Bryan! (00:03.844) You're listening to bring me the axe. I'm Brian White, one half of this morbid equation, and I'm joined by my co-host and actual brother, Dave White. Dave, how you doing?

Dave! (00:13.194) Well, I'm doing okay, just enjoying the last of my hot girl summer.

Bryan! (00:20.702) It has it's been a hot girl summer down your way because it hasn't really been up here. But then I'm out of that again. I haven't really left the house much this summer.

Dave! (00:27.15) I'll tell you what, all the students came back today in the various surrounding schools. So there are about 60,000 more people in.

That's how I know that my Hot Girl Summer is over.

Bryan! (00:40.528) So we practically grew up in neighborhood video stores and the steady diet of utter garbage that those shops provided us with continues unabated to this day. There's no one else I enjoy chopping it up with more about trashy movies and Dave. Just before we get into it, here's a little housekeeping. If you want to keep up with us between episodes, you can also find us on pretty much all the socials, searching Bring Me the Axe Horror Podcast. We've also got a sweet website at bringmediaxe.com. You can listen to all of our past shows there and read the transcripts.

You can also contact us directly at bring me the ax pod at gmail.com with any questions, comments or suggestions. Do let us know if there's a movie that you love would like to hear us give it the business. Lastly, if you like what you hear, you can subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts and you'd be doing us a favor by leaving us a five star review on Apple podcasts. So get to it. The hell is wrong with everybody? Like nobody's doing this. It's just a simple request.

Dave! (01:32.486) And you can do it more than once. So actually, go do it more than once.

Bryan! (01:34.112) Oh, no shit. That would be awesome for real. Everybody just do it like 10 times now five. So just want to get all that out of the way right at the top of the show. But you know what else we've got another guest. Yep. He is a writer and actor at a comedian among number of other descriptors. You've seen him on Arrested Developing a million little things among many other roles. He's also the host of Monday afternoon movie podcast. It's Sam pancake. Sam. How are you?

Sam Pancake (02:02.969) Hello, I'm good, how are you doing?

Bryan! (02:06.084) I am great. I'm great. I want to thank you so much for joining us. We do bonus episodes every now and then. We've been talking about burnt offerings for a little while and I know that it's a favorite of yours and it just sort of seemed natural to sort of try and grab your attention and see if we can get you to talk about this one.

Sam Pancake (02:25.269) It grabbed it. You got me, baby. It doesn't take a chimney falling on top of me to get it.

Bryan! (02:32.99) Oh, man, that's a that is a that is a that is a shocker right there. But I suppose we're going to get to that. So a warning before we get rolling, we're going to talk about this movie from beginning to end. So spoilers to follow. You've this movie's been out since 1976. You've had a million. You just. It's on you. It's on you just.

Dave! (02:47.211) Yeah, you had 50 years, OK? If you haven't seen it yet, you're probably not going to. Just listen to this.

Bryan! (02:54.88) though I do know that there are some of our listeners who actually like make sure to watch the movie before they actually listen to the podcast. So that's great, cause we got one coming that I really hope people watch before they listen cause I don't wanna be the one to spoil it for them. So yeah, let's get into this. Let's talk, let's do the trailer. Here's the trailer.

Bryan! (03:24.867) It all began as a summer vacation. A young

Bryan! (03:30.88) secluded spacious grounds, a large swimming pool, magnificent furnishings.

Bryan! (03:40.533) Yes, $500. And it's one. There is one other thing. It's hardly a catch. They thought it was the answer to their dreams, but it was the beginning.

Bryan! (04:10.388) this woman.

Bryan! (05:20.116) beyond imagination. Who is it? Where did it come from? What does it want? When you find out, it will be too late. Oh God!

Sam Pancake (05:44.419) Wow.

Dave! (05:45.55) Listen, who is it? What is it? Where does it come from? Listen, they're never going to tell you, so it doesn't matter, I guess.

Bryan! (05:46.425) offerings.

Bryan! (05:52.019) Hahaha

Sam Pancake (05:52.277) Right, which continues to frustrate me to this day when I rewatched this for the 47th time last night. And I was like, yeah, they really don't. They don't, we don't ever know what the Allardyces deal is or why. And they used to frustrate the hell out of me as a kid and a lot of the TV movies I cover where I'm like, just do a few lines of exposition from my heart for some closure about what exactly is up with the house.

Bryan! (06:01.268) They don't... They don't ever know what the alibi is, you know, or why. No. They don't even know what the alibi is.

Bryan! (06:18.384) Yeah, Dave, you read the book though, so does it ever get into it at all?

Dave! (06:23.046) So the book is, I think he started writing this as a script and it was supposed to be shot by Bob Fosse and I want to see that movie. But then he ended up making Cabaret and so he dropped it. And so I think what happened was, what the hell is the guy's name? Robert, yeah, Robert Morasko. And I've tried to find information about Robert Morasko and I can't find really anything about him. I suspect he was gay, because the book kind of feels that way to me.

Bryan! (06:27.88) So, yeah.

Holy shit yes.

Sam Pancake (06:32.353) Right? Me too.

Sam Pancake (06:40.429) Morasco, Morasco.

Dave! (06:53.158) um he had no spouse you know it's 60s type of thing but uh the book is it's kind of like this bourgeois melodrama that eventually becomes a horror movie but there's all this setup at the beginning which they shot for the movie it's it takes place before they get to the house and it kind of explains the whole movie but dan curtis thought it was boring so he cut it out so yeah

Bryan! (07:10.396) Yeah.

Bryan! (07:17.308) Yeah, yeah. And they shot those fit. They shot it because in the in the commentary track, he's like, Yeah, I thought it was boring. So I cut the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah, like a significant chunk of time.

Sam Pancake (07:23.077) There's like 15 minutes, right, of them in the city, in Queens.

Sam Pancake (07:29.921) Yeah, it's um, I, I remember, because I was a child of 70s. And I saw a lot of movies when they came to the little the one little theater and the little town I lived in. I didn't see this one, I think, because it sounded like it was too like, too.

Sam Pancake (07:48.333) Sorry, you can cut this out. I am trying to turn off my notifications, which I thought were off. I am sorry. Can you hear the dinging? No. Okay, good, nevermind. So I remember reading the book though as a kid because it was in our library, and I wish to God that I, now I wanna read it again. Did you buy it, Dave? Or where did you come across it?

Bryan! (07:53.844) that dormant. No.

Dave! (08:06.723) I did. I got it on Amazon, the ebook, and it's a quick read. It really feels like it was a script. You can tell because it's, I mean, it's everything in stage directions. Like it's, you know.

Sam Pancake (08:16.773) Got it. I'm in.

Bryan! (08:16.797) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (08:21.61) I wonder if...

I agree with you that he was probably gay. I saw that he died in 98 of like cancer or something. Which sometimes, you know, and they I was looking, I was doing so much research on the book, and there isn't even that much book information in the Wikipedia is very slim. I was like, does the book explain what's going on with the allergizes and what the mother looks like? And does every mother that come in that comes in to stay in the house

Does she become the new Mrs. Allardyce like Karen Black? Spoiler. Yeah.

Dave! (08:56.238) Because that's my question is, is that the deal? Like is there actually, and of course we'll get into this, but is there actually someone in the other room? Or is it, because if there isn't, then that just sort of makes the ending not make a lot of sense.

Bryan! (08:57.656) Yeah, so.

Sam Pancake (09:09.933) Thank you.

Bryan! (09:10.02) Yeah, so I've got a lot. I've got a lot of thoughts on this. So basically this I and this is just me kind of talking on my ass, but this story is this movie is a kind of reverse fall of the House of Usher where instead of the house eventually sort of like coming apart and sinking into the into the swamp, it's going the other way where it like destroys people and becomes, you know, it's made new. It's like the house is kind of like a vampire, but

there were details that I noticed. I've seen this a bunch of times, but like there were details that, it's like other episodes of this that we've done where I only noticed certain things while I'm really paying attention and taking notes. And there's things like, I get the feeling that like they've gone through this process a number of times, which is why there's all the photos of the house on the wall. And then, and yeah, everybody in the photos looks terrified. And so, so.

Dave! (09:56.302) They're spooked-looking people.

Sam Pancake (09:58.381) Yes.

Dave! (10:00.263) Looks surprised.

Sam Pancake (10:01.641) Yeah, I guess.

Bryan! (10:04.076) I kind of assume that every time the house sort of goes through another family, like there's a new Mrs. Allardyce who sits at the top and then eventually dies. There's a lot of, there's a shitload of parallels between this and the Sentinel. Like this would make a really great, this would make a great, I mean.

Sam Pancake (10:17.553) Yes, yeah. Which Stephen King acknowledges as one of his favorites and it actually inspired The Shining, which I didn't realize until I just did my research for girls podcast. I did not know that makes perfect sense, though.

Dave! (10:19.034) And this and the shining. It's obvious.

Bryan! (10:31.664) Yeah. So, yeah. So, let's do the facts. Maybe this movie was made in 1976 and usually I look up other movies that came up that year and I completely slept on it this time. So, that was 77. Let's see. You know what? I'm just gonna look it up right now.

Dave! (10:45.07) That's a big year for Hollywood. Lots of movies came out.

Sam Pancake (10:46.669) 76 Star Wars?

But didn't start was come at the Sentinel 76 was jaws was 7576 probably there was a smoky in the bandit because there always was. I should know this being alive then.

Dave! (10:50.862) I think the Sentinel.

Bryan! (11:00.348) Oh yeah. Yeah. So, oh, well, here's a couple of big ones. Carrie and the Omen. Oh, and one of my favorites, Alice, sweet Alice came out this year. Yeah. The witch who came from the sea. Yeah, yeah. And Grizzly. Oh, yeah. 70. Oh, when was Audrey?

Sam Pancake (11:11.301) K.O.

Dave! (11:14.84) Is that Brooke Shields before Pretty Baby?

Sam Pancake (11:18.031) Yes.

Sam Pancake (11:22.419) What about Audrey Rose? When was Audrey Rose?

Bryan! (11:25.716) Let's see that was probably 18 1975. Maybe. 77 was Audrey Rose. So, yeah, this is definitely like in that little that little area where where, you know, there was there was definitely this sort of period of the 70s where there's like two kind of horror movie phases where there's all the stuff that everybody talks about the Tobey Hooper and.

Dave! (11:30.178) 74, 75.

Bryan! (11:48.252) Dawn of the Dead and Halloween. And then there's this stuff, which is like the big studio horror that like really leaned heavily on like goth and spooky vibes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, the devil.

Dave! (11:58.559) Stuff to scare Christians.

Sam Pancake (12:01.493) Yes, the devil satanic forces.

Dave! (12:05.678) Amazingly, it's the same stuff that still scares them.

Sam Pancake (12:08.868) True, yes.

Bryan! (12:08.892) Europe. The more things change, the more they stay the same. So cast and crew. The director is Dan Curtis, who we have to thank for many, many arch campy made for TV horror properties in the 70s is the Genesis of Carl Kolchak and the Night Stalker. We got Jack Palance as Dracula through him. But if you know him, no, I am not. God damn it, man. I'm saving it for last. Make him hungry. You know.

Dave! (12:11.555) That's right.

Dave! (12:17.738) Hell yeah!

Sam Pancake (12:18.772) Mm-hmm.

Dave! (12:30.478) You're just going to skip over dark shadows like that.

Sam Pancake (12:32.375) right?

Dave! (12:36.93) Huh?

Bryan! (12:37.608) But if you know for anything, it's 1200 plus episodes of Dark Shadows. And if you don't know, and if you don't know Dark Shadows, if you don't know Dark Shadows, what the fuck? Yeah. Did you know mom was a fan of Dark Shadows?

Dave! (12:41.614) I've seen them all twice. I love that show.

Sam Pancake (12:43.233) Have you? Oh my God, very.

Very impressed by that.

Dave! (12:52.962) That does not surprise me at all. I feel like everybody was a fan, because it's, you know.

Bryan! (12:56.107) I-

Sam Pancake (12:56.233) I remember it was on after school when I got home and I was like in kindergarten and first grade. And it was just this terrifying shit that was on along with like Beverly Hills, Hillbillies reruns. And just was my first, one of my first seminal horror experiences and really opened the door for my horror like love. Dark shadows in the wicked witch of the West, typical little gay boy.

Bryan! (13:07.225) Yeah.

Bryan! (13:17.02) Yeah, I had...

Bryan! (13:20.876) I had this I had this book that was like a big, thick, like phone book sized thing. It was like a dictionary of vampires. And I swear to God, like 75% of it was all was all Barnabas Collins. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It was that came out in the 90s. It was a cool book. I think I donated to a library at some point when I was like making space around here. But yeah, it was it was a hell of a book. Let's see. Cast.

Sam Pancake (13:34.297) The dictionary of vampires? I want it.

Bryan! (13:49.196) Oliver Reed as Ben Rolfe is the. This is a crazy cast.

Dave! (13:51.645) You know, I'm gonna stop you. I'm gonna jump in because this cast, this is Queens upon Queens right here. This is Dame Betty Davis, Dame Karen Black, Dame Burgess Meredith. Like this is just cream of the crop.

Sam Pancake (13:59.909) Sure. Honey.

Sam Pancake (14:05.322) Dame Eileen Hackert? I mean, Oscar... No!

Dave! (14:07.018) Fuck yes. Who is not in this movie long enough?

Bryan! (14:10.829) the Oh god. That's that's the thing is they get top. They get poster billing. They're they they're like right in the right up front in the credits. Uh but they're in the movie for only a few minutes and it's such a bummer.

Dave! (14:23.726) Which is weird that she gets top billing. I mean, obviously Burgess Meredith would, but in the 70s she was mostly on TV. Like she was obviously a Hortense Daigle, which is what I know her from. And I remember her from like.

Sam Pancake (14:34.373) Poor old whore tense ain't got no sense. Yeah. She won the Oscar for it. Or did she win it for um, butterflies are free. Butterflies are free.

Bryan! (14:35.989) the

Dave! (14:39.81) She didn't win for that. She underlies her phrase when she won. But then I remember also she was on Mary Tyler Moore a bunch of times. And I think she was on some episodes of the Brady Bunch. That's like what I visually, I'm like, that's that lady.

Bryan! (14:48.148) Thanks for watching!

Sam Pancake (14:54.245) I definitely know she played the woman who was the important, like Mary's aunt, I think, on Mary Tyler Moore, and she came and she wanted to date Lou and he didn't want to date her. I just rewatched all the Mary Tyler Moore's recently, yeah, and she had her voice, you know. And of course later, of course, First Wives Club as Diane Keaton's very mean, honest mother. Yeah, she does.

Dave! (15:14.594) She has that face.

Bryan! (15:16.765) the

Dave! (15:22.994) Oh, Anthony James, every single time he shows up, I'm like, who the fuck is this guy? And then I remember he's the hillbilly from In the Heat of the Night, among many other things. Yes.

Bryan! (15:30.492) Yeah. And he turns up like not long after this, he turns up with Bette Davis in Return to Witch Mountain with also with Christopher Lee. It's a terrible, terrible fucking movie, but like a really remarkable cast. But uh,

Sam Pancake (15:30.569) He is? Oh, I didn't know that.

Sam Pancake (15:42.601) Okay. Sure.

Sam Pancake (15:50.837) As a little kid, I remember not caring. I was so grateful for another witch mountain. I didn't care. Give me that witch mountain. That was probably also 76 around in there.

Bryan! (15:59.84) had to be right around that area. Yeah. So yeah, getting back to it. Oliver Reed, Ben Rolfe. He's the prolific leading man, well regarded by critics and a gigantic booze enthusiast.

Dave! (16:10.506) Yeah, he's alcoholism personified is what he is. I swear to God, Oliver Reed is sweating through most of this.

Bryan! (16:16.884) Oh God, there is the scene. Oh, when he's, no, no. It's when he's catatonic at the pool and he's like trying to get to Davey. There's a couple of scenes like there and there's another one after that. Oh, the scene where Anne Elizabeth dies also. He is covered in a just sheen of sweat that I like to, as I say, I like to think that somebody came in and like sprayed him down with a mister to give him like a sweaty look, but.

Dave! (16:20.014) Is it when he crushes the beer into his face?

Dave! (16:38.09) Yeah, that's just natural. That's just Oliver Reed.

Bryan! (16:45.785) He's probably got the DTs.

Dave! (16:47.158) Yeah, it'd been about 12 hours.

Sam Pancake (16:47.541) Oh, completely. And they were probably in there powdering him off between takes. And yet still. I have a story if you want to hear it. If you ever want to hear one of Pea Pop Pancakes Hollywood stories about these people, let me know. Cause like, I got a million. Oh, okay. So this happened to my friend Jordana. This is in the late eighties, early nineties. She was a gorgeous, still is a gorgeous actress. And she got cast in one of these like women running around in high heels and bikinis with machine guns in the Philippines.

Bryan! (16:53.181) I got it.

Bryan! (16:59.276) Oh my God. Let's go.

Bryan! (17:16.845) Oh God!

Sam Pancake (17:17.137) And the big villain was in the movie was Oliver Reed. And she said, of course, he was drunk all the time and kind of a, you know, a real, a real character. And at one time they were talking about tattoos and this story of course stuck with me. And she said they were all sitting around the table at lunch and he, everyone's talking about tattoos and who had tattoos or not. And he stood up and he pulled down his pants and flopped his enormous dong on the table and there, just like thump.

Bryan! (17:41.523) Good luck. We'll see you next time.

Sam Pancake (17:46.661) And there it was tattooed with an eagle. So that watch the movie again, knowing that I don't know if he had it in 75 when they shot it, but just know that I have always been deeply attracted to Oliver Reed because I'm mentally ill. But I

Dave! (18:00.313) Okay, no, because we sat here, we sat here going, is he attractive? I don't know. And we just, Michael kept saying like, I don't, maybe a little bit.

Bryan! (18:01.18) Well, here's the thing!

Bryan! (18:05.116) you know, here's the thing, I'm gonna give it to him.

Bryan! (18:09.904) He's 70s hot. You know, he's got... There's a scene later on in the movie where he's like chopping brush with a machete with his shirt off. And he's kind of a like... he's a really kind of doughy guy, but like...

Sam Pancake (18:12.035) Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dave! (18:20.822) he's 50s hot. He's got that like he's got like, are you're kind of in shape? I guess? Question mark.

Sam Pancake (18:23.707) Agreed, yeah.

Sam Pancake (18:27.929) That kind of like, that kind of bulbous muscular thing, which I have not got a problem with, believe me, but it's sort of, yeah, it would be like Van Heflin Turkish shirt off. Anybody? You know, yeah, 50s hot.

Bryan! (18:35.729) Yes.

Dave! (18:38.454) Yes, exactly.

Bryan! (18:42.416) Yeah. Yeah, it's like it's from a time before bodybuilders realize like you can't eat bread and also be like shredded, you know, so, you know, the thing is, is like I guarantee he would have been like tight and like lean if he wasn't drinking like a handle of vodka a day.

Sam Pancake (18:59.329) And did you guys ever see the hammer werewolf one that he's in? Yeah, he's it's young, hot to me him. Of course, Bill Sykes and Oliver and then also CGI Gladiator when they had to rebuild his face because he died between during filming.

Bryan! (19:03.532) Yeah.

Bryan! (19:09.276) Yep. Father, Father Grandier.

Dave! (19:14.464) Oh, that's right.

Bryan! (19:15.248) Oh, that's right. Yep. Fuck. Yep.

Dave! (19:17.942) He's also in The Devils and The Devils is an incredible movie and he's really good in it because he seems like an unhinged bully in real life most of the time.

Bryan! (19:22.648) I love that. I love that movie.

Sam Pancake (19:22.745) Yes.

Sam Pancake (19:26.433) Yeah. Did you read on IMDB where Betty Davis was just like, he was awful and he didn't, he was terrible to me. And yeah, she did not like him, but you know, I think she didn't like a lot of people just because she also was probably drunk too.

Bryan! (19:28.16) Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yes, supposedly there she had some beef with Karen Black on this one because she felt that Karen didn't like, you know, bend the knee. So,

Dave! (19:33.87) with that terrible man.

Sam Pancake (19:51.414) Yeah.

Dave! (19:52.01) Well, here's what I wonder about this. And I was talking about this last night is she because of, you know, how long she's had been in Hollywood. I wonder if she just kept playing the game like she had been playing it in the 40s and the 50s, where like they were constantly pitted against each other and they talk a bunch of shit. But by the time they get to the 70s, everyone's like, you know, we don't really do that anymore. Now, of course, they still did. But not in quite that way, but she just kind of kept doing it. Like she was just playing at the old school way, the way she learned how to do.

Sam Pancake (20:15.625) Right. Yes.

Bryan! (20:18.708) Oh, the yeah, like the studio system kind of thing where.

Dave! (20:21.354) Yeah, it's like when people would say like, John Crawford's a very difficult woman to work with. It's like, well, is she a difficult woman or is she just standing up for herself against a room full of men?

Sam Pancake (20:30.793) completely. And Betty Davis also is the first one to say in many books and everyone like I did it the hard way and she liked like to fight and she just she just loved that she got off on it clearly. So I'm sure she like picked fights were fights didn't need to be picked. If you want to hear about my magical day with Karen Black, I can also tell you about that.

Bryan! (20:48.2) Oh, please do. So let me tell you something. She's like, by enduring horror movie crush, I love her in everything. And so she's like my girlfriend. I wanna hear what you got.

Dave! (21:01.638) She was like friends with Bruce Lee? Is that, okay, it's from you that I heard this story, not from you personally, but from your show, I think, that I heard the story, from A's show. No, I'm sorry, go on, your story.

Sam Pancake (21:04.64) That's... that's...

Sam Pancake (21:13.818) well, she was Elvis, it was her. So I, my friend worked at remember magazines, there used to be like 17,000 more like gay magazines. And for one of them, my friend of mine was an editor and another friend was a photographer. And they got Karen Black somehow. So I was like, Can I be the assistant? So we all went to her house in CINO. And it was very much like a

Sunset Boulevard 1999 to this is around 2000. It's like a Y2K Sunset Boulevard. The pool was filled with leaves. It was a long ranch style very dark inside house. It wasn't crumbling or anything. It was just very dark and kind of like, not spooky, just sort of like, it was a little spooky. But she was absolutely delightful. And she

just had a very childlike, innocent quality, and she was very sweet and very kind. And she did this thing with her eyes where, and I've worked with a few, I shouldn't tell tales out of school about ladies, but I don't know that she'll mind. She was very open about it. I've worked with a few older actresses who did their own makeup and would not let anyone else touch them. To their detriment, as everyone on set witnessed.

And she was one of them and they brought a makeup artist with we brought a makeup artist with us. And she would not let him touch her. And she would do this thing with her eyelids. And she showed us because you know, she had very she some airport 75 she has kind of a what would appear to be I'm going to talk gently about this kind of a lazy eye situation is one of the things she was kind of known for back then. And there's those famous shots of her especially from airport 75 where she looks like she's kind of

cross eyed? Can I say that? I don't know. Anyway, they're classic pictures in the 70s. People were always saying that. So she would refer to her eyes as very small. She said I have very small eyes. So what I do is I take eyelash glue and I'm pointing beautiful listener to the ends, the outside of my eyelid. And she would take eyelash glue, not eyelid glue. She would put eyelash glue on her eyelids. And she would tape glue them up to make her eyes larger.

Bryan! (23:06.349) I'm not going to say that.

Bryan! (23:31.476) I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm a hybrids, I'm very small so I do it myself. I can make a park and I can set up a park and I can do it. I can do it better. So that's kind of why it's so easy. It's just that you can go with the story. I haven't been to the park in three years.

Sam Pancake (23:34.485) And she would say, my eyes are very small. So I do it myself. I do my own makeup and I have to do it. And the makeup artist was like, I know how to get that effect and I can help you out. I can make it even better. And she was like, no, no. No, thank you. I'll do it myself. And so that's kind of why she looks like that sometimes. And then she told me the story. I had a shirt with like Bruce Lee on it, as many of us did in 2000, probably from Urban Outfitters. And she was like, Sam, why do you think Bruce Lee died? Bruce Lee, how do you think he died?

And I was like, I'm not sure. She's like, I was on a plane to Nashville and time when I was shooting Nashville with Elvis. And Elvis told me that he was killed by the, you know the Chinese mafia and this whole story about what Elvis said about her. She's like, what do you, how do you think he died? And I said, Karen, I will defer to Mr. Presley on this. I will, I will take Elvis Presley's word about how.

Bryan! (24:22.164) I will refer to Mr. Bustling on this. I will take all the pictures. Ha ha ha.

Sam Pancake (24:31.129) Bruce Lee died before I myself would conjecture about it because I trust Elvis out on this one. But just to even be in a conversation where she's talking to me and Elvis, just by first name was like one of the most amazing experiences of my life. And she was very kind. And then later, I don't know if y'all know the drag queen Coco Peru, but Coco here at the LGBTQ center used to do this thing of conversations with Coco where she had these various famous actresses. Yeah, it was all like actors.

act amazing actresses game in love. And that's how I got to meet the Arthur one time, which is a different story. But she did one with Karen and Karen was a mate and they roll clips, they talk about stuff. And Karen just seemed magical. And she invited us all to this like, Bergamot station, which is a kind of an art gathering museum gallery space here to show her art and we went we saw her there. And yeah, she was just really sweet. And she seemed so alive and vital. And she looked amazing for her.

for her any age and she just seemed so alive and it was so shocking that just a couple of years later she died seemingly so suddenly. So that was really sad.

Bryan! (25:38.584) Yeah. Yep.

Dave! (25:38.889) You know, she strikes me as the kind of person who would keep iguanas as pets. Just a house full of iguanas. And Van Johnson in the pool out back.

Sam Pancake (25:43.856) Yeah.

Bryan! (25:46.64) Yep.

Sam Pancake (25:46.663) Mm-hmm.

Sam Pancake (25:50.681) Dave, you're a man after my own heart. Van Johnson in the pool, diddling Keenan Wynn in their famous secret relationship. Dave gets it.

Bryan! (25:51.252) You're a man after that.

Bryan! (26:01.092) Yeah, yeah, but yeah, she was. When did what year did she die? Alright, so. Yeah, right, because it's right around House 5000 courses. Yeah.

Dave! (26:05.63) 2004, 2005. So obviously it was whenever, probably 2005, when House of a Thousand Corpses came out.

Sam Pancake (26:09.764) It was.

It was that long ago? Oh my gosh. Wow.

Dave! (26:15.63) because she's not in the second part of that trilogy. It's, I can't remember the other woman who puts it.

Bryan! (26:21.92) Oh, I don't remember. I didn't remember them like switching her out. And then again, I haven't seen the.

Dave! (26:26.166) They do, they swap her out just for like a quick kind of, not a flashback, but sort of like an interstitial thing he shot and it's somebody else.

Sam Pancake (26:33.878) I was listening to another podcast and they said that the act, they didn't say her name, it was Karen, the actress who played her role in the other, they're like, she wanted too much money, so that's why she didn't do it. I don't know. I'm going to look that up because I feel like it wasn't that long ago, but also I'm crazy. And my sense of time is very fluid.

Dave! (26:47.118) I think she was dead.

Bryan! (26:48.369) Mm. Yeah.

Bryan! (26:56.34) Oh, yeah, yes. I think about that all the time. And it's like, I think, you know, it strikes me is kind of odd that like,

Sam Pancake (27:03.889)

1. Yeah, she was 74. Yeah. There were no iguanas in the house that I witnessed. And they could have been lurking in the shadows, which were plentiful, in the dark shadows of that house.

Bryan! (27:05.208) Oh, okay. All right, so she was around. Maybe.

Dave! (27:06.42) So maybe she did want too much money. It costs a lot of money to keep iguanas. I'm gonna get that rumor going.

Bryan! (27:20.913) Yeah. Nice. Let's get into it then. So this movie opens up as the Rolfe family are looking upstate. Is this is supposed to be New York? I don't think it's ever actually established where it is, but I believe it's supposed to be New York. Basically, yeah.

Sam Pancake (27:24.918) Let's

Dave! (27:39.086) It's New York by way of San Diego.

Sam Pancake (27:41.241) I'm sorry.

Bryan! (27:43.564) So the Rolfe family is in the country upstate. They're looking at a mansion or they're looking for a place to rent. They're going to check out this mansion for the summer. And they come upon this house that appears to be rotting on its foundation. And if the house looks familiar to you, that's because it's the Dunsmear house, which was also featured in Phantasm as the funeral home.

Dave! (28:06.006) Here's an interesting thing about this house because it's like a legit, like the haunting or what's the mystery house there, the Winchester house. So the guy who built it, Dunsmear, whatever his first name was, he built it as a present for his wife. And then right after they got married, he died like two weeks after they got married. And then she died like a year later.

Bryan! (28:16.008) Oh, the Winchester.

Sam Pancake (28:31.649) Right. It's in Oakland. It's in Oakland. It's a park now, I guess. Oakland, California. Yeah, it is. It's you can have your wedding there. I looked up the website. It's gorgeous. It's on these park like grounds, that whole thing. I don't know where the pool is in relationship to the house. I'm not 100% sure that pool was with the house. I could be wrong.

Dave! (28:32.118) So, I mean...

Bryan! (28:32.136) I don't know.

Ah, is the house still there? Ooh.

Dave! (28:35.916) And I'll do it.

Bryan! (28:51.216) Yeah, I think in the commentary, one of the things that they kind of talk about is the house was sort of a real kind of like rare find in terms of like locations because they used it indoors and outdoors. So it's not like they shot exteriors and went to a sound stage like they actually shot in the house. But there are probably. There there are probably some that are sets in there, and I know that the greenhouse.

Dave! (29:08.853) I'm not sure I believe that. I mean, half of these shots look like this is a set.

Dave! (29:17.582) It's hard to tell what with all that Vaseline on the lens.

Bryan! (29:21.06) Oh, it is. This is a very gauzy movie. Yeah. Yeah, the yeah, the greenhouse was a set that they built and. Oh, yeah, because I think they built it. They built it there. And then I think the reason that the whole the whole pool in the pool house looks so disconnected from the rest of the place is probably because it's like a different location that they just did with like movie magic with that. But but yeah.

Dave! (29:23.11) This is the gauziest movie I've ever seen.

Sam Pancake (29:23.665) Yeah, a lot of gauzy, smoky fogginess, yeah.

Dave! (29:31.138) But it's still there. Yeah, it's still part of the house now.

Sam Pancake (29:44.973) I would guess so, yeah.

What's supposed to be, they kept saying in some descriptions, upstate New York, but then in the novel, from what I read, it's on the North Fork, which is the end of Long Island above the Hamptons, which is not upstate. And I was just, I am only saying that because I was just there for the first time this, this in June. And that's it doesn't really look like the North Fork, but fine. It's fine. Who cares?

Bryan! (30:07.876) Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is like, well, we I've been around, you know, upstate New York. I know what it looks like. This looks like this looks like this looks like California above Los Angeles, you know.

Dave! (30:13.287) It doesn't look like that

Sam Pancake (30:16.841) Exactly. It's central to Northern California. Definitely.

Bryan! (30:19.5) Yeah. But they're yeah, so they get out and they look around and they're all visibly disgusted by the place, but they're gonna they're gonna see it through and they're greeted at the door by Walker, the handyman.

Dave! (30:31.022) Jesus Christ, that fucking Ghost of Hillbilly's past, Dub Taylor, like the specter of fucking Tennessee.

Bryan! (30:38.441) Yet he plays he plays a drunk in every Western ever shot. Yeah.

Sam Pancake (30:40.581) Toothless.

Sam Pancake (30:44.418) Yeah, what y'all doing? Come on in now, y'all, okay?

Dave! (30:47.361) Because he was the only one who would take his teeth out to be in the movie.

Bryan! (30:51.752) Ha ha!

Sam Pancake (30:53.433) was like, is it black? Oh, no, he removed his bridge. What a what a trooper. And just filthy. Like you think you're gonna see more of him along with the aler dices. And maybe that's a part of the intended bait and switch. But he is just like, cartoonishly, he hall level, filthy from head to toe. Bananas.

Dave! (30:55.618) I don't know. Yeah, he's going all in.

Bryan! (30:58.473) Yep.

Dave! (31:10.823) It really, it really is. It's just like, it is like junior high play level of decor and costuming.

Bryan! (31:12.382) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (31:20.333) Yes, Pig Pen and your good man Charlie Brown designed by someone who's on, yeah, meth.

Bryan! (31:20.789) Yeah.

Dave! (31:24.049) Really?

Bryan! (31:24.951) Yeah, I'm surprised that his costume didn't involve a barrel on suspenders or something.

Dave! (31:33.298) And you know, you know there was somebody behind it was just like, Dan, should we do this again? He was like, nope, no time. Keep going.

Sam Pancake (31:33.785) Yeah.

Bryan! (31:39.341) Right, because they so Curtis, I don't think we were talking about this. Curtis is obviously he's a TV guy and this was the only the only thing that he ever shot for theaters that wasn't based.

Dave! (31:50.73) I don't, I keep saying that. Why do people keep saying that? Because the Dark Shadows movies, they're movies, they were theatrical films. They were shot for the theater.

Bryan! (31:57.72) Oh, right, right. But they're based on dark shadows. So it's just like an adaptation. It's a thing because it's like really the only like original thing that he did for theaters. Yeah. But also like he shot this like he was shooting a TV show. So the schedule was tight. It was 30 day production like and that's you know, that's pretty fast.

Dave! (32:02.343) But I don't get why they make the difference. It doesn't matter. It doesn't...

Sam Pancake (32:07.481) Standalone, I guess they mean, yeah, but.

Dave! (32:19.786) Yeah, it's like somebody was like, well, nobody could do this in 30 days. And he was like, oh, really? Mm-hmm. And under budget, no less.

Bryan! (32:24.284) Yeah. So, yeah. So he he's a walker. The handyman lets them in and they walk in. They walk around a little bit and we can see just through her kind of facial expression that Marion is immediately taken by it as she wanders around.

Sam Pancake (32:24.397) Watch me.

Sam Pancake (32:28.598) Hehehe

Dave! (32:41.482) And so this is the part that they don't explain that they really should, like he should not have cut this out because it is the key to the whole movie. And that is that this character, this Marion Rolfe character, she's supposed to be this very kind of acquisitive, like social climbing. She's obsessed with antiques. She's obsessed with collecting. Like they're both finding different ways to kind of escape what is a kind of crumbling marriage. And her way of doing that is materialism.

Sam Pancake (32:57.128) Oh!

Bryan! (33:00.572) Oh.

Bryan! (33:05.92) Right, because later on in the movie, there's a point where Ben is trying to get them to leave and she's like to go back where? Go back home? We have nothing. And I think it's right after that scene where Davey breaks that bowl, that crystal thing. And yeah, and so like that's a that...

Sam Pancake (33:25.077) Oh the crystal vase thingy.

Dave! (33:25.432) Mmm.

Bryan! (33:30.26) is that's a really hard note that gets hit. And like, you know, it kind of makes sense. Like at that part of the movie, she's kind of losing it. And it's like kind of all consumed by the house. But like, I suppose a little

Dave! (33:40.824) Yeah, it's that's the key to why she's willing to like sell out her family because she's obsessed with material things. And like, that's a sign of status. Exactly.

Bryan! (33:47.721) Oh, all right. Because without it, it looks entirely supernatural. Like, this is just she's, you know.

Sam Pancake (33:47.774) Oh, that makes a lot more sense.

Sam Pancake (33:54.001) Yeah, because they're outside in the beginning, obviously, like, well, obvious to those who have seen it, because the house hasn't come back alive yet, it's all grayer and vines and they're like, oh, and then the minute she walks in and it's like not as terrible on the inside, it's definitely very old timey stuffy Victorian, you know, doesn't look exactly super comfortable or plush or anything. And then look comes over her face and I was like, oh, well, the

Bryan! (34:05.843) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (34:20.329) The spooks are getting her. The spirit of the house made her do that.

Bryan! (34:22.04) Yeah, yeah. Right, because that's that was the conclusion that I came to was, oh, like this got under her skin like immediately. Yeah. But yeah, she wanders around, she finds the greenhouse and it's all full of like desiccated plants. And there's like we mentioned, there's a wall covered in photos of the house from different periods, which, you know, they have a scene where Ben is like, what the hell is the deal with this? And we'll find out as things roll around.

So this is where Roz Allardyce comes in and she... Roz, yeah, nah, nah.

Dave! (34:53.844) Let me ask you, is there a more 70s name than Ra's?

Sam Pancake (34:54.274) R.I.P.

Sam Pancake (34:58.157) I don't think so.

Dave! (34:59.478) Was it, who was Pinky Tuscadero? Wasn't that Roz Kelly? Yeah.

Sam Pancake (35:02.357) Roz Kelly. She's in my favorite TV movie of all time. One of them that I covered, The Curse of the Black, The Curse of the Black, when it was Flaps. Oh my god, Dave, yes, Flaps. And I thought she was dead. And I was reminded on that podcast that she is not and she is not dead. Sorry, Roz.

Dave! (35:07.606) Two flaps. Yeah, just flaps.

Bryan! (35:10.756) Yeah.

Dave! (35:14.237) It's a...

Dave! (35:19.019) I'm sorry.

Bryan! (35:21.7) Yep. But she lives.

Dave! (35:22.762) I feel like with a name like Roz, like you have a moral obligation to smoke two packs of Merit Lite 100s a day.

Bryan! (35:28.492) Oh my God. Yeah. So that when you speak, it comes out as Ross.

Sam Pancake (35:34.841) And it's a little bit of Baileys Irish cream in your Mountain Dew. Just a splash.

Dave! (35:36.75) I'm sorry.

Bryan! (35:37.221) Yeah. Ha ha ha.

Bryan! (35:42.932) So she lives in the house, introductions are made, and she ominously remarks about the Ralph's son, Davey, that children are good for the place. Yeah.

Sam Pancake (35:54.349) And then can I, am I allowed to chime in with details? Well, the thing that I had forgotten about is like, of course the great Burgess Meredith, like barely in the movie, making such a vivid impression from his crazy tasseled borderline lavender hair. And he's in a wheelchair and the kid... He can't.

Bryan! (35:57.628) Oh, please do.

Bryan! (36:10.917) Yeah.

Dave! (36:13.051) I think he and Betty Davis are sharing a wig.

Bryan! (36:18.164) commentary, Curtis was like, Curtis was like, nope, that's his hair. And it's like, dude, he did Rocky the same year and he's gray all the way. Yeah.

Sam Pancake (36:18.987) I had to move it.

Sam Pancake (36:25.793) it was bananas. And so but he's just like, and they look out the window, the aloe dice, brother and sister, who have lived together clearly all their life into their elderly years. That's not creepy at all. I mean, perfectly normal. And they see the little boy, David playing and he falls off something hurts his knee. And they're Burgess Meredith and you what you expect is like, Oh, your son just hurt himself. And the kids

Bryan! (36:54.171) They are delighted.

Sam Pancake (36:55.749) Oh my god, they're just like already feeding off of it like, hey, hey. And you're like, oh, they're fucked up.

Bryan! (37:00.432) Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He's like after he

Dave! (37:03.554) I mean, to be fair, I also get that way when I see a child fall down.

Sam Pancake (37:07.787) Dave, I'm putting you on the list. I'm putting you on the watch list, Dave.

Dave! (37:09.539) I don't have a lot of... I don't have the fatherly warmth of say, an Oliver Reed.

Sam Pancake (37:15.481) Ha ha ha! Few do! Few do, Dave.

Bryan! (37:17.025) Yeah, what is after he after he after he falls, I think, I think was Albert says, Oh, he's got the devil in him. Yep. Oh, yeah, yeah. So they negotiate for a little while and they makes and then and then Ross makes another ominous statement about the house. She says it takes care of itself. But yeah.

Dave! (37:18.881) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (37:25.773) Yes, he does. Mm-hmm.

Dave! (37:27.402) and that weird creole accent.

Sam Pancake (37:40.805) She's very emphatic about the house taking care of itself.

Bryan! (37:44.368) Yeah, so a thing that I noticed, I did this like usually in my usual process where I did it twice. And the second time I watched this, I noticed every fucking scene in this movie is shot from like a really low angle. Like everybody is shot from below.

Sam Pancake (37:56.869) Yes, yes.

Dave! (37:56.918) Yeah. Yeah, they're not quite canted angles, but they're low and kind of close up.

Bryan! (38:02.96) Yeah, yes.

Sam Pancake (38:03.233) and very unflattering and very cruel to anyone over 35.

Dave! (38:05.309) Every single one of them.

Bryan! (38:07.62) Oh yeah, oh yeah, and these high-def presentations are doing nobody any favors.

Sam Pancake (38:11.969) It is really low, you're right, everything.

Bryan! (38:13.988) Yeah, but like it's particularly it's very pronounced in this scene in particular, which I think it gives the Allardyces kind of a sinister quality to them, because I mean, they're supposed to come off that way anyways, but it really, it really works. And I mean, and there's some other sort of like traditional horror movie shots in this also. Like there's some real Dutch angle abuse in this movie. And but like, yeah, this.

Sam Pancake (38:25.101) Mm-hmm.

Sam Pancake (38:37.597) It's funny when you when you think of it as like it's really low on Eileen Hackard, who is fairly tall, and the other ones and then they're like, Oh, but he's in a wheelchair, bring it down lower, even lower cameras on the floor, cameras on the floor.

Dave! (38:43.502) ..

Bryan! (38:49.473) The camera must have been on the floor. Yeah. So I mean, this is this. So we mentioned him already, but this is where we're enter Burgess Meredith as Arnold Allardyce. He this is like almost identical to his introduction in the Sentinel, where he just comes in on fire.

Dave! (38:56.625) Just, just cleaning it up before he even enters the frame.

Sam Pancake (38:58.661) Oh honey.

Feasting

Dave! (39:08.654) They were like, Burgess Meredith, you have ten minutes, I only need five.

Sam Pancake (39:09.177) He

Bryan! (39:12.697) Hahaha!

Sam Pancake (39:13.709) He knew no other way. Oh y'all, I need to watch the Sentinel tonight and I'm going to, because it's been too long. Oh, I will, I will.

Bryan! (39:19.271) Oh, yeah, listen to our episode five of the Sentinel. That's a favorite.

Dave! (39:22.931) Here's the amazing thing about Burgess Meredith and I thought, because I've seen him in so many fucking things because he was alive forever and he was an actor forever. And he played really good characters or really bad characters, but he played them both the same way.

Sam Pancake (39:29.112) Uh-huh.

Sam Pancake (39:37.389) Yes, so true.

Dave! (39:39.426) Like it's, it's like whatever cheery, kind of harmless old guy thing he has, it works for evil old guy too. You just do the same thing and they turn the lights down a little bit.

Sam Pancake (39:50.329) From of mice, from of mice, mice and men to the penguin, his range is one, one note, one beat.

Bryan! (39:56.812) Oh, my God, it's yeah. I mean, yeah, especially as Mickey, because Mickey is like a way different character than either this or in the Sentinel, where he's just like chewing every inch of scenery available to him. Like in that one, it's an entirely different kind of character where he's like really kind of crotchety and pissed off and. Yeah, yeah, but.

Dave! (39:58.674) It's... it's dichotomous.

Dave! (40:17.07) But he's equally shady in that one too. That's the one where, that has one of my favorite lines where he's like, oh, you're in commercials. I thought you said you were an actor.

Bryan! (40:26.942) Oh no, that was Ava Gardner's line. Yep. I know.

Sam Pancake (40:27.282) Oh.

Dave! (40:29.128) Ah, damn it. Same thing, tomato, tomato.

Sam Pancake (40:32.433) I take that very personally having done all mediums in my career. How cruel.

Dave! (40:38.434) That also has the same line as, oh, you're from Baltimore.

Sam Pancake (40:45.09) I'm watching that tonight. I hope it's streaming somewhere.

Bryan! (40:49.776) Yeah, as Roz says after he comes in, this is my brother. As you can see, he's full of beans. Just the best.

Dave! (40:56.462) That's... Is that a euphemism? What... what is that a euphemism for?

Sam Pancake (40:59.386) Is that just the smell?

Bryan! (41:02.58) Yeah, yeah, just so crazy. But like, yeah, they're in this scene, and they're basically setting it up. And their whole their job is to just say things that are definitely menacing and ominous, but to just kind of deliver it like it like it's nothing. And that's it. And then

Dave! (41:21.898) And they took, but I will say, Eileen Hecord is incredible in this movie. Like she really sells that kind of menacing warmth. And I don't know if it's just her, like her face. She's kind of resting anger, but also it's very 1950s. Yeah.

Sam Pancake (41:29.933) Yes!

Bryan! (41:39.38) She's hungry.

Sam Pancake (41:39.573) Yes, yes, it's a big clinch smile and you're not sure what's behind it. There's a lot of energy and intention. Yep.

Dave! (41:48.022) And she gets really excited when she's when they say, well, we're going to it's we're also bringing on to Elizabeth and she's like, oh, an old gal. I was like, bitch, who are you calling?

Bryan! (41:48.11) Yeah.

Bryan! (41:54.668) Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, so there's a catch to this extremely

Sam Pancake (41:56.67) You don't mind living with an old guy?

Dave! (42:02.462) Also, just so we're all aware, Eileen Hecord is 57 years old in this movie.

Sam Pancake (42:06.561) I looked that up and I was shocked because it's close enough to my age that I wanted to jump out off a third story window in a beautiful mansion somewhere.

Dave! (42:15.414) I mean, that's a 1970s 57, though. That's basically dead.

Bryan! (42:15.608) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (42:18.902) Yes. Yeah. Which was 80. Yes. 80 or coffin. Yeah.

Bryan! (42:23.492) Oh yeah, my wife turned up a picture of Judy Garland recently at 45 and boy, she did not look 45, man. Yeah. Oh yeah, like just hooked up on amphetamines all day. Nah. So. Ha ha ha.

Sam Pancake (42:30.813) Yeah, she was sick. Yeah.

Dave! (42:31.214) Ow. That's what happens when you're sleeping on Ned Wynn's childhood bedroom floor.

Dave! (42:40.382) I would like to say that's a joke, but it's not.

Sam Pancake (42:44.261) See how many wins we can get in the movie today, and I spelled that W-Y-N-N.

Bryan! (42:49.244) Yeah. So the other thing, there's a catch to this extremely sweet deal that they're getting on this house. The Allardyces mother will remain in the house, but don't worry. She's cool. You'll never, you know, that.

Dave! (42:57.834) Now who the fuck would agree to this? There's an 85 year old woman who lives in the attic, but don't worry about it. She takes care of herself.

Sam Pancake (43:00.101) Thank you.

Bryan! (43:04.812) Yeah, you'll never see her. Though that's the weird I create. I've got a note about that line because there she Ross makes this weird remark that never it just that line does not land with me. And I don't understand because it doesn't ever come back. She tells the Rolfe that she's a woman in her 80s. She's like 85, but she looks like she's in her 60s, which is like supposed to be like reassuring somehow.

Sam Pancake (43:05.357) And she looks like she's 60!

Sam Pancake (43:18.693) Right.

Dave! (43:30.966) Well, you know what? She too is full of beans.

Bryan! (43:35.435) Or here's the other thing. Or are they talking about the house? Because that opens up some very, very strange questions.

Sam Pancake (43:41.517) Yeah.

Dave! (43:41.998) Listen, you can ask these questions. Dan Curtis does not have time to answer these questions.

Bryan! (43:46.42) I think he does though, and it's just, it's just subtext that kind of gets lost in the melodrama.

Sam Pancake (43:52.453) But again, I ask you, does the novel answer these questions? Do you remember? Oh really? Hmm.

Dave! (43:52.619) He was, he was like, it's too boring.

No, not really.

Bryan! (44:01.434) Yep.

Dave! (44:01.686) Because I think that it was really I think it was written to be a script. You know, it's like, have you ever read something wicked this way comes? They.

Sam Pancake (44:08.502) in.

Bryan! (44:10.455) the Bradbury story.

Dave! (44:11.134) Ray Bradbury story. So that was another one that was that started out as a movie script. You can tell when you read that, like this was clearly written because it is a very straightforward. There's not a lot of subtext. It is not right. It is a metaphor, but like it's very clearly written at to be a movie. And that is exactly how this feels.

Sam Pancake (44:11.994) Oh yes I have and it's the movie with Jonathan Price.

Bryan! (44:25.818) Hmm.

Yeah, that's another that's another parallel to the Sentinel because the Sentinel is the same way where it was a novel that was written fully intended to be optioned like. It's crazy. Write a book first. Yeah.

Dave! (44:39.458) Jeez, the 70s are like the fucking Wild West. Oh, you're a writer, but you wanna direct movies? Sure, why not? Sure, Michael Crichton, here's $17 million. Make some piece of shit that nobody likes.

Sam Pancake (44:42.217) Yeah, it really was.

Bryan! (44:51.853) Oh, man, we're talking about the Andromeda strain, right?

Sam Pancake (44:53.081) Are you referring to coma?

Dave! (44:55.424) Oh, I was thinking Westworld, but actually yes, coma 2.

Sam Pancake (44:57.302) Oh yeah, that's true, yes.

Bryan! (44:58.322) We just each named three different movies. Yeah. God.

Sam Pancake (45:02.017) Oh, if you think Westworld is bad, watch the sequel with Glythe Danner as the reporter. Oof. Richard Benjamin probably. How about he was ever a movie star? I'm still confused, but hooray for everybody.

Bryan! (45:07.226) Oh, no.

Bryan! (45:10.6) Ha ha

Dave! (45:15.458) was the 70s. Do anything you want it.

Bryan! (45:16.672) Yep. So, yeah. Yeah. So the thing is, is the outer dices are practically telling these people that the house is some sort of vampire. So

Sam Pancake (45:16.948) Mm-hmm.

Dave! (45:25.802) Oh yeah, cause they're like, our mother, our dear old girl, our mother, dear mother. It's like, yeah, you know what? I feel like I don't want this house. It looks like shit, there's an old woman in the attic, and you guys are fucking creepy as hell!

Sam Pancake (45:34.05) Also.

Bryan! (45:38.256) Yeah. And I got to wonder.

Sam Pancake (45:38.541) But also, they don't tell about the old woman until they have agreed to take it for $900 for the season. Yeah.

Dave! (45:43.659) Hehehe

Bryan! (45:44.456) for the entire summer. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so like we said, David is playing outside, he falls and he hurts his knee. And to demonstrate the terrible power of this house, Walker walks in with a plant that appears to be dead. But is it?

Dave! (45:58.23) Just fucking whistling through those, that gap in his teeth.

Bryan! (46:01.412) Yeah, but yeah, but the plant is like one of those dead ones from the greenhouse, but it's got new growth on it right after the kid hurts himself. So yeah.

Sam Pancake (46:01.433) Hehehe

Dave! (46:03.566) Let's go.

Let's look again.

Sam Pancake (46:08.601) Geranium, stinky geranium leaves, drink it in.

Bryan! (46:14.183) Oh yeah, everything is dusty and dry. So Ben doesn't want to move in, but Marion does, and he eventually relents. And this means that they have to take care of the place while they're there.

Dave! (46:26.442) I will say that the book is, one of the reasons I think Robert Morosco might have been gay is that the book is a little bit misogynistic in a way that is kind of petty where it's just like, where it's like this character of Mary and Rolf is very like, not only is she sort of, kind of, kind of where he's just like, well, she was a big, petulant baby. You know how women are, right girls?

Sam Pancake (46:35.829) Okay.

Bryan! (46:41.958) Like he doesn't need to be on her shit, but he is anyways.

Sam Pancake (46:49.573) I was like, can you believe she wore a horizontal stripe? I mean, I wrote it that way, but please it's her fault somehow. Oh, those eyebrows. I mean, get a.

Dave! (46:53.602) Like, it really does. It really does have that feeling like, oh, she just went on and on and on. You know.

Sam Pancake (47:04.837) There's one thing Marion needed was a facial. Let's get on with this story. Yep.

That is very old school, gay misogyny.

Bryan! (47:17.844) know. So, they move in and the place is truly in a bad spot. It's just fallen down all around them. Marianne goes looking around of when they're in bed, I just kind of

Dave! (47:24.786) Oh wait, you skipped an amazing scene where they're in, so this is before they agree, maybe they agree to take it, when they're in bed. And he just like, he reaches up, I don't know how you could skip this. He reaches over and I don't know if this was in the script or not. Oliver Reed grabs one of her breasts and starts just wrenching it.

Bryan! (47:42.312) Here's the thing. He is he is very oh my God. It's hilarious. I mentioned I did I failed to mention because the scene just doesn't really go anywhere. It's just him going fine squeeze squeeze, but he's really he's really handsy with her in a lot of scenes in ways that. Absolutely absolutely was not absolutely was not there was there's comments in the commentary from Karen where like particularly in the scene where in their pool where they're in the pool together and he kept trying to like

Sam Pancake (47:42.946) I missed that.

Dave! (47:56.894) And it kind of makes you wonder, is this in the script or is this just... you taking some liberties?

Sam Pancake (48:01.89) was not.

Sam Pancake (48:10.114) Get the need.

Bryan! (48:11.376) He kept trying to like physically turn her around. So she was like facing away from him and she's like actively resisting him. So he was like trying to, you know, he was just like all over her.

Dave! (48:22.486) Well, so he, one of the things I was listening to is that he was trying to, it's the Shelley Winters thing. He's trying to control her physically by moving her away so that the camera is focused on him because he was so upset that she got top billing. But it's like, hey, Oliver Reed, Matt Stewart has landed that plane. What have you done lately?

Bryan! (48:38.733) Ah.

Sam Pancake (48:39.733) Oh yeah.

Sam Pancake (48:43.674) Yeah, thank you.

Dave! (48:45.726) aside from a movie that offended all of Europe.

Sam Pancake (48:49.793) It was banned, right? The devils.

Dave! (48:51.39) Yeah.

Bryan! (48:52.484) Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, big time.

Sam Pancake (48:54.445) I've run into those like they're like, I think when we hug, my face will definitely go to the camera, not yours. I won't name names. But yeah, and I've heard even more.

Dave! (49:02.174) Oh, I mean, Oliver Reed the whole time, every time I see Oliver Reed, I just think like, if I learned that he had a, and this is actually probably true of him, that he had a history of sexually harassing women, I think, yeah, that seems right.

Sam Pancake (49:17.507) Exactly.

Bryan! (49:17.6) Yeah, yeah. So when I went looking him up for when I was just researching this, I went to his Wikipedia page and I was, I don't want to say like relieved, but kind of amazed that there was no controversies section where like he got like outed and me too and all that, because he was tight with Michael Winner and he did a bunch of movies with Michael Winner and Michael Winner definitely got hit with that shit. And so I can only imagine. That's probably it. Yeah.

Dave! (49:39.712) Yeah, I think Oliver Reed was just upfront about being shitty. So it's like, what's the controversy? That's just who he is.

Sam Pancake (49:45.737) Yeah, that's my first time. He wait, it's him in women in love wrestling naked with Alan Bates too. Speaking of Ken Russell, women, Glenda Jackson. Yes, that is seared on my brain from the 80s, seeing it like in a revival house. So he's fully naked. Yes. Another reason I think I was attracted to him.

Bryan! (49:53.186) Yeah.

Dave! (50:03.542) Did you see the eagle?

Bryan! (50:03.612) Mm. Ha ha.

Sam Pancake (50:05.893) I didn't the eagle was not had not landed yet in that movie. OK, I don't think that way. I think it was way before the eagle landed.

Dave! (50:08.822) Hey. That's good, now that's good.

Bryan! (50:15.124) Uh yeah, so Marion goes looking around. She finds her way up to the top floor and Mrs. Allardyce does not answer her when she knocks on her door and it's now that she finds Mrs. Allardyce's collection, which was sort of ominously referred to in the earlier scene with the Allardyce kids.

Dave! (50:33.694) Also, I just want to point out you just skipped right over Benny Davis's outfit, but you know, it's fine. It's fine. We'll come back. We'll come back to that.

Bryan! (50:39.504) You know what? I there was a there was a couple of points where I realized as I'm taking notes here, I we're like halfway into the movie by the point that I even mention her. She fuck it. We're going for it. She she's she everybody. Davis plays Aunt Elizabeth who comes with them and she is a spunky old gal. She's spry. Because later on the movie is going that the house is going to completely consume her. So up to this point, like she's

she's all over the place and she's got big fucking energy as well. Up until like she's actively directed to like be dying. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, she's all over the place.

Sam Pancake (51:15.993) Well Marion says like you've got more energy than all of us. Yeah.

Dave! (51:20.426) Except you don't, because you're 75 years old. And that outfit, my note is, tell me you're in the 1970s without telling me you're in the 1970s.

Bryan! (51:24.186) She's at.

Bryan! (51:29.597) Her wardrobe is fucking nuts. It's very Brady Bunch. It's very Brady Bunch chic. I guarantee she brought it from home. Yeah.

Dave! (51:32.734) I don't, did she bring that from home?

Sam Pancake (51:37.381) I think she probably was. Oh yeah, completely. I'll wear my own clothes. You can't have any of the garbage on me. Yeah, she's definitely brought that out of her like wacky Connecticut closet.

Dave! (51:41.762) Yeah.

Bryan! (51:51.772) got she's probably got a humongous walk-in closet with just costumes that she's accumulated over the years. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. She smoked merits 100%. Yep. So yeah, so this is this is the collection that has been sort of ominously mentioned. It's just it's a table covered in framed photos old and new. It's not really clear who these people are, although the initial implication is that their family

Sam Pancake (51:56.569) that smells like an ashtray from 1947.

Bryan! (52:18.9) But everybody in the pictures has a sort of alarmed expression. And. Yeah, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, no, the photographer said, OK, on three, and he took the picture on to write.

Dave! (52:22.01) I, again, I just feel like they all look a little surprised. Like they just got caught off guard a little bit. Like someone was like, hey, over here. And then they snapped the photo.

Sam Pancake (52:26.551) Yes.

Dave! (52:32.723) It's less you're stealing my soul and more, Hey, what are you doing?

Sam Pancake (52:32.863) Yes, yes.

Bryan! (52:36.792) Yeah. So as we're going to find out, the collection may not necessarily be the photos.

Sam Pancake (52:36.99) Yeah, right, yes.

Dave! (52:43.874) So what they say in the book, I think if I remember this correctly, is that these are like all the people she's helped or something like that. And I don't really know what that means, but these are her photo collections. She has thousands of them.

Bryan! (52:52.128) Huh.

Sam Pancake (52:57.861) it do it. And she is the house. She is not a woman. We're just gonna assume. He does not. He is too busy creating the norlist tapes and others other unsold pilots and all of which I've seen repeatedly.

Dave! (53:02.55) Listen, Dan Curtis does not have time to answer your questions, okay?

Bryan! (53:05.928) Yep, yep.

Dave! (53:08.659) He has a timeline and a budget.

Dave! (53:13.809) Ugh.

Bryan! (53:15.876) Yeah, then like in The Shining, they find the kitchen outfitted with a bounty of badass food and alcohol. The light bulb in the pantry doesn't work. And if you missed it before, you're going to get a reminder of how things work around here because Ben pricks his finger when opening the champagne.

Dave! (53:27.542) This is when this is when he goes in. He goes into the kitchen and he goes, Hey, everybody, I found the ding dongs.

Bryan! (53:35.284) Yeah, yeah. So, oh right, he's like, I think there's ding-dongs because he's in the dark and then he turns the light on, which previously didn't work, but then Ben hurts himself and now the light works and he goes, Oh yeah, there are ding-dongs.

Sam Pancake (53:46.869) Hmm. In case you didn't miss it, there's a long closeup on the light bulb glowing.

Dave! (53:47.465) And I think...

Really? I think Lee Montgomery is great in this. He is the only, he's the one selling it. He's the one who's consistent, because half of the time everybody in this movie is kind of sleepwalking through it. Then they act the shit out of it when it's called for. He's the most consistent one. He is giving you capital K kid from beginning to end.

Sam Pancake (53:54.302) I knew too!

Sam Pancake (53:58.138) Yes!

Sam Pancake (54:04.162) Yep.

Bryan! (54:08.092) Yeah. And I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you, it's the scenes with him and Oliver Reed are, I think are really great. I think they have awesome chemistry and I really do buy them as father and son, you know. Sure, sure.

Sam Pancake (54:09.582) He's good!

Sam Pancake (54:18.297) They do!

Dave! (54:22.454) Wait, because of all his fatherly warmth.

Sam Pancake (54:25.209) But he does all that stuff when he's sort of like, I'm gonna get, when they do little characters and chasing each other. I mean, I loved when my dad would rarely, but he would do, when he would do that with us, it was like the best thing ever. And Oliver Reed clearly like, either he's acting real hard or he really enjoyed the kid. And like his problems were with women, you know.

Bryan! (54:29.04) Yeah!

Dave! (54:43.918) Well, so everybody kept saying, well, he and all the reviews were like, oh, he and Karen Black have this great chemistry. And I'm watching this thinking, do they?

Bryan! (54:44.157) Yeah.

Bryan! (54:51.368) I think they're okay, uh, you know.

Dave! (54:53.45) Every time he would kiss her, I was kind of like, eugh.

Bryan! (54:56.728) Well, yeah, again, like I think she was probably she's probably uncomfortable in his presence, you know, just because like, yeah, keep it professional, man.

Dave! (54:58.684) Oh, don't do that. Don't do that.

Hands to yourself, Oliver Reed. No means no.

Sam Pancake (55:06.329) But also she's slowly sort of like, she's being possessed by the house for Mrs. Allardyce so she doesn't want, if she gets far enough away, she wants his dirty pickle and then when she comes near, closer to the house, she's like, no, don't touch me.

Bryan! (55:21.376) right so yeah so uh we're starting to see marian become obsessed with the house and she's beginning to distance herself from the family and ben and david go out to fix the pool and oh yeah

Dave! (55:31.89) Oh, did you skip? I think you also skipped by when Betty Davis is painting the picture. Because they showed that and I was like, God damn it, Betty Davis has never held a paint brush in her life. Look at this. She's just kind of like stabbing.

Sam Pancake (55:35.833) Oof.

Bryan! (55:44.284) Yep.

I know, they could have hired a consultant, she could have faked it, nope.

Sam Pancake (55:50.741) They could have done all of that and she would do what she goddamn well wanted to do regardless You asked Jimmy Cagney about me. He'll tell you I know what I'm doing

Bryan! (55:54.6) Yeah.

Dave! (55:57.134) She has bills to pay. Heh.

Bryan! (56:00.886) Ha ha

Dave! (56:03.594) We can't. The only person who's still alive is Burgess Meredith and he left.

Sam Pancake (56:07.681) Ha ha ha!

Bryan! (56:08.624) I, you know what? And also, there is another detail of her character. She smokes throughout the movie, but always through like a holder. Such a great detail. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That was probably your favorite one. Though I wish it was, I wish it was one of those ones with like the long stem. You know, you, you only saw that in like, yeah, you only ever saw that in cartoons and

Sam Pancake (56:15.98) Yes.

Dave! (56:18.102) That she definitely brought from home.

Dave! (56:23.138) So I don't know, other thing.

Sam Pancake (56:29.932) The Cruella De Vil version.

Dave! (56:32.242) Oh, I was thinking Leslie and Warren from Clue.

Sam Pancake (56:35.054) How?

Bryan! (56:35.644) Yeah, you see it in cartoons and Batman. And that was it.

Sam Pancake (56:38.465) Literally saw Leslie Ann two weeks ago out picketing, just dropping that name while you bring it up. It never stops over here. She's a delight. Honey, talk about older, but looking like you're 40. She's amazing.

Bryan! (56:44.296) Nice, nice solidarity. That's Yeah. So

Dave! (56:54.154) So everybody in this house or in this movie, here's the thing I don't understand about the whole film. This is the premise as a whole. Did they go on vacation to do chores?

Sam Pancake (57:05.261) Exactly, right?

Bryan! (57:05.963) I know this is like.

Dave! (57:06.218) Because that is the premise of this movie, is that they go to this house so Karen Black can do housework. Bitch, you can do that at home. You don't have to pay $900.

Bryan! (57:12.784) Well, okay, so that's actually that's the sort of point of contention between the two of them. Yeah, you're paying you're paying to fix the house, but that's the point of contention between them originally is he doesn't want to have to move into this place and then spend the summer like fixing the pool pump and then cleaning the pool and then choppy. That's just sounds like fucking bullshit, man. I want to go on vacation.

Sam Pancake (57:20.005) for the season.

Dave! (57:30.71) Yeah, who would?

Dave! (57:35.958) This is like those, uh...

Sam Pancake (57:36.129) And the house takes care of itself though, that's a lie. And so, exactly. And so, did I miss the point when they're like, you have to fix everything first? You have to stay here, you have to pay to stay here and work?

Dave! (57:39.126) Hmm. Not very well, it seems.

Bryan! (57:46.904) Yeah. Apparently, they Yeah, they took Walker with him apparently so that he can't be the handyman who's supposed to

Dave! (57:49.749) I think they framed it like it's like, that's part of the charm, isn't it? No!

Sam Pancake (57:53.239) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (57:58.041) That's right!

Dave! (57:58.581) Look, he could not sustain that character for two hours.

Bryan! (58:01.772) Oh no, that would be, that's the thing. Yep.

Sam Pancake (58:01.933) But where the hell did he go? I mean, that is a valid question. I know, but he could have stayed and done shit. Wow, now back to like Ozark's, you know, hollers and the possum feed.

Dave! (58:05.082) Into the Aether. Back to the moon.

Dave! (58:12.063) Exactly.

Bryan! (58:14.888) Yeah. So yeah, so let's see, Davey and Ben, they fix the pool pump together and they wander out into the overgrowth and they find a family cemetery, but no grave is more recent than 1890. Meanwhile, yeah.

Dave! (58:28.614) Okay.

Sam Pancake (58:29.969) So yeah, where does that come back around? Because I was like, are the aler dices, are they like, because they suckle off the mother the house. So families come in and make it reborn. So they can be reborn. So they're actually like 100 years old bras and the penguin.

Bryan! (58:32.176) Yeah.

Bryan! (58:45.4) Yeah, that. Yeah, yeah, like, I think that's really what it is, is it's either that or they're not even real or maybe their apparitions, the house or there's some sort of manifestation. And that's why Walker isn't around anymore, either like basically the house just kind of produces this shit in order to bring people in. Yeah, so so.

Sam Pancake (58:53.933) Yeah, they're ghosts.

Sam Pancake (58:59.365) Oh yeah.

Bryan! (59:08.208) she let's see Marion finds the last tray she left for Mrs. Allardyce completely untouched tries to speak to her through the door but receives no reply. Also, Karen. Oh,

Dave! (59:16.366) Okay, so in the book, she actually does, occasionally she will go back and get the tray and some of the food has been eaten. Because if you're bringing a tray up to this 85 year old gal, old gal, and she never eats the food, you'd start to think, okay, either she's dead in there or there's nobody in there. But I don't think in the movies she ever does.

Bryan! (59:36.629) Yeah, yeah.

Sam Pancake (59:37.314) Yeah. But doesn't she drink the tea or something? Isn't there at one point she sees the tray, is the something is eaten? Was I wrong?

Dave! (59:43.43) There might be, because it happens in the book, because otherwise, at some point, you'd have to be like, all right, I'm going in there.

Bryan! (59:48.88) Yeah, yeah. Also, another parallel to another movie that we did. This this reminded me of the old dark house. With the tray that's outside of.

Sam Pancake (59:48.97) Exactly.

Sam Pancake (59:55.428) Oh yeah.

Dave! (59:59.328) Oh yeah, there's a lot of parallels between them, because they're both, they're very like kind of stereotypical Gothic stories.

Bryan! (01:00:06.244) Yeah, yeah. And this is also in a lot of ways, this is a, this is a dark house movie in, you know, yeah. So, Karen Black was five months pregnant when she made this movie. Whoever managed her wardrobe managed to cover it very well.

Sam Pancake (01:00:10.709) Yes, yes, for sure.

Dave! (01:00:13.066) You know, or a dark soundstage, but that's not really what happened. It was all shot on location.

Dave! (01:00:25.666) So that actually explains a lot of the choices in this, because at some point she is dressed like Gary Oldman in Dracula and it is like, who decided this was a good idea? Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:00:33.997) With that Lily Munster cloak, yes, completely.

Bryan! (01:00:34.217) Oh, yeah, her, if her evolving wardrobe in this is so great. But yes.

Sam Pancake (01:00:40.525) Was Betty Davis also five months pregnant? Because she had some really smocky looking, sweatery, I mean, none of my business. I'm just wondering. Yes, yes.

Dave! (01:00:42.895) HAHAHAHA

Bryan! (01:00:50.816) Vertical stripes, vertical stripes are slimming. Yeah. So, uh, yeah.

Dave! (01:00:55.438) She brought that from home, Sam.

Sam Pancake (01:00:56.997) Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Bryan! (01:01:02.32) So, as David tries to get her to come down to the pool with him, she, she opens the horror movie music box and becomes entranced by the spooky ass music that comes out of it. But back at the pool, Ben goes flying into it with what looks like the most painful belly flop of all time. Yeah. She doesn't have the wind. She doesn't have the wind for it.

Dave! (01:01:18.986) This is when they cut back to Betty Davis and she's blowing up the thing I saw the scene and I was like, why are they making this poor drag queen blow up the set float? She looks ridiculous

Sam Pancake (01:01:30.84) She can really suck on a cigarette, let alone blow up a giant Pelican or whatever the fuck that was.

Bryan! (01:01:32.546) Ha ha

Dave! (01:01:32.558) She done.

Dave! (01:01:36.126) I think he says, Oliver Reid says something to her. She's like, I know. And I drink too much and I smoke too much.

Sam Pancake (01:01:43.237) That's right. That was an ad lib, clearly not in the script.

Bryan! (01:01:46.28) So.

Dave! (01:01:48.53) I think everybody is ad-libbing most of this movie. Not Karen Black, she's professional, but everybody else.

Bryan! (01:01:50.932) Oh yeah, yeah. There was, there was.

Yeah, there was there was a little bit of talk in the commentary track about like, Hey, Dan, how much how much ad living do you do you allow? And he's like, it's all good as long as they stay on point.

Sam Pancake (01:01:54.963) Oh, hehehe.

Dave! (01:02:03.29) Like, it's as much as possible. It's cheaper that way.

Sam Pancake (01:02:07.931) I gotta watch this commentary, I gotta watch this DVD. Ha ha.

Dave! (01:02:09.81) ABC likes it that way.

Bryan! (01:02:11.622) I'll tell you what, the commentary was not as informative as I was hoping. It's mostly them just kind of being like, man, we had a great time, didn't we? Like the whole time through. But uh.

Sam Pancake (01:02:16.069) cool.

Dave! (01:02:23.586) Like, that's funny. Benny Davis says otherwise.

Sam Pancake (01:02:26.223) Yes, that's true.

Bryan! (01:02:27.629) Yeah, like it doesn't sound like it was a shit show. It just sounds like there were a couple of very abrasive personalities.

Dave! (01:02:32.694) The staff at Oliver Reed's hotel says otherwise.

Bryan! (01:02:38.319) So, yeah, so this is the part where Ben is swimming around underwater. He finds a pair of cracked old-timey glasses and yeah, yeah.

Dave! (01:02:43.65) I, you know, I love this fucking scene. I think the economy of this scene is incredible because what he finds is he, so he swings down and he finds these old glasses and they're not really broken as though they've been cracked or they're rusted. There is a hole right through the center of one of the lenses. And I think what's incredible is it's, the implication is that something has pierced this lens and gone into whatever was behind it, which is an eyeball.

Sam Pancake (01:03:09.185) Yes.

Dave! (01:03:11.27) And so it doesn't tell you anything else. All it tells you is some terrifying shit happened here. Something's not right. Get the fuck out. Nope, he puts them on instead. Like any normal person, he puts on the cracked broken glasses.

Bryan! (01:03:19.164) Yeah, but they don't because

Sam Pancake (01:03:21.231) And it's never brought up...

Bryan! (01:03:26.538) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:03:27.202) But also, it's never brought up again. I thought, you know, it's one of those things where you're like, oh, this will certainly come back. Oh no, you've got the wrong movie, darling. It's not coming back.

Bryan! (01:03:33.78) Oh, no. No, he's just he's just giving you a little giving you giving you a little taste of some of dread.

Dave! (01:03:39.451) I was watching something recently that you kept, oh, I told you to watch it, X-Ray, and you kept texting me questions about what is happening. And I finally was just like, why are you asking questions? This movie does not have time for your questions.

Bryan! (01:03:48.9) Yep. Right. Yeah. X-ray, which, which we both I believe we both we both watched independently twice in less than 24 hours. Oh, Sam.

Dave! (01:03:53.611) Oh, we're getting there.

Dave! (01:03:58.058) It moved, that is a... I think it's 1981, it is, it's like a, you know, in that kind of no man's land where everyone's just like, let's make slasher movies. And they were like, okay, but what do we make them about? Doesn't matter. Everything.

Sam Pancake (01:03:58.125) I don't know this movie. What is?

Bryan! (01:04:03.048) It is.

Bryan! (01:04:07.832) So yeah, it's a it's. Yeah, it's a it's a. It's a it's a canon film, and they're not really known for slasher movies. And this movie just lays that bear that they have no idea. But it ends up being one of the fucking craziest movies that I've seen in a while. It's got God. What was God? What is her name? The he all lady?

Sam Pancake (01:04:08.046) Yes, yes.

Just get a knife and some blood and run. Ooh.

Sam Pancake (01:04:26.059) I am in.

putting it on the list.

Sam Pancake (01:04:33.365) Misty Rowe, I was a thorough watcher of Hee Haw every Saturday in West Virginia. Minnie Pearl, Lulu Roman, Barbie Benton, you're welcome. She was, you have been her girlfriend for many years.

Dave! (01:04:33.534) Jesus. No.

Bryan! (01:04:39.852) Uh, no, she was in Playboy also. Barbie Benton is, she is the star.

Dave! (01:04:41.948) She was younger, she was like a chorus member. Yes.

Bryan! (01:04:50.34) Yeah, yeah, we're gonna work.

Dave! (01:04:51.53) Yeah, she's in it, and everybody is just doing something different in it. Nobody knows what movie they're in. They're just like, just keep going. It's like Dan Curtis directed it.

Bryan! (01:04:57.584) It is the most intense hospital.

Sam Pancake (01:05:01.033) I think I've been in that movie a couple of times, believe me.

Dave! (01:05:02.766) ..

Bryan! (01:05:03.828) Yeah. Oh, it's crazy. We're gonna do we're we've got it on the schedule. We're doing it, but I strongly recommend it because it is a crazy movie. This is a there's a vinegar syndrome release. They do it a double feature with schizoid. Right, right. Jesus Christ. Yeah. So, this is the part where uh Ben and Davey play in the pool until things take a really dark turn. So,

Dave! (01:05:16.022) Now, see now I've derailed the story, what is the genuinely best part of this movie?

Dave! (01:05:29.482) Because this shit is genuinely upsetting.

Bryan! (01:05:33.24) it's upsetting because Ben, it starts out where he's like, Davey's like leaping off of his shoulders, but then he starts to like dunk him. Yep.

Dave! (01:05:40.67) And Betty Davis gets really upset. She says, Davey, that is deep water. There's that, that beautiful, beautiful mid-Atlantic accent just coming at you.

Bryan! (01:05:52.016) with a vocal fry way before it was cool. Yep. So he's becoming more and more violent about it until he's fully choking the kid and holding him under. But the thing is every now and then you get a glimpse of his face and he's having the time of his life doing this. Like it's a very fucked up scene.

Dave! (01:05:54.306) That is deep water.

Dave! (01:06:10.382) I thought everybody is fucking going for it in this scene. Everyone is acting the shit out of this part and they're all doing great.

Sam Pancake (01:06:15.201) I was rewatching the editing. I'm like, this is, some of this is really happening to this kid. They're not, obviously they couldn't afford to stomp people except for the thing at the end apparently. But this is really the kid.

Bryan! (01:06:24.964) Yeah, yeah.

Dave! (01:06:25.602) But he says he had weights, he had a weight belt on him or something to keep him from coming back up. But a lot of it was just Oliver Reed just holding him down.

Sam Pancake (01:06:31.493) Oh my god.

Bryan! (01:06:33.924) Oh, right, right. Because there's a lot of underwater like photography of him just chokeholding the kid and holding him underwater. Yeah, it's fucked up. And it really gets to me. It's a it's a hell of a scene. But eventually, David

Sam Pancake (01:06:40.28) Yes!

What a trooper.

Dave! (01:06:46.582) It's like when you use dogs in movies and like no matter what you're doing, it's like, you can still tell they're looking a little bit to the left to whoever's off screen, and they look so excited even though they're supposed to be terrified.

Bryan! (01:06:58.992) Yeah. So, eventually, Davey hits him with his diver's mask and manages to get away and that's that that's the scene where it's the two sort of the two shot where it's like close up right down the barrel like look with the kid looking down the barrel terrified and then Oliver Reed.

Sam Pancake (01:06:59.029) Yep, I've been on that set many times too, and you're not allowed to touch them as an actor, even though they're supposed to be your best friend, except for they're at work, that's true.

Dave! (01:07:05.966) They're working.

Dave! (01:07:22.51) And that scene is incredible because he's got his, I mean, he probably has like a blood pack or something in his hand, but he's covering his face. And you could tell he breathes out at one point because the blood just sort of like, like splashes out between his fingers and he's moving backwards, like some kind of like, he has this look on his face. He's like an animal. It is an incredible shot.

Bryan! (01:07:39.908) Yeah. It's the best it's easily it's the best part of the whole movie. Like it's really cool. But

Sam Pancake (01:07:41.929) Yeah, it is.

Dave! (01:07:45.898) And so again, you know, and I don't like to constantly compare something to a book because this is obviously a different thing. But in this case, this was clearly written to be a movie. And in this, what happens in the pool is actually a big part of the story, because the whole point of a lot of what the house is doing is it's exacerbating the things they already feel. And so what he keeps saying, like, oh, you know, I didn't mean to do it. Or she said, you know, Karen Black says, oh, you didn't mean to do it. It got out of control. And he says something like, no, I did mean to.

Bryan! (01:08:06.961) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:08:07.021) Oh.

Bryan! (01:08:15.708) Yeah. Oh.

Dave! (01:08:15.734) And that's kind of the whole point is that he's very resentful of these two people for kind of holding him back and tying him down. So this is that anger coming through because he has no restraint anymore.

Sam Pancake (01:08:21.639) Oh, okay, yeah.

Bryan! (01:08:23.814) Oh, gotcha. In the in the movie, it doesn't really come across that way. The way that he sort of describes it is if it were me, I you know, like, no, I did not intend to do that. But something in him it like it unlocked some part of him that was like, Yes, I did mean to do that. And I enjoyed it. And

uh he's horrified outwardly horrified by like this thing that he's done it's a thing because he he's haunted by this for quite a while oh yeah but uh but as this is happening in the pool thing is all while Marion is lovingly tending to the collection yep

Dave! (01:08:56.373) And that's what causes his nightmare that night, the defining scene of this movie.

Sam Pancake (01:08:58.813) Alright. Yes. I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

Sam Pancake (01:09:10.157) Oh, and yeah, she can't hear them. She's obsessed with polishing a picture and a frame.

Bryan! (01:09:16.228) Yep. So yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yep.

Dave! (01:09:16.69) sitting in those horribly uncomfortable looking furniture. Everything about this movie just looks uncomfortable.

Sam Pancake (01:09:19.857) Yes. And you just smell it. You smell the must in the mildew.

Dave! (01:09:24.351) It's... it's dusty. There's no- it's all horse hair.

Sam Pancake (01:09:28.489) Yes, yes, the houses I grew up in. Yes, I'm very familiar.

Dave! (01:09:30.221) Hmm.

Bryan! (01:09:34.296) Yeah, so yeah, so by night Ben dreams of his mother's funeral when he was a child and the ghoulish hearse driver. And so like we said earlier, this is Anthony James, who is another one of those people that you've definitely seen in other movies, but you may not know his name. He's a...

Dave! (01:09:47.37) Now I'm gonna jump in because I looked at his, because I was curious like to, every time, and Sam, you might understand this, you see somebody and you're like, that person seems gay. I'm gonna go find out if that person's gay. Because Anthony James, I was like, there's just something about him that seemed, and so I went and looked, and of course, it doesn't really say, but it did say that he never married and he died.

Sam Pancake (01:09:57.941) Yes, all the time. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Sam Pancake (01:10:04.981) Mm-hmm.

Sam Pancake (01:10:13.058) Mm.

Dave! (01:10:14.206) He or he ended up living taking care of his best friend his mother and I was like, alright girl But also the other thing that's so one of the things I read was that his best ex he doesn't talk about it much in His biography except his best experience was just being on set with Betty Davis and I was like well confirmed But I his IMDB biography and I'm gonna do a little bit of reading this is incredible It just runs through a bunch of things. I don't think mr. James wrote this

Sam Pancake (01:10:19.062) That's... yeah.

Bryan! (01:10:19.264) Uh.

Sam Pancake (01:10:29.977) Completely. Yes. Stamped.

Bryan! (01:10:30.008) Hahaha!

Dave! (01:10:41.41) And it says other noteworthy parts include a slimy gay hitchhiker in the cult classic Vanishing Point, a wimpy priest in the Culpepper Cattle Company, a scuzzy outlaw in High Plains Drifter, a deranged psycho in The Teacher, a chauffeur from Hell in The Chiller Burnt Offerings, and the vicious leader of a gang of ferocious barbarians in the strictly so-so science fiction outing Ravagers. I was like, well...

Sam Pancake (01:11:07.301) Strictly so-so.

Dave! (01:11:08.918) Well, if that's not the shadiest biography I've ever read...

Sam Pancake (01:11:12.779) Whoever wrote that is certainly gay, that's for sure.

Bryan! (01:11:16.325) Oh, man, their use of their use of adjectives. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Dave! (01:11:16.97) And then she did a bunch of other movies nobody cared about.

Sam Pancake (01:11:21.315) Is he still alive, Mr. Anthony James? Do we know?

Dave! (01:11:23.91) No, he retired from being an actor and became a painter, like a fairly successful painter, because he lived in Cambridge for like the second half of his life. And I think he died from cancer, not too long ago, maybe in the early 2000s.

Sam Pancake (01:11:36.101) Okay.

Okay.

Bryan! (01:11:39.697) Yeah, yeah. He has a very distinct appearance. He's tall, he's skinny, he's all angles.

Dave! (01:11:44.15) Yeah, he looks like a murderous hillbilly waiter.

Sam Pancake (01:11:46.477) Well, also, speaking of the gay, and I do that all the time, the same thing, Dave, I'm getting a vibe, even if it's a movie from the 30s, you're gonna be like, confirmed, yes. Confirmed to bachelor means my suspicions are confirmed.

Dave! (01:11:59.53) He was married six times, each one for eight months. All of them arranged by the studio. Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:12:03.285) Exactly. But I thought he was kind of sexy in this. Like I there's something about that. Even as a kid seeing the advertisements, I was kind of like, Oh, what's that? Yeah, I was kind of a little bit.

Bryan! (01:12:06.1) assist you.

Dave! (01:12:15.95) Well, cause he has that, he has such a big grin and he has this wild intensity about it. Even in the heat of the night when he's supposed to look gross, same in High Plains Drifter, he looks disgusting in that too. But there's something magnetic about him where you're like, you are just sort of crazy.

Bryan! (01:12:19.58) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:12:19.702) Yeah.

Bryan! (01:12:27.448) it's his it's his body is angular, you know, and so eat right down to that grin. Like they get prominently featured in this movie. Yeah. So

Sam Pancake (01:12:34.262) Yes.

Dave! (01:12:40.234) It would be like it would be like a sort of a, you know, kind of what's with the poet and the painter or whatever. Jesus Christ, this is bad. The story's going nowhere. Oh, Rimbo and Verlaine. It would be like that kind of relationship where it's like, you know, it would be really interesting at first, and we just be throwing glasses at each other by the end of the night. The joke took too long to get there. It wasn't that good. Anyway, go on, take, take this away from me.

Sam Pancake (01:12:54.407) Oh, oh, yes.

Sam Pancake (01:13:02.294) and screaming.

Bryan! (01:13:05.448) Ha ha ha.

Dave! (01:13:09.934) Christ.

Bryan! (01:13:10.86) Yeah, yeah. So the way that the scene plays out is it's a funeral and the hearse driver holds the door open for little Ben to get into the car. He closes the door and he crouches down and he gives him that crazy fucking grin. And we're going to see that a bunch of times throughout the movie because this is something that haunts him.

Sam Pancake (01:13:31.337) And also, even though it would probably be the late 40s for Oliver Reed, the kid in it has full bush of 70s hair, a full like, you know, Peter Brady, you know.

Bryan! (01:13:35.528) Yeah.

Bryan! (01:13:41.772) Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, he was in the movie for like five minutes and so his mom was like, there's no way in hell I'm cutting his hair for this. Yeah. So, yeah, so removed from the pool, Ben is now haunted by what happened. He knows what happened. He knows what he did and how he felt while doing it. And this is the first time that anybody suspects that something might be wrong with the house. Ben was apparently haunted by these dreams for a long time, but it's been some time since he's had one and now they're back.

Sam Pancake (01:13:48.001) No, exactly, you're not paying enough, not for scale.

Bryan! (01:14:11.916) So the next day Marion visits the pool and is amazed by how the pool has changed. It looks brand new and it does. So we get a bit of.

Sam Pancake (01:14:21.877) It painted itself, it painted its, it's like, right, it wasn't red before.

Bryan! (01:14:26.66) Yeah, no, because like it was actually kind of dumpy before and then she shows up and there's like a fountain and shit like it's yeah. So

Sam Pancake (01:14:33.655) Yes.

Dave! (01:14:36.205) That's how they got the mansion. They were like, look, we'll come in and we will renovate the entire thing. It's actually part of the story.

Bryan! (01:14:42.501) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:14:44.661) And this was the first movie shot there. And I'm curious about like, if it was dumpy, like the beginning when we see it, it's kind of like it needs a paint, okay, it needs a paint job. So they did that, yes. Yeah. Yeah, it does.

Dave! (01:14:50.098) It was. It was in disrepair.

Bryan! (01:14:53.813) Oh, yeah, because by the end, it looks beautiful, right? So, yeah, so now we get a bit of reconciliation between Ben and Davey and then Ben and Marion meet up by the pool by night where he stares at the pool with a haunted expression and then he and Marion have a bit of sexy times in the pool but she rebuffs him. He remarks a little water sport Marion and then he, yep, and then he tries to rape her on the lawn.

Dave! (01:15:15.76) Yeah...

Sam Pancake (01:15:17.892) Right.

Dave! (01:15:20.11) I feel like this is the real Oliver Reed. This isn't acting.

Sam Pancake (01:15:20.641) Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Bryan! (01:15:24.888) Yeah, that's not exactly how it goes. So everything's going fine until she sees the light on and Mrs. Allardyce's room and then her desire turns and she runs to the top floor.

Dave! (01:15:35.01) So I don't understand the red lighting in this. There's tons of red lighting and it feels, so one of the, I was listening to the commentary, I can't remember the guy's name. It was a wild commentary where he spends a lot of time talking about his own upbringing by alcoholics. Seems inappropriate, but it's fine. And he spends a lot of time talking about the lighting and how it's, he loves the nod to.

Bryan! (01:15:37.956) I don't either. Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:15:38.903) Yeah.

Bryan! (01:15:52.188) Ha ha ha.

Dave! (01:15:58.25) Mario Bava and I was like, this doesn't feel like a nod to Mario. But something tells me Dan Curtis had never heard of Mario Bava in 1976 or whatever.

Sam Pancake (01:15:59.927) Ooh.

Bryan! (01:16:05.332) Yeah, I doubt a lot of people do that. Like they're very like there's a lot of revisionism that goes on in movies where people will be like, Oh God, yeah, this was such a nod to Mario Baba. And it's like Mario Baba wasn't known outside of Italy in 1975.

Sam Pancake (01:16:12.205) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:16:18.993) No, he wasn't. Yeah, yes. They people didn't know who he was. Yeah, and one red light is not an equal of Mario Bava not by any means.

Dave! (01:16:20.37) And... and nobody's nodding to anything in this movie.

Bryan! (01:16:28.004) Yeah, yeah. So, uh, yeah, yeah. So, uh, the next time we, the next day we get some sexy shirtless Oliver Reed hacking away at the bushes with a machete. Hmm. Right. Yeah. Cause

Sam Pancake (01:16:38.222) Delicious.

Dave! (01:16:38.306) Yeah, and he's angry with her because she didn't want him to rape her.

Tell me it's the 1970s without telling me it's the 1970s.

Sam Pancake (01:16:45.625) How dare she. He just, you can smell the bourbon off the screen of his like hangover flop sweat and his machete.

Bryan! (01:16:49.274) Yeah.

Bryan! (01:16:54.624) Yeah. And so, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Dave! (01:16:57.394) And he's drinking a beer while doing it.

Sam Pancake (01:17:00.801) And that's also not to be. I remember this from the seventies, like the chorus was not on the East Coast, like in it, that one of the goofs and I'm doing it's like.

Dave! (01:17:07.026) I know, so I read that too, and I'm not sure if that's true, because there's the Coors boycott, which is I think 77 or 78. So Coors made a lot of sort of anti-gay, it wasn't really anti-gay advertising, but there was a big kind of backlash against Coors by the gay community, and that was late, I would say 77, 78. And I was reading about, so it's in the Boston gay papers. So they must have...

Bryan! (01:17:21.426) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:17:29.325) That was in the 70s? Maybe?

Bryan! (01:17:29.423) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:17:34.337) Oh.

Dave! (01:17:36.158) I mean, maybe it was just a political thing. Doesn't necessarily mean it was being sold here.

Sam Pancake (01:17:40.877) I just don't remember it and I started drinking in the 70s. So I'm just letting you know that. But I didn't like beer. I remember Coors Light in the 80s. And I was on the East Coast is my point.

Bryan! (01:17:45.712) Yeah. There's a yeah, there's a there's a couple of like little things throughout the movie that if you're paying attention, it really does kind of betray the setting. But also, I don't know if they actually say like in the movie where this is supposed to be, because when they talk about the city, they just kind of refer to it as the city.

Dave! (01:17:47.178) wouldn't have been Coors.

Sam Pancake (01:18:10.205) Yes, that's true.

Bryan! (01:18:11.656) But like, I mean, there's like California license plates and stuff like that you can see. Yeah. Yeah, so this is also the scene where Aunt Elizabeth is starting to show the signs of being consumed by the house. She comes down to the I believe it's the greenhouse and Marion is like, oh, boy, you slept late. She's like giving her a hard time, like, hey, it's my right to sleep late. But man, I've been real tired lately.

Dave! (01:18:15.871) Oh yeah, no, you can clearly see California license plates in this.

Sam Pancake (01:18:16.719) Oh yeah.

Dave! (01:18:38.51) I feel like they got like an hour into this movie and they were like, Jesus, we got to speed this shit up because she comes down looking like the goddamn crypt keeper. And 20 minutes ago, she was fine.

Bryan! (01:18:43.973) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:18:47.793) Yeah, you're like, you think buddy Davis looks bad. Just wait. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Bryan! (01:18:47.917) She...

Bryan! (01:18:51.925) her condition worsens so fast. So yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:18:54.625) Ugh.

Dave! (01:18:55.094) And I feel like she was just like, well, how do I depict illness and aging? They were like, do it like you do it on the stage, Betty, because she really goes for it.

Bryan! (01:19:02.834) Yeah. Oh yeah and then there's just that like there's like that red eye pencil to really yeah. Yep.

Sam Pancake (01:19:04.61) She does.

Yes, completely. Have you ever seen, have y'all ever seen Scream Pretty Peggy, which is a TV movie that's like, okay, yeah. She doesn't look that bad in that, but she is supposed to be drunk the whole time. And it's, it reminded me a little bit.

Dave! (01:19:07.902) Yeah. We're just powder in her hair.

Dave! (01:19:14.848) Oh yeah.

Bryan! (01:19:23.548) Yep. So Marion's hair is also starting to turn gray as well.

Sam Pancake (01:19:28.429) You need a beauty parlor too!

Dave! (01:19:28.534) Which that is a... That's a big part of the book. So in the book, she's very, because she is kind of materialistic and I don't really know what else, but she's very, she is very vain because in the book she becomes obsessed with it. In the movie, she's just kind of like, eh, whatever. Makes me look distinguished. On with the show, everybody.

Sam Pancake (01:19:41.113) Vane.

Bryan! (01:19:46.149) Oh, yeah, she mentions it a couple of times. Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:19:50.241) Yeah, it's not my aunt Sylvia, she went completely gray by 33 or whatever the name is.

Bryan! (01:19:55.722) Yeah. Yep. So, so yeah, she's like, Yeah, listen, and Elizabeth, why don't you go upstairs and take a nap? And so she's like, Yeah, I go do that. So she goes upstairs, and then she's like, lays down and then she's like, No, fuck this, I can't go to sleep. So she goes upstairs to try and talk to Mr. Mrs. Allen.

Dave! (01:20:10.794) Yeah, she wants to show her the painting that she was stabbing at earlier.

Bryan! (01:20:13.808) Yeah, so I was just talked to her through the door knocking first and is surprised to find Marion in the room already, but she was literally just downstairs. Oh, yeah, every time anybody like goes up and sort of confronts her there. She basically throws herself against the door like, no, you can't go in. You must not go in and they're like, why what's going on in there? She's like. Nothing.

Dave! (01:20:22.09) Yeah, looking not at all suspicious.

Sam Pancake (01:20:22.705) Oh yeah!

Sam Pancake (01:20:37.729) She's sleeping. She's resting.

Dave! (01:20:37.782) And there's like those wilds made for TV movies stings in the music. Every single like, the music for this, they went with the wrong dude when it came to the music.

Bryan! (01:20:43.568) Yeah. Oh, the soundtrack!

Sam Pancake (01:20:48.601) Well, they were commenting about how it was Dan Curtis' usual music that he used for everything and it's very Dan Curtis-y.

Bryan! (01:20:48.61) It's, yeah, yeah.

Dave! (01:20:53.174) Oh yeah, it's a guy and he the guy who did the theme to Dark Shadows. I mean, he did everything, norless tapes, he did everything. And, but.

Bryan! (01:20:58.198) Yeah. So most of the most of the cast and crew for this was just recycled from other stuff that he'd done. And so he.

Sam Pancake (01:20:58.913) Right. Yeah. And Night Stalker. Yeah.

Dave! (01:21:07.39) And you can feel it. This movie feels like a made for TV movie. And a lot of it, I think, is because, it's because of the cinematography, but also because of the music. That's just like, this is the cheesiest shit that you could imagine. Like it has that, you know, Barnabas descending the staircase.

Bryan! (01:21:16.516) Oh, yeah. Yeah. At one point in it.

Sam Pancake (01:21:20.585) Yes, it is.

Sam Pancake (01:21:24.477) Even for 75 when they made it, it's still, yeah.

Bryan! (01:21:28.196) Yeah, yeah. At one point in the commentary, he remarks that he had to constantly remind himself that he wasn't working in like TV aspect ratio. So yeah, so this is definitely like this is a TV person trying to work in cinema.

Dave! (01:21:42.926) This is very different from Toby Hooper. When Toby Hooper made Salem's Lot, they were like, you know this isn't made for TV, this is for television. He was like, I don't know how to do that. I'm just gonna do my thing, okay? Eventually they were like, fine, he keeps arguing with us, just let him do it. Probably.

Bryan! (01:21:52.092) Yeah. Yeah, like if you shoot it like that. Yeah, if you, yeah, if you if you shoot it like that, you're going to see the top of the sets, man. So. Yeah. So, OK, back outside, the Hurst driver appears to bed in broad daylight now. And every time every time this happens now, like he becomes like panic stricken and like

Sam Pancake (01:21:57.421) That's why it was so good. Yeah.

Dave! (01:22:03.726) Doesn't matter. You know the boom mic is in the shot. No time.

Bryan! (01:22:21.276) catatonic. He's like squeezing the can of beer.

Dave! (01:22:23.49) Yeah, this is what he crushes. And I saw that and I'm like, he's just going in his eyes. But also, I don't know if there was like something else on his face, because the second watch that I did, you can see there's like something red is leaking. It's like Rudy Giuliani at Four Seasons is black. It's just something red leaking down his face. And he's just the beers going in his eyes. I'm like, shit, this is like a fucking, every Thursday morning at Oliver's house.

Bryan! (01:22:35.016) Yeah, there's like a red streak.

Bryan! (01:22:41.917) Yeah.

Bryan! (01:22:47.704) Yeah, I suspected that he like crushed to the can against his head and like scraped it a little bit with all the flop all the flop sweat and beer. It just like, you know, it's just enough to get a little red on him.

Sam Pancake (01:22:52.857) Oh yeah.

Dave! (01:22:56.819) Oh, what a life.

Sam Pancake (01:23:00.421) This is turning me on so much. It's just so hot. You're killing me softly. Killing me. Hey, killing me softly with your song. Yeah, that's all I will read.

Dave! (01:23:04.737) Well, was Oliver Reed good looking? You tell me.

Bryan! (01:23:04.822) Yeah.

Bryan! (01:23:09.04) Yeah.

Dave! (01:23:10.806) Yeah.

Bryan! (01:23:14.888) So by night, every clock in the house suddenly jumps to midnight. And Ben goes to check on Davey and finds his door locked. And so he stomps through the door and he finds Davey passed out from a nearby heater, which is pumping gas directly into his room. And unable to open the... Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:23:19.041) Right, I forgot about that.

Dave! (01:23:31.378) Now, and you'll notice when he goes to turn the gas off, he really has to work for it. Which is interesting given that the next day she blames Betty Davis for it.

Bryan! (01:23:43.524) Yeah. Or or does she? She's really kind of passive aggressive about it. Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:23:43.789) Yeah, yeah.

Dave! (01:23:46.151) And then she does. She does.

Sam Pancake (01:23:47.473) Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not saying you did, but you locked the door wasn't locked. I'm not saying it's you, but it was you, but it's not you, but it was you. Also, also, they bash out a window. And then they bash out another window. And I wasn't sure why. Because and they never repair the Sure, sure. Oh, yeah, because re glazes. Right.

Bryan! (01:23:54.35) Ha ha

Dave! (01:23:54.358) That's how you know it was written by a gay man.

Dave! (01:24:04.558) Just for good measure. The house takes care of itself. Except it when it doesn't. Except when Oliver Reed has to.

Bryan! (01:24:06.444) Yeah. Well, the house takes care of itself. Yeah. Yep. So, so this is what we're talking about. The next morning, Aunt Elizabeth visits with Marion in the greenhouse. And this is the part where Marion's appearance is beginning to change as well. It's not just the hair. She's wearing her, or rather, it's not the gray hair. She's like wearing her hair up now, where before she was real loose with it. And Aunt Elizabeth

Sam Pancake (01:24:33.796) You did?

Dave! (01:24:35.214) But hers is a subtle change. As Elizabeth, she looks like the same character. Did you ever see, what was that Tom Tryon novel? They made the movie, it's a two-part TV. Betty Davis, it's not Crowhaven. Yes, Harvest Home. And she looks like that character. Well, in that character, she's supposed to be like 100 years old, whatever. Like she goes.

Sam Pancake (01:24:48.265) Oh, Dark Secret of Harvest Home. Oh, yeah.

Bryan! (01:24:50.408) you guys. Jesus Christ, you guys.

Sam Pancake (01:24:57.477) She's like the leader of this Amish nature cult that's like, yeah, this family falls into. I've seen it recently.

Dave! (01:25:03.978) Yeah, and she's like a hundred years old. She goes from being this spunky old gal to being like a corpse overnight. And we're like.

Bryan! (01:25:04.403) uh

Bryan! (01:25:11.204) she looks like grandpa from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yeah.

Dave! (01:25:15.19) She does.

Sam Pancake (01:25:15.329) Yes, she does. And she is one of those people where maybe that's one of the reasons she accepted it and she took it because like she was not afraid to look hideous. Even your Barbara Stanwycks and your Ava Gardner's at that time and the other old broads would not look bad. Completely. Yes.

Bryan! (01:25:27.892) Oh, she sets a standard in whatever happened to baby Jane.

Dave! (01:25:30.622) Oh, she looks like a kabuki dancer in that movie. Like, she's...

Bryan! (01:25:34.563) Yeah, oh, the writing a letter to daddy part.

Sam Pancake (01:25:35.257) But the kabuki dancer who woke up every day never took off their makeup and keeps putting new makeup over the old makeup. Yeah. Which is what.

Dave! (01:25:39.711) Exactly.

Bryan! (01:25:42.425) Yeah.

Dave! (01:25:42.726) I feel like she's channeling that character a little bit in there. Like, maybe, like, I feel like Jane Hudson is like 70% just Betty Davis.

Sam Pancake (01:25:50.937) Oh, if not 80 or 90, yes.

Dave! (01:25:52.778) Yeah, I'd like to order a case of liquor.

Bryan! (01:25:53.072) Oh, yeah. Yeah, it wasn't much. Neither part was really a stretch for either lady. No, but, uh, yeah. So, Anne Elizabeth admits to being in Davy's room the night before, but that she had nothing to do with the heater. And it turns into a whole thing that you guys were just talking about where she was like, well, then why was the door locked? And it's like, I don't fucking know. How would she have locked the door from the inside if she was out of the room? I mean.

Sam Pancake (01:25:59.671) No.

Dave! (01:26:00.779) But the mortgage was due.

Dave! (01:26:19.246) And he needed like a pipe wrench to like close the fucking valve. So like, is the crypt keeper supposed to have come in and not remembered, apparently? And then what?

Bryan! (01:26:23.409) Yeah.

Bryan! (01:26:30.928) Yeah. But the thing is, is and Elizabeth. Yeah, with her with her mind or something. Yeah, but she worries that her mind is going now. So later. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But Ben and Elizabeth talk and she implores him to leave because she knows something's wrong with the place. And so again, Ben confronts Marion outside of Mrs. Allardyce's room and.

Dave! (01:26:33.162) and then locked it from the inside on the way out? The window, I guess?

Sam Pancake (01:26:41.205) Yeah. And her body certainly is. Yeah.

Dave! (01:26:59.73) Is this after Davey has dropped the punch bowl?

Sam Pancake (01:27:03.477) Yes. No.

Bryan! (01:27:03.537) No, that's after that's right after this. Because because he goes up there to basically give her a hard time for like fighting with Anne Elizabeth and then they all then she goes downstairs and Davies like that's when he drops the thing.

Dave! (01:27:06.318) Because that part made me laugh out loud.

Dave! (01:27:20.65) And it is the most contrived scene. It's like, why is this 12 year old boy interested in this crystal punch bowl?

Bryan! (01:27:27.125) Oh, yeah. And he's like holding it and inspecting it very clear, very closely.

Sam Pancake (01:27:27.414) Mm.

This 12 year old boy was interested in his grandmother's crystal punch bowl is all I'm saying. And the sherbet floating on top. Is that a problem?

Dave! (01:27:31.778) I'm just gonna say... Well, some of us like antiques.

Bryan! (01:27:42.196) Yeah, but so yeah, she started to, Marion is starting to dress like a woman in the Victorian age where she's got like a Yeah. That or why ask questions, man?

Dave! (01:27:48.874) And what I wonder is, is she stealing the clothes from the house or did she bring these get-ups with her? Because she is just one brooch after another from this point till the end. Because that feels a little forward to me.

Sam Pancake (01:27:58.485) I think she, they're in the house. That's what I think, yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:28:04.719) Pfft

Dave! (01:28:05.586) I guess it's like if you have to take care of the 85 year old woman on the other side of the door, I'm gonna wear her clothes while I'm at it. She's not wearing them.

Bryan! (01:28:10.916) Yeah, but yeah, because there's. Yeah, because there's no way that she brought that many cameos with her, you know. But yeah, so downstairs, Davey breaks the bowl and Marion loses her fucking mind over this. And the family is coming apart and she can only cry for the broken bowl. And and Elizabeth, meanwhile, is near death.

Sam Pancake (01:28:11.198) You can't pull the thread. You can't pull the thread on the plot. The whole sweater will come apart. You know that. Come on.

Bryan! (01:28:36.584) This is the part where she's like, starting to get up, like trying to move up. And then something like this, this like popping or snapping sound. And she suddenly like flops down.

Dave! (01:28:45.203) And this is where she's doing it for the back row. Like she is really going for it.

Sam Pancake (01:28:48.592) Oh yeah.

Bryan! (01:28:49.545) Oh, yeah, the remainder of her screen time is fucking crazy. Because she gets that like wild-eyed look and she doesn't really speak anymore. It's all like, you know.

Sam Pancake (01:29:01.485) Yeah. And the wig is.

Dave! (01:29:03.146) And like, this is not at all any illness that anyone has ever had.

Sam Pancake (01:29:08.341) And the wig is doused with Wesson oil and she's just writhing and wriggling in it. It is fantastic.

Bryan! (01:29:13.264) Oh yeah, it's caked in pan-

Dave! (01:29:14.702) It's amazing that all that powder didn't just clump up.

Bryan! (01:29:17.744) Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's John Carradine in this again in the fucking sentinel. Yep. Oh, you do. It's so good. Yeah. So now Ben confronts Marion about the house. And this isn't quite as like fierce and fucked up as before. Now he's like, would you give this house up for me? Like, it's very like he's there having like a heart to heart. And then.

Sam Pancake (01:29:18.195) I know.

Dave! (01:29:23.148) Yep.

Sam Pancake (01:29:23.941) I need to watch that again, damn. It's been too long.

Sam Pancake (01:29:44.389) That's right.

Bryan! (01:29:45.228) And then Davey alerts them to and Elizabeth's condition, which is terrible. She's on. Yeah, she's on death's door and Marion goes to the phone. Ah, yeah. Yeah.

Dave! (01:29:50.355) We're just dying.

Dave! (01:29:54.974) She's like the oh, you know what it is? She's like the sister Zelda from Pet Sematary. He's that that's what she's doing.

Sam Pancake (01:29:58.361) Gosh, she is Zelda! Oh my god. But thicker and flannily nightcounter. Yep. Yeah, yeah. This time with more gin!

Dave! (01:30:04.078) Yep. And with more gin.

Bryan! (01:30:05.676) the doctor. Yep. So, Marion goes to the phone and pretends to call the doctor but she does not. Yep. So sinister. So, she comes back up. Ben tells her to wait for the doctor downstairs but again, she does not. Marion instead goes to the top floor and takes her place in the wing chair outside of Mrs.

Sam Pancake (01:30:16.365) That's right. Oh my god.

Dave! (01:30:30.848) She's gotta polish the frames. And that is not a euphemism.

Sam Pancake (01:30:35.077) Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Bryan! (01:30:35.922) No, she's going to literally polish the frames. Oh, yeah, I hear you. So, yeah, she's outside of Mrs. Allardyce's room with the spooky music box plays. She begins to eat Mrs. Allardyce's food, which for some reason that scene really kind of grosses me out.

Dave! (01:30:37.026) But it could be.

Sam Pancake (01:30:48.002) Oh, that's right.

Dave! (01:30:51.602) So I think this is actually this is not quite as good as the pool scene, but I do think this is a very effective scene because you're like, Oh, she's just fucking all in at this point. She's eating that boiled chicken like she's wearing the cameo and that weird Dracula cape. She's she's done.

Bryan! (01:30:59.908) Oh yeah, she is completely consumed or

Sam Pancake (01:31:06.013) Mm-hmm.

Bryan! (01:31:08.704) Oh, right. I think is this the is this the part where she's it's like that like purple robe, right? Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:31:13.553) Yes, like a silk billowy, like I said, like a semi Lilly Munster when she goes outside on the town.

Dave! (01:31:18.922) And where do you wear that? What is that even?

Bryan! (01:31:22.076) You it's a house coat you wear it around the house. Yeah. Yep. Yep, you're not you're not you're not receiving visitors. So this is your casual look.

Dave! (01:31:24.746) Okay, well.

Sam Pancake (01:31:25.205) It's a rich lady beautiful house coat for when you can't get out of out of the house that day or you stay in bed and eat bonbons.

Dave! (01:31:34.198) I don't... you just described my life, I don't know why I don't have one of these.

Bryan! (01:31:38.017) Well

Sam Pancake (01:31:38.281) I had some elderly southern lady relatives who eventually would just take to their bed or my grandmother sometimes would have to check into the hospital to rest for a week or so. And I feel like that's why I think that they would wear one something like that.

Dave! (01:31:42.67) I'm out.

Bryan! (01:31:43.051) Hahaha

Dave! (01:31:46.73) Yeah. She's exhausted.

Bryan! (01:31:53.38) Yeah, yeah. Informally known as a Moo Moo. Oh no, that is that is definitely not a Moo Moo. This is this is a very like fancy 1890s lady. Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:31:57.145) That's not a Moo though, it's way too tailored and fancy. It was-

Dave! (01:31:58.816) Oh no.

Sam Pancake (01:32:06.261) It's almost like a lady's smoking jacket robe. Yeah.

Dave! (01:32:08.446) Now that was in costumes at MGM since the 20s.

Sam Pancake (01:32:14.041) Probably, yes.

Bryan! (01:32:14.314) Oh sure, yeah. This is the first time it's ever appeared on film in color.

Dave! (01:32:17.815) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:32:18.798) Betty Davis probably wore it in Mrs. Skeffington, Mr. Skeffington. Yeah.

Dave! (01:32:21.139) A third time around.

Bryan! (01:32:22.707) Yeah, this is this was the source of their beef was like she looks better in that thing than I did.

Sam Pancake (01:32:26.617) I one time won my first jobs, I put on a pair of pants, it was at Fox, I looked at the label and sewed into it, it still said R. Montalban. And it was one of the best days of my life. Ricardo Montalban. Yep.

Dave! (01:32:33.688) Hehehe

Bryan! (01:32:36.384) Awesome

Dave! (01:32:38.75) I would have gone through his entire filmography just looking for them.

Sam Pancake (01:32:42.037) Oh, that's true. Yeah, they were pretty, they were pretty basic pants. But yeah, yeah.

Dave! (01:32:46.09) I'm gonna guess beneath the planet of the apes.

Sam Pancake (01:32:49.548) Ricardo's in that? Oh wow.

Dave! (01:32:50.786) Wasn't he in that one? He's in one of them. He's in one of the last ones. What's the last one? He's in that one.

Bryan! (01:32:52.784) He's not in that one. I just watched Beneath the Planet of the Apes recently. Battle for the Planet of the Apes, maybe? I don't know. Let's see. So outside, Ben can hear an engine running, the same engine he heard before when the hearse drove up. So terrified Ben and Aunt Elizabeth prepare themselves. He's he's kind of pressed.

Sam Pancake (01:33:02.805) Surrender, battle, I've seen them all.

Dave! (01:33:19.76) And this part's a little bit ham-fisted.

Bryan! (01:33:22.1) I love it though. So yeah, he's like pressed up against the wall, like, like terrified and they can both hear him like it's basically he's coming up the steps, but he's like bringing something with him. And so all of a sudden, the door is like thrust open, and he, he throws a coffin into the room, right down the barrel of the camera. It's

Sam Pancake (01:33:32.775) Mm-hmm.

Sam Pancake (01:33:43.053) Somehow. Yes. Yeah. Yeah

Dave! (01:33:44.194) It's just like, just in case everybody wasn't sure what was going on here, he's gonna whip a coffin at him.

Bryan! (01:33:48.976) Yep. But here's the thing. One of the last things Aunt Elizabeth sees before she dies is the goddamn hearse driver. Yep.

Dave! (01:33:58.166) you know, it's a nice smile. It's a nice smile, you know.

Sam Pancake (01:33:59.145) Lucky her. It's definitely done with broader strokes than her shitty painting. It is very ham-fisted indeed. It is right over the head.

Dave! (01:34:04.75) That's yeah.

Bryan! (01:34:05.009) Ha ha ha.

Bryan! (01:34:10.092) Yep.

Dave! (01:34:10.151) In case everybody in the back didn't get it, that's what this whole thing has been about.

Sam Pancake (01:34:15.689) Also that trailer we watched, I mean, it's very featured in the trailer. It's another example of giving away the fun parts in the trailer. Yeah.

Dave! (01:34:20.586) Oh yeah, no, they just gave you the whole movie in that trailer.

Bryan! (01:34:20.713) That's the thing. That trailer, that trailer just tells you everything you need to know. And it's almost in order, according to the movie, right down to the part where the dude jumps out the window. So, yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:34:32.181) Yes, yes!

Dave! (01:34:33.486) Because I feel like by this point in the movie I was just like, alright, wrap it up kids.

Bryan! (01:34:38.319) This movie, I will say this, it does, it's, it's not quite two hours, but it starts to feel a little long. Yeah. So.

Dave! (01:34:45.219) It's about 20 minutes too long.

Sam Pancake (01:34:47.777) Yes, yeah, it is. It's a full two hours. It could be one 140. Yeah.

Dave! (01:34:50.794) And imagine if they had left all that other shit at the beginning and it would have been two and a half hours.

Bryan! (01:34:55.196) Yeah. So I guess I guess I can understand why Curtis was like, fuck this. If we lose anything, we'll lose the part of the city. So at the funeral, we see her and Elizabeth's family and friends except for Marion. And when he gets back, it's such a burn. Ben confronts her about missing the funeral. And she's now okay, this is it. This is when she's dressed in that crazy like purple thing. And so

Sam Pancake (01:35:07.589) That's right.

Sam Pancake (01:35:16.537) purple, yeah.

Dave! (01:35:17.942) Yeah, this is when Gary Oldman comes down the stairs and he's got the big bun hair. That is the same outfit, I swear to God.

Sam Pancake (01:35:21.105) In the sh- Yes

Bryan! (01:35:25.301) Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. And so, Ben has given her a hard time about not being at the funeral. Uh you care more about this house than the family, blah, blah. And Davey comes in with a bottle of Coke uh which he is instructed by his mother to pour into a goblet. What?

Sam Pancake (01:35:25.773) The shroud, yeah, licking a knife, a razor with blood on it.

Dave! (01:35:44.702) And he says, but I don't want to drink it out of that. And I thought, yeah, I wouldn't either.

Bryan! (01:35:50.16) No, no, it's a real, sometimes things that are expensive are worse moment.

Dave! (01:35:53.198) Yeah

Sam Pancake (01:35:53.998) Hahaha

Dave! (01:35:56.215) Because, Davey, sometimes things that are expensive are worse.

Bryan! (01:36:02.708) I want to drink it out of a goblet. I want a glass. He's like, we don't have a glass. Drink the goblet.

Dave! (01:36:06.89) Which again, I mean, this is, this is what's his face, Lee Montgomery, really, like, he's really fucking good in this.

Sam Pancake (01:36:13.236) He is.

Bryan! (01:36:13.733) He is a very, very strong part of the entire movie. I don't think, I would say he's the fucking glue that holds the whole thing together. This wouldn't work.

Sam Pancake (01:36:16.329) Yes he is.

Dave! (01:36:20.95) Because while everybody else is eating all the scenery around him, he's like, I'm just gonna be a kid actor. But not in that cloying Brady Bunch way. He feels very natural.

Sam Pancake (01:36:26.298) Yeah, I'm going to do good work.

Bryan! (01:36:26.353) Yeah, but like the thing is, is that's the key is he is not like in any if this were anybody else, they would have got some fucking cute kid. And he of everybody feels like the most natural like representing their age like these supposed to be 12. He definitely feels 12 and it's because the actor was actually 12 at the time. But like, you know what I mean? Like it.

it comes together in a way that's very natural that I don't think other child actors could have really done. So yeah, at the top floor, Ben tries to break into Mrs. Allardyce's room, but now Marion is fully in the throws of the house and she's openly delusional. And he says that in the morning he's leaving with Davy with or without her. And so now we cut to a scene where it's like night and Davy's asleep and Ben's sleeping in a chair next to him and like there's a storm going on.

There's all this fucking commotion happening out, you know, off in the margins. And so he. Yes, so this is the part where it's like shedding its skin.

Dave! (01:37:25.844) Now, my question is, so this is the house repairing itself. That's the deal. But why is this the first time they've seen it? Because if it's fucking redoing the whole lanai or whatever, why is this the first time we see the house? Like, wouldn't you think if someone's painting the bricks out back or whatever, you'd notice that?

Sam Pancake (01:37:35.414) Mm-hmm.

Bryan! (01:37:37.009) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:37:44.317) Also why this stuff is falling off it like maybe it's like molting like the feathers falling off a bird

Dave! (01:37:48.622) I, so that was my question the first time. I think the second time I believe my conclusion was that's what's going on. Is it shedding these old shitty ones and in place there are new beautiful ones.

Bryan! (01:37:49.841) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:37:55.445) Okay. Yeah. Like a snake. Got it. Got it.

Bryan! (01:38:00.292) Yeah, like this family is right on the fucking brink now, and it is just feeding on that in such a way that it's like, I don't need any of this old shit anymore.

Sam Pancake (01:38:06.082) Yes.

Dave! (01:38:09.418) Yeah, it's like, you guys are already in. I don't have to hide this anymore.

Bryan! (01:38:12.572) Yep. So yeah, as the family dies, the house becomes new again. So in the in the middle of this, this is he freaks. He's suitably horrified by this. He freaks out. So in the middle of storm, he takes Davey and runs to the car to escape. And the whole time, like Davey's like hitting him as he's driving, like he's just freaking out and he's trying to get away. But the house stops him by downing a tree across the road. Bet. Yeah, like Evil Dead style.

Sam Pancake (01:38:38.069) And the vines grab him and he, yeah. Yep.

Dave! (01:38:41.314) And then he just keeps driving into it. Is that like under what circumstance would that ever work?

Sam Pancake (01:38:45.517) Yes.

Bryan! (01:38:46.46) Oh, he's desperate and he's fucking he's crazy now. Yeah. Yep. Oh, but this is this is the part like where every time I see this, this is the moment when I really start to feel for the kid, because like he is he is remaining mostly himself at this point, but he is watching his parents go crazy in two entirely different directions. And it fucks with me. Yep.

Sam Pancake (01:38:51.041) Yep, he's unhinged.

Dave! (01:38:51.886) And then he just has the vapors and goes catatonic.

Sam Pancake (01:39:09.483) Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:39:12.649) And basically what's it and whatever the person who's basically his grandmother died right there almost in front of him. Yep.

Dave! (01:39:12.834) I mean, that house has tried to kill him three times.

Bryan! (01:39:36.867) the

and drives them back and Ben resigns to his fate utterly defeated. He's practically comatose and he hallucinates that his wife is the hearse driver. Yeah. The driver is not in the book, right?

Dave! (01:39:46.626) So this is another point in the book where the movie would have benefited from a little bit more elaboration in that they have this moment where he basically has this conversation where he says, so you're that's it then you've made your decision you're basically traded us for this house.

Dave! (01:40:05.654) Eh, kind of is. The funerals are, the hearse is, but I think Dan Curtis says he had some sort of dream, which I'm sort of like, nah, did you though, Dan Curtis.

Bryan! (01:40:07.408) Okay. No, no, in the in the commentary, he talks about a scene from his own like from his own childhood where I think his mother, I think his mother died when he was quite young. And he when he was at the funeral. He saw some of the like

Sam Pancake (01:40:20.351) Oh yeah.

Bryan! (01:40:27.816) funeral workers, the people sort of attending to the whole thing, like off in a side room, like laughing and smiling and that really pissed him off. And it's something that really stuck with him. Yeah, yeah.

Dave! (01:40:35.254) Which, I mean, tacky. Yeah, it is.

Sam Pancake (01:40:38.173) Yeah. I thought he said it was like the driver of the hearse. Maybe I'm just conflating it. But I, or he looked outside and the driver was laughing or about something.

Bryan! (01:40:42.612) the pool. Yeah. So, uh the next day at the pool, Ben is totally despondent. Uh Marion leaves them alone to go back to the house. Davey tries to get through to his dad showing them that he can swim. He can't. Here's here's the thing. They keep going.

Dave! (01:40:46.974) It is sort of in the book, but not quite with that much detail.

Dave! (01:41:03.038) Because you know last time they were at the pool it went so well. Father, remember all the good times we had here.

Sam Pancake (01:41:10.403) Hmm. Heheh. Yes.

Bryan! (01:41:10.908) They keep going back to this poll. At a certain point, you gotta review your life choices, like you are really putting yourself in danger. For no reason here.

Dave! (01:41:20.694) Yeah, fake it till you make it only works if the pool's not trying to kill you every time.

Sam Pancake (01:41:24.183) Yes, yeah.

Bryan! (01:41:24.708) you would think that they would just stay the fuck away from the pool after a while. Yes, that's what happens is the pool, he jumps in and he swims out to the deep end of the pool becomes like a fucking wave pool at like water country. And he gets crazy choppy like on the ocean, the kid starts to drown again and Ben is trying to help him, but he's like plastered to the chair. He's in a catatonic state that he just can't seem to break out of.

Sam Pancake (01:41:28.097) She turns to a giant wave pool and tries to kill the kid.

Dave! (01:41:30.294) Yeah, it becomes a roiling sea.

Sam Pancake (01:41:33.711) Yes.

Dave! (01:41:55.406) Which again, I'll have a read, not acting. This is just the morning.

Sam Pancake (01:41:59.037) Yep, this is, yep.

Bryan! (01:42:00.805) And so seeing him drowning, seeing the kid drowning from the house, because Marion has gone back to the house at this point, and she sees him through the window. And this is enough to break whatever spell the house has over her. And she breaks a window and runs because she can't open the door. She's locked into the room. You know, some spectral force shuts the door.

Sam Pancake (01:42:21.025) Mm-hmm.

Bryan! (01:42:21.424) And she can't open the window, so she smashes it out and then runs down, leaps into the pool and rescues him. And so this is it where they all decide that they're going to leave. And she is even in agreement with this and they're getting into the car to leave when she suddenly looks, looks at the house and she's like, you know, I really ought to let Mrs. Allardyce know where we're going.

Sam Pancake (01:42:36.389) They almost make it, they almost make it, but she-

Dave! (01:42:44.373) You know what this reminds me of? It reminded me of Poltergeist. At the end of Poltergeist, when they're like, now we're gonna go, and she's just like, I have, you know, just one last thing. Gotta, just gotta run back in for a minute.

Sam Pancake (01:42:47.502) Yeah.

Bryan! (01:42:48.204) Oh, yeah. Yep. So, uh, there, there. Yeah, so she goes in and walks upstairs. Um, and that's kind of the last thing we see for of her for a little while. Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:42:53.014) Everything's fine.

Dave! (01:43:05.994) And then she's just quick, just quick into her best Mrs. Bates drag. Like, she is in that house for four minutes.

Sam Pancake (01:43:12.097) Yeah, and she's hair, new hair, new makeup, new evil glowing eyes, another low camera anger where she's like this over the staring at him.

Dave! (01:43:18.514) And why, she is a new woman.

Bryan! (01:43:22.642) Oh, oh, the that look is so fucking great.

Sam Pancake (01:43:25.665) when he comes back in. Yeah. And then she like, he honks the horn, she doesn't come out, he goes back in there. And then she just like, he comes in, he's like, oh, when he real, the whole again, Mrs. Bates turns around, it's her because it's you.

Bryan! (01:43:34.82) Oh, right, because at first he's like, Mrs. Allardyce, I know that my wife has come into this house. Would you please tell me? And he's got the stammer that he said, I am talking to you. But then, yeah, and then it's the Mrs. Bates turn and it's, I remember the first time I saw this, I was like, who the fuck is that?

Dave! (01:43:48.842) Yeah, it gets very, like, Mrs. Allardyce, I am talking to you!

Sam Pancake (01:43:49.349) Where is she? Yes. Where is she?

Dave! (01:44:03.838) As she looks, I mean she looks a little silly, but she looks pretty creepy too. Yeah.

Bryan! (01:44:07.6) She looks scary as hell. Yeah. Because she's like in the chair, she's crumpled. She's wearing this like black, like neck to ankle dress with that and her hair is fully white now and like done. Yeah. And she's got.

Sam Pancake (01:44:07.745) I mean, she's committed to it. She's fucking committed to the bit.

Sam Pancake (01:44:16.654) Mm-hmm.

Sam Pancake (01:44:20.746) Mary Todd Lincoln funeral dress all the way.

Dave! (01:44:22.69) Yeah. But it's like it's a lot like Trilogy of Terror, that last scene in Trilogy of Terror where she's crouched down and she's got the fucking knife and the teeth and everything. And it's very much like she, you know, when she wants to, Karen Black can make that face really work for her. Rest in peace.

Bryan! (01:44:30.412) the teeth. Yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:44:31.343) Yeah. Yes, yes.

Bryan! (01:44:37.48) Yeah. And this the way that her she's positioned look, it's terrifying and she's like, I've been waiting for you and that's when he's like, he like does the whole like goes.

Sam Pancake (01:44:37.628) Yep.

Sam Pancake (01:44:49.081) And then she gets out of the chair and kind of like steam trains over to him. And then he flies out the window. And why did he jumped? Was he pushed?

Bryan! (01:44:54.068) he uh we don't know. Now, my assumption in my like in my telling of this to myself, he went crazy, couldn't deal with it and was like, I just like leapt out the window. You know, so uh yeah, so this is uh yeah, so yeah, he leaps through the top window. This this window that has been prominently featured uh and this is a stunt man named Dar Robinson.

Dave! (01:44:56.83) Again, we don't ask questions here. We don't ask questions in Dark Shadows.

Sam Pancake (01:45:00.497) I want answers. When will I learn? Never.

Dave! (01:45:10.932) Sure, why not.

Sam Pancake (01:45:11.126) Yep, sure.

Bryan! (01:45:23.068) who is one of the greatest stuntmen in the history of Hollywood. He's absolutely fearless. He pulled off a bunch of world records. He did some of the world's greatest high fall stunts in the history of movies. And then unfortunately, in 1986, he did a bike stunt that went wrong and he slid off, slid off a cliff to his death. Yeah, that's the thing. Like, I think that like when you when you like when you look death in the eye and it blinks first, like you get a real fucking feeling like you're like immortal.

Dave! (01:45:39.178) Yeah. Overplayed your hand there, didn't ya?

Sam Pancake (01:45:39.237) Oh my god.

Sam Pancake (01:45:50.617) Well, in this too, they said, I guess IMDB or something, Wikipedia where like, even in that he miscalculated and they were paying attention, the guys on the ground with the padding to jump into and they had to move it last second. And he just hit on the very edge and he could have also died then.

Bryan! (01:45:59.684) Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So that was one of the things that Curtis says in the commentary is like he came he came flying out the window a little too fast. He miscalculated it and the guys with the airbag had to like manually pick this gigantic apparatus up and move it as he was.

Dave! (01:46:19.749) It's like a Warner Brothers cartoon where they're running with the...

Bryan! (01:46:23.236) Yeah, yeah, this is like some Buster Keaton shit. So, yeah, but like.

Sam Pancake (01:46:24.561) Yeah. Yes. Oh my God.

Dave! (01:46:27.534) But I will say, this is for a movie that looks cheap and a little bit silly for most of it. This ending is fucking intense.

Bryan! (01:46:35.812) It's crazy.

Sam Pancake (01:46:35.905) Yeah, and also they're supposedly really there at the house. And that's like, they must have replaced the windows at the house. Maybe they were broken already with like the candy glass. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bryan! (01:46:40.816) Yeah.

Dave! (01:46:46.287) They basically rebuilt this entire house.

Bryan! (01:46:49.065) Yeah. But, uh, yeah. So, so Ben falls to his death and, like, smashes face first through the windshield. And this is the thing is, this is a, this is up to this moment. This is a PG rated movie.

Sam Pancake (01:46:58.403) Oh. Oof.

Dave! (01:47:04.799) And like an easy PG.

Bryan! (01:47:06.552) Yeah, yeah, but now he's like Gore splatters on Davey in the backseat who going

Sam Pancake (01:47:12.318) eyes popping out right in front of his son.

Dave! (01:47:15.318) This is that scene in The Fisher King where Robin Williams' wife gets shot right in front of him and he's just covered in blood, completely dazed. It's that.

Bryan! (01:47:18.45) Oh, yeah.

Sam Pancake (01:47:22.309) I forgot about that.

Bryan! (01:47:24.092) Yeah, it's nuts. And so Davey gets out and he's crazed and frightened and he's just running around the house. I think he's looking for his mom and he comes around the corner and he sees like a chimney on the house starting to crumble just and stares at it, screaming again. This is the scene in Austin Powers where the guy is screaming at the steamroller because he's just there for the...

Sam Pancake (01:47:33.197) Yeah, he's yelling, Mom, where are you?

Dave! (01:47:47.176) Yeah, yeah. All you have to do is step to the left. Now I'll tell you what, in the 1970s, hell, even today, most directors, they're not going to kill a child. Dan Curtis, he's going to drop a chimney on one.

Sam Pancake (01:47:50.113) Yes.

Yes.

Sam Pancake (01:48:02.358) Yep, completely.

Bryan! (01:48:03.638) and I love it because you don't actually see him get hit but they do that thing where all of a sudden he's screaming and screaming and screaming and they freeze frame and like bap like

Sam Pancake (01:48:11.149) And there's also a POV of him getting bricks on top of him. Like, you know, it's basically his POV of him getting completely pelted and covered and killed.

Bryan! (01:48:19.784) Yeah. It's a it's a this movie because there's the right this right before all this happens. It's very quiet. Like it's not like it's not like oh my it's not like the end of Poltergeist where they're all running scared. They're all like, okay, finally we can get away and then it just goes bonkers. So with everybody dead now except for Mrs. Allardice and Marion the house is now. Yes.

Sam Pancake (01:48:29.705) Yeah. Right.

Sam Pancake (01:48:37.908) Mm-hmm.

Dave! (01:48:45.719) We get the ADR ending.

Bryan! (01:48:48.152) So the house is now restored to perfect condition. We hear the Allardyce siblings just marveling at it. And a new photo. We don't see him. Yep. And a new photo of the house is added to the wall. And photos of Aunt Elizabeth, Davey and Ben are added to Mrs. Allardyce's collection. Yeah. Fade to black.

Sam Pancake (01:48:53.637) And that's when I was like, maybe they are ghosts, because we don't see them, we just hear their voices.

Sam Pancake (01:49:05.777) slightly like what with their little like faces.

Dave! (01:49:09.567) Like, huh?

Sam Pancake (01:49:11.841) You... the house wants to do what to me now?

Bryan! (01:49:14.512) Yeah. So that's it. That's how it ends. Suitably. Nothing was burnt. I. Yeah, yeah. There. Yeah, they're the they're the sacraf. Yes.

Dave! (01:49:15.798) Did someone say my name?

Sam Pancake (01:49:17.706) Hehehehe

Dave! (01:49:21.717) End scene.

Sam Pancake (01:49:22.921) Also, no offerings, nothing was burnt. I just want to say, confusing.

Dave! (01:49:28.258) Well, so the but I believe the burnt offering is a reference to the family.

Sam Pancake (01:49:34.142) Oh, from the Bible?

Dave! (01:49:35.926) Yes, the only person on this panel who has read the Bible.

Sam Pancake (01:49:40.925) Uh, hi babe, preach your son, read it many times, read it a lot. Oh, oh, me, oh yeah, yeah.

Dave! (01:49:43.434) That's... I was referring to you.

Bryan! (01:49:48.428) Hey, I've read it too. Yeah. So.

Sam Pancake (01:49:51.257) then why don't you live BOT?

Dave! (01:49:51.431) Yeah, it's a...

Sam Pancake (01:49:56.721) Yeah, oh, I never put that together, young Dave. That's good. burnt offerings because I forget what they, now I forget what they were.

Bryan! (01:50:00.722) Yep. It is. They're. They're they're sacrifice. It's sacrifices to God.

Dave! (01:50:04.607) It's from everyone's favorite, Leviticus.

Sam Pancake (01:50:07.621) Oh, got it. Yeah, Leviticus. Oh, I'm so glad Leviticus is in there. It's so wonderful. It's made my life so much better.

Bryan! (01:50:12.585) Oh, that's

Dave! (01:50:12.714) That's the hottest chapter. That's the Michael Bay chapter of the book.

Bryan! (01:50:18.584) So much blood will be upon them.

Sam Pancake (01:50:21.229) Oh my God. Well, speaking of that, it's time for me to go to get some more blood upon me.

Bryan! (01:50:26.556) So yeah. Oh, yeah, that is it. That is that's burnt offerings. It is a gothic treasure. Now. I personally this movie really stands up for me and it gets better for me every time I watch it. This is the third time I've watched it this year because I believe it was streaming on shutter until just recently. It's not it's not anymore.

Sam Pancake (01:50:48.385) Yes it was, yeah.

Bryan! (01:50:52.088) And like all of a sudden, everybody was kind of rediscovering this movie and I was so happy. So, you know, it's it really does. It stands up to me. It's a little silly for sure. It's that Dan Curtis is kind of hammy and I don't think that it's avoidable. So but it's a hell of a movie. I love it to death. I think it's great.

So, uh...

Sam Pancake (01:51:15.009) I want to reread, I got to reread the book. I'm going to get the book on Amazon for sure.

Bryan! (01:51:19.617) So Sam, where can everybody find you?

Sam Pancake (01:51:20.769) Yes. You can find me on Instagram at the Sam pancake and also on Twitter or X or whatever it's going to be tomorrow at J Sam pancake or you can follow me on Facebook at Sam pancake and police do and then my podcast is called Sam pancake presents a Monday afternoon movie and we cover I cover with friends 70s and 80s and sometimes names TV horror movies and also 70s 80s 90s TV like teens in trouble.

movies, which has been the latest, the latest quote unquote season, but I'm going back to the horror at the end of the year. So come on by and also have a Patreon if you want to give me money, I will happily take it since I am on strike and it's been a long hot summer.

Bryan! (01:51:57.456) Yeah, that's.

Bryan! (01:52:07.27) You got some stage stuff happening right now too, right? This will be out in a few days.

Sam Pancake (01:52:09.346) Yeah, when does this come out?

Sam Pancake (01:52:14.101) Okay, so you can come if you're in LA, you can come see my new solo show called Sam Boyant, which is basically a stand up style, me talking about my wacky out, my wacky life as an out gay actor for the past 30 years and all kinds of stories and stuff. And then I'm doing also doing that show on two, I'm sorry, Saturday, September 9 in New York City. And if you go to my Instagram, you can buy tickets. But here's the thing, if you're not in LA or New York,

The New York City one is live streaming and you can watch it anywhere in the world for like 20 bucks. So do that, please.

Bryan! (01:52:47.008) Not bad. All right. Thank you so much for joining us. I this is this has been a lot of fun. I had a great time. Yeah, so we'll see you in a week with our next episode is the peanut butter solution.

Sam Pancake (01:52:52.933) Thanks for having me.