Welcome back midnight viewers to Father Malone's weekly roundup. Who is this Father Malone?
Anyway? Me and helping me out in all things cinematic, as my
co host Ripley say, Hello, Ripley, WHOA? What's your mouth?
Keep the contempt for the audience to yourself. It wasn't the audience nice?
You want to go first this time? We usually do a TV show,
But I think you're pretty excited about your choice, okay, Ripley's pick.
Nineteen eighty two was a hell of a year for movies. Copola bankrupted himself
building Las Vegas on a sound stage for One from the Heart, which I
understand is getting a rerelease later this year, and I'll let you know when
it does. Swamp Thing made his cinematic debut in Wes Craven's mostly terrible adaptation
of the Bernie Wrightson character. Those are probably bad examples. How about Poltergeist,
Star Trek two, The Wrath of Khan, Blade Runner e T And
Cat People? Now, why would a dog pick cat people? She barks
every time she sees a goddamn cat on the TV. Well she didn't,
but I did manage to see her actual choice on a double bill with Cat
People at the Medford Drive In in Medford, Massachusetts. Now being nine years
old and having no interest in a psycho sexual drama where no one actually turned
into a cat, I spent most of Cat People watching Megaporce, the Barry
Bostrik led superhero motorcycle action flick that was playing on a nearby screen. Although
some of cat People did get through anetto to a managed to make an impact
that I'm still feeling today. I am cuckoo for blue eyed red heads,
but there was no amount of a net otool or mega forest that could make
me look away. Once that flying saucer blurred past the camera on its way
to Earth and the dread words burned into the screen. John Carpenter's the Thing
Trailer Time Maybe Day. It's his US National Clarity One. You read me?
Found something in the eye. We need some help down here. Can
anybody hear me? He found something? We've found something. He's bound something.
Twelve men have just discovered something. For one thousand years, it was
buried in the snow and ice. Now it has found a place to live
inside where no one can see it, or hear it or feel it.
I know I'm human. Some of you are still human. This thing doesn't
want to show itself. He wants to hide inside an imitation. You'll fight
if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. If it
takes us over and it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it,
and then it's one you guys can't listen to. Gary cald be one
of those things. By the way, did you know that they're called trailers
because they used to trail the main feature? That's right. You were expected
to sit through the credits to find out what would be playing next. Anyway.
In nineteen thirty eight, under the pen name of Don Stewart, John
W. Campbell had a short story called Who Goes There published an Astounding Science
fiction magazine. It was a shortened version of a novel Campbell had written called
Frozen Hell. It was a tale of American researchers in Antarctica who've discovered an
alien in the ice and foolishly thought out it is rife with paranoia as the
alien is an expert in imitation. It was first filmed as The Thing from
Another World in nineteen fifty one by Maybe Howard Hawks, and that version had
a hulking monster in Jim Arness in place of the shape shifting alien. The
second, shall we say loose adaptation was in nineteen seventy one with Horror Express
with Chris Lee and PD Cushing. It's the same movie, just on a
train. And this one was definitely not directed by Howard Hawks, which brings
us to nineteen eighty two and that drive in this was June twenty fifth,
nineteen eighty two. The high temperature and Boston that day was eighty two degrees.
There were seven people jammed into that car. You can imagine the teenage
body heat being thrown off. But I was chilled from the opening frame.
This isn't nostalgia. I'm setting a scene. Get up the program, dog
and speaking of dogs, although he receives no credit, which is criminal,
the unsung acting hero of John Carpenter's The Thing is Jed. How Jed is
not as famous or Benji or Lassie or that grumpy cat is beyond me because
unlike those animals, Jed had range. He appeared in the Journey of Natty
Gan and then headlined White Fang in its sequel. That's two headlining characters for
one actor, and you've probably just heard his name for the first time.
Because here's the thing. Literally, Jed is the thing. Remember that scene
where he's slowly moving down the hall to enter a room with total purpose,
and then he stops because he gets an idea and he moves off because he's
found easy prey. Good Lord, that's gross rippling. Yeah, I get
it. He's an attractive hound. Since I'm shouting out the unsung, how
about Susan Turner, she built the alien ship we see whizzing past the camera.
Or Albert Whitlock in his Matte paintings that gave us that chip on Earth.
Watch that painting as the sun comes out and drives the shadows off of
it. It is sublime. The film is a masterpiece. Now. I
remember excitedly watching every critic, TV show, local or syndicated that I could,
with the hopes there'd be a genuine, adult, certified confirmation that it
was as good as I thought it was, and I was shattered. Then
they did the same with Blade Runner, and later that year my jaundice view
of film criticism was cemented when they did it again with Romero's Creep Show.
But now forty two years later, we all know better and it's still being
discovered. Ripley isn't even a year old, and she was riveted. John
Carpenter's the thing currently streaming for free nowhere, but it is available for purchase.
You know this flake, you love it, You deserve a rewatch,
and it's worth every penny, particularly if you live in Las Vegas where it's
one hundred and twenty degrees. No joke enough, already, we're done,
Take us off the griddle. What do we got next? On the two?
I guess it's no longer a tube. It's LCD or OLED or something.
Streaming television is the topic though, And here's where I'm gonna cheat because
I haven't been indulging in anything close to new and it's certainly not an unknown
quantity, but it's the quality of the viewing. But realistically, do you
have seventy odd hours to put aside to rewatch TV show? It depends on
the show, granted, but what if a line of that show was unsatisfying?
I have the answer. Everyone's still feeling safely ensconced in the House of
the Dragon. It's just next to the House of Frankenstein. That whole block
is crazy. House of the Demon, House of wax, do not go
there during the summer. House of the Devil, House of the Flying Daggers,
and House on Haunted Hill, which is technically part of the block,
but it's way the hell up there. I don't know how the zoning works
anyway. Dragon House, ooh, paper House. Remember that movie? Go
watch that one? And the Dragon has had a few thrills this year,
but it's really just making me want to rewatch Game of Thrones. And I
know we all hated the ending and it needed a whole season of dnares Targarian
going nuts before those final six episodes, but we all watch for a reason,
so I wanted to see if it held up. But it is too
daunting. Free time is limited, so all the character stories and all of
the subplots and all of the plots I had to home in on, which
was my favorite parts of the show. It's fucking zombies, obviously. Have
you ever seen a dragon? Dragon's ruled dead? Wen get centuries and dragons
have gone, and the children of the forest forgotteness the White Walkers have been
gone for thousands of years. The Madman sees what he sees. Magic once
was a mighty force in the world, not anymore. Fear is for the
winter, when the snows fall one hundred feet deep. Fear is for the
long night, when the sun hides for years, and children are born and
live and die all in darkness. That is the time for fear, my
little lord. When the White Walkers move through the woods. All the frightened
stories we heard when we were young, they're real. The Niking is coming.
The dead are already here. These aren't zombies. These are whites w
I G h t s, not the scary color. Zombies are the revived
dead that just continue what they're doing in a very hungry way. Even if
they have a hive mind, they still seem pretty independent. So thank you,
George Romero. You are a true American and I love you. The
undead Heuron Game of Thrones are revived at the behest of another supernatural creature,
in this case the White Walkers, who are like iceed demons. There doesn't
matter, I read the books too. That's too much to discuss. The
point being these ghouls are effectively marionettes, which is funny because before nineteen sixty
eight, if you said zombie, that would have been the exact definition.
Night of the Living Dead changed all that. Thank you, George Ramiro,
I love you so as much as I love Dragons and Aria and fucking Cercy
oh Man as much as I love them. I decided to watch only episodes
involving White Walkers and the whole Winter Is Coming phenomenon. That shaves the episode
count down to fourteen, which is mind blowing. They appear briefly in the
premiere two episodes in the second season, and those are just the White Walkers.
We don't get the full mite of what's been talked about South of the
Wall. So here they are, and I'll try and be quick. Winter
is Coming. That's the first season one. Season two is night Lands and
Valar Margulis. Season three is two more Valard Doheris and Second Sons. Season
four has a paltry one oath Keeper. Season five repeats this horrible practice of
only one episode of season, but what a fucking episode it makes up for
all of the waiting hard home. I mean, frankly, you could stop
there. That's a proper ending to the series. It was actually the ending
I was hoping would happened. Season six has just one episode again, but
it is a heartbreaker. That's the door Hodor indeed, But now in season
seven it's beginning of a tumble down Dragonstone, East Watch, Beyond the Wall
and the Dragon and the Wolf, and then two for season eight, are
you kidding? A Night of the Seven Kingdoms and The Long Night. Now,
as much as I'm complaining about the paucity of appearances over a seventy three
episode run, when they fully committed to this plot thread, it was phenomenal.
I put Hard Home up against the best of not just fantasy TV or
horror TV, but TV in general. There was an escalating sense of dread
as the enemy approaches, and then you get that apocalyptic final whammy at the
end. It's perfect. I do this as a new thought on a series
from over a decade ago, but the final season should have been nothing but
confronting the White Walkers. People complained about the brightness of the final battle.
That was not the problem. It was the creatives treating this like the Battle
of the Bastards, just a one off corker. And I know this is
a human story about the dangers of power who wheelds it and reflects in our
society, and we're gonna deal with all of that. Back at King's landing.
I get it, but Winter Is Coming has been echoing as this existential
threat throughout every season, even if it's just in dialogue, even if we
don't see the enemy that season at all. So the finale, and to
me this was the finale of the show, deserves some breathing room. It
is chaotically shot and the editing doesn't help, But then the filmmakers were given
a fuckload to try and convey the audience. This is available on Max or
is it HBO again? I've been hearing things, but the app is still
called Max. Like a weird uncle who wants you to watch lots of true
crime murder docks together, That's where you'll find the Game of Throne zombie Extravaganza.
I'll put the episode list in the comments. Give you a skeletal leg
up, give it a try, drop me a line, Tell me how
it went. Father Malone seventy one at gmail dot com. That is what's
been streaming and got me dreaming. What'd you think of our journey through the
Undid North. You can't just write off an entire genre. Someday you're gonna
find a fantasy thing that does it for you. Trust me, it needed
more dire wolves. You are something else today. Okay, what's the main
recommendation for this week? Our top pick for new streaming and cinematic form.
Now, I was gonna do Tickled, which is kind of ironically at true
crime doc and I will talk about it next week. But after the first
two choices, an accidental theme emerged, and that is winter, cold,
cold, cold, And as I said, it is like the surface of
the sun in good old Las Vegas, Nevada. So why not lean into
the trend and recommend something that reminds you what it's like when an icy wind
stabs right through whatever foolish attempt you've made to fortify yourself. Flannel be damned
to that end our winter in July pick she would love snow, now stop
interrupting. The obvious choice here would be The Shining, what with the passing
of the absolutely luminous Shelley Deval, But that film is just too unwield a
topic for one of my weekly couple of minute rants, and it wouldn't be
the film I direct you to see what she was all about anyway, that'd
be Popeye, I know, Nashville, Yes, any Hall ignore those cries.
If ever there was someone more perfect for a role. I don't know,
and I don't want to know in any event, Rest in peace,
Shelley Deval. I'd love to recommend Rabinus the Guy Pierce Robert Carlyle, nineteenth
century wilderness whind to Go cannibal film that takes place in the snow, but
it's only for sale, and I've already recommended one of those, so instead.
And this is a lateral move, not a runner up move. In
fact, it's actually way better than Ravenous keeping the wintry military theme. Released
April twenty fourth, nineteen ninety two. I was nineteen and two days old.
This is a midnight clear at the front lines of life. Near the
end of innocence came the beginning of manhood. The events that shape their lives
can't help but touch yours. I think we've got a chance to make something
good come out of this for everybody. A midnight clear. Oof. No,
I've at that trailer dissuade you. I guess the marketing department still believed
that Platoon was selling some six years after that particular movie made it big.
Where to start? This is the third effort of one of the most criminally
underused for features not TV, and exceptional filmmakers out there. Keith Gordon.
He's also one of my favorite actors. He's Ernie Cunningham and Christine. I
don't think I need to elaborate further. Midnight Clear is an adaptation of the
novel by William Wharton No slouch, with a screenplay and direction by Gordon and
spectacular cinematography by the late great Tom Richmond. He's shooting snow in broad daylight
and I don't know how he managed the f stop alchemy, but it looks
gorgeous. This is a contemplative war film. Don't expect Saving Private Ryan,
but to me it is way more impactful. It's a fairly lyrical contemplation on
modern warfare and what it does to our psyche. And it's stacked with a
murderer's row of young talent. Peter Berg, Gary Sinise, Ethan Hawke.
I can't stop now. I will feel bad if I leave somebody out.
John c McGinley, Frank Way, Kevin Dylan, are gross love him.
I once let him into a movie for free because he was late and about
to miss the future. And I think that's all of them. They used
Utah for the Arden forest here, and films like this always confirmed for me
that this country is so huge and so underused for production. You want to
go to France, go to Utah. And just because there's more thought than
bloodshed here, it doesn't mean that this film isn't gripping as hell. Gordon's
previous feature was The Chocolate War, which was as assured a film as ever
I've seen, and this would be his second film examining groups of young men
and how they interact and how they've done so, and how they're evolving.
It's pretty formative stuff for me, who's always been wary of the whole macho
bullshit we're supposed to engage in and tolerate the choices Gordon make as a filmmaker
visually, dramatically. If they're not effortless on his part, he makes them
seem that way. And I don't want to spoil a frame of it.
It is alreadily available on Prime a midnight clear. Even if you hate war
movies, give this one a shot. No, that's not a war joke.
It's not a munition's joke either. Is that a separate subject? Anyway?
Everybody, thank you for joining us here on Following Alone's weekly round up
for Miss Ripley, Gene and myself are gonna say farewell. If you want
to hear any of our episodes early from either Midnight Viewing, the horror anthology
podcast Orthology's Attack, or this show. If you want to get early access
and commercial, free or bonus episodes, go to patreon dot com slash follow
them alone and if my's Titan God damn it is for everybody. If you
could give us a five star rating on wherever you listen to this show,
we would greatly appreciate it. Until next time, I will leave you with
the words of George A. Romero, the second time I've done this because
that quote from Donna the Dead. He wrote that anyway this he used to
sign things this way, stay scared