Too Scary; Didn't Watch - GERALD'S GAME

Episode Date: September 27, 2023

Handcuffs, a very hungry dog, and too many trigger warnings to count, we're recapping Mike Flanagan's GERALD'S GAME! Based off a Stephen King novel that was thought to be "unfilmable", this m...ovie IS NOT to be confused with the heartwarming Pixar Short "Geri's Game".  Trailer TW: Child sexual abuse, sexual assault, self harm Recap begins @ 26:18 This film is available to watch on Netflix Follow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes and additional content! Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy. Advertise on Too Scary; Didn't Watch via Gumball.fmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is a HeadGum Podcast. This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy, and you're listening to Too Scary, Didn't Watch. Hi everyone, welcome to Too Scary, Didn't Watch, the horror movie recap podcast for those too scared to watch for themselves. I'm Emily and I'm too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Henley and I'm also too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Sammy and I love watching scary movies and so I watch them so that you don't have to. And look at this, the three of us back together. I know, I'm so happy. I've seen each of you
Starting point is 00:00:46 individually in person. Saw freaking Henley in person. Recorded together, but it's still it didn't feel the same. I like missed you guys in this exact formation. Do you know what I mean? I do. I really do. I don't know if that made the recording, but Henley just sneezed.
Starting point is 00:01:01 I did a big sneeze. This is my comfort place. I wish that we could make this why isn't it like this all the time somebody freaking moved and i guess also you know life and jobs and partners and children it's just two thumbs down two thumbs down on anything that's not this. Just this. This feels good. So it feels so good. It does. It feels like slipping into like a warm bath, you know? Mm hmm.
Starting point is 00:01:31 Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Well, did anything scary happen to you guys this week? What's up? What's up? Real quick, I'll just tell you guys that it's pretty scary being married to a Jets fan right now. I don't know. I know nothing about this. Are they doing good? Bad? So the Jets are notoriously bad. Like the Jets are a terrible football team.
Starting point is 00:02:02 And Jets fans especially are like maligned. People look down upon them. They think that they are not making good choices in their lives by supporting the team known as the Jets. But Tim, you know, grew up in New York. He's Jets fan for life. Um, and this year, oh, sorry. I don't know if you guys can hear that.
Starting point is 00:02:25 Can you hear Silas like screaming in the background? Um, so this year they had kind of an exciting opportunity to do well because they had Aaron Rogers join the team as the quarterback. Aaron Rogers, who had been with the Green Bay Packers forever. Brother of Jordan Rogers, winner of Jojo's season of the Bachelorette I'm familiar still together one of the only full seasons of the Bachelorette that I've ever seen and so I knew all about Jordan Rodgers knew absolutely nothing about Aaron Rodgers well I know they're not close they don't speak they don't speak Aaron Rodgers also very like controversial in the press.
Starting point is 00:03:06 Anti-vax. Lied about getting vaccinated. Has pulled a lot of like weird shit like that. Professional athletes love to not get vaccinated. I think a lot of celebrities do in general. I feel like he was dating Shailene Woodley, right? Isn't she also anti-vax? Maybe
Starting point is 00:03:21 not. Probably. I feel like it'd be hard for a couple to be together and not be on the same page about that. Right. That's right. Yeah. That's kind of a deal breaker. That's a big one. It would be a deal breaker for me for sure. So everyone was excited. They were like, wow, the Jets, maybe this year they have Aaron Rodgers who's actually a good quarterback. Maybe, maybe, maybe they'll do well. Tim was really getting his hopes up. Really got his hopes up. He went out to a bar or his goddamn Jets jersey out to a motherfucking bar with a new coworker to watch their first game of the season. So amped, like spirits are high, feeling ready, feeling ready. ready first thing that happens you guys
Starting point is 00:04:06 literally within the first few minutes uh-oh aaron rogers snaps his fucking achilles tendon i was just gonna say he like breaks his legs or something uh that's where i was like he died he dropped dead on the field he snapped his Achilles tendon out for the season. Didn't even get through the first few minutes of the first game. Damn it. Oh, my God. That's so funny. I mean, it really sucks.
Starting point is 00:04:39 It's pretty funny. But it's really funny. Everybody except Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. Oh, sorry. And all the fans. Sorry. When Tim came home because he was like texting me about it i wasn't really following but he came home i was already asleep the lights were all off in the bedroom he comes home i like wake up usually i don't wake up when he comes in the room but i like you sensed that something was wrong he needed you it was like a full tragedy it happened i was like in the dark whispering. I was like, are you okay?
Starting point is 00:05:06 How are you? How are you doing? And he was like, he was like devastated. The Jets won that game. So it was kind of yeah, but they're fucking bad. You guys like they're not going to win any more games.
Starting point is 00:05:21 It's like sports fandom. People who are, I mean i i know this obviously people love their teams yeah if you're a big fan of your team you're gonna be devastated when they lose you're gonna be but the it's so far from me that to imagine tam a person i love and respect needing to be like earnestly and honestly consoled by his wife because of something that happened to a stranger is just so interesting to me. I'm like, I guess that's just how it is. But it is so funny to be like, Tim, who cares? Of course he cares. I have seen Tim cares and I respect it. I have seen Tim show emotions. I have never seen him show in any other arena of life while watching a Jets game. Like, wow, just now he was watching a Jets game. And that's what sports is for. I came downstairs and he was like, he like threw his phone down and was like, fuck. And I was like, whoa, are you okay? What happened? Someone died. Someone died. Someone broke their legs. It was like, Quinlan Williams is out or like something. And I was like, oh, it's football related.
Starting point is 00:06:25 What the fuck? Like that is such an extreme reaction. But it is so coming from such a genuine place. I honestly, though, I was sort of joking, but I do think there's something I do think. And this isn't Tim because Tim is an emotionally in touch man. But I do think there is something to sports that allows a certain kind of man to actually feel his emotions yes and talk about them with other men talk about them and like be really sad or be really mad or like and then some of that is toxic because it's like oh you know it's bad to
Starting point is 00:06:58 like scream and throw your phone and stuff i mean again i'm not talking about tim but there is something to be said for like, you do let a lot of emotions out via sports that you maybe don't like in your life. And I don't like those strong emotions, feeling them personally, even as a woman. And so I was starting to get a little bit on the Jets train with Tim trying to be like supportive. I got a little taste of those strong emotions and I was like, no, thank you. Not for me. I'll go back to not caring. Thank you very much. I would prefer
Starting point is 00:07:32 not to care. I went to a baseball game once where the, I was sitting in the out outfield, I believe it's called. And they were booing the, the out out of god i'm so bad at talking right here the words the vocabulary the other team not the home team i know like what's the opposite of home sometimes i think people must think we're really stupid and i know that we say we are but we're all we're actually not and i just need people to know i don't i don't fuck with sports and so it's not crazy that i wouldn't know these words the traveling traveling team well the that's for like if they're little kids it's the traveling team would it be like the opposing team opposing team works let's go with
Starting point is 00:08:22 that let's go with that i found it like so upsetting i was like why are you being so mean to them don't be mean i have a hard time watching sports on television because i don't like to see the losers faces yeah i really don't like it when they show them being upset just show me the winners just give me i want everyone to win and everyone have a good time yeah give me just the people being happy. Don't show me the people being upset. I hate that. Me too. It's too much. It's too many feelings. Unless it's Tom Brady. I'm fine with him being upset. Yeah. There's some people that can be upset for sure, but I don't feel like he's upset that much. You know, as far as what I know about
Starting point is 00:09:01 Tom Brady is he wins a lot. Yeah. Unfortunately. That's true. As far as I know. Oh, my God. Okay, so tell me about you guys. How are your weeks? I went to New York last week. So this is where I saw you, Henley. It was lovely. Emily visited me.
Starting point is 00:09:17 It made me so happy. I visited Greenwich, Connecticut. And guess what? It's beautiful. And also, I'm sorry, side note. Henley has neglected to mention to us that not only does she live at a church in a building built in the
Starting point is 00:09:29 1860s, spooky as hell, she lives on a graveyard. There's a graveyard outside her freaking door. And I also learned, my mom told me this fun fact, which is a cemetery is like a standalone location just for burying bodies.
Starting point is 00:09:47 A graveyard is what you call it when it's attached to a church oh which is even spookier so you don't live at a cemetery you live at a graveyard just so you know interesting spooky that's really spooky and again i was told this fact via my mother who i trust i didn't look it up i didn't fact check it so we're just gonna assume that it's true, but it sounds right. And I believe her. Yep, that's right. And there's a grave outside of in that graveyard where a woman lived from like 1868 until
Starting point is 00:10:13 1973, which is just the craziest stretch. Crazy. Way too long. Absolutely too long. It's a wild stretch in history. Probably the craziest stretch. history probably the craziest not haunting because she needs a break she was alive too long i hope she's done she saw too much she needs her final rest she's yeah i hope she's in a fine a state of final rest me too but so we went
Starting point is 00:10:37 to new york it was a great time it was lovely and also i just it's it's a thing about visiting New York specifically. I am so physically wrecked from being in New York. Every time I go to New York, by the time I come back, I am like shell shocked. I am every muscle hurts in a weird way. My feet hurt. I have consumed too much. I am like i have no water left in me i just like i can't hang with new york one night at our midpoint of the trip one night the only night that joel and i like didn't have plans with friends and uh we went to dinner at 6 p.m and i was asleep by 9 45 in new york city but i was just like I can't fucking do it I need a break It's exhausting So I guess that's scary It's just like I can't do it
Starting point is 00:11:31 In Europe I On I think day 7 From just walking so much My hips I was in such pain I guess Walking as you know On cobblestones Cobblestones that's what we're talking about I was in such pain. It's like walking as, as you know,
Starting point is 00:11:46 on cobblestones, cobblestones, as we're talking about, your body is doing all sorts of correcting to get you straight on those cobblestones. And, and, and I kept thinking, I felt like walking a lot is supposed to be good for you.
Starting point is 00:11:57 And I think, you know, it is, but, but I was just like suffering. It was really painful. It's, it's,
Starting point is 00:12:03 yeah, it's really hard. It was really painful. Yeah. It's really hard. It's really hard. Yes. New York is so intense. It's so intense. But at least at the end of the day, you feel like you've really gone through it. And in L.A., if you've really gone through it, it meant you sat in traffic for like three hours.
Starting point is 00:12:22 No, that's not true. Such a shitty feeling. And also in New Yorkork if you live there i feel like being a tourist there is the hardest yes it's the fucking hardest to be a tourist i think it sucks to be a tourist here in la yeah it's true too but with new york it's like you hit a point where it's like i either need to live here or leave here like i can can't do it. It's the like going out every single night, being in a hotel, not having access to like a refrigerator with just like fucking yogurt in it. Like it's just, it's so, it's just constantly being like, okay, I'm gonna get up. I'm going to walk a ton. I'm gonna be out in the world. I'm going to like,
Starting point is 00:13:01 look at people all day. I'm going to like be, it it's a hard it's hard man also in la you can go back to your car and your car is like your mini home like you can keep shit in your car you have like you have like water bottle you have like change of shoes you have like snacks in there snacks whatever and in new york there's no mini home to go back to you're just out in the wild you're out in the wild for who knows how long yeah I know I'm always like how am I gonna drink enough water in New York but then I'm also like how am I gonna pee enough and also like how are my feet gonna last in these shoes because that's also like well I'm always wearing different day shoes and night shoes like excuse me my day shoes are not gonna be my night shoes particularly if I'm walking a
Starting point is 00:13:42 lot but then it's like there's always gonna to be walking. So how are you going to manage? It's just like I need to leave there or live there. You know, it's just like I can't. I can't. It's hard. It's hard. I'm tired. I love New York, though, and I miss it.
Starting point is 00:13:58 I do love it. What I really miss is being like 24 in New York. That's what I miss, because that freedom, there's no freedom like it. Being able to wake up and be like, I can do whatever the fuck I want. I can take the subway anywhere I want. I can do whatever I feel like today. Oh, it's such a good feeling. If anyone is a senior in college and trying to decide what to do, where to live, and trying to decide what to do, where to live. Move to New York, you're going to be poor and it'll be hard,
Starting point is 00:14:30 but it is the best place to be young. Oh God, you guys. Oh no, Henley, uh oh. Come back, Henley, come back. Oh no. Reel her in, reel her in. We're going to dark places. You can't go there. I'll take us to a real fun funny place um this is a real curveball scary thing um even though i feel like there
Starting point is 00:14:51 is a couple actual scary things happening to me i did chemical peel so my face is literally peeling and which kind is there like a name for it i peel vip but i'm not going to talk about that um it's really not much to say that's, that's about it. Face is feeling off. Um, but you guys know this, I told you this, but it really shook me. And I feel like I have to say it, which is that I was scrolling through Instagram one day as I do 14 hours a day. And I was looking at this one post and you know, when you're on one post, you can see the top of another post, but not all of it.
Starting point is 00:15:30 So I, I hadn't scrolled yet and I'm just looking at the very tippy top of the next post. I think it was from variety and it's the top of two people's heads, not even to their foreheads. It's just basically their hair, hairlines. And I go, that's ethan hawk and maya
Starting point is 00:15:48 hawk it's like a little weirdo you little weirdo and i scroll and it is and i was shocked and sickened a bit by like why you know what it has to do with the way your brain has been functioning recently with wordle, chordal. What are all your fucking things that you're doing? You're training your brain to have an immediate image to knowledge association. That's true.
Starting point is 00:16:15 I do. Yeah. Framed. I also follow Ethan Hawke. I see his hair pretty regularly. So yeah, you're looking at his hair a lot. He's, um, I'm,'m you know one of the best hot dads out there so yeah one of the absolute hottest for sure um yeah i know what he looks like
Starting point is 00:16:32 i know what his hair looks like but it still was a little disturbing to just have that sure so readily available he's directing a movie with her in it. I don't know what it's called. Okay, got it. Is there a way, yeah, what do you do without skill, Sammy? I mean, that's a real talent, a real true talent. They're genuinely, remember in magazines
Starting point is 00:16:58 there used to be, like, identify this celebrity by their smile. Like, who is this? Yeah. And so, I mean, I could make those. Is there a game show? Is there a game show you can go on? You could make those. Are there still game shows?
Starting point is 00:17:12 Yeah, I think so. Yeah, like Family Feud and... Real Fortune. Jeopardy. Jeopardy. Million Dollar Pyramid. Yeah. Game shows used to be such a central part of life.
Starting point is 00:17:22 I feel like I was... TV, I mean, networks used to be, you know? Like, you would just have to throw on the TV and be like, well, it's six o'clock, so it's going to be either a game show of life. I feel like I was... TV? I mean, networks used to be, you know? Like, you would just have to throw on the TV and be like, well, it's 6 o'clock, so it's going to be either a game show or the news, you know? Yeah, that's true. I only watched them before The Bachelor. It's like, Wheel of Fortune is on right before Bachelor, and so it's like,
Starting point is 00:17:36 I'll watch a little bit of Wheel of Fortune. But you don't usually go onto Netflix and say, I want to watch Back Seasons of Jeopardy, which I do think exist on Netflix. Um, they used to, and Joel and I did that for a while and then they took them off. Yeah. I mean, it's a great, a great dinner show. It feels very nostalgic, but anyways, okay. Now that I've lightened the mood, let's, let's take it. Let's make it dark again.
Starting point is 00:18:00 Because this week we are going to be recapping Gerald's game. I have not been wanting to do this one. We get so many people message us being like Gerald's game. Why don't you just game? I was going to say you could, you have our patrons to thank. We did. This is our patron chosen episode for the month.
Starting point is 00:18:20 Each month that we do a poll where our patrons get to pick an episode this month, Gerald's game tied with Lake Mungo But Gerald's Game was ahead for most of it So we're doing Gerald's Game and we're going to do Lake Mungo as a As our bonus episode this month But if you want to
Starting point is 00:18:36 Be a patron and vote In these polls go to patreon.com Slash TSCW podcast And yeah so Gerald's Game Hmm Came out in 2017 directed by mike flanagan written by mike flanagan and jeff howard based on the novel by enemy of the pod stephen king that man writes so many things so many books and you guys guys, I'm fully turned around on Stephen King and I love him since I found out that his wife
Starting point is 00:19:08 almost divorced him for playing Mambo No. 5 too much. That felt like such a strange news break. Why did that, why was that all over the news all of a sudden? Was Stephen King's publicist like, we need to get you in the conversation.
Starting point is 00:19:24 Let's lighten it up, Steve. I also like the notion, I'm just trying publicist, like, we need to get you in the conversation. Let's lighten it up. Let's lighten it up, Steve. I also like the notion. I'm just trying to think about, like, okay, what would it take? What's the true quantity? If Joel played one song so much that I was like, if you do it again, I'm leaving you. Like, I'm trying to think of think of like what that could actually ever mean well if the song's mambo number five does that raise or lower the limit I just don't understand the context the central premise is so confusing to me that's what it is it's just very confusing to me and was it like on an ipod did he have the
Starting point is 00:20:07 cd yeah was it like he had an addiction to mambo number five and she'd be like steven you're not listening to me you're just listening to mambo number five you forgot to pick up the kids again steven it's mambo number five in the middle of arguments it's just he presses play it's like don't do it because then it do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Then it's like, the problem is he's an asshole. The problem isn't Mambo No. 5. Right, right, right.
Starting point is 00:20:31 Anyway, I'm just not sure what to take from that. Because what's it a proxy for? It's obviously a proxy for something else. It's not about Mambo No. 5. Can't be. It's something else. That is so funny. I hate that song.
Starting point is 00:20:48 I've never liked that song. It's a pretty obnoxious song, but when the time is right, it's funny. It's probably the funniest start to any song. The song literally starts. That's crazy. It's a crazy start to a song. Okay. Anyway.
Starting point is 00:21:04 Yeah. We're back on board I guess Yep And this movie is starring Carla Gugino Bruce Greenwood Kiara Aurelia Carl Strzokin
Starting point is 00:21:13 Henry Thomas And Kate Siegel Streaming on Netflix This is a Netflix original No theatrical run for this one Whoa Which I was surprised by Yeah
Starting point is 00:21:24 But I mean I don't remember it being in theater so and i guess he has mike has a big big overall with netflix he used to that ended he did or okay well yeah he did we've got follow the house of usher coming soon was this before hill house yeah yeah okay and car Carl Gugino is in Hill House and a bunch. I mean, I feel like he uses the same actors. So is Kate Siegel and Henry Thomas. Yeah. Yes.
Starting point is 00:21:53 Works with the same people a lot. Which I like. Yeah. I mean, that's nice for them. And also, I mean, shows that he's clearly someone they want to keep working with. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good sign don't we need like a thousand trigger warnings for gerald's game i think we're not there yet oh okay but you know just hang tight let's not get out of ourselves we will but not yet but okay yeah what
Starting point is 00:22:18 do you guys know about what do you guys know about g's Game? Honestly, nothing. For whatever reason, I feel a massive sense of dread. And I don't really know why. But I think that that's correct. But I don't know why I have it or what. But I'm not excited. I think I know what it's about. And I'm not going to say it because I don't want to spoil it. But I have a pretty good sense of what's happening in Gerald's Game okay uh this was my second
Starting point is 00:22:50 time watching it I watched it wait what's the name of the short that plays before what's the chess one the Pixar animated chess one I have no no idea. Because in my head, I'm like, that's Gerald's game. That's really funny. That's the wrong one. Imagine if you were dreading chess. No, but I mean, what is that one called? Do you know what I'm talking about? The old man who's like playing chess with himself?
Starting point is 00:23:14 No. You don't know that? No. That's a classic. I need... Okay, I'm looking it up right now. It's Sherry's game. Okay, come on.
Starting point is 00:23:25 You gotta give me that one. I definitely give it Okay, come on. You gotta give me that one. I definitely give it to you. You have got to give me that one. I'm for sure giving it to you. Okay. And you better believe those are the only images I'll be using on our Instagram, our images from Jerry's Game. You guys, you have to watch Jerry's Game because it's so good.
Starting point is 00:23:43 I think it was like the first of those little Pixar shorts. And it's like really sweet. It's from 1997. Okay, so excuse me, Mike. A good palate cleanser for Gerald's game. Excuse me, Mike, with this title. You knew what you were doing 20 years later. Well, Gerald's game in the book was written in 92.
Starting point is 00:24:01 Okay, Pixar, you knew what you were doing. So I think we gotta pick a bone Bone to pick with Pixar Bone to pick with Pixar Um This movie has a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes 77 on Metacritic And 6.5 on IMDb
Starting point is 00:24:18 Wow I did find that the budget was 35 million But as I said no theatrical run So no numbers on On, on how much it made, because it doesn't work like that. Once again, I don't get it. Don't get it. This was Mike Flanagan's first Stephen King adaptation. He now went on to do Doctor Sleep. And I believe he is currently adapting two more Stephen King novels, The Dark Tower and The Life of Chuck.
Starting point is 00:24:52 And Stephen King loves, they just love each other. And I feel like Stephen King at one point was like, Mike Flanagan is the only person I want directing. Oh, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, he like really is happy with how these films have turned out and so good for them you know that's really nice for them love it love it and um we're gonna save the trailer for the end if because you don't know much about it And feels like Best to go into blind So Trailer's not gonna be
Starting point is 00:25:28 In this episode But It's available on our Patreon Patreon.com Slash TSDW podcast If you wanna see our
Starting point is 00:25:33 Trailer reaction But we're just gonna get Right into this movie Okay And now We gotta do some Trigger warnings Okay
Starting point is 00:25:41 Great Here we go Awesome And actually there's not that many They're just big ones So child sexual abuse And rape And self harm Okay yeah Those are some big trigger warnings. Okay, here we go. And actually, there's not that many. They're just big ones. So child sexual abuse and rape and self-harm. Okay, yeah, those are some big, those are big ones.
Starting point is 00:25:51 The Trinity, one might say. Trinity of trigger warnings, Trinity of triggers. All right. You guys ready? Oh, I can't. I can't wait. With those triggers? I'm so excited.
Starting point is 00:26:05 Oh, yeah, I'm ready. Let's do it. I'm so excited. Oh, yeah, I'm ready. Let's do it. Fucking ruin my day. I have my organic mini cheese crackers from Trader Joe's. I will try not to be too loud eating them in the background. I am just going to calmly sit here. In the past few years, I have hit a point where I only want to be wearing clothes that are comfortable. It happened. It happened to me. But you know what? I still also want to look cute. And these are two desires that are often extremely opposing.
Starting point is 00:26:36 And I don't want to have to sacrifice. I want both. I want comfort and I want to feel cute and confident. And guess what? Skims has freaking done it again with their soft lounge collection. what Skims has freaking done it again with their soft lounge collection. I am currently very, very obsessed with, I have the soft lounge tank and boxer set. Okay. This tank, it's a great little rib tank. Classic. You can wear it every day. You can pair it with jeans. You can wear it out in the world, or you can wear it with this little boxer short that is so comfortable. It is super, super soft, lightweight rib. They're great. I also truly have been for years stealing Joel's boxer briefs to wear as sleepwear and loungewear. And guess what? That ain't cutting it. I'm not feeling too cute in those. I'm not feeling too comfortable.
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Starting point is 00:28:41 slash too scary to start bundling with 30% off your first order. Don't forget that's helloBello.com slash TooScary to start bundling with 30% off your first order. Don't forget, that's HelloBello.com slash TooScary. Well, let it all wash over me. Love it. Great. Let's do it. We start with a couple driving to their vacation home in the middle of nowhere. Don't do it.
Starting point is 00:29:04 Don't do it. Stop do it this is gerald and jesse jesse is looking anxious uh they seem a little uncomfortable together they uh gerald puts his hand reaches like under her skirt and she pulls it away and opts instead to hold his hand. And there's just an awkwardness between them. And they see a stray dog in the middle of the road eating roadkill. Jesse is very sympathetic to the dog saying like, oh, how sad that stray dogs here, like someone should do something about this. Whereas Gerald is immediately angry and screaming at him. He needs to get out of the road.
Starting point is 00:29:50 He's going to get killed and become roadkill himself. Great. So we don't like Gerald. Yeah, he's already seeming like kind of aggressive. And I will say Carla Gugino, Jesse is like overly sweet in kind of a silly way, I think. Just like, oh, but Gerald, like the poor dog. And it's a little it's a little much, but OK, just to serve to contrast their personalities, I suppose. And they arrive at their vacation home.
Starting point is 00:30:23 We see it's it's a beautiful home. And Gerald has stocked everything with beautiful meals and flowers. And she's like, oh, everything's so nice. All set up for them to have a nice vacation. Gerald goes to the bathroom and pops a Viagra immediately. And, um, yeah, I guess I should say he's like a little bit older than her. She's probably in her forties. He looks to be in late fifties. Like, uh, the actor is, is 15 years older than her. That's not super important, but they do mention it. And while he is in the bathroom, Jesse finds some raw steaks in the fridge and cuts one up and takes it out to feed the stray dog.
Starting point is 00:31:17 This looks like a really nice steak. That's... This is insane. Cuckoo. It's an insane thing to do. Oh my god It's also like You don't know what the
Starting point is 00:31:27 He might have been Planning To make some steaks That's probably For you guys to eat later Also like You don't have Yeah I think this is weird
Starting point is 00:31:35 It's I think it's Over the top Yeah Yeah you can feed him Something else There's gotta be something else Available
Starting point is 00:31:41 There's gotta be something else And sure enough Gerald comes out Immediately starts screaming. That's a $200 steak. That's Kobe steak. That's actually an actual Kobe steak. Like, why would you do that?
Starting point is 00:31:51 And Jesse's like, I just thought I, I, I, and it's like, come on. Gerald's right in this one. In this moment, Gerald's right. We got to give this to Gerald. But Gerald softens and says, I love, I love your love your kind heart and let him have it. It'll be the best meal he's ever had. So they leave the steak for the dog and they go inside. And it's clear they've come here. They've been married for a while and we're getting the vibe that they're trying to spice things up in the bedroom because their marriage isn't doing well.
Starting point is 00:32:29 And so she's putting on like a new negligee. She takes the tag off and she's looking a little nervous and trying to, you know, look sexy on the bed. But she's also looking a little self-conscious. sexy on the bed but she's also looking a little self-conscious and he's like taking his shirt off in the bathroom and he walks in with some handcuffs and she looks not surprised by the handcuffs we think by her reaction it looks like the handcuffs were a pre agreed-upon thing and so he um coming up to her and he he cuffs each of her hands to a corner of the bedposts so she is uh restrained and he goes back to the bathroom, fills up a cup of water. He's drinking some water and he sets the water on the shelf above the bed. And then like leans down and he's on top of her.
Starting point is 00:33:35 And he he like goes into character and his character is a stranger that has apparently broken into this house or something. And it's like, bet you think your husband's coming home. He's not, he's not coming home. And she's saying like, Gerald, I don't know about this. And he's like, he's like, Oh, my name's not Gerald. You don't get to know my name. And he's kissing her and she's trying to be a good sport about it, but clearly uncomfortable. Yeah. Sorry. I mean, this whole scene is horrible. It's just going to be bad.
Starting point is 00:34:08 It's just going to be bad. It's okay. It's fine. It's we have a job to do. We have a job to do and we're here to do it. And as anyone wearing a tiny hat, what are the size of everybody's hats? And sort of what's the general headwear?
Starting point is 00:34:27 Devastated to report report there are no hats and almost no funny clothing at all god damn it i'm so sorry but uh he tells her to try to call for help and he she does kind of a half hearted help help. And he's like, no, try to like make it seem real. And she like screams a little louder, yells a little louder. And he starts getting a little more aggressive and like covers her mouth and is like, no one can hear you anyways. And as he's doing this, it's clear she's getting more or less comfortable with it. And she's not looking into it at all. And he's, and she kind of starts wriggling and he says, you can fight all you want. Daddy's going to get what daddy wants. And she kicks, kicks him off
Starting point is 00:35:18 and is like, get off of me, kicks him backwards. And it's like, I don't want to do this. I'm not doing this. And he sits back and he's like, are you, are you playing? Are you acting? Or is this real? Like what? Um, and they get into a fight and she's yelling at him and basically saying like, I don't, I don't like this. Is this what it has to take for you to want to have sex with me? Like you have, what is this like a rape fantasy? I didn't know you had a rape fantasy. Like what's going on? I feel ridiculous. And he's like, oh, so now I'm ridiculous. And she's like, I didn't say you were ridiculous. I say, I feel ridiculous. And, you know, no kink shaming people can do. No, but it needs to be consensual. And everybody needs to be comfortable. Yes, we need to have pre decided what we're doing and have discussions about that.
Starting point is 00:36:11 You cannot push someone out of what they are consenting to. Exactly. And so they're starting to get into a fight. And Jesse is just saying, you know, just uncuff me. We can talk about this. And he looks at her and says, what if I don't? And I'm so upset. And Jesus Christ, she looks scared. And he starts getting back on top of her and is like, he's like, I'll be like, I'll be sweet. I'll
Starting point is 00:36:45 be sweet. It doesn't need to be like that. I can be sweet. And she's like, Gerald, don't, don't do this. And he leans in for a kiss. She bites him. He backs off. It's like, oh, what the fuck? What's wrong with you? And she looks at him and says, what's wrong with me? He's like, sits back again. And he's kind of shaking his head and says, you know, like we were happy once, weren't we? Like, what's, what's happened between us? And he's kind of shaking his head and says, you know, like, we were happy once, weren't we? Like, what's happened between us? And what's, like, I don't understand where we go from here. And as he's saying this, he's kind of kneeling facing her.
Starting point is 00:37:20 So kind of towards her. And he starts gripping his chest and making a strange face and she says you know what's what's wrong and his eyes go wide and he's kind of looks like he's not able to breathe and he's clutching his left arm oh my god worst case scenario and he collapses and dies on top of her. He has a heart attack. Worst case scenario. Oh my God. It's really very, very much worst case scenario.
Starting point is 00:38:03 She is immediately panicking obviously she uses her feet to prop him up calling like gerald gerald wake up wake up this isn't funny he's dead he's clearly dead and she the way she picks him up with her feet knocks him backwards off the bed and he hits the floor gross at least he's not on top of her i thought he was gonna be like crushing her but this isn't ideal no it's not ideal still not good she's really screaming for help now and we're seeing you know wide shots from outside that they're nobody's gonna be hearing this they're in the middle of nowhere there's no neighbors and then some time passes we see like the light in the room has changed couple hours have gone by and
Starting point is 00:38:58 she hears something in the rustling in the bushes outside kind of like steps like leaves cracking and she's calling out doesn't see anything and then she hears some noise in the kitchen or just like in the in the not in the room and she hears i actually have chills i'm so scared i don't know why but i'm so scared it's really scary know why, but I'm so scared. It's really scary. I told Emily last night that this movie, cause I don't get scared very often after watching a horror movie. I'm pretty able to turn my brain off and be like, okay, time for bed. Totally fine. This movie, I immediately locked this window that I always keep open. I was like, this movie i immediately locked this window that i always keep open i was like i'm gonna go lock that window i just it's so scary all right all right let's do it let's do it i'm
Starting point is 00:39:52 okay so she hears steps now coming down the hallway toward the bedroom and through the door comes that dog stray dog and she breathes a little sigh of relief but not for long because she looks down and sees that there is now blood pooling from gerald's head he the way he hit it's like a tile stone floor and so if he wasn't dead before, he's definitely dead now And we know that this is a hungry dog Oh, gross! The dog immediately starts kind of licking at the blood Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew
Starting point is 00:40:37 Jessie is yelling at the dog, but can't really do much She's kicking and trying to How'd the dog get in the door? Can't really do much. She's kicking and trying to. How'd the dog get in the door? They must have left it open, I guess, which seems dumb. But she's able to reach at the edge of the shelf above the bed. Her hand can barely reach there and she grabs a book off of it.
Starting point is 00:41:02 The book is Midnight Mass, which is kind of a fun little oh that's funny um easter egg throws it at the dog but you know eventually the dog it's skittish but eventually realizes that she can't do anything so comes and bites a piece of arm off and is chewing his skin like lays down and is like gnawing at the arm. Ew. And Jesse is just completely horrified by this and
Starting point is 00:41:35 she's like staring kind of dead eyed at the foot of the bed like watching her husband be eaten. Oh my god. And Gerald's hand grabs up on top of the bed and pulls himself up and she's in such shock and he's like that damn dog and like you fed it the steak you fed it the steak oh my fucking god and screaming and screaming at her and she's looking so confused but then she looks back down and sees he is still dead on the floor and so she says what's happening and he says i think you've lost your mind like to
Starting point is 00:42:16 be fair like watching your husband being eaten by a dog is pretty good time for a mental breakdown so we're seeing two gerald's yes and this g Gerald who's talking to her, does he have a head injury? No. Okay. So this is just her kind of imagination. So he gets up and starts talking to her. And I guess in the book, basically everything is happening within Jesse's head. And this is kind of just a device to be able to make it more
Starting point is 00:42:46 you know cinematic so to be able to externalize her inner dialogue so he's standing up and talking to her now and in true mike flanagan fashion there is so much talking in this movie great you would think yeah someone alone in a room might be less dialogue than normal. Not the case. There's it's like still constant monologues. And it's good writing, but it's just like, Jesus Christ, he loves writing his dialogue. This man loves the written word. He really does.
Starting point is 00:43:24 So he's now yelling at her that she's already wasted five hours. They kind of calculate the amount of time that's passed. And he serves as someone for her to talk to, to go through the thoughts that are going through her head and he's uh telling her you know the grass is cut that means the gardeners have been here that means they won't be here for another week uh the house has been cleaned so we know the cleaners aren't coming there's no neighbors and then another jesse shows up next to him so they're kind of the two sides of her inner voice where one's being really mean to her and putting her down the critical voice and then the jesse version of other jesse is uh more encouraging and calm and level-headed and just being like okay no like breathe you've got a you can you can do Like, let's think through it rationally. The other Jesse says, if you don't wake up because something that Gerald is telling her is like, oh, you're just kind of dissociating right now. Like you always do. Like when there's a problem, you run, you hide. And then other Jesse says, if you don't wake up right now, you're going to die in those handcuffs.
Starting point is 00:44:43 And we both know you've been sleepwalking since you were 12. And Gerald kind of turns is like, what is she talking about? And other Jesse says he put you in those handcuffs way before Gerald did. Real Jesse says not now. Oh, no. Gerald says not now. What? And it's getting dark outside.
Starting point is 00:45:27 Oh, no. Gerald says, not now. What? And it's getting dark outside. So it's clear there's something like very bad that's happened in her past that she's like saying that she's really thirsty and the other jesse reminds her of the water that gerald placed on the shelf above her and so she is she can't reach it obviously but she can reach the corners of the shelf. And so she's able to tilt it at an angle so that it slides down and she can get it in her hand. This is all done like so slow and tense because you like can't spill it. And it's looking like really difficult to do. She's shaking like their arms being like chained up, cuffed up for hours would be horrible, horrible. And poor Carla Gugino had to do this for, I think the shoot was like of her being in this was like three weeks of basically just like acting in handcuffs every day. And it's like, Oh my God. Um, so she gets the cup of water in her hand, but then can't bring it to her lips because it's not it doesn't reach far enough because she's still restrained by the handcuff.
Starting point is 00:46:33 So she can't reach all the way to her mouth. So she's looks like this is a huge blow and she's like about to give up the other. Jesse's like, don't don't. It's OK. It's OK. Like, put it back. Put it back where you got it from. Like let's regroup. It's clear that she's getting really tired, losing energy. So she, she puts, she puts the water back up and they're like, okay, let's, let's regroup. It's okay. It's okay. We're going to, let's think about this some more.
Starting point is 00:46:59 Um, and then other Jesse says you got that negligee new, right? Brand new. And this makes a little light bulb moment go out and go on. And Jesse reaches to the other side of the shelf and finds the tag that she had ripped off the nightgown, not a nasty nightgown, sexy nightgown. And she's able to roll it into a kind of straw. Oh, smart. Shape. And then she puts that in her mouth because that's long enough that she can reach it to her mouth. And then she grabs the cup of water again and she's able to sip some of it through the straw
Starting point is 00:47:46 very smart don't think it would work in real life but maybe we'll take it also throughout all of this she'll be glancing over and seeing the dog still like chowing down on her husband the dog is just there the whole time and uh she's falling asleep now she's really lost losing losing energy and sets the you know cup and the straw back up and kind of decides okay i'm like gonna go to sleep no one's gonna come help me tonight. I need rest. And so she falls asleep and we get this shot down the hallway towards the bedroom and the dog turns and looks at the camera like down the hallway and then runs out looking scared. It's like whimpering and runs out of the house um this wakes jesse up and she scans the room does a scan of the room it's dark and you know
Starting point is 00:48:56 no lights on at all and she's like really stiff she's like like, really stiff. She's like, oh, because, like, sleeping in that position would be so horrible. It hurts so badly. And she kind of props herself up a bit and then notices something in the corner of the room and says, hello. says hello and this enormous man takes a step forward from the shadows it's bare he can barely make him out just the shape it's yeah just like a seven foot tall man in kind of raggy outfit he's like raggy i don't know he like looks really scary and she's really out of it. And she is at first saying, you know, like, you're not, you're not real. And he steps closer. He is though. He steps closer and he's got this little bag with him and he opens it and shows her the contents of it.
Starting point is 00:50:22 And at first we see this kind of sparkly bracelet and then he jiggles it a bit and there's all these bones at the bottom of the bag. She just like shakes her head and is like, you're not real, you're not real, you're not real. Closes her eyes, hears footsteps. Then Gerald's head comes into frame and whispers in her ear like,
Starting point is 00:50:44 or maybe you're just not safe anymore. Oh, my God. She opens her eyes. The tall man is gone. They refer to him as the Moonlight Man, because all you really see is the reflection of the moonlight on on his, you know, outline. light on on his you know outline there's a long another long monologue by gerald about how maybe that's what death looks like she's again saying nope it's he's not real it's not real and gerald says then why did the dog leave what and like that that's a really good point it's a really good point. It's a really good point. And as Gerald is talking to her, he calls her mouse.
Starting point is 00:51:34 And this triggers something in her. She says, don't call me that. Why did you call me that? And we flashback now to 12 year old Jesse. Oh, man. Yep. Here we go. Here we fucking go. And it's her and her family going to a lake house to watch a solar eclipse.
Starting point is 00:51:54 And they step out and she says, when they see the lake house, it's so much smaller than I remember. And her dad says, that's because you're bigger. And they get settled in. And Jesse overhears her mom and dad having an argument. The dad is Henry Thomas,
Starting point is 00:52:15 by the way, the Elliot from E.T. who is also in Haunting of Hill House. And I think other Flanagan projects. He's great. I got to see him as an adult. So, yeah. So she overhears this argument between her mom and her dad.
Starting point is 00:52:34 The mom has some resentments towards Jesse. She's basically complaining, being like, Jesse, such a daddy's girl. She doesn't want to come on the boat with us. This was supposed to do this as a family. And the dad is defending her, being being like this is all totally age appropriate behavior you're being too hard on her mom is basically saying like oh you would say that because she's such a daddy's girl and you guys are best friends and like we're like yeah it's um upsetting and she's like well if you if if you want, why don't you stay behind with her if if you don't care and we'll all go out on the boat. And so the whole family goes out on the boat except for dad and Jesse.
Starting point is 00:53:16 Oh, my God. I hate this. I'll skip. I'll skip past it. It's really bad, you guys. Yeah. Listeners, if you don't, it's like genuinely it's I bad you guys yeah listeners if you don't it's like genuinely um it's i i'm like disturbed that they even made a 12 year old actor be in this scene yeah so they're at a bench yeah we'll brace ourselves we'll go through they're at a bench at the lake watching solar eclipse dad is immediately very sexually suggestive towards her says that's a really beautiful dress she says mom says it was too short he says mom's wrong it looks it looks great on you and he has one of those little viewfinder things for you to be able to look at the sun directly to watch the eclipse happen, which makes everything red through it. And the use of red in this movie is really cool.
Starting point is 00:54:17 And so every time she's kind of in this dark place of her past, everything turns like all color drains out and it's just all red lighting and so she's looking at the eclipse and he talks about how he's looking at her and saying like how he misses when she was younger she used to always sit on his lap when they were out here but now she's such a she's like a young woman now and she's really becoming a woman and she's probably too old to sit on his lap now. And she looks uncomfortable, but says, no, I can, I can sit on your lap still. So she sits on his lap and she's looking through the viewfinder saying it's happening. It happening the sun is almost completely blocked out by the moon and he starts masturbating with her on his lap and okay she feels it and looks scared and he's like dad and he's like just keep watching just keep
Starting point is 00:55:15 watching just keep watching and that's that's that's what happens okay okay cut back to the present and we see an overhead view of jesse in the bed she's peed herself in the night and she gets up and is in like excruciating pain she's now spent the whole night sleeping like this her legs are cramped she's like can't she's like i can't move my legs other jesse is saying you know it's it's it, that'll wear off. Your body is not supposed to sleep in that position, but that'll wear off. The cramps will wear off. It's okay. at the same time. Like, I don't want to think about that right now. And she says, you married into the same dynamic that you knew. And there's just like this conversation happening where she's kind of processing how her childhood sexual trauma led to her choice in men and affected, you know, other things in her life. And, and we hear things that she has used to rationalize things to herself. And she says things like what he did to me, or like, he didn't even touch me. He didn't, he didn't even touch me,
Starting point is 00:56:41 which I, you know, would assume would be something she has used to minimize the tragedy in her own mind. And she says what he did to me wasn't the worst thing that anybody's ever done to anybody. And other Jesse says, no, that would be what he did afterwards. And Gerald looks like, what did he do? What did he do? And she won't say and then she notices a bloody footprint on the floor through the god it's a what's clearly i guess not super clearly she's still trying to be trying to convince herself it's a it's the dog it's the dog a
Starting point is 00:57:21 paw print but it looks pretty unmistakably a man's shoe print. Yeah, that does. A dog's paw looks very different from a man's shoe. Very different. And Gerald says to her, he'll be back tonight. And when you're dead, he'll
Starting point is 00:57:39 have your wedding ring in his case. So we're scared for him to return and we get another flashback of now jesse is alone in her room immediately after the previous scene and she's crying and her dad comes in and it's like jesse i'm so sorry i'm so sorry like come here we and she like they sit next to each other on the bed and he's like come here come here we need to talk about this and she looks really scared and he says we have to tell mom what happened and she's like what this motherfucker it's so horrible and he's like he's like we have to i think it's a big enough deal that we have to
Starting point is 00:58:33 and i know that our relationship isn't great right now and also your relationship with her isn't great right now and so i don't know what that's gonna do like what oh my god but it seems like we should tell her and young jesse 12 year old jesse's obviously like no like what if we didn't tell her like maybe we shouldn't tell her she's gonna be mad and yeah just manipulates her into making it seem like her idea to keep it a secret so that by the end of the scene she's like i'm never gonna tell anybody i'll never tell anybody and he's like okay we won't tell mom and she's like thank you daddy thank you daddy thank you so much he leaves the room looking very fucking satisfied with himself and jesse lays back on the bed 12 year old jesse in like a position that
Starting point is 00:59:29 matches where current jesse is in her bed and she looks down at her toe and the moonlight man is licking her toes and it's so disturbing and gross oh my god and then it like flashes current jesse awake and she looks down and the dog is licking her toes and then the dog jumps up on the bed and bites her leg okay kicks it off this dog has had enough to eat a steak gerald comes in and says he's gonna try that again your fresher meat. It's now been, I guess, two days. Is that a thing with dogs? Do dogs go after humans
Starting point is 01:00:12 in this way? I don't know. It does seem like he's had a lot to eat. He has had a lot to eat. But I do think, I mean, like a wild animal would, right? Yeah, he looks kind of wolf-ish. It's like a german shepherd i guess like i do i do think they would eventually i think eventually yeah well i'd rather focus on
Starting point is 01:00:33 i'd rather focus on the dog than the father anyway so let's keep talking about the dog i don't like any of it um she's looking worse for wear her lips are like very chapped she's looking very pale exhausted and she falls back asleep and she's dreaming again in the red world and she's talking to her younger self who's now wearing handcuffs and the young Jesse is saying I want you to remember I want you to remember and adult Jesse says I do remember I remember I remember it all I remember what he did and she says I remember mom always turning the other way. There's like an implication that the mom knew what was happening. And young Jesse says, no, remember after that, you have everything you need. Remember what happened next.
Starting point is 01:01:38 And we go to after the bedroom talk, they had a family dinner and everyone is sitting in the, at the, at the dinner table together. And the mom asks Jesse, young Jesse, how their day was and how watched if they had fun watching the eclipse and Jesse's holding a cup of water and accidentally smashes it and cuts her palm open because she's so stressed and she's like gripping this cup she looks so scared and uh the dad immediately jumps up and is like oh let me i like oh my gosh are you okay let me go we need to go rinse this off and pulls her out of the room and there's this look between the mom and jesse that just again kind of solidifies that she knows what's happening and so the dad takes her into the bathroom and is cleaning up the cut on her hand and and wrapping it in bandages. And then we cut back to present day.
Starting point is 01:02:47 And Jesse has a realization of how slippery blood can be. Oh. Okay. And she looks. We see other Jesse there. She says, it's going to hurt like hell. Okay. God damn it.
Starting point is 01:03:13 Okay. And so she reaches up and she grabs the glass of water from the shelf and smashes it against the shelf. Okay. Cuts her hand open a little bit you know i would have maybe given a shot from from this amount but she embeds a big chunk of glass in like the wood of the shelf to make you know like a little stabby knife situation. And she is talking, like talking through with other Jesse and being like, you can't go too deep or you'll or you'll die. But you've got to go deep enough that you'll get a lot of blood. So she slits her own wrist. It's pretty deep to me.
Starting point is 01:04:07 Okay. And she, it's, it's pouring blood obviously. And she starts pulling her hand through the cuff, but because it's like a, like a lip of skin now, it like catches. No, thank you. Thanks. I'll pass. And she has to keep pulling and she's screaming in pain, but
Starting point is 01:04:33 she pulls as the skin of her hand does not come through. Sammy, Sammy, Sammy. Until she gets past her like thumb area. So basically de-gloves up to the bottom of her fingers. De-gloves. Oh my god, de-gloves. De bottom of her fingers emily's on her desk emily's on the desk getting up high to heights to higher ground she's getting a higher ground she's getting a higher ground oh i'm gonna throw up that's so disgusting and she gets her hand up but it's like
Starting point is 01:05:02 i think sorry i'm so sorry but I have to get into it. It's like a little bit worse than a full degloving because her fingers are all still on. And so it's like degloved on just the palm and like area. And so now her hand is just like, the skin is just like loose on her hand. It's so gross. But she is now has one hand free she's losing blood quick and you know the clock is running out on everything i mean she's probably starving super dehydrated losing blood losing energy she and i mean that hand is not gonna do her a lot of good now. No. And she is able to slide the bed over enough to reach the key to the cuffs on the counter. But yeah,
Starting point is 01:06:00 her hand is completely, it's not useless, but it's like really difficult. And so it's, all of this is like very drawn out, stressful, horrible, like her struggling, trying to pick up the key. But man, the other day I, I, I had too much caffeine and I, so I was like a little bit shaky and I was trying to put on makeup and like,'t do it. Like that's that's how useful my hands were after too much caffeine. I was not degloved and trying to slip a key into a little hole like that would be so fucking hard. Yeah. Yeah. And it looks very hard. Carla Gugino is so good in this. I like can't believe she's great performance. And she eventually gets the key, but it looks really difficult. Carla Gugino is so good in this. I like can't believe this performance.
Starting point is 01:06:49 And she eventually gets the key, but it looks really difficult. She puts it in her mouth and she uses her mouth to uncuff herself. And so she gets her other hand free, checks the phone. The phone, by the way, has been like out of reach this whole time. And she it's dead by now. It's not no, no battery. So she can't use the phone, but she just sees car keys and she grabs the car keys and she's about to walk out of the room when the dog who has been in the room still this whole time turns towards the door and starts growling and like backing up away from the door that's the exit of the room she's scared she also uses um i like this detail she has like pads like sanitary sanitary napkins
Starting point is 01:07:35 and she uses those to to kind of make a little wrist wrap up her hand cast okay maybe a little on the nose symbolism of like her getting her period when she was 12 and now using these i'm just i guess realizing that right now anyways she's looking scared she slowly turns and looks and the moonlight man is there This is daytime now. It's like maybe evening. The sun is going down. And she slowly walks towards him. He's not moving. He's just at the end of the hallway standing facing her.
Starting point is 01:08:17 She has to pass him to get out. She's walking. And she gets close enough to see that he is wearing a necklace of a human ear. Okay. And she takes off her wedding ring and offers it to him. He opens up his little case. She drops it in. He gives her a big smile.
Starting point is 01:08:43 Ew. And she walks past him. He lets her go. She runs out. Is he real? Is this person real? I don't get it. And then she gets into the car. She floors it.
Starting point is 01:09:00 She's driving through the woods. And she's starting to nod off. She's losing consciousness. And she looks in the rearview mirror and sees Moonlight Man with his pupils like an eclipse, like a red light. It's a very scary effect. And it's completely silent. That's another thing is that there's, I don't think there's any music in this whole movie. And so he's in the back of the car.
Starting point is 01:09:38 He's in the back of the car. And we see it cut to a side view of her in the front seat. And his hand comes from the back and grabs her throat. And he leans forward and whispers in her ear, mouse. And it cuts to the real world, her crashing into a tree, like at full speed, having passed out. Oh, God. But then we see there is a house in the distance that turns on a light
Starting point is 01:10:08 having heard the crash. So she's at least made it to another house. She opens the door, falls out, passes out, but we see people coming with flashlights. So Moonlight Man was in her imagination.
Starting point is 01:10:24 I mean, we don't know. Okay, okay, okay, fine. So we cut to her six months later with a burn glove on her hand writing a letter. This is, again,
Starting point is 01:10:41 a very Mike Flanagan-y letter, long monologue explaining everything and summing up her journey. She talks about how after the handcuffs, things went back to normal, except for one thing. Every night she still sees the Moonlight Man and there's like a scary scene of her haunted by this man and always seeing him at the foot of her bed. And so she like can't sleep, still traumatized by this. And we find out that she is writing this letter to her, her younger self. And she is, she says, thank you for coming to me that day, referring to, I think, the dream in which she said, you know, I want you to remember. And she says, because of you, I've started a foundation for
Starting point is 01:11:32 boys and girls like us. And I used to be so scared to tell my story. Now I tell it every day to anyone who I think it might help. And that helps my days, but still my nights are, you know, filled with fear. I see the Moonlight Man every night. And then until one day, she saw his face in the paper. And it says crypt creeper captured. It is a man who was robbing graves and first started out like digging into graves, stealing their jewelry, but then progressed to him cutting body parts off and eventually necrophilia and having sex with the corpses. macrophilia and having sex with the corpses. And, but he only had sex with men, which she says for me was obviously very lucky. She says he has acromegaly. It's the condition he has. So his face, I guess I should have said this earlier. Sorry. His like forehead is enormous. His chin is like his features are really enlarged and i guess it's something that happens when it's something to do with your pituitary gland and this actor does have
Starting point is 01:12:51 this condition he's the same actor that plays the giant in twin peaks and um she says how the police went to his house and found his sister and her husband dead in, in their house or in, in the house. And he referred to them, I guess, as mommy and daddy and had scalped them. And just like so many details of this case are given to us in this letter that she's writing writing to her younger self. I guess that's fine. But, um, there's, she says they think he killed almost a dozen people, but for some reason he spared me. He's being arraigned tomorrow and I'm going to go see him because the people who were meant to be our protectors ended up being the monsters. And we need the sun to come back out. And this is all, this is now back in the, in the red world.
Starting point is 01:13:56 She's like sitting next to her younger self and they're looking at the eclipse with the sun blocked out. eclipse with the sun blocked out and you know just this this metaphor for the darkness of this trauma and wanting to see the sun again and so is he is real and she walks into courts it's kind of silly she like walks up and is like hey in the middle of the court case and he turns around and he smiles really big at her and he says, you're not real. And he breaks out of his restraints. He has those, you know, like zip tie cuffs on that are clearly not enough to restrain him. But he puts his arms up to his sides like how she was positioned on the bed. So he like clearly remembers her and he goes you're made of
Starting point is 01:15:06 moonlight and his voice is really high for being of such a huge man i found that kind of unsettling and the other prison guards run up and re-restrain him he's not like running at her or anything. And she steals herself and continues walking towards him. And as she does, he transforms in her mind to her dad, her husband, and then back to him. And she gets up right up close to his face and says, you're so much smaller than i remember and she turns around and walks out of the courtroom into the street we see the sun as an feel less terrible because it's like a happy ending it's a redemptive story she overcomes her fears she overcomes her trauma I just don't like being reminded of how common child sexual abuse is. Yeah, this isn't what I thought
Starting point is 01:16:27 it was going to be. You thought it was going to be Jerry's Game. Well, I thought it was going to be Jerry's Game, the Pixar animated short with the man playing Chester themselves. I thought it was going to be more about somebody you know, sex and violence.
Starting point is 01:16:44 Yeah, I thought it was going to be like all that. Or more like manipulated by Gerald himself. Because Gerald's game really makes it seem like Gerald is going to be the main perpetrator. He is to a certain degree, but not really. It's more about her wrecking with her past.
Starting point is 01:17:01 Yeah. I had no idea we were going to revisit childhood sexual trauma. And I'm not happy about it. That's why we didn't do it. When I first watched it, I mean, I watched it probably like a year ago. And it really, really, really upset me. And I was just like, I don't think I'm like, yeah, I'm ready to recap this.
Starting point is 01:17:19 But it is a really good movie. I have complicated feelings as usual about like. Showing this. Showing this. Yeah. Like have that 12 year old actress. I mean, I don't know how they filmed that scene,
Starting point is 01:17:31 but I just feel like they shouldn't be able to do that. And maybe they didn't. Maybe there was like ways that they got around it. Like they, in Babadook where they like had an adult stand in for the little boy when he was getting screamed at. I hope they did. Cause it's just, it's so upsetting. Um, also like a man, Stephen King writing this book, a man, Mike Flanagan directing this movie and co-writing it with another man.
Starting point is 01:17:59 I just feel like that kind of makes me feel gross. I don't know if that's a valid feeling or not. All feelings are valid, I suppose. I just wish they had maybe brought in a woman to co-write it. I just feel like it's a little gross to be like, we men can tell this story about a woman's sexual assault and abuse. Yeah. Right. We'd love to have a female voice in there.
Starting point is 01:18:23 Mike Flanagan was asked about that and did say that Carla Gugino had a lot of input and that was really important to him to have her be an author of the story as well. And she is great in it. And I don't think it was done poorly or anything, but it is just something that. Yeah. Adds to my feeling of like, afterwards. Yeah, it's complicated yeah yeah because I guess it's there's part of you that's like feels gross that it could be used as a form of entertainment at all but then right but then if that's not what's happening and also it's better to acknowledge that these kinds of things do happen. It's not just pretending like they never happen. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:19:10 So that's what I mean. Like, I don't think it's upsetting. I don't think it was poorly handled by any means. And I don't think that. Yeah, it doesn't feel exploitative or anything like that. But it is just something that I think about. And then kind of, um, similarly, uh, we've talked about this before, but people that are differently bodied being used as just like these very monsters, um, is a little problematic in horror.
Starting point is 01:19:40 We've, I think, yeah, I talked about it with javier botet where that's just something that happens a lot that anyone that looks different is villainized or made into the monster yeah um that said a huge man just like is scary absolutely a regular sized man is scary yeah yes a huge man is very very scary but that is absolutely that's scary yeah yeah oh my god i don't even know i need to do some jumping jacks i'm really um i want to shake it out that oh yeah i i wanted to say some like reddit theories i read oh and i don't think this is true but someone was like i think the dog is not real and that it's the it's the man the whole time that's like eating the husband and like licking her foot and that she could have created the dog as a way to like block make that less traumatizing there is mention of how you how you repress memories and
Starting point is 01:20:38 change memories to protect yourself and like oh that's very disturbing and some people think yeah that the that the moonlight man spared her because he was also eating her husband i mean he did lick her toes right at one point well that was theoretically in a dream but maybe maybe the dog was the like Yeah So he Was he in the car with her I wonder or did she imagine that No she probably just Was yeah at that point Just not In her right mind
Starting point is 01:21:17 Yeah very out of it I mean it would be very very fucking hard to drive Under those circumstances Yes and people really hate a lot of people really hate this ending in true stephen king fashion oh boy yeah how does it really end um no that's how it really ends because mike flanagan was like i want to have it be true to source material but people think that it's um actually i don't i don't mind the ending it does feel a little like cookie cuttery like she's over it yeah it's like very neatly tied with a bow like and that's that
Starting point is 01:21:55 so it's a little cheesy and like thank god this horrible thing happened to her because it made her able to deal with her trauma yeah it's like yep i don't know yeah exactly so it's a little like i don't know there's probably a better ending in there in there somewhere but but i don't i don't hate it um but yeah that's that's gerald's game we did it now we have to watch jerry's game yeah let's watch jerry's game everybody palate cleansers just watch watch Jerry's game. Okay, can't wait. You're going to have a great time.
Starting point is 01:22:29 You're going to have a great time. Ooh, that really, that one, every now and again, I feel physically ill. You can see why I locked my window. Yeah, this one I felt physically ill a couple of times. awesome me too it's a very
Starting point is 01:22:48 it's an effective movie it's pretty fucking scary yeah okay i hate it am i yeah i just don't like it at all yeah i just don't i just don't i'm gonna i'm gonna sort of forget yeah we did it i want to watch some Pixar shorts now. That's what I'll do. That's what you got to do. That's what you got to do. Patrons, we blame you. We blame you.
Starting point is 01:23:12 God damn it, patrons. We blame you. We love you. We blame you. We did in many ways bring this upon ourselves. We really did. So, you know. Yep.
Starting point is 01:23:24 Can't blame you too much. but let me blame you a little everybody stay safe out there lock your windows lock your windows if you're going to a very remote place give people an itinerary give give your closest friends access to an emergency number nearby yep just have a time and place scheduled for check-ins. You know, just let's just all look out for each other. We should all be wearing those emergency necklaces that elderly people wear when they live alone.
Starting point is 01:23:53 We should all be wearing those. Something I wanted to ask you guys, would you have died in this scenario? I would have died. One hundred percent I would have died. Would you be able to? I would have maybe tried a smaller cut. No, we would have tried. No, I think given the circumstances we all would have died yeah would you be able to well i would have maybe tried a smaller cut no we would have tried no we i think given the circumstances we all would have tried to get ourselves out of the handcuffs you'd have to you would have to and would you rather because commonly in break a thumb yeah commonly movies it's shown that people can break their
Starting point is 01:24:19 thumbs to get out of handcuffs would you rather do that or cut and try to slip it out wait so when you break your thumb how does that even work like you break like the bottom part of your thumb that's the thing is like i'm not sure it's a real thing and so i feel like i'd rather cut yeah i i think you'd have to break yeah this big bottom bone that's not just your thumb Yeah that's like a whole big part of your hand That's like an arm wrist bone Um I mean don't make me choose I think I would try I think I would try the cut
Starting point is 01:24:54 I would try the cut first But you know what I would try though I think I would try a cut higher up Now that I know I think I would try a cut higher up my arm to get just to use the blood only I don't want to cut where the skin's gonna catch yeah you know yeah I think that's what you got to try to do yeah you know yeah and so then flip your arm over so like get the blood in there you just like try to let the blood pool and pull your hand and try not to
Starting point is 01:25:25 catch it. But the problem with cutting your wrist is like a lot of blood will come out versus cutting your hand. Exactly. Yeah. So it's not a great situation. I think what I'll do is not get into this situation at all. But
Starting point is 01:25:40 I would recommend you know there's lots of there's wrist ties that you can get as opposed to handcuffs, you know, say it's just the same purpose, but maybe use a tie instead of a handcuff. Or I'm sure they sell handcuffs for sexual purposes that have like an emergency release, you know? Yeah. So we're going to work. We're going to work on those. We're going to find those. We're going to only use those for sure. So we're going to work, we're going to work on those. We're going to find those. Only use those for sure.
Starting point is 01:26:06 We're only going to use those. I think that's, I think that's a good, good advice. So that's what, that's what we'll be doing. Yeah. Stay safe out there.
Starting point is 01:26:16 If we must stay safe, I'll stay safe out there. Yeah. Love you guys. Oh, love you guys. What a great reunion of the three of us. I'm thrilled to be back doing what I love the most,
Starting point is 01:26:29 what I earlier described as like stepping into a warm bath. Well, the first 20 minutes, the first 20 minutes were great. It's about the first 20. And then I just sort of dissociate for the last 60. Pretend that it didn't. This is not happening. Okay. Love you, Sammy.
Starting point is 01:26:50 Love you guys. Thank you for this. Sammy did it. No voices. We'll just do a gentle, nice from all of us here at Too Scary Didn't Watch. Goodbye. Bye. Goodbye.
Starting point is 01:27:03 Thank you, my friends, for listening to another episode of too scary didn't watch if you had fun hanging with us don't forget to subscribe rate and review on apple podcasts and spotify we're also on twitter and instagram at tsdw podcast and if you're interested in things like bonus episodes video trailer reactions and other cool content, head on over to patreon.com slash TSTW podcast. All right. We love you all forever and ever starting a while ago and continuing into eternity. Adios. That was a hate gum podcast.

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