that um barrel that Frank smacks. And over the opening credits, it just looks like that corpse is melting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I thought I thought it melted down entirely and just became that weird vapor that that releases, but nope.
SPEAKER_01:I think that probably part of what did decompose did contribute. At least it contributed to Frank and Freddie being turned. But as far as Beverly Randolph is concerned, I don't have a huge filmography for her, but she does seem to have leaned into I have uh about five films for her, and she is definitely somebody who embraces, I think, the horror genre, especially after this. Uh, I don't think this is necessarily horror. No solicitors is the name of the film. However, Caesar and Otto's Paranormal Halloween. Oh, we have that. We have Death House.
SPEAKER_02:That's pretty, pretty positive. Probably horror. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:As well as Shriek Show, as well as The Slasher Nurse. That again, probably horror. Probably horror.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so now moving on to you mentioned him, he goes by Chuck in the movie, and he's kind of the other guy that's like, I guess, kind of preppy. He's also he's a touch swarmy. He keeps wanting to like, he keeps coming on to Casey.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, he's he's just like after whoever, because he makes a quick move at trash when trash is just completely naked and she's like, fuck off.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, that's who played by John Philbin. This is what's wild to me is that I know him in particular from one role, and I didn't realize that that was the same actor because he looks so different. So he is in Children of the Corn. That's not the one. Oh. But we need to do that film at some point.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we do.
SPEAKER_01:He is in North Shore. It's point break that I'm like, holy shit, that's him. Is he one of the He's one of Swayze's buddies? Wow. And I was like, oh my god, I cannot believe that's him.
SPEAKER_02:Nathaniel.
SPEAKER_01:Nathaniel, uh, it partly it's because he has facial hair.
SPEAKER_02:Oh.
SPEAKER_01:So he's the one that, okay, when they do the last Is he the one that gets shot and he's like bleeding out on the plane or no? No. That is um, he's that other actor. Okay. That I am totally blanking on his name. He's the one that gets shot just prior to them getting on the plane.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:He comes out from, I think, like using the bathroom or something, and he sees uh Bucy. He sees Beusey and he shoots and then he gets shot. Got it. Yeah. So he's in Tombstone as well, but I don't I think he might be one of the um Cowboys? Yeah. Okay. He's one of the cowboys. Undateable John.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And Ghost Babe. So okay.
SPEAKER_02:He's also in, like, you're familiar with Inception, but have you heard of Bikini Inception?
SPEAKER_01:Because he's in Bikini Inception.
SPEAKER_02:2015's Bikini Inception.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, moving on to Jewel Shepard. She plays Casey. Apparently, she was approached to play trash. Uh, because uh in her working life, she worked in gentlemen's clubs and she was like, fuck that. I don't want to be that character because I'm tired of being naked on stage. Yeah, so good for her. Um, she plays Casey instead, but uh arguably a much smaller role. And Casey, I mean Casey doesn't have a lot to do in this movie, but she does it fully clothed. She does it fully clothed. She and Chuck, so when shit hits the fan and they all realize that there are the undead running around trying to eat their brains, they get split up. And her and Chuck uh get get like separated from the rest of the group. They do hook up with them later. I think she is one of the final ones to survive until they get bombed. There is that. Yeah, so she survives up until she doesn't. But some of her other credits include I have films for her too, my tutor, Hollywood Hut Hot Tubs, as well as Hollywood Hot Tubs 2, Colin Educating Crystal. Sounds risque.
SPEAKER_02:Well, a lot of a lot, especially her earlier titles are are pretty risque. Play 'em on me. Teen Lust, slow to blow, raw force.
SPEAKER_03:Wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, those so I can get why she was like, I'm kind of tired of this. Yes, okay, got it. All right, I'll just take through uh the rest of the things.
SPEAKER_03:She's at roots of evil. Slasher dot com. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Moving on to Spider.
SPEAKER_02:Hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on. Let's just let's just take a take a beat here.
SPEAKER_01:All right. Okay, we're back. We're back. Moving on to Spider. Spider is played by Miguel A. Nunez Jr. We've seen him be well, we haven't talked about him on the podcast, but as soon as I saw him, I was like, oh, it's that guy. Oh. From Friday the 13th, A New Beginning. Oh, okay. I'm pretty sure. Has well, it's been a minute since I've sat down to really watch the film. I always have it like this time of year, usually have a Friday the 13th film on in the background somewhere. But uh, I'm pretty sure he's the gentleman that he has like the girlfriend. I think he's the older brother of the kid from Different Strokes. Okay. And so he is at one point in the port-a-potty, and I think he's like singing to like he and his girlfriend are like singing. He's inside the port-a-potty and she's outside the port-a potty or something. They're singing about that. They're singing. Okay. I think he like at one point he's like, ooh, uh, or something like that. Like, I just remember that. And then he dies because it's right at the 13th. Yeah. So that's him. But he's, I mean, he has had a huge career. Like, he's still very much working. And he does have one of the more substantial roles in this film.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. He's he's basically like the more reasonable of that group of kids. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, he also kind of freaks out because who wouldn't when you see the undead rising from the graves? Um, but he he's one of the more like good head-on-his shoulders type characters. Like at one point, Bert, I do think it's Bert who initially says regarding Frank and Freddie, like, hey, we should probably put them in a different room. They're gonna probably turn. Tina, of course, speaking out of emotion, is like upset to hear him say that, but Spider's like, no, he's right. Uh, so he he does have good instincts on like what to do to try to stay alive. He also, I believe, is one of the final characters just to survive until they get bombed.
SPEAKER_02:There's always that. It always comes back to the nuke.
SPEAKER_01:Spoiler, nobody lives in this film, so it's hard to say how they come back in the sequel because we haven't watched it yet. Oh.
SPEAKER_02:I don't do do these people come back in the sequel?
SPEAKER_01:Uh, he doesn't, but we've already mentioned a couple of the characters that do. We know, like Freddie's undead, so the only thing I can think of is either they're coming back as zombies. I don't know how in the world Frank would be coming back, unless it's a flashback.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, so in any case, Nunes, so Friday 13th, New Beginning is mentioned, jumping, jumping, Jack Flash, Axe, Action Jackson. It's always like a hard one to say for me. Action Jackson is tough, yeah. Harlem Knights. He was on the TV series Tour of Duty, as well as Rhythm and Blues. He was in a film called A Thin Line Between Love and Hate. Uh, the TV series. I wonder if this was a spin-off, or not, I shouldn't say spin-off, but based on the film The Faculty. Not sure, actually. Oh. That was such a I remember seeing that, not knowing what it was supposed to be about. I was so blown away by how how much I thought that film, like, I thought that was an incredible horror film. The faculty. I've seen it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:With Elijah Wood.
SPEAKER_02:I never saw it. I've seen it.
SPEAKER_01:And Josh Hartnett?
SPEAKER_02:We we started putting it.
SPEAKER_01:Julia DeVol. It we started putting it on.
SPEAKER_02:Jordana Brewster. And it was like pretty brutal. And I'm like, oh.
SPEAKER_01:And Robert Patrick.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Uh BB Newworth. There's so many people on that film. It's so good. Okay. It's so, so, so good. Okay, we're gonna watch it this year. Um yeah. I think you'll like I'm gonna watch it. So uh I'm guessing maybe the TV series was based off that. There's another TV series he was in called Sparks. He was in the film Life, Joanna Man. I think he was Joanna Man.
SPEAKER_03:Oh.
SPEAKER_01:The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Oh he so this was short-lived, but when they did try to do the spinoff of Friends, Joey. Oh, I always forget about that. He was on that. Black Dynamite, and then more recently a TV show called The Family Business.
SPEAKER_02:And you know, we've talked about a lot of uh Friday the 13th movies. There is one that is possibly my favorite, which is like Jason X in he's in space. Correct. And uh Miguel Nunez Jr. was in Leprechaun in space, which I thought was I totally missed that one by accident. I would have added that if I it was nowhere near as good as the Jason in space. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Jason X is a fun movie, it is it it arguably has one of the both best kills in the entire franchise. The liquid nitrogen.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that was that was it's brutal, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's brutal, but it's a unique kill. All right, moving on to Brian Peck. So he plays Scuz. Scuz also doesn't have a lot to do in this movie. Um, he meets an unfortunate end while they are trying to. So, okay, they're in this funeral home. This funeral home has a shit ton of windows. They have tried their best to block and or board up all the windows, but the zombies keep breaking through as as they're like as they're want to do, and Scuzz is basically trying to beat them off, and then they they just they straight up grab him, and there you go.
SPEAKER_02:Well, so the important thing is that they do pull him back, but he's already been killed. But the one that was like latched on is that like half of the woman that they then interrogate.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, he didn't he didn't die for nothing, he didn't die in vain.
SPEAKER_01:So, among his credits, not as extensive as some of the ones we've talked about, but he was in the last American Virgin. So he comes back for not only Return of the Living Dead 2, but Return of the Living Dead 3.
SPEAKER_02:From 1993.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, we can cover two. We can cover two. We can watch three though. Yeah, nothing's stopping us from watching it. Nope. He was in Children of the Corn 3. Okay, this guy's big into threes. Threes. Colin Urban Harvest.
SPEAKER_02:Three.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, the the film Man on the Moon, the one with um Jim Carrey. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah. He was on the TV show, all that, and then I had to put this in because it was hilarious. He's in a film called Bitch Slap. Okay. And his credit is just wrong place, wrong time.
SPEAKER_02:He got slapped.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Right? I thought that was one of the funniest credits I've ever seen. It's not really a name, it's just that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Okay. Kind of an infamous character here. Trash. Oh boy. Played by Linnea Quigley. Now, from okay, between you and me, and anybody who's listening, it felt pretty exploitive.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it was a billion percent just like Oh, 100%.
SPEAKER_01:I I mean I'm not, I'm not I'm not scratching my head about why they did it. Yeah. It's just that of all the different films we've seen, uh, especially like 80s slashers, things like that.
SPEAKER_02:There's there's moments where like it's just like someone suddenly topless for no for no reason. Right. But very rarely does that person then just go full nude and start dancing on a tombstone.
SPEAKER_01:And then pretty much just stays naked the entire movie. The whole rest of the movie. Even after she dies and comes back from the dead.
SPEAKER_02:She grabs like she rips like a piece of fabric or she has something to like kind of halfway cover up her top half. Right. But but then, yeah, then when she's like dead, she's just like, okay.
SPEAKER_01:And then she and it's so weird because she's just like an albino zombie in the second half of the movie.
SPEAKER_02:Her her coming back basically without like any like like she got pulled apart.
SPEAKER_01:She yes, that's why it was like, hmm, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I don't know about this.
SPEAKER_01:I don't think she would be zombied, but anyway, she that's what happens.
SPEAKER_02:And I mean I'm so the the best part was when it was like this stupid, super exploitive, overt, she's naked dancing at the thing, and then she's trying to come onto that guy. And he just like kind of pushes her away and is like, have some fucking respect for the dead.
SPEAKER_01:I loved that line.
SPEAKER_02:That was hilarious.
SPEAKER_01:I thought that was one of the best lines in this entire film. She has a very busy career, she's very much working, and she has leaned hard into horror. And I I've seen that a couple of times now, where we've had actresses who had a seminal role in a horror film of some kind, and then they just lean into that, and that has become part of like her entertainment identity and career. And I think that's awesome, actually. Yeah. We probably at some point will do Silent Night, Deadly Night. So I'm listing all films for her. Okay. So she's in that creepazoids. Oh, yeah. I I don't know if I've seen it. The title sounds familiar. We've brought this up before because we have talked about other actresses who have been in these films. Sorority Babes in the Slime Ball Bolarama. I'm pretty sure that when we covered the Slumber Party Massacre, a couple of those actresses were in some of these films. Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers. Love it. The 1988 Night of the Demons, which I just bought and we could cover at some point. Yeah. I love so much that she did this. She so the one non-movie that I have listed for her is a video called Lee uh Linnea Quigley's Horror Workout. I desperately want to watch that and see what that is. She was in Pumpkin Head 2, Colin Bloodwings. This is why I differentiated Nine of the Demons. She also is in the 2009 Nine of the Demons. I think she might have like kind of a um what's his name? Chris Randon part where You know, when they did the remake of Fright Knight, he's like a side character.
SPEAKER_02:Got it. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I think it's something like that. Collapse of the Living Dead. Caesar and Otto's. So not the Caesar and Otto's paranormal Halloween. However, she is in Caesar and Otto's deadly Xmas.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Hooker with a hacksaw. Clownado. Clownado? Like clowns? Like a tornado of clowns? Correct. What the fuck? Drop. Wait, sorry. Death Drop Gorgeous.
SPEAKER_02:Got it.
SPEAKER_01:So we own the film Drop Dead Gorgeous. Yeah. That's not what this is. And then Once Upon a Time and Holly Weird. I mean, some of the best fucking titles I've ever heard.
SPEAKER_02:I love them. They're yeah. I mean, you didn't even mention Bigfoot versus DB Cooper.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, what a fun movie that sounds like. Is that a movie? That's the one that she's in. That sounds so fun. Okay. So uh Mark Venturini, he plays Suicide. We're almost done. We're almost done with the characters. It's a huge ensemble cast. It really is. So he unfortunately is the first of the friends to die. He gets killed by Tarman.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't see that coming, but yeah, it he just they just like walk down there and Tarman immediately was like, brains, grabs his head, chomp.
SPEAKER_01:To me, I will say it was a little cheap because they all come down and there's like what some curtain that's hiding Tarman because suicide. And I'm like, where was this curtain two seconds ago? And also, okay, look, here's the deal. We were talking earlier about the zombie's ability to articulate, yeah, and even have like, and but this guy takes it one step farther. He further, I should say. This guy has true problem-solving skills.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. The the way that he figured out like a device to like use some chain and use something to get leverage to like rip open the yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That was was he an engineer in his living life? Like, I was like, you're telling me a zombie thought that through without a brain.
SPEAKER_02:I'm telling you exactly that. That because I saw it.
SPEAKER_01:That was a bridge too far for me. I'm sorry. But in any case, that's the guy that takes out suicide. The actor himself, unfortunately, he has passed. He passed in 1996.
SPEAKER_02:He had this like uh piercing going from his ear to his lip, which quite ahead of its time. Yeah. Uh I was just shocked that they didn't have like some cheesy effect where that gets ripped out. Because now whenever I see someone with like piercings like that, I kind of respect that they didn't.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So of his credits though, he also is in Friday the the 13th, a new beginning. So do you do you remember this film? So okay, a new beginning is the one where there is no Jason Voors. They, I think, attempted to kind of like keep the franchise going, and then everybody fucking hated so much there's no Jason Voorhees that that's why they came back with Jason Lives.
SPEAKER_03:Oh.
SPEAKER_01:So this is the one where it's the paramedic who goes around and they think it's Jason Vohees. Yeah. So the reason why the paramedic goes on this killing spree is because his own son is killed. His own son is killed by the character played by this actor. So he's the character in Friday the 13th who's chopping wood.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And the other son is just the son is being super annoying, and I think is trying to like offer him a chocolate bar, and he finally gets so fed up with this kid, he just literally hacks him to death.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that seemed like uh a really crazy overreaction.
SPEAKER_01:Kind of an overreaction, um, and that's him. So that's that's his character in that. He was also in the film's Mikey, as well as out of sync, and he had, I mean, he died very young, so he did not have an extensive filmography, but he did also make several TV appearances. Okay, finally, because we do need to bookend this film. The film opens. You want to say how the film opens?
SPEAKER_02:What?
SPEAKER_01:With Colonel Glover.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah. I forgot about him because you see him at the beginning and then you don't see him again until like close to the end, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Bookended. Yep.
SPEAKER_02:But it is it is in fact a bookend, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So what happens at the beginning of the film?
SPEAKER_02:This guy fucking drives home. It's the best. And it's not like you told me that it wasn't professionally, like it wasn't dressed. Yeah, yeah, that was just somebody's house that they rented. Yeah, and his wife, who's like all dressed up, is like, how was your day? And he's like, same as always, crap. Yeah. And then she's like, Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Dinner's almost ready, lamb chops, and he's like, that's what I had for lunch.
SPEAKER_01:Nobody has lamb chops for lunch.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01:So he's very He's a real miserable guy. He's a real salty fellow.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And and so, yes, and she kind of complains to him about his work, and he's like, You know why I have to be on the clock all the time. You know exactly why. We don't know why. But then the rest of the film progresses, and then at the very end, Bert notices a phone number on one of those barrels, calls it, it gets back to Colonel Glover. Glover asks Bert several questions and then basically puts in the order to bomb that area.
SPEAKER_02:It was based on the size of the outbreak, like how many zombies are there? Yeah, yeah. Because if they had called earlier, the it would have been isolated enough to where they could have just gone in. Yeah. But it was it was too widespread. So they're like, nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
SPEAKER_01:At one point, he does ask Bert, like, why didn't you call earlier? But I mean, you can't blame anybody for that. How how are you supposed to act? Not helpful when when the undead start rising. Like, what are you oh oh, you know what? I remember this phone number on a barrel. Like, nobody I'm gonna think of it now, in case it ever happens. God, I hope not. But so that's who this character is. And so I guess he's actually the fourth senior gentleman who is in this film. Um, not a ton of credits for him, however, he's gonna be coming up pretty soon again.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, he is.
SPEAKER_01:He was in a film called Cutter's Way. I at some point I'd like to do it. I mean, I've heard so many good things about this film. It's an 80s movie, but I don't John Heard's in it, but I don't know much more about it. The reason why he's probably gonna come up again is because we are going to cover Halloween 3 Season of the Witch this uh for this Halloween series, and he's in that as well. He is in Against All Odds. He also returns for Return of the Living Dead 2. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. That actually makes a lot of sense. Yeah. He uh I think he's retired at this point. He's had a he was on the TV series home front, and then his last credit from 2015, so it's been 10 years, was a film called Little Paradise. All right. Film synopsis. When two bumbling employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors caused the dead to rise again as zombies. Yeah, that's it. Pretty tight. And actually, that was one thing that the I mean, I guess he couldn't have known either, but that's one thing that the colonel got drastically wrong. Is that when he was calling in, was it to the president? When he yeah, it was the president. I'm pretty sure. Okay. Cause or or somebody like the president's aid or something, because they talk about how the president was going to go to that spot the following day, and somebody asks him about the fires that have resulted from the bombing, and he's like, Oh, don't worry about that. The rain will take care of it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, about that.
SPEAKER_01:About that, that's what's going to cause this to spread. So the film ends on an incredibly ominous note because clearly this is gonna keep happening, keep spreading, and as we saw, like local police, that nothing nothing's gonna stop. Um, and actually, I mean, like when okay, when Bert and Ernie, which by the way, no relation to the Sesame Street characters. Not intended. Not intended. When they're talking, and Bert is so concerned about what will burn in the incinerator.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And Ernie's like, don't worry, the only thing left will be ashes, and he's like, I don't even want ashes. Yeah. I don't think ashes are gonna do anything, but I guess it's the combination of the ashes with water with like that spreading through the ground.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it um whatever the particles are when when the ashes even like burnt up, which is like, oh, okay. So that that like mixes, it like rises up, comes back down in the rain, plants some new zombies, they sprout up.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's exactly what they do.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, they should it should be like Return of the Living Dead to Zombie Farm.
SPEAKER_01:And in case we I because I don't think we have mentioned it, very much so this idea of this like toxic chemical was based on Agent Orange.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So that's that's kind of where that all came from. But we we did also talk about it earlier, but I do want to say that also one of the funniest parts, besides the two zombies calling in and saying, bring more paramedics, bring more cops. I don't know if you clocked that when the cavalcade of please came and there was like somebody waving them in, it was the zombified cop from earlier setting a trap.
SPEAKER_02:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:He was the one kind of ushering them in, which I thought was a nice little touch.
SPEAKER_02:I agree.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So I think we covered a lot of the main ba I I really enjoyed this movie.
SPEAKER_02:It was a lot of fun, it was ridiculous. I like it was but it was intentionally ridiculous, and they did a good job with it.
SPEAKER_01:I think they all knew the assignment. Yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_02:And the fucking paramedics when they're like, so you guys are technically dead.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. The paramedics, we didn't really talk about that. That was such a fun sequence.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. They're like, uh, your temperature is basically room temperature, and you have no blood pressure and no pulse.
SPEAKER_01:And your pupils aren't dilating. And so you're dead, but we know you're not dead because you're conscious.
SPEAKER_02:You're like talking to us, so we don't know.
SPEAKER_01:So that I thought that that actually was a very realistic response from paramedics of being like not understanding what was going on, but feeling there must be some reasonable explanation to it. Yeah. I will say that one thing that again was like kind of heart-wrenching was that one point, what what makes Ernie do it? Oh, because Freddie starts talking about how he's spasming. And I don't know if this is true or not, but like much earlier in the film. Oh, yeah, the rigor mortis thing. Yeah. Ernie goes through this whole thing with Bert, I think. Um where he's talking about how you break up rigor mortise, and he claims that it starts in the brain, which is weird to me, and then it goes through the internal organs and then it goes to the muscles.
SPEAKER_02:It seems very convenient to bring up in a zombie movie where it becomes pretty relevant later on.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. So basically, when Freddie starts saying that his body has been spasming, and Ernie asks him a couple questions, and then he has, I think, Tina kind of turn Freddy over. First of all, it's incredibly painful for Freddie to do that, but then you see the pooling of the blood in his back. Oh, yeah. Which was pretty horrific. Yeah. They did do a really great job with like that, you know, the way Freddie looks as the film progresses begins to veer on like outrageous, like how his makeup is, you know, it's a little silly at a certain point, but that kind of stuff, like showing the blood pooling, was I thought done really well. Yeah. So yeah, it was there were really interesting parts to this film and a couple parts that, like I said, the trash character, not my favorite. Um that they just had somebody kind of running around naked throughout the entire film.
SPEAKER_02:But it was like, what I yeah. I felt bad because it's like they they spent 85% of this movie naked.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, they did. So as far as watching the film again, all that being said, I definitely would. Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think there's actually probably more we miss because there were so many Easter eggs in this film.
SPEAKER_02:There were, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, you were mentioning off mic earlier that it was really fun that they were referencing Night of the Living Dead. Like it was very meta.
SPEAKER_02:I would, yeah, I would I would watch it again just because, like you said, there's like so much stuff that I know that I missed the first time through.
SPEAKER_01:And Freddie does use the word zombie. We talk about that a lot.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That a lot of these types of films, the the word zombies never uttered.
SPEAKER_02:Do they use it in Night of the Living Dead? Nope. Interesting. Yeah. All right.
SPEAKER_01:So I would definitely watch it again. I mean, as far as like call to action, there's a lot.
SPEAKER_02:I'm just gonna go with basic. Do you like slow zombies or fast zombies?
unknown:That's a good one.
SPEAKER_02:Because at least this wasn't like, oh, what was the other one? Um 30 days later or something. Yeah, 28 days later. 28 days later. I'm giving you two extra days. Um yeah, the because those in the World War Z zombies are like I can't understand it.
SPEAKER_01:They're like Usain Bolt zombies. Like, come on. We would all be screwed. We would be in big trouble.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh yes, I agree with you completely. I and that is such a good, I'm gonna completely piggyback on that one. Oh, because that is a very good question if you prefer fast zombies or slow zombies. Oh, how the turntables. That's a good poll. I might have to throw that on social. Um, so if you'd like to get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out through Facebook, Instagram, or Blue Sky. It is the same handle at all three. It is at 80s Montage Pod and 80s is 80S.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So, two very fun things happening with our next episode. First of all, is the episode itself.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And the movie we are covering, which it's kind of shameful we haven't covered it up to this point. Yeah, I don't know. No need to shame ourselves. It is a nightmare in Elm Street. Yeah, I remembered. Yes. So finally, finally, we are getting to the Freddie Krueger franchise. Uh yeah, except I mean, it's I definitely have an affinity for the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises. This for me personally is kind of a distant third, but I recognize its importance. And of course, I think Wes Craven is an incredible filmmaker, was an incredible filmmaker. So I definitely am excited to cover this and talk about this one.
SPEAKER_02:I haven't seen the whole thing through in a really, really long time.
SPEAKER_01:So Johnny Depp's film debut. Yes. Big deal. Yep. And also, guess what? Huh. The next episode is our 150th episode. Oh.
SPEAKER_02:150.
SPEAKER_01:150. Yay!
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Right? Okay. So on that note, thank you to everybody for hanging with us. We really appreciate it given all the choices you have out there for podcasts. Uh, thank you for listening to ours, and we will talk to you again in two weeks' time.