Suggestible - Halloween Special!

Episode Date: October 28, 2021

Suggestible things to watch, read and listen to. Hosted by James Clement @mrsundaymovies and Claire Tonti @clairetonti.This week’s spooky Suggestibles:Monster HouseThe WitchesOver the Garden WallTome of the UnknownRunThe Monkey's PawThe Ritual (mild spoilers 35:15 to 36:00)Halloween KillsSend your recommendations to [e-mail], we’d love to hear them.You can also follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook @suggestiblepod and join our ‘Planet Broadcasting Great Mates OFFICIAL’ Facebook Group. So many things. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Uber Teen Accounts. Invite your teen to join your Uber account today. Available in select locations. See app for details. Bing bong, bing bong. Ooh, hello, listeners, and welcome to the gloomy, spooky episode of Suggestible Podcast. I am Claire. Did you hear that?

What? Colleen's put in a thundercrack sound effect into the edit just to make his job that little bit more difficult. Well, it is, of course, the spookiest time of the year, and I'm not just talking about tax time. It's a very special Halloween episode, Claire's least favourite episode of the year. You're going to enjoy this so much.

Oh my God, Claire, so much. Okay. I have to say, I hated researching this. Oh my God, I know. And that's what I love about it. Just to get people up to speed, this is Suggestible, the podcast where we suggest things to you. My name is James. With me is my wife, Claire.

I know you normally do the introduction. The bride of Frankenstein. So I'm Frankenstein? In this scenario, you're Frankenstein, correct. Well, Frankenstein was actually the guy who built the monster. Yeah, I know. That's what I'm saying. Oh, so I'm the guy who built the monster.

Yeah, and you know who the monster is? Mason. Nicholas Mason. I did build him. You did build him in your basement from assorted parts. It was mostly like rats and frogs and shit. I just kind of put it together. Just stuck a beard on it and went, yeah, that's a person I reckon.

Correct. Exactly. I came home one day from a walk and you were like, I'm starting a podcast with this monster I made. And you were like, why didn't you ask one of your friends? And I'm like, no, no, no. I made this guy. I made this weird guy. you ask one of your friends? And I'm like, no, no, no, I made this guy. I made this weird guy.

I don't have any friends. But I have friends. I chopped them up and put them in a pie and I don't know something. That's right. That's what I did. Yeah, no, that's the, what is that? That's Sweeney Todd. Yeah.

Yeah, where they like put people in pies. I'm not a huge fan. I'm not a huge fan of that movie. I've only seen it once, but maybe it's incredible. The musical, I, just as a side note have sung and sung that musical yeah right in the cabaret group i used to belong to well i think we watched that together and you told me that it's much funnier because i'm watching this and i'm like is this is this funny like what do i mean correct not to be like this is this is rude it was just like i

don't get the sense of like fun. Do you not in it like at all? I didn't get that from it. I'm just plugging my left ear in. Maybe I need to see it again. No, it's supposed to be quite tongue-in-cheek and funny. And, no, Johnny Depp made it very like. Well, he's not like a musician, singer.

Well, he's a musician, I think. Yeah, I don't know. It just didn't have the same kind of comedic timing. Anyway, let's get back to our spooky thing. Oh, my God. My favorite thing about this is that Claire all week has been struggling to find things to watch that didn't freak her out so much that she could complete them.

And I believe you have a list of things that you started and then couldn't get through. I think we should start there. Okay, so we have really excellent listeners, I have to say. And I did get sent in some excellent recommendations, which I then followed up, and I have one in particular that I bloody loved and I am now going to watch every year forever, but I won't talk about that yet.

I'll just list the things that I did try. Let's do it. All right. At first I thought maybe I'll try watching spooky movies that I've already watched. Okay. Because I haven't talked about them them and so maybe that would help. So I started by trying to watch The Ring.

Oh, my God. Why did you pick The Ring? Because I'd already seen it and I felt like maybe it would take the spooky thing out of it. It did not. It was just as spooky. It opens. It's so gloomy and terrifying. And I was immediately transported back into like the early 2000s,

whenever it came out, and I sat in a theatre and hid my eyes and I couldn't cope. So I lasted a minute 30 into the ring. Well, that's funny because like at that point when that movie came out, I was like I've seen horror movies. It's like Slashers and whatever. And I've seen Scream and I've seen Friday the 13th and whatever, you know, whatever.

And I'm like, yeah, I'll watch this. And it scared the literal piss out of me. Like that just – It's the fly? Yeah. You know, the fly buzzing? Like the imagery and it's just like, oh, it's just like a very – and we're talking about the American remake.

Correct, yeah, because it's based on a Japanese movie, right? It's a Japanese film, yeah. And it's the girl coming out of the well with the hair over it. And I thought, oh, that's become such a sort of almost comedic meme, right? Totally, yeah. And it's been done so many different times in different movies. So I thought, no, I could cope with this. Couldn't even cope for a couple of minutes.

No, can't do it. So then James Brock, one of our beautiful listeners, emailed me a list of suggestions and I thought that we said to him, make sure they're not spooky, James. But so he suggested The Haunting of Hill House. Oh, yeah. And then The Haunting of Bly Manor. Yeah, because that was the one that I talked about recently,

the Midnight Mass, that he made those series before Midnight Mass, Mike Flanagan. All right. Well, I tried. I tried and it opened on a spooky house. Actually, I even just tried watching the Netflix trailer for The Haunting of Hill House and that got me so spooky that I couldn't sleep.

Like spooked, not spooky. Just from the trailer. From the trailer. And it's all about like, you know what gets me? It's the children thing. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because in The Haunting of Hill House, it's all about how they grew up in this spooky house as children and now they're grown up

so they're having like terrible flashbacks and terrible imagery based on the things that happened to them as children. And I just cannot, I can't cope. Do you know what then I tried? Because I was like Haunting of Hill House, no, can't do it. James Brock, what were you thinking? So then I thought maybe I'll just go to like a children's one. So I went to Monster House. Oh just go to like a children's one so i went to monster house

oh that's that's not a kid's movie like i think that's a good movie but it's not a kid's movie it's it's like it's way too upsetting right it's like a dead woman's ghost in the house or something well literally okay i wouldn't know because i didn't get that far because i got five minutes in there's a spooky little blonde girl riding a tricycle, like singing at the top of her lungs, which a little bit reminded me of my daughter, which was freaking me out. And then she kind of stumbles on this like scary house and her trite gets stuck. And then the gloomy, spooky music comes in and I was like, I'm out.

I'm done. So anyway, I tried a lot of others. Is that stop motion? I think it's stop motion, isn't it? Yeah. No, it's computer animated. No, it's computer animated, but it's a different type of animation style because it was made, what, like 2015 I think?

Dan Harmon wrote that who does like Rick and Morty and stuff and Rob Schrob who's done a bunch of stuff. Is it worth sticking with? Should I stick with it? I honestly can't really remember. I remember liking it, but it's not like a – it's not a kids' movie. It's more like a spooky, like, early teens kind of kids' movie, I would say. Even though it's an animation?

Yeah, definitely. All right. Okay, great. So because I was super spooked, so I felt silly that I was super spooked, but maybe not so silly. But a lot of people who made that have gone on to make, like – because I think it's good, but it's just kind of in a weird, like, limbo. It's not quite in the right spot.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And the last thing I tried to watch, which isn't my recommendation, is The Witches remake with Anne Hathaway. I still haven't seen that. So not even the original. No, I couldn't.

I was really looking forward to that and I still haven't watched it. Me too. Because I love the cast as well. Yeah, me too. And I really like Anne Hathaway. And look, as we discussed in the previous Halloween episode, The Witches is by far the most terrifying movie that I ever watched as a child and I couldn't sleep for years.

It was years because my mum complained to our neighbour who let me watch it when I was like six or something and it was burned into my brain because it's based on a book that I actually do really love by Roald Dahl that, you know, basically there are witches in real life that are just women hanging around with gloves on. Typical. Exactly, typical.

They take the gloves off and, like, eat the children. Yeah. And it's just horrendous. But I was really looking forward to the Anne Hathaway remake. Robert Zemeckis directed that who did, like, Back to the Future and other cool stuff. Oh, there you go. And, like, Octavia Spencer's the grandma in it.

Like, there's a lot of good. Yeah. I should watch it. I should really watch it. I should too. Though that being said, I've never seen the original. And I know Rowan Atkinson's in it as well. The original is really great.

Like it's terrifying. The ending where it kind of cops out, not to spoil The Witches, but in the book the boy, well it's in the movie as well, the boy, spoiler alert for witches, this book that's like 30 years old, if more, no doubt, but the boy gets turned into a mouse by the witches with a potion and then at the end, you know, he's left to destroy the witches and whatever. But he doesn't get turned back.

Like in the book he stays a mouse and he's stuck and he's with his grandma and his grandma's quite old and it kind of ends like that. Like he'll probably have the lifespan of a boy but he stays a mouse and he's stuck and he's with his grandma and his grandma's quite old and it kind of ends like that like he'll probably have the lifespan of a boy but he's a he's a mouse and um so it's kind of ominous kind of like he doesn't change back his grandma's not going to be around forever it's kind of a happy ending but in the movie he does change back somebody gives him a potion and he grows back into a real boy but i always loved that ending of just like it's pretty fucked up like they've, like he won but they ruined his life. Yeah. Essentially, yeah.

And it's that kind of, see, that's the kind of thing that they couldn't have done that, I think, in a blockbuster. I wonder if they did in the new one. I should watch it. I should too. But I think part of the joy about books we read as kids and one of the reasons I love Roald Dahl so much is that like edge of sinisterness, that kind of.

Totally. Is that even a word? Sinisterianism. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah. That edge of darkness, that life is kind of precarious and dangerous and you're a kid in your cosy bed reading it so you know you're safe. Yeah.

But I think that's why a lot of the Disney movies have, you know, that orphan kind of story or like parents dying and tragedy striking. Because that's the worst thing for a kid, obviously. It is, yeah. But actually I think kids want to know about that stuff and they want to read about it while they're feeling safe at the same time, you know. And I think that's what's so great.

That's why The Lion King, when you watch it, I mean, it's such an iconic kids movie, but it is horribly distressing. I mean, his dad is murdered and you see it happen. So it's crazy that that is like the pinnacle moment in this children's film. But I think it's the same with that ending, right, that kids aren't stupid. Kids know the world is full of kind of dark and dangerous things

and they want to explore them a little bit. In a safe way, yeah. In a safe, magical kind of imagination way. Anyway, one of the reasons I haven't watched that, The Witches, and I watched a little bit of it and I just, I'm not in the mood. My brain can't cope with all the spooky stuff. It's from 83.

Oh, there you go. One of the reasons I haven't watched the remake is because there is some criticism that Anne Hathaway's character is kind of making fun of people who have particular facial disfigurement. Oh, there was a thing about like the hands. I can't remember the condition, but I know what you mean. Yeah. Yeah. And I can't remember the exact condition, but it is kind of making fun of people who are differently abled in a way, like sort of saying that terrifying and perpetuating that stereotype that if you have a particular kind of disability that then you're something to be feared, which is absolutely not true.

And I think I'm hoping that the narrative is changing. There's a wonderful writer from Melbourne called Carly Findlay who does a lot of advocacy work in this space and she wrote an Instagram post about how problematic she found The Witches to be because those kind of movies do lead to kids being scared of particular ways that people appear that shouldn't necessarily be the case at all. It's ectrodactyly.

It's like a limb abnormality. It's like a hand. I don't think it was like intentional. No, I don't think so either. But, you know, it's something you should be aware of I guess. Yeah, and I think that's one of the reasons why I didn't think it was like intentional. No, I don't think so either. But you know, that's something you should be aware of, I guess. Yeah. And I think that's one of the reasons why I didn't watch it in the end, but mainly also because I'm a big fat chicken. I'm a chicken. So what did you watch then? Oh my God. I love this so much. Okay. So quite a few readers recommended this to me. The first was Ryan Brace. Thank you for your recommendation.

Also, I have to say that the poor, fateful James Brock, who recommended The Haunting of Hill House and Blow Manor, did redeem himself by also listing this in his email. There we go. And also Francisco Calderon Mora wrote to me and said that you should definitely watch it. And once a couple of people recommended it, it's called Over the Garden Wall.

Now, it's a 10-episode animated series and I just loved it. So it's based on a short animation by the program creator called Patrick McHale called The Tomb of the Unknown. That was made in 2013. Now, it's only kind of a nine-minute animation of these two little boys. Did you watch that one? Yeah, I did. You did, yeah.

Yeah, and it's just as weird, if not a bit weirder. There's kind of old vegetables. It's about two little boys that go basically on an adventure in the unknown kind of in the woods. And it starts very like because I watched a bit of it. I watched like half. I didn't get a chance to finish it because I have to watch Ghostbusters movies.

But, yeah, it starts. It just drops you in. I'm like, did I miss something? So does the previous, does the short film lead up to it? No. Okay. No, no, it starts, it just drops you in. I'm like, did I miss something? So does the previous, does the short film lead up to it? No. Okay. Not at all. You really do have to watch the whole thing in its entirety

because there is an episode that does explain the origin story of why they're there in the first place. So Patrick McHale himself is so interesting. He's an American storyboard artist, writer, animator, songwriter, and independent filmmaker. And so he actually also won an Emmy for the miniseries Over the Garden Wall that was based on the Tomb of the Unknown that he created.

It's got some really surprising kind of guest stars in it as well. Elijah Wood is one of the voices, Christopher Lloyd, and then Chris Isaac and John Cleese as well. Chris Isaac is in it. I really didn't know that. Yeah, which is really interesting. Anyway, I'll tell Isaac and John Cleese. Chris Isaac is in it. I really didn't know that. Yeah, which is really interesting. Anyway, I'll tell the Brasic story. So on an adventure, brothers Wirt and Greg get lost in the unknown,

a strange forest adrift in time. A wise old woodsman and a bluebird beatress help them find their way. Along the way, Wirt's thoughts envelope him while the wonder of the surroundings preoccupy Greg, who's this like gorgeous, funny, little, really enthusiastic character who carries a little frog with him and wears a teapot on his head. He does remind you of like I've met kids like that, not literally wearing a teapot, but they capture that essence so well.

Totally. And he's so joyful and curious and innocent and funny and brave in this gorgeous little character. And then Wirt, his brother, is older. They're stepbrothers. Yeah. And he's obviously. Half-brothers?

Yeah, actually, you're right, half-brother. And Wirt is kind of nerdy. He plays the clarinet. He's very existential. He's obviously, he's very self-aware, almost painfully self-aware. And that's Elijah Wood as well, who plays like, he'd have to be at least 40, but he plays like young really well. Yeah, like it's sort of, he must be in his early teens, you'd think.

Yeah, maybe a bit younger. Yeah. And he's kind of sarcastic and, but also really the hero in the tale as well. And, and initially he's just irritated by his brother the whole time. He's wearing this funny cone shaped red hat too. Yeah. And the whole thing has got this real air about it of nostalgia and the cartoon style is really beautiful. It reminds me a little bit of those early Disney films in a way.

There is a bit of that, totally, yeah. Like the way that the music comes in, the music itself is amazing and what's great about Patrick Nolan, he is a songwriter as well. So he's really done a lot of the scoring and just the art style. Like it's just so quirky and strange. It's interesting because he works on and it's obvious looking at it, he worked on Adventure Time, like the earlier seasons and there's a bit of that in it, like that quirky,

like you're running to like this just totally bizarre character with a just off-the-wall personality who might not look, like act how they look and it's just very. Interchangeable? Yeah. Is that the word? Yeah. Yeah, or surprising.

Like a character might suddenly flip on its head and be something completely different. It reminds me a little bit of Alice in Wonderland too. Totally, yeah. In that they will come across a setting like an old house in the woods and you'll think it's one spooky thing and it turns out it's the other spooky thing. And it just, you know, there's like such random details

like tiny black turtles in a basket and they're hiding under the black turtles for Mrs Whispers who's this like giant kind of gothic, creepy-looking, ghostly character who looks a little bit like that big Jabba the Hutt from the Star Wars with the bonnet on and then she's got this like niece who's just like sweeping the floor and she seems all sweet and innocent but actually she's possessed by a demon and it's just, you know, but then there's also these like funny little scenes where it'll be in a school setting

and the jokes are so great. And there's a woman like funny little scenes where it'll be in a school setting and the jokes are so great. And there's a woman who's teaching like animals and she starts singing this random song about how her heart was broken and her lover's left her. I love the reveal of what happened to her. Yeah, and there's just a random gorilla all of a sudden. There's a gorilla just like tearing through the town. It's so weird.

It's a bit like the Twilight Zone as well. It's weird but it's not like this is just weird for the sake of being weird. There is like a logic to the universe, you know. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does and it's definitely very Halloween-esque. You know, it's set on Halloween night. When you find out the origin story, and I won't spoil that for you,

you should watch it. It's so gorgeous. It's set on the night of Halloween, which is something happens and it's why the two brothers are kind of finding themselves over the garden wall. Yeah. And then there's the kind of weird village of pumpkins that comes into play and they just start singing these, like,

amazing songs that are sometimes very heartwarming. And I found with Patrick's first work that it's based on Tomb of the Unknown, there's the same songs in there. Like there's the Jack O'Lantern character. Like the exact same songs. Not exactly, but they have a very similar sound to them and they're like old vegetables singing basically. And it's very absurd, but you're right in this kind

of narrative that makes sense even though it doesn't make sense. And the character of the blue bird as well, I really like her. I think she's really funny and interesting and you're immediately warm to them even though you're only spending ten minutes at a time with them. Yeah, absolutely. It's super intricate. Yeah, because it is like 12-minute episodes or whatever, isn't it?

Yeah, and there's ten of them. Yeah, absolutely. It's super intricate. Yeah, because it is like 12-minute episodes or whatever, isn't it? Yeah, and there's 10 of them. Yeah. Yeah, so it's short. What did you, so you enjoyed it? I'm four or five in, I think. Yeah, no, very much so. What do you think like the age range for this is though? Oh, like I think, I mean, anyone would enjoy this, right?

Like any adult. But do you mean how young? Yeah. Yeah, because it is quite spooky. I would say maybe upwards of eight. Yeah, I'd agree with that. I feel about eight. And again, it depends on like.

The kid. Yeah, how well do you know your kid and, you know, I mean, people, you know, people know. Yeah, because it is quite. The kids can cope with it. There is quite dark sort of themes in there. Yeah. I mean, the woodsman is quite spooky and there's kind of this mythic beast

that's kind of following them around that almost reminds me of the beast from Beauty and the Beast in some ways. Okay, yeah. Not that you see it but just that it's the tone of that voice that kind of pops in and out. Yeah. But I just love the feeling it gives me. I see why writers have said or people have written in to say

that they watch this every year on Halloween. Because it gives you that feeling. I wish Halloween happened in autumn for us. Yeah. That's true. We get it in spring. Yeah, we do. I never thought about that but, yeah, it's absolutely the wrong time of year

for Halloween. Well, yeah, that's why there's pumpkins and things because it's all happening in autumn. Anyway, yeah, it's called Over the Garden Wall and you can find it on Stan at the moment in Australia. Yeah, I tried to find it last year because I want to talk about it last year and it wasn't on anything for us. But I think it's on Hulu overseas maybe.

I don't know. It was released on the Cartoon Network in 2014. On YouTube you can find like the trailer for it. Sure. And shorts and you can find like the trailer for it. Sure. And shorts. And you can actually still find the original Tomb of the Unknown in its entirety. Yes.

Just on the Cartoon Network. I just was able to watch that just straight on the internet. Straight on the, look on the, it's on Prime as well maybe in the US? Yeah. Prime and Hulu. I think the biggest thing I liked about it was that, and which is why I think so many people recommended it to me, it is spooky but it has enormous heart and I think it's so endearing

and funny, just so funny. And I think it's right up your alley because it's so absurd and weird and surprising. I agree. Introducing Uber Teen Accounts, an Uber account for your teen with always-on enhanced safety features. Your teen can request a ride when you can't take them. You'll get real-time notifications along the way.

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Well, I tried to find something that I thought even you could handle. What do you mean, even me? Even you. This is a movie called Run from 2020. and it's directed by Anis Chiganti and he did Searching. If you watch Searching, the one about the missing girl and he's on the internet and trying to find her, trying to locate his daughter. Yes, yes, I remember that.

I think they're making another one of those but that was really terrific and this is, well, it's not really like that at all, which is good. It shows that he's got a lot of, you know, he's not just a one-trick pony, you know what I mean? So the film stars are Keira Allen as a disabled homeschool teenager who begins to suspect that her mother, Sarah Paulson, is keeping a dark secret from her. So this girl, she's wheelchair-bound, she's been at home her whole life,

she has a number of conditions and afflictions that are keeping her there essentially. So, you know, on the surface, you know, she's got a very loving mother and, you know, they have a great relationship and all of those things. But what it sort of becomes quite quickly is like a mix of misery, if you've seen Misery. Yeah, you showed that to me and it was burnt into my brain. It's a good movie. And Rear Window, which is like a person witnesses a murder next door and they're like, oh, what's going on next door or whatever.

I would say the one flaw of this is it reveals pretty early in the piece like what's going on. So it moves quite quickly. So there's a bit of like initially like what's this, what's going on, who's at fault here, is this all in her head and whatever, is her mum on the level. All that is revealed like very early on and then it becomes like a trying to, it's like a cat and mouse game of, I'm not going to spoil it,

of events unfolding. So it's really like high tension, performances are great. Sarah Paulson, who you would know I assume from lots of things, you know her, right? You definitely would. unfolding so it's really like high tension performances are great uh sarah paulson who you would know i assume from lots of things you know her right you definitely would let me bring up a photo of sarah paulson and you go oh i know sarah paulson you'll say she was in oceans 13 you'll say it's oceans oceans 9 or whatever one of the oceans movies oh i love her yeah she's great she's terrific felicity i feel was she i think i She's great. She's terrific. She was on Felicity, I feel. Was she?

I feel like she was. She's in the Nurse Ratched TV series. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I do love her. Did you watch the Nurse Ratched TV series? No, I was too spooky. Because that was a prequel to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Yeah. So, yeah. Oh, she was in What Women Want. Yes, correct. She certainly was. What a movie, I guess. So, look, it was in What Women Want. Yes, correct. She certainly was. What a movie, I guess. So, look, it's worth a watch. Yeah, well, it's not gory or bloody.

It's more like tense, which I think is more your thing. Totally. I will do a huge amount of tension. There's not a ghost. Nobody's getting beheaded or anything like that. I don't like any of that weird spooky stuff. It's very, it's like it is like upsetting and like awful and all of those things, but I think it's one of those things that you could.

Yeah, good, that you could manage. I've written here in all caps, tense. So that's how I would describe it. It's on Netflix. Okay. Oh, it is here. Who knows where you are in the world. I'm right here in Melbourne.

Very good. Well done. Thank you. That's the best joke we've had on this show or my much more successful show, The Weekly Planet. I do have another thing to recommend though, but if you've got another thing to recommend. I do.

Yeah, let's do it. I do. All right. Okay, so I looked around, I looked around, I looked around, and in the end I couldn't watch anything that was too spooky. So I thought, what shall I do? I'll read something. Oh, a book. I'll take a little sneaky short story while spooky so I thought, what shall I do? I'll read something. Oh, a book.

I'll take a little sneaky short story while I don't. And so I looked around for a ghost story and I used to love a ghost story. I remember a slumber party when you tell ghost stories. So one of the most famous ghost stories is called The Monkey's Paw. Have you heard of this? Oh, I've read The Monkey's Paw, definitely. Yeah, so do you remember much about it? I know everything about The Monkey's Paw.

Do you really? It's like often like a thing on the internet when like normally when something good happens on the internet, something in the same day absolutely terrible happens. So there's always like Monkey Paw memes going around. And there's that excellent episode of The Simpsons with The Monkey Paw. There is. That's what I was going to bring up as well.

Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. Simpsons 2 basically. So it's obvious it's something that's in our psyche, right, in the zeitgeist. When's it from? Like the 1900s? 1902.

Yeah, okay. So I'm going to tell you, I'll tell you the story for the listeners that don't know it and then I'll tell you a little bit of the history. So it was first published in 1902 and featured in The Lady of the Barge, which was a book that was published in 1911. All right, so it opens with the phrase, be careful what you wish for, you may receive it from anonymous. And that's basically the content of the story.

So it opens, which I love, and they do a really good job of depicting this sort of cottage that's on a dark and gloomy night. There's an old man and an old lady and their son Herbert and then a friend of theirs who's like a war veteran on a dark and gloomy night. There's an old man and an old lady and their son, Herbert, and then a friend of theirs who's like a war veteran and a soldier sitting around a fire and, you know, there's a blizzard outside. It's very chilly. It could be on the moors, you know, that kind of thing.

I love a story like that. Big fan. Yeah, it's so good, isn't it? And they're all sitting around talking and the soldier, after, you know, a few whiskies in, pulls out a monkey's paw that's all shriveled up from in his palm and tells them the story of how when he was in India. It's always India.

It's always India or the Orient. Which is actually a really, I'll get to that, but it's deliberate because a lot of these stories around this time were telling tales about the problems of the British Empire. Yeah, okay. Basically. So because the old couple in this story are called Mr and Mrs White. Yes.

And so it's actually when you start to really analyse it, if people would do that in a school context, yeah, there's making a point about the British Empire and the problems with overtaking and colonisation, all that stuff. That's cool. Anyway, let's get back to the cottage. Please. All right.

So the soldier starts to tell this story about how he was given this monkey's paw and it grants you three wishes. However. How many fingers does it have? It doesn't tell you. Okay. But it just will grant you three wishes and they will absolutely come true but you have to be careful about the consequences.

And he tells it in this way where you get the feeling that terrible things have happened to him because he did go through with those three wishes. Now, the old couple sort of dismiss it and laugh away, particularly the son Herbert is kind of like, oh, well this is just ridiculous but isn't it nice to hear this like kind of, you know, tale or whatever around the fire? It's 1902.

Correct. Or as we call it the modern day. So the soldier throws the monkey paw around the fire. It's 1902. Correct. Or as we call it in the modern day. So the soldier throws the monkey paw onto the fire and looks at them very mysteriously and says, that's it, we're done. And the old man, Mr White, pulls it out of the fire before it burns and says, no, no, no, no, let me have it if you don't want it. I'll keep it as a memento. And so the soldier says, right, but be careful, you know.

What do you wish for? Correct. So everyone goes to bed. Things seem a? Correct. So everyone goes to bed. Things seem a little spooky, but everyone goes to bed. And then, oh, yeah, just before they're going to bed, sorry, Herbert, the son, kind of says, wouldn't it be funny if you made a wish on it? Go on, Dad, you should do it. You should do it.

And so Mr. White in the end said, right, fine, I'll wish for $200. So he wishes for 200 or 200 pounds. And the monkey claw. Think big, dipshit. I know, but they don't think it's true. Yeah. It spins around in his palm when he makes the wish and he freaks out and says it moved and everyone laughs and says it couldn't possibly have.

The soldier's left by this point. Everyone goes to bed. In the cold light of day everything seems pretty normal, you know. Everything seems fine. Yep. Monkey paw sitting on the mantel. Herbert goes to work. Anyway, a couple of hours later.

People should read this as well, I should say. They should. Yeah, but no, I'm interested to know. Yeah, keep going. Spoil, but you absolutely should read it because I'm not doing a very good job of the language. No, I think you are doing a good job. But they should read it.

And you can find it everywhere on the internet. If you just Google the monkey's paw, there's a really beautiful edition from Slate that also has beautiful illustrations from Danika Novgorodov. There are just a few, but it's a beautiful way of reading it. So then Herbert goes to work and a couple of hours later, a very well-dressed gentleman knocks on their front door. They answer the door and they've got the $200 in their mind and the gentleman knocks on the door and tells them

that Herbert has been killed in a horrendous accident. He's basically been chewed through a machine at the factory and he's dead. Now the company then feel like they need to compensate the couple and give them $200. Yes. So then obviously they are absolutely devastated and they go to the funeral

and they're sort of sitting there in this empty house alone. Herbert was their only child and they've lost him. They can't believe it. And then in the middle of the night Mrs White wakes up and goes, the monkey poor, I know, I know, we can get him back, we can get him back. And so she wishes, she asks her husband to wish for Herbert to come back to life. Now, he has been mangled in this machinery and they never saw his body

because he was so grossly deformed and the husband really doesn't want to do it and he says no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. And his wife pushes him and eventually he agrees to it. So he wishes for Herbert to come back. An hour passes, nothing happens and they think. They're like, oh, it didn't work or whatever. Yeah, and they're sort of sitting up in the middle of the night

and then all of a sudden they hear this banging at the door and they realise that the graveyard is exactly an hour's walk away from their house. And so the door's just rattling and banging, bang, bang, bang. And so then Mrs White runs down and wants to let him in. She's hysterical and he's saying, no, don't let the creature in, don't let the creature in. You know, he's trying to envision what his son would look like.

And then it kind of ends really abruptly. So just as she's about to unbolt the door, he uses his third wish to wish for his son to go away. Yeah. And then silence befalls the house. That's the end of the story. It's good. And there's a great Simpsons parody episode about it as well. Yeah, I watched that too because the Simpsons Halloweens.

Oh, they're so good, especially, I mean, look, I don't know what they're doing lately but those early ones, there's some really, speaking of walking the line between like surreal and creepy and fun and all those kinds of things, those episodes always some of my favourites as a kid. They were always like a big deal at the time, you know. Yeah, even the way Marge Simpson sort of talks at the beginning of the Monkeypoor episode and says, you should really be taking,

I know you're doing it justice, you should be taking your children to bed. They should be watching this. And you're like, yeah, I totally want to watch it. I know, right. Yeah, as a kid you're like, oh, I'm getting away with something or whatever. Yeah, it's such a great feeling. It's a terrific one. There's one where just at the end they just turn inside out.

Like Bart has like a nightmare and he wakes up and he's like, oh, my God, it was all a dream. And they're like, don't worry, there's nothing to worry about except that gas outside that turns people inside out. And then it comes in and turns them all inside out. It's quite good. But, yeah, I've got one more thing and I have talked about this. I thought, well, I definitely talked about this,

but I hadn't talked about it here. So I thought I'd quickly talk about The Ritual from 2017, which is directed by David Bruckner, stars Rafe Spall, Asha Ali, Robert James Collier and Sam Troughton. So reuniting after the tragic death of a friend, four college pals set out. I think it's more university pals because it's like they're English, I think.

Set on a hike through the Scandinavian wilderness. A wrong turn leads them into a mysterious forest of Norse legend where an ancient evil exists and stalks them at every turn. Okay. So you know Rafe Spall, right? You'd know him. He's from things. Here he goes.

He's going to agree with me. I'm going to show you a picture. It's just easier if I show you a picture of Rafe Spall. So we've all got an idea of what Rafe Spall. Oh, he's from Trine. Yes, yes, yes. Correct. He's great.

He's also from like Shaun of the Dead and stuff and whatever. So, yeah, these guys were all mates and one of them had died in a recent-ish accident and maybe some of them were involved in that or some of them weren't. So anyway, they're doing this hike and they're like, we're going to reunite and whatever. And you know, we're going to work through some bloody feelings and whatever. You know what I mean? So it's very much like Blair Witch-esque, you know? They're like, they kind of turned around in a forest. There's like reality, like blending with like hallucinations and like hints towards the occult and like witchcraft and

all these other kinds of things. And the reveal of like what's going on without spoiling it, it's like something that I hadn't really seen before. Cause it is kind of, uh, it's based in like Scandinavian legend. It's like this from memory, it's like this specific kind of idea or concept, which again, I won't spoil here, which you'd like, you see it kind of unfold and it's like, oh shit, I've never seen that before. That's really interesting. It's really unnerving just like it's because like I,

The Blue Witch is good and like it did a lot of things, you know, pioneered a lot of things at the time. But this is like I think it takes, it manages to capture that feeling and put it out on like a bigger budget with like it's not found footage. It's shot like a movie. It's normally shot. But, yeah, so it's really unnerving and really like unsettling images and watching them kind of unravel together. And, you know, one of them's twisted their ankles.

So they're like, do we ditch this guy and just like get out of these horrible woods where something is maybe chasing us? Maybe, I don't know. But it does those relationships between the characters really, really well. And they're dealing with kind of the death of a friend and, you know, and like shifting blame. And that kind of blends into how the world around them kind of morphs into the night where that death happens and things like that.

And a lot of it ties back to their family and all those kinds of things because it's all everything that you kind of fear or love kind of comes to a head in this one place. It's on Netflix. Great. Two Netflix things. I love when it things on Netflix. It's so easy to find for everybody. I loved things. I love when it's things on Netflix. It's so easy to find for everybody.

I loved it. I haven't watched it in a few years. But, again, I did talk about it a couple of years ago on the Weekly Planet. But it's maybe even more. What's it called again? It's called The Ritual. The Ritual. The Ritual.

All right. And it's fantastic. All right. I loved it. And I can handle it. Maybe not. I should just give it a go anyway. Sure. I'm warming up. Get I can handle it. Maybe not. I should just give it a go anyway. A woman up.

Get my eyeballs onto something. If I know that it's good, if the writing is really good and it's relationship-based. Yeah. Also, I discovered. I think you should try run first. Okay. Or whatever.

Do what you want. Because I think what I also need is tension, but the tension and release. Do you know when you're watching something spooky but then the sun comes up and everyone's kind of for a little bit things are okay again? Yeah, that's definitely that. Yeah. That's what I need.

I don't like those movies where it just goes further and further into darkness and despair and terror. I need a bit of, you know, light and shade. I'll give you one bit of imagery from it to see if you handle this. And, Colleen, if you want to put a mild spoiler code if people want to jump ahead. They fight like they're lost and they find this. And, Colleen, if you want to put a mild spoiler code if people want to jump ahead. They fight like they're lost and they find this cabin and they're like, great, we love cabins, we love shelter, we're men.

You know what I mean? Correct. And they go in there and they're like, this sucks, but it's fine. Anyway, in the middle of the night. Always ends badly. Well, one of them goes upstairs and and there's this, like, pagan ritual set up of, like, a demon entity kind of wall monument, and there's, like, a dude, and he's, like, shirtless, just, like, just blindly, like,

worshipping this thing. Like, it almost is in, like, a trance, you know what I mean? Yeah. So if you can handle, like, stuff like that. Yeah, I can handle that. But it's just, like, it's really, like. Upsetting. Yeah, not. But it's just like it's really like. Upsetting. Yeah, not upset.

It's just it's good. It's like the other one. It's tense and makes good use of like soundscapes and things like that. And it also does really well where like the forest will like blend and all of a sudden become like a 7-Eleven. And it's really interesting the way that it kind of does that. And you see the world kind of creeping into a 7-Eleven and it's really interesting the way that it kind of does that. And you see the world kind of creeping into a 7-Eleven, but it's a 7-Eleven essentially as well.

It's quite cool. That is cool. Yeah, it's really good. All right, excellent. I think I love that kind of world building in that way. That's still why I liked Over the Garden Wall so much because they managed to kind of build this incredible world. Yeah.

That you, without even really doing much set up for it at all, you kind of almost immediately are immersed in it and kind of believe it. And when you like the people and it's like anything, I guess it makes a big difference also. That is so true actually. That is part of actually the whole reason why you feel so much affinity for Over the Garden Wallets because Wirt and Greg are so great. Yeah.

So you just like them and then you just want to spend more time with them for whatever happens. Me and Mason this week for the Weekly Planet, we do a similar thing here. We're going to talk about the new Halloween movie. It's like Michael Myers has got the mask and the knife and whatever. Yeah, yeah.

There's a bunch of those guys. But it's just not very good. And I just, it's interesting because, like, it's quite, it's up and down as a series, but they made a reboot a couple years ago or a sequel or, like, a sequel set. Oh, he got the mozzie. I missed it. Or is it a ghost?

Yeah, 30 years after and, like, it brings back, like, Jamie Lee Curtis who was the protagonist of the original in, like, 1978 and now she's 40 years on or whatever, you know what I mean, and everything sucks for her and now this guy comes back and she's like, shit, okay. Anyway, this sequel is set, like, directly after the last one that came out in 2018 and it just doesn't capture, like, any of the. Of the original.

Like, it does the kills. Like, you know, he's killing people and stomping heads and knife and whatever, but it doesn't, it's not really much. Is that because Jamie Lee Curtis isn't in it? She is. She's in it quite a bit. And she's good because she always is and she's been consistently good for, you know, 40 years.

But it's just not, it's not much. And it's also like they're going to make another one, so it's like the middle of it. It's like half a movie, you know what I mean? Yeah, you sound very unenthused. Oh, yeah. It's not great. I mean, you know, whatever.

Anyway, should we move it along? We should. Well, I survived. I survived through our smooth. You did it. Best time of the year. I can't wait to come back next year and you in a rush have to be like, I watched over the garden wall again.

It's like not good enough. No, I got some really great recommendations for the listeners. So if I haven't read your email, that's because I'm saving your recommendations for next year and in perpetuity. Very good, yeah. Correct. All right, so if you like this show, we would love to hear from you. Suggestibles are always a fun time to be had

and we love a good recommendation. So for this one in particular, I have an email from Josh Biggs for a scary, scary thing. Ooh, Josh Biggs, let's go. Ooh, the scary thing, it's James' worst nightmare. Ooh, is it bloody tax time? Gotcha. It's called IKEA.

What about it? So, hi, Claire and James. i was listening to your podcast where james complains a lot about ikea i'm behind i know as someone who perhaps works for ikea and maybe has to deal with these same complaints all day it made me defensive the reason behind ikea flat packing furniture is because it keeps costs down i know that would you like to pay probably double for an item of furniture just because you don't want to build it, James? No, I don't. Well, yes, quite frankly, because I want quality furniture.

Can Josh Biggs continue? Also, it means we can fit more in a truck or a boat, and that helps make less trips, which helps the planet, James. Ikea are fucked. Do you hate the planet, James? They also have slave labor, don't they? No, I mean. They're actually not.

They've got a very good ethical track record. I don't think they do. I'm going to look into it. By the way, this isn't a slide against him. He doesn't own Ikea. No, I mean. They're actually not. They've got a very good ethical track record. I don't think they do. I'm going to look into it. By the way, this isn't a slide against him. He doesn't own Ikea. Like make money. So listen. Listen to Josh Biggs.

I will. The story you get told is that the founder Ingvar, looks like a turtle and was totally in the Hitler youth, was selling a table to a friend and couldn't figure out a way to get it on a bike. So he chopped the legs off and screwed them on later. This is where the idea came from, apparently. Anyway, I hope this rant made you realise that perhaps the flat pack

that really isn't very hard to assemble if you can read simple instructions with clear pictures that are essentially the same as Lego isn't that bad. I know. I love the pod, and despite your terrible opinions on Swedish furniture giants, I still enjoy all your other content. Hope you're having a good time. Stockholm Syndrome. That's what's happening here, Claire.

All right. Ikea's founder has alleged Nazi ties. They use slave labor in Ikea says sorry to East German political prisoners forced to make furniture. Yeah, that was in the 80s. That's the 80s. So? They've come a long way now, have they?

I don't know why I'm defending Ikea anyway. Yeah, and I just don't think the quality of a lot of their things, not everything because you've got those drawers and they're very solid, is up to scratch. I see. And the stores are a nightmare, like a maze and you walk through and you can't just leave. It's like you have to walk the entire showroom floor.

And then you're like, do I need a lime green ladle? No, you don't. Keep walking. Right. Josh, we've totally ignited a rage bomb in James over there. And would you say, James, would you rather watch Halloween, the movie, or have to assemble a flat pack? Halloween Kills, you mean, the new one?

Correct. Halloween Kills, 100%, any day of the week. Well, there you go. So you've scared him. You've scared the pants off him. You certainly certainly have with your top of ikea uh i mean look we didn't have for amazon i didn't have amazon music the other day so it might have been like hey the company you work for might not be great amazon literally the worst company on earth but me like give me your money amazon i'll do your thing no i feel so questionable about whether we should have done that. It was for their music platform.

Yeah. Not for, like, goods and services. No, whatever. I don't know. We are sorry. We're very sorry. Hey, look, it's a good music platform to their credit. It is, actually.

But run by a lunatic. Okay. You can review the show. Can you? It's from Wally uh this one from wally is 420247 and he's given it five stars in app you can do that you can go james you may be a massive fucking hypocrite but i like your show that you do with your lovely wife who's less of a hypocrite this person says wally you can just do it in app this french guy is getting so good

at voices that he can now do a dead-on female along with his James persona from that other podcast he does by himself. You know, the one where the other fellow is named Maiso, but good on him. This is a great podcast of a lonely man slowly going crazy as he pretends he is married with kids. My goodness. Spookiest time of the year, everybody. I'm not talking about, everybody. It's super spooky. I know. The ventriloquy that you are able to pull off is nothing short of miraculous. Does that work? Because that's great if it is. Yeah. That's like ventriloquy is like multiple voices.

Yeah. Is that right? No, I think it's just ventriloquy is like the verb, right? Sure. To do. To do. Ventriloquy. I don't know. Or the noun. I don't know. It's very late. I'm tired. I've had to watch too many spooky things. My brain is broken. How am I ever going to sleep again? You're just going to have to just, well, you are tired, so I think you'll be fine. I think you'll just fall asleep. All right. Yeah, you're right. Fair enough.

But I would totally recommend going to read The Monkey's Paw. It'll get you in the spooky mood. But I would totally recommend going to read The Monkey's Paw. It'll get you in the spooky mood. It'll get you in the mood for love. For love? Yeah. I've got, you've got some monkey paws over there. I certainly do.

Do you mean little hairy hands? Correct. Very good. That's what I meant. Cool, cool. You know what I do absolutely, I enjoyed about The Monkey Paw and then also other ghost stories that I then subsequently read. I just like it when you vaguely heard about a thing and it becomes part of the pop culture thing and you see it around

and I knew it sounded familiar but I'd never actually read the actual story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I loved about this episode and I think is so fun, right, when you actually read the thing that the thing is based on and sometimes it's completely different from what you assumed it was. Yeah, so was that for you? Yeah, like I knew that it had the three wishes vibes, but I didn't really know much else about it other than that it was kind

of like a cursed monkey's hand. Yeah. Or poor. I really, so like I love like those old like short stories of like, you know, like weird like, I don't know, stuff or whatever. Because they're also made in an era where all this stuff was new and people had like, you know, the Industrial Revolution was kicking off and so all these new ideas were kind of coming through

and people had, you know, more time to both read and write, you know what I mean? And it was more kind of mainstream that, you know, books were a thing because people weren't literate. Well, they didn't have film. Yeah, exactly. People haven't been all literate across. It's like a class thing a lot of the time, literacy, you know, and were a thing because people weren't literate. Well, they didn't have film. Yeah, exactly. People haven't been all literate across. It's like a class thing a lot of the time, literacy, you know,

and it still is. So like the Dangerous Game, which is the one about a guy like gets shipwrecked on an island and there's like a very rich man there in a castle and he's like, come and have dinner with me. And then he's like, so here's the deal. I'm going to let you out into the forest tomorrow, the jungle, and then I'm going to hunt you and into the forest tomorrow, the jungle, and then I'm going to hunt you. And that's what we're going to do. And so it's been like adapted like multiple times since

then. I think it was recently a Liam Hemsworth series in the modern day, but that one's really good as well. I think Dave Warnock has done that on his Book Cheat podcast as well. Yeah. So I love all those weird little short stories. They're so great, right, because it's entertainment. Like this was published in a magazine initially in 1902. Yeah. So it's like that idea that you'd be sitting there and that would be your weekend entertainment. Exactly.

Reading these short stories. 1924 that one was published. Yeah. So, I mean, it's even like the theatre, right? Like my grandmother was an actor in Melbourne and it wasn't. Your grandma's Meryl Streep, is that right? She is, correct. Bigger old Meryl, Mez I call her.

Mez. Grandma Mez. Grandma Mez. Me and Meza. No, but it wasn't, there was so much theatre. When she was in her 20s, the theatre was what people did on the weekend. Totally. You know, there wasn't film, you know, in the same way that there is now.

There wasn't TV in your house. Yeah. So people would go out and so it was this whole scene where you would see multiple plays even during the weekend. My grandpa saw your grandma in a play once. Yeah, not that one. My dad said he saw it. Yeah, because she was an opera singer.

That's so weird. Yeah, but it is weird. Like at the Princess Theatre, your grandpa was sitting in the audience watching my grandma. Then they got married. And that's how we met at a family reunion. That's right. We met in the house we grew up in to get the movie.

Smooth Halloween. Surprise. The princess layering it. Yeah, that's right. There's a reason why James is so into Star Wars. No, but I do find that so bizarre, right? It's so cool. No, that was on my dad's side.

Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. So theatricality is on both sides of my family. Well, I see it in our kids, one in particular. Anyways, thanks, everyone, for watching. A little bit longer. It is the spookiest time of the year. Please stay safe out there. Have a happy Halloween.

Have a happy Halloween if there is such a thing. And thank you. Of course there is, Claire. For all the recommendations. I love Halloween like genuinely and I think it's, I've talked about this multiple times, but here kind of growing up and even now there's sort of like some American tradition and blah, blah, which I also don't think it strictly is.

Like I think it's been around for like longer than that. But I guess the commercial element of that, you know, was, you know, came into being more in the US. But I think it's great. Like kids get into it, spooky stuff, you know, costumes, you know, people decorate their houses and whatever. I think it's really cool. Everything's made up and fuck it, whatever. And I think it's also non-denominational.

That's true, yeah. In that way, which I like. I mean I am not for the like dark side of all the slashery stuff. I don't like the costumes of people getting fake stabbies in the heart and in the head and like. I mean, I am not for the like dark side of all the slashery stuff. I don't like the costumes of people getting fake stabbies in the heart and in the head and like stuff like that. But like a cute little witch, some ghosts. Cute little witch. Some, you know, pumpkins hollowed out little faces.

Yeah. I don't know. I'm totally with you too. I've liked it more as I've gotten older. Maybe just that sense of community as well, like the idea that you'd know your neighbours and pop around and, yeah, it's awesome. That's it. It's great.

All right, happy Halloween. Happy smell-a-way. It's been a suggestible podcast and thanks, as always, to Royal Collings for editing this episode. We'll speak to you next week if we make it. Maybe we're dead. Okay, goodbye. Bye.

I'm going to wish on a monkey's paw to get out of this house. Careful what you wish for. Yeah. You'll lock yourself out. You'll just be like, ah, I left my keys inside. All right. Bye. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network.

Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. Hi, I'm Jessie Cruikshank from the number one comedy podcast, Phone a Friend, which I strongly advise you listen to. You know what else I suggest you look into? Becoming a host on Airbnb. Did you like that segue? Thank you. I recently started putting my guest house on Airbnb when I'm out of town, and I didn't realize how easy it would be until I did it. If you have a spare room, you could Airbnb it or your whole place could be an Airbnb. It's a great way to make a little

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