Speaker 1: Hey, welcome everybody.
Speaker 2: This is Chris Haskell of a few different shows, but
Speaker 2: I am super excited to introduce a new show called
Speaker 2: brain Melt. And before we talk too much about it,
Speaker 2: I want to introduce the originator of this, the Brainchild,
Speaker 2: the mad Genius, Bill Campbell.
Speaker 1: Bill, how are you?
Speaker 3: Hey, how's it going, Chris? I'm good.
Speaker 4: I'm excited to be doing this with you, and yeah,
Speaker 4: really looking forward to this awesome.
Speaker 2: Well, we are in episode zero, as you can tell,
Speaker 2: so we thought we would use this as a way
Speaker 2: to just kind of introduce the origin of the idea,
Speaker 2: the structure of the show, and I tell you why
Speaker 2: we're excited about it, and then we'll be recording episode
Speaker 2: one here just in a few weeks, so we won't
Speaker 2: have to wait too long before you hear a regular show.
Speaker 2: But but Bill, this all started we recorded a podcast
Speaker 2: about a month ago, now, maybe maybe two months ago now, shit,
Speaker 2: I don't know, But it was because of your love
Speaker 2: of Mondo micabre right that kind of got us going.
Speaker 1: So do you.
Speaker 2: Remember, like do you want to just walk through like
Speaker 2: the in your brain? What took us from doing you
Speaker 2: being a guest on the Mondo Micabro fan Fair episode
Speaker 2: which everybody should listen to to today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. So, like you said, huge fan of Monda Micabro.
Speaker 4: Dating way back and getting to be part of that
Speaker 4: podcast was like sort of a dream come true. So
Speaker 4: we had so much fun doing that episode, just the
Speaker 4: two of us, and our our report was really good,
Speaker 4: and it was an outlet that I had never really
Speaker 4: explored before, and so I started thinking about it after that.
Speaker 4: And the original idea for this was going to be
Speaker 4: like a substack kind of thing, and I was gonna
Speaker 4: do weekly posts or whatever. It was going to be
Speaker 4: about just outsider, weirdo cinema that had really started to
Speaker 4: get me excited.
Speaker 3: But then thinking more about it.
Speaker 4: I really liked the idea of talking, you know, like
Speaker 4: vocalizing my love for these movies. And as soon as
Speaker 4: I started thinking about doing it, I thought about doing
Speaker 4: it with you because we had such a good time,
Speaker 4: and thankfully I pitched it to you, and you I
Speaker 4: thought for sure you were going to shoot me down
Speaker 4: and say that you weren't interested or you had too
Speaker 4: much going on, but you you jumped right in and
Speaker 4: we've been playing this for a little while now, so
Speaker 4: I'm super excited to get the ball rolling.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you exactly what hooked me.
Speaker 2: There is this there's this thread that I can't wait
Speaker 2: to explore with you here over the next twenty years
Speaker 2: or whatever.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: Of elevating the discussion around SOOV movies, regional horror movies
Speaker 2: that typically get looked over because they don't follow the
Speaker 2: regular Hollywood beats of what a movie should be.
Speaker 1: You use the term outsider art. That's a great term.
Speaker 2: And you know, I have a personal history of really
Speaker 2: like kind of evolving into loving those movies, not ironically,
Speaker 2: but just loving them. And even today I was championing
Speaker 2: for intensive care and getting a lot of shit for it, right,
Speaker 2: And I think you share that, and so it's a
Speaker 2: cool I will get into the structure of the show
Speaker 2: in a moment, but that core kind of philosophy that
Speaker 2: you have to really really hooked me in because I
Speaker 2: think there's a cool way to bring up the discussion
Speaker 2: around movies that other people look over.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So the origin of this whole thing, I started to
Speaker 4: make a list on letterbox of.
Speaker 3: At the beginning, it was just weird movies.
Speaker 4: And when I say weird, I mean just like whether
Speaker 4: it was thematically very strange or structurally bizarre things that
Speaker 4: maybe you know, unpolished, sort of unfocused, but there was
Speaker 4: really pure ideas there and a level of artistry that,
Speaker 4: you know, was just so evident. So I started compiling
Speaker 4: this list on letterbox and it grew and it grew
Speaker 4: and it grew, and I think it right now, it's
Speaker 4: around like six hundred and fifty titles at the point.
Speaker 4: And the more I started to go through these, I
Speaker 4: realized a couple of things. One was that a lot
Speaker 4: of my interest in movies these days is with those
Speaker 4: types of films, right the movies of Doris Wishman, you know,
Speaker 4: really started to grab me. Jess Franco another huge, huge
Speaker 4: influence on me. Movies where usually when we bring it
Speaker 4: up in discord or in conversations, people kind of sneer
Speaker 4: at it, they kind of turn their noses up at it.
Speaker 4: The people who do get excited about it, and I'm
Speaker 4: not saying they're not excited for the right reasons, but
Speaker 4: a lot of what we would see would be people
Speaker 4: being like, oh, yeah, all those movies are terrible, they're
Speaker 4: so funny, Like yeah, watch watch them, you know, with
Speaker 4: a bunch of friends drunk, and that's sort of like,
Speaker 4: I get that that's fun. I totally see how watching
Speaker 4: Final Flesh with a room full of drunk buddies is
Speaker 4: a good time. But at the same time, I think
Speaker 4: there's something to be said for watching those movies, either
Speaker 4: solo or through sort of like a more serious, critical
Speaker 4: kind of lens, because there's so much passion and creativity
Speaker 4: on display in those movies. And so one thing that
Speaker 4: I really hate is when people say something is so
Speaker 4: at it's good. I just that that whole phrase just
Speaker 4: rubs me wrong, because I think you're you're you're taking
Speaker 4: away from what that filmmaker's intention was, or you know,
Speaker 4: the work that they put into it. In the in
Speaker 4: the passion, you're sort of looking at it as like
Speaker 4: you're enjoying it ironically, and I I kind of hate
Speaker 4: that type of irony.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think that's sort of what our goal
Speaker 3: here is.
Speaker 4: It's to to take these movies that maybe get kind
Speaker 4: of laughed at or sneered at, or they don't get
Speaker 4: the respect that I feel like they deserve, and we're
Speaker 4: gonna talk about them. We're gonna we're gonna enjoy them
Speaker 4: and listen, We're gonna laugh because there's a lot of
Speaker 4: to laugh at. But at the same time, we're really
Speaker 4: gonna like, we're gonna love these movies, and we're gonna
Speaker 4: talk about them in a way that hopefully gets other
Speaker 4: people excited to maybe watch them.
Speaker 3: In a way that they hadn't previously.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that there's something in My first real
Speaker 2: kind of awe moment was watching Flesher Frankenstein. And I
Speaker 2: remember maybe this was ten years ago now, I don't
Speaker 2: know what, fifteen years ago, whatever it was, but I
Speaker 2: remember watching it and being like, man, that's fucking awesome.
Speaker 2: They just they went for it right, Like, and people
Speaker 2: talk about the overacting. No, that's not overacting. That's an
Speaker 2: intentional choice to be theatrical, right, And like there there's
Speaker 2: this idea that I give. I give some people in
Speaker 2: our discord a little bit of shit over saying like,
Speaker 2: what's a good movie, because they they'll be very quick
Speaker 2: to dismiss putting chopping Mall in my top ten because
Speaker 2: it's like that's not real art, right, and or bad
Speaker 2: pussy saying that shouldn't be in my top ten whatever, right,
Speaker 2: And like I get where they're coming from. There's these
Speaker 2: canonical films that we've been told are the best, and
Speaker 2: like it's hard not to say that, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Seven Samurai is not like a top ten movie. I
Speaker 2: get it. I get that pressure. But each person's top
Speaker 2: one hundred list should look different for me, right absolutely,
Speaker 2: And like if you love a movie, just fucking love
Speaker 2: the movie, like you don't have to make apologies for it,
Speaker 2: like if it catches you and it hooks you. Like
Speaker 2: I'm getting a lot of shit right now for liking
Speaker 2: a movie called Horror from Beyond, which was the one
Speaker 2: that everybody keeps talking about as the first movie from
Speaker 2: Revivor too.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: But man, like as I'm watching that, I'm watching the
Speaker 2: shadows move across the scene, I'm watching the depth of
Speaker 2: black and white contrast. I'm watching really weird, quirky choices
Speaker 2: made to like that the director left in to make
Speaker 2: the movie more interesting, and I'm just like hooked to that.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm seeing that movie is gonna make my
Speaker 2: top one hundred. But like, I love that movie. I
Speaker 2: don't care if everybody hates it, Like its just and
Speaker 2: that's that's the kind of thing that for me, like
Speaker 2: exactly what I want to do with this podcast, and
Speaker 2: I think you're on board, is say, hey, this movie
Speaker 2: that was lost for a long time would be a
Speaker 2: perfect pair with say June Suzuki movie, and explore this
Speaker 2: idea trying to pair it pair like a forgotten or
Speaker 2: an outsider art or a exploitation movie or some dark
Speaker 2: horror movie with something that's more classically recognized as like
Speaker 2: a canonical cinema film. And I think that that conversation
Speaker 2: just naturally allows that bridge to happen more freely and
Speaker 2: for people to see that directors are trying to do
Speaker 2: the same things. They may have a different budget, they
Speaker 2: may have a different experience in the film industry, they
Speaker 2: may have a different polish, but like they're trying to
Speaker 2: set out to do the same thing, right, And that's
Speaker 2: what I really am excited to explore here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you you were the one who pitched that
Speaker 4: idea of pairing these canonical high art house movies with
Speaker 4: these outsider, you know, sort of oddball you know, warts.
Speaker 3: And all kinds of movies.
Speaker 4: And and that's great because that that cuts to the
Speaker 4: heart of like what I was trying to do, which is,
Speaker 4: you know, sort of see them through that more serious lens.
Speaker 4: And when I say serious, I don't mean like we're
Speaker 4: not going to deconstruct, you know, a night to dismember
Speaker 4: and be like, ah, this is actually genius, brilliant high art. No,
Speaker 4: Doris Wishman was flying by the seat of her pants.
Speaker 4: She was, you know, using very little money, but she
Speaker 4: was using her creativity. And that's what we want to celebrate, right,
Speaker 4: that creativity, that success in the face of defeat, however
Speaker 4: you want to call it. But something you just said
Speaker 4: was really interesting, right, like talking about how you're getting
Speaker 4: some shit for some of the movies that are on
Speaker 4: your top top one hundred, their top fifty list. And
Speaker 4: it's it's weird because even me, like this has not
Speaker 4: been something I came to quickly, like these realizations that
Speaker 4: I'm kind of going through and these like new these
Speaker 4: ideas that are for me. I'm sure plenty of people
Speaker 4: that are gonna be listening are like, yeah, duh, we've
Speaker 4: been I've been talking about this for years. But like
Speaker 4: on my letterbox, right, like I have a list of
Speaker 4: my top twenty five movies, right, but then I have
Speaker 4: a separate list that's like titled something like my Top
Speaker 4: twenty five list with no regard for like you know,
Speaker 4: artistic merit, right, And it's certainly like dawn to me
Speaker 4: that like why have two separate lists, right, Like why
Speaker 4: do it?
Speaker 3: Why not meld those? Right?
Speaker 4: So you know, something like mad Max Fury Road is
Speaker 4: already on my top twenty five official you know, quote
Speaker 4: unquote list. But I was getting shit in our discord
Speaker 4: for having money python and you know, in the Holy
Speaker 4: Grail on there, and I'm like, that's a to me,
Speaker 4: that's a classic, canonical like one of the best comedies
Speaker 4: ever made. That's something that everybody should respect. And everyone's
Speaker 4: like shitting on it. And I'm like, wow, man, really,
Speaker 4: this whole like this whole idea of like if it's
Speaker 4: at all corny, it's at all weird, like it's somehow
Speaker 4: less than you know, a woman under the influence or
Speaker 4: something like that.
Speaker 3: It's really pervasive. Yeah, yeah, And I think.
Speaker 4: It's I think it's sort of like antithetical to the
Speaker 4: spirit of film, of cinema, of art, right, like saying like, well,
Speaker 4: these are the serious movies, these are the things that
Speaker 4: we should really be valuing, and these are the things
Speaker 4: that are just like junk food trash movies, and it's
Speaker 4: like it used to be like, oh well, I like
Speaker 4: to enjoy junk food trash movies. But it's like, hold on,
Speaker 4: let's let's think about like, is Night to Dismember a
Speaker 4: worse horror movie than John Carpenter's Halloween?
Speaker 3: Is it?
Speaker 4: Is it a budgetary issue? Is it a creativity issue?
Speaker 4: Like there's there's a lot of parallels there. You know,
Speaker 4: one's not necessarily better or worse than the other, Right, So.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that you see this if you
Speaker 2: take it outside of movies for a moment, you get
Speaker 2: in the art world, this parallel becomes a lot easier,
Speaker 2: right because in one museum you'll have like a Renaissance painting,
Speaker 2: and you'll have not existential what's it called experimental.
Speaker 1: Art, and you'll have like.
Speaker 2: All these different types of eras and genres and styles
Speaker 2: impressionistic paintings, right.
Speaker 1: You'll have all these surrealist is the word I was
Speaker 1: looking for? Thank you? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, You'll have all these different things, like, and they're
Speaker 2: all under one roof.
Speaker 1: So people in the art world.
Speaker 2: Have already kind of accepted that there's no such thing
Speaker 2: as one form of beauty, right, And so I like,
Speaker 2: I like this idea of being part of something that
Speaker 2: you know, you said you were inspired by Bleeding Skull,
Speaker 2: and I love that because, right because what Annie and
Speaker 2: Joe are doing there is amazing, right, And I like
Speaker 2: this idea of treating movies as art as opposed to
Speaker 2: just movies, because art there's like a much longer history
Speaker 2: to hold from into draw analogies too, And that helped
Speaker 2: me shape the way that I saw Flesher Frankenstein and
Speaker 2: help shape the way that I see Scooter McCrae movies,
Speaker 2: because that dude's a fucking artist man, Like, yeah, he
Speaker 2: makes movies for one thousand dollars, like five thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: and they're better than ninety percent of the stuff that's
Speaker 2: out there. Right, So, like anyways, we're just kind of
Speaker 2: going in circles now, but like I think we're all
Speaker 2: I think like this, there's something really wholesome in this
Speaker 2: in a weird way that I'm excited about exploring and
Speaker 2: something that I'm very passionate about. So I'm very happy
Speaker 2: you asked me to join on this journey.
Speaker 3: I think I think right now is sort of a
Speaker 3: perfect time.
Speaker 4: Okay, So two things, right, One, the reason I felt
Speaker 4: like now is a good time for this is we're
Speaker 4: obviously seeing like physical media has been booming for years,
Speaker 4: but right now I think we're at like we're at
Speaker 4: this point where there's so many labels, so many labels
Speaker 4: with sub labels, you know, it's it's becoming this like
Speaker 4: really large thing, like larger than it's ever been. And
Speaker 4: there's movies coming out now on four K that like
Speaker 4: nobody ever thought we'd see even a blu ray of.
Speaker 4: There's lost movies that are making their way now into
Speaker 4: like the collective conscience. You've got labels like you know,
Speaker 4: Visual Vengeance putting out like these SOV movies and these
Speaker 4: eight millimeters sixteen millimeter movies that nobody's even talked about
Speaker 4: in years and years. So I think now's the right
Speaker 4: time to try to like just start looking at these
Speaker 4: things a little bit differently. Like when it was just
Speaker 4: more reissues of movies we'd seen a hundred times on disc,
Speaker 4: like that's a little less exciting, But now I think
Speaker 4: it's like a really exciting time to do this. And
Speaker 4: then the other thing I'm gonna say is like that
Speaker 4: was sort of my worry something you said when I
Speaker 4: started thinking about doing this and sorry, my cat's reb
Speaker 4: INU his face on my phone. He just jumped on
Speaker 4: my lap and he's like, pay attention to me, bleeding skull.
Speaker 4: Like I never want to my influences or the people
Speaker 4: who really inspire me like I.
Speaker 3: And that was my fear.
Speaker 4: Was, like, man, Joe and Annie just do such an
Speaker 4: incredible job. Like I've I've been reading their stuff for
Speaker 4: years and just like I've always been in awe of
Speaker 4: their curation, of like their dedication to their their you know,
Speaker 4: mission statement. Annie's writing specifically has always been a huge
Speaker 4: inspiration to me because it kind of showed me that
Speaker 4: writing doesn't have to just be academic to be interesting.
Speaker 4: You can also just write from the gut. I was
Speaker 4: gonna say from the heart, but with Annie, I feel
Speaker 4: like it just comes straight from the gut. Yeah, And
Speaker 4: it was sort of freeing to think about that. So
Speaker 4: they've been a massive influence on me, not just my
Speaker 4: watching but my writing and everything like that. So I
Speaker 4: would never want to like ape their style or copy
Speaker 4: but I think they're doing their own kind of thing
Speaker 4: and hopefully like this can be a good sort of
Speaker 4: almost like sister to that, but in a different way.
Speaker 4: So yeah, definitely inspired by them, inspired by Monto Macabreau.
Speaker 4: Like these these companies and these entities and these people
Speaker 4: who are just like doing just such amazing things.
Speaker 3: Well I said around doing nothing.
Speaker 2: You know, there's one more There's one more thing I
Speaker 2: want to add to that.
Speaker 1: I like.
Speaker 2: I like what you said a lot. They're another good
Speaker 2: reason for the timing of this, if we want to
Speaker 2: just pat ourselves on the back here for a minute,
Speaker 2: is there's a whole generation of people coming up now
Speaker 2: that don't have the same movie background that we do.
Speaker 1: Right, So, like.
Speaker 2: Remember in the Discord, someone's excited to watch a never
Speaker 2: ending story for the first time. That blew my mind.
Speaker 3: But like, yeah, I mean that was cool to see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like imagine experiencing the magic of that movie for
Speaker 2: the first time, right, That's so awesome.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And you know, to to just respond to that,
Speaker 4: And that's what I hope is like that was really
Speaker 4: exciting to see that, And I hope that they are
Speaker 4: able to watch that and not look at it through
Speaker 4: like an ironic lens, right, like not look at it
Speaker 4: and go like, ohh these effects are a little dated
Speaker 4: or this is a little you know whatever, Like just
Speaker 4: just sink into it, man like, because that one is
Speaker 4: crazy and there's just so many bizarre, beautiful images, and
Speaker 4: the story has layers and heart, like, just give yourself
Speaker 4: over to it, right, like in general, when you're watching movies,
Speaker 4: just just give yourself to the movie. Like, don't sit
Speaker 4: there and try to academically dismantle it, don't criticize it
Speaker 4: while you're watching and be like, oh that was goofy,
Speaker 4: that was corny. Just just sink into it. Let your
Speaker 4: brain melt exactly.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: That's probably the perfect way to end the intro, and
Speaker 2: then I think it's probably worth mentioning the structure for
Speaker 2: a few moments.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think the easiest way to do this
Speaker 1: is going to be.
Speaker 2: To do we each look at the beginning. We'll start
Speaker 2: from your list, right, There's been a lot of curatorial
Speaker 2: effort that goes into that list, So start from that list,
Speaker 2: we each pick one, and then as we watch it,
Speaker 2: the hope is that there's some you know, art house
Speaker 2: film or historically recked, you know, celebrated movie that we
Speaker 2: we find a parallel to or connection to, and we'll
Speaker 2: surprise each other live on the show with what that
Speaker 2: what that ideal pairing would be and then kind of
Speaker 2: why we think it would make a good pair uh,
Speaker 2: And so I think I feel like that's a fun
Speaker 2: way to not only talk about the movie itself, but
Speaker 2: then also draw some parallels and whether it's themes or
Speaker 2: shooting style or you know, whatever it is, to to
Speaker 2: elevate the discussion to to that level.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4: And I think when when it comes to that, it's
Speaker 4: not necessarily gonna be a movie that you know, there's
Speaker 4: there's obvious pairings, right, Like, there's obviously obvious pairings where
Speaker 4: you're gonna take some if you watch The Seventh Curse
Speaker 4: and then you go, I'm gonna pair it with you know,
Speaker 4: The House. Okay, that's obvious. You know, they share a
Speaker 4: lot of crazy imagery and stuff like that. But it
Speaker 4: doesn't have to be that, right, It doesn't have to
Speaker 4: be country, it doesn't have to be theme. They could
Speaker 4: be all kinds of things. Maybe it's even just Hey,
Speaker 4: I think this would make for a good double feature.
Speaker 4: This could be a fun you know, bounce from one
Speaker 4: to the other. So I think a lot of interesting
Speaker 4: conversation is gonna come out of that. I think we're
Speaker 4: gonna like really surprise each other with some of these things.
Speaker 4: And but I like that the idea is something that
Speaker 4: is sort of like canonically respected, you know, sort of
Speaker 4: doesn't have to be from Criterion collection, but something that's
Speaker 4: like in that Criterion sort of electicon exactly. Yeah, So
Speaker 4: now that's gonna be really exciting. And yeah, each week
Speaker 4: we're gonna each pick a movie, we each watch both
Speaker 4: those movies, and we come to the table, you know,
Speaker 4: ready to discuss and sort of.
Speaker 3: Kind of deconstruct.
Speaker 4: And just talk about why, you know, why this movie
Speaker 4: that maybe people sort of turn their noses up at
Speaker 4: or see as a little less than more artistic efforts
Speaker 4: really deserves their time and their like sort of watching
Speaker 4: and thinking about it a little bit differently, and we're
Speaker 4: just gonna have fun with it.
Speaker 3: You know, Like I see a lot I foresee a.
Speaker 4: Lot of time spent laughing, and just like you know,
Speaker 4: I think the important thing to remember is we're not
Speaker 4: laughing at these movies, if anything, will be laughing with
Speaker 4: them while we celebrate what makes them so wonderful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and not ignoring insane things, because some of these
Speaker 2: movies just have insane things.
Speaker 4: So just to give everybody like a spoiler, like a
Speaker 4: little taste the two movies that we are watching and
Speaker 4: we'll be talking about in the first episode that'll be
Speaker 4: coming are I've already mentioned it, Doris Wichman's Night to Dismember.
Speaker 3: That was my choice.
Speaker 4: Anything that gives me an excuse to watch this movie again,
Speaker 4: I'll take it. And Chris, what was your choice?
Speaker 2: Juan Picquerre Simon, otherwise known as a nineteen eighty two classic.
Speaker 3: Pieces, Oh Chef's Kiss? What a pick?
Speaker 4: When you chose that? I was you could you couldn't
Speaker 4: see it? I was giddy with delight. I hadn't watched
Speaker 4: that movie since I saw it in the theater a
Speaker 4: repertory screening thirty five millimeter in Boston.
Speaker 3: Couldn't Yeah, Yeah, that was That was something man really excited.
Speaker 4: I was so excited to revisit it again and it
Speaker 4: did not disappoint one bit. So I can't wait to
Speaker 4: talk about it.
Speaker 1: Sam, awesome, Well, I can't wait. We'll be back soon
Speaker 1: with episode one.
Speaker 3: Bill.
Speaker 1: I'm excited for this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, me too, Man.
Speaker 4: I hope you know, at least one other person out
Speaker 4: there gets something out of it. But if it just
Speaker 4: ends up being you and me talking into the void
Speaker 4: about these things. Hey, you know, I'm okay with that too.
Speaker 1: We'll find, we'll find our audience.
Speaker 3: N Yeah, thank you for listening. To hear more shows
Speaker 3: from the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast network. Please select the
Speaker 3: link in the description