Speaker 1: Hello, ladies, gentlemen, Welcome back to ano episode of geek
Verse podcast. I am one of your hosts, Providence to
the field.
Speaker 2: I'm joined by.
Speaker 3: I am the Professor's pipe Patza.
Speaker 2: Yes we are here because we're gonna be talking.
Speaker 1: This movie just came out, came out Christmas for us,
but we're we you know, Christmas is Christmas.
Speaker 2: We're not going to be watching as Farato on Christmas.
Speaker 3: So maybe something many people did. I was talking to
the theater folk, and they're very busy yesterday for both
that and the Bob Dylan movie. Can't remember what it's called,
Complete Stranger or something like that. Complete Unknown, that's what
it is. But Nosferato and that movie we're both packed yesterday.
So the Christmas moviegoers were out and about.
Speaker 2: They're out and about.
Speaker 1: I mean, my theater was definitely packed today for oh yeah,
for an was yours?
Speaker 2: Was yours?
Speaker 3: Pretty I was in like a smaller theater than normally
m or a smaller screen, I should say, and it
was pretty packed. So it's tough to judge if that
was like in the larger screen, like how it would
have felt numbers wise, but like every aisle seemed like
it had people in so this is what this is like.
My first time actually going to see a movie like
around Christmas time, probably ever in my life, so it
was a new experience. But yeah, a lot of people
are out and about cool for the holidays.
Speaker 1: Well, a couple of plugs before we get into our
non spoilers thoughts. You can find us with your connection
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Speaker 2: Free exclusive early episodes.
Speaker 1: Content on their big shot outs because there's lots of
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We cover all the refilm Supergirl, Answerman returns for that retro.
It's Me Kirklin and Travis doing that. And then again
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Speaker 2: You folks, are fantastic, and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope you all had a very merry, merriest
of Christmases.
Speaker 2: New Year's is coming up pretty quick, but we're not done.
Speaker 1: We're sneaking in a few more casts because we got
Skeleton Crew that we bumped from earlier this week that's
going to be dropping at some point end of this week,
maybe over the weekend, because we also got Dexter and
we got Creature Commandos, so we've got lots of things
that are still going to be sneaking out and I'm
sure Dylan's probably got a sie quest or something maybe
lined up. I don't know, but just check the feeds.
You can get information all the latest deats on it
all there. So well, further ado curveling, you can give
me like a brief history what you think about vampires
if you want, and how you're excitement for this, and
then your non spoilers thoughts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I my history have the vampires. I feel
like my early history with vampires would have been like
the Blade movies. Blade movies probably is like early version.
I remember watching what's that movie with Tarantia? It's not
a Tarantino movie, but he's in it with Clooney from
Dustill Down. That is that what it is with not
Penelope Cruise. So i'ma high my I hope I'm accurate
and close to some of those predictions.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yeah from Dustill Don. I've never heard
of this.
Speaker 3: Yeah from Dustal Don. Okay, there you go. So I
remember watching that one and then like the Van Helsing
movie of course with the great Hugh Jackman. So definitely
like popped in in and around my childhood. It's funny
because those aren't really like kid movies. I feel like
I just watched those way too young. Uh. And then
I you know, I guess the count from like Sesame Street.
That's a good shout out. So I had some early
innocent experience to vampires. But no, I've always been I'm
not gonna say, like obsessed with them, but like just
just the idea of like the the mystery and tales
of vampire stories has always been in tree and I
must say I feel like this era, and this era
being like the eighteen hundreds that's kind of what nos
Feradu is set in, has always kind of been my
favorite version of vampires in recent memories. You know, my
big video game obsession. You know this Taylor is a
total war war Hammer, And in that universe they have
a race of vampires and they're just called the Vampire Counts,
and it's pretty much like the exact same esthetic to this,
where they just like live in castles and they're all
about just the danse macabre and they speak very similar
to like how they speak in this movie. So I
feel like that was unexpected, Like I knew what the
time era was going into this, but I just wasn't
expecting that many similarities. And obviously, like the Warhammer variation
takes inspirations from like these early like Dracula stories nos Feradu.
So yeah, I was. I was totally just loving the
vibe of what this was. But and then I guess
before I keep going on that, I will say for
my Robert Egger's experience, I feel like I I didn't
always love his materials, but as I've gone along and
rewatched some of his older well it's not even that old,
but just some of his previous works, he's just got
to be like my favorite directors honestly, like director slash writers,
Like he makes such unique films and all that, like
something like The Witch where I can just appreciate it
for its craftsmanship and what he's been able to accomplish,
just cinematography wise, and obviously like the great acting of
just people, like taking us back to like a period
piece type performance. Just something about it. I feel like
these are must watch for me now in theaters. So yeah,
the last one would have been The Northmen The Lighthouse
before that. Like they're just very different movies, and it's
the type of movie where like I can't even really
recommend it to people, Like I feel like I'm very
cautious when I recommend recommending these movies to people. But
you know, like if I ever hear that they are
a fan of some bean Robert Eggers, It's like, okay, yeah, no,
if you know what you're getting into, it's Robert Eggers's film.
It's not gonna be like Robert Aggres does these movies
and then he's doing like a Guardian Site movie, Like
they're all very similar feeling, and yeah, no, I absolutely
love them. So leading up to this one, I was
really really excited. Of course, I started getting these trailers
in the big screen and in the theaters, and it
just felt so different than like the at home viewing
of the trailers, it's just I don't know, you just
feel like you're totally engulfed in the dark presence of
like what the movie vibe is going for. So I
was very much looking forward to this one ended up
working out. I went to go watch it with my
dad on his birthday, so that was a fun viewing time.
And yeah, no, that's kind of my brief history leading
up to this and what I thought about this film.
It's pretty much it's pretty much exactly what I was expecting.
Not in the sense of like I predicted everything that
was gonna happen, but just like the overall vibe and
feeling and just like dourness of what the film was.
Speaker 2: Like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, this is pretty much exactly what I was
expecting and exactly what I was wanting. Like it like
these movies, same thing with The Witch or The Lighthouse.
They just do such a good job and The Northman
as well. They just do such a good job at
like engulfing you in this world, like like like just
taking you into into that period of time, right, whether
it's just the day to day like market life, or
like just the attire, the way people speak, the way
that like the hospitals kind of work and function. They
just totally take you in a whole nother world. And
that's why I truly appreciate Robert Eggers and the films
that he makes, because I feel like that's just a
like a consistent theme on like all of the it
doesn't matter what era he's doing, like you're gonna be
totally engulfed, and most of the time it's a depressing era.
But uh yeah, no, I truly truly appreciate what he's
able to do. I think the cinematography in this and
pretty much all of those other films are just like
ten out of ten, Especially now that we're starting to
make films, I feel like I just appreciate them so
much more, like the way that they're able to capture
certain shots or uh, I mean, man, there's a couple
shots in here like this feels like this feels like
a Drana Rome. Here like this feels like our film.
So it was cool of just seeing some of the
similarities there, And yeah, I just appreciate the way that
they're able to capture certain shots. The lighting is like
next level as well, like a lot of this movie.
It's not a black and white film, but it feels
black and white just because of like the darkness and
the way that the moonlight's coming in and just the
work that they're able to do as shadows and things
like it. Just it it carries such a presence without
actually showing like a monster on screen, just just just yeah,
because of the shadows and everything. So yeah, as a
Robert Eggers fan, this this was like exactly what I wanted.
And I love this movie. I love this movie so much.
As I already said, like it's I'm skeptic or not skeptical.
I'm hesitant on who I would recommend this film too,
but uh, if you are a film of Robert Eggers
and his previous works and just kind of like film
in general, like I feel like you can really appreciate
how this is made. It's definitely like a slow burn
of a film, but those are pretty much my favorite
type of I don't like, would you call this a
horror movie. It's kind of like a It has.
Speaker 1: The jump stares of a horror movie, but it's I
didn't feel like it really was. I just I felt
like it it's not actually adventure, It's just it felt
like a thriller.
Speaker 2: I guess. I guess it's like captivated.
Speaker 3: Like The Witch. Though, like I wouldn't really call The
Witch a horror movie in that sense, even though it's
like very disturbing imagery. I feel like this is similar
to that in many ways. Even the Lighthouse, like that's
not really a horror movie, just like a descent into madness.
And I guess therefore it's like a psychological U thriller
in that way. But yeah, very similar type of horror elements,
I'll say, in that way. And yeah, no, I just
love the way that they're able to kind of teeter
on the line of believability and like like going into
like a fantasy realm, because obviously just having vampires alone
is pretty fantasy element, but it's not like they go
overboard in the sense of having like characters flying around
and doing magic. Like I feel like it could be
explained in a way of just like a folk tale
telling of something like some events, similar to how we
had in The Witch. You know, it's same sort of idea.
So yeah, I just really appreciate that balance, and I
thought performances were really great across the board. I haven't
really seen Lily Rose depth in much. I think she
was in like a I think she was in like
a Kevin Smith film that I had seen, but she
was just like a very minor role, so like this
would have been the first actual performance of like a
lead role that I've seen her, and I thought she
was good for the character that they were having her portray.
I thought Nicholas Holt was was really good with what
he was doing. And then of course Bill Scar's guard
as not raw to himself was just as scary as ever.
So yeah, no, I like the cast. Oh and then
Willem Dafoe. Obviously he's our background here for our video viewers,
and I think worthy a worthy pick. He is just
so phenomenal in all these roles, especially the Robert Acres
roles that he gets put into. And yeah, he was fantastic.
The score was good. I don't know, I don't really
have much complaints, honestly, Like that's like my my last
thing I'll say spoiler free. Yeah, No, I just really
love this film, and it's a film for me. I
knew what I was kind of getting myself into, uh,
and I was not surprised, And yeah it was it
was good, really really good story.
Speaker 1: Well said, Yeah, this this movie, Like I don't I
don't know a lot about the whole like Nosparato backstory
and why I was created, and it just being kind
of an alternative to count Dracula because it's a different character,
but it pulls a lot of i'm gonna say, inspiration
from the Dracula storylines, and I again, I don't know
if it's like a legal right or what. I know
that there is some story there, but it eludes me
and it's something I have not invested my time into.
Speaker 2: As far as vampires go, I love vampires. I'm with you.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure Blade was probably one of the first
introductions just you know, vampire movies you shouldn't be watching
as a kid, but you know, you got that kind
of dad that's just like we're gonna watch so it's
like nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So between that and yeah, some of those earlier on
vampire movies and just other things that we've reviewed, I
just feel like vampires have just stood the test of
time and there's still a lot that you can do
with them as characters, and a lot of projects have
just thought, Okay, we.
Speaker 2: Need to do modern day vampires.
Speaker 1: We did day Break, Was it not Daybreakers day Watch
with Jamie Foxx. We reviewed that where he's he's like
a vampire killer night Watch and I watched, Yeah, and
I watched, So there's there's the modern kind of take
on on vampires. But like, yeah, like I said, my
theater was packed and this was just a fantastic period
time of vampires like Void of the Demeter, which I
also love that movie too.
Speaker 3: Day Shift, that's what it was called. You were closer
than me beating around it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, day Shift.
Speaker 1: So I think that this movie, Yeah, what what was
I expecting going in? I was expecting, uh, maybe more
horror and more jump scares and intensity. And it goes
over my head that you know, Robert Eggers, he's really
only done the four feature film projects and then a
few short films, which The Witch is based off of
that Handsel and Gretel kind of short film because we
did a retro for that.
Speaker 2: But yeah, this is probably one of the more hopeful projects.
Speaker 1: I'd say, like in terms of insanity and just like Brutal,
I'd say The Witch and the Lighthouse. Probably The Witch
is just the most like depressive and just hopeless kind
of film. But then I think once you get into
The Northmen, which is just as you know, fucked up,
but it still has an element of hope to it.
Speaker 2: And then you get into something like this.
Speaker 1: I was I was really taken aback because Okay, this
story is like it's an adventure. I'm engaged with these
characters and yeah, everyone is delivering.
Speaker 2: This is fantastic.
Speaker 1: Like you already mentioned, Willem Dafoe, I love him. I
would love to sit down with Willem Dafoe and talk conspiracies, this.
Speaker 2: Version of Dafoe the doctor. Yeah, the doctor. I feel
like that would just be a that'd be a great,
a great conversation.
Speaker 3: But pipe with him, just some tobacco or whatever.
Speaker 1: There's there's there's a lot going on in here though.
That's just man, just what a ship. Time to be alive.
And Aaron Taylor Johnson, he was fantastic in here. He's
kind of like a palette cleanser after come off of
Craven because you got you got him and then you
got Yeah. Nicholas Holt lux Luthor in this movie, which
he was great. I loved his his his performance. It
was awesome. And I didn't actually realize that Lily Rose
was Johnny Depp's daughter. Oh my goodness, I'm still like, I'm.
Speaker 2: Still are you really getting that old?
Speaker 1: I feel like going back like a fewyears, like Johnny
Depp is still like like.
Speaker 2: Young, Like it just catches me off guard.
Speaker 1: And all these actors that we grew up with, they've
got kids that are like they're acting now and they're
full grown adults.
Speaker 2: Like, holy crap.
Speaker 3: She was great.
Speaker 1: She was freaking fantastic some of those scenes with her
just having to like really just bring her her like
the wow factor. Oh my god, she brought it. Because
I was thinking, man, this chick is.
Speaker 3: Fucking nuts, like Jesus.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think I'm excited to get into spoilers
and break down some of these scenes because there's there's
a lot going on here and I think Scars Guard.
Speaker 2: Holy shit, man, Like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: Be seeing this in theaters was great because like, hearing
that voice that he does for this character is next level.
Speaker 2: I just I left the.
Speaker 1: Theater trying to like repeat the lines and just speak
in that voice because he just does such a good job.
What an amazing, amazing, like villainous actor. He's just great.
He's great. I I oh my gosh, I think that's
golden geeks for me. He's golden geeks, like up there
in one of those categories. Holy smokes, oh Jesus. But
some of the like in closing here for me, yeah,
the visuals not you said, it's not a black and
white film, but they really do a good job making
you think it is. With some of the lighting and
just the shadows and everything that's going on here, it
just feels like gloom and doom.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I can't praise this movie enough.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was a hacking good time and I can't wait
to rewatch it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we're gonna take our first ad break here
and then we're gonna break down some spoilers unless you
have anything else you want to sneak in there.
Speaker 3: Uh nope, we got them all.
Speaker 1: Okay, we will be right back and we are back.
So where do you want to start?
Speaker 3: Where do we want to start? Where do we want
to start? I? I guess just the overall like vibe
of the world in this film, I feel like coming
into it, something that I guess kind of surprised me
was I was expecting the world to really feel already
like very plague ridden and just like just disgusting and horrible,
and it's as if it's like the Dark Ages, you know,
where everybody's just disease ridden, which there's some of that
in here, but I think that the way that it
sets it up, it does feel like a modern world,
at least at the time, like we have people dressed
all nice and like you don't really see a lot
of I gues's just plague written people or poor people
at the start of the film, and I thought it
was really really just, I don't know, special that they
chose to start the movie that way, and then the
where it's ending off that by like the end of
the film, it's just like, yeah, rats in the streets
chewing on bodies, and you really just feel like the
overall presence of what nos Ferado is because as you know,
the great Professor Willem Dafoe, I'll forget his name, so
I actually you know what his character's name is, but
Willie Dafoe's characters always saying how Nosferatu is a plague
and and like there is a plague here, but it's
it's this vampire. And I just thought it was really
really great the way that they were able to really
just emphasize that because it's not just our characters that
are directly affected by him, like it's very much just
his presence here in the city. I mean, you have
that great image of just his like shadowy claw hand
going over the city, and I remember seeing that in
the trailer, and I just thought that was like just
such powerful imagery of just like symbolizing like his grasp
that he has like on this city. And I think
by the time that happens in the movie itself, it
is really felt because you know, we haven't lost Aaron
Taylor Johnson yet, but we're starting to get rats in
the city and just people are dying left, right and center.
The hospitals are being overridden. So I think it was
just a really great way to like have like a
like a stark comparison of early portions of the film.
You know, clean streets. There's some some dead pigs in here,
but there it's all in the market. You know, they're
they're selling some meats and whatnot. But by the end,
I imagine you can't even really have that anymore because
there's just like rats all in the streets and just yeah,
really feels infected. So I really just like the overall
I was gonna say growth of the city, but it's
kind of just like a downfall of the city. As
as the presence of Nospharato, it gets greater and greater,
and yeah, no, I just like the overall tone and
vibe of what the world was. It felt cold, it
felt you know, it felt sad a lot of the
times anytime that we were with our main characters, and
there's kind of hopeless honestly by the end, like it
just seems like, no matter what, there's nothing really we
can fix this issue unless we deal with Nostaratu, which'll
be the case mm hmm.
Speaker 1: And there's so many different factors around, like the lore
behind vampires and whatnot. And that's one of my favorite
things when you get to as if you were going
this adventure and kind of learn about what is the
kryptonite for this kind of entity of this being, and
when Willem Dafoe like just kind of figures it out
and finds this this ancient text kind of in the
old real estate agent shop and finds like a little
bit of shrine and then he's deciphering and it's like, okay,
we need to basically prevent it from going back and
sleeping in it's in its in its ground, And I thought, Okay,
that's such an interesting concept because this is something I
think that has been we've seen in other iterations of
Dracula and vampires, some not all, but where they have
to sleep at night, they have to sleep in the
ground from where they hail, and so why not just
have a coffin with the dirt from where.
Speaker 3: You fail from.
Speaker 2: Then technically you can go anywhere and you're not trapped.
Speaker 1: And I mean, it probably took him a good few
hundred years to kind of figure that out, but here,
here he is, and it makes it very much, very terrifying.
I'm assuming the whole boat sequence is kind of pulled
from like the Voyage of the Demeter kind of storyline
that is written in one of those like Dracula novels,
But again I have not read it myself.
Speaker 2: That's just the kind of vibes that it that it
gave me.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's just it does have this doom and
gloom kind of vibe to it, because like, what do
you do against this thing?
Speaker 2: And you got this girl who's just.
Speaker 1: Like Ellen, is just completely absorbed into this this thing
because she was alone, and she put it out there
into the universe like whatever cosmic entity is out there,
like I come and be with me. It's like, man,
you don't do that kind of shit. That's that's not good.
You're that alone.
Speaker 3: If you're in a Rubbert, if you're in a Rubbered
Acres film, don't ever be doing this. It never works out.
Speaker 2: No, definitely not. But obviously she she wants to turn
over a new leaf because she.
Speaker 1: Meets the Mass, and the Mass is just the silver
lining for the mass, silver lining for her, and she
wants to do good. But she's still having these nightmares.
And yeah, she's just like God, she's contorting her body
and like making love to the air because she's like
he's coming.
Speaker 2: It's just like just getting into it. Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was some one thing that I think I
wasn't the most clear on for her character. I kind
of just took what let me get his name right here,
William Dafoe, Professor all Been Eerberhart von Franz, Willem Dafoe,
Professor Dafoe like he he mentions that she's always been
kind of like a like a catalyst for like demand,
like she's just always been susceptible to that type of
whether it's demons or just like evil entity, like they
are just drawn to her. And that's I kind of
just took that as the explanation for like what her
character is like, even when she was a young, younger person,
like when Nosratu first came to her and she called
out to him. I just kind of took it like, yeah,
that's just that's just the rule to her character is
is that kind of you took it as well, like
that's just the rules around it. It's just the reason
why she is the most susceptible is just because she
just is and for whatever reason, nos Feratu is just
obsessed with her specific blood. I just kind of took
it because same thing, like the doctor just says she
is more susceptible than others are.
Speaker 1: I mean you can you can take at that like
face face value of what it is. Yeah, with the
Doctor's like, oh, it's just because she's susceptible to this
kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: When you watch other movies, like other things where like
Insidious for example, and you have like the boy that
can astral projection, I mean, okay, well he's basically vulnerable
to these demonic identities. You know, he's they're drawn to him.
So I think you have a lot of horror movies
that kind of have that kind of that person that's
maybe a little bit more open minded, and that person
that is open minded is that magnet for these these
dark things which she could she had foreshadow, right, she
could see things before they'd happened, Scare the shit out
of her dad, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, that's always a good one. Yeah, So
I think for me, it is just the explanation of that.
It just worked for me, Like I just didn't need
much more than that, especially the fact that she did
call out to him initially the first time around. And
this is kind of where she has to re reaffirm
her oath, and I imagine she just has to do
that because she's gotten married now to Thomas. So it
kind of, I don't know, kind of fucks up that
pack between her and Aspharatu. But where was I going
with that's packs? Yeah, just just the whole pact of
what is set up. I liked how there is some
uncertainty to what happens, because, like I mean, right at
the start of the film, like we see her kind
of doing that, like like giving herself up to a
nos Faratu, which I I don't know. I imagine there's
some influence there from him on like the magic side
of things, but for the sake of argument, it seems
like she is doing it pretty willingly. So then that's
just what sets us up. That's like, Okay, now now
we just know that this character is going to be
the most susceptible to Nosferatu. I think I was a
little bit initially, like I don't want to say bothered,
just like I would have preferred if she actually had
gone maybe like with with Toma. But as the story
went on, I definitely prefer this version. I think it
also was just setting up in the sense of Tomas
was leaving and as soon as he like says is
goodbye to Ellen, I was just like, man, we're never
seeing this guy again, Like are you kidding me? He's
just he's going on horseback to fucking count Orlocks I
think that was his name, to his castle. And but
I was shocked actually, like how a little amount of
time he's really there, Like it is what seems to
be a couple of nights, just with like the way
that the day and nights are going. I know, we're
doing like some trippy dream sequences throughout the whole film actually,
so you don't really know exactly how much time has passed,
maybe in those moments, but I was pleasantly surprised with
how little time there was on the like at the castle,
because just from the trailers, like I knew that Nosferatu
does go to the city at some point. I just
kind of thought that was gonna be like the big
climax of the movie. So yeah, No, I ended up
really liking the decision to keep Ellena. I gotta get
these IMDBs up. I keep making sept their names Ellen.
There you go, Helen Ellen, not Helen Ellen. I think
I ended up really liking the decision to just keep
her distance away because it's still again made you feel
like there is like a possession in her that that
isn't just separate, Like you don't just need Faratu here
to pull the strings on her, like she is just
like eternally infected with whatever the hell it is that
he's like, whether it's just the demonic presence or the
devilry at work. I liked having this just beacon of
like terror, like in the city as you know, as
Telmas and count Orlock are at the castle.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and it sucks too because she can she
has to renew her vows obviously to him, or rekindle
that and put it out to the universe like I
am all yours.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: But if she doesn't, which she can say, no, I
mean he's just gonna keep killing and screwing around. And
some of those scene where we got like her best
friend just on the floor being eaten up by playgrats.
Speaker 3: Was just oh.
Speaker 2: And the fact that we know that she's pregnant, it's like,
oh no.
Speaker 1: And then next after that it's like, okay, the two
little girls, which I really wasn't expecting and I should
have just like the way he just ragged all throws
that one daughter like on the ground, if you just
like drank all their blood.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 3: Because I've gone through you know, some Robert Eggers films
and especially The Witch, like there's some some graphic things
that happens to children in that movie. I was kind
of assuming I was gonna see something gross, especially when
you hear like the screams, you know atj is just
fast asleep, he's not getting up, and then we're just
running to that room like, oh no, this is not
gonna be good, and then sure enough, Yeah, he's just
eating the little ones alive. And yeah, it's super, super grotesque,
and again, just like the whole I guess kind of
like magic of what Nasaraudu was able to do, Like
he very much is influencing the town in certain ways
because in that moment he's like, you will not awake,
and that's kind of what he says to Asparautu later
in the castle. He does like a similar type of
influence thing on Nicholas Holt Tomas to like open the
door for him, right, so he is able to like
really influence them. I just really liked, I think the
usage of it because every time it just felt like
it was a shadowy type thing that maybe you could
argue it's like it's not really magic at work, but
it is definitely because you know, no Spatu is very
much the one doing though, So I think I just
really appreciate the again what I was saying, the spoiler
free section of just the line that they're drawing on,
like the realism to like the fantasy type elements that
he just does such a good job of balancing it
where it doesn't feel so out of the top and
out there when when some of these things are happening,
even though we see like a vampire just drinking someone's blood,
and I will say, like the idea to do it
like on the chest, like where the heart is definitely
new and unique, is like the classic just like sucking
on the neck thing. So it just seems a lot
more I don't know, animalistic, I think to be going
in through the chest that way, it's it's more intrusive
having two little pincers on your neck.
Speaker 1: And they also set it up too where you kind
of feel like, is he changing into wolves and changing
into the rats to himself because of just how things transition.
But really he's just he's a moving shadow. I mean,
the dogs are just his his companions, and the rats
or his companions too, and he's not well, he's infecting,
but he's not necessarily turning others in the vampires either,
right like he we know with Tamassa's character, he got
bit and infected with this plague, but he was immune
to it because of what the I'm gonna call it
just the monastery of the Little Chapel, the nuns and the.
Speaker 2: Religious folks that were in there. They were able to
kind of like.
Speaker 1: Help cure him a bit, as he was saying, but
he still felt like he was a little bit under
the umbrella of nas fharatum.
Speaker 2: Hm, where is everyone else just getting bit by their
is fucked? So yeah, he was.
Speaker 1: Just I just the idea of him going out there
and you have your wife begging you to stay, and
you know she's talking about weddings to death and everyone's dead,
and you're just going off for six weeks. Like I
wouldn't feel comfortable about that, and I didn't in the
movie obviously watching him go and do that, but him
meeting or Lock and just how just that when you
get to hero, ARC's like voice and just how he's
addressing and that was just so crazy and freaky and powerful.
But the whole setup with the firm and the real
estate agency, and I was not expecting, like his boss
to just go ape ship because when they caught the guy,
I was trying to figure, Okay, who did they catch?
Did they did Tomas all of a sudden get back,
because this is after he jumped out the window and
he was bitten, he was tortured and I thought, Okay,
the next scene is now they the hospital caught the
guy because he was ripping cheap in half or whatever
and eating them. I thought, okay, that's gotta be Thomas,
like Hold's character, but no, it wasn't. It was his boss,
the estate agent, and he just like I thought it
was a fake out, and I didn't think they were
gonna do it because he puts his mouth over the
pigeon and the back. Oh yeah, but then no, he's
just oh man, he just it's Thanksgiving dinner for him.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah. There's a couple again, in every Robert Egger's film,
there's a scene where it's just kind of you don't
want to be eaten in those moments, and that was
definitely one of them. And yeah, I mean it's just
like powerful imagery, right when you get like Thomas being
sent away for like six weeks from these things, and
then it just like goes to his his boss just
doing like sitting on like a pentagram and like just
carving things with blood, and you're like, oh fuck, like Tomas,
it is over for you. And then of course that's
when then so when he goes away and I'm like,
oh no, it's it's all over for Thomas. He's just
being sent to his death. And I thought it was
I don't know, I I like the usage of that character.
I'm glad it wasn't like overdone in the sense of
like this is his henchman that's been doing these things
all like he is. He is a henchman doing things
for him, but it's not like everything that's been going
on was done by this crazy person. Like I liked
how it was.
Speaker 2: Did you forget about him? He comes back at the end,
like all this fucking guy.
Speaker 3: I kind of did forget about him, honestly, and I
was just like shocked when he just like escapes prison.
I'm like, of course, of course, yeah, we're getting this
guy out. So maybe that was a little bit of
an eye rolly moment, but yeah, it was. It was.
It was a good like vampire thrall type character to
have because again, just throw other vampire medias like even
in like Skyrim, like for the Vampire DLC, like they
had like vampire thralls which are just like completely loyal
to them no matter what, and that's kind of a
fucked up version of that. But uh yeah, very loyal
and I don't know it, just it made it seem
like all orchestrated by you know, Noscerat to himself. So
I liked how that was going.
Speaker 1: And I guess so, I mean, he he had a
long time to kind of ponder this because, like we
talked about, he was.
Speaker 2: Asleep and then.
Speaker 1: Ellen woke him up from his stance when she was
reaching out, and then we get that time jump by
a few years. And so obviously at this point he's
he's worked out the details and he's reached into this
this firm to kind of like cement his way, like Okay,
I want to get this house, I want to come
out here, and all that kind of stuff. So he's
definitely definitely mapped it. And I guess his plan was
to lure to mass away from her because he knew
that she had remarried. But it's I'm assuming that's the case,
because it's hard to know how much manipulation he can do,
and in this time period, like how much of his
manipulation was limited because things changed where she was pledging
herself to him and then she kind of redacted that
and became married some married someone else, and so okay,
I need to get this guy out to my castle.
And even though he's kind of going through like and
he spends a few nights that he's going through the
ropes with uh to mass Orlock still at the end
of the day kills him and he just kind of
starts to go insane while he's staying there.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, that's what I was a little bit confused
on because I wasn't sure if it was just Orlock
like fucking with them all about saying that, like he
signed to annul the marriage, but like, is that actually
what happened like when he was at the castle, because
it was all in Orlock's like, what do you say
the language of my forefathers. Yeah, so like he just
blindly like signed this thing away, which I thought as
soon as he did it, he was just gonna get
eaten because it's like, Okay, this just ends the marriage
here he's paying for it with gold and then of
course he mentions that to Ellen later on it's just
something to like wedge them apart. So I think I
was a little bit confused on the overall goal of
what Nosferatu what like had for Thomas of going to
the castle, because he clearly lured them he clearly lured
him there for a reason, and I think it is
just maybe that that like he signed it to annul
the marriage. But yeah, because I imagine that, Yeah, because
like how it ends, it's not like he just lets
him go right like he does kind of jump out
of the window. I imagine his wolves were gonna just
eat him there. But yeah, I don't know why not
Auto wouldn't have just drank him dry. You know, I
feel like he kind of neats that for sustenance and power.
But maybe just ya, he just wants Ellen's blood.
Speaker 1: You know. You get a wild scene of him just
like he's dry humping, but he's.
Speaker 3: Like, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Just goddamn just going to town.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, man, oh yeah. And then like even even
before that, right when when he like straddles him and
then it's just like a classic Robbert Aggres like quick
shot you know in The Witch when it does a
quick shot of like the crow just pecking away at
her boob and that one later on scene The Witch,
but uh, like when he like mounts him and then
it just goes to like Ellen like covered in blood,
all naked, like really quick shot, and then and then
it just goes back to what's happening and yeah, classic
Robert Aggres, those just gut wrenching visuals. Yeah that was
that was gross.
Speaker 2: That was gross. Do you have you have you want
to see yours?
Speaker 3: I was just gonna like add on to that that
last little like dry humping thing. I feel like, and
I'm not the most well read in vampires, I might
be off the weeds here, but to my understanding, I
feel like the whole idea of like vampires like drinking
your blood, it is like a pretty much a sexual
process for them, right, Like, like vampires usually always exude that
type of like sexual charisma and just like seducing people
to like, I don't know, just get close to them
and then eventually drink their blood. So I did like
how every time that like he was feasting on someone,
it pretty much just looked like he was like try
humping them, because it is a very you know, it's
a fucked up thing, but like it is very intimate
in that sense where it's not like they're just shooting
you from afar, like they are getting close and personal
and embracing you, even though if they're just drinking your
blood dry. So it was it was something that was
different than just a classic vampire, you know, bite on
the neck to drink you, but also just kept it
be steal enough to make it feel like a wild.
Speaker 2: Animal, predator, prey kind of a thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, But Aaron Taylor Johnson's character, uh friedrich. He
I liked his relationship with Tamas. I thought that was
a lot of fun and just what a great best friend.
You know, he's rich, He's lent money to Tamas, and
Tamas is going away for like six weeks and he's.
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, your wife can stay here with us.
Speaker 1: And his wife, Like Tomas's wife just goes fucking berserk,
just walking around so bad. They got actually tired of
the fucking bed. It's the same house with his two daughters.
Speaker 2: Like he put up with it.
Speaker 1: For a long freaking time until finally he did not
because incidences with his wife.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I would say, you know, he definitely got
the ship end of the stick. He was just being
a friend. It seemed like Thomas early on was kind
of hinting that like he owed him money or something
like he clearly like had helped him out in the past,
and he's like, well, don't worry about it, my friend
I'm so happy for you. Like he just seems like
a really genuine guy, to the point that later on
when Ellen is like, you never liked me, you always
hated me, and then I feel like it's kind of unjustified.
And maybe that's just some of the possession coming out,
where she's just trying to get under his skin and
being like a demon type possessed because like he really
hasn't been right, like he's been super kind, he's been
able to kind of kick her to the curb, like
he's he's like paying for this doctor to come take
care of her. And yeah, like you said, like putting
his pregnant white wife at risk with his two young
girls that you know ultimately bite the bullet later on,
and then uh, yeah, it was. It was a poor,
poor character and a much better performance than coming off
of Craven. I like to see ATJ in these roles
and very different type of role, right, Like he's doing
a completely different accent, and yeah, I thought he fit
the role well, So a more of ATJ and these
these side roles.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I and I really like that he played
this kind of devil's advocate.
Speaker 2: He was not really fall for what.
Speaker 1: Willem Dafoe was putting down with this like demons and
all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: He was present for it, but he was just thinking,
it's all a.
Speaker 1: Bunch of humbug, and you know, he got infected and
it was not going good because he goes They needed him,
I mean, they needed bodies, they needed people to help
him fight and do this kind of whole shindig. But
he goes off and he finds his dead wife and
in the coffin after the funeral, and I'm pretty sure
that he engaged.
Speaker 2: In some necrophilia. It's just my assumption. So that was
that was rough.
Speaker 1: You know, that guy, he's going through some some hardships.
Then they let him on fire.
Speaker 2: God dang. But I like the character. I thought. I
thought that Aaron hon Johnson did a did a good
job with that. And when I was looking on the Wikipedia,
it seems.
Speaker 1: Like all these characters are based on yeah, bram Stoker equivalents,
where like the Thomas Employers based off bram Stoker's Renfield,
who was like the obsist servient of Jacula, than Willem
Dafoe is based on Abraham van Helsing and then Aaron.
Speaker 3: Taylor Johnson van Helsing. Really, that's like the original character's name, that's.
Speaker 2: Crazy Abraham van Helsing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm not sure if there's like a few.
Speaker 1: Different well I'm assuming it's probably different interpretations of Van Helsing,
but my head Cannon Willem Dafoe is the Hugh Jackman
van Helsing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he is a vampire hunter, right, Yeah,
like he's he's hunting him down. He knows how to
kill them. So that's cool. No, I like that. I yeah,
because I just because I had never seen the original
Nosferrato I think from like nineteen twenty two or something like.
It is a long time ago, you know. I've heard
it's a classic, very well made film for the time.
But just because we had seen this, I was just
googling some things and yeah, it's cool. How like accurate,
I guess, I'll say, of just like the retelling of
the story and using the same names and pretty much
the same beats honestly of everything that is happening. So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh was to a quick ad break and we'll continue on.
We'll be right back, and we are back.
Speaker 3: So we uh, you know, we mentioned a few times
here our main h our main cuckold of the of
the movie, mister Thomas Hutter. Uh, poor poor Sap, you
know it. Uh. He definitely gets set up in a
brutal manner of just trying to impress his boss and
pretty much just doing all these things for his wife, right.
Like he says like he he wants so much for
her and she he believes that she deserves like the
giant house to be living in. And I'm sure that's
just like a that was kind of like the drive
I guess for people back then of just like if
you have the one man that's like working, you have
to have a good job to like support your whole family,
and then he deserves he thinks that she deserves the
whole world. So I think I think it's like set
up in a very like honorable man right or like
it's not like he's just doing this for like to
further his career. I guess he kind of is, but
really he keeps mentioning that it is for her, and
I think like the love that he feels for her
and like for her towards him, like it does feel
very genuine. So I think it's just, yeah, it's a
it's a really really sad tale for this for this guy. Uh,
he does make it back to see his wife, but
he sure goes through a lot of things on his way,
even just like when he gets to like the gypsy
camp and he just has no idea what the hell's
going on. They steal his horse, they disappear, and he's
just kind of going on these like fever dreams throughout
like the whole adventure. And yeah, I just I don't know,
I really like the performance from Nicholas Holt. I think
he was really really great. And again, like I think
I just kind of thought the character was gonna die
like really early on because he does get sent to
the castle. But I am glad that he I mean,
he survived the whole adventure, right, he's very mentally distraught
and wasn't able to save his one true love. But yeah, no,
I thought it was a really sad character overall, and
he was just trying to do what he could for
his wife, and like I will, I guess Ellen does
mention that like she doesn't need all these things that
he's trying to give her, So maybe that's a downfall
of the characters, Like he's not just really listening to
her in that sense, you know, could have probably avoided
a lot of this. But I don't think just the
fact of him not going to the castle to sell
this plot of land to Count Orlock would really stop anything.
Like I think the Count would have been getting his
grimy little fingers on Ellen at some point one way
or the other. Right, Like, he just seems like if
he can get a boat to there, like he can
do many more things.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I agree he was taking advantage of
for his love and his aspirations for his wife, and
I like that, you know, he that's what kind of
funnels him forward at a time period too, when I
imagine you're working abroad, is much more so than norm
long periods of time. And when he gets to that
gypsy camp and he feels uncomfortable, but like he pays
his for his room and board and he's there and
he wakes them on night and he sees them like
unearthed this there's a naked woman on a horse and
they pull out this guy. They stab him and the
dead guy pukes blood and he's like I felt like
it was like that that moment of Blockers where John
Cena guy haveing sex because the lead gypsy like Locks
eyes with with Tomas and he's.
Speaker 2: Like, out went the woods, like, oh my god, like
Lock Eyes. So I was kind of laughing at that.
Speaker 1: But he wakes up, Yeah, he he knows that, okay,
what happened is real because he's got muddle over his shoes.
Speaker 2: He's back in his bed.
Speaker 1: But with the fact that no one was answering him,
I took it like, Okay, maybe or Lock came down
here and killed everyone so that Tamask could continue on
and make his trek. Or maybe maybe it is just
the gypsies did take the horse and just bucker off.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I feel like, well, they probably could
have this.
Speaker 1: This seems like the Gypsies weren't really welcome there because
the shop owner guy was like you gypsies, get out
of here, bad luck, yead YadA yadas. So I guess
who knows up to interpretation, but him getting back barely
just by a threat. And then I was not expecting,
like I knew it was gonna happen because we talked
about on the trailer, so I knew there was gonna
be like there's gonna be a sex scene, but I
was not expecting like the context of that when she's
like in and out between personalities and he just thinks
it's a good idea to just do it now with
her wild.
Speaker 3: I think he was getting seduced with the energy, honestly,
because it doesn't seem like he's in the mood. And
then oh, fuck me, it's funny because then the trailer,
I think we just all assumed that I was like
nos Fara too, given it to her. But you know,
yeah those our man Tomas he was was given it
to her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: So he definitely fell for the plan because I think
it was a very it was it was unfortunate because
she dies, but it was it was a well orchestrated
plan with at the Willem Dafoue kind of pieced together
like okay, the only the only certainty is that he's
gonna come for you and you can use it to
your advantage, like he just craves your blood, So just
keep him out till till daybreak. And it almost seems
like he didn't care because like he sunlight rose up
and Sparatu was just like Orlock was.
Speaker 2: He was just like loving his time. He was just
having like this is just.
Speaker 3: Busted such a good nut. Then he's so weak he
just couldn't even move. Yeah. No, I've found some humor
in that moment because of that, right, Like, like he
clearly has seen what's happening, but he's just then just
just dies right then. And there it's you know, beautiful image,
as fucked up as it is, but uh, I just
couldn't help a chuckle when he's just yeah, his face
when he just realized what's happened. And I guess it
was just so good he just didn't even care. It
was just, yeah, this is what he wanted. And I
guess that also you can make the argument that's just
he was so obsessed with her blood that like he
was putting himself in peril, you know, just to get
to her blood.
Speaker 1: And yeah, you get that great top down shot too,
where it's just him on top of her and.
Speaker 3: The great top down shot. Yeah, a lot of blood
going on and just yeah, she took it like a chap.
She did. She sacrificed herself and poor Thomas to have
to find her like that. But it was her decision, right.
It was the same as like I guess the prophecy
or whatever it was. It's kind of like was said,
that's how to take her out, and I don't know,
Like I I also kind of assumed that because when
they find what was his name, Knock, I think that
was the I think Knock was like his yeah boss, Yeah,
so like he was laying in a coffin. Was that
was that Nosratu's coffin?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Okay, I figured as much. So that's another reason why
he's able to die there, right because they did take
out his grave or did it just not matter because
he didn't have that grave anymore.
Speaker 1: Just I think it mattered because that that had the
dirt from his homeland, right, so he needs his knee
in there every night. So without that, I mean he's toast.
Speaker 3: Okay. I just like because the sun was coming up,
you know, just busted his his nuts or whatever he has.
Like I guess he could have fled, but like he
wouldn't have been able to make it there in time anyways,
even if the coffin was there, So he was he
made his decision when he entered that room. It was
pointing to return.
Speaker 1: Yeah he uh, where was I gonna go with that?
Speaker 2: Him being there and burning? Oh man? Oh Williams a
Fosse character.
Speaker 1: Okay, so he I I realize this in retrospect at
this point, after he put the flowers down around both
their bodies and Atu was dead. In retrospect, there's so
many reflections here, and I'm really wondering what Robert Egger
was thinking. Not a bad way, I was just I'm
kind of curious because when will Dafoe is standing in there,
you see only his back as he's looking out towards
the city and the sun. But in the mirror on
the left you see his reflection of his face. And
that's consistent with many of the shots with Ellen. When
you see her and just kind of moving around and
just standing around, you see reflections of her or her
face in the mirror and so forth. So many different things,
and I'm wondering, Okay, was there a quick spot where
notsprat to or maybe someone else like you don't see
the reflection, because that's a vampire thing as well. But again,
maybe I'm diving too deep into that, and maybe it's
just to add a little bit more cinematic kind of flare,
but I'm curious to know why he was tackling that.
But my favorite line was when William Dafoe was walking
with Ellen and Allen was taking him back to his place,
and basically he just kind of acknowledges her as it's like,
if you were born at the time with like Iris
and you know, Egyptians and stuff like that, you would
have been like a priestess. They would have turned to
you for information and wisdom and all this sorts of stuff.
But now, and he's throwing shade on how like man
has kind of distanced himself from that kind of stuff
and is like attached.
Speaker 2: Onto like the science of things and everything. I just
really liked that line.
Speaker 1: He did a great job delivering it and just kind
of praising her for her courage and how she feels
like that darkness and how she talks about how okay
is do we all have darkness in us?
Speaker 2: Or does darkness come from beyond?
Speaker 1: And how just reaffirming her that she can harken on
to her her light and be good and just really
make her make her out to be a hero.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, the characters in this are just great.
Speaker 1: I really love their journeys that go on, and it's
it's quite a tribulative experience for some more than others.
Speaker 2: Like like Tomas, Yeah, poor Tomas.
Speaker 3: He's uh, poor Chap. What else do we have for
characters we mentioned? Oh, it was great to see Rafe innocent.
I hope that's how you say his name spelled r
A L P H. He's the Father and the Witch.
He's like the first Doctor and he Willem Sivers and
then he goes and you know, seeks out the pro
doctor van Helsing himself. But I just I don't know
he fits these like time periods so well, just like
with the way that he drops lines and whatnot. And
I liked him in a more innocent role. Well I
guess he's kind of innocent in The Witch, but he
definitely descends into madness there. But no, I just I
like to see him in here and the other cast
and crew too, like Emma Corn who of course was
in Deadpool versus Wolverine. That was Xavier's twin sister. I
think that's the relation there, and then so so that
was Frederick's wife. And yeah, so it was cool to
just see the cast and here and of course, like
we'd seen trailers and stuff, but I just didn't really
want to watch too much going into it. I saw
like the one theater trailer and I was like, yeah, okay,
I'm ready for this. So just seeing some of the
faces pop in, and we've already kind of talked about
a few times, but like Count Orlock, Bill Scarzard, he's
just so damn good at these like horror roles. And
I guess I'll just lead into my overalls on Count
Orlock himself and Nosferatu. And because of like Nosferatu, like
the one from the from the nineteen twenties, is just
so iconic of like the big bald head and like
the pointy teeth, like it is just a very striking
image in that, like it would have been I guess
easy for them to just recreate that, but also a
little bit lazy, Like I am glad that they did
their own version here. The decision to give him like
this big fucking like count mustache thing was really intriguing,
and I was kind of thrown off by that, and
I don't know, I just liked his overall aesthetic of
like the big furs part of me and everything that
he was wearing, the big hat that he's wearing in
the castle, and how you don't yeah, yeah, exactly, like
a very Russian style, even though they say they're in Germany.
Speaker 1: Transylvania because they don't say it, but that's where they
point on the map.
Speaker 2: You can see it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, It's just like when like the scene happens in
the beginning, it says years later and then it says
like Germany eighteen whatever, So I guess that goes to
show my geography knowledge. You don't really know where anything is,
but yeah, no, I I just liked the whole esthetic
of what he was and how you don't really see
him like that much like you see some of his
details in the Shadow. But that whole castle sequence was
just like ten out of ten for me. It was
just it's so much build up of suspense. He's like
zipping around like how like a shadow would, kind of
how vampire would, but like this, Yeah, oh I did
the lines and everything. I remember seeing something. It took
it like that was like the hardest part of the
role for him was to just capture that voice, and
he did such a good job with it. It's it's
like classic like the count from Sesame Street Style right
where he's like just just the way that he drops
lines but still very menacing and very scary in it.
And it feels evil in his breath, and yeah, you
just don't really know what he's going to do. And
I think that's a fascinating aspect to vampires. And when
they're told that way how they are, they can be
very charismatic and welkeeing you in, you know, like sit
by the fire, eat like all these things, but you
nick your blood and it just like the zoom and
shot of his eyes and he's just you don't know
if he's gonna just eat you right away. Yeah, oh man,
I really really really was impressed with just the whole
performance of Nosferatu. And honestly, I think I could have
taken more of it. Like I maybe I can debate
like it is better that he is not so much
on screen, so therefore when he is on screen, it's
a lot more impactful and powerful. But yeah, I think
I just liked the creepiness of it that I probably
could have taken more of the character. But yeah, it
was really well done and terrifying. Right, Like when they
show his skin, it's not like he's it's not like
he's Brad Pitt in like interview with the Vampire, Like
he looks grotesque and like an eternal dead person. So
I thought it was a great design overall for the character.
Speaker 1: Yeah, uh, he's just fan freakantastic and his Russian kind
of aesthetic that they gave him. Really really liked that,
and he just was terrifying. They really just made their
own iteration version of this this character and just this
vampire and cemented and Hatten's down went for it and
made it their own.
Speaker 2: I really love that.
Speaker 1: So the voice was phenomenal, just creepy, and the essence
that this this being had when he's just moving through
the shadows, like you said, yeah, just terrifying him. A
lot of just shots cinematically done where the camera's one
one guy and that camera will just start to pan
and move to the next scene. And they did this
in like a like three three notes. I'm gonna I'm
gonna say use it as note is the term here
when Thomas is in the castle Oorlock and Orlock is
basically far away, and then it pans to to mass
and then as it's panning to him, then you see
the Count is right next to him with this drink
or not.
Speaker 2: The Count Orlock is like here.
Speaker 1: Do this, and it gives him the cop and then
it continues panning around and he's sitting in the chair
by the fire, reading through like the paperwork, and it
was just one seamless shot. It was just it was
really really shivering and well done. Really liked it, and
that's something that they've kind of they did a few
other times too.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I love those shots. Like usually you expect like
a big classic jump scare in those moments, but the
way that they like hold back in a lot of them,
it's like more scary because you're like, well, fuck, like
when is the jump scare coming?
Speaker 2: Like it didn't come to expectations.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly right. So like the one is when Frederick's
wife like says gooding to the kids and then she
comes out and she just has her little lantern and
like the score in that scene it it I know
it was, but it felt so loud because it like
it is just really dark and quiet and nothing's really happening.
Pans around, she hears like some knocking, sees like the steps,
and then of course once the camera starts going back,
you're like, fuckna's Rocky's gonna be right there, and you
know it's just it's just Ellen, you know. Equally as scary,
but like, at first I thought she was possessed, but
she's she's just so terrified for what happened to Thomas.
She's like, can I sleep with you? And I'm like, man,
this lady that's just sill having like yeah, like being
possessed every night and like doing weird sex things with
her body, like yeah, no, you can sleep in the
neighbor's bed. But I mean, she's that nice lady, right,
She allowed her to come in and gave her her
a little cross and then sure enough they have like
the dream sequence and then eaten by rats and it's
kind of the start of the end for that character.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again I like their use of dream sequences
because you think it's a dream and then it turns
out like even the dream sequences are all basically real.
Because I was wondering, okay, las Rattu threw Ellen on
the floor or here and is basically screaming, why is
her friend not awake in his bedroom?
Speaker 2: But it was I.
Speaker 1: Guess maybe it was in her mind, or perhaps maybe
he put a trance on on Anna.
Speaker 2: There's so many things we just don't know and it's
up to interpretation. And I like that.
Speaker 1: I think that's a great way to kind of send
off most of these scenes and still allow the viewer
to kind of interpret it and make their own kind
of headcannon for it, because there's not really any wrong
way when you're doing it and dealing it with vampires,
because you don't know a lot about his powers.
Speaker 2: You're not getting.
Speaker 1: Willem Dafoe giving us the bullet points like oh yeah,
garlic and this and that and this, but they're sprinkled
in throughout because you have the gypsies basically putting garlic
around the windows, telling him don't telling Thomas don't go
up to the castle, and all these little things that
are pulled from that kind of vampire history. But you
still get to interpret it for yourself what works and
what doesn't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, for sure, I definitely think it does happen,
like all the events that happen in the dream sequences,
especially like because when Thomas has a dream sequence, that's
when he sees like the they're kind of like witch hunters,
I guess, like they're the ones that are killing the vampire.
Like he like wakes up and he's wearing like different shoes,
like it, Like it feels like that did very much happen,
and I think it's the case throughout the whole film,
but yeah, no, it's it's done in a not so
in your face moment, like no, that very much did happen,
or it didn't happen, Like they don't hold your hand.
It is up for interpretation. So I did like all
those kind of mind slip moments throughout the whole film,
And you just mentioned like some of the little subtleties
of them. Yeah, like sprinkling in like the vampire lore
when they're like painting the garlic like on the window,
like some of the gypsy people, and yeah, I think
some of those things, and like again like it's not
in your face, like make sure to wear this garlic
around your neck. This will really help. Like who knows
if it works, you know, it's just kind of what
they're believing in. And yeah, I think I think they
did a good job with just those little classic nodes,
nodes classic nods to uh, just the old vampire lore,
which was which is fun, and even the Transylvania thing.
You don't even say that, but as you mentioned, like
they point to the map and that's what's said there.
So I thought it was good.
Speaker 2: Anything else you wanna highlight?
Speaker 3: Closing thoughts, Yeah, a couple of things to highlight. I
I already mentioned the lighting, but I wanted to just
mention it again here because I just I fucking love
like the moonlighting that he's able to do, and like
all these films. Obviously The Lighthouse is a black and
white film, but like, it's just something so special about
the way that he's able to like capture like a
moonlight in these dark sequences. And I love these Robert
Eggert films, so I'm probably always gonna be seeing them
in theaters, but especially watching like this and some of
the other ones, I feel like they're must watch in
theaters because of how dark they are, Like unless you're
watching them, you know, at night on a nice screen,
if you're watching the daytime and you got that slut
sunglare coming in, you're not gonna be able to see
anything that's fucking going on in this. Like there is
many dark sequences, and sometimes that's a con for me,
but I think it just fits so well the overall
vibe of what the movie is, so I really appreciate
just yeah, the lighting and lack thereof, and a lot
of scenes. I think it's really good choice. One of
my favorite like artistical shots in this is when after
Thomas loses his horse and he's kind of just traveling.
This is the kind of the scene that reminded me
of Adrenochrome. When he's just like climbing up a snowy mountain.
You just have like a nice backdrop. It's like, man,
this looks like some of the stuff we shot, but
I like, just yeah, him like going along and then
he sees it's pretty much like a like a headless
horseman type seene where he's like going down this like
really dark like foresty area. It's snowing and it's just
completely pitch black and like just terrifying. I don't know
how this man does get eaten by wolves on his adventure,
but yeah, I digress. And then you just have like
the horse coming in with the carriage and then he
like blacks out wakes up and it's just like there
with the door open for him, and it's just like, man,
do not get in that carriage? Like this is this
is such a death's sequence. But I just love the
whole build up what that scene was, And again it
felt very sleepy Hollowey on just the setup of it
seems so it's terrifying, but it's also beautiful in the
sense of just like the one road with the snow
coming down and it's dark and it just Yeah, the
art to that scene I really really appreciated and really
just stood out to me. I liked it a lot.
One little thing that was confusing for me was there's
many scenes when Frederick is in his like study and
he has this pool table and he's like bouncing balls
like off the pool table just with his hand. I
didn't see a single pocket in that pool table. I
don't know if it's just like a super old style,
but I'm pretty sure there was no pockets anywhere.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I've only noticed this because it started playing some pool lately,
and that of course it's in my mind. I'm looking
for these things. But unless I was mistaken, didn't look
like there was a single hole in that pool table,
which really it just took me out of the scene
because I'm like, what the fuck is going on here.
I'm sure it's accurate to that time. Maybe they have
some explanation on why they didn't have pockets, you know,
back in the day for pool but it really stood
out to me in some of those scenes.
Speaker 2: You're definitely right. I don't remember seeing the pockets either.
Speaker 3: And I like, I assumed they were just like on
the one side, but then you do like a different
shot and it shows the other side of the table.
I'm like, this doesn't make sense. There's like three balls here.
Clearly it's a different version of pool. But yeah, I digress.
What else I liked, Yeah, you already mentioned it, but
just the whole basically the Demeter scene when they have
this like cursed cargo I mentioned earlier. You know big
Warhammer Fantasy fan with Total War and the counts, the
count the Vampire counts that they have, But there's another
race of they're called the Vampire Coast, which are basically
the exact same idea, but they're like Pirates, which is
just awesome. You know, if you just watch Pirates of
the Caribbean, you go make a Vampire Coast campaign. That's
pretty much how it goes for me. But the origin
of one of the main vampires in the Vampire Coast
campaign is Luther hark On, and the origin of that
character is essentially this where they're like transporting cargo and
it's a vampire and they don't realize, and then something
happens with the ship he wakes up, and that's kind
of just how that story happens. And again it's probably
pulled from that original Demeter chapter in the Dracula novel,
but I just appreciate that so much. Obviously, I love
the movie The Last Voyage of the Demeter because it
is like that same sort of idea of just the
claustrophobia on the ship. But this version I also really
really appreciated, and I liked how just yeah, like this
miasma of disease that is kind of following Drack because
like he pretty much represents death right like they call
him that multiple times, like the touch of death. That's
what Ellen is mentioning to Thomas when she has that dream.
So yeah, I just I like the portrayal of the
character and just the terror that followed him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well said.
Speaker 3: Beyond that, No, I think we kind of covered all
the other characters and yeah, no, I I fucking love
this movie. Taylor Field. This was this was a hell
of a time. Did you watch this one alone?
Speaker 2: I did? Yeah, that theater.
Speaker 3: Theater was full, So you're sitting next people like this,
that's a little listening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the guy when I got to my seat, because
I got in right when it was starting to say
feature presentation, So I was thinking, oh my god, someone's
gonna have taken my seat.
Speaker 2: Luckily no, So when I walked up to my seat.
Speaker 1: This lady was in her seat on my left, and
she had in a big bag of popcorn in my
seats and she had her drink in my cup holder.
I was thinking, okay, so she moved that, which is
very you know, I guess, retrospect kind.
Speaker 2: And then the guy to my right.
Speaker 1: Every every fifteen minutes, Oh my gosh. I never locked
eyes with him because I just felt it and I
didn't want to look, but.
Speaker 2: I just so, I'm gonna, I'm gonna look this way.
I'm looking at the guy.
Speaker 1: I'm the guy. I'm looking at the movie theater scream.
And then every fifteen minutes he would go like.
Speaker 3: He would look at it. He would turn his head
and enjoying the film. He's probably looking like he's probably
got a mustache like count Orlock as well. He's just like,
so you cut your hand there, Taylor Field.
Speaker 1: It was clockwork every fifteen minutes and It was freaking
me out. And I really noticed it near the end
because when he was just he turned and look at me,
and I thought, I'm not looking at you, man, I
don't want to make lock eyes with you.
Speaker 2: It just feels weird.
Speaker 3: It's so funny.
Speaker 2: I didn't get up right away. I waited for them
to leave first, and then.
Speaker 3: I yeah, he would have been following you, I'm sure. Yeah,
he's just totally looking at you, like the count orlock.
That's so funny. It goes like the sex scene. He
just looks right at you, making sure you're enjoying it. Weird.
Oh that's funny.
Speaker 2: But but yeah, sorry, did you drop your number rating?
Speaker 3: I'm gonna give it a I'm gonna give it a
ten out of ten. I think this is a perfect film.
I really don't think there's anything with it, at least
anything that like really would take down my enjoyment for it.
It's not one that I'm gonna be like rewatching all
the time just because it's these Robert Agger's films, like
I love them, but they're not feel good movies, you know.
I'm not putting this on to fall asleep like a
certain Travis Snell would but I, yeah, I know. I
just think it's so masterfully made. Like the craftsmanship of
what the film is is just so impressive. And it's
not easy doing like a retelling of a very classic film,
like something like nots Fawt too. Of course, It's it's
hard for me to say that because I haven't seen
that classic. But I just feel like most of the
time when people try to remake something, it just more
often than not, it has more things going against it
than going forward. But I think this is just such
a fantastical retelling. It feels very period like in the
period piece Notion. All the actors do a great job,
the setting is phenomenal. This is a Christmas movie too,
you know, it's so fitting that it's you know, they
have the Christmas tree in the film, they talk about Christmas,
the Christmas spreading this Christmas joy, and they did not
really get a lot of Christmas joy other people in
this movie. But no, I I fucking love this one
so much and I can't wait for the next Robert
Aggers film, so big fan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I just reiterate everything you said. I I
love this movie, and for me, it's it's definitely a.
Speaker 2: Ten out of ten. I think that they they landed
at and excuse me, oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: I truly feel like, yeah, we're in a We're in
an era here where vampire movies are making a comeback
and the Wolfman movies around the corner too, like, let's
do it, let's get these monsters back on the screen.
And I think that this this is great to be
just giving us like a fresh perspective in a fresh
uh in that period time of just vampire and just
limited resources and just very limited on what they're dealing with,
and just the stress and the pain and the fallout
of dealing with a creature like this that they just
don't have the full understanding of. And you got crazy
characters in there and crazy situations unfolding. It was just
it's great and it was so inc aging from start
to finish. There wasn't a moment where I was just
like getting pulled out of it because I wanted to
see what was going to happen next. And you know,
as unfortunate as it is because obviously Alan dies, but
we get to this point where I still feel like
it's a little bit more hopeful because okay, and nos
Fratu was defeated and our characters can move on, and well,
the whole movie.
Speaker 2: Before that was very depressing.
Speaker 1: The villain is defeated and the our heroes kind of
emerge victorious, and the plague is is put to bed,
and now where this little German town can kind of
recoup and quarantine ends and all that kind of stuff.
So that's the kind of silver lining to it. But
I definitely want to rewatch it again. I feel like
there's so many things visually that I have overlooked and
I missed, just as I said in retrospect, seeing people's
fate or reflections their faces and the mirrors and other
things too. There's a lot going on and a lot
of things I feel like you might miss on that
first and second go go go around watching viewing, and
you need to do a third viewing to just kind
of catch up on everything.
Speaker 2: So I recomm it.
Speaker 1: It's great. I had a good time. I'm gonna be
dropping this during the Golden Geeks for sure. Oh yeah,
definitely deserves a few a few possible spots in there.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's uh, that's all I got. You got
something your thumbs up?
Speaker 3: Cool.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll be back later this week with the dexter Count,
your commando skeleton crew, and then we'll be seeing you
next year, So stay tuned and we'll see.
Speaker 2: You in the search bar.
Speaker 3: Happy holidays,