Too Scary; Didn't Watch - THE BLACK PHONE

Episode Date: July 6, 2022

Psychic dreams, horrible fathers, and Ethan Hawke in the most-terrifying mask ever made -- we're recapping THE BLACK PHONE! Join us as we escape yet another basement, overcome our fears, talk to ghosts and fight mean bullies. Trigger Warning: child abuse/violence THE BLACK PHONE is in theaters now TRAILER Recap begins @ 25:49 Follow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes and additional content! Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy. Advertise on Too Scary; Didn't Watch via Gumball.fm Podcast artwork by @EllaTalkinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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As an Audible member, you choose one title a month to keep from their ever-growing catalog. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca to sign up. This is a HeadGum Podcast. This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy, and you're listening to Too Scary, Didn't Watch. Hi, everyone. 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 Henley and I am also too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Sammy and I love watching scary movies and so I watch them so that you don't have to and I tell you all about them and we've got a freaking new release for you this week that I'm very excited about but before we get to that did anything scary happen to us this week I got my first facial can you believe it your first ever my first ever I've also only had one yeah it's like just a thing that I've never really known. Skincare in general to me is really overwhelming. I don't know how to get the results I want to get.

I don't know what the best products are. There's so many. Up until recently, I've never. It's like that thing that you don't think about your skincare until it's too late. And you should have been thinking about it 10 years Ago where I'm like well fuck I don't Like the only thing I know is like Moisturize wear sunscreen which sure drink

Water but like there's So much more to be done there's a lot And I find it very overwhelming So I never really know where to begin but Sammy you are one of my You are one of my skincare people I reach out to you Incredible skin. Incredible skin.

Skin, skincare addiction, subreddit. Shout out. And then my friend Jess, who has been on the pod before, is my other skincare resource. She also has incredible skin. And like both of you are very, you like love skincare. You're very interested in it. You like think about it. For me, it's like similar to like music where I'm like, well, there's too much.

I don't want to know. I can't I can't possibly silence. And so, yeah, Jess had gifted me many moons ago of a facial at her favorite one of her favorite places. And it's an hour long facial. It's the hydro facial, which I don't know. I just did that age so intensely. facial which i don't know i just did that age so intensely hydro facial hydro facial which uses a little machine that like sucks stuff out of your pores while like injecting serum at the same time it's very interesting but so this is my experience with this facial i for the first

15 minutes i was like oh this is so great this is so relaxed this was like washing my face and rubbing like I don't know foamy stuff on my face and then wiping it off like more foamy stuff my face I was like this is great this is great this is great and then the machine starts I'm like okay this is still pretty great I like like the feeling of it being like sucking and like you know like it's like a little bit harsh but in a a like satisfying way. And I was like, man, I'm going to, I'm going to do this all the time. This is so great. And then she goes in with the extraction tool, which this is nasty, but like whatever. Um, and does, does it just a, just a few extractions, tears coming out the corners of my eyes. It hurt so bad in such a like specific way. It's like someone is both pressing and stabbing one tiny point in your face. And I, in that moment, I was like, leave my face nasty,

like leave it disgusting. Don't do this to me. Like, don't. I was like, I'll never do this again. I hate this. Then, you know, we moved past that and we continue on with the facial. And by the end I was like, well, I'm doing this every day of my life, which I'm not because it's expensive. And probably not good to do every day. Probably not good to do every day. But, man, it's the thing that really overwhelms me about skincare is like, okay, so then I do this facial. I go through my journey of I love it, I hate it, I love it. And now I'm all, you know, every day, every day I'm looking at my pores.

I'm like, wow, look at this. This really did some stuff. And then I look up, okay, great, maybe maybe i'll do maybe i'll keep this up maybe i'll like have good clean nice skin and prioritize my skin they recommend doing it every two to four weeks two to four weeks it is two hundred dollars two hundred. Like what the fuck? Just for my skin to look better, which is like, sure, I obviously want that. But like what? I'm supposed to do that to feel like now I'm like, well, I feel like I'm going to be just like a nasty little piece of shit for the rest of my life because I can't possibly do that. And it's like, what? Okay, I have so many things to say about this. Please, because it is like killing me. Okay, and actually it dovetails with what I wanted to talk about this week, which was that I have a wedding this weekend

and the amount of like bodily prep I have done for this wedding just this week. I'd forgotten. I'd forgotten. I'd forgotten. You got to do your, you got to do your Tanner. Yeah. You're got it. Exfoliating before the Tanner.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. You got to like shave your legs. You got to shave your legs. Um, no, but it's so many things like getting your nails done, like getting,

I got a spray tan, like making sure my hair looks good. A.K.A. I should have gotten a haircut and gotten it colored, but instead I cut it in my own bathroom. Like I literally don't have time even to do the most basic stuff. And I was shocked at remembering how like pre-baby, pre-pandemic, this was just like normal run-of-the-mill body maintenance i'm doing all the time you know getting getting a wax yep getting a wax getting your hair colored getting your nails done body maintenance of like fucking diet and exercise that we feel like we sometimes need to do which is like fuck that shit too so time consuming it's so expensive it's also mentally consuming.

Do you know what I mean? Like it fucks with your brain to be like, I have to do all these things to make my body good, to go to thing and have people look at body. Yes. Yes. Oh my God. Make meat good for people like. I, okay.

But all right. So specifically on the facial topic though, this is something that I've struggled with as well. It's like facials or skin care or opt out of all of it. Because, of course, we can always choose to do that. And there's one dermatologist that I follow on Instagram, Dr. Shireen something. Do you guys follow her? No, but I will. Send her to me.

Send her to me. She's great. But she says one of the things that she talks about is how you can choose. Like you can either be getting a facial once a month and basically be doing like no other skin care or you can just do like a skin care routine every day and you don't really need to get facials.

Like facials are kind of unnecessary. Great. Love to hear this. The lady who did my facial really made me feel like I needed to be doing facials. Are you serious? That's so rude Well no she just like they show you Like what they extract from your skin Which is kind of nasty but kind of like oh my god

All that was like Because the machine like sucks it out And so she's like look do you want to see She actually didn't ask me and I would have said no But she was like She shoved it in your face like you fucking dirty You dirty bitch Look at it She shoved it in your face like you fucking dirty, you dirty bitch. She shoved my nose in it like a dog.

That's so gross. Wait, can we just all say whether or not we watch videos, those videos online when they pop up of people extracting things? I can't. They disgust me. But some people very much love them. And I get the sense by your huge smile on your face that you're one of those people some people and maybe one of them is here this is this is a huge public reveal for me but um yeah no i don't at all seek them out because i thought would

be a step too far for my own like now they're gonna be seeking you out you realize that right you're they because i voiced it out loud yes um i've never i've never admitted this out loud but when they do pop up on the tiktok algorithm i will i will give it a little look sees i'm not gonna lie i don't think you're alone in that henley i think you don't you don't have to be ashamed oh thanks guys i'll say just one more thing which i really spiraled i don't know i don't think i told you guys this i really spiraled like a few weeks ago ish in that i saw a tweet of someone being like i met this woman this older woman who had flawless skin and i asked her what does she do to have flawless skin and she said oh well i train myself to sleep on my back and and

i and i went down this rabbit hole of like do i need to train myself to sleep on my back. And I went down this rabbit hole of like, do I need to train myself to sleep on my back? And I started looking up articles and I was like, what the fuck am I doing? It's hard enough to sleep. I'm going to start fucking with my sleep just to like maybe not smush my skin while I'm asleep, a thing I can't possibly control. It just like makes me feel insane.

We have such little control over it. We like to convince ourselves that we have more control than we do, but it's basically all genetic. Yeah. It's all genes. So it's got to be a balance between mania and finding skin, finding skincare things you like that are bring you happiness this is a good

and working on accepting the realities of aging i think this is like the thesis of poog the podcast is essentially like we can the search is giving us meaning like right right which that is you gotta revel in the process that's the whole point of existence right if you're not enjoying it stop doing it i'm not i gotta say right now i'm not enjoying it says i'm not i'm not enjoying it because it feels like i'll never figure it out well the point is not to figure it out. The point is that there isn't an answer because if there was, then we'd be dead. That's the point. It's about trying product after product after product and knowing that none of them will ever fill the void inside of us. And there's beauty in that.

There's beauty in that process. There's beauty in that. Well, my scary thing is also skin related. And that is that officially the mosquito bites have started. Oh, no. It's officially that time. And I'm very upset. You can maybe see here.

Can you give us an average amount where you're receiving them? I've got three on my arm and I've got, oops, one on front of each ankle like at the front of my foot because, you know, the LA mosquitoes they're ankle biters. And I'll tell you what if you've got, if you go outside and you're like, I'm done good, I'm done good all my ankles are covered, I've covered them

they're not getting through guess what they'll get? Your wrists. What's a wrist if not an arm ankle? And they will get What's a wrist if not an arm ankle? And they will get... What's a wrist if not an arm ankle? I got devoured on my wrist recently. And that is like an icky place to have a bunch of bites. I hate them so much.

And just kind of a scary thing was that my very first bite happened while I was on a date with a person that doesn't know me very well. And I turned into a full maniac. What happened? What happened? Give us a little glimpse into what that looks like. Couldn't pay attention to any of the conversation. He was like trying to talk and I just am darting my little eyes around like, where the fuck are they? Where the fuck is this mosquito? Were you inside or outside? Outside. And after we finished a drink, I made us leave the location we were at. I was like, I'm sorry.

I just know that there are mosquitoes here and I'm not going to be able to have a good time. And so we went to a different bar further down the street and went inside. And then I could finally relax. But this is also a person that on our first date, I talked about CVS for a half an hour. CVS? CVS the pharmacy. CVS the pharmacy? Yeah. And not just CVS, but the Care Plus program. That's right. We talked about how much I love CVS and why, for what reasons, for a really long time. So I guess the scary thing really is dating again after being alone by myself for two years in my house. I'm just talking to my cats. I mean, obviously I'm, I am in love with you, but I can't imagine going on a date with somebody who did that and not being like, well, they're perfect. Yeah, that's fascinating.

This person is incredible and I'm done. I found him. I mean, he needed to know how great CVS is. I just couldn't. I live with myself. Can you get some like top... He brought up Walgreens and I was like, Walgreens? No, no, no, no.

What? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Listen to this. I drive way out of my way to go to CVS because I fucking hate Walgreens and Rite Aid. I won't go. I won't. I refuse. I've never heard this before. Can you give some top line reasoning for why you love CVS so much? Well, do you have 30 minutes? Okay, what? As Emily mentioned, the Care Pass is a big part of it. Okay, okay. You pay $5 a month for a Care Pass and it gives you $10 a month off coupon. Immediately, you're making five bucks just from that.

Amazing. And on top of that, the amount of deals, discounts, cash back. It's outrageous. It's just I feel like I'm making money when I shop at CVS because of how much I utilize the coupons. And I'm really strategic about it. And I save up, you know, when I need to go and I have like the most coupons and I need the most stuff.

And so I'll go. I've gone once when I've literally had $65 subtracted from my total. That's amazing. And I text Jenna each time and I'm like, $65. This time, Jenna. 65. Once again, I would propose on the spot. I don't know. I don't know what else a person is supposed to do. I don't know what else a person is supposed to do. Yeah, this is a person that knows her deals.

She's savvy with money. She knows how to shop. That's right. But something else scary happened to me this week. And that is that I went to the theater to see this week's movie, which is The Black Phone, directed by Scott Derrickson, written by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. They are the team also behind Sinister. This is based on a short story by Joe Hill, who is Stephen King's son. Oh, okay. Interesting.

It is starring Mason Thames, Madeline McGraw, and Ethan Hawke. Those guys are big Hawke heads, I guess. Yeah. And there's another actor in this, James Ransone, who was also in Sinister and Sinister 2. So a real, yeah, reteaming. They liked working together, all of them, I guess. Which I get. I like working with the same people, too.

All I've seen is the poster for this. And the poster was very frightening. I got to say. Yeah. The little information I have about this movie leaves me to believe that you are really going to be upset. I mean, I agree. I agree. I agree.

I'm stealing myself for it. I like I'm ready. But my main question is, Sammy, you had a central fear going into I was about to ask the same question. Thank you. You were very concerned that this might disrupt your crush, your love, your deep, deep, deep feelings for Ethan Hawke by watching this film. Did that happen? Yes or no? It didn't. Which, you know, is maybe What a relief. bad also for me

because, yes, I love Ethan Hawke a lot and he does play a villain, predator, pedophile, bad, bad person in this. That's a lot of bad adjectives. Yeah, that's a lot of bad things. So, yeah, I was concerned

that it would change my perspective of him, and it didn't. I just think he's a great actor. You know, I wasn't necessarily attracted to his character. Sure. Necessarily. Necessarily is the key word there. Well, okay, not necessarily. Well, I can still see that he's hot, Emily.

Sure, sure. And you know what? That's valid. Honestly, I think it's healthier that it didn't sway your opinion about Ethan Hawke, the person. Because I think if you left that movie being like, oh, no, Ethan Hawke, then you have a... You know, that's like not fair. That's not fair. He's playing a part. He is an actor.

He is playing a role. And he's great in it. I mean, he does a good job. He's great in everything. I love Ethan Hawke. He's just the best. He's the best. But yeah, so it has an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 79% on Metacritic, and a 7.3% on IMDb. Pretty good. on imdb pretty good the budget was somewhere between 16 and 18 million and so far it's made 48 million and i think it's just been you know a little over a week a week yeah week week and a half or so so that's pretty good and this is the first like original horror of the year i think that's done this well and because i mean we had we had scream did scream not do that well no scream did great

but it's based on you know an existing franchise okay yes yes and so and crimes of the future did not do very well okay okay great yeah just good for them good for ethan we love to see it there's a lot and this i mean i feel like this is jumpstarting the big summer of horror. The spooky summer. About to get a lot. Spooky summer. Should we start spooky season now? I mean, we sort of. Yeah, I mean.

Always are. We're kind of a year-round spooky season crew. I know, but there's extra emphasis on it when we're in spooky season. It's true. No, it does feel like they're doing, they're doling out horror movies at a nice steady pace right now like like at least one a month we got nope next month yeah and then this month baby oh sorry oh my god it's july already nope this month then bodies bodies bodies and pray and um there were a lot of good horror trailers before the black phone that i hadn't

heard of so there's that one smile that i had heard of that looks interesting could kind of go either way i think it could be bad could be good there was one called barbarian that looked great and one called the invitation which is we already did a movie with that title but this is a vampire one, so I'm interested in that. So, yeah, spooky summer. I'm here for it. Also, huge news that Night Bitch, which we can't wait for. Night Bitch, the werewolf movie. Scoot McNary, another classic Sammy crush coming in in the leading role. Very exciting news.

Love Scoot McNary. scoop mcnary and amy adams in night bitch i'm adding it to my calendar right now no release date yet but i'll just put it on every day just in case it's the full calendar of maybe night bitch question mark check for night check make no plans make no plans for 2023 because any day might be night bitch. I like adding it to your morning routine to wordle chordle film birdle. Movie doll frame. Your first two words in every

wordle. Night bitch. Night bitch. Night bitch. Not a bad first word. Not a terrible first word. I aim to start my first word with three vowels. I try to do three vowel words. Smart. Some trivia about this movie. The Grabber dons several creepy masks throughout the film.

Ew, The Grabber? Yeah. Ew. Ethan Hawke's character's name is The Grabber. The Grabber. Ew, I really don't like that. Yeah, it's not good. And so you've seen the poster,

you've seen his mask. It is like a very, very creepy mask. It looks thick. It looks very thick. It looks like it's made out of clay. Kind of, yeah. But I would guess it's probably hard plastic. Probably hard plastic okay Just thicker and more clay colored

A little grayer A little more texturized So he dons Several creepy masks throughout the film Each exposing different portions of his face And the mask was designed by Legendary prosthetic makeup artist Tom Savini

Who we spoke of Snake killeriday the 13th episode which since talking about that people have sent us statements from him saying like brushing off the snake thing like i had nothing to do with the snake thing somebody somebody killed a snake for real in friday the 13th yep or no yeah fr the 13th. And allegedly it was Tom Savini and he claims it wasn't. But the seed has been planted and I don't trust this man. And this is the danger of misinformation. Well, I heard it and I hate him. Heard him and I hate him. Pro wrong prove me wrong until he gives me a name it's his name that i'll choose to blame and but the mask is great he did a great

job on these masks so okay well you know so good job tom um okay so scott Derrickson also directed Doctor Strange The first Doctor Strange, which I didn't know Every single time we say Doctor Strange, my brain goes Doctor Sleep It's an understandable thing to confuse Doctor Strange, which is the Marvel one Yes, and he was supposed to direct the Multiverse of Madness, the sequel as well And I think began directing it and then left it over Creative Differences. And Sam Raimi took over, but Scott Derrickson stayed on as an executive producer. Thought that was kind of interesting. And there's a lot of child actors in this. It's

there's a lot of child actors in this it's um you know mostly told from the perspective of kids and the main girl in it this actress madeline mcgraw immediately when she started speaking she has the voice of the little girl from the haunting of hill house oh which one the tiny one with a baby nell yeah young now she's so cute and, young Nell. Oh, she's so cute. And she kind of looks like her too. And so I was like, is this her? And she's like, because this girl's probably 12 or so. And I was like, I guess it could be her. And it looks enough like her and sounds enough like her. But also there's something just a little bit off. I was like, I don't know. It's like not exactly right, but it could be. And it was bugging me the whole time.

And afterwards I looked it up and it's her sister. It's her older sister. So Violet McGraw is the actor in Haunting of Hill House. And this is Madeline McGraw. And this is a family of four children where all of them are actors, which makes me a little nervous. Yeah, I know. Is their father Tim McGraw and this is a family of four children where all of them are actors which makes me a little nervous yeah I don't is their father Tim McGraw no I don't think so isn't that Faith Hill's husband I they're yes no I don't think they're Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's kids can you imagine though um what a family that is that makes me nervous too yeah but she was great she was great

and so was the little girl in Haunting of Hill House. So I don't know. I know. I really have thoughts because it's like I like watching things with kids in them. And I like when kids are good actors. But it's also like kids shouldn't have jobs. Right. One time I had to run an errand for my boss whose daughter was basically I had to like

go to some child union acting union office to get some paperwork signed. And the lobby was just filled with parents and their children. And it was including like small children, like babies that were like crawling around. And it was packed and everyone was just waiting. And it was like Tuesday at like noon. And I'm like, they should be in school. Yeah. What the fuck is going on like what's everyone

doing here like this it just was so sad i think that i've always felt that way when i go to like if i've ever been to commercial auditions where there are children there and i'm like it's the middle of the day yeah this kid should be in school like having fun at recess like not in a fucking like office building right now proving thatving that they're the cutest, best, most talented. No, thank you. No, thank you. I don't know. But it's like, you know, stuff needs kids in it. I don't know.

We need to be entertained. We must be entertained. And these, it sounds like the McGraw children are the ones to do it. And we need it to be the McGraws. She was great. I thought she was great in it um but yeah just thought i'd point point that out um i thought it was interesting and we are gonna watch the trailer later and uh because it shows basically the whole movie so great uh listeners

if you want to see our trailer reaction, you can go to patreon.com slash TSDW podcast and our trailer reaction will be there. But for now, I think in the past few years, I have hit a point where I only want to be wearing clothes that are comfortable. It happened. It happened to me. But you know what? I still also want to look cute.

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Also not funny. Sorry. The way that, yeah, I don't like the combo of just saying, like, we need to be entertained by kids. Plus laughing about child abuse is probably a bad combo. The way that rolled out, I really I laughed at it and then was like Why are you laughing, you fucking freak? Okay And some allusions or like references to child sexual abuse There's a, it's, yeah, kid stuff, kid stuff, a lot of it

Okay, great And also a disclaimer that I saw it in theaters And again, I don't take notes in the theater And so, you know, it's a little looser than normal of it yeah okay great all right and also a disclaimer that i saw it in theaters and again i don't take notes in the theater and so you know it's a little a little looser than normal yep so we start in 1978 in denver and it's at a kids baseball game we meet our protagonist is the pitcher of this baseball game his name is finney he does you know like throws the first two he's like he's very good and is trying to strike out this guy hitting i don't know sports terms a hitter batter batter a batter that's that's correct batter batter it looks like

he's gonna get him out and all the like girls that he's trying to impress are watching in the stands. And then on the third one, the batter hits it out and gets a home run. And Finney looks disappointed in himself. But at the end, when they're shaking hands, the batter is like, you've got a really incredible arm. You almost had me there. And they have like a nice little moment. Finney smiles like it makes him feel a little bit better about himself one of my favorite things about watching sports ever is when the game is over and people from opposite teams are nice to each other i know i really like it i went to one baseball game once and was in the outfield and when the whatever opposing team was out there

people would just scream at them like horrible things and it was making me so upset. I was like, you don't have to be so mean to them. But like you see it the most I feel like in basketball when the game is

over they all go like they like hug each other and they say things in each other's ears and yeah that's cute that's my favorite thing i like that as well um but so we see them part ways the batter's name is bruce and he's riding home on his bike we're having these like 70s these are like middle school age yeah they think they're probably all about 13 14 and he is riding on his bike and we see a black van cross in front of him and him stop. Someone get out of the van and it cuts to black. And a few days later, we see Finney at the breakfast table with his dad. His dad is clearly very hungover and yelling at him for every noise that he's making.

His sister Gwen comes into the room and accidentally opens the toaster in a way that makes like a loud noise as well. And she jumps at it, like knowing that she's going to get in trouble for making noise. Like knowing that she's going to get in trouble for making noise. So they're clearly very aware that they're on eggshells basically around. They're like tiptoeing around their dad, alcoholic dad, and they are talking about Bruce's disappearance. So they know that he has been abducted. He is not the first person that has been abducted. This has now happened a few times gwen and finney walk to school together and as they're walking to school they stumble upon some of their classmates fighting getting in a fight like kind of a gnarly fight it's between this guy moose and robin and moose says like a racial slur to robin and so robin like absolutely beats the shit out of him, even though Robin's a little smaller. And Finney takes Gwen, pulls her aside. He's like, let's get out of here.

Let's get out of here. And she says, Moose was an asshole. Moose beat you up. Like, you should like to see him getting beaten up. And he's like, no, I just, nobody deserves that. Like, again, Robin is really, really beating the shit out of him. There's a lot of kids, like, very violently beating the shit out of each other to the point where it's like they might die oh my god it's it's a lot i don't like it uh but we it's clear that finney is not a fighter and that he probably gets bullied

he has been beaten up but doesn't like to part does what he can to avoid these fights so they keep walking on and finney asks gwen if she thinks or if they'll find bruce and he's asking her as if she has some authority on this and she says they're not gonna find him how they want to find him oh wait is gwen younger or older younger interesting okay but they're close they're they're look like about 12 and 13 you know i'm not great with the ages but that that's around there i think she's probably a year younger than him um so they're going to the same school yeah so there's a hint at her having some sort of psychic abilities. Oh, it's psychic. It's psychic abilities.

I was thinking she knew something was involved in some way. Okay. Okay. Okay. She's got a bit more of a sight, which is very Stephen King. Yeah. Yeah. God, I wish I was psychic.

I don't know. It'd be a lot of pressure. god i wish i was psychic i don't know it'd be a lot of pressure we have this conversation occasionally and i just still want i still want to be psychic they don't okay well we can agree to like have different points of view on that i just want flawless skin that's all i want i'd like to um i maybe be able to teleport teleport that'd be yeah no no if we're choosing if we're choosing that would be the best one to have um what about time travel i know it gets complicated and i know you just watch the time traveler's wife and there's too much drama on that but okay sorry this is sidetracked let's

get back just just so the listeners know though there is a scene in The Time Traveler's Wife where the time traveler goes back in time to suck his own dick. I think it's important that people know that. That's what made me not want to watch it. You told me that. They do include it in the TV show. That's so crazy. It's very funny. Okay, so as they're walking to school, Gwen refers to the grabber says you know the grabber did this and finney says something like don't say his name so there's clearly some little rumor that

he takes people that say his name she brushes it off like that's you know not true and they get to school three bullies gang up on finny and chase him through the halls into the bathroom and into the bathroom comes robin with his knuckles covered in blood and robin stands between them and finny and basically says if you fuck with finny you fuck with me and they're all scared of robin and so they all leave and robin turns to finny and says you know you need to start learning how to stand up for yourself so they have a a little a little friendship there that's nice and we see finny in class in like a science class he has a little toy rocket that he plays with and he stares at this girl donna that he clearly has a crush on and then detectives pull gwen out of her class for questioning so we see

them pull her into an office somewhere and they say what did you tell your friend whatever angela friend, whatever, Angela or whatever. And she says, oh, I had a dream that the grabber had black balloons. And they say, how did you hear that? And she says, I didn't hear it. I dreamt it. And they say there were black balloons at all of the crime scenes, I guess, where the kids were kidnapped. And he said, we've never released that information anywhere. Like, tell us who told you that. And she starts getting frustrated. And she says, you know, I told you their dreams.

And that's like nobody told me their dreams. And she's like, what do you think? What's the alternative here? You think I'm the grabber? You think I'm the grabber, you fucking idiots? She starts screaming at them. It's very funny. Her vibe is very fun.

She's like, you fucking morons. You think I'm the grabber? Is that what you're alluding to right now? They're like, no, we just need to know where you got this. Like, what aren't you telling us? And she gets quiet and she says, sometimes my dreams become real. And this is something that's happened before. And these detectives seem to just believe her.

They're like, all right. Okay. Which is convenient. Yeah. And after school, Gwen goes to a friend's house. Finney says, I'll take care of dad. And we see Robin walking home from school. And again, a black van pulling up, someone coming out and it cutting to black.

So now Robin is gone. We see Finn at home taking care of his passed out dad, like cleaning up beer bottles everywhere and falling asleep in front of the TV. And he wakes up the next morning to really, really intense screams. And his dad is beating Gwen with a belt. It is definitely the most upsetting scene in the film. It's really prolonged. And her performance is like really, really intense. He's hitting her very hard screaming at

her that the cops came to his work asking questions what did you do why are you and he says you're not your mom your dreams aren't real and so there's again a little hint that this is something that happened in their family maybe why their mom is not around anymore maybe why the dad's an alcoholic yeah and so he basically um makes her makes her say to him my dreams aren't real my dreams aren't real my dreams aren't real and finney is watching this uh uh you know obviously very upset by it i bet by the end of the movie finney's gonna have to learn to stand up to bullies i think he might i think he just might huge huge huge oh huge then the next day at school now or i don't know if it's the next day maybe it's a few days later everyone knows now robin is also gone and so the bullies

come after finny because now his little protector is gone yeah which he is so crazy like well this kid's been abducted so now we can beat the shit out of finny and i guess bullies are just always looking for somebody to pick on yeah or their whole deal finny is being beat up by the three bullies and Gwen sees it and runs out and grabs a huge rock and comes to the one that's like closest to Finney and smacks him in the head with the rock really hard and then just starts wailing on one of the others. They punch her and kick her like she's just like Jesus throwing down down this is this is too much physical violence for one morning this is a this is yeah a lot right well it's i mean maybe we're commenting here on the cycle of violence and yeah so it keeps going yeah but we see the kid that she

hit in the head with the rock is pouring blood from his head to the point where it seems like he might die this is the one that i was thinking this seems potentially lethal amounts of violence yeah fatal violence but he doesn't die and i mean i don't know i guess we i think we do see him again later it doesn't follow up with him going to the hospital or anything i was worried about him but nobody else seems that worried about him okay well heads do bleed a lot that's true so he's probably fine and uh then after school that day again gwen goes to stay at a friend's house and we see finney walking home alone and a black van pulls up in front of him and we see a man get out with a bag of groceries and trip and fall and basically drop eggs everywhere and all his groceries and he's going,

oh my, isn't that just peachy keen? Isn't that peachy keen? Ew. Ew. Is it Ethan Hawke? Yes. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it, Finney.

He obviously does. This is like such a fast rate of like abducting children, too. I know. It's like, calm down. You have a bunch. Just like leave some space. Like, how many are you going to take? Like, how many?

It is a little unclear how much time. I think some time does pass, but it doesn't feel like that long. You're right but there are some i mean because it has been going on for a while there are some from like years past oh god but okay it does seem to be ramping up to say like oh there's a van don't but he doesn't know that that's how they get got only right do right yeah okay and so he starts going to help him clean like grab his get his groceries back into his bag and we get a look at the man's face it's covered in white powder almost like a mime or like clown face paint and he says can you hand me my hat he has a top hat and okay this is like above and beyond pretty funny this

is about this guy's like cosplaying as the babadook i know it is it is babadookian babadookian i also like truly there's nothing funnier than a specific hat like pretty much across the board having a like him being like can you have my hat and it's a funny top hat. It's like, I really, I really like that. And so Finney hands him his hat. He puts it on and says, I'm a magician. Would you like to see a magic trick? And Finney smiles and says yes. And then Finney sees into the back of his van,

he's got a bunch of black balloons. And then Finney realizes and says, are those black balloons? And immediately the guy grabs him, shoves him into the back of his van. He's got a bunch of black balloons and then Finney realizes and says, are those black balloons? And immediately the guy grabs him, shoves him into the back. There's a scuffle and Finney takes his rocket and slices the grabber's arm pretty good. But still

the grabber is able to chloroform him and knock him out and put him in the back of this van. I don't like it. So then Finney wakes up in a basement thick cement walls soundproofed and he's at first you know out of it very out of it because he's been drugged and we just see little glimpses of the grabber and hear him saying like i should kill you for what you did to my arm and hearing that he's very angry uh and i think then finney passes back out and then wakes back up and the grabber's back down there now with his arm bandaged up and his mask it basically is two two halves so you can switch out the

top half or the bottom half so the bottom half can have different expressions it's a very like pointy chin and so it can have a big smile or a big frown at first it has nothing it's like a neo in the matrix

like freaky freaky like no mouth sealed shut with skin at first it has nothing. It's like a Neo in the Matrix like flat. No mouth. Sealed shut with skin. Yeah, and then now that was what he was wearing when he was angry and now that his arm is bandaged up, he has one with a big smile.

I mean he seems kind of playful. Sure. Oh yeah, the seems kind of playful. Sure. Oh, yeah. The mask kind of reminded me of the Nightmare Before Christmas mayor. You know? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That big, like, terrifying smile. That movie really scared me when I was a kid. Also, that's a pretty scary movie. We see that Finney still has the rocket in his hand. It has not been confiscated, even though the grabber must know that that's what he used to stab him.

And that little rocket never comes into play again, which kind of irritated me. That just reminds me of a thing that irritates me. That was the thing that irritates me. It never comes back. Sorry. I'm once again going to talk about i'm gonna say that in one of the early episodes stranger things hopper gets his foot like fully smashed and demolished and broken in like the most gruesome way it's like a plot point like break my foot break my and it's like

nasty and then literally he can run and walk and move and do any physical, anything. It's never banded. It's never wrapped up. It's not in a boot. It's not, he is, he like jumps and lands on it. It's totally, it's like, this would be your foot is fucked up. And you made a point to show us that your foot is fucked up. And then it's like, well, thank god there were no stakes to that that's so funny I hadn't even thought about that but you're absolutely right

every shot he's in like what about his foot they just completely removed it it's like he's in like a wily coyote cartoon or something there are no consequences to the violence that happened consequences I you know what it worked on me I like just went right

over my head didn't even think i like cannot stop thinking about his foot no yeah those things are annoying i feel like well then just don't do it then just don't break his foot you didn't need like why and maybe it's just because that like the break really stuck with me because it was net it's like it's really if really anyway whatever i'm still watching it you know i'm still watching yeah i watched the most recent episode or nine that just came out or eight i guess that just came out yesterday the not two and a half hour one we watched it as well i thought that was pretty boring i like didn't like that a lot of it's a lot of it's pretty boring but that episode really bored me still watching it anyway i get it where it's a lot of it's pretty boring but that episode really bored me still watching it anyway

i get it where it's like why show us the thing if you're not going to use the thing you just don't show us the thing i mean he used the thing and so it's like this is like then take it away it's like we yeah exactly like we've seen that this thing is now a useful weapon and that he still has it and then the fact that he never uses it again is yeah obnoxious yeah have the grabber have taken it away from him in that scene that would make the most sense so anyways uh so the grabber's now back in there with his big smiley face and of course is just very creepy and gross is basically stroking finney's hair like tucking his hair behind his ears and being really sweet with him now his tune

has changed he's like I'm sorry that I was angry earlier you just you really hurt my arm but you know it's okay and I forgive you it's yeah he's gross and we got a look around the room

there is a mattress for him to sleep on and there it's it's in the basement but there is a window right at the top of the room like that's at ground level but the grabber informs him that he soundproofed everything himself like scream all you want no no one's gonna hear you and around the corner there is a bathroom with a toilet and some um rugs like rolled up rugs carpets type of things and then on the floor i mean on the wall there is a disconnected black phone. The cord has been cut. It's not connected to anything. And at one point, the grabber says, oh, is that the phone ringing? And Finney doesn't hear anything.

And he's like, what? And he's like, oh, it's the strangest thing. Sometimes the phone rings, even though it's disconnected, but nobody's ever there. And it's just, yeah, strange. Okay. So eventually, the grabber goes back upstairs. He's got a big, heavy lock on the door, and we see Finn screaming and screaming and screaming

and see from outside that it's, like, very much soundproof. Nobody will be able to hear. Hmm. And he's just in, like, a normal house or something, or we haven't seen, like, the house yet. Yeah, we get the sense that it's probably a normal house. And is he the only one there? The previous victims are gone.

Sammy, are you feeling scared at all during any of this? Is this like scary vibes or is it more like it vibes? Do you know what I mean? Is it like icky or? Or like big budget-y? I mean, it's not big budget, but do you know what I mean? Like, what are the, what's the tone actually? I was feeling scared.

I feel there were a lot of things that reminded me of Sinister, which people find Sinister very scary as well. It's definitely got that dirtiness that we don't love. I do not like. That's the thing I hate the most. I maybe wasn't, you know, peak scared just yet in this moment, but I'm definitely on edge. But you're gonna get

there. You're gonna get there. You're gonna be scared. Yeah, I think kind of the longer we stay in this basement, the more stressed I get. Okay. Oh, God. I'm already so stressed. I'm now realizing, oh, you know, he grabs a new kid when he has killed his last kid that you

know they'll always got to have a kid in the basement so that's yeah i was thinking he was sort of like you know like stocking up stocking up on kids sort of like fresh fresh style you know just a bunch of little cells with a bunch of little kids in it but no just the one just the one time okay well okay so we see gwen learning of finney's disappearance and there's a really cool shot where it's like a vertigo zoom where she's running towards camera in slow motion and so it looks like she's running in place it just really stuck out to me as a fucking very cool shot and it's yeah as she's running home from her friend's house after she's gotten the news and earlier finn had asked her if she could intentionally dream details to try to find robin or bruce and she says you know it doesn, it doesn't work like that. Of course I've tried. That's not how that,

how it works. But now she pulls open her, a little dollhouse and pulls out a Bible, a rosary across all these religious icons and, uh, puts them around her and starts praying like, please, Jesus,

please, Jesus, like help me, help me find my brother. Help me give like basically give me dreams that will tell me the answers. You better come through this time. You better come through, Jesus. Jesus, we're counting on you.

And back in the basement, we see Finney trying to basically figure out if there's any way out of here he the window the one window in the room is very high he can't reach it so he tries to drag the mattress over to see if maybe he can stand on it's like a box spring and a mattress but when he gets to it he sees it's all anchored to the floor so you can So he can't move the mattress. And he's just looking around, seeing if he can figure anything out. But it's not looking great. And then the phone rings. Okay.

And it creeps him out. It's probably a little jump scare. And he slowly goes up to it and answers it and there's no one there and he falls asleep and then the next morning wakes up and the grabber is in the room with him just watching him sleep when he wakes up he says I just wanted to look at you. I really hated, really hated that. This is where Finney basically confronts him saying you killed all those other boys. The grabber is still in this like trying to be nice phase and saying like, oh, I would never hurt you.

You're so special to me. And he says, I'll never make you do anything you won't like. Oh, so there's definite implication of, of potential sexual abuse. And Finney says to him, if you touch me,

I'll scratch your face so hard that people will know. People will ask questions when you go outside because he's the grabber is not down there all the time. He's like clearly still living his life upstairs. Yeah, exactly. And so he's Finney's thinking he already does that in weird mind makeup. So I feel like he's in a top hat like he's attracting attention already. That's true yeah finney is basically just telling him i'm gonna scratch your face uh he's got this big heavy mask on he kind of giggles and says this face oh my god ethan hawke the grabber then it's

i think he hears somebody upstairs and basically says i've got to go there's some we get a clue that somebody else is in the house and again finney says you know i'll scream i'll scream and he's like i did you scream all you want like i don't care so we can't hear you and shuts the door grabber leaves um then the phone rings again and finney's freaked out by the phone and answers it and you hear finney and he fucking freaks out and hangs up and like runs to the other side of the room and then the phone immediately starts ringing again. And he's just standing there not going to answer it. And then the phone does just a continuous ring like a fire alarm, almost like not even just ringing, just like a nonstop. And so eventually, Finney goes and

answers it. And now it's a boy's voice that's much less scary than before. And he talks to him and figures out that it is Bruce, the baseball batter. So he is stockpiling them somewhere else. Or they're calling from beyond. Oh, oh, okay. This is a supernatural film. Yeah, because this phone is not connected. Okay, this is a supernatural film. This phone is not connected to this is super natural this phone is not connected to anything so yeah he recognizes his voice i think and says oh my gosh bruce

and bruce doesn't remember his name he says i don't remember maybe like i don't remember that not remember any of that where like where i am i don't i don't remember anything but i do remember that when i was in that room that you're in right now, there was a loose tile that I moved to try to dig a tunnel under. You can see if you can maybe do that too. Then he hangs up and goes to a part of the room near the bathroom where there are little square tiles and he peels a couple up and there is dirt beneath that he starts digging and he's flushing dirt down the toilet between each i don't know as he's like accumulating dirt to try to cover up his tracks i guess and he then also lays down one of the rugs over it.

Once he's done to like cover up his work that he's doing. Okay. How would that work though? Like, I don't know. Where's the tunnel going to? How would you know what direction to do it? How long is that going to take to,

how long did it take in Shawshank redemption? Yeah. Years, years and years. I think it wouldshank Redemption? Yeah. Years, years and years. I think it would take a long time. Yeah. Then there's grainy 70s home video footage of Bruce as a little boy. And it's so sad.

Like childhood home videos. And the visuals of this is similar to in Sinister. There would be these, you know, moments of the snuff films. And so just stylistically, this reminded me of Sinister, even though the content of these grainy 70s videos is not snuff films, but rather childhood memories. Quite the opposite, but still similar. We can tell that this is Scott derrickson's directorial vibe and then gwen wakes up and we see that these are her dreams that she's having so again she's praying she's praying she's have so she's had dreams now about bruce's childhood they're useless to her they're very sad and cute, but they're not going to help her find her brother. So she's praying even harder.

Back in the basement, the grabber brings Finney some food, some scrambled eggs. And Finney says, what did you put in those? And he says, something pepper. Oh, God. And sets it down and says, you're already down here. Why would I need to drug you? Just a good point. And as he leaves, he leaves the door unlocked.

He hasn't closed it all the way. And he goes upstairs. Finney sees this and starts like waits, waits a moment and then starts moving towards the door to try to go out after. And then right as he's about to grab the door, the phone rings. He turns and answers it. It's a different voice this time, another little boy. And the voice just says, don't do it. Don't go up there.

This is his game. He's up there waiting for you. Yeah, I mean, there's no way he did that on accident. Yeah. And this is... Yeah, once... If you go up there, he's waiting up there with the belt

and it's his favorite it's his favorite thing to play naughty boy and god what the fuck and the camera pans up and we see him at the top of the stairs sitting shirtless with the mask on and a belt in his hand with this like very spread like his legs widespread just his like stance in the way that he is waiting for finney is so upsetting ew why is ethan hawke making this movie i'm just curious you know what's his i actually read i actually read an interview and he he said that he just isn't normally a bad guy and that it was interesting to him to play something so different from what he usually does so i think just out of he likes working with these people and this is like so bad though wanted to give himself a

challenge okay sure um i think he's one of the best parts of the movie i mean i guess there's not a ton of people in the movie and the kids are also very good but ethan hawke ends up not being on screen actually that much it's definitely more the kids and i kind of wish there was a little bit more ethan hawke to be honest with you uh but so finney does not go upstairs he talks to the boy and finds out that this boy's name is Billy. He's a he was a paper boy that went missing a while ago. And as he's talking to him, the camera pans and Billy is in the room with him. And this was a big jump scare. Got me pretty good. But Finney can't see him. But this is just a device that happens now is that we see the dead boys, ghosts basically in the room with Finney, but Finney can't see them. And how do they

look? Very similar to in Sinister. He just has bleeding from the head. Looks like a little boy in some ghost makeup. He doesn't look super scary, but

we see that he has suffered some violent injuries. He's definitely got some injuries. Yes. Yes. But this is also something that in Sinister, there's always little ghost kids, too. And in Sinister, too, also. Ghost kid bullies. Scott Derrickson is big on this stuff.

Oh, my God. And the worst part, sorry about the grabber upstairs. When we like see him with a shirt off in the belt in his hand is that his mask has now been swapped out to have a big frown, a very exaggerated frown on the bottom half. I don't like that again. Like that nightmare before Christmas, like the,

like the bad side of the mayor's face. like the like the bad side of the mayor's face so billy tells finney that he left a cable stuck between the wall and the floor like he you can like dig it out and pull out this cable and he says basically you can use it to to get to the window because the window has a grate in front of it. And if he can loop this cord around, it'll help. He could climb up it and open it so that he can be heard, I think, is maybe the goal. He brings one of the rolled up carpets and pushes it through, pushes the cord through the middle of the carpet so that it comes at the right angle to be able to loop around this grate. It looks in a way that absolutely defies physics. I don't think this

would have been possible. But he's able to then get the cord around this window because it's too high for him to just fling it on to there, you know? And so he basically gets this kind of pulley system on the on the grate in the window and starts trying to climb up. It gets his finger close to the to the opening on the window. And then the whole grate falls out and he falls to the ground. And I was thinking that it seemed like a good thing because now he's, now he could fit out of the window, but he obviously now has no way to get up there anymore. Oh yeah.

So yeah, that plan did not work. I would just be so scared the whole time that he would come back. I was going to say, well now he's also going to see that this happened. That was my, I feel like most stressful things is yeah, basically just never knowing when this grabber is going to see that this happened. That was my, I feel like most stressful things is yeah. Basically just never knowing when this grabber is going to come in.

So then we see the, the two detectives that were speaking to Gwen earlier, they seem to be the ones assigned to this case are going around the neighborhood, asking people if they've seen Finney, you know, with photo of Finney and basically just going door to door. And they come to a man's door and he immediately ushers them in. His name is Max

and his energy is very chaotic and like he's coked out, which he is. And he's like, yeah, come inside, come inside. And he basically has one of those like always sunny style crime scene boards with like maps and photos and yarn. And he's like, this is where the killer's got to be, got to be in this area. And they're like, sir, do you live around? Is this your place? He's like, no, no, it's my brother's place. I'm staying with him just for a bit while i get back on my feet and the detectives clearly are thinking you know this guy's just kind of crazy yeah uh this actor

that plays max is james ransone he's the one that's also in sinister he plays detective so so he's also in it or no sorry just it chapter two um i like him and they then see lines of coke on the table and so again just like roll their eyes at him and they're like all right sir like let us know if you see this boy and otherwise have a good day you might want to clean this up before your brother gets home uh so they leave and then he goes to finish the Coke on the table. And as he does, the camera pans down through the floorboards and we see that Finney is in that basement. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. But Max actually doesn't know. Max is not aware. But the grabber is his brother and they are living in, like, I guess, different parts of this apartment in a way that he's able to keep this secret. But we see the grabber going back down into the basement and he's stressed

about something. I guess probably he knows that the detectives came there and were asking his brother. And so he seems a little stressed. And Finney senses this and says, you know, you can let me go. I won't tell anybody what happened. I swear you can blindfold me and just drop me off somewhere. I don't know where we are. And the grabber is acting like he's entertaining this. He's kind of thinking about it. And he says, what's your name? What's says what's your name what's your name will you tell

me your name and finney looks at him and says taylor my name's taylor and the grabber now comes out of the shadows we haven't like seen him fully yet and he's still he's now got his frown face on and he comes in looking mad now and throws a newspaper down at finney and says i was really starting to like you finney oh god okay and he turns and he turns to leave and says i almost let you go and then shuts the door behind him but leaves it ajar again and we see again he goes upstairs takes off his shirt sits freaking spread eagle i don't know why the legs being so wide apart it's really affected me like the fucking way that he is sitting is just so gross. God, I hate it. I hate it. We see the grabber starting to kind of nod off like he's tired and he's falling asleep.

And the phone rings. Finney answers it. And now it's a little boy named Griffin, another one of the missing boys from a while ago. And again, we see his ghost his ghost is probably the most fucked up he's like floating in the air in a way again i don't know how to describe it other than like when neo is being pulled out from the water in the matrix with his arms and legs like behind him um and a lot of blood on him and he tells finney that the grabber is asleep and that he can make a run for it but he says but to get out the door has a combination lock on it but it's my lock

it's the lock from my bike or no from my locker and finney's like great what's the what's the code and he says i can't remember and he says but i remember that i was scared to forget it and so i wrote it i carved it into the wall and we see his ghost point to a point in the wall and it says it's carved into the wall is two three three one seven but because it's a combination lock, Finney says, does that mean two, thirty three, seventeen or twenty three, three, seventeen or twenty three, thirty one, seven? Like there's just all these different ways that it could be. And he says, I'm sorry, I don't remember. You're going to have to try them all. Oh, my God.

OK. OK. Which is going to lead to a very stressful scene. Aye, aye, aye. Which is going to lead to a very stressful scene. Aye yi yi. Where Finney slowly creeps up those stairs, opens the door face to face with the grabber in this horrible, horrible position. But the grabber is indeed asleep. And so he tiptoes past him.

tiptoes past him this was a moment where i was really putting myself in these shoes of just like how fucking terrifying this would be and i just think that if i got kidnapped i think i i mean i'm pretty sure i would not be so brave no i was thinking the exact same thing because i also how you react when you have adrenaline coursing through you is so different depending on who you are and like I think for me I've I've I've freeze I completely freeze and my definitely freeze stops stops freezing phone baby those are my go-to never flight or fight what is fawn what's what's that one fawn is uh it's a newer one it's uh basically yeah trying to appease your abuser or whoever appease the threat i would 150 million percent do that i think most women do that yes we're because of the way we've been to yeah socially trained but i just think about that sometimes about how there are people out there who actually their brain is working better in moments like that, where they're just like super efficient and could get shit done.

And that's so yeah, that's really crazy to me because my brain, it comes as close to turning off as possible. I mean, it's like I very much dissociate. It's like I'm not even present. It's like my brain is. Who's to say that I'm even alive anymore? Who's to say? My brain is who's to say. My brain is shut off, so do as you will. Yeah.

So I was very stressed in this moment and admiring Finney's bravery because we've seen that he's not been necessarily you know a big big brave boy in the past so he gets to the he tiptoes past the grabber and finds the door with the combination lock on it and starts putting him in of course the first one doesn't work of course the second one doesn't work it's this very effective shot over his shoulder where we can see the grabber perfectly behind him and it keeps racking focus between the two of them. Of course.

Of course. And he eventually gets the lock open, opens the door, but just in that noise, it wakes up the dog. There's a dog here that he didn't know about a big scary dog and the dog starts barking which of course wakes up the grabber finney just fucking bolts runs out we and starts screaming like help help help we see some lights

on the street turning on neighbors waking up the middle of the night and the grabber runs right after him and basically pins him down in some bushes like knocks him down on top of him and so they're kind of out of sight and he says to him if you make a fucking sound i'll gut you like a pig and strangle you with your own intestines. And basically just holds him there in silence for a few minutes while everyone turns off their porch lights and goes back to bed. Oh, my God. And he gets thrown straight back in that basement. God damn it. And then the phone rings again later when the grabber's gone and he answers it.

And this is a kid named Vance. Damn, this guy has killed a lot of kids. Yeah, he's killed so many kids. Like, don't live in a neighborhood where so many small children are being murdered. You know what I mean? It's movies like this that make people think kidnapping is that common because it's really not like at all. But in popular culture, it makes

it seem like kids are just like taken off the street. Right. I do. I was thinking at the beginning of the movie, I do wonder like, because most of the time people think when bad things are happening, what's not going to happen to me? That's such that's so sad that it's happening to this person. But like, it's not. I won't be affected i do wonder

at what point you would go well a lot of boys in the age range of of my child or of me are being kidnapped i guess i i move but you just think it's never going to be you yeah i think it sounds like there were a lot of kids in this neighborhood like a lot very short period of time but it's denver you know like i feel like that small town it's not a small place it's not a small town like i feel like if that were happening in la you wouldn't like move out of la no you yeah you'd just be like well it's not gonna yeah me not gonna happen to my kids 70s it's the 70s and anything goes in the 70s. And everything goes in the 70s. And crazy shit's happening in the 70s. There are no rules.

There are no rules in the 70s. So Finney at this point is obviously feeling incredibly defeated and not as motivated to escape as he was before, feeling just like he's tried everything. So he gets this call from Vance, who we get some flashbacks of and see that Vance was a real punk. He's got like he's kind of got a Stranger Things vibe like that one. Billy, is it Billy in Stranger Things? That's he was in last season. He's kind of got his vibe.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's kind of got his vibe where he again we see him getting into a fight with a kid and almost killing he carves he carves something into a kid's arm it's a number because this kid fucks up his pinball game and he's so mad about it that he starts carving into his skin. Okay. Okay. And we see in this scene, and I'm sorry, I'm probably going to mess this up because I can't totally remember the logistics of it. But basically, this phone call is happening between Vance and Finney.

And Gwen is dreaming it also. Nice. Okay. So somehow Gwen is able to tap into it. Thank you, Jesus. Yeah, thank you, Jesus. I skipped a scene. I can't remember when it is,

but there's a part where also Gwen gets mad and says, Jesus, what the fuck? Like she gets pissed at Jesus and questions if he is real. And, but now she's having this dream. So then he had to deliver. She sees that the number that he carves into this kid's arm is actually the address to the place.

Like she's in a cop car now with Vince, Vance, somehow. I don't know. They like drive by the house that it seems like this is the house. She saw maybe the black balloons by this house that it seems like this is the house she saw maybe the black balloons by this house and now she can see the number on this house great and so she now has a clue pretty big clue pretty big clue huge she doesn't know the street name but she knows the

number of the house okay so it's that's i kind of what i thought too like well bingo that's it but i realized later like she doesn't have the street name, so it could be any... Right, and she also doesn't have Google. And she didn't see the house. She did see the house, but... Oh, she did see the house. Okay, okay. But she'll have to go to all these... She doesn't recognize it necessarily, but she just

knows the numbers. So, yeah. So, but on that phone call, we see Vance. We hear Vance telling Finney that in the bathroom, there's an outlet and above about two feet above that, there's a soft spot in the wall or something that if you take the lid of the toilet, the toilet bowl, like that big ceramic heavy lid, you should be able to bash through this wall. And there's a storage room there that nobody will be in. So this is just another thing you can try, like try it. And, um, so Finney does that and takes the lid off the toilet seat and starts bashing through this wall. And sure enough, does break through to the other side. And it's basically he's broken into a meat refrigerator.

And so there's just like a bunch of meat in there. And he's trying to bang open the refrigerator. But it's like, you know, like an industrial sized refrigerator that you can't open from the inside. Okay. And so he can't open it. And it's just another dead end. And he crawls back out of there and crawls into the bathroom and just starts sobbing. And it's just like, it's like, I'm so sad for him yeah like it's not gonna work nothing's gonna work and then the phone rings again and he answers it and it's robin and this is the last call he says this is the last time the phone is gonna ring um your time's running out

this is this is it jesus so do we assume that ethan hawk knows that this is happening or like has any idea i wish that was a little more clear because ethan hawk does hear the phone right in the beginning but it's not clear if he can hear it again after that because finney didn't hear it in the beginning. Like maybe they're hearing it for different reasons. Well, or maybe he was just fucking with him. Like he was like taunting him basically like there's

a phone and maybe it'll ring. And it's a soundproof room. So at this point he would only hear it if he's actually in that room with him. Right. So that's true. Yeah. But more just the concept of it even happening at all like i kind of feel like he can hear it but maybe they just don't they choose not to talk to him yeah the phone rings nobody's there like how it was the first time that right then he picked it up yeah

but it's it sounds like the other boys have experienced this too so like this is happening over and over again. Like the boys are contacting each other. Trying to get the latest boy out. Yeah. Mm hmm. And it sounds like they're going in order. Right.

And that's why this is the last call. Yeah. And so we also see now Gwen riding her bike through all the neighborhoods. It's pouring rain now. She's in a yellow coat and red rain boots looking a lot like Georgie. Mm hmm. Oh. neighborhoods it's pouring rain now she's in a yellow coat and red rain boots looking a lot like georgie oh and as she's riding there's a big jump scare where she runs into the five boy ghosts they like stop her and it scares her she can see them and it scares her so hard that she falls off of her bike and looks up and she is in front of the house address yes so they they helped her helped her find it and it looks like for a second she's about to fucking walk into this house and i'm like no no no no no no but she doesn't thank

god she gets back on her bike she rides home She calls the police and we've established that they believe her, which is handy. And I feel like you might as well try any lead you're getting. Right. Finney on the phone with Robin and he says you know what I told you in the bathroom Finney says that I need to learn to stand up for myself and he says today's Emily today's the day Emily called the shit she just called the shit out of this movie

how's our character gonna grow what's gonna change from the beginning of the film to the end of the film? Something has to change. Wow. Huge. Yeah. And he tells him he's going to need a weapon. And he says, fill the phone with dirt to give some heft to it. And then practice doing like a little one, two, three stance and swinging the phone. And so this is almost kind of like a little one two three stance and swinging the phone and so this is almost kind of like a training montage we like see now and meanwhile we also see the grabber at a hardware store buying some supplies that look like time has indeed run out.

Is he in his mask and stuff? Does he wear his costume out and about? I think he wears his hat and the face makeup, but he's not in the mask. Wouldn't everyone be like, what's up with this dude? Everyone investigate this guy. This guy who keeps buying all the materials you need to murder someone.

This man who only weekly buys murder supplies and eggs. Sums up with this mime guy. Drives a big van. He's also always at the balloon store. Like, what the fuck? He has so many black balloons and they know that that is

part of it. And so why are they not monitoring? It's the 70s. Is he like a party mime? Is he called to parties to do miming? He's a He said he's a magician in the beginning. That's what he says to Finney.

For his act. Yeah. Alright. So we see Gwen calling the police saying please hurry and the grabber buying some tarp and bags of dirt and an axe. He doesn't already have these things. Oh, I guess maybe with every kill, he like buries the weapon.

Yeah. You got to get rid of the murder weapon. He must be making good money on this magic act. Yeah, seriously. Are all of the children in the meat locker frozen? Is that going to be a reveal? We're going to find out. It feels like there's got to be something with this meat locker.

Mm hmm. Well, I don't know. Nothing ever came of that rocket. So I would. That's true. That's true. They're not following the rules that Chekhov stated for us. That's right.

Chekhov's rocket just went to freaking shit. that Chekhov stated for us. That's right. Chekhov's rocket just went to freaking shit. And so, and then we also see Max upstairs doing lines of coke, staring at his little crime board and getting this look of realization, which I'm not sure why it took him this long to get. And I'm not sure why this is the aha moment,

but he basically realizes their house is exactly in the right spot it's really funny based on where all the kids have disappeared from this is he's like right in the center and he gets up and sees the door to the basement like a door he's never been in and he's like going to investigate it. Can you imagine? I guess he was too busy doing so much cocaine. He didn't have time to investigate the basement. I guess not. He just was making his little crafts.

Yarn board. Yeah, exactly. He goes to the basement door and looks like he's going to be like, oh no, I'm being crazy, and he's going to walk away, and he's like, oh, fuck it. You could at least look down there. He does. Check it out.

He opens it and he starts walking down. We see the police pulling up to the house. Oh, no. And Gwen has ridden her bike back and they're all convening back at the house. And Max goes downstairs and opens the door and we see finny all fucking ready with his he's like now looked like he's booby trapped the place and he's got his weapon now and he's fucking ready to fight and max opens the door and finny sees that it's not the grabber and max is just like

holy fucking shit holy shit holy shit kid like oh my god i i'm i don't know what to do i don't know what to do and finney's like you gotta call the police like we gotta get out of here and of course at that moment grabber comes home axes max right in the head whoa and max falls to the ground dead and the grabber steps steps into the room now blood splatter all over his mask and says look what you made me do okay okay kill my own brother right yeah jesus and we see the cops busting into the house and the house that they are in is empty and they check it can't find anybody in there what they're like this is not this isn't the house and then one of them sees a door to a basement and says, there is a basement that's like covered here. But there's like no furniture in this house. So it's definitely a different house.

And, but they break open the basement and they find all the kids' bodies are buried in this house. But it's not the house that Finney is in. Shit. Okay. Okay. Okay. But it was the house with the number that she saw. Fuck. Yeah. The ghosts gave her bad info. Okay. She's got to have another dream. Well, we got to make it another night.

It's not looking good. The grabber is... They've all been saying tonight's the night. This is it. And the grabber is down here with his axe tonight's tonight's the night this is it and the grabber is down here with his axe now and pulls it out of max's head he brings the big scary dog down to and chains it up by the door by the like entrance to like block finney so that he can't get out and goes to swing at him he like tells him to hang up the phone. He sees that Finney has the phone in his hand. He lifts the axe and goes to attack Finney. And Finney dodges it and runs to the bathroom portion

of this room. And we see that he has set up the cord as a trip wire so that while the grabber is coming towards him in the bathroom he trips on this wire and falls into the hole that he he basically put the carpet over this hole also so now the grabber falls into this hole where he has he's dug it pretty fucking deep and put the grate that was on the window in this hole. And so the grabber falls in there and fucks his, he snaps his ankle. It's a bad fall. And now the grabber is screaming in pain. He's about waist deep in this hole. So it's like the top half of his body is like flailing and trying to grab Finney.

hole so it's like the top half of his body is like flailing and trying to grab finny and finny just starts fucking wailing on with this oh my god there we go yeah it's it's gnarly he's hitting him as hard as all these other kids have been hitting each other all movie long and then he takes the cord of the phone and wraps it around the grabber's neck and is choking him with it. And as he's choking and the grabber's face, his eyes are bulging out of his head, it looks like he's dying. And as that's happening, the phone rings one more time. And Finney answers it and says, it's for you and puts it to the grabber's ear. And it's all the little boys and they all get to say their piece and say like one last fuck you to the grabber and like hope you died and like rotten hell you piece of shit. And then Finney snaps the grabber's neck like he basically like has him in a headlock over his shoulder from like behind and just like yanks down and

fucking snaps his neck in a way that's gnarly for even an adult to do oh my god yeah finny and he kills him and the grabber is dead holy shit but now there's this big fucking dog blocking the exit but there's a whole bunch of steaks and meat in that fridge. The fridge does, in fact, come back into play. And he just grabs a steak and throws it to the opposite side of the room. And the dog goes and eats that. Finney, freaking calm, cool and collected, just walks out of the basement. Oh, he's not going to have any trouble with those bullies on Monday morning. And he we see Gwen outside of the other house that they're at just like sobbing and he steps outside and it's the house right across the street and she sees

him and they lock eyes and they run well he kind of can't he's in shock i think and he's basically standing still and she runs to him and they have a big big hug and peep the police start noticing and everyone like runs to him and uh he says you know he's downstairs cops are all there set up both the crime scenes and we're good we're everything finney's finney's, no, it is good. Oh, okay. Okay. The way you're saying that was making me think the other shoe was going to drop. No. So then we see Finney and Gwen in one of those like blankets in the back of an ambulance

and the dad runs up and is crying and gets on his knees and apologizes to them. And he's sobbing like, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I let you both down. I let you down. And they kind of give each other a look that tells me that they've maybe heard something like that before. Yeah.

He's done this before. Yeah. And they rest their heads on each other's shoulders. So it's still them two against the world. And then, yeah, sure enough, the next day we see or maybe not the next day, whenever Finney goes back to school, we see now everybody in the halls like whispering like, oh, my fucking God, it's the guy who killed the grabber. he fucking killed a man and so yeah no one's gonna fuck with him ever again and he goes into his chemistry class or whatever it is science class and donna comes and sits next to him and says like welcome back or something welcome back finny and he says

you can call me finn and that's the end of the movie. Not traumatized at all. It's the girl of his dreams. Everything is. Oh, yeah. I'm cool now. You can call me Finn and I feel pretty good. The sequel to this is just like 10 things I hate about you. Like it's like Finn, like trying to get the girl.

I love you, baby. Oh, wow. like it's like finn like trying to get the girl i love you baby oh wow um but yeah i thought it was pretty i thought it was pretty scary i thought it was good i think it is like it's definitely saying something about these cycles of violence and like the abusive dad obviously like has similarities to the grabber. They both use the belt and yeah, I don't know. It felt like there was some statement to be made there that it's just kind of loose. It's nothing very explicit, but I mean,

I guess it's, it's like realistic that like, it feels like as an audience member, you want them to obviously go home to like a safe like he's overcome so much that now he deserves a fucking perfect home life yeah but he's not gonna get that yeah and so i guess i guess maybe that is the statement but it like left me wanting something more some like resolve there i guess because it feels in some ways a hopeful ending. They killed the bad guy. They like got saved. He didn't die.

But then it is. Yeah, you're going back to an abusive situation. I think the thing is, is like you can't kill your dad. And it's like the only lesson that's been learned is like you have to stand up for yourself with violence. And like that's triumphant in a way but like that obviously isn't gonna work in every situation like i guess we're waiting for him to be able to fight his dad um which doesn't feel great either right like it has this air of triumph at the end that then is quickly it's it's more bleak than I think initially you might

believe. It actually left me feeling pretty sad. Like, oh, nope, they just overcame one thing to be put right back in the original bad thing. To your point, Henley, it's like the only answer is just to become a part of it. And so it's like, okay, well, so

now he's kind of the bully or like, we'll just have to, the only way to keep you from being the shit out of you is to be able to do it back or to have done it to somebody else or like to, you know, like you have to be hardened in that way in order to survive. Just like we, as an audience are like hoping that the dad will be better now.

And, but from what, you you know everybody knows about abusers yeah like that tends to not be the case they always apologize that's what's happening that's the cycle yeah yeah they have regret they apologize and then they just do it again oh that's so sad and depressing to think about yeah Yeah. But I did. I did like it. I thought it was pretty scary. I did think Ethan Hawke was very good in it, even though he's very scary, I guess, because he's very scary. Right.

How weird would it be to be like Maya Hawke and your dad is playing this character? You're like, that's my dad. I think it would be crazy for Ethan Hawke to be your dad more in like Before Sunrise, where it's like you're in love with him. I feel like that would be harder. Yeah, that's a good point. How is Maya Hawke not romantically in love with her dad? I'm pretty sure.

I'm pretty sure it's possible. I think if you're Maya Hawke, you don't watch that. Or you're able to separate because it's your dad. I don't know. Let's ask her. You definitely are able to separate it because it's're able to separate because it's your dad. I don't know. Let's ask her. You definitely are able to separate it because it's your dad. Just because it's your dad. No, I'm sure.

I'm sure. I'm sure. Biologically, you're probably required to separate it. But isn't that a thing, though, that happens? I mean, this also in like siblings are dating. But I feel like in general, you are attracted to people who genetically like kind of look like you yes but there's like a pheromone thing that like you're supposed to be it like the scent biologically of your blood relatives is like repulsive to you in some way obviously doesn't always that's handy triumph but that but yes it's like by it's

like a biological necessity that like you're supposed to the same way that you're like drawn to certain pheromones you are repulsed by others and you're and like biologically speaking also like i could be so wrong but i definitely heard read saw something like that at some point and then just you know you sounded pretty confident in my brain and repeated it to others as if I'm correct about it well people have certainly committed incest before that is the thing people

certainly have that but most people haven't percentage wise most people have not most people haven't that's a really good way of putting it that's a really good way of putting it something's working in that

it's certainly more common to not by like a huge margin regardless I feel bad for Maya Hawke that she can't be in love with Ethan Hawke as much as I am I feel so bad for Maya Hawk. What a weird... Can you imagine saying

that to her? Like, oh, that sucks. Are you in love with your dad? That must be so weird for you. Or it's so sad for you that you can't be in love with your dad. Sucks so bad. Or like, it's the assumption she is and she just has to pretend like she isn't. Either way, both are bad. Both tough both are tough pretty tough to be maya pretty tough um but yeah so you

guys would probably be skipping this one huh oh yeah definitely absolutely not seeing this one i'm very yeah i'm very happy to hear about it i love to hear about a new release i'm so grateful was the word i was going to say because I couldn't decide between glad and grateful. So I'm so grateful that we get so many new releases this summer. I really am excited. The new releases are fun. Loved seeing it in a theater. One of the jump scares got the lady next to me so good. She like flew two feet in the air. It was very fun.

And then her reaction scared me more than the actual jump scare. Yeah, of course. That was very fun. And then her reaction scared me more than the actual Jemma scared. Yeah, of course. That was very fun. I do. I love a new release. So I guess our next new release will probably be Nope. It's our Spooky Summer. Which I'm so excited. Spooky Summer continues. Alright, and voice-wise

I guess we got the grabber's voice. Salt and pepper. So, from all of us here at Too Scary, Didn't Watch, goodbye! Ew! Goodbye!

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