Horror Movie Talk

We went and saw Brightburn, and it was as advertised, but even more gory than I expected. It’s not a perfect film, there isn’t a lot of character development past the perfunctory set up, and there are some plot threads are fully dropped without explanation, but overall it delivers a very good horror film riffing on the superhero genre. Brightburn Plot Synopsis The synopsis for Brightburn is very simple. It’s the superman origin story, but instead of him being good, he’s bad. The Breyers are a young couple in Sma… Brightburn, Kansas, that desperately want a baby, but can’t have one of their own. One night, a meteor crashes into the woods near their house. Inside is a little baby that they name Brandon and raise as their own. https://youtu.be/oD1vbhicJUY You can find Brightburn in theaters now. Brightburn Watch the full movie Buy or Rent on Amazon When Brandon reaches puberty he is awoken and summoned by voices in his head that lead him to the spacecraft he arrived in hidden in the Breyers’ barn. Brandon soon discovers he is completely impervious to harm, has super strength, and can, get this… fly. Brandon does what every good middle american farm boy would do with these new found super powers… He kills and maims anyone that gets in his way towards world domination, including those closest to him. He’s just a good ol’ mid-western boy Brightburn Critique David is going to complain that this story has been done dozens of times with Superman in the comics. But if you like me aren’t a FUCKING NERD, then this is probably the first depiction of a truly evil superman origin story, at least on film. I think this film accomplished exactly what it set out to do, and was very enjoyable to me. While it is exactly what I expected in terms of plot, it exceeded my expectations with how dark, and especially how gory they went with it. Brightburn is directed by a relative newcomer David Yarovesky, but produced by James Gunn, who is the director of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies as well as Super, another anti-superhero movie. It is well cast with Elizabeth Banks as Tori, the mother in denial, and David Denman as Kyle, the father that immediately is suspicious. Brandon Breyers, the anti-superman, is played by Jackson A. Dunn which does a great job of maintaining a steely enigmatic gaze. The script doesn’t delve too deeply into character development, but the characters are three dimensional, and react to the events of the film in natural ways. Super Buy or Rent James Gunn’s first Anti-Superhero film. Buy/Rent on Amazon They keep the intentions and internal motivations of Brandon intentionally mysterious up until the time that he starts wreaking havok. Although it didn’t explore as many facets of the anti-superman story as they could have, it delivered on the promise of a really dark story in an effective and efficient manner. I really enjoyed it. Score for Brightburn 7/10 Brightburn Spoilers Expand for spoilers The most important thing to get out of the way is that Roy from The Office is in this movie. David reminded me about 50 times throughout. The first shot we see in the movie is the camera panning over a bookshelf full of books about infertility. In the background, the Bryers are having sexy time and talking about their inability to have a baby. We get it. The find Brandon ala Kall-El in the woods. and then there is a montage of baby Brandon looking neutral. Check Out Our Review of Child’s Play 2019! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/06/26/childs-play-2019-review/ The thesis of the movie is basically stated when Brandon in class describes wasps that have lost their ability to create nests, so they use their strength to get other wasp species to raise their young. That pretty much sets up how Brandon’s purpose on earth is going to be for the remainder of the film. Brandon is summoned to the Barn in the middle of the night by glowing red light and voices in his head. He seems possessed. He later finds out that he has superpowers by flinging a lawnmower 200 yards and then shoving his hand into it’s spinning blade. At Brandon’s birthday him and his dad have a spat, and it seems as though Brandon’s anger affects the electronics in the restaurant. The parents are determined to “give a shit” about what is going on with Brandon, but chalk it up to puberty. When they go through his room they discover some innocuous bra ad porn quickly followed by pictures of open body cavities. Ever Hear of Piercing? You Should Have! Check Out Our Review! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/02/06/piercing-review/ Brandon’s father (Roy from the office) take Brandon on a camping trip to have “the talk”. Brandon mistakes his father’s explanation of bodily functions and hormones as a tacit endorsement to be a huge creep to a girl he likes in class. He proceeds to use his superpowers to creep on said girl. When she catches a brief flash of him before he disappears and her mother responds to her screaming. Later at gym, when the girl refuses to save Brandon in a trust fall exercise, Brandon completely crushes and mangles her hand. Her mother flips out at Brandon and his parents. Brandon visits the girl again and she tells him that her mom doesn’t want her talking to him. He tells her that he will “take care of it” He takes care of it by attacking her mother at her work. He uses his powers to explode some florescent lights, sending a shard into her eye. He then kills her in the freezer. Brandon’s father is suspicious that all of his chickens have been mutilated after he catches Brandon creepily staring at them. The mother doesn’t think Brandon is capable of doing it though. During this conversation, it is mentioned that Brandon has never been cut or bruised. One last time, Brandon is summoned to the barn, and he finally breaks into the cellar where he discovers the spaceship that brought him to earth. He accidentally cuts himself on a piece of the spaceship when his mother startles him. He finally understand what the voices from the spaceship are telling him: “Take the world”. Brandon makes a visit to the school counselor which also happens to be his aunt. He shows no remorse for hurting the girl in his class. When his aunt tells him that she will have to report to the sheriff that he is making no progress, he becomes threatening. Mandy May be the Craziest Revenge Movie Ever! Here is Our Review! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/01/23/mandy-review/ He visits his aunt later at her home and threatens her if she doesn’t keep quiet. She refuses to be intimidated. His uncle discovers him in the closet of his bedroom and is furious that Brandon is acting so weird. He tells Brandon to get in his truck so he take him back to his parents. Brandon refuses. Probably the best scene in the film is Brandon’s uncle encountering Brandon on the road and being creeped out and then attacked by Brandon. It is also probably the most gory. The uncle’s jaw is basically ripped from his face by the steering wheel. Brandon revels in his murder and paints his symbol on the ground. Ma With Octavia Spencer? Check Out Our Review! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/06/05/ma-movie-review When Brandon comes home that night, his parents have been worrying about where he is. When Brandon acts suspicious, his father investigates why Brandon was trying to hide his shirt. When he sees that it has blood on it, he connects the dots and determines that Brandon killed his brother in law. The father take Brandon out on a hunting trip and tries to kill Brandon unsuccessfully. Brandon promptly uses his laser eyes to blow a hole through his father’s head. His mother finally realizes how dangerous her son is and calls the cops. Brandon toys with his mom by flying through the house and destroying it while she is in it. When the cops arrive, they are immediately dispatched by Brandon. Brandon’s mother then trys to trick Brandon and kill him with a piece of the ship he came in, but Brandon stops her and the kills her by flying into the stratosphere and dropping her to the earth. The moral to the story is that wasps are assholes. Who Would Like Brightburn? Anyone that is a fan/tired of the superhero genre might get a kick out of this film. Horror fans will like the surprising amount of gore. https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/02/20/happy-death-day-2u-review/

We watched Tetsuo, The Iron Man (鉄男　ＴＥＴＳＵＯ) on Shudder and jesus christ; I don’t have any words. Tetsuo is a David Lynchian / Cronenberg-esque film that aims to disturb with intensity and extreme imagery. Everything about this movie is turned up to the max. It’s full of intense mutilation, body horror, and sexually provocative fetishization and imagery. I wouldn’t go so far as to call Tetsuo, The Iron Man a good movie, as I would call it an important movie. With that being said, I found this unpleasant to watch in just about every way. There isn’t much dialog, the story is paper thin, and the intent is unclear. It is clear that there is a decent amount of symbolism here, or at least that people will reason that this movie is symbolistic. For me, it’s hard to tell whether writer/director Shin’ya Tsukamoto intended for the obvious symbolism, or whether he was banking on you wanting to read too far into it. It seems equally plausible to me that Mr. Tsukamoto has some crazy kinks, and needed to work them out on screen. Tetsuo, The Iron Man Trailer https://youtu.be/uROMTzJsfOI If you watch the trailer, you kinda watched the whole movie but you’ll miss all the dicks. Tetsuo, The Iron Man Synopsis Tetsuo is not an easily understood or interpreted movie, and it’s not supposed to be. The synopsis of Tetsuo seems to be that a man known as the “metal fetishist” (Shin’ya Tsukamoto) is obsessed with pushing pieces of metal into his body, which gives him some sort of high. At the start of the movie, he is getting off while pushing scrap metal into his legs and ends up running into the road in some metal obsessed stupor. At this point, a man credited as “salaryman” (Tomorô Taguchi) hits the fetishist while driving in his car with his wife or girlfriend (Kei Fujiwara). Want To Watch It? Watch Tetsuo: The Iron Man on Amazon Tetsuo: The Iron Man The story transitions to following the salaryman, who begins to notice metal objects quickly taking over his body, which is alarming to him – shocking, I know. From here it spins out of control, and the salaryman begins his rage and sex-fueled journey into metal oblivion. Tetsuo, The Iron Man Score 4/10 I feel that it is important to say that this is an important film. For More Boundary Pushing, Check Out Our Review of The House That Jack Built! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/12/05/the-house-that-jack-built-review/ Tetsuo, The Iron Man Spoilers Inspiration for Tetsuo Tetsuo felt heavily inspired by Eraserhead and also, meth. That is to say, I vividly remember the feeling I got when I saw David Lynch’s Eraserhead, and Tetsuo gave me many of the same feelings. It was also frantic from beginning to end, feeling almost like an hour long music video, constantly moving and changing frame – always moving to the next strange medium. This was shot in black and white on 16mm film with tremendous amount of intense lighting and with lots of stop motion animation and special effects. Troubles Shooting Interestingly, this film was just as hard to shoot as it was to watch – most of it was shot in Kei Fukiwara’s (cast as “woman”) apartment. By the end of the production most of the crew had quit or been replaced because the conditions were so atrocious. Taguchi, who played salaryman, was one of the only crew members who didn’t live on set and he was quoted as saying: “It was very tough so I quickly sensed that if you would stay with them all the time, you would inevitably get the urge to escape. So I figured that if I could keep some distance, I would be able to last much longer and keep a good relationship with them. It’s true that almost every day I went there another crew member would have left. One day I arrived at the house and the lighting crew had gone, so I had to do the lighting for Tsukamoto’s scenes myself. Toward the end, only the actors were still around. Nearly the entire crew had given up and left by then.” -Tomorô Taguchi Director Tsukamoto said years after shooting that he had contemplated burning the negatives of the film because it has been such a bad experience. Like Disturbing? We Got You Covered With Our Review of Susperia(2018)! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/11/07/suspiria-2018-review/ Soundtrack and Audio Elements This movie feels a lot like a music video partially because of the extremely grating soundtrack of industrial and metallic clanging that is constantly being piped into your ears. Strangely, near the start and end of Tetsuo, The Iron Man, there is a chill sort of jazzy number that is laid over some strange imagery. The jazzy number, ironically, is the one that’s totally out of place, and the industrial seems to fit right in with the theme. Themes in Tetsuo The Iron Man Rage and sexual frustration seem to be the mainstays and the feeling behind Tetsuo. Rage as a transformative force in the human body, and the desire to self destruct while watching the world burn with you is something that, I think, many can relate to. One of the core components of Tetsuo, The Iron Man is the symbolism with technology taking us over. As we give ourselves to to technology we begin to lose control and morph with it into something wholly disgusting and non-human. Technology takes away the human aspects of us, like love and compassion and leaves only rage and sexual desire mixed with frustration. Pretty spot on for 1989. Ultimately, Tetsuo, The Iron Man is a part of film history and a cult classic. While it didn’t do anything that hadn’t been done before, the energy behind it is undeniable and intense. Everyone will have an opinion about this movie, and they will want to talk about it. For that reason, I enjoy the idea of Tetsuo and not so much the experience. Like Sci-Fi? Here is Our Review of The Predator https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/09/19/the-predator-review/ Final Recommendations This is not a movie that anyone I know will enjoy because it’s enjoyable. It’s good because it’s important, it’s good because of what it allowed to come after it. If that sounds like a checkbox that you are looking to fill, give this movie a go, if not, maybe watch something more breezy. For Something More Breezy, Check Out Our Review of Happy Death Day 2 U! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/02/20/happy-death-day-2u-review/ Tetsuo on Youtube https://youtu.be/aR58qLIwvB4

Since there aren’t any new releases out this week, this week we are covering another listener suggestion. This one comes from Anthony F. in San Antonio, TX. “I have listened to almost every episode. I dig what you guys are doing. keep up the good work.I would love to hear your take on Kuso, it’s available on shudder. It is one of the most fucked up films I have ever seen.” Anthony K. We watched Kuso, and as advertised, it is the most fucked up movie I have ever seen. And I’ve seen The Peanut Butter Solution! Kuso Poster https://youtu.be/PDRYASntddo Kuso Trailer It is a Shudder exclusive. So if you are interested in seeing it after hearing our review, feel free to subscribe to shudder using the code HMT at checkout to get a 30 day free trial. Want to Watch it? Watch Kuso on Amazon Kuso I found it surprisingly hard to give a summary of this film. Even on IMDB, it only has the following plot summary: Events unfold after a devastating earthquake in Los Angeles. IMDB Kuso is a film directed by Flying Lotus, which is the stage name for Steven Ellison. It consists of 4 of what I hesitate to call, “Storylines” that are written by Steven, Zack Fox, and creator of salad fingers, David Firth. The plots of these vignettes are secondary to the surreal and disturbing imagery and production design of the whole affair. There is only one piece of trivia listed in IMDB for this movie: Received a large number of walkouts at Sundance and was deemed in an article written for Verge as “The grossest movie ever made. IMDB The Four Story Lines in Kuso Royal: a young couple with some interesting Kinks Mr. Quiggle: an Up-and-coming female rapper “B” goes to an alternative medicine doctor Smear: a young man has digestive issues Sock: a woman in search of her lost child But really replace all those story lines with poop and that’s probably a better description. I provide a more in-depth description of these story lines in the spoiler section further below. The First Movie We Ever Reviewed – The Devils’ Doorway https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/07/24/the-devils-doorway/ Review of Kuso This is a type of movie that is almost impossible to review. If you say it’s terrible, you aren’t hip enough, if you say it’s great, you’re a pretentious douche bag. It’s the type of film that you would find playing on a loop in a modern art museum. alternatively, it’s like a David Lynch student film project, but weaponized. I’ll just say that I didn’t enjoy it, but I think that is kind of the point. This film is truly one of the most consistently, visceral disgusting films I have ever seen. Most of the film just wallows in its own filth, but there are some moments that stand out. First being the Mr. Quiggle story line featuring Zack Fox playing Manuel who is treated by Doctor Clinton, played by George Clinton. The second being the finale, which somehow ups the ante of grossness after an hour and a half of pure grossness. Score for Kuso 2/10 Watch Kuso on Shudder Use the code “HMT” at checkout to get a 30-day free trial Stream Kuso Kuso Spoilers Expand for Spoilers The opening scene is frenetic and features a spoken word jazz, and throws you off kilter immediately. https://youtu.be/yodbDPX0DO0 Buckle up, because this is nothing compared to what is to come (literally, sometimes). I’ll break down the four main story lines below. Royal Royal starts out with Kenneth listening through his paper thin walls to his neighbors having sex. His girlfriend Missy comes in and she chokes him with a rope as he masturbates. She says her hands are growing and soon “She won’t need a rope”. The most striking thing about this is the disgusting makeup and production design. Read Our Review of Unfriended: Dark Web https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/07/27/unfriended-dark-web/ All of the production design looks like it was done by the show Hoarders. The pillow that Ken is laying on looks like it was a replacement for the notorious cumbox of reddit fame. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/t0ynr/throwaway_time_whats_your_secret_that_could/c4imcva/ In terms of makeup, both of them have the most vile boils and sores all over their mouths and faces. This is a recurring thing, but the boils are heavily featured in Royal. Also, post ejaculation, Kenneth turns and smears his jizz all over Missy’s face. So there’s that. Later in the film, when we return to the couple, it’s revealed that one of Missy’s boils is sentient and talks. After reasoning with Kenneth, the boil fellates Kenny boy and Ken bequeaths it with the name “Royal”. Smear Smear features a young man named Charlie that lives with his single mother. His mother serves him the weirdest rotten looking soup I’ve ever seen. It reminded me a lot about the Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared series on YouTube. https://youtu.be/9C_HReR_McQ Charlie and his mother reminisce and worship (?) his dead father. As Charlie is leaving, a line of black men show up to run a train on his mother. At school, Charlie has some bowel problems (I would too) and proceeds to shit his pants. Here is Our Review For A Bad Movie – Slender Man https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/08/13/slender-man/ Humiliated, he runs to the woods where he encounters a giant prolapsed anus coming out of the ground with a tongue coming out of it. He does the only logical thing and picks up some shit and rubs it on the tongue. The tongue slowly, over repeated visits of shit rubbing, turns into the likeness of Charlies father. Then the last time that Charlie smears the anus face, he is electrocuted with a green lightning bolt. Mr Quiggle Mr. Quiggle features a two story lines of its own. B An up and coming female rapper “B” is a slave to two interdimensional creatures named Kazo and Mazu. She is visited via her toilet by an ex-boyfriend Phil (played by Tim Heidecker). Phil describes raping her while she was passed out, and B finds out that she is pregnant. After going to the doctor to get an abortion and only given a hanger, her fetus is aborted with Mortal Kombat sound effects by her captors. They all laugh. Manuel and Mr. Quiggle While in the waiting room at the doctors office, B meets Manuel who is there to get over his fear of breasts. The film then follows Manuel as he visits with Dr. Clinton (played by George Clinton). Check Out Our Review of The Curse of La Llorona https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/04/24/the-curse-of-la-llorona-review/ Manuel has to then serenade Dr. Clinton’s anus to entice out a parasite named Mr. Quiggle. Mr. Quiggle looks like a giant crawfish. He then rips off a tentacle and drinks the pussy liquid that comes out of Mr. Quiggle. When he awakes, Manuel is cured of his fear of breasts. Sock Sock is the most Avant-garde of all the shorts and features an Asian woman searching for her lost baby who is “trapped behind the concrete”. She states that she must eat her (the baby girl) to survive. A disembodied voice coaxes her to go down a hallway where she falls down a hole into hell. She eventually crawls through some intestinal tunnels and her head pokes out of a prolapsed anus in the woods. Miscellaneous notes I made while watching Kuso This is going to be a long movie Sound effects heavily featured: Farts Cartoon SFX Mortal Kombat This is a movie where you can skip to any point and trip across a disturbing image What amazes me about movies like this is that… all this stuff takes as much or more preparation. Someone has to prep that fake poop. How did they not get Die Antwoord for this? This movie gave me a similar feeling to watching Gummo Final Recommendations, “who would like this” If you like looking at bathrooms featured in the show hoarders. If you like Harmony Korine’s films but wish they weren’t so “mainstream”. https://youtu.be/xY7m4KzYR4Q Special Thanks for This Episode Brad K for becoming our first Patron “We shouldn’t be here” podcast for having me on as a guest and also supporting us on Patreon Anthony F for Suggesting that we watched Kuso. Dana C for giving us many suggestions for new games. Quin Mason for the Live Free or Die Hard intro music. Bonus Videos Referenced in This Episode: https://youtu.be/I2Cm4Cy3rxs https://youtu.be/zKPhjkw3Y84 https://youtu.be/B7mhQipwdb0 https://youtu.be/sJA3gQ6jmxc

The Ruins is the ultimate 2000’s horror movie – way more budget than it’s worth, and interesting enough premise, and tons of schlock. It also stars the most notable nobody of any film ever, Jena Malone, whom you have definitely seen in something but probably can’t remember what. This is the most notable movie by director Carter Smith. I went into The Ruins movie remembering people calling it ‘distasteful,’ and I came out of it rather delighted. The Ruins Movie Synopsis The Ruins focuses on a group of five spring breakers in Mexico who wander off the beaten path and find more than they bargained for. The group gets wind of a hidden and archeological site where some Mayan ruins have recently been uncovered. They hitch a ride to a remote section of the forest and do everything in their power to find what was supposed to be kept hidden. A group of locals has gone to considerable effort to keep the path to the ruins hidden, but our bumbling crew of 20 somethings managed to stumble their way onto a giant Mayan ruin, WAY out in the open, which is covered intermittently with vines. Upon finding the ruins, the group is confronted by a band of locals with guns who chase the group onto the pyramid after one of them touches some of the plants that are growing on it. The group tries to find the previous party whom they came to unite with, and are met with a mystery along with a few human remains. As time goes on, they start to realize that their GROWING desire to LEAF may not be as FRUITFUL as the new ROOTS that they have laid down on their pyramid DIGS. If that series of puns seemed stupid to you, good, that should prepare you for this hokey thrillfest. The Ruins Trailer https://youtu.be/vzdto154_to The Ruins Score 5/10 The Ruins Watch it now or add it to your collection Rent/Buy on Amazon The Ruins Spoilers and Discussion The premise behind The Ruins is as 2000’s era as you can get. Good looking party kids meet up with a foreigner from Munich, Mathias, (Joe Anderson) and decide to head way off the resort they are partying at to see if they can find Mathias’ brother. His brother is doing archaeology work and has found previously undiscovered Mayan ruins in the jungle. Another Movie that Features Plants – Creepshow! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/01/30/creepshow-1982-review/ How Did The Ruins Stay Hidden? I don’t understand how this site has remained undiscovered because it’s not covered up by the jungle at all. Given the fact that Google had maps in full swing by 2008, and government agencies had satellites capable of seeing such ruins from space for many years before this movie, it’s unlikely that this site would remain hidden from anyone. I guess that’s beside the point. The locals understand and respect the site and how dangerous it is, because they guard it at all times, trying to keep the dangers of the site from infecting the rest of the world. Duh, what’s this pyramid? Let’s touch it! When our party of kids, lead by the most prolific actress you’ve never heard of Jena Malone (who plays Amy) runs into the ruins, they also have a run-in with the locals. The locals are extremely agitated and armed with bows, and guns, which they use to imprison the group of kids on the temple. They shoot the throwaway sixth member of the party Dimitri (Dimitri Baveas) after he touches the plants that surround the temple. A key feature of the temple is at the top there is what amounts to a hole to the center of the structure. On this hole, there is a makeshift pulley system to drop people and gear down into the structure. Presumably, this pulley system was set up and left by Mathias’ brother. The Hole at the top of the ruins. From within the temple the party, now trapped atop the structure can hear a cell phone of the previous party ringing. This is intriguing to the party because, of course, their cell phones don’t have service out here. One by one, the party succumbs to injuries and accidents while trying to either escape the temple outright or retrieve the phone within. Mathias Is injured while heading down into the temple, and he ends up breaking his back. Check Out Our Review of Greta https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/03/06/greta-review/ Stacy (Laura Ramsey) is sent down into the temple to try and help Mathias and ends up getting a pretty severe cut on her leg from a sharp object. Amy follows her to help try to get Mathias onto the makeshift gurney and hears the cell phone ring while she is down there. At some point, the group tries to reason with the locals who are guarding them on the temple, and our main hunk, Jonathan Tucker (mah name Jeff) throws a chunk of vine at a local child. The vine hits the child in the chest and the locals quickly execute the boy. This does a great job at ramping up the stakes. Won’t be needing these anymore. Mathias had his legs amputated because of plant infection. After dilly-dallying forever, they head back down into the temple to find the cell phone, and Amy ends up in a small room covered in vines. She is looking at the flowers all over the place, and suddenly, the flowers scream at her in a way that, if flowers could scream, they would scream like this. Turns out, the vines can mimic sounds they hear to lure people into them. The Ruins culminates with the party being encroached upon by these carnivorous mindfuck vines, and Laura (Laura Ramsey) has some interesting interactions with the vines growing inside her. Laura with that, “Come hither…” stare. Ultimately, Amy ends up being the only one to survive and get away. While it’s not the best movie, The Ruins is fun enough, and it’s not bad, making it a totally average horror movie in my book. Final Recommendations, “Who Would Like This Movie?” If you are in the mood for some interesting body horror and some laughs at a movie that takes itself way too seriously, this is it. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible, and boy, it’s ironically funny.

In our Evil Dead (2013) Review we talk about how it is a great example of a horror remake done right. The bones of the original are still there, but Fede Alvarez creates something unique with this new film. While the original The Evil Dead is essentially a student film with a subversive streak, the 2013 Evil Dead is a high budget mainstream Hollywood horror movie with the gore turned up to 11. Evil Dead 2013 Synopsis The film is about a group of five friends that unwittingly summon ancient demons to a remote cabin in the woods that possess them one by one. Mia, a heroin addict played by Jane Levy, is the reason for the five of them being at her parents’ cabin in the woods. With the help of her brother David ( Shiloh Fernandez), his hotty girlfriend Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), the brainy Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), and Nurse Olivia (Jessica Lucas), Mia is attempting to quit drugs cold turkey. This comes after a series of failed attempts and a particularly bad overdose where she actually died and had to be revived. What none of them realized is that while the cabin was abandoned by David and Mia’s parents, it was broken into and used for a demonic exorcism. Left behind was an ancient Book of the Dead that has been wrapped in a garbage bag and barbed wire. Despite the safeguards and very obvious warnings written in blood, Eric, opens the book and proceeds to read an incantation that releases a powerful force of evil. This evil first attacks and possesses Mia in the woods, and then one by one infects the other cabin dwellers, until only one remains… https://youtu.be/lWG_w5w8ZLs Evil Dead Remake Review Evil Dead is a remake of Sam Raimi’s 1981 The Evil Dead. It keeps some of the building blocks from the original, like the Necronomicon, the cabin in the woods, and the five friends,  but this is definitely its own movie. The tone is dramatically different. While The Evil Dead is essentially a student film with a subversive streak, the 2013 Evil Dead is a high budget mainstream Hollywood horror movie with torture porn influences. This movie, to me is an example of a remake done right. This isn’t just an attempt to rehash a script with a higher budget. This remake really does create something different from the same ingredients of the original. The story and visual elements that are taken from the original are respectfully handled and well integrated into the new version. I found the storyline of Mia attempting to quit heroin to add another dimension to the plot. It helps to define the characters through their relationship to Mia, and give the whole party a motive for being there. https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/01/23/mandy-review/ The violence and blood is turned up to 11 in this movie and veers more towards the torture porn of the early 2000s. While there were some moments that were very disturbing, I thought it was artfully done and didn’t ever cross the line into tasteless or exploitative. Overall, I really liked this movie, and I think it stands alone as a great horror movie Evil Dead (2013) Score 8/10 Evil Dead (2013) Watch it now, or add it to your collection. Buy/Rent on Amazon Evil Dead (2013) Spoilers and Discussion Expand for Spoilers The film opens strong with what we assume is a “final girl” being chased through the woods by hillbillies. They capture her and take her to a basement full of hanging dead cats. Countless felines take their own lives each year… We find out that among her captors is her father that reveals that she has killed her own mother. An old woman reads out of a ancient tome that the only way to save the young girls’ soul is to burn her alive right there. So they do. It’s dark early in this film. We are then introduced to the main characters, which are as follows: David (Dudebro) Eric (Nerd) Natalie (Hottie) Olivia (Nurse) Mia (Junkie/David’s sister) The reason that they all go to the cabin is to help Mia quit opiates cold turkey. Mia’s drug addiction serves several purposes in this movie: It allows for quick character development by showing each of their relationships and attitudes towards Mia and each other It gives a good reason for them to all be in a super secluded cabin all together. It gives Mia’s friends an excuse to themselves why Mia would be acting crazy. When they arrive at the cabin, Mia notices a rank smell in the cabin, but the others don’t seem to notice or care. Soon they do investigate and find the scene of the burning at the beginning of the movie. Dead cats and all. There among the swinging dead cats, they find a book wrapped in a garbage bag and barbed wire. Erik, curious about the obviously dangerous item, unwraps the barbed wire and bag to reveal a book bound with human skin. The Necronomicon. The book of the dead Despite many obvious and ominous warnings from the text and notes in the book (writen in blood), Erik proceeds to read from the text and unwittingly releases an evil power into the world. Obvious red flag The evil presence attacks Mia in the woods by binding her limbs with vines and tree branches and raping her, it’s easier to show than describe: https://youtu.be/s6lrBldtwVk Mia comes back to the cabin and proceeds to vomit an obscene amount of blood onto Olivia. Red flag number 2 This in effect infects Olivia who goes on to attack Eric after mutilating herself. Natalie is attacked by Mia who has been shoved down into the cellar to protect the others. During the attack, Mia shows how crazy she is with this scene: https://youtu.be/FHXzsBsOVjY Evil Dead 2013 box cutter scene. Each Cabin occupant is brutally attacked and infected in turn until only David is left. He saves his sister by burying her alive and then reviving her. The reunion is short-lived because they are both attacked by Erik and Natalie. The final scenes end in a blood bath. A literal rain shower of blood. In the end, Mia gets away by wielding a chainsaw and cutting Natalie down the middle. Listen to the podcast for more commentary. Who would like Evil Dead This film isn’t necesarily for all the fans of the original. This one is notably less goofy fun than the original trilogy. But if you are a fan of Modern Gore that has an actual story line with characters, you should enjoy this movie. If you like horror movies set in the woods, check out our review on The Ritual available on Netflix. https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/11/28/the-ritual-review/ Bonus Videos https://youtu.be/jSrN9fpjfbM Goblin ASMR mentioned in the episode David’s Metal Corner Suggestions https://youtu.be/N6_WKGTeWH8 https://youtu.be/z8ZqFlw6hYg https://youtu.be/_wRH9esYgnk https://youtu.be/1OYw7FPB7CE https://youtu.be/482tDopNzoc https://youtu.be/1M2hLZ0j7Gw

This week we saw The Curse of La Llorona and wow, what a disappointment. This is the only ghost who is 100% kept out by shutting the door or window. This movie could have been so much more than it ended up being, which is just another low effort, jumpscare factory. Even the jumpscares were boring and predictable. The Curse of La Llorona just wants to take your money and give you next to nothing for entertainment value. I don’t know a lot about Mexican folklore, but I don’t think that this does the actual story any justice at all. The Curse of La Llorona Synopsis The Curse of La Llorona is directed by Michael Chaves and follows a family of three who recently lost their father, who was a cop. Anna (Linda Cardellini) is the mom of Chris (Roman Christou) and Samantha (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen). Anna is also a social worker who works for CPS in LA, and at some point, early in the movie, she receives a tip that one of her cases is being handed over to her co-worker because she is too overburdened by single-motherhood. She fights her boss for the right to check on Patricia Alvarez (Patricia Velasquez) and ends up with more than she bargained for. The Curse of La Llorona Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojuqj8_wWo8 Through a series of boring events, Anna releases Patricia’s kids from a closet that was protecting them and the kids are gobbled up by a deadish bride called La Llorona. Patricia seeks vengeance on her caseworker, Anna, and prays to La Llorona that she take Anna’s kids and return her own. What follows is a predictable and slow jumpscare movie that failed to make me care about anyone at all. I would have been just as happy had La Llorona eaten the whole family. The Curse of La Llorona Score 4/10 The Curse of La Llarona Pre-order the Blu-Ray for your collection Pre-Order on Amazon The Curse of La Llorona Legend Facts After doing some reading and checking out the Wikipedia article, I have compiled the basics of the La Llorona Legend. The Curse of La Llorona starts in 1673. The folklore for the real story begins with a beautiful but poor woman named Maria. Maria catches the eye of a wealthy man who decides to marry her, much to her chagrin, and they build a life together, complete with two kids. As the man works in many faraway lands, he frequently leaves for work, and each time that he does, he becomes less interested in Maria. Image taken from this blog. Finally, one day he returns with a new wife and Maria is so distraught that she takes her kids down to the river and drowns them to spite her husband. She realizes what she did, and drowns herself. Upon trying to get into heaven, she is told that she can’t get in until she finds her children and brings them with her. Check Out Our Review of a Legit Movie, Terrified https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/03/20/terrified-aterrados-movie-review/ La Llorona is the ghost or spirit of this sad, crying woman, who hangs out near rivers looking for her kids. She frequently mistakes other kids for her own and drowns them upon realizing that they aren’t the right ones, which seems extreme. This is a pretty compelling folk tale that has been passed down through many generations of Mexicans, to the point that I have found lots of interesting comments about how people’s grandmothers would warn them about going near the water for fear of being caught by La Llorona. The Second Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGUiHfX1qpk This is a great way to get your kids to respect the power of rivers and bodies of water, by scaring the shit out of them. Among her wails, she is noted as crying “¡Ay, mi hijos!” which translates to “Oh, my children!” or “Oh, my sons!” If you hear her crying, you are probably marked for death. The Curse of La Llorona Spoilers The movie starts in earnest in the 1970s in LA. Anna is a caseworker and takes it upon herself to visit Patricia Alvarez, who has her kid’s locked in a closet with a bunch of eyes drawn on the door. She has Patricia’s kids taken into protective custody, and Patricia is fit-to-be-tied. While the kids are in some sort of CPS prison for kids, they are haunted by La Llorona and are low-speed-chased down a series of corridors by the ghost. This was a fairly effective spook within the movie. Once Patricia’s kids are killed, Anna is called to the “scene of the crime,” which is where the bodies were found, under an overpass in the middle of the night. Because she is a single mother, Anna brings her kids and does the most 70’s thing in this movie – leaves them in the car alone with the doors locked. Chris, Anna’s son, doesn’t follow instructions well, and ventures out into the night to view the dead bodies. Of course, he meets La Llorona, and she puts hands on him. The car scene, where the kids are holed up in the car with the ghost trying to get in really works well. The rest of the movie is a big mash-up of slow pacing and predictable jumpscares that culminates in a showdown between a local shaman and La Llorona in the families house. Part of The Conjuring Universe The Curse of La Llorona is part of the conjuring universe to the extent that:  Let’s say we are watching a movie about the world’s greatest detective who solves street level crime cases and whose parents were brutally murdered in front of him when he was a child in a back alley after a show. The whole movie is about this detective who likes to fight crime. We see him build a case; we watch him fight with thugs. For More Conjuring Check Out Our Review of The Nun https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/09/12/the-nun-review/ Then, about 66% of the way through the movie his butler comes into the room where he is reading a newspaper and tells him he needs to remember to eat while handing him a sandwich. As the detective puts down the newspaper to accept the sandwich, the audience gets to see a headline in the newspaper, which reads, “Superman saves Metropolis once again!” Then our detective goes on to save the day, and we never see or hear about Superman again. That’s the extent that The Curse of La Llorona is in the Conjuring universe. They mention an evil doll who haunts people one time. Final Recommendations, “who would like this” If you want to make out with someone in a darkened theater and not care about what’s happening, The Curse of La Llorona is a great movie for you. If you love the Conjuring universe so much that one, single mention of Annabelle is enough to get you to sploosh in your pants, this is 100% your movie. The Work of Anthony Fountain – HMT Fan In the podcast we talked a bit about Anthony Fountain and his insane talent with horror makeup. I’m always impressed anytime someone is able to make a living doing what they love – and how could you not love turning people into zombies at a theme park and working on movies/music videos? Check out some of Anthony’s work with my assumed captions below! Here is his music showcase on Youtube. A sexy gunshot victim A sexy curious zombie https://youtu.be/-RGQqOLlHcQ Here’s a video where Anthony did all the makeup, it’s a pretty sweet song too.

The Wind is a Western Horror movie that is a spiritual successor to The Witch. The harsh landscape and interpersonal paranoia are in the forefront of this tense thriller. We review the film and attempt to unravel the non-linear narrative to make sense of what actually happened to the four main characters. The Wind Synopsis The Wind is the first feature film for both the writer Teresa Sutherland, and the director Emma Tammi. It is a Western Horror film that tells the story of two young families living on harsh untamed Western frontier of the US in the 1800’s. Caitlin Gerard plays Lizzy Macklin, who with her husband Isaac (Ashley Zukerman) own a homestead on the windy, dusty plains. They are soon joined by a newlywed couple, Emma and Gideon Harper played by Julia Goldani Telles and Dylan McTee. The Harpers are out of their depth trying to survive in the unforgiving environment. Emma soon starts to show cracks in her psyche, and is driven mad by the pressure. When Lizzy starts to also experience some of the visions and unexplained phenomena described by Emma, she starts to question whether she is also going mad, or is it an actual evil presence seeking to destroy them? https://youtu.be/WVZBNT0Ap-A The Wind – Official Trailer Review of The Wind Comparisons to the Witch are inevitable and apt with this movie. The harsh environment and the pressures of surviving off the land are basically a main character in both films. The trailer also makes comparisons to The Babadook. Being two of my favorite horror movies of the last decade, those comparisons made me set my expectations fairly high. The good news is that this film, for the most part, met my expectations. Want To Watch it Now? Click the button to watch The Wind on Amazon Watch The Wind It is a simple story injected with convincing human drama and told artfully through a non-linear narrative that keeps you engaged and on the edge. Coming from a first time feature film screenwriter and director, it’s actually really impressive how all the moving parts worked so well. You’re fed bits of information piece by piece, which lets you assemble the puzzle of the story’s timeline. Just enough information is withheld throughout to make you question whether the cause of all the trouble is simply paranoia and madness, or if it is an actual demon. The tone is set early with the first scene featuring a dead baby, and the menace is maintained throughout the whole movie. The score and sound design are excellent, and scared me as much as the visuals did. The film relies on inter-relationship drama, and psychological horror more than jump scares, but those are represented as well. It never quite reaches the greatness of The Witch, but the same thematic elements are represented very similarly here. Score for The Wind Movie Score 8/10 The Wind Horror Movie Spoilers Click to Expand for Spoilers Chronology of The Wind Unraveling the timeline of the film is one of the engaging aspects of the film. Below I have to the best of my abilities tried to lay out the chronology of events in The Wind. The first scene chronologically would actually be Lizzy being “haunted” alone in her own cabin. The wind knocks at door, blows out the candles, and generally terrifies Lizzy. All the while she is pregnant. Next, Lizzy is comforted by Isaac and she gives the creepy eye to the camera. Lizzy gives the creepy eye. Isaac sees that Lizzy has been reading the demons of the prairie book and burns it. Demons of the Prairie Pamphlet Isaac gives a shotgun to Lizzy to shoot demons Macklins lose baby Samuel and bury him with the Bible. The Harpers move in and the four of them all have dinner together. It is readily apparent that Emma and Gideon Harper do not get along well as newlyweds. Read Our Review of The Meg https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/08/24/the-meg/ Isaac makes good on his offer to lend Gideon some help and a plow. Emma has the hots for Isaac and seductively serves him some water. Emma comes over in the rain and commiserates with Lizzy about how useless Gideon is as a homesteader. Emma starts going crazy, hides under a bed and reveals to Lizzy that she’s pregnant. Lizzy drugs Emma and tells Gideon to tie her up. Emma still tied to the bed recites demons to Lizzy, who then in turn tells Emma to calm down Lizzy shoots Emma with the shotgun (in rain) Lizzy goes home and sleeps, wakes up, throws up (in rain), takes medicine, falls asleep on some kind of bags. Isaac and Gideon wake her on bags, and ask her to operate on Emma. Lizzy cuts out baby. This is actually the opening scene of the movie. Lizzy is in the bath scrubbing to get Emma’s blood off her. Isaac comes in and lays down the shotgun and there is definitely tension in the air. They bury Emma with her baby. Read Our Review of The Little Stranger https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/09/05/the-little-stranger-review/ Isaac and Gideon leave, Lizzy forgets that she shot Emma. Isaac off to get supplies and Gideon is going to sell and mve back home As Lizzy is doing laundry alone, there is a wolf attack. When she comes out from the house, she finds a dead goat. The next morning, Lizzy finds the goat alive and promptly shoots the goat. This kills the goat. Lizzy goes over to Harpers, and a bunch of paranormal stuff happens. She reads Emma’s diary that says that Emma’s baby is Isaac’s. Lizzy immediately burns the pages and drugs herself to sleep with ether. The Reverend arrives, and stays at the Harper’s empty house at Lizzy’s behest. The Reverend returns that night distraught, but is revealed to be a demon reverend. Lizzy is thrown around and haunted by the reverend and Emma. Read Our Review of Spiral https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/10/10/spiral-review-and-interview-with-robin-block-from-in-search-of-darkness/ The next morning, she finds the dead reverend and her bible that she buried with Isaac is waiting for her at her door. Lizzy goes outside, puts the shotgun in her mouth, but then Isaac returns before she commits suicide. That night, Lizzy is tormented again as she is tied to the bed by Isaac. She unties herself and is thrown around the room and accidentally stabs herself with some scissors. Lizzy stabs Isaac. Is Lizzy Insane or Is She Actually Tormented by Demons? From the interviews with the writer, it is obvious that the reason that she wrote the script was because of the stories that she was told about women going crazy from seclusion out on the plains in the old west. https://youtu.be/udLaE35CyDA Interviews with the director, writer, and actors of The Wind The actress that plays Lizzy also mentions that she plays a woman that goes insane. So it is relatively safe to say that the hauntings and demons that we see are merely hallucinations. Final Recommendations for The Wind (2019) I highly recommend this film. It’s a very well constructed film with a unique setting and plot. The acting is really good, and the sound design is exceptional. If you like psychological horror and crave more films like The Witch, this is worth a watch. Horror Movie Talk Episode 39: The Wind Review https://youtu.be/i69vBPBXvVY Extras https://youtu.be/PUzaT87etHQ The Adam Carolla David Allen Grier Feud https://youtu.be/WP5jQRxLpy4 Adam Carolla hanging up on Ann Coulter

With Pet Sematary 2019 I was bracing for a bad movie because I enjoy the original so much, although much of that is nostalgia. Even though I was guarded, Pet Sematary proved itself to be a stellar remake that I would venture to say was better than the original. This remake used the first movie as a foundation to build a familiar but different enough movie that had lots of call backs, and was, in many ways, a response to the original. Pet Sematary (2019) Synopsis Pet Sematary tells the story of the young Creed family. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) is a doctor moving to the small town of Ludlow, Maine with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and his two children Ellie and Gage. After following a procession of spooky children through the forest, Ellie meets the kindly old man Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) who is their neighbor. Jud warns Ellie and her mother against the Pet Sematary The crux of the plot, however, relies on what lay beyond yonder Pet Sematary. A Mic Mac Indian burial ground holds the secret to resurrection. https://youtu.be/zK0LNzU2TQI The 2nd Pet Sematary 2019 Trailer After the loss of a family cat “Church” Jud takes Louis to the Indian burial ground which has the unique feature where whatever is buried there will come back to life while the feline resurrection saves Elle the grief of losing her favorite cat. The knowledge of a power to restore life is a Pandora’s box that only results in misery for the Creed family. Pet Sematary (2019) Review This movie surprised me in a lot of welcome ways. It was similar enough to the original that it felt like you knew what was coming, which would be boring. The great part of this remake, it twisted and moved around your expectations to surprise and titillate. There were moments where you were sure you knew what was going to happen, the setup was there, and then nothing – a deep breath. Other places where You expected A and got Q – who expects Q?  Pet Sematary (2019) Score 8/10 Pet Sematary (2019) Pre-order this movie for your collection Buy on Amazon Pet Sematary (2019) Spoilers If you want the bare bones of how Pet Sematary spoilers play out, I would suggest listening to the episode of HMT right before this one, where we talk about the original Pet Sematary from 1989. The spoilers section on the remake is mostly going to be talking about how the remake differs from the original, things that it did well, and where it could have been better. https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/04/03/pet-sematary-1989-review/ They Fundamentally Changed Jud Pet Sematary begins with Ellie finding the pet sematary because she saw a procession of children walking on her property down the path. In the original movie, Jud brings the family to the cemetery, which kicks off the whole downward spiral. This is relevant because it shifts a bit of the blame from kind, old Jud, to no one in particular. This is kind of like, “Han shot first” in Star Wars. In the original cut, Han shoots Greedo in Mos Eisley, implying that he is a bad man, a murderer. In the late 90’s re-release, they changed it, so Greedo shot and missed Han, implying Han was a good guy all along. This is a fundamental character shift, and while it’s not as weighty in the Pet Sematary remake, I think it’s at least relevant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKxOEUhRMt0 A great side-by-side comparison of the Han shot first debacle. Jud takes to Ellie and begins to form a relationship with her, the kind, old man has a soft heart for the little girl next door – it’s sweet. John Lithgow does the role of Jud proud, which means that I have to eat my words from our review of the original Pet Sematary. We Learn Much More About Zelda The Zelda sub-plot in this is much better in every way. Zelda was the older sister of Rachel, and she had some kind of horrible degenerative disease, and Rachel has lots of flashbacks to being a little kid who had to take care of her terrifying older sister. To make matters worse, in this movie, Zelda resents Rachel for not having a degenerative disease and seems to wish her harm. The scares surrounding Zelda are probably the most intense scares in this movie, and while many of them are jump-scare oriented, the tension is built quite well. https://youtu.be/JxWMMul5-i4 Zelda in the original Pet Sematary wasn’t as fleshed out Zelda’s death in this Pet Sematary is truly upsetting, and something that would haunt a kid forever. The flashback that Rachel experiences is her being left home alone with Zelda again, and being responsible for feeding her dinner. Because she doesn’t want to see Zelda, she places the food in the dumbwaiter and sends it up to Zelda automatically. You can hear Zelda approach the broken down dumbwaiter, and soon you hear her fall into the shaft. This is a shocking moment, and it’s well executed. Victor Pascow is Greatly Diminished The Victor Pascow sub-plot was vastly different as well in that there was much less of Victor. This worked well because frankly, Victor was a distraction. In this movie, Victor basically introduces Louis to the Indian burial grounds. https://youtu.be/NV_Tape29pY The most noteworthy Victor Pascow scene in the original The Big Differences Made a Big Difference This remake made a lot of big changes to the storyline, and it worked for the most part. Jud has a much more compelling reason to bring Church back to life in this Pet Sematary, which is his relationship with Ellie. He has a soft spot for the little girl and doesn’t want her to miss her beloved cat. In the original, he basically gets drunk and says, “Check out this shit!” The most compelling difference between the two – this one has good acting. Everyone was a person who acted as they should and weren’t irritating or distracting. Check Out Our Blog Discussing the Pet Sematary Original Vs. Remake https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/03/04/pet-sematary-original-vs-remake/ One big twist in this Pet Sematary is that Gage isn’t the child they lose – it’s Ellie. I thought that this worked well given the friendship between Jud and Ellie, and it provided a super fresh take for the audience who patently expected Gage to die during that memorable scene. Ellie comes back to life, and Louis decides to bathe her because of how gross she is, having been buried twice. As he is bathing her the staples from her stint being prepped for burial the first time are present at the back of her head. Ellie behaves erratically, dancing to the Nutcracker Sweet. Eventually she goes too far an does what the undead tend to do in horror movies. Pet Sematary (2019) is a response to the original Pet Sematary, and it’s made better by watching the original first.

With the Pet Sematary remake right around the corner, we decided it best to give the original 1989 Pet Sematary the full Horror Movie Talk treatment. Pet Sematary is not really about a pet cemetery, but is really about what lies beyond…the pet cemetery. The only horror trope more predictable than a Stephen King story set in Maine, that’s right, an Indian burial ground. And as with every movie with an Indian burial ground, the moral to the story is: don’t mess with an Indian burial ground. The movie, directed by Mary Lambert and written by Stephen King is based on his novel of the same title. Pet Sematary 1989 Synopsis Pet Sematary tells the story of the young Creed family. Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) is a doctor moving to the small town of Ludlow, Maine with his wife Rachel (Denise Crosby) and his two children Elle and Gage. Immediately they meet the kindly old man Jud Crandall (Fred Gwynne) who introduces them to the features of the property. Mainly a busy road filled exclusively with speeding 18 wheelers, and a spooky forest where people bury their dead pets that were killed by those same 18 wheelers. The crux of the plot however relies on what lay beyond yonder Pet Sematary. A Mic Mac Indian burial ground holds the secret to resurrection. After the loss of a family cat “Church”, Jud takes Louis to the Indian burial ground which has the unique feature where whatever is buried there will come back to life. While the feline resurrection saves Elle the grief of losing her favorite cat. The knowledge of a power to restore life is a Pandora’s box that only results in misery for the Creed family. Original Pet Sematary Trailer https://youtu.be/JMao8sg4DPA Pet Sematary (1989) Trailer #1 Review of Pet Sematary (1989) Pet Sematary deals really well with the concepts of loss and the folly of trying to cheat death. It’s surprising how much is packed into this movie and how well it still delivers. It deals with the loss of a pet and teaching about the afterlife to your children. It deals with protecting your children from physical and psychological trauma. It deals with resentment of caring for people on their deathbed. Ideals with the grief of losing a loved one, and the desire to get them back at any cost. And it does these all really well. Check Out Our Review of Pet Sematary (2019) https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/04/10/pet-sematary-2019-review/ The acting is not particularly good, but the writing makes up for it. The dialogue can have weird asides like those found in Stephen King’s novels, but they are done tastefully and they add to the tone of the film. The script does a really good job of laying out the plot very logically and creating moments of escalation in ways that aren’t always predictable. The film has equal parts dread, jump scares, and gore. All of which are very effective. The special effects are good, save for the fight with the Gage doll at the end of the film. Score for Pet Sematary (1989) 7/10 Pet Sematary (1989) Add this classic to your collection Buy on Amazon Spoilers Expand for Spoilers You can pretty much surmise from the trailer that at least the cat will get resurrected, But the real turning point for the movie is when Gage Creed is run over by a truck. Lewis in his distress is fate driven to use the powers of the Mic Mac burial ground to bring his son back to life. He does this regardless of the warnings of Jud. Gage, like Church the cat, does not come back the same. In the place of this innocent adorable toddler, Gage comes back as an evil killing machine. His first target is Jud, whom he carves up like butter with his father’s scalpel. Zombie Gage then kills his own mother before being tracked down by Lewis and put down like a rabid dog. The imagery and emotional pull of seeing Lewis reunited with Gage is truly the best part of the film. The conflict and grief that Lewis feels when he puts down Gage feels intense. Deadly Serious Slasher Fan? Check Out Our Child’s Play 1988 Review! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/06/24/childs-play-1988-review/ The movie ends with Lewis learning nothing and proceeding to take Rachael, his wife, towards the indian burial ground. Final Recommendation Pet Sematary is a must see for any fan of family-based horror. The impact of the film is hightened if you have children of your own, but the themes in the film touch on all levels of death and grief. Also, see it before you see the remake, because from the trailer, the remake has made significant changes to the story. Horror Movie Talk Episode 37: Pet Sematary (1989) Review https://youtu.be/jbPKcNysjg0 Full Transcript of Episode 37 of Horror Movie Talk This episode of horror movie talk brought to you by Uncle Wally’s Child Coffin warehouse. No one likes to lose a child. Funerals are expensive, and mortuary services often take advantage of people’s pocketbooks at their most vulnerable moment. So skip these expensive funeral homes and come on down to Uncle Wally’s Discount Child Coffin warehouse. We have certified pre owned infant toddler and pre PBS inside coffins priced at less than half of what the other guys charge. You couldn’t save your child, but you can save your money. Come see us at Uncle Wally’s Discount Child Coffins in the funeral district on third mentioned this ad when you buy a coffin and get a ten percent off coupon for your next child coffin purchase. Hello and welcome to horror movie talk and opinionated and accidentally funny horror movie review Show Your schlubby host each week are Bryce Hanson, the cool collected nihilist, and David Day, a cool guy who was always cool. New theatrical releases always get priority, but we also review older horror movies both good and whole Roar Bowl. Um, Samson, I, uh, they So Uncle Wally’s child Coffon warehouse. Man, they are just what a screaming deal I know. Like and and I mean, the one question I have is like they’re certified pre used. Yeah, where? I mean, are they just dumping the kids out? It’s best not to. Aunts ask these questions, and it’s definitely best not hands. I mean, it’s worth the price, though. I mean, you know, you gotta take what you can get. Absolutely coffee, Yeah. All right, everyone, We’ve got a great show today in preparation for the upcoming remake, will be talking about the original nineteen eighty nine pet cemetery. It’s spelled wrong. Oh, boy, I’m excited. This is This is one of my long time like this is one of my formative movies. So pretty excited about this? Yeah, So if you don’t know how horror movie talk episodes work will give a brief review and our score for the movie, we score on a scale of one to ten one being miserable enough to make you angry at the film. Five being completely average that hits all the expectant marks and ten being so good that it transcends genre boundaries after we give our score will get into spoilers and take a deeper dive into what we liked and hated about the movie. And then, later on, we’LL have game time. Full boy gives replaying. Bryce will be doing our around our latest round of rotten tomatoes. Game hall. Nothing. Favourite game. Hey, you know what I was thinking as you were reading the intro and and you’re calling me a cool guy who’s always cool, I was thinking, wouldn’t it be nice if the fifth year, actually. Cool. Well, that first of all, obviously, it would be nice to be the thing that I am, but ah, I think the fans should think up something for me to be, Ah, thing that is always thing. So all of the all of all of the suggestions should go ahead and shoot those in their to us. I mean, your brother listens to this, so yeah, it could. It could really go south on us. In fact, I’m counting on it. Alright. So before we get into the review, let’s cover some in house business. You can go to our website at horror movie talk dot com, and there you’LL find links to all our social media Facebook, twitter, insta. We even have a subreddit. You can go look at past episodes on and comment. We post new episodes every Wednesday, and we love if you would subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. ITunes, especially you, Khun. Support the podcast by buying a renting any movie or product on Amazon. If you click through the green button in the header of our website, that website again is poor or movie talk dot com. Also sponsor, I guess. Technically, sponsor, right? Yeah, A Shudder has a special offer for listeners of court movie talk. If you use the code H m T. At Checkout, you get a thirty day free trial to Shutter, which is basically the Netflix of horror. It’s a streaming service for horror movies and TV shows. They’ve got lots of exclusives, even some really nice original content, and check that out. You can get it for free for thirty days if you use H empty. Thanks again for last name, Last name. I always say, last name. What is my I don’t know. Like whenever I hear my own voice, I’ve been a I’ve been keen. Intellect, policy. Yeah, I’ve been cannon on weird speech patterns, patterns that I believed to be weird, that are, in reality, normal. So, like when people say I want a prize, that bothers me to no end. They say I won the championship, but it’s one I want it. But they say, want it, It bothers me. Yeah, those kinds of things when they’re like mayonnaise. Okay, I see how fancy you are. Pronouncing the wides called Manny’s. There’s no wire. Oh, in the in the word, say, Manny’s, I’ve been listening to, like some podcasts or just stories featuring, um, Mormon families in true crime stories. Oh, dear God. And there’s like I’m pretty keyed in on the Utah accent. It’s very I can’t imitate it. You can’t take it. I can key in on it. Do you fall into it? No, you’re never I can’t. I can’t really do it. My wife could probably do it. I fallen, but it’s very earnest, very like over pronounced. So for me, that’s a real detriment to me. Because I look like a fraud all the time because I’ll fall in tow Whatever is being said to me. So if you have a heavy Southern accent like, I could go there real quick and its sound and it sounds disingenuous and like, I’m a head, But it’s just me, I guess trying to relate or something like that. And I don’t do it on purpose with that being said. So when you’re around black people, you’re like, Hey, what’s up? Money? No, no, no, no. Well, yeah, I guess I guess that does happen along. All right. So we rewatched thie nineteen eighty nine pet cemetery this week and it still holds up really well. Especially if you’re a parent. Yeah. Holy cow. Yeah, and I say we watch here, he watch it. I thought I had seen this movie and I realized as I was watching it that I had not seen this movie. That’s fair. And, you know, we’LL go into that in a minute. Anyways, here’s the trailer for Pet Cemetery, the original one. Eyes. This place I brought you here, Barry Allen. You’re right. Why, Judge? By car. You and Mr Crandall buried him. What did we do tonight? Judge? What? We did a secret. May the Lord bless you and keep you. Anyone ever buried a person up there? May the Lord make his face to shine upon you. You think? Can I get you something? Really? You think about that, don’t you? Back to me, Gage, come backto us. Pictures presents Stephen King’s time I’m a Bestselling Taylor. Pet cemetery. A cz of we. We watch it on Amazon Prime. It was free to stream. But as of the release of this episode, I don’t think it will be anymore. Yeah, it’s being pulled from free on prime, but Google it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s free or really, really cheap. The week of release for the remake. Oh yeah, well, yeah, no, actually, that’s that’s probably accurate. Especially like Google play. And I think I can really capitalize on that a lot because they they have the most to gain right, right, because they’re trying to compete with Amazon. Pet Cemetery is not really about a pet cemetery, but is really about what lies beyond with a pet cemetery. The movie, directed by Mary Lambert and written by Stephen King, is based on his novel of the same name. It tells the story of the young Creed family who’s head of household. Louis Creed is a doctor moving to a small town of Ludlow Mane with his wife, Rachel, played by Denise Crosby and his two children, Ellie, and gauge immediately, they they meet the kindly old man Judd Crandall, played by Fred Gwynne, who introduces them to the features of the property mainly a busy road filled exclusively with speeding eighteen wheelers and a spooky forest where people bury their dead pets that were killed by those same eighteen wheelers. Really, really picked quite a spot there, Louis. Yeah, good, good house. The crux of the plot, however, relies on what lay beyond yonder Pet Cemetery, the on ly horror troll more predictable than a Stephen King story set in Maine. That’s right, an Indian burial ground. And as with every movie about an Indian burial ground, the moral to the story is Don’t mess with an Indian burial ground. Haven’t you done enough, you white supremacist? Um, great name for the Indians. To,, Mack, Mack Indian Burial Ground. Yeah, that’s just rolls right off the lips. . It’s like shilly shally way we’re going. After the loss of a family cat church, Judd takes Louis to the Indian burial ground, which has the unique feature where whatever is buried there will come back to life. What spoilers? I think you pretty much get that idea. While the feline resurrection saves Ellie the grief of losing her favorite cat, the knowledge of a power to restore life is a Pandora’s box that only results in misery for the creed. Family Pet Cemetery deals really well with the concepts of loss and the folly of trying to cheat death. And it’s surprising how much is packed into this movie and how well it still delivers. It deals with the loss of a pet from teaching about the after life to your children, deals with protecting your children from physical and psychological trauma. Um, deals with resentment of carrying for people on their deathbed, also with the grief of losing a loved one and the desire to get them back at any cost, and it does all of these really well, Yeah, yeah, it does. And it’s also kind of a stand out because it’s the start as far as Faras. I remember unless Kujoe was before Kujoe is before, I think. But this is the first of the Stephen King movies that feels like, kind of like it could be a made for TV movie a little bit if you like, especially at the start, The way it starts doesn’t feel like a normal blockbuster movie. It feels kind of like toned down. It has it. The tone of this movie, especially at the beginning, feels like Tommy Knockers, I guess. Well, it’s it’s really interesting that this the screen screenplay was written by Stephen King himself. So it feels very much like a novel and that there’s like a sides. There’s little vignettes and and, ah, different areas that are explored, and you can really tell that King was including as much as he could from the novel to like touch on all the different areas that he wanted to touch thematically. Yes and ah yeah, it works works really well. I mean, a lot of the themes air pretty, pretty deep and like core to dread and and horror, Um, feeling, feeling it like you don’t have control, really feeling right like Jesus has the wheel and it does. It does it with the premise that that feels like it could be really, really corny and bad. Yeah, and it actually like explorers. It really well, that’s one of the with that premise. That’s one of the interesting things about this movie to me is because I think I think Stephen King and I think I think Tommy Knockers, I think dream catcher I think all these movies that don’t make it, like all these movies that are like, they’re kind of staples there definitely staples but they’re also, like, weird and just don’t make sense. And they’re like from a coke addled brain. And this movie is not that it is a well put together solid Yeah. Movie. Yeah. Um I will say the acting is not particularly good. No, especially from the lead. Louis, The guy that plays Louis House name. How dare you? My wife will have your head. Dale Midkiff Oh, yeah, Dale Midriff, midriff bit Dale Midkiff which I wrote in my notes. It sounds like he graduated from the Chiana Reeve school of acting. Just he’s He plays Elvis in Elvis and me, and he’s in. And according to my my wife, he’s in lots of lifetime movies and and Hallmark movies. So close your eyes and tell me whether this sounds like Chiana Reeves. Yeah, that’s church r e. I mean, yeah, it’s just like the delivery, if yet Thanks, Deano Reeves. Alright, anyways, But acting isn’t particularly good, but the writing makes up for it. The dialogue can have weird asides like those found and Stephen King’s novels, but they’re done tastefully, and they add to the tone of the film. There’s a lot of kind of poetic, you know, just weird quotations that they use that you would normally Houston normal conversation. But it works because it’s establishing the tone. The script also does a really good job of laying out the plot very logically and creating moments of escalation in ways that are always predictable. You know, it’s kind of a stepwise motion for lifting up the consequences in the decisions, you know throughout the film is has equal parts of dread, jump scares and gore all which all of which are very effective. I thought the special effects were really good. Save for one was the fight with the gauge doll. In the end, I like it when he jumps at him. Wait. So overall, I really like this. This movie, it holds up really well. I gave it a seven out of ten. Yeah, I am. This one’s our hard won for me, Tio pinned down because it is a you know, it’s like a formative. Yeah, it’s a formative kind of movie, and I do recognize that it is not just there. There are certain stumbling blocks in this movie like the acting. I like the delivery. Some of the delivery some of the delivery is like is so good that it really shouldn’t be replicated. John Lithgow should not be touching that role, even though he is legendary, you know. Yeah, Fred Gwynne is great in the movie. I mean, it’s a little sometimes is a little much on the main accent, but overall, I mean, he’s probably the best part of the main accent. By the way, the woman, the the laundry lady home and the main action I like I didn’t like it last night, I was watching this. I was like, The main is this is that I know it’s an accent. Does main have an accent and and yeah, that kind of that was jarring. But I mean, everything about Fred Gwynne be you really can’t you can’t replicate and shouldn’t go near it because he’s he’s just kind of the greatest all time for this role, so But I tip in it down, I’d say, Yeah, I give it a high seven probably, even though I do love it very much. Yeah, I think the only thing keeping it from being an eight was like the acting. There is a moments of really good emotion and it where you really you’re like Oh, jeez, yeah, yeah, I really believe that the terror that they’re feeling, Um, but it doesn’t necessarily earn it other than in that moment. Yeah, you know, it’s kind of this movie. This movie is interesting. That’s that’s what this movie is. It is an interesting movie because for a lot of different reasons, not just thematically and not just like entertainment wise. It’s interesting because it’s a Stephen King movie that isn’t Iraq. It’s a movie written by Stephen King. That isn’t Iraq, I should say. And it’s from the late eighties, early nineties, and it still holds up in the scares and in a lot and in Peking, my interests throughout, like I’m I’m there with it. And normally I in that time frame my attention can wander, So Ah, yeah, In that regard Pet Cemetery is is Ah, interesting and noteworthy movie that should be watched. Yeah. Uh, All right, let’s get into spoilers. Spoilers. Okay, so the beginning of the film does a really great job of foreshadowing. I mean, it’s very succinct, iconic. You’ve got a scary road. You’ve got a cat kid situation and a pet cemetery and no offense, you know, So the other moral to the story is put up one of those slow children playing signs. You know, it doesn’t have to be the county or something that puts it up. You can just put up one yourself. There’s slow kids playing here or, you know, yeah, put up, put up a fence. Just put up a little fence. Doesn’t mean it’s just got to be a road. Doesn’t have to be It doesn’t have to, like, keep everything And it’s just got to be a road blocked, kid. Yeah, anyways, so it starts out, basically sets up the premise of the movie in the setting with Judd and, you know, tell them about the pet cemetery and stuff. And then suddenly brains boom Big o just right from the home, too. Brain trauma and ah, doctor. As a compound fracture on that brain trauma So Dr Creed is ah, at the university. And they bring him in this trauma victim named Pascal. And the actual actual weird. He sure does. He, like, grabs Louis by the shirt and starts telling him Well, he should be dead. Yeah, he should be dead. Yeah, he and then he’s. But he’s not. Yeah, how that happened. I’m off men wear soil of a man’s heart is toe near stonier Estonia. Yes, I watch it with the subtitles on So I know whether he actually said that that, like, really, like, jumps into okay, Supernatural now? Yeah, because before then, it’s all just based on the reality of like, yep, new home. I have scary road pets die, and then all of a sudden, it’s like, creepy demon voice from man with brain falling out. Yeah, and ah, and then it just it just goes from there. And so pass cow P. Hans. Hey, Hans Lewis From then on, and pretty soon after that, he leads Lewis. You think it might be a dream, but it’s actually reality. He leads him to the pet cemetery and tells them very specifically. Don’t go beyond that. Point the ground bad. See all those sticks over there? You see all that, All that crap. Whatever you do, don’t climb over that. Don’t try and climb over all that crap that you would never think of climbing over. And now I’ve planted in your brain this crazy idea of climbing over all those crappy sticks the whole time like you still his ghost has, you know, brain falling out and stuff. Yeah. Which I’d hope if there is an afterlife, We do, like, get repaired. It’s not a scary if we do get repaired. Yeah, but yeah. Poor guy had his brain fallout for all of eternity. You know, I’d like to say that this that just that. So all the look, all the shooting, all the filming, all everything in this movie takes place in Maine. And what a beautiful place. Yeah, just gorgeous. It actually reminds me a lot of the Pacific Northwest. That’s why I went and looked up Where that where it was shock causes. Like there’s got to be Washington. It just has to be. Yeah, it’s kind of interesting. Stephen King insisted. I don’t know if he’s a producer on this, but he apparently had a lot of power on this film because he basically insisted that it had to be shot in Maine on location, and there couldn’t be, like, any changes to the script. Wow. And since it was in Maine, he lives in Bangor, Maine, and just really close. So he was on set all the time, you know, for the movie and ah, yeah, yeah, I mean, he I think he’s all about keeping it, you know, keep boosting the economy and trying to help out. Yeah, but also, I mean, it’s true to the setting of the story, and it’s based on, like, his life. I mean, his his Ah, he based it on the experience of one losing the family cat and by getting hit in the road. And he also had a child that he like, prevented from getting hit in a road. Well, so did I on the all the time when she goes dark for the road and I’m like a and then I tripper right and I think it’s like a lot like the scene with Gage, except, you know, he saves his daughter instead of that’s going to say,, are we going for some Eric Clapton stuff? And and also like basically, the property that he lived on was that, like this property had the busy road. And then there’s a pathway to literally a pet cemetery with the wrong spelling, like that’s what he based it off. So and Stephen King is on record saying that pet cemetery is to him that his scariest book. Really, Which makes sense, because it deals with such a personal thing. And I can’t think of anything more stare scary in terms of subject material than losing a child. Yeah, it’s It’s scary because it’s so blocked you because you have kids and, you know, they’re basically trying to die all the time, right? Can I drink? There’s no please toe. I have that written down as a talking point. Kids have a death wish in jobs. Like this. I mean, for me, particularly, this movie resonated with me because I’ve got a daughter around. The same age is Ellie, and I’ve got a son around the same age as gauge. Yeah, and Gaugin and Colin look pretty similar. I mean, yeah, a little blonde kids. I mean, the only difference is is Colin is like an absolute unit. Yeah, perhaps. I think I think if a semi truck hit Colin, he probably be okay. Semi truck with alright. Yeah, kid is he’s a tank. Uh, every time I see him, I’m like, God, that is a sturdy man. Like, I don’t even think of them as a baby. But in terms of like, as a little toddler like this, the way he’s running around and acting in the movie is like, man, that’s totally like my son, man. Just barely. Hey, starting toe like, understand words at all, you know? Yeah, a man. So yet when the scene spoilers, where its players Well, I mean this scene When when the audience had thirty years to get there. When gage gets hit by that truck and the reaction is just horror and just screaming in agony I’m like, Yeah, that I really felt it. Yeah, it was like there’s a few movies that do the child losing a child thing. Really? Well, hereditary is one of them, and this is another one. I’m sure there are others, but I mean, the reason it works is because you condemn you immediately. Khun, go there. Yeah, if you have kids and even if you don’t I mean, it’s very easy to put yourself into that. Yeah, because like like we said, like, kids have a death wish. You run through this scenario all the time in your head, just like you can’t look at them all the time. And when you don’t look at him and only takes him seconds to harm themselves, it’s astonishing. It’s it, really. I mean, there’s nothing more to say about it other than yeah, kids just want they want to get hurt. Yeah, badly. So pass Cow really is acting as a good angel. He’s showing Louis like, Don’t do this. It’s bad. Yeah, it’s not good. And as a contrast Judd is, you know, the friendly neighbor guy. You know, his brain’s aren’t falling out. He’s not scary to look at but he’s kind of acting is the bad angel. Yeah, and he’s He’s pushing Louis to use the burial ground when the when the cat dies. So how do you really think about it that way that way, Which is interesting because it’s so obvious, you know, But But all I think about when I see what’s his What’s his name? Judd. Yeah, I know, man. I wish I had a neighbor who just invited me over and offered me a beer. You want to sit down on the front porch and smoke and drink beer? Yeah, Judges, judges, like a great neighbor was not good. And he’s not. He’s not really like trying. He doesn’t have, ah, malicious. There’s no really he’s really trying to helping. But in terms of like getting Lewis in a bad spot, he is the direct cause of it. Absolutely, basically took his hand and said, Come here, Let’s do this. I will lead you on an incredible journey of land. Dead horrible, horrible thing. Um, And then, of course, judge, you know, tries to convince him not to, you know, resurrect his son. Yeah, which is tells them as bad idea because sometimes that is better. I can’t e and I’ve heard ever. John Lithgow’s, you know, read, redo of that. We had John Lithgow. I don’t think he’s trying to do a main accent at all. Not only is he not trying to do a main accent, he’s not ultra baritone. He is not bad. I mean, I think it’s good casting. Sometimes, Sometimes dead is better. But in terms of like casting against Fred Gwynne mean Fred Gwynne is a presence like his. His head is like probably the size of my like chest cavity. Yeah, he’s, he’s, he’s you know he was. He played Frankenstein for years. Is Herman Munster, you know. So he’s a large man. Giant mouth. Yeah, just and his teeth are appropriately messed up. You know, there’s no effort was gone into making his mouth pretty. Yeah, and so it’s everything about him. His country, you know, there there’s a strong element in this movie of that, like good old boy, kind of this is this is country. This is This is a rural place, and we’re hospitable folk, but we’re also hard. Yeah, there’s several things that tie this movie to the expanded Stephen King universe. Yeah, emcee you So for three cases in the U. S. K you Stephen King Universe? Yeah, sure skill. Anyways, they so there’s a couple like Little Easter eggs. There’s a poster that and I think in the novel they talk about a dog that goes crazy referring to Kujoe. I think in the movie they pass a sign for Salem’s lot. Um, and all of the family seems to have the shining like the entire family of the creed family, because Judd Khun see the dead being like Ellie like Cape keeps having premonitions and also sees Kosc out. Yeah, and I think that’s like just part of the thing is that, yeah, that their whole family Khun basically shine. Dude, this’s really interesting and never knew any of that stuff. I just like I just note notable things for me. Or like Boy, Luke Lewis is the worst rake forever. He’s bad at raking up leaves. I didn’t even notice that. He’s like he’s standing in the middle of his yard with a rake and their believes all around him, and he’s just like, I mean, it’s it’s like watching an actor who’s never had to do a thing, do a thing. It was just like like flopping it on the ground kind and then, like, he doesn’t rake anything. And then he’s like, done with Reagan and they’re still leaves everywhere. And it really bothered me a lot. You’re like, Oh, yeah, ties, ties really well in the Stephen King universe because I think the whole family can shine. Also, there’s the Salem’s lot thing going on over here, and I’m like, I can’t write. Um Okay, So, yeah, the the mother played by Denise Crosby, which I recognized from Star Trek. The next generation. Oh, yeah, I think she she left Star Trek the next generation. Um, like the year before this movie? Um, she didn’t She wasn’t a main character. Anything like she wass. I mean, she was basically she was war fs position before war. Oh, yeah, Yeah, I know. Will Wheatley said on record, He’s like, Yeah, the first season with war if they didn’t really ever do anything with him. But eventually, you know, he got flesh. Now you got flushed out, and he said, Basically, Denise Crosby just kind of got fed up with having nothing to do. So she quit and the worst mistake ever, And they killed her off in one of the episodes with the black oil monster. It was very sudden, but she came back. She she came back and like flashbacks and came back a czar as her daughter. So she she still worked on the show, but not as a main cast member. She’s no. Worf will tell you that in this movie, she plays Rachel and Rachel. Kind of. Ah, yeah, kind of kind of a. Don’t mince your words here. Okay? All right. Yeah, I wrote down a different word, but yeah, Boy, man, she she’s not grading. Yeah, grating. So this is when judges taking them and showing them the pet cemetery. And this is her reaction to a nice neighbor that was showing them an interesting thing about their property. Basically a feature of their property. There’s something going on. This place couldn’t plant nothing but corpses here. Anyway, I goes. How can you call it a good thing? A graveyard for pets killed in the road built by brokenhearted children. Well, that Lynn about death somehow not know them is great. Why? Why? Why is ah, I did I do something to offend you Are? Yeah, to make you mad. I’m just welcoming me, welcoming you to the neighborhood. Why? Why did they have to learn about death? Because it’s perhaps the most important thing that a shot a child should learn about because they’re constantly trying to die. And then later they’re talking as a family at the breakfast table. And, ah, they’re talking about neutering church. The cat and Ellie is like, worried that something’s going to go wrong in the surgery. And this is Ah, her reaction to Louis. You know, being a doctor and saying most likely everything will go fine anyways, so it should be all right, honey, You promised Daddy. Don’t shilly shally. Louis, Give the little girl a promise. Church will be fine. I promise. Uh, don’t shilly shally. Louis. Shut up, woman. Don’t shilly shally. Louis, give the little girl a promise. It’s like, Yeah, but how about you just stay out of it? Yeah, but there there’s a chance that something could go wrong. Sure. Like he’s a doctor. A him of all people is going to be like, Yeah. I mean, there might be something going happen. But it’s not so definitely be gone either way. S o. The premise behind having him neutered is Judd is like you should get that cat neutered. You should tutor up that cat because new neutered don’t wander it so much, they don’t wander, but yeah, they d’oh. I mean, but also, Yeah, just a road a couple feet away from your house. Yeah, and that’s not It’s not like they’re tied to your house once. They don’t have nuts. Yeah. Was the implication on that toe, like nude or his child? Should should he have neutered his child and then his kid wouldn’t have walked into the OK, so I don’t have boys, so I don’t know e I just deal with girls all day. No. Yeah, yeah. It’s kind of Ah, bad idea that. You know, if you have a cat that’s an outdoor cat, it’s just now Door cat? Yeah, it’s gonna wander around, and it and it better know its way around the street. Yeah, or else it I’ve had it be. I have had several cast that have died by getting hit by cars. It sucks. No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t, um Okay, so cat dies and Judd takes them to Indian burial ground. Of course, the cat comes back and the cat is scary like that Best holdup in terms of like, the jump scares with the cat. I thought so. Do you think so? Yes, Absolutely. This is church hissing with his eyes glinting in the dark is forever burned into my brain. That is one of the most iconic horror shots of maybe of all time. And in the nineties, it was used in a commercial. I can’t remember exactly what the commercial wass, but they played it over and over again. And I was little, you know, I was like, seven or eight and and very much like to this day. That’s one that’s one of these shots that is just going to live on for forever. Really? So, like, yeah, the jump scare when church appears again, is great. And then also the part where church scratches Um, it was, like, really effective to To me. Yeah, because for a number of reasons, because that’s exactly what a cat would tio. Apparently the cat. I thought it looked really weird to me like it was weirdly like compact. I don’t know. I guess it’s not that weird because they had, like, eight different cats. Plane? Church? Yeah, those those cats there, a blue something, and and all of them look exactly the same. So it making it the ideal cat for extras because you got one of them. This one over here looks just like it. Yeah, um, I guess, Yeah. When you film with cats, you can’t teach a cat to do more than one thing. And so they had to use, like, eight or nine different cats. And really, you’re not really training the cat. You’re just using the cats that have that natural profitability proclivity, like, All right, we need to train a cat to scratch you. Let’s just find a cat that scratches people is getting angry, one or, you know, mess with his tail. We need We need to catch the hiss of the camera touches tummy. Let’s let’s find a really pissy cat. Are you going touches? Tell me them always makes a man. Um, so, yeah, the bringing the cat back toe life is you know, something? It right about that cat is definitely undead. The daughter’s complaining about how states she’s like well and also like we passed one of my favorite scenes in this movie, which is Judd calls Louis over to his front lawn. He’s like a Louis. You got something going on? I want to see. That’s all right. I got a, uh, I think is that your cat? And it’s dead and is sitting there on his grasp on right next to the road. And it was like, Sure is you played the clip. Yeah, that’s true. Char very, very emotional church. All right. And and then after that, he peels church off the grass like the grass has The cat has been sitting there for a week because the grasses like intertwined. Well, they mentioned how was Frost have, like it frosted over ongoing Jed Judd specifically said, like, No, the cat wasn’t alive when you buried it. There’s no there’s nothing alive that would peel off the ground like that, right? Like it was frosted over. Yeah, yeah, that’s what I love that scene because of the effort he has to go through to pick that cat up off the grass is like a Velcro. Yeah, and so that that whole part of setting up the cat returning. It’s pretty low stakes. Yeah, you got You got a nun dead cat, which really acts like a cat. Anyway, a crazy zombie cat is, you know, pretty close to an actual cat. It right? What happens when you bury like fish in the pets? What then? It is a goldfish like because it doesn’t need air or water anymore. Yes, a little confusing the rules with with the world because, um, they come backto life. But you can still kill him pretty easily. Yeah, and further. So things were dying all the time and getting buried in this pet cemetery. Well, it’s not the pet cemetery. It’s the Indian burial ground beyond it. Right. But but But things are being buried in the pet cemetery. Yes. Oh, wait, I’m Yeah. So what if so, what if, like, a cougar dies in the Indian burial ground? I think you have to be buried, is the thing. Oh, okay. Mm. Yeah, that’s rough. But anyway, yeah, I mean, it’s kind of like they’re not that hard to kill after they’re dead. Like he kills them with, Like, a sedative. Yeah. You look like a drug. Go away, kitty. Um, so then the like, The most harrowing scene happens after all. This a set up of the rules of this Indian burial ground. Then, of course, gauge the little toddler, the que dis little boy in the world. And what a cute he runs into the road and gets annihilated by a semi truck. Yeah, pulling man just and just a reaction of of the family is feels really genuine. Well, yeah, I really believe that. They just lost a little child, and then they have a funeral for Gage. And the father in law is the biggest in the entire universe. He sure is. Like I told my daughter that he would on Lee bring pain and look what you’ve done. Look at you now, like, wow, does. I can’t think of a better way to get murdered in plain sight. Yeah. Then to confront someone who had lost their child, lost their child at the child’s funeral, telling them that it’s their fault. Yeah, that if my father in law did that to me, I would strangle him right there. Wow. What? He No. Okay, well, at least there’s no no risk of that. And then, of course, Judd, you know, knows what Louis is thinking. Hey says no, don’t do it. Don’t don’t don’t bury gauging the don’t do that thing. And of course he does, because yeah, I mean, so that asks a good question, right? That’s a That’s a worthwhile question. If you lost your kid and you were in the depths of despair because, you know, assuming you didn’t kill yourself, Yeah. Ah, how appealing would that be? How appealing would it be to be able to bring him back to life in any way, at any level of, like, even knowing, even watching? Okay, so you okay, so you have a pet cemetery situation going on at your house. You have a trail that leads to an Indian burial ground not far away. You watch the movie and then you lose your child and then you go. I know I just watched the movie about this thing that shows how bad this will end, but you might still do it. Here’s here’s yes, you would. And here’s why. Um Number one. You look at how people react to family members on their deathbed and, like, end of life care like people are vegetables. They’re not, they’re they’re never coming back. And they’ll still put him on life’s support for Aeon. Indefinitely. Yeah, because letting go is harder. Letting go is harder and they still have some talk. That person there, you know, whether it’s just the body and it’s And that is compounded infinitely when it’s a young, vibrant child, right? And then the other side of it is a child that’s a mindless zombie That on Lee wants to kill is really not that different than a toddler in general. That is to shape. But he’LL never darling, could you, could you tell? I don’t think I could tell sometimes if if my child was trying to kill me because they’re izombie or if they’re just trying to kill me because I didn’t let them finished playing with the iPad. Yeah, the lack of restraint is it’s really it’s just like, Hey, I know I owe man. Well, man, the other day, So we had we had a pair of scissors in the dishwasher and, ah, you know, the dishwasher in the kitchen shears or just Yeah, I guess I can’t recall. No, I think they were just like scissors, like sharp scissors and because whatever would cut something open and had to be washed. And so the dishwasher was sitting open. And, of course, she grabs the scissors and she comes walking into the hallway down that, you know, from the kitchen were looking down the hallway at her with this Paris is and she’s like, Look, this’s I’m like, Oh,. Both of us were, like a little And so I’m I’m, like, carries almost screaming. But I’m like, just stay calm. Just stay calm. I was she wearing a red jumpsuit by any chance? And now a brown glove on one hand. Now her name was not Lupita Young. Go. So I will just walk. Very column Lee, you know, stay in rial. Hey, how about you give me those okay? You know, because it was like she’s going Click, click, click, click, click. You know, she’s got this is his work and actual work in that action, out like, Oh, God, please don’t kill yourself. Yeah, I don’t know where the scissors are in my office, because I’m I guarantee that Might my eighteen month or old just grabbed him and walked away with him. Kids. Kids air of get fun. They’re fun. So the best part of this movie is dead. Gage. Yeah, he’s He’s super effective. Gabe Gage Gage wrote down gay percent gauge. Seen a little kid like literally with a scalpel. Carving up Fred Gwynne is, like, pretty horrifying. Yeah, it’s really effective because the child’s play come out before this or right after I think. Before I think Child’s play was eighty eight. I mean, I think it was like for some reason, that was the heyday of really selling that image. Oh, yeah, a little tiny baby or little tiny something like something killing you. Yeah, because yeah, gremlins really kicked that all off gremlins and then, uh, kicked off the whole small thing coming in. But it’s also now it’s really hokey. It’s like you would only see that in the movies. I guess they’re remaking child’s play. But when kids well, yes, like Gremlin, ask stuff stuff that’s not a person. So like gremlins and egg. What? What’s that other one that scared you? The cut of the box are girlies, girlies yeah, and hob goblins and all those critters. All those, By the way, new critters just just has been made and released on Shuter. Enter HMT it. Check out and check out the wacky. We gotta review this one because it’s crazy. But but so back to it like little kids, though, are always going to be a staple of horror, right, because it just makes sense. There’s so like if you if you have a two year old and she walks into your room at night unannounced quietly, it’s alarming because there’s this tiny little silhouette of a thing moving around in your house. You know, it clicks a lot of terrifying, you know, just checks all those boxes. Um, the scene with with Louis Fighting gauge our zombie gage is probably the worst in terms of special effects because it literally looks like not even a really good doll. That looks just like throwing around I shaking him like you ever trying to trying to breathe life into this doll by shaking it. Yeah, and it’s kind of interesting the director, so But they really went to great lengths to not traumatize this kid that any scene with blood or cutting or anything that he wasn’t on set. They just, like, would intercut him into it. Think the only thing that was remotely, um, scary would be He was He was there when he get gets injected in the neck. And that little kid did a really great job. You got to say he really especially considering how old he was. So he’s tiny. He was, like, just barely over two years old. And he’s a tiny, tiny kid. Yeah, just looks. He looks like an eighteen month old. Just a little taught and And yeah, no, he the way they did it. Yeah, the whole way through your kind of going Jesus Christ. I hope they didn’t traumatize this kid like very badly. But also, you can see the spots where they don’t You know where the effort is being made? Not too, because there’s a decent amount of kind of jump cutting what you know, or like showing a hand like a little tiny little tiny and with a scalpel instead of gauge with a scalpel exact, like enacting the violence. You know, you’LL see Gage with the scalpel, but the violence is done by has done with a shot of a hand with this tiny hand with a scalpel. So that kind of stuff kind of makes me feel a little bit better about the fact that this kid is not heavily traumatized. I got to say like that. Those scalpel seems pretty effective. Like Gore like him cutting up Judd Judd was like, Poof! Carbon and carbon is like Achilles ten. Big got really gets in there till and like his faith. Yeah, yeah, well, and that’s the thing that’s scary about child’s play and on all these these things, right? Because if you’re if you’re if your legs dead, If they get your and they always dio like in Child’s playing Pet Cemetery and all these movies, it’s like, Let’s go for the Achilles And you’d be up for out for the count, you know, maybe for life. So, yeah, the the other. The other part of it is Louis killing his kid a second time off, like and being, you know, doing it by his own hand. Even though it’s a zombie kid, you could still see that. That was, like painful. Yeah, I can’t imagine how how bad that would be. Just be like I got to say goodbye again, you know? Yeah, it’s like a mercy thing, which is not easy, but you just have to kind of, you know, like I don’t know when I when I mean that is a really interesting like parallel to this movie of just life support, having a having a family member on life support and, you know, they’re never coming back. Like like how people deal with death. And the answer is not well, right. It takes it. I’m always I’m all. I am impressed by people who are able to hunt because it’s that’s an impressive ability to be able to separate yourself even from killing an animal. You know, like like I remember as a kid, you know, we had acreage and I would mow the field, you know, and Ah, and I’d run, you know, you just run over a little field mice and then they’d be kind of like, you know, in the throes of death. And as a kid, you know, walking up to him, being like I have to I have to kill this thing, Teo, because that’s that’s the right thing to do. Like, yeah, I heard it and, you know, step anonymous or whatever, and but that’s very difficult to dio. Its not, it’s takes stills, takes a little p C. A. You know, and so being able to divorce yourself from that is impressive to me. Yeah, kinda interesting. Like how other cultures that air closer to nature, right, are better with death or more respectful about it. Much more so, for example, the Indians like Indian burial grounds. There’s a lot of, you know, symbolism around that of just showing there’s more respect for life in the circle of life right now where they’re not trying to. You know, a lot of lot of Native American rituals are just leaving the body out and letting nature consume it. Yet there’s and or just kind of returning it to the earth as opposed to, you know, Western cultures there. Let’s preserve this to make it look like it’s a life for a CZ long as possible, because we don’t want to admit that this person’s gone right, and ah, and then just in general of just yeah, consuming meat, like having being a hunter and being having an intimate relationship with the thing that you’re killing and eating yeah, is a lot more meaningful than just picking up a pound of beef from the supermarket. Yeah, and it’s much different than trophy hunting, right? It’s not. It’s not joyous. Two. It’s not joyous in a hurry. I killed this thing. It’s not the The joy doesn’t is not surrounding, you know, getting, you know, acquiring its its surrounding, You know, Thank you for giving your life to sustain my life, you know, and and paying respect. Yeah. Yes. Ah, life and death is fertile ground, too. Explore. So, final recommendations. Who would you suggest would like Pet cemetery? If you’re a horror fan, you really just need this in your You really need this in your repertoire. You know, you need to have I’ve seen this to be able to discuss it. It’s important. Yeah, and especially if you’re a parent. Like, if you’re a parent with a young family, this movie is horrifying. Yeah, it will be. It’ll it’ll it’Ll hit those buttons for you. Yeah. All right, go see it. See it before the remake. The remakes coming out tomorrow If you’re listening to this podcast on the day of release and we’ll be reviewing the remake next week, so tune in next Wednesday. Also check out we have a blogger on horror movie talk dot com. It’s our latest blog’s so just and it’s and it’s Keith comparing Well, you know whether or not the pet cemetery needed to be remade, basically, is the question he asks and and tries to answer in this log. And it is a big, long blawg that really delves deep into that and the idea of remakes itself when, when it’s necessary and when it’s not. In fact, don’t go to our website directly. If you search Pet Cemetery Original versus Reverses remake, it should come up on the first page and number one click, click through the horror movie Talk and read that article. It is really good, and it’s he wrote it mostly just based on the trailer. He’s goingto update it after he sees the new movie by help. So yeah, most of it, you know, reading over it like it’s more like you said. Just an argument about whether this needs to be remade or not. We’re the changes that you could see in the trailer worth it. Yeah, and he’s really fair about it. And and this is This is an interesting like that, in my opinion, really doesn’t need to be remade. I get why they would, you know, this’s going to be one of the biggest horror releases of twenty nineteen is my guess. You know, just because Pet Cemetery, I mean its legend. It’s a legendary horror movie, but I can’t. I just can’t see what they’re what spin they’re going to put on it that’s going to make it. That’s going to add anything. All right, so let’s move on to our game, the Rotten Tomatoes game. Right. Rotten. We’ve got a record that in earnest, Rotten tomatoes. Game is where I list off a couple movies. And David has to guess which one has the higher tomato score. Taito meter score on the Taito Mitos made me No, don’t call. I’m right. This is a themed addition of all the Stephen King animal related movies. Wow. You were able to compile with other animal related non horror animal related movies. Okay. All right, but yeah, there’s just barely enough like actual Stephen King adaptations that it works. Okay, Okay, first. Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers. There’s a TV movie versus Homeward bound. The Incredible Journey Eyes that homeward bound. The Incredible Journey is the one that we saw his kid, the one that was released, like ninety in the nineteen ninety ninety two Michael J. Fox Pups. Yeah, boy, that was a great move. Well, but it’s so hard to say, all of these movies that I picked are like my childhood movies, and I also I thought, their whole grade. Wow, you’re casting aspersions on homeward bound Now I feel like I saw that movie so many times like that was just got worn out VHS player. I really can’t see. I really can’t see a made for TV. Stephen King. What? Beating Homeward bound. Like one of my childhood favorites. So I’m going home or bound on this one? Yeah, that’s one of the easiest one. Sleeping sleepwalkers was twenty percent and homeward bound. The incredible journey was eighty seven percent bank. So really good. What was sleep? Sleep waters. Sleepwalkers was the one that I thought was pet cemetery like, That’s the one I remember scene and it’s got like and involved cats. I can like a weird alien zombie virus that turns people into cat. Now, is there somewhere we got? That’s the Stephen King. I know that this pet cemetery totally makes sense pretty good. But I remember, like, when seen stuff about Pet Cemetery to only show that cat, I’d be like, I remember seeing a really Stephen King cat movie on. Like I can understand what people are talking so fondly about this pet cemetery because I remember it being a real piece of. Yeah. You know, a pet cemetery really falls into that nostalgia zone with twin peaks and just Oh, and misery, You know, like just good kind of interesting spot in history. Okay, next up, Kujoe versus Benji the Hunted Wow! Benji The hunted That’s also in the like a tease, huh? So and Qiu Ju I’ve never seen Never seen Joe Benji The hunted was probably my favorite movie when I was like a toddler Ah, Benji happen. She was great Just watching a little scraggly dog run around and do your stuff. Look, the dog’s doing stuff. Oh, he’s walking down the street. I liketo walk down the street. Yeah, um who This is tough because I’m sure Benji the Hunted does not get thie the reviewers coming back and looking at it Nobody Nobody has reviewed Benji the hunted since since it came out. Oh, I don’t know. I mean, come on, Netflix, He really OK from Netflix? Okay, All right. So here we go. Benji the hunted. I’m still going to go. I’m still just because of the I will say that there close. I’m just going to say just cause of the cult aspect of Kudo. Don’t go with Kujoe, Alright? You’re correct. Mean Kudo is sixty percent and Benji the hunted is fifty six percent. Ah, Poor Benjy. Be nice. A little pup. All right. Another really close one pet cemetery way just reviewed versus Turner and. Starring Tom Hanks and Big Ugly Dog. Um, Man, that’s rough. I’m guessing that pet cemetery is sitting somewhere in the seventy to eighty percent zone. Probably like low eighties, and I’m going to guess that Turner and is sitting. That’s tough because the audience score on Turner and is going to be high because people really like early Tom Hanks. Well, it’s not the audience know, I know, but and that’s what I’m trying to, because because I’m thinking public sentiment. But it’s that’s not what this is about. I’m going to say I must say pet cemetery because I think it’s just gotten more love over time saying it, You are wrong Oh, pet Cemetery was fifty percent. Why It’s not even fresh shocking. To me, this is a good movie. Fifty five zero five zero Wow! And Turner and was fifty two percent. All right. Next The Adventures of Milo and Otis. Yeah, How man I love that one versus Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye Cats. I. This isn’t about animals. It is called cats. I like cats on it. What’s his thing with cats? Cats? I Cat’s eyes like a casino is a three. It’s like it’s kind of like creep show. It’s got three short stories that I don’t know anything about it, but I thought I had a cat on the cover and it’s called Cat’s Eye. So included it. I think we really need to get deeper into watching more Stephen King. You know, movies, because I have I as almost a za rule I’ve there so many, though there’s no way we could do it all. I mean, that would be a podcast itself. Thinner. There’s like there’s, like, forty movies, like If you look on Wikipedia, it’s it goes on forever. Lawnmower Man was one. Well, like Lan Mar meant Well, the lawnmower man that we know there’s only based on the title are like they only borrowed the title. It has nothing to do with his story, but they still counted on Wikipedia. Yeah, there’s a lot Okay, So this is Milo. Notice versus Cats. I, uh Bye, Milo. Notice has to take it just based on the fact that it’s awesome and I’ve never heard of Cat’s eye. All right, you’re right. Yea, Adventures of Milo Notice is eighty Stephen King’s Cat’s Eyes sixty seven. That’s three out of four. So far, you have one last one. Ah, yeah, Yeah. Okay, babe versus Pet Cemetery, too. Wow. I mean, uh, I’m rack your brain. I mean, I don’t know. Wait. There’s a pet cemetery to Yes, there is directed by the same director. Wow. Mary Lambert. Wow. I wonder what she did. Is it good? Lets find out. I’m going to say this is not big in the city. No, if there is no they What a great movie that wass Bahram you, Bryce. I’ve still never saying that You’ve never seen Babe. Oh, my God would do to life, bro. Do you know you got kids? You need to show him, babe. Okay, It’s the best. It’s such a cute little baby. I bet somebody ate him after that. I’m going to go, babe. It’s a pretty safe bet. Think Bay was nominated for laying Academy Award. Yeah, baby came in at ninety seven percent. Wow. And pet cemetery to came in at. Why don’t you just guess what? The score for pet cemetery go twenty to twenty five percent. Twenty finally closed. All right, So you dominated that game. Yeah, that was good. I did good meat. Good, good. Jolly. I mean, I was tryingto find enough Stephen King movies that the ones that I found a really bad So it wasn’t that hard. I should have just found really bad animal movies. No. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Babe won an Academy Award for cute pig if just for they just create that category that year, right? And, you know, it was wasn’t hard because there’s a lot of yeah, ugly pigs. I was really surprised at how low Benji the Hunted in Turner and. God, Is that really surprising, though, Like, it just must be like I probably didn’t have really good taste. Is a kid no Say that ain’t so your movie reviewer Horror movie. Look atyou. You’ve come so far. Bad taste like And Benji. Benji The hunted was great. It was Benji the cute dog. Except he was hunted. Yeah, scary their stakes. Now they should remake that movie. Who has a horror movie? The real question. Does that issued the origin? Make a sequel? Benji the Hunter. Oh, Benji’s or Van shifts. All right. Thanks for listening to the show that the road Benj Rabb, Adams or a Benji, the Hunter Ra Benji. Hey, Benji gets his revenge. Ah, all right, that’s all we got for today. Thanks for listening. Please share the podcast with a friend. We’ve got convenient links on our website at horror movie talk dot com Again, If you want to get a thirty day free trial to shutter, there’s lots of exclusive content on there. That’s your horror movie fan or even a TV fan. Yue’s hmt it. Check out again. If you are just clamoring for ways to support the show, you can go on our website horror movie talk dot com and click on the Amazon. Ah, bunter Henderson Amazon Button in the banner and pretty much do any of your Amazon shopping and we’ll get a little taste of that. So thanks again and join us next week when we review Pet Cemetery might. Sorry that Cemetery two thousand nineteen. Yeah, the remake, The remake The Remix Baby Bye Yeah. Quick Take on Pet Sematary 2019 Forgive the shitty audio, but we got to see an advance screening of Pet Sematary 2019 and we wanted to share our impressions immediately upon returning from the theater. Check it out, and stay tuned for our next episode where we’ll do a full review. https://youtu.be/A4qB59BdZY0 Read more on our blog Keith has written a stellar blog on Pet Sematary that you should check out: Pet Sematary: Original Vs Remake

We went and saw Us, and while it was an incredibly solid horror movie, it did not live up to the hype. Yes, it had good social commentary and implications. Yes, it is by one of the most respected (if only because of his single debut horror movie, Get Out) writers, directors out there, Jordan Peele. Yes, it starred an all-black cast. It’s hard to follow something like Get Out with something even more impressive, and that’s the only sin that Us committed. Us Overview At its core, Us is a home invasion horror movie. Us is also a smart critique on America today, both politically, and socioeconomically. Even more, it’s a fun, and at times, funny movie that everyone can probably appreciate. https://youtu.be/1tzFRIQfwXg One of the many things that Us has going for it? It’s a conversation starter. My Score 7/10 While it’s all the things I described above, it’s not particularly impressive in any stand-out way. It’s a solid movie that people will talk about, but it’s just not THAT thrilling. I was fairly bored during about ⅓ of this movie, and a lot of that was while the cat and mouse game between these two mirror families was playing out. It is an intricate, well-crafted film, with an eye on symbolism and obvious deep meaning. It just didn’t entertain me like I hoped it would. Us Pre-order the Blu-Ray for your collection Buy on Amazon Us Movie Spoilers Us begins in 1986 on the Santa Cruz boardwalk, with young Adelaide having a fun time with her parents. At some point, she wanders off and discovers a House of Mysteries below the boardwalk, which is where she first comes into contact with her tethered-self. https://youtu.be/Adlemia_V7o The international trailer This intro is nearly perfect in the way it builds tension and sets the atmosphere. I was enthralled immediately. The beach at night is a very scary place, and I think he captured that feeling quite well. Adelaide is deeply traumatized and stops talking following this event for some time. Check Out Out Review of Pet Sematary (2019) https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/04/10/pet-sematary-2019-review/ Fast forward to the present day, and Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) is driving with her family to their vacation house near Santa Cruz. Adelaide is nervous about returning to the scene of the crime that caused her so much agony as a child. The family has a few strange run-ins at the beach and a small scare. From here they meet up with their friends, the Tylers (Tim Heidecker and Elizabeth Moss). I can’t take Tim Heidecker seriously, for me, this is a miss-cast role, but to be fair, for most it’s probably a high point in the movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyn6g6JFkIY Say No, no to the purple scare no no’s. One of the many reasons I can’t take Tim Heidecker seriously. Yes, these are real commercials for real mattresses. Her husband (Winston Duke) believes that she is overreacting when she starts having panics about the safety of her family, and the area in general. When they are getting ready to go to bed that night, the action ramps up when they see a family standing in their driveway. Check Out Our Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich Review https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/10/17/puppet-master-the-littlest-reich-review/ There is a lot of chasing and being chased in Us, which is the least fun part for me. There weren’t very many genuinely disturbing moments, there were few scares, and overall the middle of the movie felt very soft compared to what it could have been. Thinking back on Get Out, it wasn’t a movie that went over-the-top with scares, it did what Us did, created ambiance, and mood quite well. Us is well cast and acted, every single character was compelling and made the movie better except Tim Heidecker, whom, as I said, I just can’t take seriously. https://youtu.be/fa7f-Q-Bq9Q Jordan Peele’s Rotten Tomatoes interview on Us So, when we meet the tethered people or the doppelgängers, the Adelaide tethered tells the story of who they are and how they came to be. The happy middle-class family that is the Wilson’s has an inverse family of tethered people who are forced to live underground and have lives that are the inverse of their above-ground counterparts. Read Our Halloween 2018 Review https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/10/24/halloween-2018-review/ The doppelgänger family lives in a place where suffering and cruelty is normal. This family has the last name Red. They hate their above-ground counterparts for obvious reasons and have decided to take their lives. Us had a wonderful, original score, that reminds the audience that choral music and analog sounds do produce the creepiest vibe. https://youtu.be/WFGmO1e_sAU Creep on it… At the end, it is revealed that the underground copy of Adelaide kidnapped and swapped places with the above-ground girl in 1986. This insinuates that “We are them and they are us.” It’s the environment that makes the person. One thing I noticed was that none of the Red family could talk except for Adelaide. No one underground ever talked, so the ability to talk was mostly lost in Adelaide who was forced underground. This also explains the supposed PTSD issue following the events of the 1986 boardwalk. Us Pays Homage to Peele’s Inspiration Lot’s of tributes are being paid in Us. Some of the things I noticed were: C.H.U.D. VHS Goonies VHS Michael Jackson’s Thriller T-Shirt Jaws T-shirt Main character named Jason (Friday the 13th) Villains wearing jumpsuits (Halloween) A villain who was a burn victim (Nightmare on Elm Street) A kid who would always wear a mask (Halloween) What Does Us Movie Stand For? Well, there are a lot of different ways people can an will interpret this movie, it was made to be interpreted a number of different ways. Here was my immediate takeaway impressions of Us. The Bible verse that continuously appears in the film (Jeremiah 11:11) reads: Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. Keep this in mind while interpreting the movie. There is an obvious socioeconomic suggestion going on in Us – an analogy of class. Young Adelaide – or is it? I couldn’t shake that this was an obvious criticism of an America who voted for Trump: The “evil” people were called Red. There is a fear of invaders, of people foreign to us whom we may believe are below us. There is a point in the movie where they reference hands across America, which seems like a direct Mexico wall reference — joining together to unite in building a wall. The suggestion that we don’t know who we are, we are a nation divided, half of us would like very much to ignore the other half, and that goes both ways. Also, following the twist ending the very real, “we are whom we hate” suggesting that those who think they are innocent are just as guilty. All of this spoke very loudly to me about the state of America under Trump, today. Almost like a “Shame on you, America.” Read Our Halloween 1978 Review https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/10/31/halloween-1978-review/ Final Recommendations For Us Movie Anyone who enjoys a movie with a deeply well thought out meaning, or symbolism will be able to latch onto something within this movie that will spawn lots of interesting conversations. If you enjoy home invasion horror, this is a must see, although it’s not the best, it’s quite good. The trailer ruined this movie quite a bit for me. Most of the action in this movie just felt like the trailer+.