Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Halloween Special podcast. Joining me today, Mr. Keith Doomfield.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Hello.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: Mr. Sam Deadwards. Hello. And Mr. Lee. Sorry about this one. Vincent Price. That's the only one I could come up with.
[00:00:19] Speaker C: I will accept that.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: And I am your host, Mr. Dryan Parish.
Anyway, enough of that because I can't see anything.
[00:00:28] Speaker C: Turn off.
Thank you. God.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Blight.
[00:00:31] Speaker C: You're complaining. Complaining about not keeping it on.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: How old, how old, Will? How old the devil have we been since the last one? I think our last recording was Bath outside the lovely Mockingbird Cinema during the Birmingham Anime Film Festival. We all been up for anything interesting?
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Apparently not.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Apparently not.
[00:00:49] Speaker D: Mostly recovering from Bath. Well, I think these people have done.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: I've been trying to make a Halloween costume of Bob from Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice, which has involved lots and lots of cutting little bits of card and sticking it together with PVA glue and then getting annoyed that I can't make the eyes move independently.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Full Blue Peter experience.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Yes, very much so.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Coming up today, we'll be talking about the rise of independent horror film companies. Well, are they really independent anymore? So we're talking about a 24 Blumhouse and a few others. We'll be picking our favorite foreign language horror movie and we'll be having a regular one geek thing. But for now, we'll see you shortly.
There's been a recent resurgence of horror in cinema, which has been good and at the same time there's been some terrible horror franchises.
But we're just going to have a chat about these. The rise of the return of horror. I think the last big horror spike we had was the video nasties in the 80s, like late 70s, early 80s, God damn time.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: I hate it so much.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: And there was the release of home video, which allowed lots of independent creators to go and make their own really cheap budget horror film. I mean, Red Letter media has covered that off. If you ever go into the worlds of Internet and YouTube, go and watch some of their stuff because I'm sure they've got every single VHS horror movie ever covered. But now with the world of streaming, we seem to be back into this kind of indie horror zone as well, where people with an idea of a horror film and kind of quite low budget can come to the fore. Make a horror film, get it published, get it streaming.
And there's been a couple of companies who have focused on that one. I mean, first one probably is Blumhouse, which everybody knows, or Blumhouse, I can remember.
[00:02:53] Speaker C: Was it Blumhouse I think it's Blum House from what I remember at whatever Jeff Keeley show it was.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
But I know the first big film they did was Paranormal Activity, which was made for $15,000, grossed over $190 million worldwide. And then that kind of kicked off the whole kind of horror franchise and they moved into the insidious movies. The Purge franchise did get out and split. So going back into other people's work like Jordan Peele, etc. And then they seem to have done really well. I mean, blackkklansman, which was their big movie with Denzel Washington's son, who I can never remember the name of.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: John David Washington.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: I think John David Washman, that had Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay award nominations. They worked with some of the biggest horror directors out there. M. Night Shyamalan, James Bond, Jordan Peele, etc. That's kind of. They've done really, really well. And a 24 was kind of started off on horror probably mainly, and then have branched out quite a lot into other franchises.
[00:03:53] Speaker C: Everything everywhere, all at once was terrifying.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's from a kind of existential Dread Nightmare, but they've branched out to sci fi action, et cetera. But they've done stuff like the Witch Green Room. Those are the kind of horror films. I mean. Swiss Army Man. Is that a horror film?
[00:04:13] Speaker D: I wouldn't say strictly no.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: It could be classed as body horror, to be fair.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: Frankenstein inspired, perhaps.
[00:04:20] Speaker D: But yeah, horror adjacent would probably be the term.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Cool. And the Oasis Supersonic documentary.
[00:04:26] Speaker D: That's a horror movie.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: That is a horror film.
But yeah. So I mean, do we. How many could pick your favorite A24 horrors or Blumhouse Horrors? I mean, Lee, coming to yourself first, anything that you'd really pick out that you have been a fan of?
[00:04:39] Speaker C: I mean, like the first thing that sort of comes. That always seems to stand out when hearing all those films from like Blumhouse is obviously Jordan Peele's.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:49] Speaker C: Stuff I still need to watch Us, but Get out and Nope. Were really good.
I know that, like people seem to be a bit mixed on. Nope. Because it's not very clear about what it's about half the time. But once you kind of figure it out, you're like, oh, no, actually, no, that is.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, Sam, Keith, anything for yourselves.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: I did love Nope and Get out. Obviously for a 24. They've done a few of the. More sort of. There's been some quite kind of.
I'm not sure if cerebral is the right word, but horror films where you can see that they're trying to sort of put a bit more of a message behind it and not just rely on easy scares. So stuff like Hereditary and Midsommar and that's it.
[00:05:35] Speaker C: I knew there was like an A24 one that I really liked and I couldn't remember what it was.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Yeah, the Witch is amazing as well.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Really good creepy film.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: How about yourself, Keith?
[00:05:47] Speaker D: I don't watch as many as I think I would like to because I'm a monster man. Really. And so there's not an awful lot of monster stuff out there. I mean, the Jordan Peele stuff I quite like.
And I think us are quite liked as well because there's kind of references back to 80s movies. There's a movie called Chud from the 80s which kind of has a bit of a feel for that. And also.
Yeah, but also. Sorry to bother your. Was one that kind of perhaps isn't quite horror per se, but has horror elements to it with kind of all the stuff that's happening to kind of the. I won't say more about that because you need to watch it because the reveal at the end is fantastic. And nope's great again because that's kind of a monster movie in essence. Again, I won't say more than that because of ears. So they're all a bit kind of too paranormally for me. Which is the thing I'm kind of like not. I'm not a big paranormal person because it's not that scary. I kind of like monsters and things like that. Particularly monsters that are practical effects as well. So there's the trouble with modern. A lot of modern films is they rely a bit too heavily on CGI elements which kind of can take you out a little bit. There's some directors and there's some films that do kind of lean a little bit into the kind of practical stuff and just enhance it a little bit with cgi, either to remove rigs or to remove kind of elements of it that are kind of would spoil it because you would see the mechanics of it. So I think that's where CGI comes in. Useful of doing that. But practical effect stuff. But then you've got the stuff that ends up on the tv. So the kind of haunting on Hill House stuff as well is another. I tend to watch those more than I'm watching the films, really. I think.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm just on the subject of monster films. One a 24. One that isn't a horror per se, but has a fantastic monster at the end of it. Is Beau is afraid.
[00:07:40] Speaker D: I know what that monster is.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: Okay.
Just always worth a mention.
[00:07:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: It's kind of interesting because I was looking for the list of Blumhouse productions. I've taken over Split. So that M Night chemolay and kind of weird. Was it Glass and Unbreakable franchise?
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Unbreakable, then Split thing, Glass. But I don't think when he was making Unbreakable, kind of levered Split into.
[00:08:05] Speaker D: The Unbreakable universe really a little bit.
[00:08:07] Speaker B: And then made Glass to kind of tie it all together properly.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: But they've really picked up on doing other people's franchises the last few years. I mean, they've basically taken over the Halloween franchise. So I think they did the Halloween Kills and then the second Halloween movie. I can't remember the name of it off the back of my head.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: I think they've done a few. Few of them.
[00:08:24] Speaker C: Yeah, there's a lot of those.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Halloween ends and then Megan was another big one that they've done recently.
[00:08:31] Speaker D: Well, Megan's interesting as well. And I think this is what bloom house and a 24 doing is picking up younger directors who have done stuff. Because the guy who did Megan did, because he's new, he comes from New Zealand, did a housebound horror movie, which is kind of like a. More my style of kind of horror comedy, very much in the vein of something like Evil Dead 2, and that was from about 2012, something like that. It's a fair bit. So what they do is they find talent and kind of nurture that and bring them. Kind of give them a bit more of a budget, which sometimes isn't a great thing. Sometimes I think the bigger the budget, the less creative you can be because you kind of think, oh, we'll do that with money rather than skill and artistry.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: But they have got a Wolfman movie coming out early next year, which might be of interest to you. Keith, I know you.
[00:09:20] Speaker D: I know. I like. I love a good werewolf movie. Are you.
It could be good. I don't know. It's, you know, it needs. Needs to be something interesting. I think we've got to. Because, you know, the specter of American Werewolf in London hangs over a lot of kind of werewolf and basic horror movies, really.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: I think that's the problem, though, when you've got such great practical effects and everybody's then started moving into CGI and then CGI was not great for about 20 years. Then it really went really well, and now it's not great again because they're all rushing to get stuff done at the Lowest price possible.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: What if we crunch our VFX artists? We'll get better work, right?
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:57] Speaker D: I think the benefits of some of the early Blumhouse stuff, the paranormal activities and the kind of insidious things is a lot of that was it's suggestion, the power of suggestion. The kind of like, did you really see it? Did you not see it? So they're not relying on kind of reveals, big reveals, the jump scares.
[00:10:13] Speaker C: It's like Ryan pointed out, like, obviously you bring up, you know how budget isn't necessarily a good thing, but it's like Paranormal Activity, like you said, was like, what, 15 grand?
[00:10:22] Speaker A: It was. It was basically just webcams set up in the house.
[00:10:26] Speaker C: It was. It was literally just like. I think it was like an actual camera. Yeah. Because it was just like a handheld one. So very consumer model sort of thing. I think most of the money just went to paying the two actors in the movie because I think it was shot in the director's own house.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:41] Speaker C: And that sort of thing. So like they didn't have to pay location costs or anything. And so like it costs next to nothing. Made all the money in the world and it's like. Yeah, this is. This is probably why we're seeing more horror. Because you can make it on a.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: You can make it on a shoot. Especially jump jump. Well, I call them jump scare movies. So stuff like insidious and things like that. It's either a guy in makeup just popping into camera and then disappearing and that's. That's your jump scare. But it's all around the atmosphere and it's all around the world building. And it's so much. It's based on the sound design and the musical choices rather than the actual what's going on on the screen. A lot of the time it's having that brilliant sound design to make you feel like you are creeped.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: There's a real language to horror films that's really well established and it's.
If you do any kind of film studies course, it's the sort of thing that you'll learn very early on because it's probably quite an easy thing to teach. So I suspect that's why a lot of new talent as well will go to horror films. Because it's kind of a.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: There's a. There's a standard script that runs all the way through.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good sort of entryway into filmmaking.
[00:11:43] Speaker C: And yet despite that, you can do a lot with it.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:45] Speaker D: Yeah, I kind of. I'd kind of say that Horror and comedy are the two most difficult films to make because it's got to work. It doesn't work, it fails to fall flat on its face. And I think often horror and comedy in a way are often looked down upon as kind of like, yeah, they're just crappy films for the kind of mass populace who don't really understand the art of film. And it's like.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: Well, in the world of streaming though, I think anybody can probably get something published somewhere on a low price. If you make a movie for like 15,000, 20,000 pounds, you can probably find a streaming service that will just have it because they just want content. They just need things to fill up their streaming service for people to flick through.
[00:12:28] Speaker C: Like you said about like, you know, like, people look down on horror because it's. Because of the bad stuff. Like. Of course, yeah. Like there's plenty of people who are just like kind of getting some terrible props and kind of waving them at a camera and it looks terrible. But then on the other end of that you've got stuff like get out, which has got like an actual message to it, even though they're still following the language, as you pointed out, Sam. But it's, you know, doing it in a way that's like actually examining an issue and trying to break something down. And so I think this is why I was saying there's a lot you can do with it.
[00:13:00] Speaker D: I do like the fact that we're moving away from. There was the period of the Eli Roth movie which I wasn't a big fan of.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Just over the top goal.
[00:13:08] Speaker D: Yeah. And I kind of. That kind of held the horror crown for a few years and it was kind of not particularly interesting. But I'm glad we're moving away from that and it is becoming a much more broader church. And we've got things like Hereditary and Midsummer and even Evil Dead Rises, which I didn't think added particularly much to the Evil Dead story. But at least it's kind of like was at least tried something new, I think would have been better as a non Evil Dead movie. Just a thing on its own probably would have worked a little bit better. But at least it's giving it shows that horror isn't going anywhere and it's still a viable and a hugely entertaining genre of film.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I just wanted to pick up a notable film franchise which is really independent because they've got no real spoil behind them, which is the Terrifier franchise, which has come out of nowhere and it seems to be really adopted by the horror Community quite a lot.
Art the Clown with its terrifying face. I mean, the third, they've just made $2 million budget. Has made it or already made $50 million. And they went. Apparently they shopped it to quite a few studios, big studios, and they all just went, no, we're not interested. We don't think it's proven enough. And I think it was Mubi who's bought the rights to them, the streaming service and this. And they basically just made a lot of cash off the back of it really quickly.
[00:14:25] Speaker D: It's a little bit like New Line when they start, when they did kind of like Nightmare on Elm street and stuff. You've got these studios or production houses that are taking a risk on something and reap the rewards.
[00:14:37] Speaker C: I think my favorite thing when I've heard about Terrifier 3 is that like, apparently in America, certain cinemas that actually will show you what screens everything is on, a lot of teenagers apparently are buying tickets for the Wild Robot and sneaking into terrifyer 3. And as soon as I read that story, I was like, cinema is back.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I've heard quite a few rumors about that where like, Rol Robot had a massive spike when Terrifier 3 came out that weekend. Mainly because it was kids just going.
[00:15:04] Speaker C: Like, sneaking out into Terrifier.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Yeah, but they're releasing it on VHS as well, which I find hilarious.
[00:15:12] Speaker D: I mean, it's. You've got to chew it, haven't you, really?
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Yeah, but it's kind of those things. But as you've said. I know we've talked about this off air, Lee, about.
Blumhouse has especially moved into quite a lot of other things. So they had Blumhouse books, which they set up in 2014, and they're also now doing. Their first game release has come out this week.
[00:15:31] Speaker C: So it is kind of funny that we're talking about this because Blumhouse Games has actually released its first project. And it's sort of like you were saying, Keith, where they kind of, in film, they'll go and find all these sort of smaller projects and pick them up and kind of give them an extra budget. That's basically what Bloom House Games is.
Because, like, the game that came out this week as we record and conveniently is also my game of the week is Fear of the Spotlight, which is a game that I believe did release, but like, Blumhouse came in and we're like, we're gonna. We kind of want to help you sort of make this better. Because I think they sort of said like, oh, we're not happy with this or whatever. Bloomhouse came in and gave them the extra budget. So they took it off sale and then reworked it with Bloom House's budget. And then now they've released it in a better state and everything.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: Seen screenshots of it, it looks very low poly, like a PS2 era.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: It's like a PS1 sort of game. And it's got like.
It's kind of very much evoking that kind of very early Resident Evil, Silent Hill kind of vibe. Like. But you're in like a school and of course it's the whole like, we found a Ouija board, so we're gonna mess with it. And that's what. You know, I played the demo of it and the atmosphere on it was. Was really good, even though the demo doesn't really show you a lot, to be honest.
But they've got like a bunch of other stuff coming out and again, it's all stuff that's kind of been in the works. But Bloomheads have come in and giving it the extra money. So the things that sort of stand out to me, they've got. There's a game called Grave Seasons, which is basically a farming game, but someone in the town is a serial killer.
So that's the hook of this. So it is.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: So it's a bit like Animal Crossing but with a serial killer one.
[00:17:23] Speaker C: Yeah, it's basically. If you think of Animal Crossing, it's like. On the surface, it's like a very kind of Stardew Valley type thing, but someone in the village is a murderer and might have supernatural powers. So somewhere along the way it's going to completely shift and I'm just like, that sounds amazing.
They've also got the simulation in development, which is like. It's basically like the two big kind of themes of horror in games is you've got like the amnesia type things where it's first person, you're running away from a monster, or you got like the Resident Evil type. This game kind of does both. So it's. It's like you've got like someone in the. In the real world and it's all first person like those. But like there's also like a game that apparently is connected to a murder and you can go into that and it's basically alone in the dark. And I'm just like, this sounds cool as well. And they've also got Project C, which is Sam Barlow and Brandon Cronenberg.
So that's.
[00:18:20] Speaker D: So it's got the Kahara credentials.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I just love the name of the gaming studio that produced Fear the Spotlight, which is Cozy Game Pals.
[00:18:27] Speaker C: Cozy Game pals because it's the exact opposite of what you'd expect.
[00:18:31] Speaker D: We did have that funny period, whether it was the late 90s or the early 2000s, were a lot of horror games because horror kind of gaming was where the good horror stuff was in that kind of. Like there was a period where there wasn't many good horror movies but gaming was where it was all at. Then you started having all of those Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil movies and stuff that were of dubious quality as such. But again with the games, that's a bit another weird one because there were big budget games that were kind of supposedly very cinematic. Was it man of Medan or something that was like a series of loosely connected horror games.
[00:19:11] Speaker C: You've got supermassive games, which is basically. They made it until dawn and then they moved on to the Dark Pictures anthology, which is what man of the Dan is part of.
And those have not been brilliantly received, to be honest. I think House of Ashes was probably the one that did the best out of those. I think that was like sort of like a military squad have discovered like some ancient tomb under Iraq and disturbed it. So.
But yeah, like you said, we're getting a lot of that big budget stuff. But I'm not sure what Supermassive really are doing at the moment, to be honest, because they kind of like built that formula with Until Dawn. They've been kind of chasing it since.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: So I mean, I'm thinking some of the big franchises we've seen this year haven't done really well. If you think about it, there's been the remake of Salem's Lot that's come out has flopped. If you go earlier on in the year, there was a Quiet Place Day One, which did reasonably well, but nowhere near the first two Quiet Place movies.
[00:20:12] Speaker C: I don't think the game's done that well either.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: Yeah, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, it was classic as a horror film.
[00:20:18] Speaker C: I mean that's did well.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: It's still alright, but. Yeah, but comparing to the first film, it's not done great. And then there's been stuff like the Substance which has come out, which is done absolutely fantastic, which is. But it seems to be lots more misses than hits from the bigger studios. Do you think that's just the fact that they're trying to revive Dead franchises they've had for a long time?
[00:20:39] Speaker C: I think that's what it is.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: Or are they going with original ideas?
[00:20:41] Speaker C: I Think we're. I think when it comes to horror and stuff, I think there's definitely a point where we've seen this idea. We don't. You know, one of the big reasons people want to go to horror is because they want to be scared.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:53] Speaker C: And if you've seen the formula a million times before, then what's the point? You know, you can kind of wrap.
[00:20:59] Speaker D: Up that formula in new guises, I think.
[00:21:02] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:02] Speaker D: If you look back at any horror franchise, it is a serious case of diminishing returns. And you know you're in serious trouble when it's the leprechaun. But in space.
[00:21:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:13] Speaker D: You know, it's kind of.
I don't think horror is particularly great at maintaining franchises because it becomes about the character is the thing with Freddy in the first movie, he's quite a scaring and imposing figure. But as the time goes on, what you have is audiences attach themselves to that character. So it's kind of weird.
[00:21:34] Speaker C: A big part of what makes horror effective is the idea of mystery. If you leave a lot of information out and kind of let the audience kind of fill in the blanks because, like, at that point, it's basically whatever scares you the most. You're filling in the blanks with that.
But with a franchise, you're kind of having to add more explanation onto it. And suddenly it's like, okay, well, we know what this is. We're not scared of it anymore.
[00:21:59] Speaker D: Yeah. It's why I like Halloween 3, because it's the one that completely ditches the whole Mike Myers thing and the kids badges and the Halloween masks and the. The song and everything. And I love that one. I think it's one of my favorite.
[00:22:14] Speaker C: The Halloween would like. Trying to like, turn it into an anthology series.
[00:22:17] Speaker D: It was. Yeah, it was kind of. It was kind of like they were trying to season. It was Halloween, but they were just not related films. But the audience rejected it because they'd attached themselves to Mike Myers at that point.
[00:22:28] Speaker C: But I think that doing it with the third film is probably where the problem comes in. If you do it with the second, people kind of go, oh, okay, we understand this now.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: Listen it. Season of the Witch was the title for the season, which makes no sense at all. When you watch the film. It's like, where's the witch?
[00:22:42] Speaker D: Still a great movie. I love it.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Another one that takes a sort of established ip, but puts an interesting new spin on it and did really well out of that is the Blumhouse remake of the Invisible Man.
And that was excellent. Because it took a story that people are, well, to be fair, probably not that familiar with compared to things like Dracula and Wolfman, but still fairly well established. But put in that kind of domestic violence element and gave it more of a message in the same way that Hereditary and Midsommar and that sort of thing do. And, yeah, that worked really effectively.
[00:23:23] Speaker D: I think one of the big things, though, and streaming takes away from this, particularly with horror. I think horror needs to be seen in a darkened theater with an audience. I think if you're watching a horror film at home, the scares are substantially reduced because you can just go, I'm going to pause that and go make a cup of tea or whatever it is. But I think that audience participation is what makes a horror film great. That you're in a room and it was like, you got it with the quiet place.
That audience, everybody bought into that and everybody was like, we've got to be quiet, whatever it is. And the kind of.
[00:23:56] Speaker C: I watched it on TV and still got a really good experience out of it. That same sort of sense of just like, I've got to stay really quiet. But if you're in a room full.
[00:24:04] Speaker D: Of people and the jump scares are coming, and even if you're not. Even if you're not completely engaged with it, that you're carried through by everybody else in the audience gasping and whatever it is. And I think a good horror film needs that kind of.
[00:24:18] Speaker C: I can see how a cinema experience would probably enhance it because if someone's got like a sweet packet and you just hear that first thing and you're like, no.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: I remember thinking exactly about when I was watching Quiet Place. Yeah.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: But going back to what we were saying earlier, and two of the big films that have come out have been supported by streaming services. So the substance is mubi, which is a big streaming service, they've done a cinema release. And I got it wrong earlier. Terrifier is Screambox, which is the Cinevere streaming in the us. I think they ones who fronted the cash for that one.
[00:24:51] Speaker C: We keep making new ones every week. I swear to God.
[00:24:54] Speaker D: We have Shudder as well, don't we? Yeah, kind of horror channel in. In the.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: In the uk, but it's those kind of smaller budget streaming services are the ones that are actually taking these films to cinema. I mean, I know independent screens such as Mockingbird, they had fantastic run with substance and Terrifier three, because that's where people go to watch stuff like that. You don't go to your big omniplex cinema anymore to Watch a horror film because, as you said, you either get a great experience or you get a ruined experience. Because you got 400 kids running around the bottom. Because parents think it's suitable to take children to watch a whole.
[00:25:28] Speaker D: We've heard there's a film with a clown in it. Let's go see that.
[00:25:31] Speaker B: Or you have what I had when I watched the Substance, which is a group of teenagers just giggling at every bit of nudity, which there was quite a lot of in the Substance, and completely took me out of it.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: Yeah, but another.
[00:25:42] Speaker C: Dude, that's what teens. That's what teens do, though.
[00:25:44] Speaker D: That's kind of what I was doing in the 80s.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But another one that came out and is completely gone and died, which was Hellboy the Crooked man, which is a very big horror kind of comic franchise. And the first couple of films did really well with good old ugly faced, what's his name?
[00:26:04] Speaker B: Ron Perlman.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: Ron Perlman. And then they did the other one with David Harbour and that didn't do as great. And now they've just recast it with somebody else. Jack Casey, is it? And it's just completely flopped. But that's the one that's been the most truest to the comic books, unfortunately.
[00:26:18] Speaker D: Well, that's. Yeah. Again, that had Mike Mignola involved, the actual creator of the character.
[00:26:24] Speaker C: I wonder if that is just comic book fatigue, because that does seem to be a growing fatigue towards comic book properties.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: I think there's an element of that. But it's come out in the year where there's only been one Marvel film for the first time.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: But I think at this point, though, I think it's just. I think it's going to take a few years for people to really kind of get over that.
[00:26:44] Speaker D: I don't know if Hellboy would suffer from that as much because most people probably wouldn't even know it was a comic book, so. And if they know it, they know it from the Ron Perlman movies.
[00:26:54] Speaker C: But even then I knew that was a comic book movie.
[00:26:57] Speaker D: You hang around with me, Lee.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: That's what it is.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: But that went straight.
[00:27:00] Speaker C: This was even before I met Yuki.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: That went what Wikipedia called it, direct to vod.
So not direct to video, direct to dvd, direct to VOD now. But again, streaming.
[00:27:14] Speaker D: The history of horror is filled with that kind of stuff. Films that come out and everybody goes, I didn't watch it. That was crap. You look at the thing in 1982, every reviewer went, this is the worst piece of cinema ever committed to celluloid. What a terrible film. Audience didn't turn out for it. And here we are 40 odd years later and people, the greatest film ever made, think it's one of the greatest films ever made. So I think any horror movie really can get panned on release and nobody think it's any good and an audience will grow and build for it. That's one of the things. It's one of the few things that has that kind of slow build over time of people go, have you seen this movie? It's great. Even the really trashy ones.
And I think that that's the thing with the stuff like the blumhouse and the A24 is that builds after time. It's still the thing with Midsommar and stuff like that. People still talk about it. Even things like Babadook or whatever it is. People are still kind of like, oh, have you seen this movie? And whatever it is, I think it's.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: Just allowing people to be creative and giving them a working budget. It doesn't have to be 100 million, $200 million blowout film. Give them enough of a budget to make sure their vision gets accurately realized. I think that's a great thing to have back in the back at the cinema and back on streaming services because I'm just hoping sci fi does that again because you don't have to have a $200 million to make it. June. You can make a really good sci fi movie on a really small budget if you do it correctly.
[00:28:41] Speaker C: Yeah, it's funny because now I'm straight away thinking of Alien because that can't have been a big, big budget thing really.
[00:28:47] Speaker D: The thing is.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: Even then but Alien romnus didn't do as well as everybody hoped. And that was kind of just the greatest hits of the Alien franchise shoved into a single film.
[00:28:58] Speaker C: Although with that I think it's more just like a lot of people have the impression that it's diminishing returns with each Alien.
[00:29:04] Speaker D: But it means well enough that they.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: Carry on with the franchise. They're planning to do another Predator crossover. Apparently is rumored to be in the works across there. So reboot in Alien vs. Predator. Again, please ignore the mid-2000s movies, I think.
[00:29:20] Speaker D: But I think again, that's why somebody like a 24. It's rare that they revisit the pop. Yeah, it's unusual that we've got had three quiet places.
[00:29:30] Speaker C: It's more like what you'd probably have is that a film would do well and they'd be like, we want more from this director. We want More from this writer Harry Astor is a perfect example which I think is how more studios should be handling films in general is like go for the same creative stop with the sort of IP idea. Just as soon as you slap a thing from the director of this film you liked on the poster like that.
[00:29:58] Speaker D: Surely that should be what's good about like you were talking about the witch and Eggers has gone on to do like the Lighthouse and we're about to get his version of Nosferatu which looks good. And I mean even the Northman in some senses was a kind of body horror type. There's a lot of kind of stuff in there. So I kind of like a director who kind of goes I know how this works but doesn't churn out the same stuff because the Lighthouse is a substantially different movie to it was interesting.
[00:30:27] Speaker A: Because the two production companies were talking about Blumhouse will milk something until it's dead. They will milk a franchise. They will do Paranormal Activity 24 if it's still get bumped on suits and Insidious.
[00:30:37] Speaker B: This background character in Insidious now has its own trilogy.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And imagine Megan's going to become a franchise and then there'll be spin offs of Megan. There's going to be stuff like that and that's fine. And people will want to see multiple versions of the same movie.
[00:30:50] Speaker C: Just imagine Megan in space.
[00:30:53] Speaker D: I mean I'm on board for that one. Particularly if they do a Megan and Freddie and Jason and the leprechaun in space. It's a four way crossover.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: What I'll say is a 24. Do an idea, do it really well and then let something else break.
[00:31:08] Speaker D: Although we did get five critics movies.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: And then Blumhouse do the. Well, this worked. We know it works and it's got a template so we'll keep pumping them out. But they're both doing creative horror in the same way. They're both giving people that opportunity. As the first go of. Could you imagine like Ari Aster going to someone like Universal or Paramount and pitching Midsummer to them?
You can imagine if he kicked out.
[00:31:30] Speaker C: The door straight away.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm going to shoot a horror movie on the brightest day of the year and it's going to be. Everything's going to be really well lit for the most of the film. But it's like that won't fly with a big studio exec.
[00:31:44] Speaker D: It'll be interesting to see how 28 years later does when that comes out next year again.
[00:31:50] Speaker C: I hated the last one, so.
[00:31:53] Speaker D: Yeah, it's not. I Mean, there's interesting things.
[00:31:56] Speaker C: I rarely ever turn films off. Halfway through that one I did like, I liked the first 28 days later but 28 weeks later I just. Halfway through I was like, I'm done, I'm fed up with this.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: I think it wasn't, it wasn't divorced enough from the first film. If they did 28 months later that might have been more interesting. I think.
[00:32:13] Speaker C: No, it's because Robert Carlyle was an idiot and like everything stemmed off the back of that. And I just was like everyone in this movie is too stupid to live.
[00:32:22] Speaker A: Escaping on a canal barge.
[00:32:26] Speaker D: But I think there's enough, there's enough talent out there and young directors who are, you know, horror isn't a genre that's going to go away in a hurry. So I think having. Having studios that are prepared to kind of, you know, nurture that.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And kind of go, yeah, we're gonna.
[00:32:42] Speaker D: We'Re gonna make these films because they will find their audiences. They always do.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And I was thinking like back to the days of like what you call it, but what was the one who made term?
It was a big 80s production company who went bust canon. Yeah, those kind of, those kind of studios were fun to play with originally show ideas quite a lot or delve into authors backstories and say like pull out something like the Running man, which was a short story and turn that into something completely different.
[00:33:13] Speaker D: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. At some point even distributors might delve into kind of film production because I know you've got companies like Arrow Films which put out a lot of this kind of like schlocky type stuff. And you wonder whether, you know, if the deeds came they might start and did their own productions shout factory or is in America when you've got umbrella in Australia. So whether they can, you know, do that to kind of nurture these club.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Together and just had the local release version.
[00:33:44] Speaker D: I think the big studios are just not, they're just. It doesn't generate. If it doesn't generate a billion dollars, big studios aren't interested anymore. So I think.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: And that was the thing. Apparently Hollywood's at its lowest ever production amount of films being made in Hollywood because everybody's just going elsewhere. They're going to Bulgaria, they're going to Vermont, they're going to Romania. They're going to places where you can make a film quite reasonably inexpensively because Hollywood's so expensive to make anything now. Which it means that you have to make a billion dollars to be worth putting the Production hours in.
It's nice that we're having this two kind of dichotomies at the center of really expensive franchise movies and then fun independent stuff that you can go and watch.
[00:34:24] Speaker C: It's even better that we're seeing the franchise stuff just dying on its ass and then the independent interesting stuff is actually doing better.
[00:34:31] Speaker A: Well if you look at every single thing that's coming out for a big studio, it's either a sequel or a remake or a reboot at the moment. And they've run out of ideas basically because they're not fostering that new talent. And that mid series that used to be filled by the DVD market has completely disappeared. So you've either got the brand new directors who are working with stuff like A24 and Blumhouse who is kind of these film school grads who maybe done a few shorts, done something independently and then they're getting nurtured by them, or you've got people like Francis Ward Copper making Megalopolis.
[00:35:01] Speaker C: Oh Jesus.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: And that's it. That's the, that's, that's the only thing you want to say about that middle range of films which is where a lot of directors cut their teeth in the past and disappeared. So it's either, it's the same names repeat Martin Scorsese still making movies and that should have, that guy should have retired 20 years ago. Let somebody else have a go. Spielberg still making movies like these are directors from the 70s and 80s who lived in the cult zone, lived in the low budget movies.
[00:35:28] Speaker D: Well technically Spielberg's first movie is a horror movie.
[00:35:31] Speaker C: Yeah, Jewel is a horror movie.
[00:35:35] Speaker A: It's like Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg. These people are still making the big block franchise and not letting anybody else take the reins. The only people who've kind of broken is people like Denis Villeneuve and he started off in that mid level. If you think about Arrival, that's kind of a mid kind of franchise movie and that's one of the last kind of mid budget movies. And then he proves cut his teeth but it's gone.
But to wrap this up, do you think any other kind of genres of cinema are going to go the horror franchise and move more into the independent space?
[00:36:07] Speaker C: I think like your sort of mention of sci fi, I could see that happening because obviously just because so much of the Hollywood space just wants big franchise sci fi, even things like Dune. It's a franchise because it's a book and there was obviously a previous adaptation. But I think there's plenty of like interesting sci fi ideas. That just probably aren't getting off the ground. And I could see studios like A24 especially being like, yeah, we could pick that up. As long as it can be made on a reasonable budget.
[00:36:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's the thing with sci fi. You don't have to have giant CGI spaceships in space.
Sam, any kind of genres, you think?
[00:36:47] Speaker B: I do agree sci fi would work well. I was just thinking. I can't remember the name. I was trying to look it up, but the Internet's not working on my phone. But A24 have just released a trailer for a sort of fantasy family film called something like the Spirit of the O or something.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: Give me a minute.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: Thank you.
It was my trailer of the week a couple of weeks ago and it's just completely. The name has gone out of my head. But it looks really like sort of good old fashioned fantasy film. And apparently it's been so compared to pre Lord of the Rings, the Legend of Oatchi Ochi. Thank you. I knew it began with an O, but yeah. Yes, Legend of Ochi, which if you haven't seen the trailer, look it up because it does look like a lot of fun, but it is that sort of that independent feel to it.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
Awesome. Keith, any genres you'd like to come back or do you think?
[00:37:50] Speaker D: I think there's. I think there isn't a genre that can't be. I mean, sci fi, fantasy, animation, comedy, West. Yeah, any of these things really, you know, can be. It just needs a studio to think beyond the bounds of the bottom line.
And I think it all comes down to the creatives themselves. You know, if you've got a really good idea with a really good story, the studios need to be embracing that and audiences need good stories that, you know, it doesn't matter what genre it is. Tell me a good story and I will be on board. It doesn't matter if it's a romance or a comedy or an animation or western or whatever it is. If the story at the heart of it and the characters are good and I connect with it and get something out of it, I will go and watch it. I can bounce between watching Alien Romulus a few weeks ago and the Wild Robot more recently, two wildly different movies. But, you know, I wouldn't want to be in a world where I don't get the choice of either. There'll be some that I don't want to watch. But I think studios need to think.
We need to trust the creatives. We need to be telling stories. And that's what cinema has always been about exposing people and giving people the chance to tell all these stories. It's why cinema changed from silent to talkies. The big change in the 60s and the 70s, the more kind of urban type grounded film, the rise of sci fi in the, in the mid-70s and beyond, and the kind of, you know, the stupid comedies in the kind of, you know, early 80s, 90s and whatever. So I think the independent studios are the places where they can just go, if it's a good idea and a good story, then we want to be making it and let the audience decide.
[00:39:39] Speaker C: I did actually think of another genre that can work well on low budgets and have franchise potential, and that is the mystery genre. Because as soon as you put a detective character on screen, it's like, well, now you can give them multiple cases and there you have.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: It's worked for Knives Out. Yeah, Knives out and yeah, you don't need those kind of stellar cast names to make a, A mystery movie work. Yeah. Well, anyway, to wrap up, go and support independent new ideas, innovative ideas in the cinema, maybe step away from the franchise schlock for a little bit. But yeah, if there is stuff that you fancy, take a try on a new idea, take a try on a new franchise, you might end up really loving it and it might be the next big hit that you don't expect.
[00:40:26] Speaker E: Hi, I'm Richie. My. I go by the name Necro. It's my artist title. That's the first time I've said that out loud.
[00:40:34] Speaker D: Artist.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:34] Speaker E: I mainly work in horror, whether that's practical, digital painting, drawing, you name it.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: What was your first experience of horror?
[00:40:45] Speaker E: The Bride of Frankenstein. It was the first time I really paid attention to a movie and it was the first time I ever evoked an emotion other than laughter. And I fell in love ever since.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: What is about horror as a genre that inspires you?
[00:40:59] Speaker E: I think it covers every other subgenre, whether that's comedy, romance, drama. There's a horror subgenre to go by with that. So it just appeals to me if.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: There was a particular theme amongst most horror films that you kind of connect with, regardless of what type of horror it is.
[00:41:19] Speaker E: I don't know, because it changes in waves.
[00:41:22] Speaker D: It.
[00:41:22] Speaker E: So some moments I'm really into Italian splatter giallo and then I'm into apocalyptic. The end of the world nuclear threat. And then I'm into slashers. Sleazy, classy. It just comes and goes in different ways really, depending. I think it's a reflection on my mood really.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: What is it about getting horror into art?
[00:41:46] Speaker E: I think the whole aesthetic of it appeals to me. The dark aesthetic. They're almost cartoonish to a degree. And because I love animation also, I think it just appeals to me on both the quarters.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:58] Speaker A: What is about art as a medium to get your that onto paper or onto whatever medium you choose?
[00:42:05] Speaker E: Quite a boring answer, really. It's the one thing I'm really good at because I'm so good at it that I've just zeroed in and I've just honed and I'd love to say perfected, but I think we all improve and we all evolve every year. It's still a work in progress.
[00:42:20] Speaker A: Have you found your favorite art medium yet?
[00:42:22] Speaker E: No, it's quite bipolar. My methods are. I latch on to different techniques. If I'm not good at it immediately, I don't want to do it anymore. The one thing that I would love to perfect is practical painting, the use of acrylics, the Graham Humphries aesthetic. Essentially, I want to do really good old school hammer horror. Really nice compositions.
[00:42:43] Speaker A: How did this event at the Hive turn around?
[00:42:45] Speaker E: Naomi, who runs the monthly workshops, came up to me last year after I hosted a workshop that was Halloween themed. And she asked me, do you want to have some do an exhibition next year? Halloween exhibitions, they've never done it before. Naturally I jumped to it, the opportunity. And originally it was going to be in a really smaller area and it was going to be the wood burning pyrography portraits and. But when I found out that I could use a larger space, not the main gallery, but a larger space, it just trickled down from there.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: So it went from the wood burnings.
[00:43:19] Speaker E: To my practical paintings, to having some of my graphic design work in magazines and books. And then it led to a four hour mixtape that I lovingly made on VHS that unfortunately not a lot of people know about or know how to work, so.
[00:43:36] Speaker A: So why did she use VHS as a medium and not DVD or streaming nostalgia?
[00:43:41] Speaker E: I think it's. It fits the aesthetic. And there's something about seeing footage from a movie that came out two years ago, three years ago, in all of its HD quality de evolve into a vhs. There's a nice juxtaposition there.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: So there's a personal connection between you and vhs.
[00:43:57] Speaker E: Horror, purely aesthetic. It's the artwork I love. It almost comes across as a lie because what you're promised isn't necessarily what you're. What you get. But there's something about that that's quite alluring to me, which is why I did a front cover VHS style poster that really is like overblown and over the top.
That was done on purpose.
[00:44:18] Speaker A: If there's a particular moment in horror, what do you think is. What would you say is that defining.
[00:44:23] Speaker C: Horror moment for you?
[00:44:24] Speaker E: It changes again. But I think the one that stayed consistent system is the ending of the Wicker Man. I think it's one of the most haunting, beautiful movie scenes ever. Not just horror movies. I think it is a piece of art. The last 10 minutes of the Wicker Man.
[00:44:43] Speaker A: If people want to see it and they're not able to come down to the Hive, where can they find more information about you and your work?
[00:44:48] Speaker E: Yes. So if you follow me on Instagram, which is Necrone style, you can find me there. You can also find my work around the Birmingham area. You always see. Anytime you see Necro, that's definitely me.
[00:45:02] Speaker A: And this event's until the end of the month.
[00:45:04] Speaker E: It's been extended till the 5th of November.
[00:45:07] Speaker A: If anybody wants to reach out for a commission or anything, where do they reach out to you?
[00:45:11] Speaker E: Email me, contact me on Instagram. And yeah, I'm not hard to find.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: Looking further afield than our usual kind of homegrown or US based horror. Thought it'd be interesting to pick out a foreign language horror film each and talk about why we really like it, why it's impactful and why it's successful. So I'm going to start off with Sam.
[00:45:39] Speaker B: I think there's quite a lot that I like, but I think I'm going to go with Pan's Labyrinth.
Guillermo del Toro's done several excellent horror films in particularly in the Spanish language. So he did the Devil's Backbone before Pan's Labyrinth and Kronos as well.
But Pan's Labyrinth is the one that most people are probably more aware of.
It gave us one of the best movie monsters ever. I think in the Pale man really like not even there that long. He's only in like a 15, 20 minute sequence of that notable horror actor.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: Doug Jones, I believe.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. Yeah.
But just such an impact, like such a memorable character.
Like I was saying before, there's a bit of a sort of message behind it. It's all about the Spanish Civil War and the sort of impact of Franco.
It's yeah, just a really beautiful kind of fairy tales type horror film. I love anything that has a good sort of mythology behind it. And this really does sort of delve into that quite spectacularly.
Yeah. And yeah, happily watch anything by GMO Toro.
[00:47:09] Speaker A: But yeah, I think he's kind of crafted himself. As we talked about in the previous segment, the Hellboy movies are quite well regarded. I mean, Pacific Rim's one of my favorite kind of schlocky. Big robots fighting big monsters. Can't really beat that other big screen.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: Have a big budget and do what you want. And him going, right, I'm going to make some massive action figures and just smash them together.
But, yeah, great.
[00:47:33] Speaker A: But, yeah, but he's always kind of delved into, as you said, mythology and those kind of twisted stories. And I think that was why he was a perfect kind of director for the Hellboy franchise, because he worked really well on how Mike Mignola takes folktale and horror and blends that into the comic book for the brd. But, yeah, I mean, it's a film I've never actually watched is Pan's Labyrinth. It's one of those films that's been on my watch list for a very long time. But sell it to me. Recommend it.
[00:48:05] Speaker B: So, okay, so, yeah, if you haven't watched it, it's basically about a young girl who.
Her and her mother go to live with her mother's new husband, who's this Spanish general and is an utterly deplorable human being.
Just really horrible to his wife. No interest whatsoever in her daughter.
So the daughter sort of escapes into a bit of a fantasy world.
She meets a faun called Pan who basically sends her on a bit of a quest to.
Trying to remember. It's been a while since I've watched it, actually. But so, yeah, basically she's trying to save her mother, who is. I think she's pregnant but having a difficult pregnancy.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: This sounds very familiar to the Boy and the Heron in a weird kind of parallel way.
[00:49:12] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah, I can see that.
But, yeah, it's all about basically how the.
The General is the real monster. But there's also some definite actual monsters that she has to contend with as well, I think.
[00:49:30] Speaker A: Definitely worth a try.
[00:49:31] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:49:33] Speaker A: Keith, how about yourself?
[00:49:35] Speaker D: All right, so I'm not going very far. I'm not going to Mexico. I'm only going across the Channel to France. And it's a film that I bang on about people who are prepared to listen or unprepared to listen every Halloween. Because it's one of my favorite movies. I like to watch it each kind of Halloween season. And it's Christoph Ganz's Brotherhood of the Wolf.
[00:49:54] Speaker C: Oh, not Silent Hill.
[00:49:56] Speaker D: No, it's Brotherhood of the Wolf, 2001. It's a werewolf movie, obviously. So I love a good werewolf movie. And basically it's set during the French Revolution, 18th century France kind of starts off. It's. It's based around some true events that actually happened, a series of murders that were happening in a particular region of France.
And the story basically involves a knight who teams up with a Native American to investigate all of these murders. And as time goes on and more bodies pile up, it eventually comes about that the murders are being committed by a werewolf, and the werewolf effects are done by Jim Henson's Creature Workshop with some CGI enhancements to make it.
[00:50:39] Speaker C: I was just imagining the werewolf as a Muppet.
[00:50:41] Speaker D: Hey, man, don't knock it. Don't knock it.
If you haven't seen it, obviously.
[00:50:47] Speaker C: Yes, I've seen Labyrinth, so I know that they can.
[00:50:50] Speaker A: Fantastic monster.
[00:50:51] Speaker D: And so it's unusual because it also stars Martin Dracos, who was the original live action crime fiendman. So it's weird in a way that it's a werewolf movie set in revolutionary France, which features squash, squash, buckling, swashbuckling, sword action and martial arts and a.
[00:51:09] Speaker A: Little bit of anime thrown in there.
[00:51:11] Speaker D: So what else would you want from a movie? You know, big hats, fancy costumes, history, romance, werewolves, blood, martial arts and swords. You know, it's just. It's one of the best werewolf movies I've ever went. I've ever seen. There's a. There's a theatrical cut which has been readily available. And then I think last year they put out a 4K release which you can buy from your local shop of choice, which had the director's cut, which is slightly reworked, adds a couple of extra scenes and stuff, which is really cool. But it's a film I bang on to people every year when they go, oh, I'm looking for something new to watch. Watch Brotherhood of the Wolf. It's a great movie. I kind of discovered it randomly back in 2001. I don't know how.
I think it was just because it was a werewolf movie. And I went and went and saw it because I like werewolf movies. And I was like, that's great. I think it's partially influenced by the Matrix. So the kind of martial arts bit, I think very wushu is coming from kind of like the fact that the Matrix is very popular. But I thought. I thought it was great. I just loved it. It's ridiculous and silly in parts, but also really cool and quite good.
[00:52:23] Speaker A: So a detective drama, revolutionary France, Matrix.
[00:52:26] Speaker D: Inspired historical drama, kung fu, sword fighting. Yeah.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: Detective, yeah.
[00:52:32] Speaker D: Well, you've got the.
[00:52:33] Speaker A: Basically Freeman Anime.
[00:52:35] Speaker D: The corporate are investigating the series of murders, so you've got that kind of, like, investigation thing going on. So, you know, a little bit of a. Kind of like, you know, the. The Name of the Rose kind of, you know, historical stuff going on with the. Kind of trying to solve dramas, but with a bit of kung fu and sword fighting and werewolves, obviously, which is kind of cool.
[00:52:55] Speaker C: So.
[00:52:55] Speaker D: Yeah, so that's my pick. And he's in French and Italian and German and Native American, so there's lots of foreign languages in it. So it's all good.
[00:53:03] Speaker A: It's so like a proper melting pot of a film.
It sounds like they just went all the ideas.
[00:53:10] Speaker D: It was 2001. Yeah. Just stick them in a pot. But it's a great. It's a Hollywood. It's a Halloween staple for me. I love it. It's.
It's probably a bit cheesy in parts and stuff, but I think it's great.
[00:53:23] Speaker A: Lee, how about yourself?
[00:53:25] Speaker C: Okay, so I was giving this some thought, and obviously my immediate thought was the Ring, but, like, everyone knows about the Ring, but I thought of a Korean movie, a tale of two sisters. So it is basically, it is effectively a ghost story. Sort of, kind of. It's very. It's a very. It's. It's one of those movies. Basically. Basically, it's about, like, as the title implies, it's about two sisters. And, like, they've got, like, this stepmother that they have a bad relationship with. And, like, the older sister tries to protect the younger sister from the mother, but then there's, like, a lot of stuff going on in the house that's, like, not normal.
And it just sort of has this, like, constantly tense atmosphere where you're never sure what's kind of real or not. And there's just this obviously, like, the sort of relationship these girls have with their mother, with their stepmother being as bad as it is. Like, that's kind of a source of the horror as well. So it's got kind of got that realistic element to it where, like, it's not just like, there might be a ghost in the house. It's also just, like, a lot of the tension comes from just that tense family relationship. And it just kind of all kind of builds up to this twist that's, like, obviously not to spoil it, but, like, makes you kind of go, oh, wow, okay. That just really, like, redefines everything I just saw.
And, yeah, just. It's. Like I said, it's just. It's all atmosphere for, like, a good two hours.
[00:54:55] Speaker A: Like, An M. Night Chand twist. But good, basically.
[00:54:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
But, yeah, like, it's. It's. I remember getting it sort of recommended to me and watching it with the person who recommended it to me, and because they were like, you really need to see this film.
And one of the main things, the main memories I have of watching that movie is again, very tense atmosphere, very slow build. Lots of slow buildups to things. During one of these moments, that was when my cat decided to just burst through the door, then looked at us and then just left.
[00:55:37] Speaker A: What are you watching? Nah.
[00:55:41] Speaker C: But yeah, it was. It's just. It's such a really good. It's one of. It's part of what I. It's. It's part of the list of films that are like. I've never seen a Korean film I dislike. In fact, every Korean film I've seen, I've loved. It's. It's like, I haven't seen a lot of them, but, like, that's. Yeah, it's pretty consistent. Yeah.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: I think I've seen all of Bong Joon Hoo's.
[00:56:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:56:01] Speaker A: But he's a fantastic director, so I don't think he's had a misstep so far.
Yeah, that sounds really interesting. So when you said, like, the twin sisters, I'm thinking, like, is this that. What was that photo game that you really like?
[00:56:11] Speaker C: Fatal frame 2.
[00:56:12] Speaker A: Fatal frames. Is it like kind of that Fatal Frame 2 vibe?
[00:56:15] Speaker C: No, no. Because no one has a camera.
[00:56:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Cool. So I'm gonna go slightly different, as always. I'm not gonna pick the Black Hole this year because that's in the English language, but it is Disney's only horror movie. Go and watch it.
[00:56:27] Speaker C: Those Americans, those foreigners.
[00:56:30] Speaker A: But I'm gonna go with what is traditionally classed as an action film, but I think it lives on the cusp of the horror franchise, which is Battle Royale, which released back in 2000. So 25th anniversary next year. But it kind of. I think I watched it pretty much on release or not, if not released straight afterwards. And I'd read the book by Kushin Takami, which is fantastic. Really. It's a completely different take the film. What? Read the book as well. I think it's really worth reading it. But it was when I was really into my kind of anime, which I was thinking, do I do Perfect Blue, which is the quintessential anime horror film? Do I do the End of Evangelion, which is, again, an action franchise that descends into pure horror towards the end of it, to be honest. And Fanta, lots of Fanta. But I thought Battle Royale because as I said, I was reading To Beat Takeshi stuff at the time. Classic Japanese workman actor being in pretty much everything. So really good actor if you ever watch him. But it's basically a totalitarian government has taken over in Japan after the recession and they want to curb youth violence and juvenile delinquency. So it's very much as it's time, the late 90s, early 2000s. So what they do is once a year they pick a random junior high school school, send them to an island, and only one kid comes back, basically. So it's a kind of battle for survival between a class of about 20, 20, 30 children.
So it's one of my all time favorite films and I think it has inspired so much other genre stuff since then. Squid Games, definitely. Hunger Games is quite blatantly, scratch the name off and you'll probably find off the serial number. But I love the bit at the start where it's kind of, you get all the kids in the class and it's kind of their teacher who got stabbed beforehand gets reintroduced to is Beat Takeshi and he's kind of like the kids aren't believing it and then he just pops one of their heads in the middle of the class. And everybody's just like, okay, this is like the true horror of it is anybody could die at any moment. And then it does kind of fall into that kind of actiony drama of you've got to keep out of these zones at a certain time or your head will explode. And it's just man against man. It's that kind of how far would you go to save your own life? And there is kind of the suicide packs and everything else going on it. And there's a really nice interesting twist in it, which is basically they get a random item at the start and it could be really useful. It could be completely pointless. But ingenious ways of how they use those items actually do work out later on in the. In the film. It's one of. It's.
It did have a sequel which was Requiem, which isn't as great, but it's still a good film. I think it still works as a kind of follow up to that movie, but it is one of the best kind of if you were pitched against your friends and your classmates, who's going to make it out? And it's kind of that whole thing around friendships and how far would you go to save your own skin?
[00:59:41] Speaker D: I mean, it was so influential that there's A comic Marvel now in the kind of mid 2000s, did basically battle Royale, but with superheroes. It was called Avengers Arena. Dennis Hopeless and Kevin Walker. And it was basically just that. A bunch of superheroes chucked on an island and it was, you've got to kill each other off. And it's a great series. It's really brutal in a way, but it was. I mean, even the first issue, the poster is basically the Battle Royale poster.
[01:00:11] Speaker C: And you gotta remember there's an entire video game genre that shares a name. It's basically everyone's on an island and has to kill each other until one person's left. So, you know, is that the two.
[01:00:22] Speaker A: Week video game where. Any chance.
[01:00:24] Speaker C: What?
[01:00:25] Speaker A: Fortnite?
[01:00:26] Speaker C: Fortnite, yes.
Somehow I didn't put that together, but.
[01:00:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it's inspired so much other things from it. And it's kind of such a viral thing. And it does have its roots in horror. It's a messy film and lots of gore and lots of blood and lots of horrible creeping moments and kind of some people just treat as an opportunity to do all the things that they want to. And it's kind of like typing into that deep part of the human psyche of if there's no rules, what would I do?
[01:00:57] Speaker B: I remember watching it and thinking, why are so many of these schoolchildren psychopaths?
[01:01:02] Speaker D: Have you met schoolchildren?
[01:01:05] Speaker C: But I'm wondering if like it's sort of again, because so much of it is like a commentary on like probably where the Japanese government was going at the time.
[01:01:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:01:14] Speaker C: Like, you know, we need to track, cut down on youth delinquency. So it was sort of kind of imagining what if we took that to a logical extreme or whatever. It's sort of. I kind of can see them like the kids being psychopaths because of how rigid a lot of Japanese like school structures are. You sort of see like the more rebellious kids being thinking like, oh, this is the perfect opportunity to sort of do whatever and kind of break out of that.
[01:01:39] Speaker D: I mean, it's. It's a trope in a sense. I mean, it's a riff on, on Lord of the Flies and stuff as well. So it's kind of like. It's not entirely new idea, but it's kind of like taken to an extreme and plonked into a scenario which everybody could think that could have been because it hooks into, you know, people of a certain age as well. If you were kind of a teenager, mid early 20s or whatever it is, you're thinking this could have Been us.
[01:02:05] Speaker A: But the thing that I like about all of our choices is even though they're completely different choices, they still have the same linked with horror, which is reality, but one step removed. To a certain extent. Everything we've talked about is kind of. Well, you can imagine a serial killer in.
[01:02:23] Speaker D: Based around these series of horrific murders that happened in France. And it ends with the horror of the French Revolution, the execution and the guillotine. So it ends with. It doesn't end with the werewolf doing anything. It ends with the horror of man on man.
[01:02:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And same with Sam, with your choice. It's kind of the real horror in that film is the stepfather of the film.
[01:02:47] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:02:48] Speaker A: And again, same with yours, Lee. You can kind of. You can see that happening again. It's the familiar lesson we can learn.
[01:02:54] Speaker C: From our few films is never trust your step parents. There's an important lesson.
[01:03:00] Speaker B: They already know that from all Disney films.
[01:03:04] Speaker A: But isn't that some of the best horror where it's that close to reality, your mind can. If you can make that tiny little leap in your head, you can imagine it happening.
[01:03:12] Speaker C: It's definitely telling that, like one of the things I remember the most from A Tale of Two Sisters is a shot of a hallway. There's nothing in the hallway. It's just a shot of a hallway. But I remember it really well because of just everything that. Just that hallway of a. In the context of the film. So.
[01:03:31] Speaker D: Well, it was like you saying earlier, it's you. You're filling in the blanks. You're actually creating the horror of your own.
[01:03:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:03:41] Speaker A: It is time for our regular roundup of the thing that has been taking our most geeky interest since we last met.
One geek thing. So I'm going to start off with Keith. What's one geek thing been?
[01:03:54] Speaker D: My one geek thing was something I discovered when I was looking for some Australian television to watch.
[01:04:01] Speaker C: Very specific thing to do. It is.
[01:04:04] Speaker D: I kind of like Australian stuff or New Zealand stuff because I think the sensibility of Australian and New Zealand TV is very much more like British.
[01:04:11] Speaker C: Just go look up old clips of Round the Twist when there must be.
[01:04:15] Speaker A: Some really good Australian comedies buried on BBC Iplayer recently.
[01:04:20] Speaker D: So on Amazon prime, this is. So you need access to that particular service, which is a shame. I discovered a show called Deadlock, which on the surface appears to be an Australian noir detective show in the likes of. I don't know, whatever the dreary detective noir shows that are on other channels that I don't watch because they're dreary detective noir shows, but this is set in Tasmania, Australia, which you would expect to be all bright and nice and shiny because it's Australia and it's sunny, but it's literally shot like it's a Scandinavian noir film and everything is dark and gray and muted and it's basically bodies start piling up. Detectives need to figure out who the killer is.
[01:05:07] Speaker B: Is it a werewolf?
[01:05:08] Speaker D: It's not a werewolf. It's not a werewolf in this occasion. It's more. It's more real, but it's funny because.
[01:05:13] Speaker C: It'S more real, but that doesn't imply that it's entirely real. Is it a vamp vampire?
[01:05:19] Speaker D: I will leave you to. I won't spoil it. It's eight episodes. I won't spoil it because it is great. What's great about it is, is unlike those other very po faced detective shows where it's all very dour and whatever it is, this feels like real life. And what would happen if it actually happened in a crazy town in Australia where there's, you know, some serious stuff, but also the levity of what life is like in a small town, Australia. And it's hilariously funny. Black as the darkest, deepest reaches of space. And beautifully played by all of the performers. Predominantly female cast of all, like a complete diverse range of actors from all corners of Australian communities.
And it's just brilliant. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's really funny, really great. The final twist in the final episode because you're trying to figure out the mystery as it goes along and it does kind of twist and turn, but the final reveal just before it happens, the penny does drop.
And it was great because I hadn't guessed it before the final episode. I was kind of. It could be. But when they didn't make the reveal, everything just slots into pace perfectly. And you just think this is really good. And there's, you know, there's a bit of gross comedy humor in there as well and, you know, lots of sex talk and all the rest of it. And there's. There's a, an ample amount of nudity as well in there in parts sold.
But it's just weird and funny and kind of, you know, it's. If you love things like what we do in the shadows or Wellington Paranormal or any kind of Australian thing, I mean, there's elements of like neighbours and homing away and stuff. There's just something about that Australian sense of like. Yeah, but, you know, let's not take it too seriously. Oh, there's a dead body. But Like I want a beer. You know, it's. It's like, you know, there's a. There's a postulated dead body floating in the thing. But what am I gonna have for my tea? You know, it's that kind of sense of like this is happening but real life still happens at the same time. And it's wonderfully played. It's just been renewed for a second season which is kind of teed up in the final scene of the last episode. So I'm glad they're getting another season. But the actors bounce off each other beautifully.
It's just wonderfully played. And because it's set in Australia, but looks like it was set in Scandinavia because of the way they've color graded it and everything.
[01:07:52] Speaker A: It's just grey filter on everything.
[01:07:54] Speaker D: It's just brilliant. And it kind of takes a dig at kind of those po faced serious detective dramas elsewhere.
[01:08:01] Speaker A: Do they all wear chunky knit jumpers?
[01:08:04] Speaker D: There's a chunky knit jumper to be seen occasionally on episodes. And the horror elements of the murders.
[01:08:10] Speaker C: And stuff, it's impressive in Australia.
[01:08:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I was gonna say because the chunky knit jumper is the kind of standard for Tasmania.
[01:08:16] Speaker D: So it's kind of northern Australia. So it's a little bit chillier. But it's kind of like.
It's just wonderfully done. And the horror elements are there the same. So if you kind of like Dexter or your Hannibal's you're getting that element of like murders, you know, so they're not like just po face murders that you know. These are quite brutal. You know, they are quite serious killings are happening. But it's great. I loved it. We found it and consumed it over. Well, not binged it because I like. We like to have time to digest it. But I highly recommend it. It's Deadlock D E A D L O C H which is the name of the town that it all takes place in. And that's on Amazon Prime. So seek it out if you've got access to that.
[01:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah. And don't know if it's the case with just streaming at the moment. That's found Australian tv, but it seems to be having a bit of a golden run at the moment. Australian New Zealand tv because there's so much stuff that we're watching. So like Viv and I have just finished watching Colin from Account Series 2 on iPlayer, which is fantastic. Please go and watch that if you've not seen it. It's a fantastic show. And there's Fisk, also on Netflix is a really great kind of Aussie comedy show. But yeah, Deadlock sounds really fun. I like.
[01:09:22] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean if you like Fisk and stuff, it's basically that with murders and a kind of grey tone, color grade and stuff.
But yeah, it's great. I love it.
[01:09:32] Speaker A: Awesome. Sam, how about yourself? What's been your one geek thing?
[01:09:36] Speaker B: I've been watching. So sticking with Amazon prime, the Legend of Vox Machina, which this third season has just finished. So time Recording, I think the last few episodes came out yesterday.
And for anyone who hasn't seen it before, it's kind of spun off from Critical Role, which is a group of wonderfully nerdy voice actors playing Dungeons and Dragons and recording their games. So that's all on YouTube.
But obviously because they're all voice actors, at one point they thought we could just do a program where we do our like the stuff that happened in the D and D game and we voice all the characters.
They did a Kickstarter campaign to try and earn.
I think they were hoping for 750 grand to make about an episode and they ended up getting something like 11 million because it was so popular. Yes. So they got the series and that obviously then got renewed a couple of times. I believe a fourth season has been announced.
[01:10:48] Speaker C: Fourth season has been announced, yeah.
[01:10:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
And it's brilliant. It's so it's D and D based, so it's all fantasy, all fantasy characters.
But because they've obviously occupied their D and D characters for so long and they know the characters so well, that really kind of feels like it comes across nicely in the performances. So they're just well written, well thought out characters.
Series has quite a lot of like nods to the mechanics of D and D as well.
There'll be like rocks in the shape of a 20 sided die popping up in the background and that sort of thing. But also there's a sort of running joke in their campaign that they always struggle with doors and there's a few scenes in Volks Machina where they just cannot open a door.
So yeah, season three though has been particularly good.
So it's continuing straight on from season two. So it's basically about them trying to fight against a group of dragons called the Chroma Conclave.
And they're collecting these MacGuffins basically that will help them fight the dragons.
I won't say too much about what happens, but the action scenes are really exciting, dynamic things to watch.
There's one particular scene in episode five where it's just the most epic kind of battle and it's set up beautifully because you can see what's coming from quite early in the episode. And as soon as it comes, you can tell the writers know that they've got a good thing that's gonna be very cinematic to watch. And, yeah, it's really exciting. There's proper kind of high stakes every. No, no one's that safe.
And, yeah, I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. I really recommend watching it from the beginning if you haven't before. But, yeah, thank you.
[01:13:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I've only seen, like, the first season of it. I've seen, like, the first. Like, the whole first campaign, but I haven't seen beyond the first season just because I'm bad at keeping up with TV shows.
[01:13:21] Speaker B: Fair enough.
[01:13:22] Speaker A: Sounds like it's definitely worth a watch if you're into D and D. And, yeah, critical Role is a massive success.
[01:13:29] Speaker B: Even if you're not into D and D. If you just like fantasy stuff in general, it's just a really good adult animation.
[01:13:34] Speaker C: What I like about what I saw of it is the fact that they do keep in a lot of the sort of humor of the table. So, like, all the joking around that they do has very clearly made it in there in tone. Yes.
[01:13:48] Speaker B: Awesome.
[01:13:49] Speaker A: Lee, how about yourself?
[01:13:50] Speaker C: Well, continuing on from, like, animated adaptations and also things that I've only watched a tiny bit of but need to watch more of. I've watched the first episode of the Tomb Raider anime that's come out on Netflix, and I've really enjoyed that first episode. So basically, it is sort of. It's. I think they're kind of their first attempt at trying to sort of connect up, like, the reboot trilogy with the sort of classic games. So it sort of obviously brings in a lot of elements from that reboot trilogy. So, like, her friend Jonah still hanging around for some reason, I still don't know why he's still there.
You've also got, like, you know, obviously she's sort of got a lot of memories of, like, being on. On the island and the 2013 Game and Things like that. And then the sort of. They've kept some of. Annoyingly, they've still kept some of the elements of, like, oh, but she's got trauma. I'm like, okay, but at some point she needs to deal with it. But, like, there's a.
So she's got a lot of sort of memories of Roth, who's, like, the mentor character who was in the 2013 game, which. Who's voiced by Nolan north, which is just baffling to me, that, like, Effectively, her mentor is Nathan Drake. And I'm like, no, it's the other way around.
But, yeah, they got like. But they've definitely brought in more elements of the sort of classic Lara, a bit more.
She's a lot more sassy and jokey now, which I was really pleased to see.
And she's played by an actress who can do a more convincing posh British accent because it's Hayley Atwell this time around, who is very, very good at Larry. Like, as soon as. As soon as they announced Hayley Atwell, I was like, oh, she's going to do.
And then as soon as, like, I watched that first episode, I was like, she's doing a really good job.
I knew this would work out. But I just like the fact that they did let her sort of have some more jokey moments and stuff, because, like, that was one of my main problems. Reboot trilogy is just how just serious Lara was all the time.
[01:15:57] Speaker A: It was trauma, the video game, wasn't it?
[01:15:59] Speaker C: Like, Camilla Ludington's performance was just. I am tired and exasperated 100% of the time. I have no other moods. And it's like.
[01:16:08] Speaker A: To be honest, that's probably the note she got given.
[01:16:12] Speaker C: Yeah. It's almost certainly not her fault, but, you know.
But now they let. They let Lara kind of joke around. I'm trying to remember the. The bit which was. There was one bit which I really liked, where she just kind of was leaving a room and that was it. Like, I think, like, her friend was just like, well, I'm supposed to just hang around here in this spooky mansion. She's like, it's not spooky, it's Jacobean.
[01:16:39] Speaker A: Is there a butler?
[01:16:40] Speaker C: There is no butler. Yes.
[01:16:41] Speaker A: There is no freezer.
[01:16:42] Speaker C: No.
[01:16:44] Speaker D: You're only one episode in. So it's like, are there dinosaurs yet?
[01:16:48] Speaker A: I just wondered if they brought Chris Barry back because he did do a really good butler.
[01:16:53] Speaker C: He was wrong for the games, but love.
[01:16:56] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:16:57] Speaker C: But now I really enjoyed that first episode.
I have, like, seen one clip from a later episode where apparently she says something like, I've got to go to. Oh, no, I've got to go to the worst place in the world. And it jump cuts to Paris, to be fair.
So I'm looking forward to seeing more of that, sort of hopefully. But yeah, we've already seen some, like, adventuring stuff. They showed, like some flashback stuff where she's just kind of going into a tomb and stabbing a crocodile in the head. So I'm just like, that's Lara Croft. Good.
[01:17:30] Speaker A: So it's a great bridge for people who liked the new stuff and for people who enjoy the old stuff.
[01:17:35] Speaker C: So far, I'd say so. Yeah. Yeah, I'm enjoying it.
[01:17:38] Speaker A: Sounds really cool.
I'm going to pick Netflix as well, and I'm also going to pick animation. So I'm going to pick Mobile Suit Gundam Requiem for Vengeance, which has just dropped recently on Netflix. At the time of it, I'm losing.
[01:17:51] Speaker C: Track of how many Gundam series there are.
[01:17:54] Speaker A: So if you don't know the premise of Gundam, basically humanity is still on Earth, but most of it's moved out into what's known as sides, which are giant space stations living around the Earth in Lagrange Point orbit. So like there's six or seven giant space station groups, and they're all known as side 1, side 2, side 3, side 4. One of the sides declares independence, which is then becomes the Principality of Xeon. And then they go to war with Earth, mainly by dropping one of the giant space stations onto Australia, which seems to be always where the apocalyptic events happen in most of Stop Picking Australia.
[01:18:29] Speaker D: They make good TV shows.
[01:18:31] Speaker C: Does that plot point come up in Deadlock?
[01:18:34] Speaker D: Not in season one.
[01:18:35] Speaker A: But then that causes the One Year War, which is basically the main plot point of Universe. So there's so many different timelines in Gundam. It's an anime series that's been on since 1979. So of course there's 600 billion different ones, but basically there's Universal Century, which is the main Gundam franchise. So this is part of that, and it takes part the One Year War. But this one's slightly different because it takes the point of view of Zeon rather than the Earth Federation forces, which is usually the main kind of hero of the Gundam series. And it's also kind of a horror film in the fact that the Gundam is just like a giant slasher walking around. So you've got like these mobile suits, which is the giant mechs that people pilot it. So the main group is the Red Wolves Mobile Suit team. They're wearing Zakus, which are the big principality. It was Eon Mix. And the Gundam just turns up, wrecks shit, and just. It's just like a giant horror villain just comes across and just rips apart the entire team. And in the first episode, not many people survive on this original team. And Zack News have come to Earth to invade, basically. So the Gundam is known as the White Devil in Zeon Parliaments. And this is one of the Gundam suits. So it's not the RX78.2 is the main one from the franchise, but it's a very similar one. This one has glowing red eyes and he basically just comes in, destroys mobile suits, and then just the horrors of war happen around it.
The same with the Gundam franchise. It's very much not about the giant mix. It's about the characters who inhabit the giant mix to quite a lot. And it's really good. But it's basically just like the first episode is called Haunted Forest. So that tells you what you need to do. So this mobile suit team just wandering around in Romania trying to like move back because they're losing the battle on Earth.
And the Earth Federation Force comes in and then this giant Gundam just appears and starts just ripping apart squads, blowing up tanks and everything like that. And it's just. It's a really fast mobile suit. So it just jumps around everywhere and it's like hidden away and then it just appears and everybody's just shocked by it. So it's kind of a different take in the Gundam franchise. It's one of the first one. There has been CGI Gundam shows in the past, but this is the first time. I think Netflix have pumped a lot of money into it in partnership with Sunrise and Bandai to make this kind of a big thing. And it's also been made in Unreal Engine 5. So it's one of the first TV shows we made using solely Unreal Engine 5. So it's really nicely quality animation, but it is kind of what if a horror movie. But the main horror villain is a giant mobile suit and it's supposed to be the good guy.
So if you've not watched Gundam ever before, it's probably worth still having a watch of it. Something a bit different and you might get into the older Gundam stuff. I believe the original series has been three movies there on Netflix and quite a few of the other shows. So it's kind of one of those rabbit holes where you'll watch one episode and then you'll find out there's 35 different series you need to watch. And there's a giant map of how you get the red string out. And you say this one goes in here.
[01:21:44] Speaker D: And I thought Ultraman was bad.
[01:21:46] Speaker A: No, no, no. Gundam is insane when you get into the lore of it. And there is kind of so many different. So there's. I think there's five different centuries, which is how they describe the different timelines depending on what you do. So Gundam wings in its own timeline, loads of stuff. Universal Century is the main one which has Started off from the original Gundam series to now, but I would say it's worth a watch. Even if you don't like giant mechs. It's a slasher giant mech. Basically this map turns up and just scares everybody.
[01:22:16] Speaker D: Is there a Gunpla release that goes with it?
[01:22:18] Speaker A: There is a Gunpla release, of course, that's already been out.
[01:22:20] Speaker C: I'm pretty sure the series exists to sell the Gunpla.
[01:22:23] Speaker D: Yeah, it's like the masters of the universe of the modern age.
[01:22:29] Speaker C: Although I think Gundam proceeds, I think.
[01:22:32] Speaker A: Yet Gundam was 1979, I think.
[01:22:36] Speaker C: I feel like maybe a few years before. I feel like the American anime, like the companies in the 80s who were doing like He man and Transformers and stuff, got the idea from Gundam.
Looking over at Japan and being like, they've got a good thing going on.
[01:22:49] Speaker A: So gundam was. Yes. 1979 to present. So it's what, 45th anniversary?
[01:22:56] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:22:57] Speaker A: So five years time. That's gonna be really good. But yeah, so it's. It's a. It's kind of the one which is a real robot mecha. So it's kind of like, although it's far in the future, this is like how robots would actually work and do stuff. So it's fun. It's fun to watch. It's really weird. It's just having the other point of view because Zeon are always the bad guys and the invaders, they come down watching their kind of point of view on it. And the horrors of war from both sides is always.
[01:23:28] Speaker C: And I've seen how big a Gundam can be in real life.
[01:23:30] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:23:31] Speaker C: Because I've been to that island where they've got the real life.
[01:23:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, they've just done another one. I think it's kneeling down outside of a soccer expo. They do. I think they just basically make another one every year. One day they're just going to actually start walking around and we're going to be really scared. But yeah, it's the whole thing of what if this giant kind of thing that kills all your friends just turns up and you're like, oh God.
So it's a slasher but with giant robots. And that was our one things to recap.
[01:23:59] Speaker D: Keith Australian Detective Noir Deadlock Sam the.
[01:24:05] Speaker B: Legend of Vox Machina Lee the Tomb.
[01:24:08] Speaker C: Raider animated series whose name I can't actually remember.
[01:24:12] Speaker A: Alfme Gundam Requiem for Vintage that's the other thing. All Gundam series have a stupid subtitle.
Thank you for joining us on the geeky Brummie podcast this year. Shoe. Don't forget to like share, subscribe, do all the usual stuff. You know, where the buttons are around here, down there somewhere.
Keith, where can we find you Online?
[01:24:34] Speaker C: Online.
[01:24:35] Speaker D: I've moved out of X Tower pretty much. You know, there's probably a number on the door, but you can find me now instead on bluesky and. And Fred's and Instagram and stuff, but it's still just Hard Luck Hotel with whatever shenanigans they stick at the end of it. So find me there and then you will find me now mostly on Blue sky and Threads on the Wednesdays with the Comics roundup, which will take a slight format change coming up. So find out what I'm going to do with that in the next few weeks.
[01:25:01] Speaker A: The way you said threads reminded me of the 1984.
[01:25:05] Speaker D: I watched that the other way. I watched that the other day as part of a. We showed it to some students at work.
[01:25:09] Speaker A: I think they replayed it on BBC4, didn't they?
[01:25:11] Speaker D: It was the 40th anniversary. Yeah, the 40th reminder of like we just managed to avoid this. Just. Yeah, well, I've lost my tread now. Threads. Yeah, threads, yeah. So, yeah, social. It's what I say all the time. Hardlock Hotel. And if it isn't Count Doculat, it's probably me.
[01:25:30] Speaker A: Awesome. Sam, where can we find you?
[01:25:32] Speaker B: You can find me on Threads, Bluesky and Instagram as D. Edwards, 89.
And I'm also on the Geeky Primary website every Thursday doing the film Roundup.
[01:25:45] Speaker D: Awesome.
[01:25:46] Speaker A: Thank you, Lee, how about yourself?
[01:25:47] Speaker C: You can find me on YouTube @bobpetferret. I have a video that potentially could be four hours long coming out soon.
And you can also find me on blue sky at BobthePetferret and on the Geeky Brewing website every Friday doing the Games Roundup.
[01:26:06] Speaker A: And you can find me at Ryan Parish on Blued Sky.
Blued Sky.
[01:26:12] Speaker B: Blue Sky.
[01:26:13] Speaker A: It's my new production studio, Blued Sky. Blued Sky Prediction. But yeah, you can find me on bluesky. But you can find us all at geekybrummy, on Instagram, Facebook, bluesky as well at the geeky brummy website on YouTube. And yeah, don't forget to check out these gents. Amazing roundups on films, video games and comics every week.
[01:26:34] Speaker C: Good to hear what I really think about Call of Duty Black Ops.
[01:26:39] Speaker A: Thank you for joining us. We'll see you again soon. But for now, goodbye, everybody.
[01:26:42] Speaker C: Goodbye.
[01:26:43] Speaker D: Is that Full Moon?
[01:26:44] Speaker A: Oh.
[01:26:58] Speaker D: See, I. I've got a problem with the amount of comics I've got in my house and I'M having to get rid of them because there's no room. I know Japanese houses aren't big. I know how much manga there is in the world. Where the is it all going?
There's no way that somebody has got all of these, like 475 mangas of whatever it is that they've bought. Where are they putting it all?
[01:27:18] Speaker B: All the Japanese houses are like Benders Flat and Futurama. You open the cupboard door and it's this massive library.
[01:27:25] Speaker D: I've got no room for the comics. I've got. And like, you know, this is just ridiculous.
[01:27:29] Speaker C: I've seen like, sort of footage that they've done of like the Hikoki Moris, which are basically the people who don't leave their house are a genuine problem.
And, like, it is pretty much like half their tiny apartment is just a bookshelf.
[01:27:44] Speaker A: So, Keith, you know, they're bit in Evangelion where they have the city upstairs and then they show nerve and just underground for the first time. That's what it's actually like.
[01:27:54] Speaker C: That's what they saw.
[01:27:56] Speaker D: A George Clark or a Grand Designs thing. I didn't watch the whole show, but I saw a bit where this pretentious family had bought a house and they. They created their library. They called it a library. It was one room, bookshelves, and they finished it and did whatever it is.
[01:28:14] Speaker A: Did that have. Was it just so she could have the letter, so she could do the Beauty and the Beast swing?
[01:28:18] Speaker D: And it was like, A, this isn't a library because it's got fuck all books in it. B, the 10 books you've got. You've got the wrong way round. So you can't even see what they.
[01:28:26] Speaker A: Hate when people do that.
[01:28:27] Speaker D: What the fuck is this about? And I was thinking, yeah, that ain't big enough.
[01:28:31] Speaker C: I don't know what I dislike more, people who turn the books the wrong way around or people who sort by color.
[01:28:37] Speaker A: Each is a crime. Yeah, imagine. Imagine doing both.
[01:28:41] Speaker D: Yeah. I was just looking at it going, one room for a library. One room, yes.
[01:28:46] Speaker C: If you're someone who does own a lot of books and I might be talking about myself like, that sounds great, but if you just have 10 books, you don't need a separate room for a library.
[01:28:57] Speaker A: How many books do I have in the loft, honey?
The three big boxes of books.
[01:29:06] Speaker D: I know, I find it. I find it unbelievable when I get to see people's houses and they don't have more than like about four books. I'm like, I got this books in every room in our house, not just two or three, 60 to 100.
[01:29:19] Speaker C: I have next to my computer, two stacks of books, which are like, these are the next things I'm going to read. And then one entire wall of my bedroom is a bookshelf, and it's full. And I'm like, I need to get rid of some of this. So I've got space to put more in.
[01:29:34] Speaker A: I got rid of that, but I.
[01:29:35] Speaker D: Can'T do that because you go, well, that's an art book I can't get anymore. And that's another.
[01:29:40] Speaker C: My art books are going to stay, obviously.
[01:29:42] Speaker A: Look, I got rid of some of my books and bought them here.
[01:29:47] Speaker D: I've been taking stuff to work because it's like, I've got to get rid of this. It's like, where the hell do I get rid of it?
