Speaker 1: Welcome back to Midnight Viewing, the Horror Anthology podcast. We
Speaker 1: are no longer looking at George Romero's nineteen eighties television
Speaker 1: series tell Us the Dark Night, because we finished last episode.
Speaker 1: You were there everyone. No, Instead, today we're going to
Speaker 1: be looking at towns from the Dark Side of the
Speaker 1: movie and with me to do another projection boost. Mike White.
Speaker 2: Oh god, I don't have a line ready. Oh jeez,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. Hold on one second. You made a promise.
Speaker 1: There we go, There you go, and the culture cast
Speaker 1: Chris Statue, La.
Speaker 3: La, lulie la. You're welcome for that one.
Speaker 1: There you go. Okay and okay. As I said, we
Speaker 1: are looking at towns from the Dark Side of the movie.
Speaker 1: Here's the trailer.
Speaker 4: Stephen King, originator of pet Cemetery, Arthur Conan Doyle, author
Speaker 4: of Sherlock Holmes, Michael McDowell, creator of Beetle Juice, George Ramiro,
Speaker 4: director of Knight of the Living Dead. Now, these four
Speaker 4: masters of everlasting horror bring to the screen four tales
Speaker 4: of overwhelming terror. I won them, but I wouldn't listen
Speaker 4: to tales of diabolical fate.
Speaker 3: You promise you never.
Speaker 5: Tales of ghastly revenge.
Speaker 3: Grow a light, rise a light, Come forth, a light,
Speaker 3: open his eyes.
Speaker 4: Tales of ruthless evil. That cat has killed three people in.
Speaker 2: This household unbelie.
Speaker 3: Kill it. There he is and bring me its tale.
Speaker 5: Tales are from the dark Side.
Speaker 2: Well, I just about to take care of that.
Speaker 5: Let come live the night of your choice. Tales from
Speaker 5: the Dark Side. The movie.
Speaker 1: Tales from the Dark Side. The movie released on May
Speaker 1: the fourth, at nineteen ninety directed by John Harrison. Screenplay
Speaker 1: screenplay by Michael McDowell and George Romero, based on two
Speaker 1: short stories, Lot two four nine by Arthur Conan Doyle
Speaker 1: and The Camp from Hell by Stephen King and Let's
Speaker 1: face It's Quite on and starring Deborah Harry, Christen Slater,
Speaker 1: David Johanson, William Hickey, James Remar, Raydon Chaw. Cinematography by
Speaker 1: friend of the podcast, Robert Draper. And I think it
Speaker 1: looks gorgeous here here we are at the end of
Speaker 1: the line. Gentlemen, where did you first see this movie?
Speaker 1: Was it in the theater? Either of you? Chris, you
Speaker 1: weren't born yet, never mind.
Speaker 2: But he did go see it. I saw it's womb
Speaker 2: uter row. I think I rented this sucker, probably from
Speaker 2: the video store where I was working. I know I've
Speaker 2: had this conversation with you so many times, father alone,
Speaker 2: because I always get this one mixed up with two
Speaker 2: Evil Eyes it just because of the cat theme. But
Speaker 2: rewatching this, I'm just like, Okay, now I remember which
Speaker 2: one that says, I'm glad you said that, the Arthur
Speaker 2: Conan Doyle thing, that the Lot two forty nine was
Speaker 2: Arthur Conan Doyle. I thought they were going for a
Speaker 2: Thomas Pinchon reference with the crying of Lot forty nine,
Speaker 2: But then I realized that's just not it.
Speaker 1: And do you think they were doing that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's not this movie. It could be, but
Speaker 3: it's not.
Speaker 2: As we were. As I was watching this, I was
Speaker 2: really remembering, especially that first segment. It was funny. I
Speaker 2: guess it just went along as the movie went along.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, yeah, I remember this first segment
Speaker 2: very clearly because I love Steve Buscemi, I love Julianne Moore.
Speaker 2: Christian Slater's in here as well. And then I remember
Speaker 2: the David Johansson and William Hickey thing, and then I
Speaker 2: really didn't remember the James Riemar and ray Don Jong
Speaker 2: thing at all. Yeah, but yeah, I'm excited to talk
Speaker 2: about this one.
Speaker 1: I meant you, Chris, why did you first see this?
Speaker 3: For this? This now? For this right now? Yeah? Right, okay, I'm.
Speaker 2: Worry you had never seen this one before.
Speaker 3: Okay not even now. I still haven't seen it. No,
Speaker 3: watched it for this episode. You know it. I've had it.
Speaker 3: I've had it on my Plex server for a while,
Speaker 3: but I've never watched it. And I don't know why.
Speaker 3: When I watched Creep Show when I was in high school,
Speaker 3: I didn't watch this because again, this is part and
Speaker 3: parcel with Creep Show.
Speaker 2: That shows so much better. Though it's a thousand times
Speaker 2: better than this.
Speaker 3: I think they're checking different boxes. I think they're doing
Speaker 3: different things. Creep Show is comic book inspired and this
Speaker 3: is a finishing out of the television show and putting
Speaker 3: a kapper on the television show, so I think the
Speaker 3: intention is different. I actually think this movie is very
Speaker 3: good and I enjoyed it a lot, and there's shockingly
Speaker 3: similarly to Creep Show. I actually think there's very little
Speaker 3: wrong with this movie. I think maybe there's some issues
Speaker 3: that are just kind of again, you have a film
Speaker 3: version of a TV show, and people that were showing
Speaker 3: up to see this had to understand that's what this was,
Speaker 3: because it does feel very disjointed, but it's just three
Speaker 3: stories with some wrap arounds. So it's if you can
Speaker 3: just get to that point with it and understand that
Speaker 3: you're watching a novella short story novella in film for cool.
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed it. I could understand why this wouldn't
Speaker 3: be some people's cup of tea. And I think Creep
Speaker 3: Show moves through those stories a little faster and gives
Speaker 3: you more to chew on in that respect than this
Speaker 3: movie does. But they're doing different things. But I enjoyed
Speaker 3: this immensely.
Speaker 1: Father Malone, you will hear a lot online that this
Speaker 1: is the unofficial creep Show three kind of feels like
Speaker 1: and that's because at one point Tom Savini offhandedly said,
Speaker 1: this is basically creep Show three, And of course the
Speaker 1: entire crew is all the Laurel Entertainment folk who were
Speaker 1: responsible for Creep Show. John Harrison, the director of this,
Speaker 1: composed the score for Creep Show and was the assistant
Speaker 1: director on that film. George Romero is one of the
Speaker 1: writers on this In fact, the segment that he wrote
Speaker 1: Cat from Hell sequence was written for Creep Show two,
Speaker 1: and they figured they couldn't do it, so that was
Speaker 1: just sitting around and then he rewrote it for this
Speaker 1: because at the time that this movie is getting made,
Speaker 1: Romero wants nothing to do with Laurel Entertainment anymore. This
Speaker 1: is a situation where they where Richard Rubinstein had already
Speaker 1: negotiated like a several picture deal and one of them
Speaker 1: was going to be Toastmadark Side. So this is Romero's
Speaker 1: basically his last involvement with anything to do with Laurel Entertainment. Now,
Speaker 1: as I said, this came out in May of nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1: I was working at the Lows in Somerville, Massachusetts. I
Speaker 1: was an usher there and this movie came out. This
Speaker 1: is the movie theater I met my wife, my late wife,
Speaker 1: and I saw this movie one thousand times.
Speaker 2: See I saw a Creep Show probably about that much,
Speaker 2: just because it was on HBO and like VHS and
Speaker 2: those things. That's funny because I was working in a
Speaker 2: movie theater in nineteen ninety as well, but I just
Speaker 2: this one asked me about I didn't even know that
Speaker 2: this was a movie until probably three four years later,
Speaker 2: and then the whole thing with Creep Show three. I
Speaker 2: think I was on one of Josh Hadley's shows and
Speaker 2: we watch because he's fucking crazy, crazier than I am.
Speaker 2: When it comes to oh, yeah, we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about this, so you should watch these five, ten fifteen movies.
Speaker 2: Like he keeps asking me to do a witchboard thing,
Speaker 2: and I'm just like, there's no fucking way.
Speaker 3: I'm ever so many movies.
Speaker 2: I don't want to spend the rest of my life
Speaker 2: watching movies. So I also watched this again back oh
Speaker 2: probably eight years ago, and even still then I was
Speaker 2: just like, yeah, like I said, it's not that memorable
Speaker 2: to me. But rewatching it for this, I was like,
Speaker 2: this is decent, and I really I don't know if
Speaker 2: it was just because I was watching like shitty VHS
Speaker 2: copy the first time, maybe subpar DVD the second time.
Speaker 2: It looks great, like this latest transfer looks fantastic, and
Speaker 2: especially the look of the second segment. But we'll get there.
Speaker 2: When it comes to this, I thought, I have problems
Speaker 2: with anthology movies, especially when it comes to how are
Speaker 2: they tying these things together? And this one was rough
Speaker 2: because I love Debbie Harry, but I don't think she's
Speaker 2: that great of an actress, and the performance she's giving
Speaker 2: in this wasn't that thrilled with her performance, So it
Speaker 2: was a little tough, a little awkward every single time
Speaker 2: she was on screen. And then listening to the commentary
Speaker 2: and hearing that the segments were in a different order,
Speaker 2: I'm guessing that's why we don't see the priest, because
Speaker 2: they very specifically call out in the credits that it's
Speaker 2: the little boy, it's her, and it's the priest. I'm like,
Speaker 2: did I blink? But I think he must have been
Speaker 2: in some of the stuff that they had to cut
Speaker 2: out when they rearranged the segments.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe that's the case. They did the same
Speaker 1: thing with Creep Show. Initially, the crate was the literal
Speaker 1: centerpiece of Creep Show. You would have Jordi Vero, then
Speaker 1: right into the crate and then follow it up with
Speaker 1: something to tide you over. And they realized dramatically, you
Speaker 1: just got to shift that shit around. And I believe
Speaker 1: in this one, the Cat from Hell was the original ending.
Speaker 1: They thought they were going to pull off another ups
Speaker 1: and Pratt. They're creeping up on you from Creep Show
Speaker 1: here with the giant gross out, leave you on the
Speaker 1: floor type of ending, and then I assume wisely saw
Speaker 1: what they had and went, oh Jesus, put this in
Speaker 1: the middle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's such a weak ending with this with
Speaker 2: the gargoyle story. But I don't want to jump ahead.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to it. It's not this wrap
Speaker 1: around story. No.
Speaker 3: Wait, Chris, wait, why I had something that I had
Speaker 3: something that I want to mention before we get too
Speaker 3: far in about the timing of when the show Tails
Speaker 3: from the Dark Side ended was eighty eight, when this
Speaker 3: movie came out was ninety. Something came out in between
Speaker 3: that greatly affected. I think even the way that this
Speaker 3: looks and the tone of this. Tales from the Crypt
Speaker 3: started in nineteen eighty nine, that is the first year
Speaker 3: of that show, and this movie I think benefits from
Speaker 3: Tales from the Crypt being out and keeping that interest
Speaker 3: in horror and especially anthology horror out there. Because this movie,
Speaker 3: like you mentioned, Mike, it looks great. I think it
Speaker 3: looks really good because it's also copying from the Tales
Speaker 3: from the Crypt's look at the time, like it is
Speaker 3: leaning into the easy comic a little bit of it,
Speaker 3: which I think works because it again, if that's the
Speaker 3: other thing that's on that's really successful at the time,
Speaker 3: why not lean into it a little bit? And this
Speaker 3: this comes out when the second season of the show
Speaker 3: of Tales from the Crypt is on.
Speaker 1: And respectfully, I disagree with you on both those counts.
Speaker 1: I don't think this has any easy influence and I
Speaker 1: definitely don't think this has any Tales from the Crypt influence. Don't.
Speaker 1: I just don't see it at all. And I think
Speaker 1: John Harrison is an accomplished and sort of for who
Speaker 1: came out of Laurel Entertainment. He's the most muscular of
Speaker 1: the directors. He's the one with an actual eye. I
Speaker 1: think you see that in a lot of the transitions
Speaker 1: and everything we're going to see in The Cat from Hell.
Speaker 1: I think he was the most innovative filmmaker on Tails
Speaker 1: from the dark Side. I think he came in with
Speaker 1: a plan, and his plan was to make this as
Speaker 1: stylish as he could without making a creep show, because
Speaker 1: let's face it, he's standing in George Romero's fucking shadow.
Speaker 1: Romero's producing this movie and is on set a lot
Speaker 1: of the time, and as far as Tales from the Crypt,
Speaker 1: you got to know that these guys probably hated that
Speaker 1: fucking thing because there is no show with a creep
Speaker 1: show like they basically already did that, and now here
Speaker 1: they are with the with their million dollar budgets and everything.
Speaker 1: It's like amazing stories too for these guys. So I
Speaker 1: don't think John Harrison is looking to ape them at all.
Speaker 3: Again, I again, I don't think I would maybe walk
Speaker 3: back me saying I wouldn't say I would say aping.
Speaker 3: I'd say, it's just it's benefiting. Let me rephrase, it's
Speaker 3: benefiting from being on. Tales from the Crypt is helping
Speaker 3: this out by just keeping the idea of horror anthology
Speaker 3: as a mainstream idea going. Would you would agree with that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, And like the biggest fucking thing there for
Speaker 3: the first five years that it's.
Speaker 1: On, Like Kils from the Crypt still is a big thing.
Speaker 1: Everyone still remembers it very badly. But all I'm saying
Speaker 1: is I don't think there's any influence going on Biley
Speaker 1: or visually here, specifically visually.
Speaker 3: Well, Mike, you said about the people who are in
Speaker 3: the horror world not agreeing with Tales from the Crypt.
Speaker 3: Tales from the Crypt was not That was our One
Speaker 3: of our big things with Chronicles from the Crypt was
Speaker 3: that was a show not made by horror people. And
Speaker 3: that is the thing that I appreciate about everything that
Speaker 3: we've done with Midnight Viewing is the people involved are
Speaker 3: horror people or sci fi people, and they're invested in
Speaker 3: that genre already. And yet to your point like that
Speaker 3: that is that that's a very apropos point that they
Speaker 3: would not be super thrilled and with those budgets squandering them.
Speaker 1: You gotta be a kick in the fucking teeth, I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But they do have George Ramiro with this, so it's
Speaker 3: it's not like they're just out in the cold. You
Speaker 3: have the King of Horror here. Oh I think that.
Speaker 1: I think they're doing just fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah, I think a lot of ways if
Speaker 3: they tail Tales from the Crypt movie, could wish in
Speaker 3: a lot of ways it was as good as Tales
Speaker 3: from the Dark Side. But the Tales from the Dark
Speaker 3: Side movie, like genuinely, oh, it.
Speaker 2: Is so nice that they have so many not just
Speaker 2: the talent behind the camera, but in front of the
Speaker 2: camera as well. The episode with Debbie Harry wasn't that
Speaker 2: long ago? A do I remember right? That a very
Speaker 2: young Christian Slater was in like one of the first.
Speaker 1: Season episodes, a Case of the Stubborns where his Bandpot
Speaker 1: would not believe he was dead.
Speaker 2: Oh, the one with yeah the guy from those oh shit,
Speaker 2: those old time comedies. Yeah, that was.
Speaker 1: Fantastics, written by Michael McDowell, who wrote his segment here.
Speaker 3: I had a lot of crossover with this movie and
Speaker 3: a lot of the things we've watched, Steve u Semi's
Speaker 3: Entails from the Crypt. James Remar was in Tails from
Speaker 3: the Crypt that, Yeah, there's a lot of cross Like
Speaker 3: we've already said with Christian Slater, a lot of crossover.
Speaker 2: With the Debbie Harry rap around what I was hoping for.
Speaker 2: And I know again thanks to the way that they
Speaker 2: had to rejigger this, but this whole idea of this kid,
Speaker 2: this kind of Shaherazad wrap around, where he's telling her
Speaker 2: these stories in order to keep himself alive, keep her
Speaker 2: from cutting him open and viscerating him, cooking him in
Speaker 2: the oven and everything. I was really hoping because they
Speaker 2: prominently show that clock and I really had hoped that
Speaker 2: every time a segment was over, that clock would be
Speaker 2: moving and it would be the length of time until
Speaker 2: she had to put him in the oven. I thought
Speaker 2: that would have been a really nice thing. Unfortunately, they
Speaker 2: just couldn't pull.
Speaker 1: That one off.
Speaker 3: They did say an hour and a half at the
Speaker 3: beginning of a movie.
Speaker 2: Truly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to your point, I was like, they're going to
Speaker 3: try to do that. You keep saying that kid, that kid,
Speaker 3: brotherly Love's own Matthew Lawrence, the most gifted of the
Speaker 3: Lawrence brothers, the true child actor amongst them, not turning
Speaker 3: in his best performance though he's just here. I was
Speaker 3: surprised it was him because when it's when they were
Speaker 3: they have that shot of her and then they reveal
Speaker 3: it to him. I was like, oh my god, it's
Speaker 3: a little distracting from someone my age because he's so precocious. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a little much. I mean, Harry is not yet.
Speaker 3: She's not as good as she is in Video Drome,
Speaker 3: that's for sure. I think that we might be a one.
Speaker 1: Off in this the rap around segment. Look, if you
Speaker 1: haven't seen it, we're spoiling the fuck out of everything.
Speaker 1: So what they do here is they try and subvert expectations.
Speaker 1: We get like the perfect suburban housewife and she's waving
Speaker 1: to the priest and the neighbors and the mailman, and
Speaker 1: she comes home and she has a fucking dungeon with
Speaker 1: a kid in it who she's going to be cooking
Speaker 1: and eating, and the kid is trying to forestall her
Speaker 1: by reading her stories from the book of Tales from
Speaker 1: the Dark Side, which, by the way, makes Tails from
Speaker 1: the Dark Side fake.
Speaker 3: Watching up to this point.
Speaker 1: It reduces the series to that book.
Speaker 3: So it was my interpretation as well, we're.
Speaker 1: Watching Tales from the Dark Side, but they're reading talns
Speaker 1: from the dark Side. But that no longer. I don't
Speaker 1: know anyway. But what we have is a somnambulance performance
Speaker 1: by Debbie Harry and a fucking Disney Kid performance from
Speaker 1: the Lawrence Kid. And it's just a mess.
Speaker 2: It is a mess. And again you're talking about subverting
Speaker 2: expectations when you've got the cage and all the cookies.
Speaker 2: And I was expecting that that little creature from was
Speaker 2: that season two or one, the little thing that was
Speaker 2: living in the closet. I was hoping Lizzie would make
Speaker 2: a reappearance. I was like, yeah, Lizzie and then no,
Speaker 2: here comes this stupid kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you're right, they should have had some appearances
Speaker 1: from characters in the show that would have made this
Speaker 1: a little bit better, I think.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, but yeah, I'm surprised that they didn't
Speaker 2: recycle segments from the show, just because they might have
Speaker 2: thought the show. The audience for the movies different than
Speaker 2: the audience from the show. I'm glad they didn't do that.
Speaker 3: You mean, like they did with the third Tales from
Speaker 3: the Crypt movie. That wasn't a Tales from the Crypt movie,
Speaker 3: but they just put Tales from the Crypt wraparounds on it.
Speaker 3: Yeah like that? Oh okay, Yeah, that's what they did
Speaker 3: with Ritual, which I believe had James remar in it
Speaker 3: of all people. Yeah, I was gonna say about the
Speaker 3: wrap around. I guess the question I have is, given
Speaker 3: how many of these that we've seen with wrap rounds,
Speaker 3: would it have been better to just have a host
Speaker 3: wrapping around the movie or would it be better to
Speaker 3: try and do this and it not workness, Because for
Speaker 3: the most part, anytime we've seen the three of us anyways,
Speaker 3: we've seen just someone going hello and welcome him to
Speaker 3: the show, or not even acknowledging that this is a show,
Speaker 3: but presenting the information or the story. Would that have
Speaker 3: been better or is this trying to contextualize it within
Speaker 3: the narrative? Is that a better idea? Because this is
Speaker 3: the first time we've really seen this, though there are
Speaker 3: other things that do it just is just the first
Speaker 3: time we've seen it together.
Speaker 2: I think to the tales from the crypt angle, having
Speaker 2: a host would have been too much, and I think
Speaker 2: Romero and Harrison talked about it the great by the way,
Speaker 2: great audio commentary, especially if you'd like to hear George
Speaker 2: Romero laugh. He's got such a great laugh, and he
Speaker 2: laughs a lot. It seems like he had he just
Speaker 2: came in and wrote a segment and necessarily have to.
Speaker 1: There was no pain for him here.
Speaker 2: Not a lot of pain for George for this one. Yeah.
Speaker 2: He I think he was talking about the whole idea
Speaker 2: of the true nature of having a host and all
Speaker 2: that stuff. So I'm glad that they did the wrap round,
Speaker 2: and I'm also glad that they respect the story that
Speaker 2: it's inside of these stories, the whole idea of her
Speaker 2: being like, oh that was I almost wish that she
Speaker 2: had made more commentary about the characters, because she just
Speaker 2: says things like, oh, that was a horrible story or
Speaker 2: oh that was a good one, and I was hoping
Speaker 2: she might say, I wonder if that Mummy ever came
Speaker 2: back around. There's whatever it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's too much and not enough. Here's how I
Speaker 1: would have solved the wrap around segment problem. I would
Speaker 1: have called Paul Spearer and said, and you did, to
Speaker 1: say a lot of more spooky shit and freakd theiry
Speaker 1: fuck out of people in between segments. If I would
Speaker 1: have opened this movie exactly like the television series and
Speaker 1: then gone right in and then had Paul Spare continue
Speaker 1: to talk to us and then bring us into the
Speaker 1: first segment, it would have freaked everyone the fuck out.
Speaker 2: You're right because they could have updated the graphics from
Speaker 2: the opening of the show, because those graphics after a while,
Speaker 2: you're just like man video toaster. Yeah it was good
Speaker 2: in eighty six, but eah, maybe not now. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: totally agree. I'm I was a little like, oh, that's
Speaker 2: nice that they did the new with the music, but
Speaker 2: I really love that score, and I especially love him
Speaker 2: and that voiceover. Like for these the last couple episodes
Speaker 2: that we watched with our last episode, I was just like,
Speaker 2: I'm not doing skip credits, man, I want to hear
Speaker 2: these intros and outros.
Speaker 1: Donald Rubinstein, who composed the score for the original Shoes
Speaker 1: from the Dark Side series, he does the overall score
Speaker 1: for the entire episode. And what's funny is I remember
Speaker 1: seeing the movie in the theater for the first time
Speaker 1: and the light's coming up halfway at the end when
Speaker 1: the credits are rolling, and somebody in front of me saying,
Speaker 1: where's the fucking music.
Speaker 3: That's what I was trying to get us too, is
Speaker 3: like this movie suffers from not being what I expected
Speaker 3: from Tales from the Dark Side by not having at
Speaker 3: least even acknowledging what we've acknowledged so many times with
Speaker 3: Father Malone. You've mentioned at the end of every episode
Speaker 3: this season, the try to enjoy the daylight. That is
Speaker 3: a memorable part of the show, that is as as
Speaker 3: memorable to me as the Crypt Keeper is from Tales
Speaker 3: from the Crypt, as Rod Serling is for Night Gallery,
Speaker 3: and not having it here does hurt, I think, because
Speaker 3: it makes it feel just like one percent less than
Speaker 3: it could have been. And this is if you're gonna
Speaker 3: call this Tales from the Dark Side, have it at
Speaker 3: some point, even have it at the end, even have
Speaker 3: the kids say doesn't everyone love a happy ending and
Speaker 3: try to enjoy the daylight? Like just something I don't know, like.
Speaker 1: I would have had Paul Sparro's fucking speech from the
Speaker 1: original series come in over the paramount logo in the opening,
Speaker 1: like all bets are off.
Speaker 3: Now yeah something, and then maybe have it like cut
Speaker 3: out as like as like someone listening to diegetically on
Speaker 3: the radio or something in like a car even just
Speaker 3: acknowledge what we all are here for and then maybe
Speaker 3: change the formula low. That's all I was. It's just
Speaker 3: it's a weird missed opportunity. But I think overall like
Speaker 3: it does a very good job at playing right into
Speaker 3: Tales from the Dark Side.
Speaker 1: And here we go to some of dark sid Let's
Speaker 1: talk about our first story Lonch two forty nine, based
Speaker 1: on a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. This one was,
Speaker 1: as I said, scripted by Michael McDowell, starring Christian Slater,
Speaker 1: Julianne Moore. Who else was is that it?
Speaker 3: Step?
Speaker 1: Oh no Christians later Steve Steve BUHAMI is the fucking
Speaker 1: star of the episode, my god.
Speaker 2: And then the other guy, Robert Robert Sedgwick, dude who
Speaker 2: could have been pretty much anybody. And when I saw
Speaker 2: his little picture on on like the plex server, I
Speaker 2: was just like, is that? Oh God? Why am I
Speaker 2: blacoln And the guy the guy who owns everything except
Speaker 2: shoes death from Bill and Ted'spogust Journey.
Speaker 3: Oh, William Sadler.
Speaker 2: Is that William Sadler?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: When I saw that, Kyra Sedgwick's brother, Oh, okay, interesting.
Speaker 3: Kevin Bacon's brother in law. All right, no shit, yeah,
Speaker 3: really Sedgwick In this case, the Sedgwick last name is
Speaker 3: in fact, Kyris said.
Speaker 1: Wicks, right, all right?
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 3: Hey you guys Heaven, thanksgiving it your house. Yeah, we're
Speaker 3: inviting to my sister and her husband. Yeah you mean
Speaker 3: chiros Edgwick and Kevin Bacon. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: I have two favorite pieces of Mummy entertainment. One is
Speaker 1: from Amazing Stories. The other one is this Lot two
Speaker 1: forty nine. I love a horror mummy story and I
Speaker 1: love the way this is shot. I think this is
Speaker 1: gorgeously shot. As a matter of fact, now, when we
Speaker 1: talked about the series and when we talked to Robert Draper.
Speaker 1: He was telling me about how their mandate was film noir,
Speaker 1: which was perfect for him because he loves a harsh light,
Speaker 1: and that's what this entire movie is. He changes the
Speaker 1: palette and the sort of style from segment to segment,
Speaker 1: but it's it is all the dark side ethos going
Speaker 1: on here, and I think this one looks gorgeous. By
Speaker 1: the way, Mike, you listen to the commentary, these are sets.
Speaker 1: I can't believe that these are sets. I look so
Speaker 1: I thought this whole movie was shot on location, and
Speaker 1: to hear that today blew my fucking mind, because these
Speaker 1: are lit.
Speaker 2: Beautifully, absolutely, And yeah, everything in this first segment has
Speaker 2: this kind of honey brown to it. It just looks
Speaker 2: so good. And they do so many smart things. There's
Speaker 2: so many times where you've got like an out of
Speaker 2: focus character in the background and an in focus character
Speaker 2: in the foreground. I remember when Buscemi's like reading the
Speaker 2: scroll and it's got that light on his glasses, and
Speaker 2: it just he's got such a great face. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I think we're all kind of used to his face,
Speaker 2: but the very first time I ever saw him, I
Speaker 2: was just like, my god, this guy's got a beautiful
Speaker 2: face and those teeth are so prominent. He just looks
Speaker 2: like such an amazing Poindexter in this.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I knew Christian Slater because I had already seen
Speaker 1: Heathers at this point, but I didn't know Buscemi. I
Speaker 1: didn't know Julian Moore. Actually, no, I had seen Bouschmi
Speaker 1: and he was in a Jim Jarmis movie by now,
Speaker 1: wasn't it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think he had been in a few New
Speaker 2: York type movies too, with a like jar motion. But
Speaker 2: I want to say parting glances or something.
Speaker 1: Oh, you know they had seen him into He's in Vibes,
Speaker 1: the movie with Jeff Golbet Cindy Lapper's philandering boyfriend at
Speaker 1: the beginning.
Speaker 2: And isn't is that the one also with Peter Falk
Speaker 2: in it? Yes? Yes, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: Does anyone know the Spanish from Milk and Cookies? I
Speaker 1: know Milk it's leg A, he's.
Speaker 2: Bus Shemy had been in a Bumper that was directed
Speaker 2: by Robert Longo as an MTV bumper, where he just
Speaker 2: spits out all these lyrics to songs that were out
Speaker 2: around the time. He's just like baby does this whole
Speaker 2: thing as He's like wandering around this supermodel type person,
Speaker 2: who do you love sex, drugs and rock and roll?
Speaker 2: It just does this whole monologue and that at the
Speaker 2: end she just goes beat it. And then there's this
Speaker 2: amazing fish eye shot of his face, that wonderful face
Speaker 2: of his. And I used to like, I could never
Speaker 2: hear one of those words without going into that whole
Speaker 2: spiel that he would do.
Speaker 1: You would think from this cast list and the filmmakers
Speaker 1: behind it that this was like an indie darling about
Speaker 1: to come out in nineteen ninety one and take over
Speaker 1: the Spirit Awards.
Speaker 2: Yeah, soon to be Trees Lounges and Julian more of
Speaker 2: many Coen Brothers films. Yeah, and Robert Yeah.
Speaker 3: Say Lounges is the reason we're talking about fucking the sopranos.
Speaker 3: That's where a lot of that casting comes from, is
Speaker 3: from the Yes, Steve, you sient me. This is so good.
Speaker 3: I love him and Slater back and forth. They have
Speaker 3: great chemistry opposite.
Speaker 1: I low the Zuni aesthetics.
Speaker 2: This is so good, so good.
Speaker 3: He has a great look to him and I love that. Yes,
Speaker 3: this is an Arthur Conan Doyle story. Know, the story
Speaker 3: is not set in the time of Arthur Conan Doyle,
Speaker 3: but the lighting palette that they use like pays homage
Speaker 3: to that, and I really I appreciate it, Like I
Speaker 3: really appreciate that they're not going to do a period piece,
Speaker 3: but they'll use period like that's availing yourself of doing that.
Speaker 3: I think it is very impressive. And Christians later cutting
Speaker 3: up a mummy with electric knife is proper disgusting.
Speaker 2: Oh and I love his little just in case those
Speaker 2: fuse blow out again batteries And I'm like, you have
Speaker 2: a battery run electric carving knife? Where can I get
Speaker 2: one of those?
Speaker 1: He went out and bought it specifically for this evening.
Speaker 1: He is quite unhinged here at the end. It almost
Speaker 1: makes me think like he was gonna do a reveal
Speaker 1: because he's so excited to cut up that mummy. You think, like,
Speaker 1: what has this character been up to this whole time?
Speaker 1: Is he like a serial killer?
Speaker 3: Like he's just been pushed to the edge by Steve
Speaker 3: b Sebby's character is what we're supposed to believe.
Speaker 1: A mummy did just murder his sister.
Speaker 2: It's interesting though, when you think about the politics of
Speaker 2: this episode, and I know I'm jumping ahead a little bit,
Speaker 2: but like they Steve Bushemy is this point extra type character.
Speaker 2: Everybody just has it out for him, except Christian Slater.
Speaker 2: It seems like he Christian Slater are friends. But this
Speaker 2: whole thing of Slater's best bud Kira Cedgwick's brother, and
Speaker 2: then his piece of shit sister Julianne Moore, who's going
Speaker 2: out with mister Sedgwick. It's they're awful people. They are
Speaker 2: totally awful people. They're planting shit in Bouscemi's room, trying
Speaker 2: to get him kicked out of college, and it really
Speaker 2: feels just because they don't like him. It feels like
Speaker 2: there's nothing. And I know what, the feeling's mutual. He's
Speaker 2: probably had to work very hard his entire life. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: these two yepp assholes are just scooting through the line
Speaker 2: of Slater where he's just like, the hardest thing you've
Speaker 2: ever done was fill out that application and the guy
Speaker 2: and he didn't even do that exactly. That was the sister.
Speaker 2: And he's just all about that stipend money and all that.
Speaker 2: And I know that's also part of it, is that
Speaker 2: Bushmi didn't get the stipend, so I can see him
Speaker 2: getting revenge on these a holes, but Slater's kind of
Speaker 2: the innocent victim for me. Yeah, once he chops up
Speaker 2: the mummy and Boushmy makes a clean getaway, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: that's the end of the story. But no, they had
Speaker 2: to tack on that little bit, which I'm not going
Speaker 2: to say it's problematic at all, because I think it's
Speaker 2: a great Tales from the Dark Side type ending. But
Speaker 2: it's just as you really didn't have to do that.
Speaker 2: You didn't have to bring back the couple from what's
Speaker 2: the one with Ted Danson and Creep Show. You didn't
Speaker 2: have to bring them back and have them attack Leslie
Speaker 2: Nielsen because he's not only Leslie Nielsen. It's not like
Speaker 2: Christian Slater was that bad of a guy. I think
Speaker 2: something to tide you over there we go.
Speaker 3: It's I think it's almost the Christian Slater character is
Speaker 3: almost unnecessary. If it had just been you send Me
Speaker 3: and those other two, it would have been a revenge story,
Speaker 3: and with Christian Slater it makes it less of a
Speaker 3: revenge story and more just of a guy caught in between.
Speaker 3: And then at the end of Steve U Semmi's now
Speaker 3: fuck you. Anyways, I thought the end look like Steve
Speaker 3: you send me at the end, is I like the
Speaker 3: central casting of the taxi cab driver who is straight
Speaker 3: out of Return of the Living Dead Dead. Yeah, we
Speaker 3: lost two men with his piercings that connect to his
Speaker 3: from his ear to his nose. But it is a
Speaker 3: strange like Steve you sent me getting one over on
Speaker 3: Christian Slater's. He didn't really, It's just he was pissed
Speaker 3: off at him. But it's it's less of a revenge
Speaker 3: story and more kind of unclear what the purpose is
Speaker 3: at the end. But I still kind of liked it.
Speaker 1: Everyone is horrible. That's the fucking message here, everybody. Yeah,
Speaker 1: welcome to tell from the dark Side.
Speaker 2: That's why great Tails from the Dark Side ending.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, good dude goes unpunished. Yeah, I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: you go bad idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. Oh, he didn't know what's his line about.
Speaker 2: He didn't know this type of role from the real thing.
Speaker 2: Alex Post, Yes, pictogram, yes, thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I love a good mummy sticking. Yeah, the hook up,
Speaker 3: the nose. I love a good mummy brain removal. We
Speaker 3: don't get those enough.
Speaker 1: And then he stumps a bunch of fucking flowers into
Speaker 1: a wound he has just inflicted on somebody. Come on now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love this segment.
Speaker 2: I do what they say in the commentary about how
Speaker 2: she wasn't screaming because she was such a cold hearted
Speaker 2: bitch that she respected the Mummy and didn't really want
Speaker 2: to give them like the satisfaction of the scream.
Speaker 1: I was like, nice, Okay, two more, Yeah, who evidently
Speaker 1: like still compstill loving this film and appreciate it the
Speaker 1: fucking yeah, the opportunity that it gave her.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: What's funny is she showed up in Bennie and June
Speaker 1: very quickly after this, where her character, like her claim
Speaker 1: to fame was that she was in this low budget
Speaker 1: horror movie and I was like, wow, that's really weirdly
Speaker 1: specific and coincidental.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I almost didn't recognize her. And she must
Speaker 2: have gone from this to being bottomless and shortcuts within
Speaker 2: just a few years, because it's that like ninety three ninety.
Speaker 1: Four, Yeah, it was ninety three.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love the camera work in this episode, and
Speaker 2: I know we'll definitely talk about that more with the
Speaker 2: next but especially when you've got oh, the mister Sedgwick
Speaker 2: going around, and then the camera moves and the mummies
Speaker 2: in the foreground and you see the mummies stretch out
Speaker 2: that hangar, and then the camera still keeps moving and
Speaker 2: you get a lot of back and forth. They're almost
Speaker 2: like split screen with the stairwell coming up and the
Speaker 2: stairwell continuing up. I love the way that they're doing that.
Speaker 2: It looks so good. And there's a nice wipe in
Speaker 2: here as well, where you're just like, oh, yeah, they're
Speaker 2: really going for this back and forth of the camera.
Speaker 2: There's the cops in the one room and they move
Speaker 2: over and there she is in the kitchen, Julianne Moore
Speaker 2: with the big bloody handprint on the fridge. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: this is so good. Just again, I'm gonna keep sounding
Speaker 2: like a broken record. It looks like a million bucks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's again. I want to say it's my favorite segment,
Speaker 1: but I think actually the last moment you don't like, Mike,
Speaker 1: is mine not to bury the lead anyway.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I was like, my done. I don't understand
Speaker 3: why you don't like the last one already, Mike, Yeah,
Speaker 3: you've already buried the lead a little bit. What you
Speaker 3: didn't you weren't subjected to bad tales from the crip
Speaker 3: segments of James remar like we were. That's why father,
Speaker 3: he doesn't know what a redheaded James remark with what
Speaker 3: the Goldberg really looks like? Particularly speaking a particularly bad show,
Speaker 3: speaking of the worst segments of this show, Oh it's time,
Speaker 3: It's time for the Cat from Hell.
Speaker 1: Now this is based on a short story by Stephen King,
Speaker 1: and this one was adapted by Georgie Rimera. Oh okay, Now, this.
Speaker 2: Is a show written by Stephen King, and it says
Speaker 2: based on Cat's Eye, but it's not. It's like a
Speaker 2: it's a different story than Kat's Eye.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a completely different story. It's it's the story
Speaker 1: we get it's it was first published in seventy eight.
Speaker 1: You could only get it in a back issues of
Speaker 1: Cavalier magazine. It's a men's magazine, which luckily I was
Speaker 1: friends with people in the convention circuit, so they like overlooked.
Speaker 1: They were like, we we know you want the fucking
Speaker 1: Stephen King Starr. You're not here for the porn. So
Speaker 1: they were able to sell it to me. They finally
Speaker 1: serialized it, I think in two thousand and six maybe
Speaker 1: he finally put it into print. But yeah, so based
Speaker 1: on that short story, and it's a fucking hit man
Speaker 1: hired to kill a cat who by a pharmaceutical guy
Speaker 1: who was testing cats, and it's he lives with the
Speaker 1: Gray Gardens ladies, and it's William Hicky andster Bling Dexter's landlord.
Speaker 2: Oh Mark Margolis, Yeah he's Is he still with us?
Speaker 2: I interviewed him a few years ago and he was great.
Speaker 1: I believe he may have passed.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he passed. Yea, all right? And then yeah,
Speaker 2: having Alice Drummond as one of those ladies, I'm just like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, ask her about her period exactly.
Speaker 1: I was Drummond from the opening of Ghostbusters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just in case you guys thought that was being
Speaker 2: weird about asking about her period.
Speaker 3: Also also from ace Ventura as well.
Speaker 2: Weirdly talk about coming full circle. I think when I
Speaker 2: was asked to guest on your guys's Tales from the
Speaker 2: Crypt podcast, it was a William Hickey episode.
Speaker 1: That's right, That's why I.
Speaker 3: Was gonna say. William Hickey also from Tales from the
Speaker 3: Crypt in the Body Switch episode directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so William Hickey has looked old his entire life
Speaker 2: that I can tell, like, I haven't gone all the
Speaker 2: way back to the very beginning, but I did go
Speaker 2: back at least two Wise Blood in seventy nine. No, actually,
Speaker 2: I take it back. He was in Mikey and Nicky,
Speaker 2: the movie that I refused.
Speaker 3: To talk about on We've Had Colombo Show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but I haven't gone all the way back
Speaker 2: to the earliest part of his career when he was
Speaker 2: on the Philco television playoffs in nineteen fifty two. But
Speaker 2: he looked fucking old forever and he just knew how
Speaker 2: to do it so well. Well, this is five years
Speaker 2: north of his performance in Pritzy's Honor, where he stole
Speaker 2: that whole fucking movie. He was so good in that.
Speaker 3: This is a year after Christmas Vacation, which is the
Speaker 3: thing that like most people I think of a certain
Speaker 3: generation know him from. And he Yeah, he's always looked old.
Speaker 3: He's a vagoda. You've always been old. You've always just
Speaker 3: looked like an old man.
Speaker 2: And he plays it so well.
Speaker 3: He's got the voice for it.
Speaker 2: Oh, I love his voice. I love his looking. This
Speaker 2: just this kind of like old timey suit that he's wearing.
Speaker 2: And again not to spoil this one too early, but
Speaker 2: the camera work and especially the flashbacks in here, I
Speaker 2: love those, especially the transition to the flashbacks where it
Speaker 2: is no cuts, just lighting changes theatrics and you were
Speaker 2: off to the races.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's partially a limitation from Bunchet and partially
Speaker 1: just because it's super fucking cool and we need to
Speaker 1: see that sometimes because having these characters in the flashback
Speaker 1: when you don't realize it just by tricks of lighting
Speaker 1: when using scrims to or there's a driving sequence here
Speaker 1: where there's that car never left a fucking studio and
Speaker 1: it looked great over that, and even something as simple
Speaker 1: as a transition of the close up of Mark mcgloss's
Speaker 1: face and then an explosion of a fireplace and we
Speaker 1: pull back out of that and go, okay, I got it,
Speaker 1: that guy burned up and now here we are again.
Speaker 2: Cool, absolutely yeah, and yeah, it looks so good. I
Speaker 2: love when they do the original move and it's just
Speaker 2: that like blue light in the background, and when they
Speaker 2: came out of it, I was like, with him rolling
Speaker 2: his wheelchair from the flashback into the present, that was impressive.
Speaker 2: I actually said that out loud we were watching it.
Speaker 2: I was just like, that looked really good. David Johansson
Speaker 2: is such an interesting actor as well. I think I
Speaker 2: pretty much knew him first as Buster Poindexter, and then
Speaker 2: when he would show up in things like Car fifty four,
Speaker 2: Where are I'm just saying the hits Noyle, Car fifty four,
Speaker 2: Where Are You? Or The Cab Driver and Scrooge. Yeah,
Speaker 2: for me, one of my favorite movies of all time
Speaker 2: free Jack. He's in there. He's fantastic in that. But
Speaker 2: I had no idea about the New York dollars for
Speaker 2: the longest fucking time, and then when I saw them,
Speaker 2: I was like, is that fucking Buster Poindexter in this.
Speaker 1: Luv? That's so good?
Speaker 2: Oh, And he looks so close to Buster in this role,
Speaker 2: but he doesn't have that big hair, he doesn't have
Speaker 2: that big here, and the big smile, the cheesy grin
Speaker 2: that he would do is Buster.
Speaker 1: Yeah. He had clearly gotten a haircut close to production,
Speaker 1: because otherwise you could pomp that up just a little
Speaker 1: bit and we could get hot.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: What came out the year after Free Jack was Mister Nanny,
Speaker 3: which is the first thing I saw him speaking of
Speaker 3: Hulk Hogan and Tails from the Dark Side. Nice It
Speaker 3: is a film starring Hulk Hogan as the titular mister Nanny.
Speaker 3: David Johanson just has an interesting look to He's got
Speaker 3: a great face.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and that voice and the voice yeah wester
Speaker 1: pointexter versus William Hickey. Ah run oh, I know.
Speaker 3: I love it, like being a ping pong ball in
Speaker 3: between the two of them, just back and forth.
Speaker 2: And I said to you, Father Malone off off air,
Speaker 2: I was just like, I remember this being terrible, but
Speaker 2: rewatching it for the show. For this episode, I was like,
Speaker 2: this isn't as bad as I thought, Like, I not
Speaker 2: to again jump ahead, but I thought that David Johansson
Speaker 2: solved the problem by eating the cat, so.
Speaker 3: You know, you thought that he intentionally had the cat
Speaker 3: going in his mouth.
Speaker 2: I was thinking, this is Stephen King. I was thinking
Speaker 2: a little bit of lawnmower Man and when he like
Speaker 2: strips off all of his clothes and goes and starts
Speaker 2: to eat everything, and at one point I think it's
Speaker 2: a gopher hole, and that's a whol. E doesn't eat
Speaker 2: the hole because that would be impossible because there's nothing there.
Speaker 2: It's not, but I really thought that he At one
Speaker 2: point I pictured him in my head, almost like the
Speaker 2: cover of Ralph Bakshi's The Rock and Roll Movie where
Speaker 2: you got the guy with the long arm. I picture
Speaker 2: Buster Poindexter with the tall hair and a hat, just
Speaker 2: like mouwing down this cat, just pushing it into his mouth,
Speaker 2: almost with like cartoon sound effects.
Speaker 1: That would be great in this segment, because I agree
Speaker 1: with you, like I had joke back to you that
Speaker 1: this is I agree, this is a terrible segment. And
Speaker 1: then in the rewatch it, I am knocked out by
Speaker 1: the visuals. That's I was even back then. But look
Speaker 1: when Alice Drummond has a fucking cat stuck on her
Speaker 1: face and it's just this really terrible thing. And then
Speaker 1: I don't know, God blessed canby effects. Obviously they spent
Speaker 1: all of their time on the gargoyle because the effects
Speaker 1: here at the end are so laughable. I don't what
Speaker 1: no laughable, man.
Speaker 3: I mean there I was laughing, but with I know
Speaker 3: I'm assuming it was because.
Speaker 1: Oh well, but they have no choice at that point.
Speaker 1: When they're given those effects, you.
Speaker 3: Got to lean into it. David Johanson with a cat
Speaker 3: sticking out of his mouth. Is just the fact that
Speaker 3: I get to say that out loud is amazing. And
Speaker 3: then you have the bugged out eyes and the it's
Speaker 3: just it's fucking wild and it's not something you see
Speaker 3: every day. There's a lot of stuff in horror movies
Speaker 3: where it's like Michael Myers just tabbing a bunch of
Speaker 3: people sticking a knife through their neck. Okay, but we
Speaker 3: got David Johanson with a cat jumping down his throat
Speaker 3: and then popping out of him. Don't get to see
Speaker 3: that every day.
Speaker 1: I'll take it, I would like.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The music for the segment was done by Chance Jenkle,
Speaker 1: who not only is Annabel Jenkles's brother from Rocky Morton
Speaker 1: and Annabeltnkle, the creators of Max Headroom but if you
Speaker 1: remember the film.
Speaker 6: And directors of superb Anda can't take thea away from them,
Speaker 6: But he also composed the song number one from Real Genius.
Speaker 1: Number one is oh that song, yeah, where I was
Speaker 1: just like, what the fuck is this?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: Anything else about the cat from Hell? I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's always good seeing Mark Margolis show up in things,
Speaker 2: and yeah, I had a lot of fun this time,
Speaker 2: and yeah, the movie poster I was thinking of was
Speaker 2: hey good looking. So if people go look up the
Speaker 2: poster for nineteen eighty two's hey good looking and replace
Speaker 2: the words with the cat, That's what I was thinking.
Speaker 1: So that's the best way to experience Mike's fantasy of
Speaker 1: what this movie should have been, just right down the gullet.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to point out, having been the one
Speaker 3: out of the three of us who had never seen
Speaker 3: this before, not knowing that or the having the expectation
Speaker 3: of this might be not good. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: I thought it a perfect amount of over the top.
Speaker 3: And yeah, the cat at the end, and the idea
Speaker 3: of David Johanson strangling a cat with a garat is
Speaker 3: pretty great. So we never get to see it, but
Speaker 3: he is thinking about it there for a second, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, all right, And predator vision for the cat.
Speaker 2: Pretty great also, especially when it would go cho.
Speaker 3: Or I guess predator vision or I guess dead eite vision.
Speaker 3: However you want to interpret it given your point of reference, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I got nothing.
Speaker 2: I was going to say, No, I think we're good.
Speaker 2: I think we should move on to the last.
Speaker 1: Oh you say so, dismissively. We're talking about Lovers of Ow.
Speaker 1: Technically based on the short story about the Yuki Ona
Speaker 1: that appeared in Quite On. This one has written by
Speaker 1: Michael McDowell. It is about an artist who meets a
Speaker 1: gargoyle who kills a friend of his and says, hey,
Speaker 1: don't tell anyone, I'll kill you two and then he
Speaker 1: and then he keeps it to himself for a decade.
Speaker 1: For ten years.
Speaker 2: You kept your promise.
Speaker 1: Can I just say?
Speaker 3: That's when you see Ricky Coogan in real life?
Speaker 1: I told you at the end of the movie, somebody
Speaker 1: in the theater went, where was the fucking music? In
Speaker 1: this segment, they go from this hard cut from them
Speaker 1: meeting and falling in love to ten years later and
Speaker 1: somebody else in the audience I heard them go ten
Speaker 1: years That's that's too much of a leap for us.
Speaker 2: Sorry, Yeah, yeah, that's the bridge too far. Of all
Speaker 2: the things, it's not the Gremlins or anything or gargos.
Speaker 2: I'm cram I'm just I like my gargoyles to look
Speaker 2: like the nineteen seventy two TV movie where they look
Speaker 2: so much better than a puppet with a really awkward
Speaker 2: mouth and the thing that I dislike about this isn't
Speaker 2: the gargoyles. I liked most of the actors in here.
Speaker 2: I like Robert Klein a lot. That's pretty good. Raidon
Speaker 2: Chong always leaves a lot to be desired, except for
Speaker 2: of course Commando, where she's just impeccable in there. But
Speaker 2: it just it feels like it goes on for a
Speaker 2: long because it's just, okay, we've got the beginning, we've
Speaker 2: got the death, we've got the meeting that we go into,
Speaker 2: like the what is it their one year anniversary or something,
Speaker 2: and then the ten years later, and then it's okay,
Speaker 2: finally it pays off, just like it takes a long
Speaker 2: time to get to the twist.
Speaker 3: Also, is James remark every time he's in one of
Speaker 3: these Hori anthology things just the most oblivious motherfucker on
Speaker 3: the planet. You met Raydon Cheng the same night you
Speaker 3: ran in his Giant Gargoyle, and you were like, is
Speaker 3: it a stretch to be like, she's the Gargoyle? Is
Speaker 3: it a stretch for him to think that her meeting
Speaker 3: him and the Gargoyle in the same evening is not
Speaker 3: I guess he assumes that it's a positive miracle a
Speaker 3: positive anysynchronicity and not a negative one. I don't know,
Speaker 3: It's just it seems weird to me that he didn't
Speaker 3: just put to and two together. She's the gargoyle? Does?
Speaker 1: I think you might think that for a little while,
Speaker 1: but once you settle down and start having children, that
Speaker 1: maybe she's just a human and you have luckily ran
Speaker 1: into her and what potentially was the worst night of
Speaker 1: your life.
Speaker 3: That's fair, I guess when you're like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: the baby's crowning. Yet that's a human vagina, definitely not
Speaker 3: a gargoyle vagina.
Speaker 2: You're right. I don't know if it were to look
Speaker 2: like a gargoyle at any time, I think it might
Speaker 2: be that moment.
Speaker 3: In that moment, she becomes a gargoyle one in that moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I guess that's why this segment is so long,
Speaker 2: is to make us forget and to make us really
Speaker 2: have that twist be something spectacular at the end.
Speaker 3: But who else could it be? What else could it be? Like?
Speaker 3: It never gives us it. It doesn't do the thing
Speaker 3: of even like that Colombo does, where it doesn't even
Speaker 3: give us any other option of something else it could
Speaker 3: be it's so obviously her. That's why I'm saying, like,
Speaker 3: is James Remar not the I guess because we don't
Speaker 3: see that he does have a life outside of the
Speaker 3: narrative of the story with this woman. We assume he
Speaker 3: could have thought it was anybody else. But because we
Speaker 3: never see any of that, it's dude, it's her, because
Speaker 3: we're only seeing this aspect of the story. And it's yeah,
Speaker 3: we as the audience know from the moment we see
Speaker 3: her that she's the gar coile they're belaboring. The fucking
Speaker 3: point with the audience is more the problem, not so
Speaker 3: much the narrative.
Speaker 1: The segment needed to be either longer or shorter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I talked about how much I love Steve Bushemi's face,
Speaker 2: and another guy whose face I love that he's had
Speaker 2: a career, but he's never seemed to take off as
Speaker 2: much as Boushemi is Philip Lankowski, who's in this third segment,
Speaker 2: and you see him at the bar at the beginning,
Speaker 2: and then he also comes back during the art show
Speaker 2: that the reemars character is having another just fantastic face
Speaker 2: and just that long, lanky thing that he's got going on,
Speaker 2: and he's still working today and looks he looks respectable,
Speaker 2: but at the same time he looks a little bit like,
Speaker 2: oh sor I'm gonna make a reference to something I shouldn't.
Speaker 2: He looks like the guy is it Bricktop from Snatch?
Speaker 2: He looks a little Bricktop esque.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: He reminded me of the leader of the Orphans from
Speaker 1: The Warriors.
Speaker 2: Oh, I can totally see that, Yes, absolutely, yeah, And
Speaker 2: he was just in I guess it came out this
Speaker 2: year The Ugly Stepsister. And I keep hearing about a
Speaker 2: show called Death by Lightning and apparently is in that too.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: God, Speaking of The Warriors, James remark, Oh, yeah, there
Speaker 3: we go. Yeah, my lord, James Remar talk about a
Speaker 3: guy who's still working now, James Remar, who's ostensibly one
Speaker 3: of the leads of the IT TV show. So there
Speaker 3: you go. I love James Remar as a fan of
Speaker 3: Dexter like he obviously plays a huge part in that show.
Speaker 3: He was Entails from the Crypt several at least one time,
Speaker 3: but I think it was more than one. And again,
Speaker 3: I guess he was in the movie that that third movie.
Speaker 3: But he's I like him. Here him and Raydon Chong
Speaker 3: are good together. But again it's just this. I think. Actually,
Speaker 3: thank father Milone, you're right if they had done more
Speaker 3: or less, but they're in this weird middle ground where
Speaker 3: they don't do either don't. But I still like it though.
Speaker 3: That's the problem because I would have liked it more.
Speaker 3: Maybe is where I'm left with.
Speaker 1: I just love this short story, honestly. And look, if
Speaker 1: you want to see the proper version of this, do
Speaker 1: see the film Kwaidan, which is a series of ghost
Speaker 1: stories from Japan from the nineteen sixties where they this
Speaker 1: is a this is an old Japanese folk tale, and
Speaker 1: in that one, the it's a farmer and he goes
Speaker 1: out and he gets caught in a storm, and this Yukiona,
Speaker 1: which is a snow woman, appears to him and basically
Speaker 1: kills It's the same story, and then it's what happens
Speaker 1: is it's not like the same night he meets that girl.
Speaker 1: He survives and goes back to his village and then
Speaker 1: eventually meets this girl who comes and then lives his life.
Speaker 1: But it's what you're saying, Chris, because of the time
Speaker 1: compression here, they just let's meet him, Let's have a
Speaker 1: meet at that moment. But it's such a typic to
Speaker 1: the audience, like, gargoyle here, turn around the corner, pretty girl.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, what else is it?
Speaker 3: I'm surprised we didn't get like a cat people transformation
Speaker 3: of a shadow of the gargoyle transforming into Raydon Jong
Speaker 3: and then walking around the corner.
Speaker 1: They could have, by the way, they could have circumvented
Speaker 1: all of this had they just had her meet him
Speaker 1: in the bar as a female human and then she leaves,
Speaker 1: and then gargoyle and then her again, and then it's oh, okay,
Speaker 1: could be different people.
Speaker 3: But right, speaking of the gargoyle, how do y'all feel
Speaker 3: about the gargoyle effect? Because I mentioned the Ricky Coogan
Speaker 3: of it all, it does look a little the bug
Speaker 3: eyes and the lips moving remind me of maybe not
Speaker 3: Ricky Coogan from Freaked so much, but the little kid
Speaker 3: when he becomes like the big freakasized version of him.
Speaker 3: He's got those like the weird like very I love you.
Speaker 3: It does feel a little freaked, and I'm like, it
Speaker 3: makes it it. It's still horrifying and weird and bizarre
Speaker 3: to look at, but it doesn't make it a little
Speaker 3: I'm snickering a little bit because it is a little comical.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's it's not. It isn't. It didn't
Speaker 1: jump off of a fucking building that you know, this gargo,
Speaker 1: this is their own design for it. I'm actually I
Speaker 1: actually saw this thing up close. I went to a
Speaker 1: Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention in Burbank and the K
Speaker 1: and B guys were there, and they had all the
Speaker 1: props from this film on display, so I got to
Speaker 1: see the head really close up, and it's gorgeous piece
Speaker 1: of work. It needs to talk, and what instead we're
Speaker 1: getting is that sort of puppeteering, just like up and
Speaker 1: down vocal thing instead of it speaking and vocalizing like
Speaker 1: somebody called the Henson people. If you want to do that,
Speaker 1: the thing that.
Speaker 3: You do with the where you put some like peanut
Speaker 3: butter on the horse's tongue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little like that.
Speaker 3: Mister ed, I love you, please, you're the cross your
Speaker 3: heart like, oh God, Like why are you over enunciating
Speaker 3: every word British promised? It's like when British people have
Speaker 3: an American accent, they say, there are's really hard stop.
Speaker 3: We know you're a puppet. Come on, you're not fool?
Speaker 2: Are you talking about Bennett A. Cumberbatch and The Doctor
Speaker 2: Strange movies?
Speaker 3: Or you and McGregor in that episode of Tales from
Speaker 3: the Crip where he says his r's really hard, like
Speaker 3: really hard. Hello, they are.
Speaker 1: Okay, they all learned they're American from Dallas in the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties.
Speaker 3: I think's right right on Chong though, Like I think
Speaker 3: to your point, Mike, I have only ever seen her
Speaker 3: in Commando.
Speaker 2: I have not in soul Man, right, that's one of
Speaker 2: your favorite last.
Speaker 3: No, it is not one of my favorite films and
Speaker 3: I've never even seen it. I've seen the trailer for it.
Speaker 3: I decided maybe see Thomas Hall dressing up as a
Speaker 3: black man wasn't something I needed to go out of
Speaker 3: my way to watch unless someone put my put a
Speaker 3: gun to my head and said let's do that.
Speaker 2: It wasn't problematic back then. No one said anything back.
Speaker 3: Back They said it wasn't a good movie. That's with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And then I think she was also in Quest
Speaker 2: for Fire as well.
Speaker 1: That's where I first s are lifelong fan after Quest
Speaker 1: of Fire. That was fat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she bears it all right there. Yeah, not nearly
Speaker 2: as good as Claning the Cave Bear. When we're talking
Speaker 2: about men movies of the nineteen eighties, a very specific
Speaker 2: sub genre which also includes a film by Ringo star Caveman,
Speaker 2: Silly Long.
Speaker 3: That's right, baby, say Mike, what a great name for
Speaker 3: a new show. Caveman movies of the nineteen eies.
Speaker 1: That's like the accidental pimp movement of the of nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty three, where we had night Shift and Risky Business
Speaker 1: and Doctor Detroit.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was like all those h swap movies in
Speaker 2: what nineteen eighty eight or body swap movies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, say it was speaking of see Thomas Howell. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: and Raydon Chong. To bring it all the way back
Speaker 3: to her, she was married to see Thomas Hell for
Speaker 3: a year. Oh wow, Okay, soul Man. On the set
Speaker 3: of soul Man.
Speaker 1: Around the time that this movie came out, it was
Speaker 1: still a novelty that Raydon Chong was Cheech and Chong's
Speaker 1: Tommy Chong's daughter, Ryeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You didn't see anybody saying anything about Robert Sedgwick, so yeah.
Speaker 1: Still not talking about him exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Bacon Brothers, good Lord.
Speaker 2: Behind the scenes, keV Do you think I could sing
Speaker 2: a song tonight. Yeah, I'm sorry, we just don't have room.
Speaker 1: In the bill.
Speaker 3: I like the transformation scene with Raydon Chong at the
Speaker 3: it's gross. It reminds me of.
Speaker 2: No honestly, when she says you broke your promise and
Speaker 2: it has like the multiple voices on it, I was like,
Speaker 2: that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: It's very fly. It's very fly.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because it's bursting out of her. Yeah, her
Speaker 1: skin is like popping open.
Speaker 3: And we have that like mid transformation like crying thing,
Speaker 3: which Jeff goldbloob it doesn't really cry, but we have
Speaker 3: that like melancholiness where he's like transforming and losing the
Speaker 3: last humanness of it. That is the thing though. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the gargoyle had to talk. But when the gargoyle is
Speaker 3: half lit at the beginning, it's scary, but at the end,
Speaker 3: when it's full lit, it does look really And then
Speaker 3: that we haven't talked about it. But my god, guys,
Speaker 3: gargoyle children.
Speaker 1: Yea gargoyle. When you were talking about freaked, those were
Speaker 1: the little fuckers I was thinking of.
Speaker 3: Those are the freaked fucker's all right, Oh my god.
Speaker 3: They're less expressive than the mother is and that's not good.
Speaker 2: No, that was I kind I laughed when he turns
Speaker 2: around and those kids are there, and I was just like, yep, okay,
Speaker 2: that checks out.
Speaker 3: To Mike, that checks out. Yeah, but yeah, gotta say
Speaker 3: about laughing folks. Make them laugh, make them laugh.
Speaker 1: They thought they were ending it powerfully. They moved this
Speaker 1: segment here.
Speaker 3: I like, can I say I think that this is
Speaker 3: one of the best tales from the Dark Side segments? Genuinely,
Speaker 3: I had a lot of fun with it. I thought
Speaker 3: it was really good. It's a little all over the place,
Speaker 3: but in terms of this kind of story, I enjoyed
Speaker 3: it a lot, and it had a lot of good,
Speaker 3: for the most part, practical effects.
Speaker 1: I think I liked it then and I continue to
Speaker 1: like it now because it's based on that story that
Speaker 1: I like so much, and and it's shot beautifully and
Speaker 1: James Remar is great, and Raydon Chunk's serviceable, and Robert
Speaker 1: Klein is in there for some reason, but he's really good. Actually,
Speaker 1: it's a sort of disaffected agent. And I can't live
Speaker 1: on ten percent of nothing.
Speaker 3: I did like that, But I'm going to take care
Speaker 3: of your kids for you.
Speaker 2: So as we're winding down. I want to know your
Speaker 2: guys' opinion as far as the finale of the rap
Speaker 2: Round story. Does the kid become some sort of like
Speaker 2: street controller of the universe type of thing? Is that
Speaker 2: what I'm supposed to believe when he's just and then
Speaker 2: he reached in his pocket and pulled out these marbles
Speaker 2: and she tripped and fell because he's like narrating his
Speaker 2: own story. Speaking of Bill and Ted's s excellent adventure,
Speaker 2: it felt very like the end of Bill and Ted
Speaker 2: when they're just like, oh, and then we can travel
Speaker 2: in time and we'll do this and they basically they'll
Speaker 2: drawer yeah, like they have the whole thing of yeah,
Speaker 2: the trash can over the Dan's head and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Because this just feels okay, he's now in charge of
Speaker 2: the story. He's the one writing this.
Speaker 3: I thought it was a double dodge. I thought the
Speaker 3: gag was that she kidnapped the wrong kid. Oh that
Speaker 3: was my assumption, Like he I don't know you to
Speaker 3: your point, I don't think he became that. I think
Speaker 3: he always was that. And that's the twist is that's
Speaker 3: what makes it a Tails from the dark Side thing,
Speaker 3: is she's the witch but it turns out what happens
Speaker 3: when frankens, what happens when Doctor Jekyl and mister Hyde
Speaker 3: accidentally kidnaps vampire. Oh, it's like at the movie Abigail,
Speaker 3: that same thing where it's like, what happens if X
Speaker 3: happens with Y, and then it turns out it's something else.
Speaker 3: That's That was my interpretation. Maybe I'm maybe I'm off base.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I like your interpretation, but I don't think that is
Speaker 1: it because I think they would have leaned into it
Speaker 1: had it been that, there would have been a moment
Speaker 1: where they like zoomed in and the kid you fucked
Speaker 1: up a moment. As it is, I think this is
Speaker 1: more of an amazing stories ending than a Tannels from
Speaker 1: the dark Side ending. This is the power of storytelling
Speaker 1: ending and way out of place with Darkseide.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to be fair that they would have also mentioned
Speaker 3: in the commentary that that were the case, and also how.
Speaker 1: They could have ended it satisfactorily. Had he started setting
Speaker 1: the table to eat she went into the oven, like
Speaker 1: he's going to eat her now.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they're just like lay lean into him
Speaker 3: being a precocious little shit to your point botom alone.
Speaker 3: If they just had him sitting down at the table
Speaker 3: and then just like looking Riley at the camera.
Speaker 1: Like setting a timer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and like may and again, like if you want
Speaker 3: to acknowledge the audience, don't have him acknowledge of verbally.
Speaker 3: Just give him a little wink and a nod, little
Speaker 3: Tom Baker thing of the nose. Don't be that obvious.
Speaker 3: We don't need to. The show was never that obvious.
Speaker 3: The show never did that. Show never once acknowledged the audience.
Speaker 3: It's a little weird that the movie was like, that's
Speaker 3: more Tales from the Crypt, Like the crypt keeper does
Speaker 3: more or less acknowledge the audience. Same with Rod Serling.
Speaker 3: He acknowledges this is not a Tale from the dark
Speaker 3: Side thing.
Speaker 2: This kid breaks the fourth wall and looks hooray at
Speaker 2: us directly.
Speaker 3: Don't you love a happy I mean not when you're
Speaker 3: punching us in the nose on it?
Speaker 2: Come on?
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, before this film came out, they thought they
Speaker 1: had a winner, and they commissioned a screenplay for a
Speaker 1: sequel to tell Some from the Dark Side, also written
Speaker 1: by George Romero and Michael McDowell, but contains stories by
Speaker 1: Gayan Wilson and Robert Block, and then two from Stephen
Speaker 1: King where they were going to do Rainy Season, which
Speaker 1: is a horrific fucking story that they were never going
Speaker 1: to be able to film, but if somebody does that someday,
Speaker 1: it's going to be great. And they were going to
Speaker 1: do Pinfall. Pinfall is interesting because it was initially supposed
Speaker 1: to be in the first Creep Show and then it
Speaker 1: was going to be in Creep Show two, and then
Speaker 1: it was going to be in tailsim the Dark Side,
Speaker 1: and then it got shuffled off to the Tails in
Speaker 1: the Dark Side sequel that's never going to get made.
Speaker 1: That's the one about I'm sure if you're a Stephen
Speaker 1: King fan you know. And it's the Undead Bowling Team
Speaker 1: segment where it's based on an old ec tales from
Speaker 1: the cryptcomic actually, which is called foul Play, about a
Speaker 1: baseball team that ends up exacting revenge on one of
Speaker 1: their teammates because the teammate like spikes his spikes with
Speaker 1: poison and kills like a fellow teammate to get ahead
Speaker 1: in the game, and then they end up eviscerating him
Speaker 1: and using his entrails as baselines and stuff.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: So King was obsessed with that. I think it fucked
Speaker 1: his head up when he read it as a kid
Speaker 1: and did the story. It's the same thing but with
Speaker 1: a bowling team basically where they're bowling his head at
Speaker 1: the end and everything.
Speaker 3: So it's pretty good. It's good. It's a good one.
Speaker 3: That's the problem. It's just it's just like rainy season,
Speaker 3: you know what's funny? Fuck man, it really speaks to
Speaker 3: the Stephen King of it all. If they had gone
Speaker 3: three for three with Tails from the Dark Side, that
Speaker 3: fucking last one would have just been all Stephen King,
Speaker 3: every single fuck that. Go look at any bookstore with
Speaker 3: the horror section, it's k and then every other thing.
Speaker 3: It's not that it's not as much as it used
Speaker 3: to be, thankfully there's a lot of like horror out
Speaker 3: there now. But it just speaks to the Stephen King
Speaker 3: of it all that the next movie was going to
Speaker 3: be half Stephen King, and then the third one would
Speaker 3: have been three quarters, if not all, because again, he's
Speaker 3: the name in horror to speak to. The James remar
Speaker 3: And and It TV show of It All My God,
Speaker 3: currently airing right now and.
Speaker 1: Back in the twenty fourteen, the British filmmaker trying to
Speaker 1: crowdfund a his own film version of Pinfall because it
Speaker 1: still has never been adapted, and then finally in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: they turned it in to a comic book, which they
Speaker 1: gave away with The Creep Show to DVD when it
Speaker 1: came out. So it's the only place you can actually
Speaker 1: read Pinfall a side of the many imboarded drafts of
Speaker 1: the screenplay, which is how I read it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just read the source materialist way to joy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm familiar, unfamiliar, I should say, with rainy season.
Speaker 2: So I never made it to Nightmares and Dreamscapes. I
Speaker 2: was done. I was done with King somewhere right around Misery,
Speaker 2: if not shortly before that. But yeah, that's.
Speaker 3: Interesting is where sorry right right number comes?
Speaker 1: What was put in there? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I get for most people, like people, I guess
Speaker 3: people my age who would be reading it as a.
Speaker 1: Collected welfare I'm trying to think where my Stephen King
Speaker 1: interests flagged.
Speaker 3: That's an interesting question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna pull up.
Speaker 3: His interest flag. You think did mister King.
Speaker 2: After his accident? Maybe?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Maybe?
Speaker 1: Well for me it was it was Tommy Knockers. Actually, no,
Speaker 1: that's not true, because I did. I went through it.
Speaker 1: I went through Misery, I went through I got up
Speaker 1: to Nightmares of Dreamscape, so I know I got that
Speaker 1: far at least. But I think it's when he started
Speaker 1: doing Rose Matter and what was the other one? It
Speaker 1: was interminable Gerald's Game, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Being a little wistful that mister King a little too
Speaker 3: wistful for one's ago.
Speaker 1: It was mister King like reacting to the criticism that
Speaker 1: he doesn't write good female characters. So I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: all the female characters.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 1: No, they were right, You're right, you don't write them.
Speaker 3: What's odd.
Speaker 2: I've never read any of the Dirk Tower stuff, and
Speaker 2: that was coming out while I was reading his other things.
Speaker 2: So I read all the way up to Thinner and
Speaker 2: then I skipped it, and then I went to Misery,
Speaker 2: and then I was done, And which is weird because
Speaker 2: I loved Misery. I thought it was great. I was
Speaker 2: just done with them after that, like Tommy Knacker's Dark Hat,
Speaker 2: any of these Dark Towers thing needful things, Gerald's Game
Speaker 2: all the way, and then I went back with things
Speaker 2: like the Green Mile and oh gosh, I think that
Speaker 2: was it until sell?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: When was DreamCatcher? Dream Catcher was two thousand and one.
Speaker 2: That movie or sorry movie and book. That book fucking sucked.
Speaker 2: I hated that book.
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, you're talking about late ninety Stephen King, where
Speaker 1: his editor basically is just rubber stamping anything that comes along.
Speaker 1: There's no pushback for Stephen anymore at all.
Speaker 2: And I think he said, yeah, I was going to say,
Speaker 2: I think that's when he said he was just the
Speaker 2: most high of all of that.
Speaker 1: That's what fucking really annoyed me about Tommy Knocker was
Speaker 1: that was I look, I Tommy and I was like
Speaker 1: eighty seven, so I was fourteen years old. I'm like
Speaker 1: growing up with Stephen King, and that book was disappointing.
Speaker 1: And then a couple of years later that's when he
Speaker 1: got sober and he was like, I don't even remember
Speaker 1: writing the tom Knockers. And I was so offended and
Speaker 1: hurt by Stephen ging doing that to me that I
Speaker 1: think and that's around the time that I'm the time
Speaker 1: frame like him getting sober that I was like, fuck
Speaker 1: you man.
Speaker 2: He didn't realize that The Tommy Knockers was one of
Speaker 2: those thick volumes that's five hundred and fifty eight pages. Yeah,
Speaker 2: miseryes three ten. My god, I remember I have read
Speaker 2: The Stand probably five six times. Maybe. I When I
Speaker 2: see a book like it, though, I'm just like, I
Speaker 2: don't want to dive into something like this.
Speaker 3: And I think this is the best of them, though,
Speaker 3: really I think it I think is. I mean, for
Speaker 3: if you're going to talk about the long the Tome,
Speaker 3: I guess it's either it or the Stand for me,
Speaker 3: like the Stand, right, but it's either. But you see
Speaker 3: what I think it's for some people's either it or
Speaker 3: the Stand. It's those are the ones. And so I
Speaker 3: see like father Milon, and I see your reaction what
Speaker 3: I said. If you're going to do a thing about
Speaker 3: people in a main town fighting something, it's going to
Speaker 3: be it.
Speaker 1: I honestly prefer needful things. If you're going to talk
Speaker 1: about his main towns and his big characters, because that's
Speaker 1: Castle Rock and those are all of his fucking characters
Speaker 1: from all of his stories, and it's got the Devil
Speaker 1: in it, and I don't.
Speaker 3: Know that's fair the Devil.
Speaker 1: Do you know that I attended a test screening of
Speaker 1: that movie? Really it was real bad.
Speaker 2: Then, Oh, I've never seen it. I've never seen that.
Speaker 1: Then, I mentioned earlier that I went to conventions starting
Speaker 1: very young and made a lot of friends with a
Speaker 1: lot of the dealers and stuff. Tower books were like
Speaker 1: a rumor among Stephen King fans for a little while there,
Speaker 1: and I was lucky enough to have a friend who
Speaker 1: photo copied The Gunslinger for me to read because he
Speaker 1: had a copy of that. But this is the same
Speaker 1: time that the Dark Tower Book two, the Drawing of
Speaker 1: the three, came out, so I was able to buy
Speaker 1: then and still have a first edition of that book.
Speaker 1: And that was around the same time that Stephen King
Speaker 1: finally decided maybe I should start publishing these, So it
Speaker 1: was like the perfect moment. So I followed Dark Tower
Speaker 1: all the way through. And if you liked the stand Mike,
Speaker 1: you should. I know it's daunting because there are so
Speaker 1: many books in the Dark Tower series, but it is
Speaker 1: well worth your time. It is if there was a
Speaker 1: reason Stephen King was put here a side of horror,
Speaker 1: if he was meant to do anything else, it's this.
Speaker 1: It's a magnificent series.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, it is a thing unto itself. To Father
Speaker 3: Malone's point, like, once you start it you kind of
Speaker 3: need to finish it. You need to see it, see
Speaker 3: it through. But it is unto itself, like it and
Speaker 3: the stand are that cliff, and then Dark Tower is
Speaker 3: the cliff of which you jump off because there's just
Speaker 3: so much of it.
Speaker 2: You know what, though, why can't I just watch the movie?
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say you can't. We're not saying here in
Speaker 3: saying don't you know better?
Speaker 1: Insanely, that fucking movie that they put out is like
Speaker 1: a reader's digest version of the entire series.
Speaker 3: Yeah, boy, it sure is. And they try to make
Speaker 3: that movie canonical within the scope and scheme of the
Speaker 3: series of books as well.
Speaker 1: It was so absurd.
Speaker 3: I know, good for them. You know what they say,
Speaker 3: when you start with Ron Howard and you end with
Speaker 3: Akiva Goldsman, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: I will say this about that movie was mainly garbage,
Speaker 1: But if you read the books and all, they described
Speaker 1: the way Roland reloads a gun, this magic trick he
Speaker 1: does with his fingers, and they actually pulled that off
Speaker 1: in the movie. When Eaters Elba is just dropping rounds
Speaker 1: into the chamber while spinning it like really quickly. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, yeah, that's what it looks like. That's
Speaker 1: the only thing I took away from that movie.
Speaker 3: They did the thing. Yeah, hey, you know what they say,
Speaker 3: something like we alluded like you mentioned, and like we've
Speaker 3: alluded to there's just some Stephen King stuff that you
Speaker 3: shouldn't try to film, at least not in a movie.
Speaker 3: Maybe you do it in a long format like a
Speaker 3: TV show may like.
Speaker 1: And they were planning on doing movies and TV series
Speaker 1: to supplement it. And it's like it was such a
Speaker 1: money a sort of an idea that it like, either
Speaker 1: make it a fucking television series or don't make it
Speaker 1: because it is that big. You can't condense these into
Speaker 1: little two hour back Somebody's gonna come along and prove
Speaker 1: me wrong. And I hope they do because I love
Speaker 1: the series, But I'm just saying it deserves a longer format.
Speaker 3: If they can mine a fucking three season show out
Speaker 3: of the fucking two hundred pages of it, they can
Speaker 3: do a TV show on the Dark Tower, because that
Speaker 3: it TV show is just mining something else, like disparate
Speaker 3: parts of a book that are not being represented even
Speaker 3: correctly in the TV show. They're doing their own fucking thing.
Speaker 1: No, you know what, I can disagree that. I've been
Speaker 1: watching the series too, and it seems to me that
Speaker 1: they're just making it.
Speaker 3: Like you, No, I wouldn't give it the opportunity to
Speaker 3: do more it stuff, just do it again.
Speaker 1: It takes place in the sixties now instead of the eighties.
Speaker 1: They get to remake it again.
Speaker 3: You're on bicycles.
Speaker 1: But they're also pulling in what was that fucking what
Speaker 1: was the horrible? They made it into a film with
Speaker 1: Hearts in Atlantis. The organization in Hearts in Atlantis is
Speaker 1: basically the other sort of aspect that that they're playing
Speaker 1: on there with this.
Speaker 3: The military knows that Pennywise is the thing and they
Speaker 3: want to weaponize him.
Speaker 1: Of course, yeah, that I'm telling you the it if
Speaker 1: you haven't wanted to show everybody. Dick Halleran from The
Speaker 1: Shining is in the series and he's being utilized by
Speaker 1: the military like as a like a a what is
Speaker 1: it a remote viewer basically artifact that's in the ground
Speaker 1: or something.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's crazy and it's that whole thing.
Speaker 3: He shouldn't be able to see us, but penny Wise
Speaker 3: saw me, and it's oh my god, you're just trafficking
Speaker 3: and all these other things we've seen before Stephen King, Man, they.
Speaker 1: Just I'm having fun with that though it's weird.
Speaker 3: It's weird. I like that, it's weird and it's doing
Speaker 3: its own thing. But man, Stephen King even now adapting
Speaker 3: his stuff Running Man's coming out like, Man, what a
Speaker 3: must be nice to have so many things people just
Speaker 3: want to adapt all the time since oh, since the seventies.
Speaker 3: My god, this year hass.
Speaker 2: Been what four Stephen King adaptations?
Speaker 3: I know?
Speaker 2: There's the Monkey, there's the Running Man, there's the Law Walk,
Speaker 2: and I swear there's a.
Speaker 1: TV Life of Chunk, Welcome Life.
Speaker 2: Chuck, yes, and now the Welcome to Darry which is
Speaker 2: not cashing in on stranger things whatsoever.
Speaker 3: We swear or hit which, yeah, we swear.
Speaker 1: It's a new Stephen King of renaissance, I tell you
Speaker 1: it is. Yeah, but it's no longer a renaissance for
Speaker 1: tales from the dark Side. Gentlemen, this is the end
Speaker 1: of the road, the end of the line. We're saying
Speaker 1: goodbye to George romenro for I never said goodbout it.
Speaker 1: Georgia Merrow. I'm thinking about him right now as you should.
Speaker 3: Just one of the better shows we've watched together. I
Speaker 3: really enjoyed it. I think it was consistent more or
Speaker 3: less throughout. There were some Higgley Piggley moments, but I
Speaker 3: think it was a good show overall. The movie was
Speaker 3: a good way to end it as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the series was hit and miss, but every anthology
Speaker 1: series is hit and miss. But it was consistently hit
Speaker 1: and miss. It never just nose dived and never returned.
Speaker 1: And right, what a welcome change that was.
Speaker 2: That was really nice. Yeah, and I felt, Yeah, there
Speaker 2: were some really strong episodes even up to this season,
Speaker 2: so yeah, good choice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, unlike Tales from the Crypt, which had an entire
Speaker 3: season that was bad like so yeah, yeah, I guess,
Speaker 3: like the last May two and a half, I guess
Speaker 3: it's better to just have your mediocre to bad episodes
Speaker 3: spread across everything evenly, as opposed to just like load
Speaker 3: one whole season up with them and just make it interminable,
Speaker 3: to make it to the entire season, just make people
Speaker 3: leave your no, just.
Speaker 1: Keep firing your staff until you're left with the people
Speaker 1: who don't give a shit about horror and are burned
Speaker 1: out and don't ever want to be there, didn't want
Speaker 1: to be there, to begin with. That's who was running
Speaker 1: Tales from the Crypt Sorry fans of tails CRIPT. A
Speaker 1: bunch of people who did not give a shit about
Speaker 1: Telsmcript ran that show and.
Speaker 3: Then make financial decisions based on how cheap you want
Speaker 3: to be take the show overseas, and it continues to
Speaker 3: make the show worse by doing so, tells the dark
Speaker 3: Side never did that.
Speaker 1: Dark Side never went to Canada.
Speaker 3: No it didn't. Jesus, yeah, didn't go to Canada. Didn't
Speaker 3: go to the UK, which we've seen these shows do now.
Speaker 1: For he's a jolly goodfellow for Talis Darkside.
Speaker 3: And didn't do that either, to be fair, thank Christ.
Speaker 1: So we say goodbye to this, to that, to the
Speaker 1: other until next time, Chris Dashu. Where can people find
Speaker 1: you if they're looking for you?
Speaker 3: Weirdingwaymedia dot coms where you can find all the things
Speaker 3: that I work on, including this in the Culture Cast
Speaker 3: and Scary Stories we tell and Shabby Detective and Cold
Speaker 3: Check tape. So yeah, and if you want to support
Speaker 3: me financially, Weirdingway Media specifically doesn't have a Patreon, but
Speaker 3: we all have our own, so Father Malone has his
Speaker 3: at patreon dot com slash Father Malone. Mike has his
Speaker 3: at patreon dot com slash Projection Booth, and I have
Speaker 3: mine at patreon dot com slash culture Cast. If you
Speaker 3: support Mike and I, you get access to the only
Speaker 3: thing that's not on Weirdingway Media, which is ranking on Bond,
Speaker 3: where we talk about James Bond once a month, and
Speaker 3: Father Malone has joined us on that twice. So that's
Speaker 3: where you can find me and everything, literally everything. What
Speaker 3: about you, Mike Waite?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, pretty much the exact same thing all the
Speaker 2: way down the line, even the Patreon. So thank you, Chris,
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. But the one Patreon we didn't talk
Speaker 2: about is Father Malones, and he'll tell you all about
Speaker 2: it right now.
Speaker 1: He mentioned the patreon give me a money portion.
Speaker 3: Of it, so oh, there you go there.
Speaker 1: But as to what you get there, all the shows
Speaker 1: come out there early, and we have shows very specific
Speaker 1: to the patreon. We've got a comic book horror adaptation
Speaker 1: going on right now, We've got the Miranus Rick moranis
Speaker 1: Fest is going on, Star Trek Fest is going on. Anyway,
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on in the patreon, but you
Speaker 1: can keep it here too because Every Monday it's Father
Speaker 1: Malone's weekly round up where I look at everything that's
Speaker 1: streaming and or theatrically released. And every Friday it's a
Speaker 1: it's a rotating you figured it out, everyone, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us here for the tales from
Speaker 1: the dark Side. Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight. Actually,
Speaker 1: every until next time, enjoy the daylight.
Speaker 4: The dark side is always waiting for us to waiting
Speaker 4: to enter us. Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight.