Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Happy Hour #88: Quick Horror Reviews, Pt. 1

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Happy Hour #88: Quick Horror Reviews, Pt. 1 · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is any and Samantha. I'm welcome to Steph.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told you production of I Heeart Radio. And
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: it is time for another happy hour, which means is
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: always a drink responsibly if you choose to do. So
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: what are you sipping on, Samantha? So I got this
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and he witnessed this box of wine and numbin box
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: like it literally holds twelve different wines from Costco not
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a sponsor. I really wish they would and I've talked
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: about them before, I know, but yeah, they have like
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: an advent calendar level of wines and all around the world.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: So I have a few left. Um, I did pick
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and choose. I didn't go by the list. Sorry y'all, um,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: but I am drinking from that stash and all of
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: them have been lovely. But I'm drinking from that stash
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: A white saying grilla. I don't exactly know where it's
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: coming from because I forgot to refrigerate it since is white.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I added a couple of ice cubes because I'm not classy.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I'm all for it. I'm all for it. What about you? Um, Well,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: I'm doing my traditional gent't on it because again I
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: have not been in the store, so I don't have anything,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: but I did add some basil because I went to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: visit my mom this weekend because as we speak, as
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: we record this on September twenty, it is her birthday, yes,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and she has a very big, robust basil plant. So
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I was like, can I just take take some of
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: this with me? Please? Thank you, because I too love
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: basil and it's funny. I've kind of teased this happy
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: hour already because we're going to be talking about some
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: recent horror movies, like quick reviews that I have of them,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: because I've seen this trend in horror and I think
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: we're gonna do a whole episode on it on like
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Elevated Horror and Women, because it's just been something that's
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: kind of given me pause and I found really interesting.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Some movies have handled it better than others, for sure,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: but my mom it was very much. She'll she's gotten
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: into horror movies more lately, but she it's definitely something
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: that perplexes her about me. She does not get it.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: She was someone who wouldn't let me have certain movies
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: in the house, so I'd have to hide them because
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: she's too afraid to have them. Around, So even though
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: it's her birthday, I don't think she'd be into any
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: of these movies on this list, but she's very kind
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: and listens to me talk about them. So yes, this
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: is gonna be a two partner it has. It's gonna
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: be lightly spoilery, but definitely spoilery for um. The movies
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: we're going to be discussing are X, a little bit
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: about Pearl Men, she will embodies, bodies, bodies, um. So
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: if you don't want to be spoiled for any of that,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: come check this out later. And yeah, I'm excited to
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: hear other people's thoughts and to re visit this on
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: a bigger scale later. And if there are any other
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: movies we should be discussing, because we aren't going into
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I've already started my horror movie rotation, so we're always
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: excited to get those suggestions from you. But yeah, mostly
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about quick it on some of
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the themes that stood out to me that as it
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: relates to a lot of what we talked about on
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: the show. So let's start with the movie X, which
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: I did make some I love this movie. I didn't lie.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I'm always pretty honest about this movie. I think it's
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: just hard to it's hard to explain. Um. Essentially, it
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: takes place in the seventies and it's it's directed by
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Thai West. It starts me at golf as the main role, UM,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: two of the main roles actually, and it's it's watching
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: it you at first think it's a porn movie, but
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: halfway in it becomes a horror movie, um, which is
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: supposed to be like a call back to things like Psycho,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: where there's a mcguffin in the plot changes in the middle. Yes,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I love this movie. It's very highly reviewed. Is this
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: elevated horror? Yes, I would call it. I would say
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: everything we're talking about is elevated horror in this one.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: So some of the big themes in this, I would
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: say her age because mea goth plays the main character, Maxine,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: who they're they've recently announced that not only do they
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: have the prequel Pearl, which just came out, they have
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: a sequel named Mazine that takes place in the eighties. Yes,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: making sure I'm on there on one point with us,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, But my pronunciation was good enough,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: it was, But I just wanted to, you know, make
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: people are like speeding through this. They're not going to
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: get that. Oh you're right, you're right, I forget. People
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: like to listen on like double times Yeah, all good,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: whatever works, you know. Um so yes me and Goth
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: plays Maxine but also plays Pearl, who is an elderly
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: woman um who lives at this barn and Maxine is
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: part of this film crew that's filming this porno on
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: their property without telling them that they were filming a porno. Um.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: So age is definitely a commentary because Pearl and Maxine
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: there's a tension between them where Pearl uh is angry
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: at Maxine's beauty and that she's desired and she feels
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: like Pearl feels like she missed out on a bunch
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: of things um and ultimately and up calling Maxine some
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: rather terrible names and implying J's a horror um all
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: this stuff. And that's another theme I would say is uh.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Alongside the age aspect is sex being this pornographic thing
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: people will pay for when you're young, but then it's
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: an act of horror when you're older. Because there's a
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: scene where Pearl and her husband have sex and it's
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: painted very much purposefully as like a horrific thing that's happening,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: as opposed to when like the young cast is having
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: sex at seeing it's like, oh, this is so romantic
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: and desirable, people pay it. They do have a lot
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: of conversation around um fear around sexuality, um morality around sexuality. Uh.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of like religious overtones in the background.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: There's ideas around modesty and women and wanting to be desired,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: with girl feeling like no one desires or anymore, so
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: she doesn't have any worth. And one of the things
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I found really funny when I saw this movie because
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I went into this movie very rarely does this happen.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I went in not knowing anything about it. I remember
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I was texting you that night. I was like, some man,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: this old lady just killed some people. I was as, yep,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: that's fair. But I immediately looked it up because I
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: was like, whoa, what what did I just watch? And
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: there were a lot of really really tongue in cheek,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: funnier reviews from older women who were like, yes, older
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: women do in fact like to have sex sometimes and
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: sometimes I got I got a big kick out of it.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: They were very tongue in cheek, but it was just
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: like I love it. So there's a lot to unpack there.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: But again, this is a happy hour and these are
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: brief reviews. I did want to very quickly touch on Pearl.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I just saw it. Actually did a double feature of
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: X and Pearl at our local plaza theater here UM
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: and Pearl. I enjoyed quite a bit. It was very
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: disturbing and unsettling, um but also very very well reviewed.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: And I've seen a lot of stuff from directors being like, oh,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: this has disturbed me and I cannot sleep and all
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: of this stuff. But basically it's about how did Pearl,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: the older woman in X, become Pearl and um mea
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: golf plays Pearl, And there's a lot of stuff around,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: like feeling crushed by her mom in particular, feeling like
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: she's special, having these having the sexuality but feeling like
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: she can't express it. Um yeah, basically feeling trapped by
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: her family, feeling jealous of other people who are able
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: to quota escape like small town life, because she really
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: wants to be a star, which is something you see
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: in X. And one of the things that Pearl gets
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: so angry about with Maxine Um is that she's jealous
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: in her mind that Maxine gets to be a star
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and she never got to be that, even though she
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: really really wanted it. UM, so I recommend it. It
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: was quite disturbing those put that out there. UM. And
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: then lastly in this one, uh, and then we'll get
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: we'll have our second part later. UM. I wanted to
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: talk about Men, which we did talk about briefly UM
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: a couple of episodes ago. So Men was written by
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: a man. UM. Almost all male characters are played by
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: the same man, and it's by Alex Garland, who also
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: did Annihilation, among other things. The plot of this what
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: is hard to explain, but essentially essentially, uh, the woman,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: the main character, who was a woman. It was recently.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: It was an abusive relationship and her husband ended up
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: taking his own life. And so she's getting away to
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the countryside to like reset um and try to write
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: and I guess, you know, just try to heal. And
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: she keeps there just all these creepy things that keep happening,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: and she keeps seeing this like same man and versions
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: of him all over. Like at one point he's just
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: like standing outside naked, and she's quite isolated in this space,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: so use through flashbacks. You see like that she's been
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: kind of blamed. A lot of the men blame her,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and she's been blamed for what happened with her husband,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Um that it was all her faults, and there's a
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: lot of basically you see a trope of like every
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: very stereotypical type of man that we see a lot
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: in our entertainment. So the implication could I guess the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: amen of the same. But there's like your religious man
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: who was all pious, but it turns out it was
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: just like desperate to have sex with her. There's like
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: your police officer that doesn't believe her, all of those
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: kinds of things. And then the ending takes a real turn,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I gotta say, and it becomes like a real body
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: horror to the point I left and I was like,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: was I loosen? It's a real sudden, sharp turn it did?
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I mean? It had? As I said, I think when
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: we talked about this recently, there were parts of it
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I really liked, in parts of it that really didn't
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: work for me. Um, I thought it was interesting, uh,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and some of the things that was trying to say,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: but I don't know that it worked. It's I read
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: some of the articles and interviews with Alex Garland about
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: the inspiration behind this, and it's a specific type of god, um,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: like all God that this male character was based on.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: But it has a lot of a lot going on.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: It's got a lot of like imagery of you know,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the apple falling from the tree, she eats the apple
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: like eve, A lot of stuff like that. Um. So
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I'm somebody who enjoys picking apart that kind of thing.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: But if that's not your kind of thing, I don't
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: think this would be for you. So yeah, I'm gonna
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: say it didn't get great reviews, and most of the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: reviews came out as it was obviously a man being
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: like I'm feminist here you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: it certainly felt that way at some parts, Like I
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: said that, I was a lot of it. I was like, yeah,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I know this guy. Yeah, especially the like religious guy. Um.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: But it did still feel kind of not quite there,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: like it wasn't quite what it needed to be to work,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, but I did. I'm glad I saw it.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know that i'd see it again, but I'm
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: glad I saw it. And the acting was great, so well,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: we're at there for now, and then a couple next
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: half hour with me, we'll get into part two of
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: these quick movie reviews. But in the meantime, cheers to you,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Samantha for letting me talk about this, yes uh, and
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: cheers to your listeners for coming along this journey. And again,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: if you've got any recommendations, oh my gosh, please let
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: me know or any thoughts about these. You can email
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: us at Steffidia mom Stuff, I hurt me dot com.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: or Instagram and stuff we never told you things. It's
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: always to our super producer Cruise Dudo. Thank you and
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening stuff when we told the
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: propection I Heart Radio. For more podcast for my Heart Radio,
• 13:35
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• 13:37
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