Too Scary; Didn't Watch - I SAW THE TV GLOW with Hayes Davenport and Sean Clements

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

Nostalgic television, psychic connection, cliff-hangers and excellent needle-drops - we're recapping Jane Schoenbrun's brilliant film I SAW THE TV GLOW! Join us and Hayes Davenport and Sean Clements (Hollywood Handbook) as our hearts break into one million pieces of TV static <3 <3TrailerMovie stats @ 27:06Recap @ 32:06Follow 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.fmFor their buy 1 get 1 50% off deal, head to 3DayBlinds.com/TOOSCARY.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 Henley, and I'm 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 welcome to Hellchella, week two. Hellchella. Hellchella week two.

Hellchella. Hellchella is our summer series where we will be covering all new releases for June, July, and August, including Maxine, Longlegs, Alien Romulus, all the big ones. They will all be available as video episodes on our Patreon, including today's episode. And we are also doing one live virtual episode per month. This month, it will be on Sunday, June 23rd at 4.30 p.m. Pacific. We will be covering Abigail with correspondent Paul F. Tompkins. Again, that's going to be available on our Patreon, patreon.com slash tsdwpodcast, if you want to check that out. stay tuned more hellchella news to come we're going to be posting about it on our instagram as well if you want to look there for updates yeah yeah we'll be posting about it on our social media pages that's right and we are

missing emily today we miss her we her. She will be back next week. I have a little bit of horror news, which is just that the Alien Romulus trailer came out this week. Henley, I know you didn't watch it. No. But it looks so good. I'm so excited. Whoa. I can't freaking wait.

Wait, how scary is it? How scary is it? Could I watch it? No. Do you think I could do it? I don't think so. Not at all. Okay. I think you might not even be I don't think so. Not at all. Okay. I think you might not even be able to watch the trailer.

Oh, no. Wait, is it a Red Band trailer? No, but there's some pretty upsetting stuff in it. Okay, okay. I'm curious. Jenna doesn't even want to see it. Not even Jenna? You know, it's Fede Alvarez who did Evil Dead, my favorite movie, where I floated around with glee after it finished. I know. So good.

Absolute freak. Did anything scary happen to you this week? You know, I have been working a lot, which is pretty scary. And I got an app on my phone. I guess this was before I started working because I was spending too much time in the mornings playing my morning games. You know, I've talked to you about my morning games. My frame. I don't do Wordle. I do framed. I do Cinequote. I do connections. And then I just have a daily Sudoku game that I can spend hours on it. It's really bad. You're fighting off dementia every morning. That's right. Thank you. It's not going to get you. That's exactly what I'm doing. And I felt like it was getting a little

out of hand. So I got one of those app blocker or yeah, app blocker apps. Okay. And you type in how much time you spend on your phone or no, you type in your age or I can't remember. You type in some stats and then it like goes into your phone settings and tells you based on your phone usage how much of your life you're going to spend on your phone it told me 23 years which I feel like can't be right but even the fact that it arrived at that number is pretty scary no 23 years yeah that's so much time. That can't be right. That can't be right. I need to check the math. I wish they showed their work. Yeah, I was going to say, are they capitalizing on our inability to do basic math? Is that what's happening?

Well, here's the math I did afterwards to kind of make myself feel better. If we say we sleep eight hours a night, then we're sleeping for a third of our life, right? So say you live 90 years, that's 30 years sleeping. I spend about four hours a day on my phone based on what it tells me. That's half of speaking or half of sleeping time. So that would be 15 years of my life, assuming I started straight the day I was born. So it's got to be less than 15 years. Also, do they count like listening to podcasts as time on your phone? Because I do listen to a lot of podcasts, but I'm not like on my phone. Do you know what I mean? I don't know. I don't know. There's a lot of variables and I think it does count podcasts.

So let's just go ahead and make that number way lower to make me feel better. Yeah, that doesn't count to me. I'm doing tons of other shit when I'm listening to podcasts. Wow. Okay, well, that's pretty scary. It's a lot of time. Yeah, thank you. So the app is called Screen Zen if anybody wants to try it.

It's actually helped. Okay. But I've also, like I said, been working a lot. So my screen time average went down to 37 minutes a day, but it was mostly because I was working a lot. Crazy. Okay. But I've also, like I said, been working a lot. So my screen time average went down to 37 minutes a day, but it was mostly because I was working a lot. Crazy. Wow. Wow.

What about you, Henley? Anything scary happen to you this week? Well, actually something did. My mom sent me an article that I found very upsetting, and I'm not sure if you've seen it yet. Maybe you haven't because you're not on the East Coast. There's a spider called the Juro spider that's invaded the East Coast. Oh, no. And it's an invasive spider from Japan. They think it was brought over in like a shipping container or something. They always come on those shipping

containers. Goddamn shipping containers. What's in those fucking shipping containers? No one knows. No one knows. It's how the murder hornets got here. It's how it's awful. I actually met a woman. I met a woman whose husband is like a Greek shipping titan, actually. And I was like, what's in the shipping containers? I asked her. And she said, I don't know. As though, why would she know? It's like, how do you not know? How does no one know?

Anyway, so one thing is gyro spiders. They're the size of your hand. They're black and yellow. They're venomous. And they fly through the air by creating little balloons that parachute them through the sky. This is too much. This is too much. This is a joke, right?

No, it's real. They're like really all over Georgia. And they're making their way north. I would have to move. This is like Australia level shit. This is the reason I don't go to Australia. I know. I know.

I know. And it's real. Like they're real. They're, they're coming for us. They're coming for us. What am I going to do if I have to kill spiders that are the size of my hand?

I feel like I would need just like constant Xanax. I think you're going to need some sort of anxiety medication. I can't take any more than I'm already taking. That's a really scary one. I don't like that at all. And I feel really bad for you. Can you believe my mom sent that to me? My mom was like, you've seen this, right?

Have you seen this? I was like, how dare you? Anyway, the Joro spider. Oh, God. Keep your eyes peeled, everyone. Yeah, this sounds really bad. Here I was thinking mosquitoes were as bad as it gets. Mm-mm.

Mm-mm. Okay, well, I'm praying for you, Henley. Thank you. Another scary thing I did this week was watch this week's movie, which is I Saw the TV Glow, in theaters now, written and directed by Jane Schonbrunn, starring Justice Smith and Bridget Lundy Payne. And we have two guests with us today to discuss this film. The hosts of fellow HeadGum podcast, The Hollywood Handbook, it's Sean Clements and Hayes Davenport. Thank you guys. Hey, hi.

Hi. Thanks for having us. Thank you so much. I realized I added a the into Hollywood Handbook. That's not there. I thought, yeah, drop the the. Well, no, we're going to keep it. No, you're right.

You're right. We're going to start doing that. No, no, it's like Facebook. The Facebook. Just social network. Drop the the. Just social network. It's cleaner.

So excited to comment on the stories. Number one, we're all podcasters here. We're trying to support our industry. It doesn't count as screen time. Podcasts are fine. You can do other things. No, that's when you're not on your phone. That's actually the healthy thing that you do.

It's good for you and your family. Yep. Yeah, so many comments on all the stories I have. So many comments. The Joro spiders, it says, can fly for miles and they can eat butterflies, but they're shy. They're actually just shy.

They're introverts like me. Little shy guys? They're uwu. And they're overcompensating for like really just internally so much anxiety. Okay, okay. Now this is, I can handle this. They're kind of actually cute. Okay. Spiders are cute, like really close up too. Have you seen those photos of little spider faces?

If someone could put, just put googly eyes, huge googly eyes on them, then I think we'd be okay. Okay. Little googly eyes spiders. It is nice when you see news like that. And I know they'll come all the way out here at some point, but when you do see an article like that and you go, oh good, it's not where I live.'ll come all the way out here at some point but when you do see an article like that and you go oh good it's not where I live it's all the way over there I used to live there and I don't anymore I'm safe their problem the implication that it's scary that they can fly for miles is that they are like coming to get you that's true they're like like otherwise that would really matter yeah that they could go a long way Unless they are like following you To get you

Are we gonna see like herds of flying balloon spiders Like them all together They're shy But are they shy if they're in a group with all their closest friends Or is that where they really come out of their shell Once they land in New York City They have like a whole new personality Shit

We gotta keep an eye on these guys I know you haven't asked me yet if anything scary Once they land in New York City, they have like a whole new personality. Shit. We got to keep an eye on these guys. I know you haven't asked me yet if anything scary happened to me this week, but as we talk about our daily routines and we're doing our connections and we're doing our wordles, and have you tried strands? Because strands is in beta and it's actually kind of fun. No. Sean is playing the Cinematrix as well, which, Sammy, it sounds like you would love. Well, that's what I wanted to talk about because I do the Cinematrix as well. That's what I wanted to talk about because

I do the Cinematrix every day and today of all days is a horror movie day. Wow. And the three actors in the grid are Sarah Michelle Gellar, Patrick Wilson, and Jamie Lee Curtis. So you're getting three totally different

kind of eras and worlds of horror movie. But the like optimal answer for most of the squares inas and worlds of horror movie but the like optimal answer for most of the squares in the grid is a horror movie and i and i filled mine out already today okay i gotta add this one to my list i don't play this one i do yeah i've never heard of this movie grid it's vulture branded the cinematrix is a grid game okay and so there's the three actors down the left and then across the top. I think this today's was horror movie and the first column, $100 million worldwide, I believe in the second column. And then the third column is two word title. Great. Okay, cool. Insidious, Insidious

three, Insidious. Well, actually there is no two word title for insidious. They all have a subtitle or they have chapter in the name. OK, so you can't do that. The conjuring. And also and I almost fumbled and tried to do the nun. But Patrick Wilson's only in the nun, too, as we now surely remember. The conjuring is in there. I think I used the conjuring. What's the third one called? Like the end of the devil made me do it. Devil made me do it. Yeah. That one is the middle that did get, that did get a hundred mil. I contributed to that. So congrats to them. Great job, everybody. And what I'll do is I'll fill it out and I'll finish it a lot of days. Sometimes I have an empty square. I'm probably, you know,

at least once a week I have an empty square cause I blow it. Yesterday I tried to use, number in title was one of the prompts. And I tried to use midnight in Paris. And they said, no, no, no. You'll have to think of a different Marion Cotillard film number. And I said, I don't know one. But then I'll feel pretty good. And it'll say like, you're in the top 3% of people doing this game. And then I'll text with the two gentlemen who host Blank Check. And they'll have outscored me by like 2,000 points. And they'll be in the top 0%.

And I'll just feel like shit for the rest of the day. You got to get in a different group thread. I'm in it with some people that You're the best. We're kind of on par, but Please invite me to a new tech. Two Days, One Night

Two Days, One Night and Nine. I was going to say Nine. Nine was a movie that I didn't remember that I should have. CDL have CDL CDL So I did blow it But I'm trying to

I'm just trying to get Woody Allen's name out there A brief scary thing that happened to me That Sean doesn't know about But is related to him We had a podcast recorded earlier this week On one of our shows called The Flagrant Ones Where I made Watermelon steaks And I grilled them during the podcast podcast record earlier this week on our one of our shows called the flagrant ones where i made watermelon steaks and i grilled them during the podcast to serve as oklahoma's new state food

and you know after you record a podcast you kind of just want to go home so i took the full grill full of charcoal so i poured water on it and stuff but i like put it in the car and I'm driving home. And as I'm driving, I realized that the grill is kind of still like smoking going. Jesus. So I open all the windows and that's like helping a little, but like not really enough for having maybe just like adding oxygen to the fire. Yeah. So the smoke is like, yeah, like It's going out the window But it's also kind of like getting madder

And so I put my head out the window Smart And my hat blows off I branded Hollywood Handbook merch hat My hat back hat And so I have to stop and turn around And it was kind of dangerous

So people saw me Stop in the stop in the middle of the street, open the door, smoke billowing out of my car to get my hat. But then I did make it all the way home. And now my car smells like kind of cool. I like that. Yeah, that cool. That nice sort of smoky mesquite car smell. It's like a little hungry every time you get in there yes

yeah the scary thing that happens to me a lot now is i have i have a two and a half year old um vivian is her name and and we'll be hanging out like playing and she'll just like she'll hand me like her doll or whatever she calls it a baby but i know it's fake and we'll be just like chilling out and i'll be like oh we're in a nice groove like we're kind of comfy like where we are and then she will suddenly tell me oh no there's a monster we have to run this happens six or seven times a day me too me too i'm in the same boat i'm in the same boat and I'm in the same boat. And like, I'll have no idea. It could be like, I have no radar for these things. They come out of nowhere. Well, and I'm like, if she wasn't with me, like, what would I have done?

Because apparently there's a monster very close by. And so, yeah, it's honestly terrifying. It chills me straight to the bone. We have that too. Cause I mentioned, we live in a very old house and Silas, my two and a half year old. Good name for a kid that sees smart. He says, ah, there's a ghost. There's a ghost. He says it a lot now.

And I go, is it a friendly ghost or a scary ghost? And for a long time, it was a friendly ghost. And recently we've had the turn and it's a scary ghost now it's a scary ghost and we have to run as well i guess it's a two and a half year old thing running away from monsters and ghosts apparently it's definitely not a haunted house thing i think it's haunted but i think that they're all friendly and they like our presence okay that's how i feel right now good good good good well hayes sean will you tell us your thoughts on scary movies in general do you guys like scary movies no i don't watch that stuff i don't watch that stuff no too scary too scary for me uh

and i used to sometimes watch them like if there was like a big buzzy one i would watch it i've basically even gotten out of out of that world and i'm gonna call my wife's ass out on the pod and she won't like she genuinely gets mad at me when i talk to her about this because i'm like you're a liar because she always says like i I can't watch scary movies at all. They're too scary for me. I can't watch them. But then there was like a randomly, like a two month period where we watched, you know, this was, I guess 10 years ago now, but we watched it follows and the Babadook like within like a week of each other. Those are the two that, yeah, both of them. She had no reaction to at all. And then i would just be like wow well you you say you don't like scary movies but we watch scary movies and you're like and she goes well

that's not a scary movie and i'm like those are scary what do you think it is those are very scary think a scary movie is because it's an impossible argument to win like she just dismisses out of hand of like yeah but those movies aren't scary and i'm like but that ises out of hand of like, yeah, but those movies aren't scary. And I'm like, but that is the experience of watching a scary movie and it doesn't affect you. And yet if there is ever something that I'm like, Hey, maybe we could watch this. It's like, no, that's going to be too scary. And it's like, but you weren't scared of the actual, like straight up horror films. And now we can't watch. And I'm going to blank on example, but like some like sort of like sci-fi ish thing or something that has an element that could seem scary.

Alien Romulus. Alien Romulus, which I do. I do. I liked Alien Covenant. Maybe I'm the only one. This is, I think, different. I've watched all the alien movies and I like them. Romulus feels like they're getting back to, I think this is probably the scariest one.

Oh, wow. Based on what I'm seeing. Pretty scary. What one is scary. feels like they're getting back to i think this is probably the scariest one based on yeah what i'm seeing pretty scary what one is scary i mean that's a straight up just like it's really scary i watched it recently and i really enjoyed it but it is it is freaky i want to re-watch them all i i like sean i'll only ever watch the ones that are like you know the high art ones that are like, you know, the high art ones that like everyone has to see just because they're like great movies. I, if not for this podcast, I would never, ever, ever have gone to see this movie in the theater where I can't control the environment at all. It's scarier. Yes, it is. Even something I watched Bo is afraid recently uh which is not even really a horror

movie but they they should have called it haze is afraid i was scared and what i will do is now i figured out if you watch something on an ipad and you kind of like uh mouse up a little bit it'll put the screen in a tiny little corner so you can make it very small and like all the scary things on it are like kind of less able to hurt you because they're so tiny they can't get you yeah not like the big giant joro spider and you can turn the volume down also like that's how i watched hereditary at work i watched it at work in a tiny little corner in my top left screen. Not a fucking chance. I can't believe you did that.

Oh, I was about to make a Hereditary joke when you said you put your head out the window, but you probably wouldn't have understood. No, I do because I've mentioned this before in other shows. I read the Wikipedia summary and had a very serious nightmare. Yeah. Oh, no. Like, yeah, I feel like and I remember it in such complete detail because the Wikipedia summary and had a very serious nightmare. Oh no. Like yeah. I feel like and I remember it in

such complete detail because the Wikipedia summary was so traumatic. I feel like I have seen the movie and I'll also look up a picture of the monster for whatever it is kind of for most movies and kind of squint at it. Hazel told me about this and I started sometimes reading the recaps too. You know I used to go see

horror movies because i had like a rich life of like friends too yeah yes so i would be invited to be like we're all gonna go see the new nightmare on elm street and i would go i'll go i have all these friends but i've managed to call one by one yeah or sometimes in big groups yes that entire sort of side of my world has evaporated. And so I realized that's also why I'm separated because I wouldn't choose to do it, but I would go like, oh, sure, we're all going to see. I do remember seeing that new nightmare on Elm Street in the theater and being very intrigued by the idea of micro naps.

Oh, do you remember that was the big innovation that's how they get around? Freddy could get you because you feel like you're awake, but you are just like for just a millisecond falling asleep and in that millisecond freddie's there is this the thing where they hold like a pool ball in your hand what is that where you hold a pool ball in your hand and the second you drop it then you wake yourself up and you got a little bit of sleep is that that movie yeah thererible. Yeah, that was what was going on there. Terrible. Okay, well, Hazy, watch this movie. How did it go for you?

Was it okay? You okay? It was fine. So this movie is not like, honestly, if it had been like a really, really scary movie, I probably would not have participated. It was fine. I did. For me, the scariness is mostly like is it loud and when like that's the thing that like really and and i don't want to be embarrassed in front

of everyone because i like jump out of my freaking chair because i like it's too loud but i did end up like squinting a lot closing my eyes some i would say the movie is more freaky than scary there are a couple jump scares for sure and there's like one sequence that's like really intense where i was like squinting really hard uh but i would say overall i i was okay okay and someone as i was leaving someone's who i think works at the theater stopped and said that they listened to our podcast which was really nice but then i started being like oh are they like talking in the theater about how i was like kind of covering my ears and i was getting scared as i knew who I was. And it was the Alamo Drafthouse. So they're always kind of like coming up and like they're in the theater with you. You're dealing with people more than you expect to in a movie theater.

Yeah. And I worried like, what if someone came up to me and saw that like my eyes were closed and I was covering my ears? I think it's endearing. It's endearing. And then they went back and told everyone. They're still laughing about it right now. There's a guy out there in a hat pack hat who's scared.

Yes. It's Hayes. He's wearing his own hat. And the hat looked like it had been run over by a car for some reason. It smells like charcoal. And he was by himself. Speaking of being really scared inside the theater, I do want to tell one more scary movie story for me, for my youth, which is that when I was, so I just looked up the year. So in 1988, the movie Beetlejuice came out.

So I was seven years old and my sister was 10 and she was going to see it with a bunch of her friends. And I was like, I want to go see that too. And so then I went to the theater with her during the previews before the movie started. And it was her and six of her friends and then her friend's mom, not my parents. Oh, no. During the previews, I started getting so freaked out about how scared I was going to be during the movie. The movie had not started.

Then I was like, I got gotta go home i gotta go and like i just feel for this mom now like she just she really was like i can't take these like six ten-year-old girls home because this kid is melting down do i have to wait outside with it but i can't leave them alone and it was really tense. And they did manage to like successfully talk me down by the time the movie started. And I watched it and enjoyed it. And it was fine. Oh, you weren't scared. Wow.

Okay. I would have been scared. I think it's heaven. It was scary. The like sandworm part was scary to me. Like there were like a couple moments that were scary, but I, it just was a good lesson in a way that holds true like my idea of what it is is much scarier than the experience ever will be so that was uh that was probably my earliest scary movie interaction where i was like this is gonna be too scary there's fucking

there's a beetle juice in there and then uh i wrote it out and I actually was even braver than Hayes was. Wow. Wow. As a seven-year-old too. Pretty cool, right? Yeah. No, we hear that a lot. I feel like even in recapping movies,

sometimes it's worse to hear about than to see because of exactly that. Your imagination just like goes to the worst possible place like we did the original evil dead uh sam raimi's evil dead and you guys were like horrified and disgusted i know him you know sam raimi oh you know i worked on ash versus evil dead the stars show i did not know we're with sam and his brother ivan nice i don't think i've ever told this story on a podcast before. I'll tell you this Sam Raimi story because you love The Evil Dead. You've brought it up twice now.

I do love it. Yeah. Did you know that Evil Dead was originally going to be called The Book of the Dead? I did know that. Yes. Did you know the story of how it changed? Studio didn't like it or something. So like, was it Dino De Laurentiis who like produced it? It's like one of the

famous. I'm not sure. So I think it's him and he sits down with Sam Raimi and he's got the Book of the Dead written down on a piece of paper and he says the tells me nothing crosses it out. He goes books. People don't like

them. He goes of tells me nothing crosses out the tells me nothing cross it out and he's left it only the word dead is on the page he goes we'll do the movie you can call it evil dead or a hundred percent dead those are your choices we could be living with the legacy of 100 dead sam raby tells me the story. He writes it on the paper and reenacts the whole thing. That's so funny. That's cool.

Yeah, it was cool. Is that what happened with the Hollywood Handbook? Yes. That's right. That tells me nothing. Scott Aukerman sat down with us. Amazing. Okay, well, let's get into this week's movie i saw the tv glow has an 84 on rotten

tomatoes and 84 on metacritic i don't think i've ever seen those have the same percentage and seven on imdb okay budget was 3.6 million and so far it has made 3.6 million so wow nice and you know it's still in theaters. So probably going to make its money back. Make some more. Yeah. I mean, minus marketing.

More movies should just be satisfied with that though. True. Yeah. Yeah. And there's not a lot of trivia about it. There are a lot of cameos in it, but I guess we'll just call those out as, as we see them, as we get to them.

I heard the soundtrack rips soundtrack is really good alex g yeah really good i saw a lot of good music musicians listed yeah it's awesome a little loud too loud that would be my one note at certain times i think it didn't have to be quite so loud but you could listen to it at home at your own at your preferred volume maybe if we all in the theater got together and said hey does this have to be so loud can we turn this down uh but okay before we get into the recap let's watch this trailer okay i know this might sound crazy I don't want to alarm you. Do you remember a TV show we used to watch together? It was called...

The Pink of Eight? Yeah. Do you watch? Each episode, they help each other fight a new monster from across the county. But it's way too scary for most kids. We're gonna defeat him this time. We're gonna need to harness the full potential of our shared powers. Sometimes, the pink copay feels more real than real life.

Maddie, it was a TV show. Are you sure thatdie, it was a TV show. Are you sure that's all it was? I like girls, you know that, right? Totally, that's fine. What about you, do you like girls? I think that I like TV shows. Do you like girls? I think that I like TV shows. It's our destiny.

How can I have a destiny? Something's wrong. This is how life is supposed to feel. Tell me you know it's true. Maddie, it's just the suburbs. Seems like you're always somewhere else, like me. Maddie disappeared without a trace. All they found was her TV set burning in the backyard.

I told myself I made the right choice. What if I really was someone else? Very far away on the other side of a television screen. whoa i'm obsessed wow you're obsessed already i'm really excited that was cool cool trailer it looked good it's a great trailer and an honest as someone who's seen it it's an honest representation of what you get yeah what song is that is it it's broken social scene right isn't that song yes oh is that what it is yes yes oh my god it reminds me of college it's like i mean it's a little bit weird version of it but it's that like what is it called yes diary of a teenage girl or something i forgot about that song love it when a song i liked yeah yeah we've all heard it i'm gonna listen to it after this i'm gonna listen to this whole soundtrack i'm excited i had that one loaded up in an ipod nano at one point

ipod nano absolutely yeah oh man it's very pretty movie very neon lots of very colorful yeah look cool i mean some of the monsters the first monster they show i was like yuck it's pretty nasty yeah the first one that's scary when that happens i was coming out of it so kind of Ew, don't goo at me. Yeah, we don't like when they're fluids. No, no, no. I want a dry horror movie, please. Me too. After Night Swim, I feel like we deserve a little dry horror movie,

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Owen is with his mom. He's in seventh grade. And is she letting him vote for her? I was that what was happening? Yeah. He gets to go into the voting booth. Uh, and she's like,

you, you're old enough now to like participate in this and so i think he yeah i think he votes and they don't really say whether this is like an alternate universe where his vote brings ross perot into office and they're all living yeah they never clarify under ross perot for for the rest of the movie he stays that's kind of implied it's implied for sure. The way people are acting, even just in watching the trailer,

I was like, she's very pro-coded. Yep, yep. And he's waiting in another part of the school and meets Maddie, who is in ninth grade. Maddie really laughs at him like, oh my God're in seventh grade you're a baby and she is reading that has happened to me it's very funny and she's reading a book or an episode guide on the pink opaque her favorite show the pink opaque

that's right owen says it's a kid's show, right? She says, no way. It's way too scary. The mythology is way too deep for kids. And Owen wants to watch it, but it's on after his bedtime, which is 10 p.m. And it's on at 10.30 p.m. I will say something that they do in this movie. Basically, in the world of the movie movie once you get into ninth grade that's

what you look like for the rest of your life yes before that you're a little kid once you're in ninth grade that's what you are yep and both of the actors and this is basically a movie with two people in it i mean there's very few other it's all i And both of, I mean, I love them both. And both were kind of convincingly high schoolers and adults. Yeah. Bridget Lundy Payne, who plays Maddie, is 29 now. Oh, wow. Wow.

I was shocked when I looked that up. I thought maybe they were 21 or something. Yeah. That's range. Yeah. That's range. Yeah. That is surprising. Because, yeah, they cast someone else for Owen as a seventh grader. But Bridget Lundy Payne plays again.

I mean, but they're a ninth grader. The entire way. Yeah. Yes. So there's a different Owen actor right now. Different Owen actor when he's in seventh grade as a kid. Okay. Got it.

Got it. Got it. So Maddie has an idea that Owen should sneak over to watch the pink opaque. So he tells his parents that he's going to spend the night at a different friend's house and brings his sleeping bag over to Maddie's. There's kind of a, we're getting the sense that he's pretty scared of his dad. His mom at one point says, you can ask your dad. And he's like, will you ask him for me? Owen is pretty timid and quiet in general. And Maddie's also pretty, they're like, you know, obsessed with their TV show and they're bonding together over this thing.

But they both seem like kind of outcasts. They feel a little like they have sort of Joro Spider-esque personalities. Exactly. obsessed with their TV show and they're bonding together over this thing, but they both seem like kind of outcasts. They feel a little like they have sort of Joro spider ask personality. Exactly. They may be, you know, uh, sometimes dangerous, but also very shy,

very shy. I don't know. Did we clarify? I didn't watch the movie. Oh yes. Sorry. We did not clarify that Hayes and I have watched the film. Sean has not seen it. I didn't watch the movie. Oh, yes. Sorry. We did not clarify that. Hayes and I have watched the film. Sean has not seen it.

I didn't watch the movie. I just saw the trailer for the first time. I don't think I've ever related to a character more than when this gentleman, you're telling me his name is Owen, is informed by another character, hey, there is no chance in the world that I'm going to be attracted to you. another character hey there is no chance in the world that i'm going to be attracted to you and and then owen who is me says i really am mostly just into tv shows that exchange i've never felt so seen the sequence this is kind of how they tell you like owen is walking through his high school like walking down the halls it's a long shot passing a lot of different

clicks including the kind of like crust punks so you're like oh this is this is a one person operation here for this kid lone wolf at high school yes uh so they watch an episode of the pink opaque it has kind of secret world of alex mack vibes or are you afraid of the dark and pete are you afraid of the dark for sure the vampire slayer it's like a monster of the week show this is for i don't know how old everyone else is on here but this was my a like you know i grew up at exactly this time i'm 38 and it's kind of sad almost to be kind of like given the cultural keys in this way like we have been i remember watching bridesmaids and like wilson phillips shows up at the end and just thinking like these old motherfuckers

what the fuck is this shit and i feel like that's what like pete like a zoomer now doesn't know anything about that but i will say that like when they play the show it's like kind of supposed to be on um like snick the the saturday night nickelodeon not for kids not for teens. You know? Yeah. And it's so lovingly and kind of accurately put together. It looks exactly right. The fonts and the credits are exactly right. The performances are right. These things are often so bad. Anytime they try and recreate that type of old media and something,

it just often hits your eye and your ear in a way that is fake. Yep. And this was really, really perfectly executed. Yeah, I agree. This is so funny because, Sammy, last week you were talking about Are You Afraid of the Dark? I know, because of the scary pool episode. And there's also a very short game of Marco Polo in this movie. I was noticing the differences. We also had that in our last wow what are these connections what's the meaning behind it i didn't see it i'm sure they did do a good job recreating it but the pink opaque would never be the title of never never never never not a great never that's

just like we got a little bit too artsy with the name yes when i heard that that was the title i was like this is going in in the in an incorrect direction i would have loved to pitch on that a little bit but that's the only aspect of it yeah really uh everything else is is dead on yeah even the even the the premise of the show is that two friends isabel and tara met at sleepaway camp in the pilot they have a psychic connection that they discovered and they solve paranormal mysteries together from across the county from each other they never see each other in person during the episode but they can communicate on a psychic plane and they have to combat this like monster of the week every episode and it does really feel

like a convergence of alex mac like getting powers in that way are you afraid of the dark the monster of the week like story element and the kind of like weirdness of pete and p that all feels like it it could have happened yeah uh and in the episode the first episode we see that has that scary monster. It's ice cream monster. This was a jump scare for me. Totally. Very scary. It's ice cream, so it's melting ice cream. It's melting ice cream. That's the goo. This isn't correct. And again, I just saw a brief image of the monster for a moment, but it had almost like a weird alien pig like quality to me that did remind me of mighty morphin power rangers monsters.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of that. Um, Heim Saban, uh, creature factory.

There's a funny, the, after they watched the episode, Maddie is talking to Owen about it. And Owen asked a question that I thought was funny, which is like, is the, is the ice cream man in every episode?

And I was like, no, like that's clearly not going to support the entire series. The ice cream man. So the big bad of the show is Mr. Melancholy, who is the moon or lives on the moon. A face in the moon. It's like

imagery very similar to the Lumiere brothers a trip to the moon. This is like one of the first movies ever. Yep. Ah, yes. Yes. So not the Teletubbies.

Just the face in the sun, which is what I was picturing. Yeah, the baby in the sun is the moon's baby. So they're the same family, but it's not the same. Yes. Got it. And it's Mr. Melancholy and it's the moon?

Yep. Yes. Like, oh. Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness. That's right. As the moon on the cover yep at same era right i mean that's like you know 90s i feel like there are a lot of those little things yeah i'm sure that that was intentional so owen spends the night but then i think he's just nervous to do it again

and so maddie starts leaving him tapes of when they replay episodes. And so he can watch it at home before his bedtime. And then we get a time jump to two years later. Now Owen is in ninth grade played by a completely different actor. He looks like a completely different person because he is, but he's, you know, still his timid self. And he sees Maddie sitting on the bleachers one day and

goes to talk to her again to ask if she's still watching the Pink Opaque. She says, yes, he wants to come over and watch it again because now he's obsessed with the show because he's been watching all the reruns that she's taped for him. And he asks if he can come over and watch it again. This is where she tells him she's into girls. And he says, that's fine. I'm into TV shows. I'm into TV shows.

There's a kind of, I mean, like for the allegory of this movie, there's a kind of an important thing he says about just like how he feels generally at this time, which is it feels like someone took your heart and scooped it out. And, you know, there's nothing in there, but you're too afraid to check. Yep. Oh, wow.

And I mean, it's sad. It's like and Justice Smith. I'd never seen Justice Smith in anything. He's like really kind of like out there, like in a lot of stuff. And I know he's like a rising star, but I'd never seen him. Same. He's unbelievable in this movie. He was great.

It's a very, what seems like if you just saw like pictures or like shot to shot, a very flat performance, but it's not that at all. Yeah. He's awesome yeah they both do seem sort of disaffected in the trailer yes yeah i think the idea is that they're like uncomfortable in their own skin yes and he has a way of retaining like what seems like a very muted performance but his voice is very expressive and in a very kind of intense way. So she tells him he can come over to watch it again.

And at some point him and his mom go to a fair. We see that his mom has cancer and they're sitting and she's talking to him clearly kind of worried about him says, you know, you seem like you're not here a lot of the time and is it because of me or like is there anything you want to talk about and he is not opening up to her and get off my back mom right that's right and they drive home from the fair with his dad, who he's afraid of. And the dad should be mentioned as Fred Durst. And, yeah, Dr. Durst. Yeah.

Dr. Durst is in the building. I did not recognize him. I did not recognize him either. Although he is wearing an orange New Era fitted backwards. I, yeah, only looked it up afterwards and was like, oh, Fred Durst. Yeah. He has one line in the movie and it's right here where he asks again if he can go now that he's in ninth grade, can he go over or can he watch the Pink Opaque?

Now his bedtime is 1015, so it's so close. But his dad turns to him and says, isn't that a show for girls? Dads. And you see him kind of like close off even more. But he does go over to Maddie's and they watch it again. And she tells him that she's going to be leaving town, running away. Essentially, she says, I can't be here. If I stay here, I'll die. I don't know how, but I know that I will. And so I need to go. You should come with me, pack everything you need. Don't tell anybody. And Owen looks very nervous about this, but I think tells her, yes, like I'll do this. In the show, The Pink opaque Tara and Isabel have pink ghosts drawn on the back of their

necks. I saw that in the trailer and they start glowing. Yeah. They look really cool. There's a lot of really cool effects in this movie that I had not seen before. Really cool. But yeah,

she draws that on his neck and just in a moment that feels kind of like a, we're best friends now. Like this is our. Well, this is feeling to me. Am I crazy? Similar to the sort of characters in the pink opaque where they have this kind of unspoken psychic connection. Yes. These glowing ghosts.

That's right. You're more ahead of it than i was and so now owen is trying to figure out how he's going to get out of running away he's like too scared to do it and so he goes to the house of the boy that he's been telling his parents he's been spending the night there, knocks on the door. The mom answers, who is played by Amber Benson, who is Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And he's crying and he says to her, you need to tell my parents that I have not been staying here

because I need to get grounded. Like, I can't run away with her. And he's really worked up and and she takes him in and she's very kind to him and hugs him and i don't think she tells his parents i think she basically just kind of calms him down and but he doesn't he doesn't leave but he does hide in his room and this this part is kind of like done fast in voiceover. He basically is hiding out in his room. Maddie disappears. His mom dies.

Oh, dang. And the pink opaque goes off the air. Yep. And Maddie disappears in a way that like police are looking for her and stuff. Like no one knows where she is. And the only thing that's left behind is like her TV set is on fire in the backyard. Pink opaque is canceled and that's that for a while. Watching it too

hard. Yeah. Yep. And Owen's dad doesn't have another line for the rest of the movie. So he has a he like we see he starts a band. You know what Owen? Things are about to turn around for owen's dad we jump ahead 10 years right so now we're in like 2008 2006 yeah he's like in mid-20s now yeah and he's living at home with just his dad and there's a couple kind of scary sequences where he walks in the door and his dad is just staring at him there was but there was one shot of fred durst just staring that really unsettled yes it was scary because

it's he's lit by the static of the tv which a lot of scenes in this movie are but so it's just like tv static and yes exactly and it is really unsettling it's just not a soothing light and and i'm glad i didn't know it was fred durst because i think that it might not have been quite as freaky yes would have taken the sting off of some of them yeah yep it is scary when you walk in and your dad's just staring at you totally fred durst i realized uh directed a movie with the rock right interesting i saw the first movie that he directed um i did not know he was directing yeah i knew he'd become a director and he made oh i'm thinking of the long shots with uh ice cube which is a sports comedy drama film about uh pop warner football but anyway i wonder if he's on

it's probably helpful if you've got fred durst on set like he directed the long shots he's probably helping out with blocking and stuff. The Education of Charlie Banks is the movie that Fred Durst directed at first with Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Ritter, Ava and Marie. And I did watch it. I watched it. It must have been, I think it was

streaming on Netflix or something when they only had like 20 movies. Remember when Netflix first started streaming and they were like, we have like 25 movies. We have the one that Fred Durst directed directed i guess i'll watch that one yes yeah and i would just be like okay simpler times it was nice it's too much choice now there's too many options now so he owen works at at a movie theater with conor o'malley who is uh he walks in on like uh getting a blow i was squinting at this time so i don't know exactly what i bet he's like getting blown in the projection room i think yep and conor o'malley is mean to him and it's scary in a way like it would i've never met him but like i imagine it would be to work with conor o'malley

yeah he's basically like messing with him like oh did you like what you saw back there like i could get her number for you and then he starts saying like why will you just look me in the eye why don't you ever make eye contact and owen can't make eye contact with him. And it's a stressful little scene. And Owen is at the grocery store. And then suddenly Maddie is standing there behind him. And he doesn't recognize her at first. And she has a different haircut. She does look different.

And her hair is cut much shorter. And he figures out that it's Maddie and she tells him that she needs to talk to him and she doesn't say where she's been. They go for a little walk, but she says you have to, we have to go somewhere we can talk and they go to a kind of a divey like concert venue called double lunch,

which is a such a good name for that. Like if it was like someone should name a venue that that is good name and phoebe bridgers is performing with somebody that i didn't recognize i don't yeah i didn't recognize the other person yeah not that plugged in yeah i probably would have known who it was and And Maddie talks to Owen and says, like, do you remember that show we used to watch? The Pink Opaque. And Owen's like, yeah, it's like my favorite show.

Of course I remember that. Knew it would come up again. Still my favorite show. It always will be. And Maddie says, when you remember that show, do you ever get confused? Does it feel like something is off about the show and like time is moving differently when you think about it? And no, and it's kind of like, no, not really.

Like it's a TV show. Might be a you thing. Yeah, that's basically what and Maddie's like, that's not what it's basically what and and maddie's like that's that's not what it's not what you remember and where i've been is i i've been in the in the show for the last 10 years and owen is like no you you haven't been in the show it is a tv show i tell you this same thing but it's about like fast lane with peter facinelli you remember fast lane and so she asked him to meet at the high school where they first met the next night or something right yep he goes home he leaves to go to the high school two kind of very still uh zombified type characters are standing outside his door

that's that's now right i don't think so but i but finish the thought because i'm i know what you're about to say okay i'm making more of this moment than it actually is in the movie it's kind of just for a second and they never mention it again and it's not referenced in any way. And it's Pete and Pete. It's Michael Marona and Danny Tamberelli are just kind of standing there outside of his door expressionless. Yes. Like his house?

Staying outside of his house? Yes. Doing a recap podcast. Yes. Doing it. Yes. Now it makes sense. Yes.

I was like, oh, this is kind of fun. But they don't... Am I wrong? Did I miss something like uh before before he leaves his house i think uh maddie tells him to or maybe he just decides of his own accord to watch the season finale of the season finale opaque again because the answers are in there sorry season or series series series yeah yeah i just think it's a season. Not the same thing. It's an important distinction.

Yes. And I just want to clarify with the order of this. That's before he goes to the high school and talks to her. I believe so. I could be wrong. You're right. You're right. So nice, Henley, to not have the responsibility to remember the order. I was like, if I do watch watch it do I have to take notes

the whole time? Yes. And Sammy took notes and I didn't and I'm still like um actually I'm not going to watch this. No I mean it's I of course took them from memory so so Owen watches the series finale of the Pinko Pig and

this is just an amazing sequence start to finish yep Sammy didn't take notes Sammy keeps looking down at a little piece of paper that just says you can do this it's just a mirror with lipstick written on it you're the best it's just a mirror

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and Isabel goes to the sleep away camp and Tara is standing on the dock facing away from her, but as she's approaching she hears a cry for help on the psychic plane and it's Tara and she realizes that what she's approaching is not

the real Tara. Tara turns around and it's Mr. Malincali is like creepy assistants who we have seen a couple times over the course of the series. Marco and Polo. These are also like power rangery type like putty type characters and hang on. These are also like Power Ranger-y type, like putty type characters. And...

Hang on, I have a joke. Hold on. All right. All right. It might not work, but... I heard a cry for help, too. Haze's outfit. Just a...

It's just a long sleeve. It worked. Come on. You're trying so hard. And this is the kind of thing that Owen is subjected to and in many ways drives his own experience.

So what has happened to Tara is they have buried her, scooped out her heart, put it in an industrial freezer, fed her Luna juice, which is Mr. Melancholy's lunar poison. And she's underground. And they do the same thing to Isabel.

And the show ends. The heart being scooped out. Scary. But straight from Owen. Owen said. That's what that's what owen said i think owen might say that his insides have been scooped out and there's nothing in there but and then it's the heart it might not be as on the nose as i'm describing it the connection right but anyway

and then the show just ends and then we're in owen's house and his father, Fred Durst, hears like a loud noise in the basement, goes downstairs, and Owen's head is inside the TV like we see in the end of the trailer. And sparks are shooting out, and he's screaming. And Fred Durst pulls him out of the TV, runs his head under the shower. Owen is screaming like, you're not my dad. This isn't my family. You're not my dad. or Owen is screaming like, you're not my dad. This isn't my family. You're not my dad. But then it seems like Owen doesn't seem to remember that that happened, if it happened at all. Right. And he at one point is vomiting up TV static. It's something I had never seen before.

And it's loud like TV static. Oh, yeah. So you were squinting at that point. Yes. And so Owen goes to the high school to talk to Maddie. And Maddie, there's a very long, unbroken shot of Maddie saying what has happened to her over the last 10 years. Really haunting monologue. Yes. And she says, so I left town. I just kind of kept going until I got to Phoenix. And I worked at the Build-A-Bear workshop. I was stuffing the bears. And I knew if I had stayed in town that I was going to die.

But when I left, nothing had really changed. And in many ways, it was worse. And time was passing really fast. I was 20. I was 21. The time was just like shooting by. Something was wrong. And at one point, I paid some guy who I barely knew to bury me alive. He didn't know he was burying me alive. But I got a coffin, laid in the coffin, and I told this guy to come by at some time and just bury the coffin and pack it really tight. And I told this guy to come by at some time and just like bury the coffin and pack it really tight. And she sang songs to herself.

She felt the dirt falling on her. She said she pissed herself. She shit herself. She was like trying to create as much saliva as she could just to drink something. And then she started like screaming for help is owen like tmi we don't see owen during any of this but yeah but he's probably not saying tmi no we don't see him but we don't know like we don't know each other yeah yes but that's for our imagination and she says that at some point she left her body. She could see it really far away.

Like it was on a TV screen that she was really far away from. And then she was out of her body. And she realized that like who she had been before. Like she wasn't Maddie. That's not who she was. She was someone else. She had to go underground to figure it out that the show was real. They have been in the midnight realm this whole time.

And it's heavily, they never, I don't think like say this outright, outright, but like she is Tara and Owen is Isabel. Sorry, because Maddie's story is of being buried alive, but we saw Tara buried alive earlier in the show, right? And then, yeah. In the show. And what happens to Isabel in the show?

Same thing. When she finds Tara, it's the fake Tara on the dock. She gets taken. Same thing happens to her. They both get buried alive and pumped full of Luna juice. Now I remember everything. Yeah. So the idea is, and this is like, it's an actual twist that I didn't see coming and was

effective for me in part because you're not like, what's the twist, you know, like the lives that they thought they had, what we were seeing of Owen's upbringing is basically a false memory that was created for him. And he is this, this woman, Isabel with powers and mr melancholy has been keeping them in this false world with the luna juice the luna juice is like in the matrix when you're in the pod and you like believe that you're living this life in the real world but you're actually yes your body is just this husk in this thing and it is still alive and there's still time is like kind of the message that he's getting but like isabel is down there dying and this is like you know it's not trying to disguise that this is an allegory for gender dysphoria and the feeling

of that you are that your body is not your own or you were born in the wrong gender. Yes. Like just that feeling of offness. What was like newer and very sad to me was this feeling that you had kind of created this entirely false narrative about yourself. Right. false narrative about yourself right in order to fight this up so that even what you've what you remember about yourself isn't even true because there's concept in the show called the drain lords where if you think if you don't think about

it they can't hurt you and to defend against like his real self he has created basically an entirely false upbringing. And Owen is still not receptive to this. Yep. Right.

Like he, he's just kind of like Maddie is, is crazy. Like this is not, it was a TV show. Yeah. He's not, he's still in denial.

She, I think, uh, tells him to meet or takes him to the football field and i think tells him like we need to bury you alive with this being kind of the concept of like the old you needs to die so that the the real you can exist you need to let go of the construct right completely yeah yeah and so in this moment he panics he shoves maddie and he just runs and maddie looks really sad or not going by maddie anymore tara now she keeps saying my name's not maddie and then we just cut to 20 years later if i'm oh wow really time starts going by really fast owen goes to his dad dies he moves into his dad's house he says now i have a family of my own who i love more than

anything we never see the family we see him buying that shot is really uh because he's speaking to screen he does that uh during the film a. It kind of changes from voiceover to conversations to addressing the audience directly, like breaking the fourth wall. So this is a moment where he's telling us, like, I'm living my life and I got myself a family and I love my family. But the only thing you see is him buying a new TV. It's like a big flat screen TV that he's carrying into the house being like I have a I'm an adult now a real person and he goes to to watch the

pink opaque which is streaming now and it's nothing like he remembered it. It's nothing like we saw it. It's way cheaper and like it's more for kids. It's not scary at all and he works at the fun center, which is like not Chuck E. Cheese like when I was growing up. It's not scary at all. And he works at the Fun Center, which is not Chuck E. Cheese.

When I was growing up, it was a place called Mr. Gaddy's in Austin where toys and pizza and tickets and stuff. Discovery Zone was a place that we had. Yes, it's like that. I would say more game-based than Ball Pit. Maybe modern, like

Dave and Buster's type thing. more like a Dave and Buster's yeah and there he's working at this place he's like older now he's very thin his lips are all chapped and he has asthma through the whole movie and his breathing is getting worse

and he's in one of those like birthday party rooms and they're singing happy birthday for some kid. And then Owen starts screaming and everyone else in the room, including Connor O'Malley, who he still works with. Connor O'Malley has like brought him over to the fun center. Who is also like basically the same age. So time is weird in this. Like Connor O'Malley hasn't really aged.

Whereas I could also see it's it's probably hard to age up or down Connor O'Malley. Yeah, you know, they're probably just like let's just not try and he starts screaming. Everyone else just kind of like goes blank just like is like hanging their heads motionless. Owen is screaming talks about he's dying says mommy and then goes into the bathroom where it seems like he really

is dying connor romali is like are you okay through the door and owen's like yeah i'm fine i'm fine and then he takes a box cutter opens up his chest, and pulls open his chest. And there's a glowing static in there. But he seems kind of relieved. And then you see him walking through the fun center. He's still kind of frail and old and breathing hard. And he's just saying to people, sorry. Sorry about what happened in there.

Sorry. No one's paying attention to him. And then the movie ends. Really? paying attention to him and then the the movie ends really yes that's the end of the movie devastating devastating ending it's a it's a it is a tough ending yeah although there is one little note of hope is that it i think the last shot is on the street someone has written in chalk there's still time is that the last shot i thought we saw that a lot earlier. I think we're done at the fun center.

And I think that happens before we cut pretty far in time. So like there's the, it's unclear whether there is, whether there is still time. Oh, that's so devastating, especially because... It's really sad. The life that Owen has constructed for himself is so depressing. There's nothing redeeming about it. But it has to be, right?

Yeah. Oh, it's so sad. But you never get the moment of transformation, of discovery. I mean, the closest thing is him. He's checking. Just a constant denial of every signal that it's like, hey, there's more. Something's wrong.

Yeah. And after he runs home from the high school, after Maddie tells her story, he never sees her again. Yeah, I was going to ask. Did we see Tara at all again? So there's no. It's like the 20 years later Maddie tells her story, he never sees her again. Yeah, I was going to ask. Did we see Tara at all again? Oh, yeah, no. So there's no... It's like the 20 years later is just like,

nope, you didn't listen to Maddie, and now this is just it. You just ride this out. Yes. Well, maybe Owen dies and then is resurrected. Maybe there's a sequel. Maybe. And it's actually a rom-com.

Maybe. I look's actually a rom-com. Maybe. I look forward to seeing that. Well, it sounds like the screaming was probably pretty loud at that birthday party too. It was a little bit loud. Now that you mention it, it did definitely get loud at times. And the really scary part is at the end

of the series finale, actually what we see, the hints are very series finale actually what what we see i mean like it's the hints are very powerful at this point we see mr melancholy very very close to the screen i don't know if you had to get that close uh feeding isabel luna juice but he's he's like creating like a snow globe of memories of what we saw of Owen's childhood and basically saying like, you're going to love the nightmare realm. So it's like Owen as a kid in the show. That's devastating. The effect of Mr. Melancholy's face is kind of like the craters on the moon growing and shrinking.

It almost has like a magnetic sand quality to it. You remember that? Yes. It's like a very interesting texture i had never seen this effect either it looked really cool yes and scaly very this is like very a24 aesthetic i feel like in a way that i was expecting to be like okay we've seen a lot of this but like it it was still fresh similar in a lot of ways to Brigsby Bear, which Dave McCary, who produced the movie with Emma Stone, directed, which is an A24 movie about Kyle Mooney,

where he also has a powerful relationship with a TV show from his childhood. There's a lot of parallels with that movie, but that movie, not scary. Also a moon in it, I think. There is a moon in it as well. Something that I didn't pick up on while watching the movie, I will say I didn't enjoy the experience of watching this movie, but the more I thought about it afterwards, the more I like it. And there's so much going on in it that, yeah,

I felt like I'm not going to want to watch this again but now that I've thought about it a bit I'm like I do want to watch it again because there's so much there but one thing I didn't notice at first is when he's in the end like very thin with his chapped lips and his his asthma's like getting worse and worse yeah it's because he's actually buried alive. He's like still as Isabel in the coffin and I didn't put that together. Yes. Yes.

Like he's dying. You're running out of oxygen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We can kind of see Isabel's face over his at some times and like she's breathing hard. Like, yeah, she's running out of air. Yes. Because at first I thought they were just trying to age him and make him look very old.

But I realized, no, he's like specifically like underground, like dehydrated and starving. Do we get any motivation from Mr. Melancholy besides just being evil? Like, why go to all this effort? He does go through a lot of trouble. He goes through a lot of trouble. He does. Yeah. What through a lot of trouble. He goes to a lot of trouble. He does. Yeah. What's the upside?

Yeah. He seems to think that he's doing something nice. He's going, you're going to love it, right? Yes. He says, just let it like,

let it work. It's magic in a way that I think actors and in people's lives think they are doing something kind by like adjusting someone to help someone fit in. Right. Going like here, this is exactly. You're going to. Yeah. Trust me.

You don't want to wear that. People are going to give you a hard time or whatever. The thing is that they're. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's so depressing. You're really sad. I know the ending of it is basically, yeah, it's like him seeing his true self maybe,

or like the truth or that he's right about something inside of himself and then hiding it back away and just going out and apologizing to everybody. And nobody even like notices him. Nobody cares. He pulls the static out at the end that he found inside. He's just like ripping his chest open and seeing it. And I feel like it's like a moment of him being like, I was right. Something in here is different.

Okay. That is what was going on. All right. Let me put it away forever. Yeah. And apologize for existing. And then credits roll. And then we all go home and feel real forever. Yeah. And apologize for existing. And then credits roll. And then we all go home and feel real bad.

Yeah. Yes. Real bad. Yes. But I agree. Yes, it is a very good movie. And I will watch it again. Great soundtrack.

Let's not forget. I'll listen to the soundtrack. The music sounds good. Phoebe Bridgers was with someone. Yeah. That person's cool as hell. Let's figure out who with someone. Yeah. That, that, that person's cool. Let's figure out who that is because there there's two, it, it,

it felt a lot like, um, twin peaks, the return. Yes. A lot of the movie is like very twin peaks referential, but there are two just like musical performances that you just watch during the movie. And they were both good.

I think one is called king woman and the other is called sloppy jane sloppy jane sloppy jane is uh performs with uh phoebe bridgers okay okay it's very good wow very good wow and yeah i think jane schenbrun had, there's just so many little things in there. Like I love all the cameos and I think they had some music composed specifically for this movie, not composed, but songs written, not like score, but some of the soundtrack is like made specifically for this movie. And yeah, really good stuff. specifically for this movie and wow yeah really good stuff okay well maybe i'll watch it later uh i just don't really want but it doesn't sound really like a horror movie yeah it wasn't as scary as i thought it's not very it's not very scary no it's more just couple jump scares it is it is definitely unnerving at times uh and but it it's i would say it's much more of the high art type on that spectrum. It follows. It's not that at all.

When Owen's cutting himself open or whatever with a box cutter, is that gory? No. No. There's no blood at all. Okay, great. Yeah, then I can watch watch this it does sound really interesting i would say look i mean like just to like get into it the the really scary it's like much more of like a real world scariness right it always of like what is a i think a reality of trans existence

for a lot of people and what the movie gets into a lot as we've described as suicidal ideation. Yeah. And that is like it's alluded to so much in Maddie and Owen's life. It's like that. I mean, that stuff is really tough and and scary. Not in a in a horror movie. No. Right.

And like a very serious. Not like a get your adrenaline pumping way more like a sink into the couch and think about how yes the world is way and it doesn't let that go ever there's never the moment of like but right yeah there's no release this is not an it gets better movie at all no right and that's just really hard yeah Yeah. It's just, this is the horror of living in a body that doesn't feel right to you. Yes. Not living in your correct gender identity and not transitioning. And it seems very scary.

And it kills you in a way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man. Horror movies really know how to fucking do that to you. Yeah, the metaphor, those metaphors, they'll get you

and make you feel really bad. But I did really love this movie. It's excellent. 84% of Rotten Tomatoes is very surprising to me. Yeah. To me, it's like I would have expected a higher number than that. Yeah. To me, it's like, uh, I would have expected that a higher number than that,

but yeah. Well, I had seen some criticism that some critics were like kind of missing elements of the, what the allegory was or whatever. That seems, which is like, that seems hard to do.

Yeah. That is very crazy. And just like the description, it sounds like it's, it's right there for you. It's not subtle. it's they're not hiding i feel like that's scary in terms of like who the critics are and how unaware they are of like other people's existence and other types of because yeah it's definitely it's definitely not subtle at all but some people just have no concept or awareness of what a trans person's experience

might be like and i guess those people are writing reviews for this movie it was that is very surprising yes well speaking of not subtle at all we've got a live show coming up with the doughboys typewriter. Hayes, Sean. Thank you guys for coming on. Thanks for having us. I'm sorry that Emily's been dodging us. I know. She just really didn't want to hang out with you guys. She's going to pop in the Zoom right after you guys leave.

And what's her thing? She only watches half the movie? She is in between Henley and I. That's right. In terms of braveness. Yes, there's a spectrum. Although Henley just casually did watch hereditary, even though it was really small.

That's still something that I don't think Emily would do. That's so insane to me. I haven't watched it. I was too scared of the idea of it. I haven't watched it. It's really, really not okay. That is the last movie I will ever watch.

Yeah, there's not enough. I mean, it occupies a specific place. I'm never seeing. I'll tell you the movie I will never watch is speak no evil that movie. I will never watch something you're going to cover on here. Scariest one of the scariest things that happened to me recently

is the long Legs trailer playing in the same theater I was in with my eyes completely closed. I didn't watch a second of that. It's a scary trailer. It was still really scary.

Sammy thinks that she conjured that whole film straight from her consciousness. She thinks they just took it from her brain. It's a perfect film for me. Yeah, I really did. I manifested that one one i can't wait

but guys will you tell our listeners where they can find you and what you have going on we have a live show on the 14th at dynasty typewriter i don't know if you go to the dynasty typewriter website you can get streaming tickets that'll be hollywood Handbook and the Doughboys Boys. And you can listen to the show Hollywood Handbook. You can subscribe to that. We have a Patreon called The Flagrant Ones where we have a show where we talk about basketball and we have another Hollywood Handbook premium episode that comes out every week. So that's what we've got going on. You could absolutely join the hat pack, the beautiful hats that we're wearing this. You can't actually get the one I have.

That's just for me. But there is like a summer colorway. And then there's the one that Hayes has on the original. And those are well, I mean, you could guess like Sammy and Henley. What do you think that would cost? Over $30, right? 50 or even $30. Exactly. Yeah, but it's no, it $30, right? $50. Or even $30, exactly. Yeah, but

it's... No, it's actually $29. Wow, for that hat? We're losing money on it. A steal. Yeah. I can tell you, for fans of this show, you can kind of pull it down and like... It's almost like squinting, but you look

even cooler and you're just kind of like looking out over the brim. So the guys at Alamo Drafthouse don't make fun of you. They're like, oh, this is me watching a scary movie. Right? They're like,

he's not squinting. He's just lowering his head. That's just cool. He just looks cool as hell. Yeah. Well, thank you guys so much. Thank you guys so much.

Thanks for having us. I'm really impressed with that, with that recap from No Notes. Thank us i'm really impressed with that with that recap from no notes thank you it really stuck with me and i also and i watched it after bedtime like it was a 9 45 showing so thank you i appreciate that yeah you did great yeah and we usually close every show with voice from the movie but there's not really a voice. I mean, Owen has kind of an inflection, but I'm not going to do it.

And I will just say from all of us here at too scary. Didn't watch. Goodbye. Goodbye. Bye. We did it. We made it. Thank you all for listening to another episode of too scary.

Didn't watch. If you enjoy the show, please remember to subscribe and rate us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Five stars only, or we will haunt you. And if you simply can't get enough of us, we have good news for you. We have lots of bonus content available on our Patreon at patreon.com slash TSDW podcast. You'll get access to video trailer reactions, two bonus episodes a month, the power to vote for upcoming episodes and more. And last but not least, you can follow us on social media at TSTW podcast. We'll be back next week with a new episode. We love you.

That was a hate gun podcast.