Latest / Xenomania / Poltergeist Is Still Terrifying 44 Years Later - Xenomania 93

Transcript

Poltergeist Is Still Terrifying 44 Years Later - Xenomania 93 · Xenomania

• 0:00
  Jon: This week on Xenomania, we discover what happens when a
• 0:04
  legendary filmmaker and a legendary horror filmmaker collaborate.
• 0:09
  The Freeling family is enjoying an idyllic life in a new housing development.
• 0:15
  Their lives are altered by a series of seemingly innocent paranormal events
• 0:19
  at first, but escalate quickly when the youngest daughter, Carol Anne, is pulled
• 0:25
  into the TV and trapped by a spirit.
• 0:29
  This is no simple haunting, but something even worse.
• 0:34
  This is Poltergeist.
• 0:37
  This is Xenomania.
• 0:55
  Kearns: All right.
• 0:57
  Welcome everybody to our episode on Poltergeist
• 1:02
  Ryan: The 1982 one, just to make
• 1:05
  Jon: 1982 one.
• 1:06
  Ryan: No remakes.
• 1:07
  No remakes
• 1:09
  Jon: I don't know, I c-
• 1:10
  Kearns: the remake as a thing
• 1:12
  Jon: I can pop the remake on the calendar if you guys want
• 1:15
  Ryan: No,
• 1:15
  Kearns: No, thank you.
• 1:16
  Ryan: good.
• 1:16
  Kearns: No.
• 1:17
  It's like even controversial how much people hated the remake, and then
• 1:21
  it's like what's more hated, that or the remake of Resident Evil 3?
• 1:27
  Ryan: That Poltergeist.
• 1:28
  Re-
• 1:28
  Kearns: probably Poltergeist
• 1:29
  Ryan: 3 is, like, playable at least.
• 1:31
  Not as good as what it wa- it is.
• 1:33
  It's quick.
• 1:34
  It's, it's smooth.
• 1:35
  It Yeah, I like it.
• 1:38
  I like it.
• 1:39
  It's better than six.
• 1:41
  Kearns: Yes, and it, herpes is better than six too
• 1:46
  Ryan: A lot of things are better than six.
• 1:47
  But we're talking about, Poltergeist today, and you know, one of the things
• 1:51
  that popped up, I, I was looking for it, and I'll bring it up real quick,
• 1:55
  is, um, the idea that how much Insidious stole from Poltergeist is insane.
• 2:01
  And I know we talked about it a few weeks ago, but rewatching it and noticing every
• 2:06
  beat, and Poltergeist does it better.
• 2:08
  And how Spielberg wrote the story and the screenplay is each
• 2:14
  beat, even though it takes a few minutes to get through, counts.
• 2:19
  And that's like the best thing to have when you have a great
• 2:22
  director like Spielberg and a great horror director like, Hooper.
• 2:26
  I wanna say Hopper, but it's Hooper
• 2:29
  Jon: Hooper.
• 2:30
  Yeah, he's not, he's not the, the policeman from Stranger Things.
• 2:34
  Ryan: I…
• 2:34
  Kearns: Or the scientist in Jaws,
• 2:36
  Ryan: Ooh.
• 2:36
  Kearns: right?
• 2:37
  Hooper.
• 2:39
  Hooper.
• 2:40
  Speaking of Jaws, that's probably among my favorite Spielberg movies.
• 2:45
  I think my favorite still is, uh, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, though.
• 2:50
  I love that movie
• 2:52
  Jon: Third Encounters of the Close Kind is way up there.
• 2:55
  Kearns: Yep.
• 2:55
  Is that what I said?
• 2:56
  Jon: No.
• 2:57
  Kearns: Oh, that's right.
• 2:59
  That was a while ago.
• 3:00
  Ryan: third encounters of the close kind.
• 3:02
  Kearns: I even liked… I like all his alien stuff.
• 3:04
  I even like Super 8 a bit.
• 3:05
  Um, it was,
• 3:07
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 3:07
  Kearns: watered-down Spielberg, but it's Spielberg nonetheless.
• 3:10
  Jon: Yeah
• 3:11
  Ryan: Was
• 3:12
  Kearns: Most… Sorry
• 3:14
  Ryan: no, was Jaws your first experience with Spielberg?
• 3:17
  It wasn't
• 3:18
  Kearns: Um, it was either that or Close Encounters actually.
• 3:21
  I don't know.
• 3:21
  Um, or E.T., I can't tell.
• 3:24
  Jon: Yeah.
• 3:25
  Kearns: know, all
• 3:25
  Jon: I, yeah, I'm not sure.
• 3:27
  Jaws is probably my first, but I w- you know, I was already alive
• 3:32
  and watching movies when a lot of these came out, so like I saw
• 3:36
  Close Encounters pretty early on.
• 3:38
  I saw Raiders really… I saw Raiders within, in less than a
• 3:43
  year of its release for sure.
• 3:45
  I didn't see it in theaters on its original run, but,
• 3:49
  Ryan: And that's
• 3:49
  Jon: so like, like Raiders and th- and but then it just goes on.
• 3:53
  You, you jump 20 years and they're saving Private Ryan.
• 3:58
  You know, and you jump beyond that, and there's, you know, things like
• 4:01
  Super 8, which is way better than it should be, and probably lucky that
• 4:06
  Spielberg got it and not J.J. Abrams
• 4:08
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 4:09
  Ryan: that's fair
• 4:10
  Kearns: Now
• 4:11
  Jon: that,
• 4:11
  Kearns: work on it together or was it
• 4:13
  Jon: I think they might've worked on it together,
• 4:15
  Kearns: Yeah
• 4:16
  Jon: but
• 4:16
  you keep the forced Cloverfield out of it by having Spielberg involved.
• 4:21
  I mean, like Goonies
• 4:24
  Kearns: Goonies
• 4:26
  Jon: Hook, which I'm not a fan of, but I know a lot of other people are.
• 4:30
  Um,
• 4:31
  Kearns: Bangarang, man.
• 4:32
  Ryan: I
• 4:32
  Jon: like
• 4:33
  Kearns: We work with Rufio
• 4:35
  Ryan: Yes, we do.
• 4:37
  He announced it.
• 4:38
  He
• 4:38
  Jon: his
• 4:39
  Ryan: it
• 4:39
  Jon: e- even, even his worst movies are incredible, man.
• 4:43
  Like 19- I love 1941.
• 4:46
  It is w- probably his lo- the lowest rated movie he ever made.
• 4:51
  Ryan: That
• 4:51
  Jon: love that stupid movie.
• 4:54
  Kearns: shot, isn't it?
• 4:55
  Jon: I believe so.
• 4:56
  Ryan: Yes.
• 4:57
  Jon: maybe.
• 4:58
  Ryan: it's c-
• 4:58
  Jon: Because you, you have the, the submarine at the start, like that,
• 5:03
  which I mean, right off the bat, 'cause that was on HBO a lot when I
• 5:06
  was a little, little kid, and there was nudity, and anything that had
• 5:11
  nudity when I was that age was getting played every time it was on HBO, man
• 5:17
  Ryan: Well, you got John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, right?
• 5:20
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 5:21
  Ryan: Yeah, I mean,
• 5:22
  Jon: Yeah, like it's…
• 5:23
  Ryan: that was out of control comedy at least
• 5:27
  Jon: Yeah.
• 5:27
  Like Spielberg makes enjoyable movies.
• 5:32
  Even when they're bad, they're enjoyable
• 5:35
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 5:35
  Well, he's got that, he's got a tempo.
• 5:38
  I don't know how to describe it, but, um, just recently watched, uh, Disclosure Day,
• 5:42
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 5:43
  Kearns: and there's a tempo or a cadence to it that is unmistakably Spielberg
• 5:48
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 5:49
  And there's like even when he has different guys doing the music when
• 5:53
  it's not just John Williams, there's musical similarities across the board.
• 5:59
  Like you, when you sit down and watch a movie that Spielberg was involved
• 6:03
  with, you know you're watching a movie that he was involved with
• 6:09
  Ryan: He evolves with the times while keeping what he felt was true
• 6:14
  for filmmaking since he started in 1964 with his first film, Firelight,
• 6:19
  and then definitely hitting it in 1971 with Duel, the TV made.
• 6:23
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 6:24
  Ryan: But his style is, like, the brightness, the colors he used,
• 6:29
  you know, that sense of hope.
• 6:31
  Even when you're in the face of danger, there is a sense of
• 6:34
  hope in, like, Spielberg films.
• 6:36
  Like, my first experience was E.T., and seeing that, like, how the story
• 6:41
  evolves and then, like, spoiler alert if you haven't seen E.T., g-
• 6:45
  I don't know what you've been doing.
• 6:46
  It came out in 1982, same year as Poltergeist.
• 6:50
  When you think he's gonna be u- unalived, it's like it crushes
• 6:55
  you, especially when you're a kid at four years old watching it.
• 6:57
  It crushes you, but you still have
• 6:59
  Kearns: The flower.
• 7:00
  Oh my God, the flower
• 7:02
  Ryan: It's like, ah, I'm gonna tear up.
• 7:05
  This is why I avoid this movie
• 7:07
  Jon: and then the Neil Diamond song.
• 7:10
  Do you remember the Neil Diamond song,
• 7:12
  Ryan: Yes.
• 7:12
  Jon: "Turn On Your Heartlight"?
• 7:15
  Ryan: Damn it.
• 7:16
  Damn it, John.
• 7:17
  Damn it.
• 7:18
  Jon: on your heartlight
• 7:20
  Ryan: But it, it leads to like, you know, after that, you know, you get
• 7:24
  to see Raiders of the Lost Ark, and then it's like it goes from this
• 7:29
  sentimental piece of film, and it's like adventure with this gruff adventurer
• 7:35
  who doesn't take crap from no one, and it's like, wow, he's got range.
• 7:39
  And like I've seen The Terminal.
• 7:41
  I haven't, like I missed… He's not like my Martin Scorsese where
• 7:45
  I've seen everything or Tarantino,
• 7:47
  Kearns: The terminal.
• 7:48
  Ryan: The Terminal,
• 7:49
  Kearns: Me If You Can, the terminal.
• 7:51
  Yeah.
• 7:52
  Ryan: Yep.
• 7:52
  Kearns: Forgot about those
• 7:54
  Jon: Yeah
• 7:54
  Ryan: that was like my Spielberg, seeing those in the theaters and stuff,
• 7:57
  and it was just like heartwarming.
• 8:00
  And like, uh, know, but as I grew older, watching Schindler's List,
• 8:06
  Park, Poltergeist, you know, it's like he's got so much range.
• 8:13
  Hook, like I know you don't like it.
• 8:15
  It's like much in one film that he's able to contain it and do it so perfectly
• 8:23
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 8:25
  Kearns: I love that, well, it's because of his legacy that he's
• 8:28
  able to do whatever he wants.
• 8:29
  But, um, a, a recent event make me worry about what the future of movies
• 8:36
  might look like, and we're talking about the Paramount-Universal merger.
• 8:42
  How do you guys feel about that?
• 8:43
  Ryan: Shitty.
• 8:47
  It's, it, it, it shouldn't happen.
• 8:50
  Like, you try to do it with, uh, the whole Netflix, Warner Brothers, and
• 8:56
  Paramount when they tried to do that whole merger, and it didn't work out.
• 9:00
  People lost money, people gained money, and at the end, was really gained, if
• 9:05
  that makes sense, 'cause they're all standing in their own individual spots.
• 9:11
  With Universal, with, uh, with Universal, the one concern I would have is, like,
• 9:19
  'cause they both have their streaming agents and they're doing streaming, does
• 9:23
  this mean to releasing films in theaters?
• 9:27
  'Cause that's, like, the big concern
• 9:29
  Jon: I would say that's probably the one true bright spot in this, if
• 9:36
  they, you know, y- if you can even call that a bright spot, is as part
• 9:42
  of this approving this deal, um, it was ruled that Paramount would have to
• 9:48
  release 30, at least 30 films a year.
• 9:54
  Now…
• 9:54
  Ryan: in the right direction
• 9:55
  Jon: Exactly.
• 9:56
  So but what that means, I mean, obviously it doesn't impact, like, if
• 10:01
  Paramount's gonna release a Spielberg movie, that's still getting released.
• 10:05
  Ryan: Yeah
• 10:06
  Jon: you're still gonna get the big budget movies that Paramount
• 10:09
  and Universal would've made.
• 10:12
  But what I think it has the potential to do is trickle down to some
• 10:17
  smaller budgeted movies getting larger backing, because to release
• 10:24
  30 Spielberg-type movies a year is a massive financial undertaking,
• 10:32
  so you're gonna have to cut some of the huge budgets to meet that mark.
• 10:38
  Kearns: Right
• 10:39
  Jon: So I mean, that-- for me, that's the hopeful thing.
• 10:41
  I mean, I feel like at this point, all of these mergers are just about, you
• 10:46
  know, amassing the largest streaming services, and it really has nothing
• 10:51
  to do with cinema at all anyway, that I-- like, look at how fast things
• 10:57
  turn around from theatrical to, you know, some form of home streaming.
• 11:03
  they don't have a ton of interest in that format anymore.
• 11:08
  Kearns: Right
• 11:09
  Ryan: Mm-hmm.
• 11:10
  I feel like the emer- reemergence of, um, physical copies, movies,
• 11:15
  um, music's still strong, but movies especially recently, I feel like
• 11:19
  everyone wants to have that experience.
• 11:21
  And it also leads back to the Odyssey.
• 11:24
  recently I've heard a lot of people talk about wanting to go see the Odyssey
• 11:29
  and saying you can't watch it at home because you won't be able to see it all.
• 11:32
  Go watch it in the theater, go watch it in IMAX, and have that experience, you know?
• 11:38
  Jon: I mean, here's what I would say about the theatrical experience, especially I
• 11:44
  went and saw Resident Evil last weekend.
• 11:47
  Absolutely loved it.
• 11:48
  I think part of why I loved it is the experience of
• 11:52
  watching a movie in a theater.
• 11:53
  I can't tell you, like, as much as I love being home and watching movies
• 12:00
  on my own setup with my own privacy, with n- you know, just the people I
• 12:05
  choose to watch a movie with, which is generally just my wife and some cats.
• 12:10
  Like, but I am almost never disappointed in a movie in a theater because it's
• 12:18
  still-- for me, it's still that event.
• 12:20
  It's still… Like, we didn't do that a lot when I was a kid.
• 12:24
  It was a special occasion when the whole family went to the movies.
• 12:28
  Obviously, you get older into middle school, high school, you
• 12:30
  start going on your own more.
• 12:33
  But it was like a family experience, and like, I think some of that
• 12:38
  value is still there for some of us.
• 12:41
  And then, I mean, like, you're gonna have generations that didn't grow up going to
• 12:44
  theaters anyway, so it doesn't matter.
• 12:47
  Kearns: Yeah, this whole group of kids right now, it's not the same
• 12:50
  Jon: Yeah
• 12:51
  Ryan: I feel like they're interested though.
• 12:53
  There's a sh- small interest growing
• 12:55
  Jon: Yeah, but like the, uh, for a lot of these kids, the interest is,
• 13:00
  you know, to do this and watch it on their phone and, you know, like
• 13:05
  Ryan: True.
• 13:05
  Jon: I, I…
• 13:06
  Ryan: Touché
• 13:07
  Jon: That's, the problem with, with it all, so much of this streaming
• 13:10
  stuff is you aren't g- That's where, like the Odyssey I think, yeah, you
• 13:15
  probably miss some at home, but if you're watching it on your phone,
• 13:19
  that's where you're missing stuff
• 13:21
  Ryan: I don't know how you can watch that film on your phone.
• 13:24
  Jon: I don't know how you can watch any movie on your phone.
• 13:26
  I have a hard time watching reels on my phone.
• 13:29
  Like,
• 13:29
  Ryan: Yeah
• 13:30
  Jon: I, I like-- I, I went out and I bought the biggest TV that could possibly
• 13:35
  fit in the space that I have for a reason, and then when I redid this area of the
• 13:40
  house, I went and I bought the biggest TV I could fit up here for a reason
• 13:47
  Ryan: Still working on it
• 13:49
  Kearns: The, um, old days of, like, me sitting five feet away from my computer
• 13:54
  monitor and watching whatever movies I could get my hands on and stuff, I'm
• 13:57
  glad that now an adult and I've spent a ludicrous amount of money on a huge
• 14:01
  TV, and I just… I can enjoy that.
• 14:05
  with you.
• 14:06
  Um, the theater experience is still unparalleled, I agree.
• 14:11
  Um, the reason why I didn't wanna go to the theater for a long time, and
• 14:15
  this is pre-COVID too, is just because people have got really annoying.
• 14:20
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 14:20
  Mm-hmm.
• 14:20
  Kearns: people forgot how to behave in a theater for a while, and I would get
• 14:24
  in- I would get so mad when a phone would light up in a movie theater.
• 14:28
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 14:31
  And I mean, I, I think when I go with you guys, we go to a specific theater
• 14:34
  because it's a nicer theater or whatever.
• 14:36
  When I'm going myself or I'm going with my wife, we go to,
• 14:41
  you know, we go at off hours.
• 14:43
  We go to, you know, at theaters that are not gonna be as busy because of that.
• 14:49
  I, I mean, we, we watched Resident Evil the day after it came out.
• 14:54
  I think there weren't more than 12 people in the theater, and it was
• 14:59
  perfect because you had-- nobody was talking, nobody's phones were out.
• 15:03
  You had people, like, appropriately reacting to a movie, whether it was,
• 15:09
  you know, gasping at something scary or laughing at something funny.
• 15:13
  It was… It- that's the experience
• 15:16
  Kearns: Yeah.
• 15:17
  Ryan: That's
• 15:17
  Kearns: Exactly.
• 15:19
  So I don't know if this merger will directly threaten that.
• 15:22
  I think that Nolan definitely did us a solid this year with bringing
• 15:27
  The Odyssey out using practical effects, things correctly, the
• 15:32
  promo was done correctly as well.
• 15:34
  Like, everything was sort of, a nod to the way movies should be rolled
• 15:38
  out, loved the freaking experience.
• 15:40
  They loved the lead-up, they loved the movie, they loved the aftermath
• 15:43
  and the interviews and all that stuff.
• 15:46
  So I don't think we're gonna lose our big budget movies anytime soon,
• 15:49
  especially not from our big directors.
• 15:51
  Jon: Yeah.
• 15:52
  Kearns: what this, what the, my concern was with this merger was the, the
• 15:56
  threatening of the smaller features.
• 15:58
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 15:58
  Kearns: And I think that movies like Obsession and stuff like, and
• 16:02
  Backrooms sorta made sure that those are gon- those are gonna be okay too.
• 16:08
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 16:08
  Kearns: make money
• 16:09
  Jon: Yeah.
• 16:10
  Ryan: they do.
• 16:12
  Jon: And they,
• 16:12
  Ryan: do
• 16:12
  Jon: are enough, Blumhouses and A24s that will continue to provide
• 16:18
  an outlet for those movies too
• 16:21
  Kearns: Yeah
• 16:22
  Ryan: Yeah.
• 16:23
  I feel A24 though is slowly shifting now, seeing like on the, the,
• 16:28
  what the product they're bringing now, which is similar to what they
• 16:32
  are, but they're going definitely higher budget than what they were
• 16:36
  Jon: Yeah, I
• 16:36
  Kearns: It's real wide net
• 16:38
  Jon: yeah, yeah.
• 16:40
  It's, and it's the same, like I have my issues with, with a lot of what Blumhouse
• 16:44
  does, but they do the same thing.
• 16:46
  You know, they, they've done, they've done a good job of
• 16:51
  advancing horror to this generation
• 16:55
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 16:57
  Yeah,
• 16:57
  Ryan: I'll
• 16:57
  Kearns: that is a good way to put it.
• 16:58
  And then with that, gentlemen, we should move into the actual
• 17:01
  Jon: Absolutely
• 17:03
  Ryan: Are you talking about that sign off in the beginning?
• 17:05
  I felt like I was going through some PTSD stuff right there
• 17:09
  Jon: did you guys experience that as kids?
• 17:12
  Like you'd stay up to like midnight or 2:00 and they'd play the
• 17:18
  national anthem and that would be the end of TV for the night?
• 17:21
  It would just
• 17:22
  Kearns: anthem at one point to God Bless America later on.
• 17:25
  I wasn't a hu- I think it was post 9/11 they did that.
• 17:27
  I wasn't a huge fan of that switch.
• 17:30
  And then the the end broadcast signal.
• 17:34
  Jon: Yeah.
• 17:36
  You'd get, you'd get some static afterwards.
• 17:38
  You'd wake… Like, now it's sort of become like you, you'd watch, like
• 17:44
  one of my favorite examples of this is like when the NBA was on TNT, I'd
• 17:48
  be watching the late game and, you know, 12:30, 1:00 I'd doze off, and
• 17:54
  I'd wake up at 3:00 in the morning in the middle of an episode of "Charmed."
• 17:58
  Kearns: Oh, yeah.
• 17:59
  Yep
• 18:00
  Jon: But back then, you'd wake up to static on your TV and you'd have
• 18:03
  no clue what, what was going on
• 18:07
  Ryan: I was like at the
• 18:08
  Kearns: True though
• 18:09
  Ryan: So like I got the static, but it was such a short time because by then I
• 18:15
  had like the infomercials coming in, like your favorite punk CD or listen to the,
• 18:22
  the wind of the air and the nature, or of course the best, or not really the best,
• 18:27
  but the horrible Girls Gone Wild ones.
• 18:30
  Kearns: Oh, horrible.
• 18:31
  Yeah.
• 18:32
  Ryan: very
• 18:32
  Kearns: Terrible
• 18:34
  Jon: yeah, depend- depending what network you were watching, like USA was
• 18:38
  Kearns: up all night.
• 18:39
  Yep.
• 18:40
  Jon: big for the, the Girls Gone Wild, the 900 numbers, the psychics.
• 18:47
  Like you'd get all these like weird thing, "Call this talk line
• 18:51
  and meet the girl of your dreams."
• 18:54
  Kearns: It was always where the good movies were too that you wanted to
• 18:56
  watch at whatever, like 12 to 22 years
• 18:59
  Jon: Yeah.
• 19:01
  Ryan: Great.
• 19:02
  Some
• 19:03
  Jon: however many years after that
• 19:05
  Kearns: Were you ever up late at night and had a poltergeist-like activity going on?
• 19:09
  Was there l- any haunting activity when you were watching these scary movies?
• 19:14
  Yeah, Ryan's the believer.
• 19:15
  He's like, "Yes, of course."
• 19:18
  Ryan: is a, one night, all I'm gonna say is I put the covers over my head.
• 19:23
  I heard something move.
• 19:25
  did a slow turnaround, saw a nice apparition.
• 19:29
  I screamed, put the covers over, and then I was like, "What am I
• 19:32
  doing?" I've seen enough horror films at that time where I'm gonna get
• 19:36
  the hell out of there, and I did.
• 19:38
  I did.
• 19:40
  um,
• 19:41
  Jon: that like the funniest childhood reaction to something being scary?
• 19:45
  Like you see it and now I'm gonna pull the blankets over my head.
• 19:49
  Ryan: Yeah, like I think about it and like even as a kid I was
• 19:51
  like, "What the hell am I doing?
• 19:53
  Jon: What is this gonna d-
• 19:54
  Ryan: out
• 19:54
  Jon: what is this doing for me?
• 19:56
  Ryan: exactly, like I'm still like something still could
• 19:58
  happen, but it was… Yeah.
• 20:01
  But the, I feel the area I grew up in had a lot of like war history and all that, so
• 20:08
  there's, you know, there's a lot going on.
• 20:11
  A lot of like colonial and all that
• 20:13
  Jon: I mean, like there was a lot of that where I grew up too,
• 20:15
  and I never felt any of that
• 20:18
  Ryan: Lucky.
• 20:19
  Lucky
• 20:20
  Jon: I mean, like, we went to Gettysburg when I was a kid and,
• 20:24
  you know, people are like, "Oh, the ghosts of Gettysburg" and whatever.
• 20:27
  we walked the battlefield and whatever.
• 20:28
  I was just like, "Yeah, this is interesting, but there is
• 20:32
  not anything going on here."
• 20:34
  Ryan: I never, experienced it either, and I wanted to so badly.
• 20:37
  Like, Jada experienced something when she was there with her
• 20:40
  family on the battlefield.
• 20:42
  But there's, like, stories where, like, if you're quiet on there and you just
• 20:47
  stand, you can hear them marching and you can hear, like, crumblings in the back.
• 20:51
  But I don't know, I'd rather do, like, a like, a night tour of it.
• 20:56
  Kearns: I went to the Lizzie Borden house, and there was somebody there who
• 21:00
  was claiming to be a medium or whatever, and she was like, "Oh, I feel… There's
• 21:03
  something happened in this room." And I was like, "You're ruining the experience
• 21:05
  for me because I smell the bullshit s- like, just leaking off of you.
• 21:09
  Just enjoy the fact that this crazy girl axed her family in this house
• 21:13
  and we're getting a tour of it.
• 21:15
  Jon: Yep.
• 21:16
  Kearns: like, just stop it with
• 21:17
  Jon: Yep.
• 21:18
  Yep.
• 21:19
  So
• 21:20
  Kearns: not special."
• 21:21
  Jon: wh- what's…
• 21:24
  Ryan: Accept this.
• 21:25
  Be happy about this.
• 21:27
  It's a once in a lifetime experience
• 21:29
  Kearns: Yeah, the end.
• 21:30
  All right, so John, what were you saying?
• 21:32
  Jon: I, I, I was g- I was gonna say what, what's interesting about discussing,
• 21:37
  like, Ryan's spooky experience with the static and whatever, um, that's not the
• 21:44
  initial reaction of the Freeling family in
• 21:47
  Kearns: No.
• 21:50
  Jon: Poltergeist.
• 21:50
  Like, weird, weird things start to happen, and mom especially,
• 21:55
  l- Diane is like, "You know what?
• 21:57
  This is pretty cool.
• 21:59
  Look, if I put the… If I…" Like, the f- when she turns around and the
• 22:03
  chairs are stacked on the table, there's that initial moment of, of fear, and
• 22:07
  then it's just like, "Wait, if I put the chair in this spot, it's gonna get
• 22:12
  dragged across the ch- the kitchen.
• 22:14
  Look, Steve, look what happens if I put this chair here.
• 22:17
  It gets dragged across the kitchen.
• 22:19
  Now look what happens if I put my daughter in that spot."
• 22:22
  Kearns: Yeah.
• 22:24
  What a clown
• 22:26
  Ryan: She had a football helmet.
• 22:27
  It's okay.
• 22:28
  Jon: Yeah.
• 22:29
  Yeah.
• 22:29
  Kearns: was the best part.
• 22:30
  That was like the best part.
• 22:32
  But it's a sign of the times.
• 22:35
  If you wanna see like a true example of parenting during the '80s, that is it
• 22:40
  Jon: Uh-huh.
• 22:41
  Yep.
• 22:41
  And if you wanna see a true example of a lot of families, go to-- just flash
• 22:46
  a little earlier where, uh, Steve and Diane are in the bedroom, and he's
• 22:52
  got his big Reagan biography that he's reading, and she's lying in bed
• 22:57
  smoking a joint, and they're just… Like, it's that, like, 1980s Reagan
• 23:03
  Republican man and the post-hippie woman.
• 23:08
  Like, how many households in America were like that?
• 23:13
  Ryan: Not that many, I don't think.
• 23:15
  I
• 23:15
  Jon: Oh, a lot.
• 23:17
  A lot.
• 23:18
  Kearns: yeah.
• 23:18
  Jon: Ni- 1984, Reagan won 49 states
• 23:24
  Ryan: Yeah, I
• 23:24
  Jon: Like,
• 23:24
  Kearns: historic
• 23:25
  Jon: like Reagan was immensely popular with both parties.
• 23:31
  Ryan: I feel
• 23:32
  Jon: It's
• 23:33
  Ryan: he did a good job
• 23:35
  Kearns: We're not gonna talk about that.
• 23:36
  Jon: Yeah, I'm not g- I'm not gonna go down that road then.
• 23:39
  Kearns: currently resonating right now
• 23:42
  Jon: Yeah
• 23:42
  Kearns: is all I'm going to say
• 23:44
  Ryan: that was rage bait.
• 23:45
  I shouldn't have said that.
• 23:46
  My
• 23:46
  Kearns: Nope.
• 23:47
  Jon: Yeah.
• 23:47
  Kearns: Yeah, nope.
• 23:48
  Ryan: My
• 23:48
  Jon: that,
• 23:48
  Kearns: Nope.
• 23:49
  Jon: that, that's for Xenomania Goes to Politics, and I don't think
• 23:53
  that podcast is ever gonna exist because I, I'll just be yelling into
• 23:58
  a camera for three hours a day, and that's not gonna do anybody any good.
• 24:02
  Kearns: is saturated already
• 24:03
  Jon: Yeah
• 24:04
  Ryan: I'll just, I'll just say this.
• 24:06
  Best Reagan story I ever seen was, uh, the one where he gets missed
• 24:10
  and he's like, "You missed me," and it pops the balloon behind him.
• 24:13
  You
• 24:14
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 24:15
  Ryan: never seen that video?
• 24:16
  No?
• 24:17
  Jon: Nah, nah
• 24:19
  Ryan: like, uh, you hear the shot, and he's just like, "You missed me."
• 24:22
  Kearns: I don't think that's real.
• 24:23
  Ryan: No?
• 24:24
  Kearns: No,
• 24:24
  Jon: I don't think that's real either.
• 24:26
  Ryan: disappointed me right now.
• 24:27
  Jon: Nah, I don't, I don't think that's real, bud.
• 24:30
  I, uh, I think that one's AI
• 24:32
  Kearns: Yeah.
• 24:33
  The closest you get to that is, uh, H- or, um, not HW, W. Bush the shoe
• 24:39
  Ryan: That,
• 24:40
  Jon: yeah.
• 24:41
  Kearns: "Heh, heh, heh,"
• 24:42
  Jon: Or,
• 24:43
  Kearns: heh, heh, heh
• 24:44
  Ryan: remember
• 24:45
  Jon: Teddy Roosevelt giving his little train stop speech and
• 24:48
  getting popped and continuing
• 24:51
  Kearns: A real man.
• 24:52
  Yeah, he was actually
• 24:53
  Ryan: Yeah
• 24:55
  Kearns: and he finished his speech, which is wild work
• 24:59
  Jon: Yeah.
• 25:00
  Yeah
• 25:00
  Ryan: That's a different breed of man right there.
• 25:03
  Kearns: When he was, um, campaigning for his new third party too, and
• 25:07
  Jon: Yeah, that was Bull Moose era.
• 25:09
  Kearns: Bull moose, and he said, "It takes more than that to
• 25:11
  kill a bull moose." What a Chad.
• 25:14
  What a Chad.
• 25:15
  He's my favorite president, and it's not even close
• 25:19
  Jon: Yeah.
• 25:20
  Kearns: Yeah, I love him.
• 25:22
  Jon: Uh, that, this is another discussion.
• 25:24
  Kearns: There's
• 25:24
  Jon: This is an, this is another discussion for the Xenomania Politics pod
• 25:28
  Kearns: I, sure.
• 25:30
  Jon: coming
• 25:30
  Kearns: he was crazy, dude.
• 25:32
  Ryan: Yeah, I mean
• 25:33
  Kearns: Just the Rough Riders
• 25:35
  Jon: Okay.
• 25:35
  Co- co- coming, coming to a podcast platform near you never
• 25:40
  Kearns: Yeah.
• 25:41
  Yeah, we're gonna move on.
• 25:43
  closer to politics.
• 25:44
  Coach is in the film, everybody.
• 25:46
  Ryan: is
• 25:46
  Jon: Yeah, Craig B. Nelson.
• 25:49
  Craig,
• 25:49
  Kearns: Nelson
• 25:50
  Ryan: Do,
• 25:50
  Jon: yeah
• 25:51
  Ryan: these characters are smarter than compared to the other characters
• 25:55
  we've encountered in past horror films?
• 25:59
  Like, they, they have a little more of a sense than a lot of them
• 26:03
  Jon: they, they get to it quicker, but I mean, they don't get to
• 26:08
  it before their daughter's taken
• 26:11
  Ryan: Okay, fair
• 26:12
  Jon: They, they, like, I, I mean, I don't know.
• 26:15
  Like, Steve is kinda just like, "Oh, yeah, I guess this happens."
• 26:20
  And Diane is like, is just enjoying the show until it becomes something
• 26:26
  that they have to be worried about.
• 26:28
  So I, like, I don't think they're necessarily any quicker on the uptake
• 26:32
  than anybody else we've talked about
• 26:34
  Kearns: No.
• 26:36
  they're dummies, but I don't think they're particularly sharp either when it comes to
• 26:41
  Jon: Yeah.
• 26:43
  Yeah.
• 26:43
  Ryan: it was a burning question, 'cause I felt like there was moments where I was
• 26:47
  like, "Okay, this is like a smart move." And then there was moments where I was
• 26:51
  like, "Yeah, should've stick to coaching.
• 26:55
  Jon: So I didn't put this on our outline, and I should have, but it gets kind of
• 27:02
  just a little cool thing I stumbled on.
• 27:04
  So you know early in the movie, Steve has his, his group of guys over and
• 27:09
  they're watching the football game
• 27:11
  Ryan: Yeah.
• 27:12
  Jon: I found that football game.
• 27:14
  Ryan: What football game was that?
• 27:16
  Jon: It was the Saints and the Rams from 1981.
• 27:20
  Ryan: Okay.
• 27:21
  That explains the Rams helmet now.
• 27:23
  'Cause I was like, "Is that a Rams helmet or…" I was… I don't think
• 27:26
  the Chargers were around at that time
• 27:28
  Jon: The Chargers were around, but they weren't in LA.
• 27:31
  The Chargers were in San Diego at that point.
• 27:33
  Kearns: And before they were the San Diego Chargers, were they the--
• 27:36
  They weren't the Oilers, that's the
• 27:38
  Jon: No, Tennessee Titans were the Houston Oilers.
• 27:41
  But they, so this was the LA Rams before the LA Rams became the St. Louis
• 27:46
  Rams, and before they went back to LA.
• 27:49
  Kearns: Gotcha
• 27:50
  Jon: But
• 27:50
  Ryan: St. Louis
• 27:51
  Jon: so this is a game from 1981.
• 27:53
  I figured it out.
• 27:55
  Poltergeist, the film, in 1981, released in 1982.
• 27:58
  Um, the Rams lost that game 23 to 17.
• 28:03
  Kearns: Ooh
• 28:04
  Jon: Uh, uh, the Rams, who were not very far removed from being in a Super
• 28:08
  Bowl, finished that season 6 and 10.
• 28:11
  They were putrid.
• 28:13
  The Saints, this was still the Aints era, when the Saints were awful every year.
• 28:19
  They were, they were 4 and 12 that year.
• 28:22
  So they, this was a bad game to have your buddies over for
• 28:27
  Kearns: Yeah
• 28:27
  Ryan: I, he wasn't expecting it.
• 28:30
  And, you know, that was crazy too, was, was there a lot of sharing with the cable?
• 28:36
  Kearns: Yeah.
• 28:37
  Ryan: Like you've… Okay,
• 28:38
  Kearns: People who had no money
• 28:40
  Ryan: I never
• 28:40
  Jon: Yeah
• 28:41
  Ryan: That's why I was like,
• 28:42
  Kearns: It wasn't the '90s, the eight- this was the '80s.
• 28:44
  People were less, they, yeah, things were… You had to, like,
• 28:48
  go to friends' houses and stuff.
• 28:49
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 28:50
  Kearns: it's probably where, like, Super Bowl parties and things like
• 28:52
  that started, be honest with you
• 28:55
  Jon: Yeah, probably
• 28:56
  Ryan: I mean, the party, yeah, but like if you're in the middle of a game and then
• 29:00
  you get switched to Mr. Rogers, I mean, You gotta have a better deal than this,
• 29:06
  Jon: I don't, know.
• 29:07
  In 1981 Rams and Saints, I think I might prefer Mr. Rogers
• 29:11
  Kearns: You're probably right about that.
• 29:12
  I have no-- When, uh, my kids are up, I have no dominion
• 29:16
  over my television whatsoever.
• 29:18
  They've completely co-opted my favorite room.
• 29:22
  It's, it is done.
• 29:24
  Jon: Yeah
• 29:25
  Kearns: so I go into the smaller room with the smaller TV and the couch I
• 29:27
  don't like I need a break from what they're watching, and that's that.
• 29:33
  That's just life, baby.
• 29:34
  So Mr. Rogers wins
• 29:36
  Jon: And that is exactly why the man cave was, uh, invented
• 29:41
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 29:41
  That's like I don't wanna go into the garage and crush a sixer to
• 29:44
  be away from my family either.
• 29:47
  That's, that's not the goal either.
• 29:48
  It's just that the stuff they watch, you're like, "All right,
• 29:50
  let's go outside. Let's do…" Yeah, get away from that thing for
• 29:53
  a while so I can hang out with you
• 29:54
  Ryan: That's when you get the extra controller and you start switching it
• 29:58
  Kearns: Well, that's what-- I played Hollow Knight with Charlie.
• 30:02
  Like we-- He saw me playing Hollow Knight.
• 30:04
  He's like, "What's that?" I was like, "Oh, why don't you find
• 30:06
  out, buddy?" And he played that.
• 30:08
  He plays, uh, Helldivers.
• 30:12
  He does the easiest setting, and he runs around alone, and he raises hell.
• 30:15
  And he played Elden Ring for a while.
• 30:18
  He played Elden Ring for a while.
• 30:19
  It's pretty cool.
• 30:21
  Pretty cool
• 30:23
  Ryan: Knight's a good, uh, intro, intro game
• 30:26
  Kearns: well, I mean, it's super hard
• 30:29
  Ryan: Yeah, I, yeah, uh, yeah.
• 30:32
  Kearns: Super hard.
• 30:33
  Ryan: say no it'll bite me in the ass, but…
• 30:36
  Kearns: Oh, have you finished it?
• 30:38
  Ryan: Um, no, I'm still collecting souls because I'm stuck and
• 30:42
  I need to go to another land.
• 30:44
  This, the whole Metroid thing gets me because I get lost,
• 30:49
  Kearns: Yeah
• 30:50
  Ryan: in the spot I already did, and then it's like, it's like Metroid for me.
• 30:54
  I get lost, I have fun.
• 30:56
  Kearns: And you find your way back, kinda lose everything, get sad
• 31:00
  Ryan: you have to go back, and it's like,
• 31:02
  Kearns: Gets sad.
• 31:04
  Yep.
• 31:04
  Ryan: Souls for kids.
• 31:05
  It's
• 31:05
  Kearns: Yep.
• 31:06
  I think it's Dark Souls for adults who like side-scrollers.
• 31:09
  But anyway, hey, let's do a game.
• 31:11
  Jon: Yeah, let's do a game.
• 31:12
  Kearns: a game
• 31:13
  Jon: Let's play a game.
• 31:14
  We're gonna go back to a game we tried it out for the first time,
• 31:18
  like, about a month ago or so.
• 31:20
  We're gonna do the pinpoint game.
• 31:22
  I'm gonna give you 10 movie franchises.
• 31:26
  You guys are gonna tell me how many iterations, volumes are in each franchise,
• 31:35
  and this time I am including, uh, remakes.
• 31:40
  Kearns: Okay.
• 31:40
  Jon: s- we're gonna start with the franchise we are talking about tonight.
• 31:43
  How many Poltergeist movies do we have?
• 31:46
  Kearns: Brian probably knows this offhand.
• 31:49
  Jerk
• 31:49
  Ryan: said that, Amityville threw me off.
• 31:52
  Kearns: Well, there was like 72 of them.
• 31:55
  Uh,
• 31:55
  Ryan: by today's standards probably.
• 31:58
  Kearns: like ridiculous, man
• 31:59
  Jon: probab- they've probably put out 15 in the last three hours
• 32:04
  Ryan: Amityville Odd podcast.
• 32:06
  What?
• 32:08
  That's
• 32:09
  Kearns: say my number first.
• 32:11
  It's purely a guess
• 32:13
  Jon: So remember, including remakes
• 32:16
  Ryan: I'm gonna say four
• 32:18
  Kearns: Seven
• 32:24
  Ryan: One,
• 32:25
  Kearns: He said that mockingly.
• 32:26
  He mocked you when he said four.
• 32:28
  Ryan: I'm thinking of the first three, and then I'm thinking of the
• 32:31
  Jon: It is four.
• 32:32
  Yep, it's four.
• 32:33
  Kearns: it.
• 32:34
  Jon: It's four
• 32:35
  Ryan: That
• 32:35
  Kearns: I thought you said…
• 32:36
  Ryan: guess.
• 32:36
  I thought there was five for some reason,
• 32:38
  Kearns: I was gonna say
• 32:39
  Jon: I thought there was too.
• 32:41
  I, I I,
• 32:42
  Kearns: It's three plus the
• 32:43
  Jon: I…
• 32:43
  Kearns: right?
• 32:44
  Ryan: Yep.
• 32:45
  Jon: Yeah.
• 32:46
  I, in, in, I kinda Mandela effected myself 'cause I was
• 32:51
  sure there was a Poltergeist IV
• 32:53
  Ryan: I thought there was one too.
• 32:54
  Like, it was like for some reason, like when they did The Omen 4, like Poltergeist
• 33:00
  4 was supposed… It might be Mandela.
• 33:04
  I mean, Sinbad was a genie in my world
• 33:09
  Kearns: Next.
• 33:10
  Jon: a genie.
• 33:11
  Next movie.
• 33:12
  How many Purge movies are there?
• 33:15
  Kearns: Five
• 33:16
  Ryan: yes.
• 33:18
  Jon: It is five.
• 33:19
  Ryan: was gonna
• 33:19
  Jon: Good job.
• 33:20
  Ryan: the TV series," so I was gonna be like,
• 33:22
  Jon: No, TV, TV series are not included.
• 33:25
  I think that… Nope, that's not the last time that's gonna come into play,
• 33:29
  but it does not include TV series.
• 33:33
  all right.
• 33:33
  Franchise number three is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• 33:41
  Kearns: Including remakes?
• 33:43
  Jon: Including remakes.
• 33:45
  Kearns: There's so many.
• 33:48
  Uh
• 33:49
  Jon: the biggest, it's not the biggest number on this list
• 33:57
  Ryan: The worst thing is I took a math test today, and I'm just like dying
• 34:00
  inside while I'm trying to figure
• 34:02
  Kearns: wah.
• 34:03
  Ryan: Hold on.
• 34:04
  One, two,
• 34:04
  Kearns: Nine
• 34:08
  Ryan: Or,
• 34:09
  Kearns: nine?
• 34:10
  Ryan: uh, uh, eight
• 34:13
  Kearns: Can we count Summer School as one of those movies?
• 34:15
  Jon: We cannot count summer school as one of those movies, but the answer is nine.
• 34:20
  So
• 34:21
  Kearns: Yes.
• 34:22
  That's two.
• 34:22
  I got two right.
• 34:24
  Ryan: One, two,
• 34:25
  Jon: Ryan, is only up by two
• 34:27
  Ryan: remake, pr- prequel to remake, unofficial se- the, the sequel to the
• 34:33
  first one and then the other sequel.
• 34:35
  What was the ninth one?
• 34:37
  Jon: It was the one that went straight to Netflix or something?
• 34:43
  Ryan: I gotta be missing one 'cause you got
• 34:45
  Jon: You are missing one somewhere.
• 34:47
  Ryan: next generation, the remake, the prequel to the remake, the first
• 34:53
  sequel to the first one, and then you have… You sure it's nine?
• 34:58
  Jon: It's nine.
• 34:59
  Ryan: It's nine.
• 35:00
  I'm, I'm trying to figure out which one, which
• 35:02
  Jon: I am positive.
• 35:04
  I don't know.
• 35:05
  We'll have to sit and look later.
• 35:07
  All right, next franchise.
• 35:10
  Child's Play.
• 35:11
  Ryan: Nein.
• 35:12
  Jon: How many, remember we're counting remakes, how many
• 35:15
  Child's Play movies are there?
• 35:16
  Ryan: Nein
• 35:18
  Kearns: I friggin' hate this.
• 35:19
  Are you gonna go with nine again?
• 35:23
  I, uh, let's see, what could it be?
• 35:24
  Ryan: This is your franchise
• 35:26
  Kearns: Yeah, I don't, I don't ownership.
• 35:31
  S- I still remember that dream, little bastard.
• 35:34
  Uh, I'll go with nine too, 'cause I don't really know
• 35:38
  Ryan: No, hold on.
• 35:40
  Hold
• 35:40
  Kearns: No, you can't change your answer
• 35:41
  Jon: Yeah, you can't change.
• 35:42
  You're locked in, man.
• 35:43
  You're locked in.
• 35:44
  Ryan: I made a mistake
• 35:45
  Kearns: it with your chest
• 35:46
  Jon: Ryan, you have your numbers backwards.
• 35:50
  This is a
• 35:50
  Ryan: This is
• 35:51
  Kearns: Oh, so we were off by one.
• 35:53
  Ryan: eight one.
• 35:55
  Jon: Yeah.
• 35:56
  Kearns: Did you feed
• 35:57
  Jon: All right.
• 35:57
  Kearns: before?
• 35:58
  Jon: If either of you two nail the exact number on either of
• 36:01
  these next two, I would be amazed.
• 36:05
  Franchise, the next franchise, "Children of the Corn."
• 36:09
  Kearns: They play some, like, obscure Children of the Corn movie, and
• 36:12
  the kid's name is different now.
• 36:14
  Like, it's bizarre.
• 36:15
  It's, like, not, it's not Malachi anymore or whatever his name
• 36:18
  is, Mordecai, whatever it is.
• 36:20
  It's, like, Ezekiel.
• 36:21
  Ryan: It, it's Ezekiel now, and I don't understand.
• 36:25
  It, it works.
• 36:27
  Jon: Does it?
• 36:28
  Kearns: now,
• 36:29
  Jon: I mean, I think the…
• 36:32
  Kearns: to begin with, if I'm
• 36:33
  Jon: Yeah, that's where I was just about to go is the
• 36:35
  original was sort of borderline
• 36:38
  Ryan: Really?
• 36:39
  Kearns: it's interchangeable with Village of the Damned for me, and
• 36:42
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 36:42
  Kearns: it's a Stephen King short story, right?
• 36:45
  Or novella.
• 36:46
  Ryan: Yep
• 36:47
  Kearns: And it's, um… I remember that was fine too.
• 36:50
  That was h- sort of his banal, uh, Bachman stuff.
• 36:55
  Bleak.
• 36:55
  It was his bleaker stuff.
• 36:57
  I don't even think it was written under Bachman.
• 36:59
  I think it came out after they figured out that he was
• 37:01
  Jon: Yeah, I think this was just a straight up King release.
• 37:04
  Kearns: And it's just not great.
• 37:07
  Jon: Yeah, it's not one of my favorite of his works
• 37:09
  Ryan: I have a soft spot for it.
• 37:11
  Kearns: But there's so many sequels.
• 37:13
  There's so many
• 37:14
  Jon: I also never noticed on this poster the little kids in the corn,
• 37:19
  Ryan: It's
• 37:19
  Kearns: Oh, neat.
• 37:20
  Jon: mixed in the corn stalks.
• 37:22
  Kearns: That's
• 37:22
  Jon: noticed that.
• 37:23
  That's cool.
• 37:23
  I like that.
• 37:24
  And that one has a pitchfork and a scythe, a scythe, a scythe.
• 37:30
  Kearns: Yeah, they like the
• 37:30
  Jon: This one kind of looks… Yeah, I like that.
• 37:33
  Ryan: That is cool.
• 37:34
  Jon: Anyway, how many-
• 37:36
  Kearns: five, but I'm thinking it's way higher than that.
• 37:40
  Ryan: I'm gonna guess 12
• 37:42
  Kearns: There's so many of these movies.
• 37:44
  It, this might be the highest on the list
• 37:46
  Jon: It's not the highest on the list.
• 37:48
  Kearns: Oh my God.
• 37:50
  Jon: one is the highest.
• 37:51
  Kearns: I'm gonna go with six.
• 37:53
  Jon: Oof.
• 37:53
  Kearns: trapped, I trapped Ryan into the high number to see if I could
• 37:56
  Jon: How many did you say, Ryan?
• 37:58
  Ryan: Twelve.
• 37:59
  Jon: 12?
• 38:00
  It's 11
• 38:01
  Kearns: Wow.
• 38:02
  Well, price is right, baby.
• 38:04
  I win.
• 38:07
  Jon: As you're well aware, we are adding the difference
• 38:10
  Kearns: Yeah, that's a big one for me.
• 38:12
  That, that might have messed up my whole being close
• 38:16
  Jon: Yeah, you were hanging in there.
• 38:18
  It was a two-point gap, now it's seven
• 38:21
  Ryan: It,
• 38:22
  Kearns: Wah,
• 38:22
  Ryan: do you have it in your notes if the remake capped it at 11, or did
• 38:26
  they do something after the remake?
• 38:30
  Jon: I don't have what the last one was.
• 38:33
  It's fairly recent though.
• 38:35
  Ryan: Okay.
• 38:36
  So that
• 38:36
  Jon: And there's probably more coming because I-- there's so many
• 38:39
  cheap streamers that need content
• 38:42
  Kearns: Hmm.
• 38:44
  Ryan: I,
• 38:44
  Jon: But any- speaking of, of cheap streams that need content, that's where
• 38:48
  this next movie is gonna live, Ryan.
• 38:51
  'Cause the next franchise is the "Witchcraft" franchise.
• 38:55
  Ryan: hell is witchcraft?
• 38:57
  I've never seen witchcraft.
• 38:59
  What the-
• 39:00
  Jon: I didn't know there… I didn't even know this was a franchise.
• 39:03
  Like, I thought there were, like, two or three
• 39:08
  How many witchcraft movies are there?
• 39:10
  Ryan: up.
• 39:11
  Kearns: of these than 12
• 39:13
  Jon: than children, more than there are "Children of the Corns."
• 39:16
  Ryan: this is a fair question.
• 39:17
  It's what studio?
• 39:20
  Jon: Oh, dude, I don't even remember.
• 39:22
  Ryan: 'Cause if it's a Richard band, then we know there's like 200 of them.
• 39:26
  Jon: I don't think it's a Richard, uh, Charles band.
• 39:29
  Ryan: band, I'm sorry
• 39:30
  Jon: Yeah
• 39:30
  Kearns: go with a stupid number.
• 39:32
  I'm gonna let Ryan guess first 'cause I have to be strategic about this one to win
• 39:39
  Jon: Yeah, this is just… No.
• 39:41
  Kearns: Oh, I thought it
• 39:42
  Jon: No.
• 39:42
  No, there's four left after this, but
• 39:45
  Kearns: wow
• 39:46
  Jon: this is probably your last chance to make up a big chunk
• 39:51
  Ryan: He said it's more f- fifteen
• 39:58
  Jon: Great.
• 40:02
  Ooh.
• 40:02
  Kearns: like, "Ooh, not
• 40:04
  Jon: Oh
• 40:05
  Kearns: Not good, Kearns"
• 40:07
  Jon: I mean, you're not that far off, Ryan's closer.
• 40:10
  It's 17.
• 40:11
  Kearns: Oh.
• 40:12
  Jon: There is 17 witchcraft movies.
• 40:15
  Kearns: Well done, Ryan
• 40:16
  Ryan: I,
• 40:17
  Jon: Yeah.
• 40:18
  Ryan: I, that's why I asked the production company.
• 40:20
  I mean, this is the first film.
• 40:21
  It looks pretty cool.
• 40:22
  Um,
• 40:24
  Jon: Yeah, the first one's okay
• 40:25
  Ryan: us, can you give us a little background?
• 40:28
  Kearns: Nah,
• 40:28
  Jon: really.
• 40:28
  Kearns: the next
• 40:29
  Jon: Not really.
• 40:30
  Ryan: I'm
• 40:30
  Jon: Not really.
• 40:31
  I'll throw,
• 40:32
  Kearns: get, you've got Google.
• 40:33
  We'll finish up and you go figure it out.
• 40:35
  Jon: I'll throw it on, I'll throw it on the calendar for you after.
• 40:37
  Our next franchise,
• 40:39
  Ryan: all right
• 40:40
  Jon: we're back to more manageable numbers.
• 40:43
  Wrong Turn.
• 40:44
  How many Wrong Turn movies are there, including remakes?
• 40:48
  Kearns: There's only four directions you can turn, so I'm gonna go with four
• 40:55
  Ryan: Six
• 40:58
  Jon: Oh, wait, it's seven
• 41:01
  Ryan: I,
• 41:01
  Kearns: Okay
• 41:02
  Ryan: Mm. Mm. I knew I should've went with my gut instinct 'cause you
• 41:08
  know how many times I've heard about this film over and over
• 41:11
  again, and how immaculate it is?
• 41:14
  not.
• 41:14
  I, the first
• 41:15
  Jon: It's, not.
• 41:16
  Ryan: First one's decent
• 41:17
  Jon: the first one's okay.
• 41:20
  After that, it's kinda steaming piles.
• 41:24
  all right, next franchise, three to go.
• 41:26
  Paranormal Activity.
• 41:28
  How many paranormal Activities are there?
• 41:30
  Kearns: Five.
• 41:32
  F- I'm going, I- my gut's telling me four, but I'm gonna guess five
• 41:35
  Ryan: not counting the one coming out, right?
• 41:39
  Okay
• 41:40
  Kearns: last one
• 41:41
  Jon: no upcomings
• 41:42
  Kearns: is the one that ends with the stupid Rosemary's Baby trope,
• 41:45
  and I was pretty sure that was four
• 41:47
  Ryan: Six
• 41:50
  Jon: How many did you say, Kearns?
• 41:52
  Kearns: I said, uh, five.
• 41:54
  Jon: It's eight.
• 41:55
  Kearns: Damn
• 41:56
  Jon: There are eight of these.
• 41:57
  Ryan: are there eight of these?
• 42:00
  one's
• 42:00
  Jon: becau-
• 42:00
  Kearns: they cost nothing to make
• 42:02
  Jon: yeah, they cost nothing to make and people go to see them
• 42:06
  Ryan: True
• 42:07
  Jon: All right, last two.
• 42:09
  All right, this one includes a crossover.
• 42:13
  Ryan: Okay.
• 42:14
  Jon: The Gingerdead Man.
• 42:16
  How many Gingerdead Man movies are there?
• 42:19
  Ryan: I'm try-
• 42:19
  Kearns: for UC, so hopefully many.
• 42:22
  Jon: I don't think Gary Busey stayed involved in this franchise.
• 42:26
  Ryan: He was in the
• 42:26
  Kearns: That's
• 42:26
  Ryan: one,
• 42:27
  Jon: Yeah, I don't think he was in anything.
• 42:30
  He might've been in the second one
• 42:32
  Kearns: Evil never tasted so good.
• 42:34
  I don't know, four?
• 42:36
  How many of these can you do?
• 42:36
  Not my gumdrop buttons.
• 42:42
  Ryan: I'm gonna say five because I don't know how many s- crossover sequels there
• 42:46
  were, 'cause I know they did quite a few
• 42:50
  Jon: No, there are only four.
• 42:52
  Ryan: Four.
• 42:53
  Jon: Yeah.
• 42:54
  There's three, there's three standalones, and then there's the
• 42:57
  ginger dead man versus the evil bong
• 43:00
  Ryan: There
• 43:00
  Kearns: should get extra points for getting so many spot on
• 43:02
  and also so many so far off
• 43:06
  Jon: All right.
• 43:07
  Ryan: Damn.
• 43:08
  Jon: not gonna do that, but nice try.
• 43:12
  Nice try.
• 43:13
  Um,
• 43:13
  Kearns: in the dark
• 43:14
  Jon: our last franchise is Tremors.
• 43:19
  How many Tremors movies are there?
• 43:22
  Kearns: They fly, and then there's like three more after they fly.
• 43:27
  There's Tremors, Tremors 2,
• 43:30
  Ryan: Three.
• 43:30
  Kearns: Tremors 3.
• 43:32
  Ryan: they go back in time.
• 43:33
  Basically, that's a prequel.
• 43:35
  Kearns: Yeah
• 43:36
  Ryan: then five and six, they're like modern day
• 43:40
  Kearns: I'm not sure if five and six exist, but I feel like it's six.
• 43:43
  Ryan: there's s- I think there's, there's… I'm
• 43:45
  Kearns: There's a bunch
• 43:46
  Ryan: six.
• 43:49
  Jon: Oh,
• 43:49
  Ryan: five.
• 43:50
  Jon: There are seven.
• 43:52
  Kearns: Aw.
• 43:53
  Jon: I'm not sure, I'm not sure if you forgot the one that was set in the
• 43:57
  Arctic or the one that was set in Africa
• 44:00
  Ryan: Wait, there's one set in Africa?
• 44:02
  Jon: Yeah.
• 44:03
  Kearns: My favorite part of the movie cover is that it has nothing to do
• 44:07
  with the graboid design whatsoever.
• 44:10
  It's always been
• 44:10
  Jon: at all.
• 44:12
  Yeah.
• 44:12
  Yep
• 44:14
  Kearns: Just completely not the monster.
• 44:17
  Cool.
• 44:18
  Jon: So guys, that's Pinpoint for this week.
• 44:21
  Ryan, you won.
• 44:22
  Kearns: big time.
• 44:23
  Ryan won
• 44:23
  Jon: Ryan dominated that one.
• 44:25
  Ryan: I got, my…
• 44:26
  Kearns: Yes, he did
• 44:27
  Ryan: can go suck an egg.
• 44:29
  Kearns: Suck it egg.
• 44:31
  Ryan: we're getting into curses.
• 44:32
  I mean, curses are entangled with horror.
• 44:36
  I mean, from The Omen with bizarre freak accidents on set, The Exorcist with
• 44:43
  sudden un-alivings among people connected to the production, and of course, one
• 44:47
  of the most famous curses being The Crow, Brandon Lee, with the whole blank.
• 44:53
  But
• 44:55
  Poltergeist.
• 44:55
  has some curses behind it, and John, I, I know you got a,
• 44:59
  you got a lot to say on this
• 45:02
  Kearns: Interesting
• 45:04
  Jon: I'm gonna lay this case out for you guys, and then we can
• 45:08
  decide if this is really cursed.
• 45:11
  I have a feeling I know exactly how this is gonna break down, but we'll do that,
• 45:15
  and then afterwards I wanna hear from, from listeners and viewers what you think
• 45:20
  about whether this was a cursed film.
• 45:23
  So it starts on set.
• 45:25
  The only real on set thing that was of a curse is, the scene where
• 45:32
  Robbie is attacked by the clown.
• 45:34
  The clown malfunctioned, and it is actually strangling him
• 45:39
  Ryan: In the film?
• 45:41
  Jon: In the film.
• 45:42
  So,
• 45:43
  Kearns: realism though,
• 45:44
  Jon: mm-hmm.
• 45:45
  Kearns: you know?
• 45:46
  Jon: Yeah, it, it's, it's good.
• 45:47
  So like the attribution for this curse is always placed on one thing
• 45:54
  Kearns: No?
• 45:55
  All right
• 45:55
  Ryan: I almost, saw it on a live and on It's just worse than the
• 46:00
  whole Otis and Milo film thing.
• 46:04
  bad
• 46:05
  Kearns: How did you reverse them?
• 46:07
  Milo and Otis.
• 46:10
  Ryan: It's another traumatizing film, but it's a
• 46:12
  Kearns: Here comes the dog, all brave and strong.
• 46:17
  All right.
• 46:17
  John was in the middle of something.
• 46:19
  What were you
• 46:19
  Jon: Yeah.
• 46:23
  So most people attribute the source of this curse, the cause of the
• 46:25
  poltergeist curse, to the fact that the pool scene with JoBeth
• 46:31
  Williams, they use real skeletons.
• 46:34
  They used real skeletons 'cause they were cheaper than getting plastic
• 46:39
  ones or making fake skeletons.
• 46:42
  So
• 46:42
  Kearns: wild
• 46:43
  Jon: think of it, yeah, that's an insane thought that it cost them less
• 46:48
  Ryan: you gotta mention too how some of the actors didn't know they were real they
• 46:52
  Jon: Oh yeah, no, we, th- yeah.
• 46:54
  Yeah, JoBeth Williams in particular did not know that they were real, in the time.
• 47:00
  So Spielberg and Hooper never confirmed that they are real skeletons, but
• 47:07
  JoBeth Williams says they were, and then there was testimony in a
• 47:11
  lawsuit where the special effects guy, Craig Reardon, testified under
• 47:17
  oath that they were real skeletons.
• 47:20
  So I mean, obviously Spielberg probably has some reasons for not doing it.
• 47:26
  It's kind of, you know, unseemly, but not unheard of.
• 47:30
  Like, they used them in a whole bunch of the old Universal movies.
• 47:33
  the original House on Haunted Hill with Vincent Price, real skeletons.
• 47:39
  So it's like, it's not like this is an outlier in that regard.
• 47:43
  So with Poltergeist 1, the two main things though that get pointed to as curses
• 47:51
  are the deaths of the two daughters, of Dominique Dunne, who played Dana, the
• 47:58
  older daughter, who, you know, doesn't have a lot of role in Poltergeist but
• 48:03
  is there, and in the death of Heather O'Rourke, who played Carol Anne.
• 48:09
  Kearns: Hmm.
• 48:09
  Jon: So to go into those, I, I think it helps explain, you know, why maybe people
• 48:15
  think they're cursed and other stuff.
• 48:17
  Dominique Dunne died in less than six months after the release of
• 48:21
  Poltergeist, and Dominique Dunne was murdered by an abusive ex-boyfriend.
• 48:29
  She had broken up with the guy after, you know, a, a couple
• 48:32
  years of an abusive relationship.
• 48:36
  this guy John Sweeney, who then, you know, after getting out of jail, changed his
• 48:41
  name and has tried to hide out, uh, since.
• 48:45
  So after the breakup, he went to her house one night and strangled her, leaving her
• 48:50
  comatose, and she died a few days later.
• 48:54
  the prosecution lost almost every challenge, including involving his
• 49:00
  prior bad acts and the abusive history of their relationship, and the jury
• 49:07
  eventually finds him guilty, but not of murder, not of second-degree murder.
• 49:11
  He's found guilty of manslaughter
• 49:14
  Kearns: Oh
• 49:14
  Jon: and sentenced… His sentence is, uh, six years plus a half a
• 49:20
  year for a related charge, but he ends up serving two and a half years
• 49:27
  Kearns: Okay.
• 49:28
  Ryan: Okay
• 49:28
  Yeah.
• 49:29
  No, that's
• 49:29
  Jon: So
• 49:30
  Ryan: That's not
• 49:31
  Jon: yeah.
• 49:32
  Yeah, he gets, he gets off pretty light and goes on to…
• 49:36
  Dominique Dunne's father, Dominick Dunne, who was a, journalist.
• 49:40
  He did stuff for, I think, Vanity Fair.
• 49:43
  He spent, the better part of a decade after his release tracking him down and,
• 49:49
  like, reporting him to his employers and stuff and costing him jobs.
• 49:52
  He changed his name, and he kept, you know, hunting him down for a while
• 49:58
  before he eventually reached the point where it was just, "This is… My
• 50:01
  whole life is now this." So, you know, for his own health, he pulled back.
• 50:08
  And John Sweeney has largely faded from… Like, I, I don't even ha- I
• 50:14
  didn't even write down his current name.
• 50:16
  I looked a little bit.
• 50:17
  I couldn't find anybody that was definitively him.
• 50:21
  I don't wanna send people off doxing somebody or anything.
• 50:24
  Like, I, like, he's a bad dude.
• 50:26
  That, and we can leave it at that.
• 50:29
  The Heather O'Rourke one is m- I mean, it's hard to, you know,
• 50:33
  quantify sadness and death.
• 50:35
  She was 12.
• 50:36
  Ryan: Yeah
• 50:37
  Jon: so they're making Poltergeist III, and she'd been sick.
• 50:41
  so parents take her to a doctor, and they diagnose her with Crohn's disease.
• 50:46
  Very treatable.
• 50:47
  It's not a lot of fun.
• 50:48
  It's very treatable.
• 50:50
  And sh- they're treating her for Crohn's disease, and you can see in the filming
• 50:54
  of Poltergeist III, there are scenes where her face is kind of puffy, and that's from
• 51:00
  the steroids to treat the Crohn's disease.
• 51:03
  Kearns: I see
• 51:04
  Jon: during the filming of Poltergeist III, she got even sicker and rushed to the
• 51:11
  hospital, and she dies in the hospital, and it turns out she was misdiagnosed.
• 51:18
  She had a congenital birth defect in her intestines, and what it sounds like
• 51:23
  is essentially she had an organ or an a- it, that had turned into an abscess
• 51:29
  that was essentially it sounds like, I'm not a doctor, it sounds like it was s-
• 51:34
  it sort of served as a second appendix
• 51:38
  That was missed in all the testing.
• 51:41
  M- you know, this is the '80s.
• 51:42
  You didn't have the quality of tests, but her family sued and did win.
• 51:49
  So, you know, there is some level of medical malpractice in her death.
• 51:54
  so she's 12 filming Poltergeist III.
• 51:56
  There's a show on Shudder called Cursed Films.
• 52:00
  I watched the episode again on Poltergeist.
• 52:02
  They talked to Gary Sherman, who was directing Poltergeist III, and he's
• 52:06
  like, "So she dies, and I'm like, 'I'm done making this movie. We're
• 52:12
  not making… We're not gonna finish Poltergeist III. It's just gonna get
• 52:15
  shelved.'" Nobody wanted to finish it.
• 52:18
  Studio comes back and demands that they finish Poltergeist III.
• 52:23
  So, like, they… You can sort of see, like, i- in knowing that when,
• 52:29
  if you go back and watch Poltergeist III, you can see sort of the light
• 52:33
  go out in the making of that movie
• 52:36
  Kearns: Ah, I see.
• 52:37
  Okay.
• 52:38
  Jon: Um,
• 52:38
  Kearns: explains it
• 52:40
  Jon: yeah, and then, like there's like
• 52:44
  semi-unexpected deaths related to two and three with some of the
• 52:48
  characters that get introduced there.
• 52:50
  But we, I didn't go into those that far because we're talking
• 52:53
  specifically about Poltergeist one.
• 52:56
  so based on that information, is the film cursed?
• 53:02
  Kearns: It feels pretty cursed.
• 53:04
  Ryan: mm,
• 53:05
  Kearns: It feels pretty cursed
• 53:06
  Ryan: Heather O'Rourke, yes, I feel like hers was very, um, unexpected.
• 53:14
  if,
• 53:15
  Jon: I don't…
• 53:15
  Ryan: y- I mean, they kinda
• 53:17
  Jon: they're both pretty unexpected.
• 53:18
  I mean, Dominique Dunne was 22
• 53:21
  Ryan: No, I mean, Dunn was unexpected too, but that was
• 53:24
  like premeditated, I would say.
• 53:26
  Like, you got a history there with the abusive ex-boyfriend, the obsession.
• 53:30
  Um, I lo- I looked a little, a little into her story and all that, and was like
• 53:35
  there was such a buildup, and she did everything right to get away from it,
• 53:39
  and he just himself into it, and that's sadly the, um, the results came from it.
• 53:47
  Jon: And it,
• 53:48
  Ryan: O'Rourke… Oh, sorry
• 53:50
  Jon: a- and, and it's 1982.
• 53:52
  There weren't really stalking laws.
• 53:54
  I think there are a couple of Hollywood things that, her, hers,
• 53:59
  and then I'm blanking on the other one that was really bad.
• 54:02
  It's kind of similar, that sort of kickstarted a lot of stalker laws and
• 54:09
  protections for women from stalkers.
• 54:14
  But there, you know, there, there wasn't a lot of, like, legal protections.
• 54:20
  He'd show up, you call the cops.
• 54:22
  That's basically what it was
• 54:25
  Kearns: And then it was, he's not doing anything wrong,
• 54:28
  Jon: Yeah, I they'd ru- yeah, they'd, they'd run him off, you
• 54:32
  know, that, that sort of thing.
• 54:34
  Like, "Yeah, get out of here. Go home," you know?
• 54:36
  But, like, he wasn't… Unless he was, like, he had broken into a
• 54:40
  house or done something else, he- they weren't getting arrested.
• 54:45
  It wasn't really a crime.
• 54:47
  It wa- you know, in, in a lot of ways, through most of the '80s,
• 54:51
  that was just being persistent
• 54:58
  Yeah.
• 54:59
  Ryan: It's an interesting, interesting persistence there
• 55:03
  Kearns: I'm on team
• 55:03
  Jon: Yeah.
• 55:04
  Kearns: This feels quite cursed
• 55:06
  Ryan: Oh,
• 55:06
  Jon: Okay
• 55:07
  Ryan: with O'Rourke?
• 55:08
  Yes.
• 55:09
  'Cause that, like, her situation happening at a fast pace and stuff is
• 55:14
  unexpected, and it reminds me of a lot of, um, you hear a lot of what happened
• 55:18
  in Egypt when they used to go in the tombs, the King Tut, the pharaohs, and
• 55:24
  they'd open up something, and then two days later, something would happen.
• 55:27
  Someone would go off a cliff, someone drop in the middle of Cairo.
• 55:34
  It's like that Egyptian lore the movie
• 55:37
  Jon: All right.
• 55:38
  All right.
• 55:39
  So I'm, I'm opposite of you guys.
• 55:43
  I think, um, I know there are… You, you hear a lot of people say
• 55:48
  there's no such thing as coincidence.
• 55:51
  There is such thing as coincidence.
• 55:53
  Sometimes there are coincidences, and I believe that these are
• 55:58
  tragic coincidental events.
• 56:01
  Yeah, I mean, what, what really cursed Poltergeist?
• 56:06
  It can't be real skeletons because the other movies they used
• 56:09
  real skeletons weren't cursed.
• 56:11
  I mean, a- and list- listen, I think, I think some of the concept of a curse
• 56:16
  around Poltergeist comes from, you know, the plot of the movie, and being, you
• 56:23
  know, y- you have a housing development built on top of a cemetery, and that,
• 56:28
  that great scene at the end where Steve has his boss, played by Return
• 56:34
  of Living Dead's James Karen, and he's, you know, "You didn't move the bodies"
• 56:41
  Kearns: Yeah
• 56:43
  Jon: You know, so it's like, I think it sort of lends itself just in story
• 56:49
  to being cursed, but I, I mean, I don't believe in curses in general anyway.
• 56:55
  So I, I think it's, it's a, it's tragic coincidence
• 57:00
  Ryan: Um, Dan
• 57:01
  Kearns: T tragic.
• 57:03
  Ryan: He uncursed the Knicks.
• 57:05
  I mean,
• 57:05
  Kearns: Uh
• 57:08
  Jon: the Knicks were gonna win that series in all likelihood anyway.
• 57:11
  Like
• 57:11
  Ryan: Dan Halsen.
• 57:13
  Dan Halsen
• 57:14
  Jon: I, I, listen, what I will say is if there is such a thing as
• 57:20
  curses, I don't think it's a little wrestling dude dressed up like a demon
• 57:25
  who can curse and un-curse things.
• 57:28
  Ryan: he, he can.
• 57:29
  He can
• 57:29
  Jon: I think it's, I think it's probably not the case
• 57:33
  Kearns: Probably not.
• 57:36
  Probably not true
• 57:37
  Ryan: Now on to special guest now, in full costume, Houser
• 57:42
  Jon: Now I wanna tag him in videos.
• 57:44
  Ryan: Do it.
• 57:45
  He would, he's
• 57:46
  Jon: Come…
• 57:46
  Ryan: he's… Well, that's his whole, real quick, that's his whole
• 57:49
  Jon: he be- he better be, he better be into horror.
• 57:51
  If he's running around like that as, as a wrestling character, he
• 57:55
  better be into horror in some way
• 57:58
  Ryan: his homage is to the 1940s, uh, Universal Classics.
• 58:01
  That's why he does the whole face paint.
• 58:03
  It's the, the Lon Chaney G- uh, Senior/Junior face paint
• 58:07
  Jon: Well, I, I think he's also using the face paint because I've recently
• 58:11
  seen him without it for the first time, and he looks like he's about 12.
• 58:16
  Ryan: That and yes.
• 58:18
  Yes.
• 58:18
  Jon: the, the face paint is covering up a few things for him.
• 58:23
  Ryan: He's got tattoos.
• 58:24
  Shows he's, uh, he's at the limit
• 58:27
  Jon: Yeah.
• 58:28
  Kearns: limit.
• 58:30
  Hooper versus Spielberg.
• 58:32
  Who's the real director of this film?
• 58:34
  Ryan: Spielberg.
• 58:35
  Sorry.
• 58:37
  It just, if…
• 58:40
  Jon: so let, you want some background on this?
• 58:42
  'Cause I have that too.
• 58:43
  I was, I spent some time on some of this stuff this week.
• 58:46
  so this whole Spielberg versus Hooper who directed argument started
• 58:52
  before the movie's even released.
• 58:54
  Ryan: Okay
• 58:55
  Jon: in a press release a month before announcing Poltergeist.
• 59:03
  and it identifies it very clearly as a Spielberg film.
• 59:08
  it's, like, this press release is three paragraphs long before
• 59:12
  it even mentions Tobe Hooper.
• 59:15
  It's three par- paragraphs on the magic of Steven Spielberg, and then,
• 59:20
  you know, you get to Tobe Hooper, and this guy doing effects, and this
• 59:24
  guy doing the score, and whatever.
• 59:26
  and then it's furthered by a New York Times article hyping the release
• 59:32
  where it's, you know, all Spielberg.
• 59:34
  and that article talks about Poltergeist and ET because they
• 59:40
  came out at almost the same time.
• 59:42
  That article doesn't even mention Tobe Hooper.
• 59:46
  It's all Spielberg.
• 59:48
  So even before anybody, any audience has seen this movie, it's
• 59:55
  being set up as a Spielberg movie.
• 59:57
  And then the trailer drops, and in the trailer Spielberg's name is
• 1:00:04
  significantly larger than Tobe Hooper's
• 1:00:08
  Kearns: I mean, he's the draw
• 1:00:10
  Ryan: Yeah.
• 1:00:11
  Jon: Uh,
• 1:00:12
  Ryan: S-
• 1:00:12
  Jon: but here's the catch.
• 1:00:14
  Hooper filed a grievance with the Directors Guild of America
• 1:00:18
  Kearns: Oh, really?
• 1:00:19
  Jon: and won.
• 1:00:20
  And won.
• 1:00:21
  He got, he, he got $15,000 for what they called the
• 1:00:26
  denigration of the director role
• 1:00:30
  Kearns: Interesting.
• 1:00:31
  Jon: Yeah, so
• 1:00:32
  Kearns: for what happened to him, though.
• 1:00:34
  Jon: no, but I mean, it's also 1982, '83 money, so it's, it's, you know,
• 1:00:40
  it's fif- it's not as much, but it's more significant than it feels like.
• 1:00:46
  and then according to, to Toby Hooper though, the real problem started with
• 1:00:50
  an LA Times article on the production.
• 1:00:53
  Uh, she said, asked something to the effect, he didn't remember the exact
• 1:00:58
  wording, but the question was essentially, "Who is really directing this movie?"
• 1:01:04
  And that comes from when the reporter arrived on set,
• 1:01:10
  Spielberg was shooting a scene.
• 1:01:13
  He was shooting the scene with the race cars
• 1:01:16
  Ryan: Okay.
• 1:01:17
  Which is, yeah, that is very Spielberg-ish
• 1:01:20
  Jon: yeah.
• 1:01:21
  So is that, you know, is that just bad timing?
• 1:01:24
  Maybe.
• 1:01:25
  You know, maybe it's a scene that Hooper wasn't getting the way Spielberg wanted.
• 1:01:29
  You know, there's no background to know that, you know, maybe they had shot this
• 1:01:35
  five, six, seven times and it wasn't the way Spielberg wanted it to be.
• 1:01:40
  I mean, it's certainly clear regardless of who you think directed this that
• 1:01:44
  this is Spielberg's DNA all over it.
• 1:01:47
  So wh- what we know for sure is Spielberg storyboarded, he was
• 1:01:53
  on the set almost every day.
• 1:01:55
  Hooper was left out of the post-production stuff, which included
• 1:01:59
  the editing, the scoring, all of that.
• 1:02:02
  Which, I mean, the finished product is very Spielberg.
• 1:02:07
  Zelda Rubinstein, who played Tangina, says that, Spielberg
• 1:02:11
  directed all six days she was on set
• 1:02:14
  Kearns: Hmm
• 1:02:15
  Ryan: Okay.
• 1:02:16
  Jon: Um, m- but there's a lot of other cast members who claim the opposite.
• 1:02:24
  And they, like, so s- so Spielberg and Hooper had a relationship,
• 1:02:28
  and they wanted to work together as far back as Close Encounters.
• 1:02:32
  They were gonna work on something called Night Skies together, which Spielberg
• 1:02:37
  has called the evil Close Encounters,
• 1:02:40
  Kearns: Cool.
• 1:02:41
  Jon: didn't get made.
• 1:02:43
  And I'm so sad 'cause the evil Close Encounters might be the
• 1:02:47
  coolest thing I've ever heard of.
• 1:02:50
  that's really why, where the genesis of their relationship comes from.
• 1:02:55
  But the real reason somebody else has to direct Poltergeist, somebody
• 1:03:00
  else's name has to be in that spot, is because Spielberg was making E.T.
• 1:03:06
  at the time, and he had in his E.T. contract that he could not direct
• 1:03:13
  any other film at the same time, and these are pretty concurrent filming
• 1:03:21
  Ryan: Yeah
• 1:03:21
  Jon: s- so, you know, you bring in Tobe Hooper, who's
• 1:03:26
  respected in the horror genre.
• 1:03:28
  Like, not, maybe not the biggest household name by '82, you know?
• 1:03:34
  Texas Chainsaw had its cult following, but, you know, you're before the VHS
• 1:03:38
  market, you're before rental and all that.
• 1:03:40
  So it was, you know, still kind of a niche audience for sure.
• 1:03:46
  So, you know, there's definitely reason to, to wonder who directed this
• 1:03:52
  Kearns: Yeah.
• 1:03:52
  Well, that's the best explanation I think anybody could hope for.
• 1:03:55
  Ryan: Yeah
• 1:03:56
  Kearns: directed it, needed Hooper to get away with it legally.
• 1:04:00
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:04:00
  Kearns: shenanigans
• 1:04:01
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:04:02
  I mean, I can see some Hooper DNA in this too.
• 1:04:07
  A- and it, like, it's h- it's certainly harder to tell knowing that all the
• 1:04:12
  post-production stuff was Spielberg.
• 1:04:16
  Kearns: Right
• 1:04:17
  Jon: 'Cause from there you see all the Spielberg touches, you
• 1:04:21
  know, the score that's not John Williams, but it could've been.
• 1:04:25
  You know, it's Jerry Goldsmith, but it's a, it's Jerry Goldsmith doing
• 1:04:29
  something that could be John Williams.
• 1:04:31
  Y- you know, there's a lot of… The, just the whole family aspect of
• 1:04:37
  Poltergeist is a very Spielberg thing.
• 1:04:40
  Ryan: Absolutely.
• 1:04:42
  you know, you can see that, uh, you know, thinking about it, if he was
• 1:04:47
  on set a lot, I can see him directing Tobe, so just in case if someone walked
• 1:04:53
  on set, he wouldn't get in trouble.
• 1:04:55
  But I don't pass it, pass that idea, uh, past him.
• 1:04:59
  I don't… Trying to get
• 1:05:01
  Kearns: You don't put, you don't put it past them.
• 1:05:03
  Ryan: don't put it
• 1:05:03
  Kearns: That's what you, that's what you don't do.
• 1:05:05
  Ryan: Exactly.
• 1:05:06
  I don't, I don't put it pa- Thank you.
• 1:05:08
  I don't put it past him that he sat and directed, 'cause this was his baby.
• 1:05:13
  Like, he wrote it, he came up with the story.
• 1:05:15
  He's, like, the hottest name, and contracts at that time were a bitch.
• 1:05:19
  And, you know, like, that's why Eastwood stuck with Warner
• 1:05:23
  Brothers for, like, 100 almost.
• 1:05:27
  I- it feels like
• 1:05:27
  Kearns: Just getting close
• 1:05:29
  Ryan: like, he's-- 'Cause they were loyal, and that was what Spielberg
• 1:05:32
  was trying to figure out, is who's loyal, who's he gonna be loyal to?
• 1:05:35
  And I feel like at that time, what was Poltergeist?
• 1:05:38
  I think Paramount.
• 1:05:39
  Or no, not Paramount, MGM.
• 1:05:41
  Kearns: Something like that
• 1:05:42
  Ryan: uh, Poltergeist was MGM, so, like, doing something for Universal, which was,
• 1:05:47
  like, growing at that time to be, like, even bigger for the '80s, I understand,
• 1:05:54
  but it's a lot of tomfoolery here
• 1:06:01
  Kearns: All right.
• 1:06:01
  All right.
• 1:06:01
  All right.
• 1:06:02
  All
• 1:06:02
  Jon: Tom Foolishery.
• 1:06:04
  Um, yeah, I mean, so I, I w- I will say this, whatever the truth is,
• 1:06:11
  Spielberg learned from, from this experience and, you know, made sure
• 1:06:16
  when he did these collaborations going forward, there was more delineation.
• 1:06:21
  It was more obvious, you know, who was in which role.
• 1:06:25
  And, you know, yeah, I think he-- it seems like he was more careful
• 1:06:29
  about making sure that the person on the credits as directing got
• 1:06:35
  the proper credit for directing
• 1:06:37
  Kearns: Right
• 1:06:38
  Ryan: Yeah.
• 1:06:39
  Yeah.
• 1:06:41
  A little underhanded, but it, it works
• 1:06:44
  Jon: Listen, I mean, it's also com- it would also be completely understandable
• 1:06:49
  for me that someone like Spielberg would be on the set not intending to direct
• 1:06:54
  something, but being that involved in it where he watches Hooper do something and
• 1:06:59
  say, "Hold on a second, can we try it this way?" And then directs the scene himself.
• 1:07:05
  Uh, you know, without being there, it's hard to know exactly
• 1:07:08
  what went through any of this
• 1:07:10
  Ryan: I mean, the opening scene, now, uh, you're think- I'm
• 1:07:12
  thinking about it, it's definitely something that could be taken out.
• 1:07:15
  I mean, Chris Columbus did The Goonies, but again, Spielberg wrote
• 1:07:19
  it, and you get Spielberg all over that even though Columbus directed
• 1:07:23
  it, and it's the same thing with this.
• 1:07:24
  But I
• 1:07:25
  Mm-hmm.
• 1:07:26
  Mm-hmm
• 1:07:26
  opening scene is 100% Spielberg.
• 1:07:28
  The camera angle, how it follows, going back between the kids, the
• 1:07:32
  guy freaking out on the bike.
• 1:07:35
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:07:36
  Ryan: it, it… That's not Hooper.
• 1:07:37
  I need a chainsaw in order for it to be Hooper.
• 1:07:40
  You know what I mean?
• 1:07:41
  Like,
• 1:07:42
  Jon: Yeah
• 1:07:43
  Ryan: like, but on, on a serious, like, you can see where he's, like,
• 1:07:47
  that's a Spielberg scene, but then some scenes in the house you can tell where
• 1:07:52
  it's Hooper 'cause of the darkness and how he, like, sets up his angle.
• 1:07:56
  And that was an- another thing, like I said, he's gritty, and you
• 1:08:00
  don't see that grittiness that much, and I was, I was missing that.
• 1:08:04
  It's like that Spielberg clean, not the
• 1:08:07
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:08:09
  Yeah.
• 1:08:09
  so I watched this on a new 4K release of it.
• 1:08:13
  My gosh, is it pretty.
• 1:08:15
  Like, it's so… The grit, there's no grit.
• 1:08:20
  And, you know, I, I've complained before about l- losing the
• 1:08:24
  grit in some of those movies.
• 1:08:25
  Poltergeist is not one of those I would complain about.
• 1:08:28
  It looks beautiful
• 1:08:30
  Kearns: PG.
• 1:08:31
  PG
• 1:08:31
  Jon: PG.
• 1:08:32
  PG.
• 1:08:32
  Th- and I think this is the f- the first PG movie we've talked about
• 1:08:36
  Ryan: Yeah.
• 1:08:37
  Yep.
• 1:08:38
  I, this is the era where until 1989 where The Last Crusade was the first
• 1:08:44
  PG-13 movie, every movie was either
• 1:08:50
  G, PG, R, or X, or if you were lucky, triple X. I, I don't think
• 1:08:56
  G was even around before PG.
• 1:08:57
  G was
• 1:08:59
  Jon: was a, G w-, ah, I don't remember which came first, but G was around
• 1:09:04
  well before PG-13 because you had a bunch of the Disney stuff that was G.
• 1:09:09
  Ryan: Yeah, I feel, yeah, this movie does well for a PG.
• 1:09:13
  I mean, if it went rated R, you can do maybe a few more things,
• 1:09:17
  but how much more can you do?
• 1:09:18
  I mean, the tearing of the face is one thing when he's, like, in the mirror
• 1:09:24
  and he's, like, ripping his face apart
• 1:09:26
  Jon: I mean, you, you can do m- a lot more with VR, but do you
• 1:09:30
  need to is really my, my question, 'cause I don't think you need to.
• 1:09:35
  Ryan: No,
• 1:09:35
  Jon: I think
• 1:09:36
  Kearns: yeah.
• 1:09:37
  I don't know if gore, gore benefits this film at all, right?
• 1:09:41
  Right
• 1:09:45
  Jon: Like, I, and th- this is kind of proof that you can do it that way.
• 1:09:47
  I, listen, if Poltergeist came out in the year of the PG-13, I think it's a PG-13.
• 1:09:53
  I think that the face-ripping scene would guarantee that itself.
• 1:09:58
  But, uh, you can, you didn't have to be gory.
• 1:10:03
  You didn't have to load it up with, like, cursing or nudity or gore or violence.
• 1:10:10
  You, they told a good spooky story
• 1:10:13
  Ryan: Real quick, this is our second movie actually.
• 1:10:15
  Jaws is
• 1:10:16
  Kearns: What's the first?
• 1:10:18
  Jon: Oh, that's right.
• 1:10:19
  Jaws.
• 1:10:19
  I forgot Jaws is PG
• 1:10:21
  Ryan: yeah, I was talking to Jada about that too, where I was like, this is
• 1:10:24
  his second horror film, uh, Spielberg produced or directed, another PG one.
• 1:10:29
  And right in the beginning of Jaws, she even said it, she's like, "Isn't there an,
• 1:10:33
  a nude woman in the beginning?" And I'm like, "Yes." And you do see some stuff,
• 1:10:38
  and that's a PG rating for that time,
• 1:10:40
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:10:41
  Because that, that little bit was not enough to get an R
• 1:10:46
  Kearns: And the gore in Jaws though is kind of wild that
• 1:10:49
  that didn't get it up there
• 1:10:52
  Jon: I mean, yeah, that, that's probably… It get, it probably got close.
• 1:10:57
  I bet they like put…
• 1:10:59
  Ryan: How
• 1:10:59
  Kearns: That one
• 1:11:00
  Jon: I don't-
• 1:11:00
  Kearns: with the guy in the, in the bay when he gets taken off the boat and
• 1:11:04
  then his leg drifts down to the bottom of the, the, uh, the seabed there.
• 1:11:08
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:11:09
  Yeah
• 1:11:10
  Kearns: like, right there
• 1:11:11
  Ryan: So, uh, uh, now I have a question.
• 1:11:14
  What was the limit?
• 1:11:16
  Because you think of Jaws and then you think of like The Godfather
• 1:11:20
  Kearns: Spielberg was the limit.
• 1:11:22
  He didn't
• 1:11:22
  Jon: they're, yeah, yeah.
• 1:11:24
  I mean, they're… But,
• 1:11:25
  Ryan: True
• 1:11:26
  Jon: there's all these sorta, like, weird, you know, anecdotal stories
• 1:11:30
  about, like, what separates PG from R, and then what separates PG, PG-13, and
• 1:11:37
  R. Like, it's this number of curses.
• 1:11:41
  It's like, "Oh, you, you showed a nipple," or, you know, this, uh, this, this many
• 1:11:47
  pumps of blood goes from PG-13 to R.
• 1:11:51
  So, like, there's… I, I… It almost feels random sometimes
• 1:11:57
  how things wind up rated.
• 1:12:00
  Poltergeist is, you know, in a, in a time where there's PG or R, is PG.
• 1:12:05
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 1:12:10
  I'm with you.
• 1:12:11
  What… How do you feel about the ending, Ryan?
• 1:12:14
  Ryan: I love it.
• 1:12:15
  It hits.
• 1:12:15
  Just him, Craig T. Nelson,
• 1:12:18
  Kearns: Special effects hold up,
• 1:12:19
  Ryan: oh
• 1:12:20
  Kearns: tell you that much
• 1:12:21
  Ryan: the house popping through.
• 1:12:22
  I kept thinking of the, um, Treehouse of Horror episode, uh, Bad, Bad House,
• 1:12:27
  I think it's called, it's their, the Simpsons version of spoofing Poltergeist.
• 1:12:33
  And the only thing they were missing was the blood, but I know they include
• 1:12:36
  Amityville into that spoof as well.
• 1:12:39
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:12:40
  Ryan: it just, the, disappearing, the boss being shocked, and just
• 1:12:44
  them going to the hotel and him pulling the TV out as the camera pans
• 1:12:51
  back like, a supposed happy ending.
• 1:12:54
  It just, it works.
• 1:12:56
  It's a Spielberg ending.
• 1:12:57
  It is a Tobe Hooper ending like, they made it, but again, they're so tired.
• 1:13:05
  They're disheveled.
• 1:13:06
  They're mentally exhausted, and that's, like, Hooper's big thing
• 1:13:10
  since Texas Chainsaw, is the mentality it takes to make it through the
• 1:13:15
  event see if you still hold it.
• 1:13:19
  they're trembling.
• 1:13:22
  Not like Sally, who's, like, laughing manically at the end of TCM, but they're
• 1:13:26
  trying to hold everything together with
• 1:13:29
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:13:29
  Ryan: then, which is interesting
• 1:13:33
  Jon: It's definitely an ending that doesn't leave the door
• 1:13:37
  particularly open for sequels
• 1:13:39
  Ryan: No, but we do get them
• 1:13:43
  Jon: We, uh, we get 'em.
• 1:13:45
  We get two sequels and a remake.
• 1:13:47
  Kearns: Made money, gotta ruin
• 1:13:49
  Jon: Yep, exactly.
• 1:13:51
  That's exactly what it is.
• 1:13:53
  Kearns: the ending was good.
• 1:13:53
  It was nice, neat, and tidy.
• 1:13:55
  Nice, neat, and tidy.
• 1:13:57
  They resolved the issue, the curse goes away.
• 1:14:01
  Well, does it?
• 1:14:03
  Ryan: not for those people.
• 1:14:05
  Jon: I mean, nope.
• 1:14:06
  Ryan: They're
• 1:14:06
  Kearns: And for the rest of the
• 1:14:07
  Jon: Nope.
• 1:14:07
  Kearns: in the community
• 1:14:08
  Jon: And I mean, it-- the o- the only question I'm sorta left
• 1:14:13
  with is why was it only them?
• 1:14:16
  Kearns: Maybe they were the only ones on top of bodies.
• 1:14:19
  Ryan: Uh,
• 1:14:19
  Jon: Maybe.
• 1:14:19
  Maybe.
• 1:14:23
  Ryan: really starts it, like the chaos really is when they
• 1:14:26
  start digging up for the pool and they start unearthing everything
• 1:14:30
  Kearns: I
• 1:14:30
  Jon: Okay.
• 1:14:30
  Kearns: too
• 1:14:31
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:14:32
  Okay
• 1:14:32
  Ryan: of desecrating the burial ground and waking it up because like does state it,
• 1:14:41
  you know, "We just moved the headstones."
• 1:14:43
  And he goes, "You still left the bodies
• 1:14:46
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:14:46
  Yeah.
• 1:14:48
  Yeah.
• 1:14:48
  I sort of always attribute some of it also to Steve's role in the
• 1:14:54
  whole thing 'cause, like, Steve is unknowing and he's a victim, but
• 1:15:02
  he's also perpetrated this too.
• 1:15:04
  He's, selling these units.
• 1:15:07
  Kearns: Yeah
• 1:15:08
  Jon: He, he's a real estate agent selling houses in this development.
• 1:15:11
  He just doesn't know the whole story, and it starts to be…
• 1:15:17
  It seems like it starts to come into light when he's with, his
• 1:15:20
  boss touring the site of their office, and that's a graveyard too.
• 1:15:25
  Like, apparently this company just builds on graveyards
• 1:15:28
  Kearns: I mean, it's probably super cheap real estate,
• 1:15:30
  Ryan: Oh, absolutely
• 1:15:34
  Kearns: Let's hear
• 1:15:34
  Jon: Probably.
• 1:15:36
  Oh, I have some doozies for you guys.
• 1:15:38
  I have an extra review tonight because I, I couldn't resist this one.
• 1:15:43
  But we'll start where we always start.
• 1:15:45
  Poltergeist currently stands at 89% critic and 79% audience on Rotten Tomato.
• 1:15:52
  Kearns: Bye.
• 1:15:53
  Jon: 79% audience is a little low for me, and we're gonna see why,
• 1:15:57
  and it's kind of a predictable why.
• 1:16:00
  but we start with five stars.
• 1:16:03
  This is a classic family horror film that hasn't left my brain since I was a child.
• 1:16:08
  It perfectly paints a picture of an average family happily living
• 1:16:13
  in the suburbs in the '80s.
• 1:16:15
  That perfect life is disrupted by paranormal activity in a fun, imaginative,
• 1:16:21
  spooky way that modern movies lose in their dark, ho-hum, copy-paste style.
• 1:16:29
  If you're looking for a solid story with a complete picture, not
• 1:16:33
  just cheap jump scares over a thin plot and characters you don't care
• 1:16:38
  about, then this movie is worth it
• 1:16:42
  Ryan: That was a well-written
• 1:16:45
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:16:45
  It's well-written, and I mean, listen, I, I agree with it for a lot of reasons.
• 1:16:51
  but then you get, this is a three-star, and this is from somebody, I think
• 1:16:55
  I've brought up how much I hated Lee Cronin's The Mummy, but this is three
• 1:16:59
  stars from someone who gave Lee Cronin's The Mummy three and a half stars
• 1:17:07
  So a lot of people love this movie.
• 1:17:11
  It's pretty good, but I don't like this movie the way most people do.
• 1:17:16
  I have one major complaint, and here it comes, and this is gonna be repeated.
• 1:17:21
  It's so slow.
• 1:17:25
  If you look up slow burn in the dictionary, this movie
• 1:17:29
  would be listed under examples.
• 1:17:32
  There are such long stretches where nothing happens.
• 1:17:36
  No ghosts, no poltergeists, and no hauntings.
• 1:17:40
  During one of these long stretches, I almost fell asleep.
• 1:17:43
  I was that bored.
• 1:17:45
  But the scenes where something is actually happening I thought were really cool.
• 1:17:50
  Also, I think it's misleading to call this a horror film.
• 1:17:53
  It has horror elements, but it feels more like a spooky movie
• 1:17:57
  the whole family can watch.
• 1:17:59
  Kearns: Yeah
• 1:18:00
  Jon: only part of this movie that was really scary were the clown scenes.
• 1:18:05
  Have to admit that the final part of the movie is good.
• 1:18:08
  The effects look pretty good for a movie from 1982.
• 1:18:12
  The acting is good, but nothing to really rave about.
• 1:18:16
  And this is where this guy really loses me.
• 1:18:19
  The plot reminds me of a simpler version of Insidious
• 1:18:23
  Kearns: Yeah, knew it was coming
• 1:18:25
  Jon: No, Poltergeist re- does not remind you of Insidious.
• 1:18:31
  Insidious reminds you of Poltergeist.
• 1:18:33
  A movie that came out 35 years after cannot remind you.
• 1:18:38
  It's… Stop it.
• 1:18:40
  Final thoughts, the movie is good if you can make it past the boring parts.
• 1:18:47
  And this is where we're going as a, with, with movies.
• 1:18:51
  These movies are gonna be too slow because it's not action every five minutes.
• 1:18:56
  Kearns: Right
• 1:18:57
  Ryan: I give
• 1:18:57
  Jon: But if you do that, that's where you lose Poltergeist.
• 1:19:01
  All right?
• 1:19:03
  Here's a really short one star.
• 1:19:06
  One star.
• 1:19:06
  It's colorful, it is shiny, it is high-budgeted, and
• 1:19:11
  certainly not a real horror film
• 1:19:16
  Kearns: Wow.
• 1:19:17
  Jon: then, yep
• 1:19:18
  Kearns: Wow.
• 1:19:20
  There's a poltergeist in Ryan's house
• 1:19:22
  Ryan: There is spoons are flying because of these reviews
• 1:19:28
  now
• 1:19:29
  Jon: I w- I wish, I wish we were at the lowest, but no, there is a half star.
• 1:19:37
  Half a star.
• 1:19:39
  Anyone who says this movie was good didn't actually watch it.
• 1:19:45
  This movie was so bad, I'm surprised I made it to the end.
• 1:19:50
  There's nothing scary about it.
• 1:19:52
  There was nothing interesting.
• 1:19:54
  I won't even give them the benefit of the doubt because of the time period.
• 1:19:58
  This movie was so cheesy, I thought I was watching Ghostbusters.
• 1:20:04
  Rating, zero, but there was no option for that
• 1:20:10
  Ryan: You get a zero
• 1:20:12
  Jon: sir or ma'am, you are not qualified to be giving reviews.
• 1:20:16
  Like, uh, what did you watch?
• 1:20:23
  That said,
• 1:20:25
  Ryan: geist
• 1:20:26
  Jon: let's, le- let, let's, let's forget what these clowns had
• 1:20:29
  to say about the poltergeist.
• 1:20:31
  What did you guys think?
• 1:20:33
  Kearns: All right, why don't you go first?
• 1:20:35
  Ryan: All right.
• 1:20:36
  Uh, second time watching it.
• 1:20:38
  Um, watching the first time for enjoyment, second time for analysis.
• 1:20:44
  I was originally kind of stuck at 3.75 just because of like no- well,
• 1:20:49
  well, not for nostalgia and all that.
• 1:20:52
  I saw it at a different time.
• 1:20:53
  But hearing what you guys said and just doing my research more and looking more
• 1:20:59
  into it and getting a different sense, it's a four and a half out of five.
• 1:21:03
  It sets the-- It's lays out what every supernatural horror film should do,
• 1:21:10
  Insidious, and it does it so well.
• 1:21:13
  And the thing is, is like, yeah, it's a slow burn, but you get story, you
• 1:21:18
  get good actors, you get characters that you want to be interested in.
• 1:21:23
  more involved.
• 1:21:24
  And the thing is, is a movie, you wanna be involved in that movie.
• 1:21:28
  If you just wanna sit there and watch mindless action, then watch a Rambo film.
• 1:21:34
  You wanna watch mindless terror horror?
• 1:21:36
  Watch a Terrifier movie.
• 1:21:38
  There's no connection.
• 1:21:39
  Well, Terrifier 2 and 3, there's no connection.
• 1:21:44
  But at the end of it, movies are supposed to connect, and this is what this does
• 1:21:49
  Jon: Uh, see, the one thing I'll push back on is even calling this a slow burn.
• 1:21:55
  You're, you have poltergeists within 20 to 25 minutes of the start of this
• 1:22:00
  movie, and it never stops from there.
• 1:22:03
  You ju- it's not like this is an hour and a half before anything happens
• 1:22:07
  Ryan: So
• 1:22:08
  Kearns: I think they're calling it a slow burn because it's not dynamic camera
• 1:22:12
  angles in the way that they're used to in horror movies, and all these other things,
• 1:22:16
  and the music that hits in a certain way.
• 1:22:18
  It's done for the era
• 1:22:21
  Ryan: Mm-hmm
• 1:22:21
  Kearns: released in, and her sitting in front of the TV, "They're here,"
• 1:22:26
  and heralding, like, the beginning of all that is… I don't know.
• 1:22:30
  I think that there's aspects where he takes his time with things, or
• 1:22:34
  they take their time with things, that people aren't used to anymore.
• 1:22:39
  Ryan: Yeah.
• 1:22:39
  Kearns: You know what I mean?
• 1:22:41
  Ryan: No.
• 1:22:41
  it
• 1:22:41
  Kearns: I also gave it a 4.5.
• 1:22:43
  When you said 3.75, I got excited, 'cause I was gonna have
• 1:22:46
  a higher review than you for once.
• 1:22:48
  It's just, it just is Poltergeist.
• 1:22:52
  I'm not even gonna sit here and blabber, blather on about
• 1:22:54
  it, to be honest with you.
• 1:22:55
  It's just, it's Poltergeist.
• 1:22:57
  They do it right.
• 1:22:58
  The acting is great.
• 1:22:59
  The, it, the plot points hit.
• 1:23:01
  You don't have to have flashy tassels here and there to make something
• 1:23:04
  great, and this is a great movie
• 1:23:06
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:23:07
  Yep.
• 1:23:08
  I'm gonna tick a little bit higher than you guys.
• 1:23:11
  I'm gonna go to a 4.75.
• 1:23:14
  This is within the first five or 10 horror movies I watched in my life
• 1:23:19
  probably, and it's so foundational in what I, where I went in with my movie
• 1:23:27
  tastes and just the things I love.
• 1:23:31
  Uh, yeah, so like I don't even, like I don't have to say that much more.
• 1:23:35
  Like, if you've seen Poltergeist, you know how good this movie is, regardless
• 1:23:41
  of what these other people think.
• 1:23:43
  It, you know… put away the modern stuff and just watch
• 1:23:48
  Poltergeist for Poltergeist.
• 1:23:50
  It's a 4.75
• 1:23:52
  Kearns: Very nice.
• 1:23:55
  Ryan: Virg
• 1:23:55
  Kearns: right, gentlemen, let's roll into some top fives.
• 1:23:57
  Ryan, what do you got for us this week?
• 1:24:00
  Ryan: fives.
• 1:24:00
  I am going with top five Tobe Hooper films.
• 1:24:04
  Yes, these are Tobe Hooper films that he directed.
• 1:24:07
  Um, definitely.
• 1:24:09
  Jon: Hi, sure
• 1:24:10
  Ryan: definitely.
• 1:24:10
  Except for my number five, talked about it
• 1:24:14
  Kearns: Scorsese,
• 1:24:15
  Ryan: What?
• 1:24:17
  Kearns: Tobe Hooper.
• 1:24:18
  You can't do p- the Poltergeist movie in the top five
• 1:24:21
  Ryan: We've done it before.
• 1:24:24
  Jon: You've done it before
• 1:24:25
  Kearns: My God
• 1:24:26
  Ryan: Well
• 1:24:27
  Kearns: how tacky
• 1:24:28
  Ryan: Hey, Poltergeist is at number five to start it off.
• 1:24:31
  It's questionable whether he directed it.
• 1:24:33
  That's why it's at a number five.
• 1:24:34
  But it does work as we talked about it tonight.
• 1:24:38
  It's a good film.
• 1:24:39
  Watch it.
• 1:24:40
  Don't listen to reviews.
• 1:24:42
  Give it a shot.
• 1:24:43
  It's classic horror and it is groundbreaking for 1982, especially
• 1:24:48
  in the supernatural aspect.
• 1:24:49
  But we do go to Texas for number four.
• 1:24:53
  Don't worry, it's not the first one, John.
• 1:24:54
  It is Texas Chainsaw Massacre number two with Dennis Hopper.
• 1:24:59
  I mean, plot follows Vanita Stretch, Brock, a radio host who is victimized
• 1:25:03
  and abducted by Leatherface and his cannibalistic family.
• 1:25:07
  Meanwhile, Lieutenant Boo, Lefty Enright, the uncle of Sally, and
• 1:25:10
  Franklin Hardesty, both prior victims of the family, hunts them down.
• 1:25:14
  It's black comedy at its best.
• 1:25:17
  You know, it's, he takes it differently.
• 1:25:20
  He makes the humor darker.
• 1:25:22
  There's still gore.
• 1:25:23
  There's still horror.
• 1:25:24
  You're still at the edge of your seat.
• 1:25:25
  And it has, in my opinion, one of the best opening scenes in horror when
• 1:25:32
  two college guys are listening to Oingo Boingo's No One Lives Forever
• 1:25:38
  as Leatherface tears them apart in a truck backwards by Chop Top.
• 1:25:46
  It just, I love that scene so much.
• 1:25:49
  And that leads to number three.
• 1:25:51
  We've mentioned it before.
• 1:25:53
  Definitely watch it.
• 1:25:55
  loves the book.
• 1:25:56
  I love the movie.
• 1:25:57
  And that's The Funhouse.
• 1:25:59
  Just read the book.
• 1:26:02
  Watch the movie.
• 1:26:03
  I've said it before on past episodes.
• 1:26:05
  It's so good.
• 1:26:06
  And again, Tobe Hooper directed.
• 1:26:09
  And you can see how he directs.
• 1:26:12
  And it's very clean.
• 1:26:13
  It's not as Spielberg hopeful, but it's hopeful in other ways.
• 1:26:18
  leads to number two.
• 1:26:19
  There's really no hope in this film.
• 1:26:22
  Maybe at the end.
• 1:26:23
  And that's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
• 1:26:26
  This film is, you know, follows a group of friends who fall victim
• 1:26:30
  to a family of cannibals while on their way to visit an old homestead.
• 1:26:34
  It's done so well.
• 1:26:35
  And for the slasher genre, I mean, a lot of people say Halloween is the
• 1:26:40
  first big slasher film, of course.
• 1:26:42
  But Texas Chainsaw, along with Black Christmas, gets it started.
• 1:26:47
  And the unique thing about Texas Chainsaw, which I try to tell people
• 1:26:52
  who are interested in horror or film in general, is there's no blood in it.
• 1:26:56
  It's the illusion of the pain of
• 1:26:59
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:26:59
  Ryan: them going on the hooks or them getting chopped up by the chainsaw.
• 1:27:03
  The illusion of feeling the pain and the illusion of thinking you're
• 1:27:07
  seeing the blood when you don't.
• 1:27:09
  And it's a pretty cool concept that he came up to give the
• 1:27:11
  chills to the audiences.
• 1:27:13
  And that leads to number one.
• 1:27:15
  Sorry that TCM didn't make it, but Salem's Lot for me is where it hits the pinnacle.
• 1:27:20
  I love this adaptation by Tobe Hooper.
• 1:27:23
  It was a TV miniseries, but if you find it, it's three hours of goodness.
• 1:27:28
  It follows the plot, the concerns of a writer who returns home to his hometown
• 1:27:33
  of Jerusalem's Lot and discovers that its citizens are turning into vampires.
• 1:27:38
  It's one of the adaptations for that time of a Stephen King novel, I feel.
• 1:27:45
  Very, very close based on the setup and all that compared to Carrie
• 1:27:48
  at that time, which they did a really good job as well on it.
• 1:27:52
  But check these films out, especially if you want to venture
• 1:27:56
  into the Toby Hooper library.
• 1:27:58
  These are like, besides Poltergeist, these four are definitely worth a check.
• 1:28:04
  Jon: All right.
• 1:28:05
  I'm g- I'll give you a bonus Tobe Hooper
• 1:28:07
  Ryan: Ooh, okay.
• 1:28:09
  Jon: movie called Eaten Alive, 1976
• 1:28:12
  Ryan: Ooh, okay.
• 1:28:14
  Zombie?
• 1:28:15
  Jon: I, no.
• 1:28:17
  No, it's like, um, it's sort of like if an exploitation movie had a baby with Psycho
• 1:28:30
  Ryan: Okay.
• 1:28:32
  Jon: It's, um, Robert Englund's in it.
• 1:28:35
  It, it's eaten nuts.
• 1:28:38
  I, I really--
• 1:28:39
  Ryan: You're
• 1:28:39
  Jon: Yeah, Arrow put it out.
• 1:28:41
  I b- I blind bought it.
• 1:28:43
  Defi- I would say definitely check out Eaten Alive at some point.
• 1:28:46
  I w- I would be curious to see if it sneaks into your top five
• 1:28:49
  Ryan: Listen, Robert Englund, you just sold it to me.
• 1:28:52
  I love Robert
• 1:28:52
  Kearns: I know.
• 1:28:53
  That's what I gotta do.
• 1:28:55
  Jon: But
• 1:28:55
  Kearns: him with Robert Englund
• 1:28:58
  Ryan: Damn straight
• 1:28:59
  Jon: Yep.
• 1:29:01
  All right.
• 1:29:02
  Before I roll into my top five, this is you guys' last chance.
• 1:29:05
  I made you a unique offer this week.
• 1:29:08
  It's a one-time offer.
• 1:29:10
  If you can guess the topic of my top five, for the rest of the year, the parameters
• 1:29:19
  of Slasher Stash will be changed for you.
• 1:29:22
  You don't have to worry about the number.
• 1:29:24
  You can stash as many movies as you want.
• 1:29:29
  What is my top five about this week, guys?
• 1:29:35
  Kearns: Top five movies where the house gets swallowed into a void
• 1:29:41
  Jon: Sorry.
• 1:29:42
  Ryan, your last guess
• 1:29:48
  Ryan: Top five movies with television actors from hit sitcoms
• 1:29:56
  Jon: Oh, y- you kinda got close.
• 1:29:58
  You kinda got close, but you did not get there.
• 1:30:01
  I'm kinda surprised because if you guys really dug into it, I, it's there.
• 1:30:07
  It's there to be had.
• 1:30:08
  I've talked about this, I know with both of you off air.
• 1:30:12
  I don't know if we ever talked about it directly on, on this show.
• 1:30:17
  during COVID, I had a lot of free time, and I used a lot of that free
• 1:30:22
  time to watch the entire run of Coach.
• 1:30:28
  So my top five, this week is my five favorite episodes of Coach
• 1:30:33
  Kearns: okay.
• 1:30:34
  I would never would've gotten that 'cause I would've thought that maybe it would've
• 1:30:36
  been, uh, movies with that actor in them,
• 1:30:39
  Jon: Nope, it is-- I went with-- and I spent the whole, whole week
• 1:30:43
  going through episodes of Coach, so I was in a pretty good mood.
• 1:30:47
  Despite being sick,
• 1:30:48
  Kearns: Yeah
• 1:30:48
  Jon: was in a pretty good mood this week.
• 1:30:50
  little background on Coach.
• 1:30:52
  It's Craig T. Nelson as Coach Hayden Fox.
• 1:30:55
  The, at the start of the show, he's the head coach at Minnesota State.
• 1:30:59
  he's there with his two assistant coaches, Dauber and Luther.
• 1:31:04
  one's a Van Dyke, the other is the voice of Patrick Star from SpongeBob.
• 1:31:08
  he's navigating a relationship with a TV anchor, Christine, and his
• 1:31:14
  daughter shows up at the college.
• 1:31:16
  So he's navigating all this stuff, and he is a caveman in
• 1:31:19
  the truest sense of caveman.
• 1:31:21
  That said, let's get into the top five.
• 1:31:24
  My number five is season four, episode 14.
• 1:31:28
  It's called War of the Dopes.
• 1:31:32
  Hayden tells Dauber it's time for him to move out of the players' house.
• 1:31:37
  He's g- he was a student for seven years.
• 1:31:40
  He finally graduated.
• 1:31:42
  He's been still living in the football team's house.
• 1:31:46
  It's time for him to move out, grow up, get his own place.
• 1:31:49
  Luther jumps in to help him get set up in an apartment in his building, and they
• 1:31:54
  think it's gonna be the greatest thing ever, Luther and Dauber living next door
• 1:31:59
  to each other, having fun adventures.
• 1:32:01
  things go south pretty quickly when Luther overhears Dauber talking
• 1:32:05
  about him and what a child he is.
• 1:32:08
  He spends the whole episode dodging the pizza delivery
• 1:32:11
  guy so he can get free pizza.
• 1:32:14
  So it, that kicks off a war of pranks through the vents in the apartments,
• 1:32:20
  and really the only person that falls victim to any of these pranks is Hayden
• 1:32:25
  himself, trying to g- s- pr- stop it.
• 1:32:28
  He gets covered in flour, he gets covered in milk, cereal.
• 1:32:32
  It's just… The, this show shines when, Hayden is in the middle
• 1:32:40
  of chaos, as you're gonna see from some of these other ones.
• 1:32:44
  My number four, we're gonna stay in season four, episode seven.
• 1:32:48
  It's I Think I Can't, I Think I Can't.
• 1:32:52
  with the team undefeated and set to travel for a game as a blizzard
• 1:32:56
  approaches, Luther has a premonition that the plane will crash.
• 1:33:01
  So without telling anybody, he cancels the flight and puts
• 1:33:04
  them on a 24-hour train trip.
• 1:33:07
  it falls apart, obviously.
• 1:33:09
  He and Hayden can't get along sharing the same car.
• 1:33:13
  Luggage goes out windows.
• 1:33:15
  The trip just goes off the rails in the most hilarious ways possible.
• 1:33:19
  And then we're gonna get to, like, a run of season two that's probably as
• 1:33:26
  good a run as any sitcom had in that time period, and we're gonna start with
• 1:33:31
  season two, episode 15, Homewreckers.
• 1:33:35
  Christine has to work for the weekend.
• 1:33:38
  They don't live together, so they have to travel on weekends to spend time together.
• 1:33:42
  She goes, always goes to Hayden's place because Hayden gets bored when
• 1:33:47
  he goes to Christine's apartment.
• 1:33:49
  so he- but this time he decides she has to work.
• 1:33:52
  "I'm gonna stay at your apartment.
• 1:33:54
  I'm not gonna get bored.
• 1:33:55
  I wanna spend ti- as much time with you as possible.
• 1:33:58
  I promise I won't get bored." So within, she sets him up.
• 1:34:03
  She sets up a casserole, magazines, all this stuff.
• 1:34:06
  Within 30 minutes, Hayden is bored and calls Luther to come over and
• 1:34:11
  watch games with him and whatever.
• 1:34:13
  And within five minutes of getting into her apartment, Luther has
• 1:34:17
  managed to destroy her apartment.
• 1:34:20
  He, she has a brand-new white rug.
• 1:34:23
  He decides he has to have grape juice on the white rug, and obviously
• 1:34:28
  grape juice all over the floor.
• 1:34:29
  He uses her fancy robe to clean it.
• 1:34:32
  They burn the casserole.
• 1:34:33
  They tear her door off.
• 1:34:34
  It goes off the completely out of control.
• 1:34:38
  my number two is also season two.
• 1:34:40
  It's episode 17, "Sunshine on My Shoulder Makes Me Happy," a show about bird ransom.
• 1:34:49
  so Luther goes on a vacation and leaves Hayden to watch his prized pet bird.
• 1:34:56
  of course, the bird manages to escape and is captured by this guy who holds the
• 1:35:01
  bird for ransom, and Hayden keeps making it worse, arguing with the guy about
• 1:35:06
  money, and it just spirals and spirals.
• 1:35:09
  Hayden's trying to get, attract the bird to come back home by
• 1:35:12
  opening the window and putting bird seed all over the apartment.
• 1:35:15
  He comes home, and the apartment is filled with pigeons, and it's just
• 1:35:20
  chaos, just absolute chaos, which is where, you know, again, the show
• 1:35:25
  thrives in these, these situations, which is where my number one goes.
• 1:35:30
  It's episode 20, "Poodle Springs." so in this one, Dauber is set to
• 1:35:37
  meet his girlfriend Judy's family, and things are going great until he
• 1:35:42
  inadvertently lets their beloved poodle jump out of a sixth-floor hotel window
• 1:35:49
  Hayden to the rescue.
• 1:35:51
  Hilarity ensues.
• 1:35:53
  The dog didn't fall all the way to the ground.
• 1:35:55
  It's fine.
• 1:35:58
  But they can't figure out how to get it, and it's Hayden and Dauber trying to
• 1:36:02
  figure out how to rescue a poodle before Judy and her family get back to the hotel.
• 1:36:08
  That's my top, five favorite Coach episodes.
• 1:36:10
  You can go so many more
• 1:36:13
  Ryan: Make me wanna watch Coach right now.
• 1:36:15
  Jon: Oh my God.
• 1:36:17
  Kearns: I'm gonna I'm gonna get the spin-off instead.
• 1:36:20
  Ryan: Oh, Wings?
• 1:36:21
  Kearns: yeah,
• 1:36:22
  Jon: Wings.
• 1:36:23
  Kearns: Air, Wings.
• 1:36:24
  That's right.
• 1:36:24
  I'm,
• 1:36:25
  Jon: I,
• 1:36:25
  Kearns: right now.
• 1:36:27
  Ryan: It's like Airplane.
• 1:36:28
  That's,
• 1:36:28
  Kearns: Airplane, uh, Leslie Nielsen.
• 1:36:31
  Ryan: Leslie Nielsen.
• 1:36:32
  Kearns: Leslie Nielsen.
• 1:36:33
  Jon: Robert Hayes, Julie Hagerty,
• 1:36:34
  Ryan: it was,
• 1:36:35
  Jon: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
• 1:36:36
  Ryan: was, it was a bad week to quit that cough medicine this week.
• 1:36:41
  Jon: Lloyd Bridges
• 1:36:42
  Kearns: salts.
• 1:36:44
  All right, guys, we're getting out of here.
• 1:36:46
  That was Poulture, guys.
• 1:36:47
  We hope you enjoyed it
• 1:36:49
  Ryan: Yes.
• 1:36:50
  Have a good one.
• 1:36:51
  Watch Poltergeist.
• 1:36:52
  Watch some Tobe Hooper and watch some Steven Spielberg
• 1:36:56
  Jon: And Coach,
• 1:36:57
  Kearns: Coach.
• 1:36:57
  Jon: see ya