Too Scary; Didn't Watch - RELIC with Peach & Shag of Spooko

Episode Date: August 19, 2020

A missing grandma, a lurking figure, and a questionable Australian accent - we're recapping Natalie Erika James' debut horror film Relic. And who better to join us than our favorite Australian counterparts Peach & Shag of the podcast Spooko? Together, we'll get to the bottom of what this film is really about (hint: it's dementia). Follow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. Bonus episodes and content on our Patreon! 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.

Sammy, it's so hot out these days. You know what I mean? The weather, temperatures are spiking. It's the dead of summer. Oh, it's boiling hot. It's boiling hot. And you know what I would just love on these hot, hot days? I'm thinking maybe a boat, something on the water.

I would love, you read my mind, I would love to get out on a boat. I would love to get out on a boat on these hot, hot summer days. And I think we've got a group of people who would agree with me. I think so, too. That would be a good thing to do. They're our newest vessel heads. And boy, do we love them. We got to give them a shout out.

These summer ship loving absolute angels. loving absolute angels. We have Stephen Uncles, Carissa Conrad, Miranda Lowe, Peggy Cook, Raquel Perlman, Jacob Verrillo, Lindsay Cherhar, and Jesse. Oh, my God. The greatest vessel heads there ever were. A lot of people loving boats this summer. And you know what? I couldn't agree more.

Who can blame them? Who can blame them? and you know what i couldn't agree more who can blame them gotta love our vessel heads and i'm also loving the newest members of tony fucking colette's inner circle oh my goodness i want to say a very warm welcome it's amazing in here tony's here we're here what more could you want it's a blast. It's honestly... Toni, oh, you're going to love her. You're going to love her. She's great.

And you will meet her. It's a guarantee. You will. That is our guarantee. That is a thing that we feel comfortable guaranteeing to you. So we want to welcome Jeffrey Range, Chris Arthur, Daniel Bayo, Adam B., Andrew R., Tessa Tran-Ross, and Monica R. Welcome to the circle, baby. Welcome to the circle. And you will be hearing from Tony. You absolutely will. Just you wait and see. We guarantee it. And no new members of Champions

for Actors Rights this week week but what we lack in champions we make up for in vessel heads and tony tony heads we do and you know what there's room for there's room for everybody on the boat in the circle uh you know come come one come all we love we love to have you love to have you join our patreon and get yourself a shout out maybe get yourself a bingo card i just went to usps today to buy stamps for some of these bingo cards support the usps so important to support the usps right now um so join our patreon and also buy some stamps. Yeah. And those are the things that we care about most.

Love you guys. Enjoy the episode. 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 am too scared to watch scary movies.

I'm Sammy and I like watching scary movies and I like telling my scared friend Emily about them and also our scared friend Henley who is not here at the moment. At the moment she's not here. She will be back. She is, I believe, just got to New York State ready to make that bitch made it all the way across the country. Wow. the country wow wow your tunes your music on your playlist kept her company i think i bet if i know henley that's all she listened to for however many hours it took her to get there on repeat so thank you for that but it's just us for right now and so what's up with you sammy um well this week i have a a rant and a rave. I would like to rant about HBO Max and Roku not being able to reach a deal and me having to watch HBO on my computer as if I'm at work. It makes me incredibly mad.

No, thank you. I have to sit at my desk and watch tv there's a show coming out soon called lovecraft country that i'm really excited for and i just can't believe that i have to watch it on my computer i'm really really upset about it and i think both hbo and roku think that customers are going to be mad at the other one more. And I just, any Roku or HBO Max representatives, I want you to know that I'm mad at all of you equally. We're mad at all of you equally, and I know you're listening, HBO Max and Roku executives. We're mad at all of you.

Yeah, so if you could make some changes before the premiere of that show that would be greatly appreciated do it for sammy make it make it happen um so that's my rant um but a rave that i have is that our dear friend kathleen's show comes out um for us tomorrow when this episode airs it will be out it is called it's already out listeners it's called teenage bounty hunters it's on netflix um you know kathleen from our cape fear episode if you don't go back and listen to it it's a great episode we love kathleen so much we love her you'll all love her or you already do if you're smart um so i'm just really really excited for that and it's getting me through my anger at hbo so hell yeah netflix is on roku roku executives you could do that um hell yeah it's gonna be so fucking great and and she's the coolest and

she just absolutely deserves this and it is very you know it just is great when someone who is cool and smart and works really hard achieves a thing that they deserve it's great i love it you you love to see it you love to see it we love to see it we will love to see it we'll all be seeing it and we're all gonna love and i think you guys will also love to see it i feel love to see it you definitely will yeah yeah uh what about you emily what's going on with you um i'm very excited for our friend kathleen's show um i'm excited for Henley to get her butt settled into freaking New York City so that she can be back.

And other than that, I thought I'd give our listeners an update on my kitten situation. Oh, yes, please. For those of you who listened last week, there's a kitten living in my boyfriend's yard.

We've been, we've really put in the work to build up the trust of this kitten kitten i said last time we said maybe a calico i think it's not i think that i think that he's part mancoon i've done a lot of just like looking at pictures of various kittens sure like google searching like this fur pattern with this whatever whatever yeah um i think he may be part mancoon and so he's probably as i said a little too old to just like walk right into our arms. But we've really built up our trust.

Finally contacted a shelter that gave us one of those TNR traps. Very humane traps, listeners. We're not going to, the cat's going to be just fine. Um, we're not gonna, the cat's gonna be just fine. Um, but we set it up today, yesterday and held the thing open so that it could just stay open, start feeding the cat in there because we've been feeding him every day so he can get used to the trap and we're going to set it tomorrow and grab him so that we can get him fixed and vaccinated. And then we'll be able to see, what his deal is is he too old to to

become accustomed to humans or not i mean he really likes being around us i will say that he just like comes over when we're outside and will sit near us not next to us doesn't let us touch him but he just like wants to be around that's nice he's warming up then he's warming up and he went into the the uh trap and ate today like no problem didn't didn't give a fuck i laid like treats out to sort of draw him in he just walked right past him went right to the end of the trap ate his food right so i think i think we're gonna have this this boy tomorrow and then we'll find out if he is in fact a boy or a girl um and he'll be fixed and and all healthy given a little clean bill of health

so we can see about keeping him because I really want to. He's so cute. Oh my God, little war boy. Little war boy. He's had many names also over the past week because he got advanced up one step from outdoor cat because we're feeding him.

So right now his name is Bug and it might stay that way because I really like him. So right now his name is Bug. And it might stay that way. Because I really like Bug. All right. I saw that also one of our listeners wrote that if it was a calico, it was probably a girl. Which I thought was such an interesting fact that most calicos are female. Never knew. So thank you for that.

I love little tidbits like that. Random knowledge. Yeah. Well, I'm excited for you to keep us posted on this. Oh, you know I will. I can't wait to find out what happens next in this saga. It's been a saga. But let's talk about this week's movie, which is Relic.

Another new release came out in July 2020. It was directed by Natalie Erica James, written by Natalie Erica James and Christian White, starring Emily Mortimer, Robin Nevin, and Bella Heathcote. And it's an australian horror film and you know who we love from australia i do indeed uh we're doing something a little different this week where we are doing a crossover episode with our friends over in Australia from the Spooko podcast. Ooh-wee! We love the boys at Spooko.

Yeah, we did their podcast a few months back. Really excited for listeners. If you didn't listen to that episode, you're going to get to meet them. It's going to be great. Did we mention they're australian um which you know pretty cool we love an accent and we we love an accent especially love an australian accent so listeners i hope you enjoy this this crossover episode thanks for bearing with us as we try out something fun and new in quarantine, because why not?

Enjoy. We're going to do a cocktail hour and then get right into it. Welcome to cocktail hour. This week's drink is a fade to black cocktail. This will make perfect sense once we get into the movie. The movie is as thick and dark with subtext as this drink is. You're going to need five fresh blackberries, two ounces of spiced rum, three quarters an ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice, half an ounce simple syrup, half an ounce pasteurized egg white, and an optional spoonful of activated charcoal powder.

You're going to muddle the blackberries in the base of your cocktail shaker, add all your other ingredients, shake with ice, strain that back into the shaker, and then dry shake without ice, and then fine strain into a chilled coupe glass. This is essentially a rum sour blackened with the blackberries and activated charcoal, so you can omit the activated charcoal and it just won't be quite as black, but it'll still be delicious boy do i love an egg white cocktail i love to see it i love to drink it i hope you do too cheers so here we are in sunny california um all four of us thanks for having us sammy thanks oh welcome. What a lovely place you have here. Truly lovely time to come here to California where things are just great. Things are great here.

No worries at all. Look, I'm just catching up with U.S. news. I sort of tuned out in sort of around about February. Things are ticking over pretty smoothly. They've gotten worse. They've gotten worse. Oh, shit. Oh, boy. Oh, boy, since february oh no yeah um where to begin things are well let's just say yeah we couldn't we couldn't make it to australia this

time i don't think we're allowed we're delighted to fly over guys. And so we're guests on a much better organized podcast. So I shouldn't have started off in such a disorganized way. Does one of you professional people want to do it? Sammy, you should be hosting and driving. No, no, no, no. Well, my name's Peach, although that's my nickname. And I co-host a podcast called Spooko that you're either listening to now or you're on the crossover too scary didn't watch version of yeah peach i was gonna say because

we are doing a proper crossover episode that's gonna make sense on the too scary didn't watch edition where it's gonna be like oh that's who peach is on the spooko episode everyone's gonna be like peach we know who you are oh and this is the thing i did want to say guys congratulations on 50 episodes of too scary to watch congrats right back to you back at you boys wow well so we got for our listeners and then we'll do the same for you but for our listeners shag introduce yourself introduce yourself. Oh, gotcha. Okay, so I'm Shag and I co-host a podcast called Spooker with my good friend Peach. Now, in terms, you know, in the parlant, we can never get this word right, but in the vernacular of Too Scary Didn't Watch, I am the Sammy and Peach is the Emily. I'm the vessel head.

That's good. I love this. Yes. I also go by Silent Jenna That's good. I love this. Yes. I also go by Silent Jenna. So this is a big reveal. Yeah, I'm also known as Silent Jenna. This is the big reveal. This is your first time hearing her.

It's been Peach the whole time. We don't have a friend named Jenna. Surprise. Now, obviously, you know, we do want to catch up on the news i think the biggest news from spooker is the fact that we still don't have a russia sponsorship and for any too scary didn't watch listeners who have connections in the with the australian brewing industry um you could reach out we have some for sure we have some listeners for sure we're really hustling for

sponsorship from this australian beer called reshes that have just released a like nostalgic throwback version surely the time has come 50 episodes what is up 50 episodes it's time oh come on so um sammy and m are the wonderful guests we've got here could you guys introduce yourselves for the wonderful spookanauts or whatever we're called? Spookanauts. We'll take it. Hi, spookanauts.

I'm Emily. I co-host a podcast called Too Scary Didn't Watch. And for all of you listeners, I am the peach. Yeah, man. We're the best, Em. Hell yeah. I counter that my name is sammy i co-host uh too scary didn't watch and i am the shag and we're actually the best interesting interesting that's a perfect argument, Sammy. Thank you.

One of the themes of Too Scary Didn't Watch is that Em and Sammy check in and sometimes with their mate Henley, who's abandoned them for New York. Henley, what's up? Drive safe. That they check in to see if anything scary has happened this week. So, Em, has anything scary happened to you this week apart from living in a failed state?

I mean, it's directly related to living in a failed state, Peach. I got laid off. No! Genuinely scary. It's a bad one. No, that's genuinely spooker. It's okay.

It's okay. Guys, it's the state we live in it's a part-time job i've got other irons in the fire um no it was not not wholly unexpected but this this is the world we live in right now the scary thing is is for lots of people who um will not be so quick to get back on their feet i am a booming podcast entrepreneur so i will be i'm I am a booming podcast entrepreneur, so I will be. I'm swimming in money, baby. We got a matrion.

Yes. We got a matrion. We're doing just fine. Shout out that matrion page. Actually, that's a super good point. If you want to support Tiskeridin Watch, hit up their matrion. I mean, we mean their Patreon. We're just always. Yeah.

Again, I can never pronounce it. It's Patreon. It's matrion because we're women. That's right. Fuck the patriarchy, dudes. Let's burn it down. But look, I just wanted to say, Em, you should be like at least luckily you're in a place with like a really good social safety net.

So there's no, there's no worry about losing a job in America. Oh my God. I mean, I love to be in a truly depraved capitalistic society in times like this. It really I feel so good. This is the scariest thing of all. So, you know, everybody just everybody in America, please keep wearing your masks. Everyone not in America, man, it must rule. I'm really supremely jealous of your day-to-day. Well, I think what's so crazy is, like, we both passed this threshold of 50 episodes. And I think we've all come to the realization that the truly scary thing was capitalism all along.

It was capitalism all along. And, you know, there's a lot of horror movies that that's the subtext, I feel. So we learned it. We learned it through horror movies and we learned it through life. Speaking of subtext. Okay, so I'm really excited about today's horror movie that we're doing today. It's an Australian one called Relic.

Are we asking everyone else if they had a scary week? We are guests. We are guests here. Peach does have a scary thing, right? Peach seems excited to say something. Peach, did anything scary happen to you this week? Did you learn something scary? Well, now that the moment's upon me, this is quite scary because be careful what you

wish for. I think my scary one's a bit watery compared to Em's because um it's about hilarious imposter syndrome and and also it's very awkward to say after m's news because i just started a new job but in essence no i feel like imposter syndrome is something most people can relate to. So let's hear it. I'm scrambling for the exits. But in essence, I sort of came in. I'm a lawyer and I've got a bit of a profile of knowing a bit about a couple of things.

And I came in heralded of like, don't worry, guys. Peach is here. He's going to give some real high quality legal advice. I think things are going well for about a week and a half until someone asked me a question that I got wrong. And ever since then, I'm like, oh, fuck. Now they're going to know. Now they're going to know. So, Pitch, Pitch, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.

So, Em just revealed her spooko news of the week was that she got laid off. Your spooko news to counter that, would you interrupt it to be like, guys, we have to hear mine Would you got a question wrong At some point during the week My biggest fear Is being a bad guest And what I was trying to do

Was to do the Too scary Didn't watch admin Whereas you were trying to Railroad in your introduction To the movie So some of us Are anxious to be good guests

And some of us Just want to go and do their own thing and i'm one of the former shag um sammy did you have anything scary happen to you this week now well it's not it's not going well so far i feel nervous to follow up these two things with another work-related thing but might as well stick with the trend i quit a job this week so fuck that job yeah man quitting is the best i was gonna say it's not too scary quitting fucking rules it is such a good feeling man it's great shag anything scary for you this week um like fuck like i feel like we're all just really rubbing Em's nose in it by just talking about work-related agency things.

No, it's fine. I'm fine. No, it's fine. It's fine. It's really fine. So I had to run a workshop with, it was just scary having to run a workshop with a biscuit client. Oh, yeah. biscuit client in which I, well, I mean, as part of this workshop, which was kind of a brainstorm, this idea came up where at the time, you know, in the heat of like coming up with ideas and everyone's really excited, we thought it might be a good idea to be like, well, I mean, people love your biscuits. What if we made dog versions of your biscuits that their dogs could eat as well? And they were sort of like, yeah yeah it's probably not a cool idea for our human biscuits to also have dog versions that are exactly the same and i mean it wasn't scary it

just probably wasn't the the best suggestion anyone's ever made in a workshop that i was running uh for our listeners are we talking cookies oh yes sorry oh i'm so sorry yes we are talking cookies yes we're talking okay i just want i just want make sure, you know, and that's why we do this. This is the joy of cross-cultural podcasts. I am super excited. I am super excited to see because there's a couple of specific things. I think we do want to ask you as we go along. But what I was saying before and peach you are right i'm sorry i wasn't being a good guest um jumping back into my like spooko like straight man um role is to just move things forward stay in your lane well yeah exactly exactly and so i wanted to introduce the film

because we were talking about subtext and i don't think and i've seen both jordan peele films and i still don't think i've ever seen a horror movie with more like capital s subtext than the movie we're doing today like it could not be more subtext and in fact i think there are moments in the film where they actually go this is what the film's about by the way like they're almost like a like knowing winks to the camera. Yeah, straight to camera like, and this is what we mean. So today we are doing a film. It's an Australian film from this year called Relic. Now, one of the things that I really like that, you know, Too Scary Didn't Watch does is, you know, first of all, we talk a little bit about trivia of the film before we watch the trailer and before we get into the recap. And there are some really

interesting trivia points about this film. I don't know if anybody else has some, but I might- I was going to say, no, I'm glad that you have some because I couldn't, I couldn't find any. So take it away. All right. Okay. Okay. So I think one of the more interesting things that I wasn't expecting, it's an Australian film, but it's co-produced by Jake Gyllenhaal. Whoa. Had no idea. Like, I don't know if production means anything, but when I was looking into that, I was like, that's a weird thing.

The second thing is it's a film that's heavily about dementia, so it's pretty much mainly about this old woman in the film. Her name is Robin Nevin. And as well as... Like named after the actor. No, no, no, no, no. Her name is Robin Nevin. And get this.

Okay, so this probably doesn't make as much sense to, you know, listeners outside of Australia. But not only was she in probably the most beloved Australian film of all time in Australia called The Castle, which is it's almost seen as like if there was a national anthem in film form and, you know, that would be our cultural version of it. It's just the most well-loved. Peach, would you agree with that?

Ours is Top Gun. Top Gun. I was going to say Priscilla, Shag. I don't know. Isn't Priscilla a movie? of it it's just the most well-loved peach would you agree with us is top gun i was gonna say priscilla shag i don't know isn't priscilla i don't think do you really think and like you know think about like you know um tell him he's dreaming or i dug a hole mural's wedding priscilla mural's wedding or probably the castle yeah yeah maybe we love some tony collette yeah tony like tony collette's tough to get she's pretty unfuckable. Oh, I'm friends with someone who co-wrote Muriel's Wedding, it turned out. Hell yeah. I love Muriel's Wedding.

Via LinkedIn, of all things. But anyway. The Castle's a weird one because it's a very insular film. It has a lot of assumed knowledge, and that assumed knowledge is you grew up in suburban Australia in the 90s. It's basically Kath and Kim. It 90s so it's basically kath and kim it's basically kath and kim the film yeah that's a that's a really good point so so she not only was she in the castle she was also in both of the matrix uh sequels but just not in

the original but then i mean most people agree that the sequels are far superior than the original when it comes to the Matrix. Yes. Fun fact, Matrix 2, only movie I've ever walked out of. At what point did you walk out of Matrix 2? Pretty much right in the beginning. No, actually, I think it was in the underground rave scene that was like 10 minutes long. I was like, I need this movie.

And Sammy's one of Kian's biggest fans. I have a Matrix tattoo. I have a spoon on my arm biggest fans. I have a Matrix tattoo. I have a spoon on my arm that bends. I love the Matrix. That is so cool. And I just hated the Matrix too. So hang on.

Did you walk out of the Matrix too because you loved the Matrix so much and you felt like it disrespected the legacy of the Matrix? Yes. But to be fair, I never saw it in its entirety maybe it maybe it made up for it in the end i never saw matrix three either consensus is that it did not the other interesting thing about about sammy and australian accents and australian films and that sort of thing is that sammy and m actually both have commanding and compelling australian accents but i don't think you've heard Shag. And so perhaps after we get through the trivia, after we get through the trailer,

you guys can do the balance of the episode in character. Em, I feel like. Oh, boy. Sammy's is far superior, but. I agree. I don't want to put you guys on the spot, but at some point I kind of do want to hear your Australian accents when I get to a certain point.

I have a phrase. I have a go-to phrase. Yeah. But at some point, I kind of do want to hear your Australian accents when I get to a certain point. I have a go-to phrase. And I'm going to get stage fright now because this is my biggest fear. I cannot wait to hear this. This will be the scary thing that happened to me this week. I was going to say this is terrifying. Imagine if it goes badly. Have you thought about if it goes badly? I have.

You're scared about it going well, but have you thought about the other alternative? Okay, so this is from an Australian reality show called Yummy Mummies. And it's my go-to phrase. And they're all bitchy pregnant women and one of them is throwing a baby shower. And she says, it's going to be the biggest Burberry baby shower in all of Adelaide. Great source material. Great execution. Very good.

I loved the lead up. We really set the stage. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My heart is pounding. I feel like, you know what? Like I, it was pretty good.

It was really good. It was really, really good, man. It was pretty good. But I think you're right. Giving us that context, I knew where we were, you know, shouting out, like, it's always nice to shout out cities I know. So giving a shout out to Adelaide and stuff, I'm like, cool, I'm there. So look, seven out of ten, Sammy. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll take it. I'll take it. Seven out of ten is not bad. From an i'll take it i'll take it seven out of ten is not from an australian that's pretty good pretty damn good we're like we're hard markers you know um so and the gauntlet's been thrown what do you got gosh well now i'm like what do i say i don't have a line so so so one of the things one of the things i was actually thinking about it's it's kind of comes down to two things so it's either how you say yeah so you either go like so so it's it's how you make the twang of

the year if you were you know so are you going out yeah i'm going you know or whatever or it's how you say mom so it's like oh yeah i was looking after my mom the other day and the reason why i say that is because mom comes up a lot in this film and one of the act. Oh, it's like, sure. Go again. That was really good. That was really good. You did it.

Thank you. 10 out of 10. That's a trick, Sammy. You just got to keep it short. You just got to keep it real, real short. If you're a new parent, a bad day means you either ran out of coffee, diapers, patients, or all of the above. Stocking up on cold brew and deep breaths are all you, but at least Hello Bello's got your baby's butt covered. Hello Bello believes all families deserve premium, affordable baby products.

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It's not super good. And there's definitely, it's kind of like um uh i don't know if you've heard that the australian the australian actor eric banner who's he was he was in a couple of american films putting on an american accent and that to me sounded like the worst american accent i've ever heard in my life i know what you're talking about and it it feels the same way where it's like, I get where she's trying to go with it, but there are so many times when- She sounds British.

Yeah, she sounds British, but in a weird sort of, and not in the way that sometimes Australian people sound British when they try to like say their words a little bit more eloquently. Like, so for example, if I say like in Australia, we don't say water we say water but if i say water and all i'm doing is pronouncing it correctly it automatically sounds uh british so i feel like sometimes she probably over enunciates where she should just casual a fight as we do in australia but anyway anyway i digress she should have watched some yummy mummies i think we all

should it sounds amazing i think we all need to watch some yummy mummies one thing i did want to say about the film though because yeah i didn't necessarily find it super scary and i almost wasn't going to suggest it as a film until the very end and obviously we will eventually spoil it when we get to that point in the recap but we won't spoil it right now but the very end made me feel things That a horror movie never really makes me feel I was genuinely surprised Sammy, like without giving too much away

What did you think about the ending of Robert? Yes, in the final scene My mouth was open the whole time My jaw was on the floor I was just shocked at what I was seeing Never seen anything like it Oh, I'm so excited to learn what this means. Yeah, I agree with that.

Should we watch the trailer? Let's watch the trailer. Let's watch the trailer. I meant to send it in the chat. Yeah, Sammy's going to send trailer. Watch the trailer. Is it? I say it.

Watch. Watch. Watch. Watch. When was the last time you spoke to her? It's been a few weeks. She called me a few weeks ago. I think she was scared.

She thought someone was coming into the house. Do you know where you were, Mum? I suppose I went out. What's this? That was on the property when your grandfather inherited it. His mind wasn't there in the end. You can't put Gran in a home. She can't live on her own anymore.

She has to be watched. Everything all right, Gran? I thought this was where it got in. Who? Whoever it was coming into the house. Mum, what is it? It's here. Under the bed.

There's nothing under the bed, Mum. Will you check for me? Great trailer Oh no, oh no You know, we talk about Emily Mortimer Who, we are not starting beef She is a fantastic actor Just because you can't nail the Australian accent Doesn't, you know, is talk about Emily Mortimer, who we are not starting beef. She is a fantastic actor.

Just because you can't nail the Australian accent doesn't, you know, is no strike against a record. But there's a point in that trailer. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's a threshold test. Like, you can't really say everything went fine except the accent, right? It's interesting. Some people are very good at accents and others are not. I think Michael C. Hall is that way

Michael C. Hall's accents Are the worst accents I've ever heard Remember when he played JFK in The Crown? Yes, yes I do Uncomfortable Don't know how he got cast in that The reason why I bring this up Is there's a moment in that trailer

That just sums up Emily Mortimer's accent in the film where... Yeah, she's like, you what? You fucking come to South London and you what? But I think... Because the thing is, I've never been an actor, but I can imagine there are points in it where you get it and you feel kind of comfortable, and then you come to a word in the heat of the moment

and all of a sudden you're like, oh, fuck, how would you say this word? And she gets that when she says my grandma needs, she's the line is, you know, grandma needs to be watched. And I think she goes, how the fuck would an Australian say watched? And she says it in a way that I think no English speaking accent has ever

said it. She sort of says, watched. Also, that movie looked scary. That movie looked way scary. I mean scary i mean peach did you were you scared of that trailer yeah yeah yeah that looks scary as hell and like how did you feel the whole way through when you were like oh yes dementia allegory i get it and then you see the crawling hairy sort of monster crawling the sound effect of like and then you see it at one of like skin peeling they're like playing this sound effect of like oh god yeah no

thank you yeah that is it's not one of those trailers where the film's nothing like that the film is basically that for an hour and a half and oh the best thing about this film it goes for an hour and a half like every time you pause it you're like i'm a significant chunk through this movie it's like it feels like progress everything should be 90 minutes i think 90 minutes is the right length for any project growing up in our house um we had a rule that that that you had to watch the first half hour of the film and then you could choose and my mom had this idea of like once i get them to watch half an hour of fucking pollyanna or whatever like they'll be hooked and like because it was vcr days that i don't think emu and sammy would necessarily have in your background because shag and i are very old but you've been watching

vcrs vcrs so we used to call them reel to reel boxes and we used to hook up one reel to one side i never want to know how young you think we are i just want to let it live in the universe that you think that we weren't aware of vcrs and i don't want to know how young you think we are. I just want to let it live in the universe that you think that we weren't aware of VCRs. And I don't want to know the number, but let's just let that be the reality. It's pretty tough to reach your 21st birthday, which you did last week. Yeah, thank you so much. And many happy returns. Thank you.

The moment 30 minutes would come down, me and my brother would stand up and leave and it would break my mom's heart. And I don't regret it because I don't want to watch Pollyanna. And so I feel like trailers have solved this problem. It's great. Little snippet. That was such a heartbreaking snippet of your childhood pitch. But look, let's start the film. I like, because it's from the year 2000,

I think does Wikipedia do something where they don't allow synopsis is uploaded until it's been out's from the year 2000 i think does wikipedia do something where they don't allow synopsis is uploaded until it's been out a certain while because i've noticed with very new films they don't have the full plot until a little while later i think it just is wikipedia user based because i think that rent the rental which we did last week on our on our podcast which also came out july 2020 that does have a full Wikipedia synopsis. So I think it must just be- If someone's ready to do it. I don't know.

Kind of random. Yeah, if someone submitted one, that is correct. So, I mean, maybe we should take it upon ourselves to submit something. It's a bit concerning, Shag, that 50 episodes in, you're asking how Wikipedia works. I think, look, I mean, in this day and age, we all know that we've never been more susceptible

to believing in conspiracy theories. I'm just glad that I'm not a QAnon-er. I just happen to believe that Wikipedia tried to suppress the plots of films into people I don't know. It's their number one thing. To suppress the plots of films and do people have enough time to film. It's their number one thing. It's the only thing that they censor is the timing of movie plots.

All right. Okay. Well, look, because there's no Wikipedia synopsis, what I tried to do was I sat down with Relic for a second time and sort of wrote what happened scene by scene. Too scary, didn't watch style sammy i'm gonna be relying on you to help flesh out the feel of this love it um but let's start okay so it starts with an out like a classic out of focus shot kind of like the start of goodwill like for me i'm like i've seen goodwill hunting like 80 times this movie is exactly like goodwill hunting let's get in that headspace it's perfect yes great but but sort of goodwill hunting starts with this like kaleidoscope of colors and for some reason that's never really

revealed why and in the same way this film starts with a spooky kaleidoscope of colors until we go into focus and we realize we're looking at the flashing lights on a christmas tree but in the dark so you know when the lights are off in a room but the christmas tree's lights are on so they're flashing and it just has this eerie glow and they're those they're those christmas christmas tree baubles that are sort of shaped like an eight-sided start like they have like points coming out all the difference that you know you know what i'm talking about so it's sort of those which again give out, all the differences. Do you know what I'm talking about? So it's sort of those which, again, give like of all the Christmas tree baubles,

give a menacing edge, which I think is really well done. We now cut to an old-timey bath. And by that I mean a bath with the feet. And like I don't think this is TMI, but I'm like I'm a big fan of baths. I have been since I was a kid. I don't like those old-timey baths. I like to feel enclosed. I like them to be like. Oh, I feel like usually the old-timey ones are desirable.

I love a clawfoot tub. Ooh, let me get in that tub. But they are spooky in this. I'll give you that. Well, I mean, you're right. You're right. They're the spookier version. Anyway, so this bath is full.

The taps are on. It's overflowing um but there's no one in the bath uh we then have a shot going down the stairs i think you call that a tracking shot where the camera sort of sort of i don't know but basically with the camera it follows water trickling down the stairs until they eventually reach the foot of a person. Now, this is a horror movie trope we've talked about before, which is actually kind of fucked, where it's like an old naked woman is like the scariest thing possible. Right. And basically, basically-

I can see why that would be very scary for you. But no, but it is. Think about like The Shining, for example, where we think Jack Nicholson's with a sexy woman, but it's actually an old woman. It's an old hag? Disgusting. The female body is only good when it's young. Or recent Too Scary Didn't Watch Ep of The Witch, which I'd argue the sexiest horror

movie character of all time being Finchie from The Office. The old witch, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know I love him. Yeah. Sammy's future husband, Finchie from the office the old witch yeah oh yeah yeah you know i love him yeah sammy's future husband but the sort of the old the old witch in the woods of like not a disgusting old witch how about a sexy young witch maybe i'm being like positive but part of me thinks that that it's the

age part of it and less the sexist part. I think it's both. I mean, I think there is a sexism to that, but I think it's also just like getting old scares everybody. And then probably, yeah, undercut with like some sexism of like, but old women are scarier than old men. But actually, that is a really good point. That is a really good point.

It's not shown as much. But if you had an old naked man doing the same thing, it would still be the same thing. Although I don't think it would be the horror signifier this is. Because basically, we have this old naked woman looking at this Christmas tree in the dark, water around her feet, and then we go to the titles and it's Relic. Now, what I think is interesting about this- Wait, one thing happens there that you skipped there is there is a figure of another person in the room with her and we get like you didn't even

see it right it's i didn't even say that no way it's throughout it's throughout the movie it almost looks like kind of the like stereotypical alien like the long like too thin of limbs and kind of a big head and it's just standing in the corner of the frame by the christmas tree so she's like facing it oh no it's very scary this is my favorite movie already so so so i have some friends who listen to spooker or at least have tried to listen to spooker because they're in Peach's camp. And they've sort of said we had to turn off during certain episodes because it was too scary. For me, I legit got chills hearing you say that, Sammy.

That's very freaky. This figure reappears often and I'd say for me it was the scariest part of the movie. I don't like a figure. I don't like a mystery figure. But you guys have made a very good point as well about being being spooked around the house there's something profound about that like you know going to the circus and being scared there or going to its underground lair and being scared there or going to a different house

is one thing but like being in your own home or hiding under your own covers or or it could be just around the corner there is a real different sort of spook out yep i think so i think so so so then after the after the titles we have that classic you know speaking of the shining we have that classic overhead shot of like a pine forest and a car driving through it we have we see the mom and the daughter and through this i'm gonna there's three there's basically three characters in this film there's a grandma there's a mum and a daughter in the same family so three generations of a family and so i'll just refer to them as that the mum is emily

mortimer um the daughter is i think we said bella heath bella heathcoat bella heathcoat of 50 shades of gray fame no really i have 50, I believe, the third one. I've seen all three. They're not always Dakota Johnson? I mean, Dakota Johnson is in all of them, yes, but she is a side character in Fifty Shades Freed. Oh, great. Your eyebrows are telling a story about what that side character might be.

I have expressive eyebrows. Yeah, well done. Paige made a really good point. Like, the coolest thing, well, like, one of the added benefits of having to wear masks outside is the people who have expressive eyebrows all of a sudden now have this, like, you know, benefit over other people. Exactly. We're on.

It's good. I would say 90% of horror films start the way that this film's about to start with a family arriving at a scary secluded house in the middle of the woods. Yes, yes. Preach. Preach. So while they're in the car, they mention that grandma's gone missing and no one knows where she's been.

Throughout the film, there's always this element element of and it'll keep coming up but there's this element that there's no foul play grandma's just getting a bit senile and this is what she does she just sort of wanders off um and anyway so mom and daughter go into the house they start exploring uh we discover that uh grandma has a spooky pastime which is making candles i hate that even in the trailer when it showed that close-up of her cutting the candle i like jumped at it because it just looks scary and gross appealing especially because it's kind of flesh colored to the ones that she she chooses So it looks like carving into flesh. It's very unsettling. And also, you know, in the film The Invisible Man,

they do a really good job of foreshadowing props that would be needed in the end of the film. And I think they do a good job of having a reason for there to be heaps of candles in the house later on. So obviously we will get to that at some point. There's this other shot. Sammy, I don't know how you felt about this. It just seemed a bit gratuitous where we cut to, like,

a rotting fruit plate with just heaps of, like, rotting apples and stuff. Unnecessary. We get it. Subtext with a capital S. We get it. Everything dies. But this is the horror film foreshadowing isn't it like this is saying

like guys don't forget you're watching a spooky film we just ran into the deer who ran across the road and we got a bit shocked it's spooky that is a really good point and i didn't realize this because you're right like a horror film has to you know uh ration out the scares so you don't get overdone by the end but at the same, you can't go too long without a spook or you just go, oh, we're not a horror film anymore, and you get out of that mindset. Yeah. So that's what they had to reach for with, you know, mum being disabled.

Anyway, so they go upstairs. They're about to go into grandma's bedroom. Mum goes, wait out here to the daughter. She goes in. She sees a mound under the covers looking like a figure. We think maybe grandma's dead. We pull up the covers and there's no grandma. There's no one in the bedroom.

The bedroom's also empty. Are we about halfway through? How far? We're like five minutes into this. So at this point, sorry, this is like a proper, this is this is like a proper this is not wikipedia so mom goes to a police station to report the grandma's missing they have that classic you know uh missing persons interview that you've heard in every single film ever made uh but there's a very

um pointed bit of dialogue which i wrote word for word, when she says, look, she's in her 80s. She forgets things. She managed to flood the house last Christmas. So straight away we go, okay. That was a flashback. That was a flashback from last Christmas. Got it. So the police officer says, when was the last time you spoke to her?

And she admits that it's been a while because, you know, she says life gets in the way, blah blah meanwhile daughter is still at the house continues to explore the house and finds this like hidden closet full of junk now what's interesting about this and we'll go back to this closet more and more it's a little bit mary poppins-ish in that it doesn't feel like it's it feels like it's too big to be a closet and to fit into the layout of this house but no one says it like it's not they don't make a big deal about it it's just like the daughter finds this place um and she's like no this is a bit too scary and i'm gonna leave that night daughter reveals to mom that she lost her job, dropped out of uni, is working at a bar, is working at a bar, and the mum is super disappointed.

And, like, to be honest, their relationship isn't that important, but I just put that in for flavour. Shag, don't backtrack on your notes now. You're doing well. We support you. There's a really nice moment where the mum just kind of thinks, have I been a bad daughter? And then the daughter says to the mum, no,

this is exactly what you should be doing. You're here, you're looking for mum, you're trying to help, you're doing the right thing. Nice. That night while everyone's asleep, mum gets up and she sees what she thinks is something spooky. She sees kind of a figure in the front lawn. And, Sammy, that's such a good point because you're right,

all through the film they do a very good job of having, and I don't know if it's the budget of the film, but it works. They have just the most fleeting, you know, a couple of frames of the shadow or the outline of a figure. Yeah. All right. So cut to the next day. It's that shot from the trailer. We see a police search through the brush but they uncover nothing later that night the daughter is smoking on the balcony now she's visited by a teenager who's got downs and he's revealed to be 18 because he's like can i have a smoke and the daughter's like like very you know classic sort of um exposition dialogue she's like you want to smoke wow 18 already haven't you you know like makes a very good point to say that she's been there

for his sort of like adolescence. Right. Now she sort of says, hey, do you want to come in? You know, we've got some coffee or whatever. And he says, he doesn't explain fully, but he's like, no, I'm not allowed to come over to this house anymore. And then leaves in like just a little bit of like a shadow of something a bit ominous, but we don't know why.

So later that night, there's a moment where mum is playing the piano or maybe the daughter's playing the piano, but they both talk about how like the grandma taught them both how to play this upright piano. And the mum reveals that a couple of weeks ago grandma called her to say she thought someone was coming into the house and the daughter is a bit like what the fuck grandma's gone missing and you haven't revealed that and the mum's just like you know what how grandma's like she obviously imagined it this is obviously just dementia like again this is one of those moments where they

really hammer at home i thought look so long long as we're going in on gender, I would have hoped that gaslighting would not be a theme in a film written and directed by a woman and starring exclusively women in an FW by W creation. Like, is gaslighting a horror necessity? Does someone need to be saying someone else is crazy? The thing about gaslighting in all its forms is that it makes you think you're the crazy. The longer people don't believe you, the more you think you could be wrong about what you know to be true.

So it does feel like it's inextricably linked to horror because the scariest thing is you not knowing what's true. It's one thing if someone doesn't believe you. It's another thing entirely if you're like, am I crazy? Like and that's like what gaslighting does to you. So it's sort of I think it does happen a lot also because you like don't want to believe it. So there's that part, too, where you're kind of you're trying to convince yourself that maybe you're imagining it because the thing being real is scary um and maybe the people around you feeling the same way so i can see how it would kind of be realistic in any horror well not any horror movie but in most horror movies because i

feel like a lot like it's the to some extent the rational mind being like no no no it's got to be this other thing yeah yeah my husband must be right how many people have somebody else like wandering through their house it's probably this other thing that we know to be true which is that you have dementia or whatever so so so now this is the moment where like up until this moment in this film we've effectively been gaslighted into thinking this is probably actually about dementia. We were idiots for thinking like, I know they said it was a horror film, but maybe it's just a psychological film. At this point, they hear this giant thud in the wall in the room they're in. And the thud seems to be coming from behind the wall,

like within the wall, right? Now, the wall isn't thick enough to really house room for anything to be there, so it's this kind of scary moment. And there's also, I guess there's kind of like almost like a scratching sound as well, and it's clearly coming from this wall, and both the daughter and the mum can hear it. And at this point they notice a kind of growing black mouldy sort of mark on the wall as well. Oh, sick. Not a good sign.

Now, this is a really important thing to know because that growing black mould appears quite a bit in this film. Yeah. And any time, like, they'll be, I'll probably skip over it, but they'll be, just know that it's there and it's around in this house. Anyway, later that night, mum's asleep again. There's a lot of around in this house anyway later that night mom's asleep again we we there's a lot of parts in this but i think they overuse cutting to mom at night to as a device to be like things are happening i i agree we're moving forward it's another night sammy's a professional editor so sammy's view on this shag the fact she accords with yours is high praise

sammy smart.com it's true matreon.com slash too scary yeah don't go to matreon.com it won't work it will not take you there so later that night mom has a dream about an old decrepit body in a log cabin again i think this is it this is another interesting thing about Relic where a lot of, I think, films shot in Australia aiming for a, I guess, international audience trying not to look very Australian. So this log cabin that exists in this film, now this film is set in, you know, the Victorian countryside, which is outside the city of Melbourne, and I don't think there's a log cabin or even a house that this film's in, but a log cabin like that anywhere in Australia.

It's a very American frontier sort of looking log cabin. But anyway, so the mom has a dream about this log cabin and an old body that's sort of rotting, the clearly dead or maybe not dead, but sort of rotting. And then the sort of, even though it's her dream, the body sort of looks at us, the camera, and then that's the end of the dream. And it whispersispers it's about dementia so so okay so in the morning mom's up early she goes into the kitchen and lo and behold

there's grandma just making a cup of tea we hear like there's the sound design i think's really good because you hear the the the kettle whistling and that whistling kind of you know is the sound of all of us being like what the fuck is going like it's the tension building up um and mom's like What the fuck And I think it's one of those classic moments Where grandma's like Would you like some tea Sammy I can't remember what she said

She says tea But she's like barefoot And dirty And looks like she's been outside for a while But she's acting like it's totally normal Like only Robin Niven can. This is awesome. Yeah, sick.

She's a fucking national treasure. Yeah, I don't think this film had like a huge budget. I think she's supposed to look bruised, but it looks like she's just got like, you know, there's gray streaks on her legs and arms. Yeah. So we then cut to the doctor examining her and she's like a whole different person like she's got a hair tied back she's wearing a very sort of um uh who's that australian guy that died from a stingray steve erwin steve erwin she's wearing like she's wearing like a khaki shirt and like she looks like a member of the erwin family who's she's she's out

to like check on the animals in the zoo like that's the vibe she's got congrats to bindi by the way who i believe is pregnant oh congrats bindi yeah man yeah they are our royal family can't believe you forgot their names yeah so it's it's terrible. I know. Fuck. Surely in your life, you've had those moments where you've been to a family get together and you've forgotten like a cousin's name. I one time forgot my roommate's name while I lived with her. That's so good. It was Jenna. It was Silent Jenna.

I was not offended, Sammy. I got it. We did the like, hey. I forgot Silent Jenna's here. Silent like, hey. Silent Jenna's here. Silent Jenna's here. Silent Jenna's here. How dare you talk about Silent Jenna's. I told you I'm here.

I'm on the mic now to defend myself. So, anyway, so the grandma's just like, look, I'm fine. Why are you all fussing over me? But the doctor sort of says, I think you need people staying with you for the next couple of days, to which, you know, mum and daughter agree that they're going to stay. Mum tries to confront grandma where she was and grandma just simply says, I suppose I went out and won't say anymore and continues to deflect and changes the subject and won't reveal where she disappeared to

for days slash weeks on end. Grandma. Yeah, fucking hell. Now, at this point, I know the film tried to make us be like, oh, by the way, this is about more than dementia. At this point, we notice that all around the house, Grandma's been leaving ourselves heartbreaking little notes, little post-its that say things like, don't forget to flush,

you know, close drawers when you're done taps need to be turned off like you know little it's actually like i i feel like and sammy i don't know if you felt the same way but there were definitely moments in this film where as well as my fear strings, my heart strings were tucked. Yes, of course. Dementia's sad. It's really sad. And really scary. Okay, so we see Grandma, like, we cut to a scene with Grandma by herself looking in the mirror. Like a very spooky scene.

Grandma, like, long hair down, you know, slowly brushing through her hair, wearing, like, an old-timey you know a nasty night would we call it nasty we would bingo mark your bingos nasty nightgown sorry what's a nasty night girl uh it's we first noticed them in the conjuring it's just those creepy nightgowns that people only wear in horror films patreon.com slash too scary didn't watch to get your bingos get your bingo cards so so grandma's brushing her hair in a nasty nightgown uh she's looking in the mirror and she slowly opens the chest of it to reveal that that black mold that we saw in the wall seems to be growing on her chest as well and like i hate to use this term but i feel like it's the only way to describe it she sort of starts to gently finger her like like mold region yeah it's true it's what she does

and i think you guys made a really good point. I think, Em, you made a good point. The sound effects are very tactile. Like, whenever anybody touches the skin mould, we hear it. Sound design in this movie is great. Yuck, yuck, yuck. It's sort of gooey, but also a bit, like, flack, flack, flack. Like, I don't know if you've heard the new Megan Thee Stallion song. And, like, at the end, she's like, whap, whap, whap.

It's like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so. That's a more disturbing fingering than that cabin fever moment, I think. Oh, maybe no. Maybe cabin fever. Let's not talk about cabin fever, my God. Now, at this point, classic horror movie moment.

She's surprised by the granddaughter who comes in she quickly you know um does up her blouse so the grandma daughter can't see the mold area um they have a bit of a talk and then the grandma bequeaths the granddaughter her wedding or engagement ring some sort of special ring the the daughter makes a point by being like shouldn't this be something going to mom and then the grandma makes a pretty sly remark being like oh well mom had her shot and it didn't work out did it so now you can have it basically like paying out the mom for getting divorced yeah fucking hell bequeath only happens in your will i was close right yeah man give. Give was the word you're after.

Give. All right. Okay. So, meanwhile, going from room to room, granddaughter now wearing grandma's ring goes in to check on her mum and her mum is doing another, I think this isn't just horror movies, but it happens a lot in horror movies. The mum is just wistfully looking through a book of old drawings that i assume that the grandma did at some point now one of the images from the book is the scary log cabin from her dream spooky drawing marky bingos for real the daughter's

like what's the deal with that creepy log cabin to which the mom reveals that's where her grandfather so grandma's father lived on the property by himself um and apparently he went mad and died there and uh she then says probably the most important line in the film i don't think he was cared for like he should have been at this point as well she reveals that elements of that old log cabin that was torn down were used to build the house that they're in right now. And remember, the log cabin was where he went mad and died by himself alone, not cared for, probably going through dementia himself. And she says, it's a little bit like what dementia is like.

says it's a little bit like what dementia is like all right so once again we cut to mom at night uh she wakes up to a noise heads down says to see grandma talking to something in the dark now at this point we do see a figure there's something there um when confronted grandma sort of does this really scary thing where honestly again sammy did you think we were looking at grandma from behind until oh my god yes i forgot about this part yes uh yes it looks like she's coming up behind her and she says grandma and grandma parts the hair that you think is the back of her head and she's just standing in a way that she's actually already facing her and just was holding. It's like that TikTok prank.

I don't know the TikTok prank. It's people stand they put a hoodie on and like put it over their face. People think that they're and then they put it down and they scare people Yeah she started this she started it She started it it started with this old lady

What a prankster Oh Robin Niven the original prankster I love it Follow her on TikTok guys she's huge Oh she's huge Oh that's very scary that's very unsettling So uh There's when they go upstairs There's a weird sound under the bed,

and Grandma says, it's here, under the bed, which is like the first time when we're like, oh, okay, so fuck, there's actually potentially something here. I think this is the most scared that I was. I was very scared in this scene. It's in the trailer as well, right? Like there's a really great moment of her looking under the bed And again, you think you can see something under there

It looks like an alien laying on its back, breathing It looks like a chest rising and falling with breath But you can't, you can't But you're not sure, you're not sure You're not sure you're not sure and at this point grandma like stomps like through the bed her leg obviously to stop something hits mom on the head mom's like you did that on purpose and grandma's like did what on purpose and then we flip back to the thing of being like oh okay there was nothing under the bed grandma's just going a bit crazy because it is a bit weird that just as the mum's about to say something,

grandma stops her by like hitting her on the head and, you know, causing mum to bleed. All right. So anyway, mum then travels to Melbourne. She's crying on the way because she visits the most depressing retirement home I've ever seen in my life. It has an ocean view and she looks out the window and it's like buildings and buildings and like between the buildings, there's a little hint of ocean.

It's so sad. And there's like a moment where we walk past an old man, you know, using an A-frame, just sort of staring at nothing. And you just kind of think, if you were doing a walkthrough of a retirement home, that wouldn't be, you know, the first thing you'd walk past keep the crazy ones in their room guys we've got new people coming through we're showing the property today meanwhile while mom is out like looking at this retirement home with the idea that she's going to try and put her mom in there um the daughter's talking to the grandma grandma notices daughter wearing the ring she gave him

the great gave her sorry and accuses her of stealing it which again is another moment where it's like oh well clearly it's dementia it's not like yeah grandma's going crazy but she tries to like snatch it back off her finger in a very aggressive way that hurts her it she like grabs it and like bends her finger and it's almost like she's going to break her finger to get this ring back. It's like, it's not just dementia, but it's also like, oh, I'm a little scared of her because she's unpredictable. Yeah. Sick. So, that night as well, the daughter finds the grandma looking into the weird storage room from the very beginning of the film.

And grandma says, I thought this is where it got in. About the room. says i thought this is where it got in about the room so they're all they're all there's another scene where they're all in bed the daughter wakes up this time to a banging she finds that the washing machine is on with nothing inside mom has another dream about the cabin this time we go a bit closer to the grandfather who's shriveled up on the ground. And once again, he looks at us in a really scary way. In the morning, daughter finds grandma in her room talking to someone again. At this moment, when grandma notices daughter comes in, she goes insane. And to Sammy's point again, this is when we start being a bit threatened by grandma

because she starts just like breaking shit and thrashing around and throwing stuff. And it's very, it's very it's very violent it's very loud this is a very quiet film right and it's a very loud scene so at this point daughter's like okay something's going on i wonder what happened with the neighbor if you remember the neighbor so she goes next door to investigate why the neighbor wasn't allowed to come back and this is this again this was a pretty heartbreaking scene so she talks to the dad of the boy and it turns out they played a game of hide and seek the boy hid in a cupboard the grandma must have forgotten about him so he comes so the dad comes along a couple of hours later and it says have you seen my son grandma's like sorry i haven't seen him

but the father can hear this son screaming upstairs with the grandma seemingly oblivious. They open the door. The boy is crying and distraught and he's got like paint up his fingernails from trying to claw his way out of being locked inside this cabin. It's so upsetting. It's just a really sad moment. Oh, God. And there's this great moment when the daughter tries to apologize. She goes i'm really sorry for that to the dad and the dad just goes oh and

back to that australian lesson but the dad's just like yeah and just said he doesn't say don't worry about it doesn't say anything he just goes yeah as in like yeah that was fucked up like this that wasn't right and an apology isn't apologies. You should be sorry. So while this is happening, mum sees the grandma go into the forest and when she follows her out there, discovers her eating photos from a photo album. So literally opening a photo album, grabbing the photos and eating them. It's about dementia. Literally destroying memories.

There's no metaphor there it's like i'm literally i don't see the connection well wait wait if you thought that was an allegory so they have a bit of an altercation but when they sort of make up um mom says she's trying to get rid of elements of herself because it has been waiting for her till she's weak enough. The mom says, I'm sorry, I'm here to help. Invites her to come stay with her in Melbourne. They both apologize. They have a really sweet makeup moment.

And after like the threatening behavior, it is actually a moment where we think we've turned a corner. Then there is maybe the scariest moment for me in the film where, meanwhile, the daughter's gone back into that weird cupboard and she notices beyond the cupboard there's, like, another room behind it. And, again, this room shouldn't exist. There's no room for this extra room in this cupboard. Doesn't make sense. And you notice, and I had to rewind this shot, like, three times, there is maybe three frames of the slightest hint of a figure walking oh see i think i missed it that time see it's subtle it's sprinkled throughout though i mean it's in it's in it

start to finish it's in that first scene and it's in the whole film it's like where's wally or where's waldo for um too scary didn't but i kind of love the fact that you have to connect with someone else who saw it to like piece together all the times this, this allegory for dementia shows up. Just lurking in the shadows. Okay. So the daughter follows that figure into this weird part of the house. And at this point she gets lost and there's this moment where she goes, no, this is too scary.

Turns around to leave. It's too scary. Didn't go. This figure, but she turns around and she realizes she's basically in this like psychological prison or you know a real prison where behind her is not what was behind her anymore and it's just more yeah it's just more spooky hallway that she can't get out of and now she's trapped inside the house so this is the daughter and she's starting to freak out. Like a maze type thing. Like she cannot find her way out. Oh, no.

So they go back in the house and grandma sort of, they're sort of having a meal and it's okay. But then grandma turns again. She freaks out. She stands up and very conspicuously just like wheeze on the ground. To which, like, I don't think this, like, I understand. But, you know as as a mother shouldn't get disgusted but the mom's basically like mom and it's like hey you know you shouldn't

be weighing on the ground right takes her upstairs puts her runs her in the old time runs her old timey bar goes downstairs and starts mopping up so meanwhile we cut back to the daughter who's found a whole bunch of other post-its in this weird inner house, inside the house, house hallway. And these post-its are a lot scarier than the other post-its. They say things like, where are you? And it's here, written in very shaky handwriting. So we're kind of thinking maybe this is where she was while she was missing, or I was at least.

I was like, this could be why they couldn't find her this is the thought right this is the thought so it's like grandma actually wasn't making it up it wasn't dementia she actually got caught inside this weird haunted house um meanwhile mom's like it's been a while since grandma's done anything so she goes up and knocks on the bathroom door it's locked so she looks through the window up top and she sees grandma gently stabbing her wound with a knife i don't know where grandma got it but she's sort of gently picking at the sort of moldy wound on her chest with a knife sound effects sound effects are bad look i know that this movie is going to be bigger than this, but this woman should not become her mother's caretaker.

She let her go, sit in a bath unattended and lock the door. She is not going to be a good caretaker. So she screams for grandma to open the door. Grandma does, calmly appears dressed in her nightgown and sort of walks past mom's like what the hell looks in see the butt sees the buses overflowing runs to turn it off but not before the bath water hits a heater in the room tripping the circuits in the house lights in the whole house go out. Power outage. Mark your bingos. Mark your bingos.

Now, remember, Grandma loves candles. Grandma loves candles. So lucky there's heaps of candles in the house. This is like signs when all the cups of water are everywhere. It is. It is. In fact, the way that the aliens appeared in signs in those scary scenes is not dissimilar to this. Agreed.

So she goes downstairs with one of grandma's candles. Grandma right now is breaking picture frames and throwing furniture around. She follows grandma and grandma goes up into the scary room as well. And she also follows grandma into this scary room. So we've all entered the weird Maisie zone. Yeah. But she loses grandma, right? So she's chasing grandma.

Grandma gets away. So now mum's lost, daughter's lost, and we don't know where grandma is. Until mum finds grandma. Now, this is probably the spookiest looking scene in the film. She finds grandma who has now like a skin opened hole in her cheek and she's just jabbing at it with the knife Just like Just picking at her cheek

Mum at this point Is like okay this isn't cool Like again a good caretaker Would sort of say what's going on This isn't cool Mum just runs Grandma gets up to run Her leg like we see The bone come out of the leg

yeah nasty nasty nasty and gives chase so the grandma starts chasing the mom through these very tight corridors between the right we've seen with the daughter as she's been getting lost in there it's almost as if the walls are closing in like it's getting the space is getting smaller and smaller it's almost like that's a metaphor as well it could be it might be about dementia this part we we then cut to the daughter who has found an old pipe and she's starting to smash her way through the wall into the wall from the early parts of the film where we heard the when they heard that thud remember at the start and she's breaking through it with a pipe and she reaches her hand out and we see the

daughter's about to get out so mom finds her and they're like we need to get out let's make this hole bigger at this point the grandma comes around and the grandma's sort of become this scary sort of monsterish sort of thing you know like long fingers uh scary skin bones coming out everywhere skin peeling off classic dementia yeah uh so so they're like quick we've got to get out the door together gets out first then she tries to pull the mom out and again classic horror scene where the mom is halfway out and then she's ripped back in and then the daughter's like no we've got to get you out so she pulls the mum out at which point grandma follows afterwards and like grandma is fully monster now like she is more monster than

human and grandma goes to attack the daughter where at this point mum picks up the lead pipe or metal pipe or whatever it is and smacks grandma on the back of the head grandma falls to the ground there's a moment of silence as daughter and mum sort of you know survey the carnage that has just happened now grandma's still alive but she's sort of just breathing and mum and daughter i just have a moment of just pure shock which like i know we pay it out in horror films but i think you would actually pause for a second to just try and work out what the fuck just happened so daughter's like we have to get out of here and she's she's the one that snapped you know back to reality first and sort of pulls the mum out. But as they're leaving, now this is where the movie turns

and becomes something that I wasn't expecting and became something that I thought was worth recapping in this podcast. Mum looks to grandma. Grandma's still alive but just sort of has this look on her face like she doesn't know where she is. Has this just very calm, serene look like she doesn't know where she is has this just very calm serene look like she's just a bit confused even though she is this kind of monster with like skin going everywhere

and blood and you know crazy fingers and things and then mum oh my god okay like i tear up mum notices a post-it on the ground that says remember you are loved oh i just got goosebumps so so so the daughter's like they're still daughter's still in like end of horror movie mode and she's like come on mom let's go daughter goes outside mom then closes the door on the daughter locks the door the daughter's like what are you doing mom says i can't leave her walks back to grandma picks her up in i mean we we talked about um top gun before i think there's a moment in top gun where oh no there's a moment in a film where like you know the leading man holds the leading woman like in this like very like loving sort of like holding her up and this is what the mom does

so she picks up the grandma and slowly walks her upstairs and sits her on the bed now this this is where the and like sammy you know please fill in where i'm not describing this you got it keep going so i'm on the edge of my seat. So mum at this point starts to complete the job grandma started of pulling off her skin. So she starts to gingerly and very tenderly. Like lovingly. Like so lovingly. And the camera work is loving.

And the way they do it, this isn't like, it doesn't really come across as a creepy scene. This comes across as a beautiful scene. This comes across as a beautiful scene. This is why it's so confusing. Bizarre and beautiful. It's so, like, it is so beautiful. So she's pulling the skin off her grandma to reveal underneath, and I know this sounds like blackface.

It's not blackface. Essentially a grey, black, babyish alien. No skin. Sorry, no hair just a skinless completely dark you know humanoid alien that is just sitting on the bed with this motionless with this uh emotionless it's almost like a mummified corpse looking thing i'd say yeah you're right it looks mummified but it's, but it's absolutely alive. My partner Adele, Adele Cupway, she's been on the podcast before,

has this term that I think is really funny that just came up out of a joke where you know how sometimes you call your pet your fur baby? Like we have a dog and it's a fur baby. And then somebody was like, well, what does that make a human? And she's like, oh, that's easy. It's a skin baby. Oh, my God. I saw that somewhere on Twitter. Somehow this has made its way back to me.

I saw someone post that on Twitter calling a baby a skin baby and they were like, I just don't want to have to carry this knowledge alone. And I think the thing is it's like I can't think of a better term for what the mum becomes at the end of this film, which is basically a skin baby. So at this point, mum sort of tenderly lays down the skin baby on the bed and lies down behind her. At this point, the daughter has broken into the house, is like, what the fuck? But then sees what's happening and then lays down on the bed behind the mum.

So it's the three generations of the family just having a really nice moment on the bed. And then there's a moment where the daughter notices the black mold growing on the mum's back. And then that's the end of the film. A metaphor for dementia. Death comes for us all. it'll come for us all okay that's it's so interesting even in your retelling it like feels like it be it was like two different movies almost it it it feels like two different movies semi like, it really was the whiplash you feel with the change of tone at that end is amazing. And yet it feels natural when you're watching it, I think. Yeah.

Something about it is very satisfying from a character perspective where I think earlier in the movie, she's kind of trying to pawn off her mom at this retirement home. And it just very much like brings it home of like the most intimate thing she could be doing is literally like helping her peelers. And I know it sounds disgusting and gross, but it is this kind of like. Well, it's like an acceptance. It's presented in like a care, a caretaking way. And it's like, I'm I'm here with you. I have you. Nothing about you is gross.

Nothing about you is gross to me. And I'm like here for whatever you need. And so it was a very beautiful conclusion to that character's arc. But one that I absolutely did not see coming. If you asked me, how's this movie going to end, I wouldn't have said daughter pulling off her mom's skin and then cuddling her in bed. Yep, feels like a surprise.

And I think that's what's amazing about it too is because when you retell it, it sounds like a joke. When you retell it, it's like, oh, lol, I can't believe that happened. But watching it, it's the most beautiful moment I've seen in a film in a long time. It was. It was very touching. Oh, I love that. I think I liked this movie.

And yes, I liked it more at the end. I'm glad you suggested it. It's also great to get a new release. Great to get a new release in 2020. They're few and far between, we've said before. They're few and far between. Emily Mortimer's accent, maybe it leaves something to be desired but overall she was good yeah not as good as our accents but we'll let we'll let her do her thing i would say your accents are better than emily which i think this is like a pretty cool thing that's pretty cool

well i'm out of practice with my accent, but I will say that the reason my accent got good is because one time I was driving home to Los Angeles from San Francisco and on the seven-hour drive, I just spoke to myself out loud in an Australian accent nonstop like a crazy person. No, no, no. Why didn't this come up earlier? the hell i was too i was too uh

on the spot i froze and could only focus on my impression what were you talking about for seven hours in your australian i'm very good at talking to myself i don't know i could not tell you but i just i can i have a lot to say and I said it for seven hours straight. Oh, my God. Well, look, guys, thank you. This has been an extremely long episode of Spooko. I imagine a pretty long episode of Too Scary Didn't Watch. Guys, it was such a pleasure to have you on the show slash be on your show.

To be the guest and the host, what a dream. The guest and the host. a dream in the host we lost we lost peach just minutes ago he had to be a responsible adult and and tend to tend to his life um but boy i mean what a treat it was to chat with you both again this This was great. And I guess can we do an Australian accent goodbye? Yeah! Okay, so all of us hear it. Too scary. Too scary didn't what?

Goodbye. Oh my god. It was so bad. Oh, excellent. Take It was so bad. Oh, excellent. Take that, Emily Mortimer. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Too Scary Didn't Watch with our dear, dear guests at Spooko. If you are liking the show, please subscribe on Apple Podcast Rate and Review. You can follow us on social media at TSDW Podcast on Instagram, Twitter and Stardust.

Become a patron on Patreon for other fun content and updates from us. We will be back here next week with our dear, dear Henley back in the saddle all the way from New York City. We are going to be doing Hellraiser. If you would like to watch before next week, I hear it's a doozy. So get ready and we will see you then. We love you so much. Goodbye!