Latest / This Film is Lit / Prequel to The Maze Runner - Salem's Lot Fan Reaction, James Dashner

Transcript

Prequel to The Maze Runner - Salem's Lot Fan Reaction, James Dashner · This Film is Lit

• 0:09
  Speaker A: On this week's prequel episode, we follow up on our Salem's Lot listener polls, learn about James Dashner and preview the Maze Runner. Welcome back to this Film is Late, the podcast where we talk about movies that are based on on books. It's another prequel episode. We have every single one of our segments. So we'll jump right in to our patron shoutouts.
• 0:33
  Speaker B: I put up with you because your father and mother were our finest patrons. That's why.
• 0:38
  Speaker A: One new patron this week at the $5 Hugo Award winning level, getting access to that bonus episode every month. Ben, welcome. Ben, thank you for joining. Make sure you check out those bonus episodes, the entire backlog. Hope you enjoy that. And as always, we must celebrate our Academy Award winning patrons. And they are. Nicole Goble, Eric Harpo Rat, top salesman for May at Tfilpod. Vic Apocalypse, Mathilde Cottonwood, Steve. Teresa Schwartz, Ian from Wine Country, Kelly Napier Gratch Justgratch, Shelby's listening to the Thunderbolts score that darn skag and V. Frank. Thank you all very much for your continued support. We really appreciate it. Including Nathan, our top salesman for me, who I think, I don't know if they made their name that briefly or pointed out that after they plugged the. Is that a name or was that.
• 1:36
  Speaker B: A. Yeah, it was. I think they plugged the pod like in their feedback in one of the last episodes.
• 1:44
  Speaker A: No, I know, but did they. Did they Never. Doesn't matter. I saw somewhere either a comment or at some point they briefly changed their name to that they two people joined the Patreon after they plugged it. I think it was a comment. Whatever. Point being they are the top salesman because they plugged it. And then we had two new patrons immediately thereafter. Thank you all very much for your continued support. We really appreciate it. Katie, let's get to it. It's time to see what the people had to say about Salem's Lot.
• 2:15
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, that's just like your opinion, man. Salem's Lot, which was not about a field.
• 2:24
  Speaker A: It was not. I do know now. And it's kind of. It's about a house.
• 2:29
  Speaker B: It is about a house, which is.
• 2:31
  Speaker A: It's about a lot of land. Well, that's actually the name of the town, so. No, it's not really, but kind of is at the same time.
• 2:38
  Speaker B: Yeah, kind of. It's kind of. I mean, it is about the town.
• 2:40
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 2:41
  Speaker B: It's about many things, really. Some of which people talked about in their feedback.
• 2:46
  Speaker A: There you go.
• 2:48
  Speaker B: Bring it back around.
• 2:49
  Speaker A: Retransition back into the feedback.
• 2:51
  Speaker B: Like the feedback that we had on Patreon, where we had four votes for the book, none for the movie, and one listener who couldn't decide. Eric said, I chose the book. Realized as I was listening that I kept confusing Salem's Lot with Needful Things in my head. A King book about the devil, opening an antique store, a small town with a giant cast of unlikable characters. It's also my least favorite Stephen King book. That sounds like the exact same book.
• 3:24
  Speaker A: Almost the exact same book.
• 3:26
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 3:26
  Speaker A: And I assume when it's pretty close, I assume Eric is saying it's my least favorite. He's referring to Needful Things.
• 3:31
  Speaker B: I think so. Yeah.
• 3:33
  Speaker A: But very similar. Yeah. It's easily mistakeable.
• 3:36
  Speaker B: Sounds like it. Maybe Stephen King decided he wanted another pass at the demonic entity, opens an antique store in a small town. It would appear story.
• 3:47
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 3:47
  Speaker B: But Eric went on to say, I liked the relationship a lot in Salem's Lot. It seemed a lot healthier than most couples in King books. Low bar. And I loved Bookmark.
• 3:57
  Speaker A: There you go. And Bookmark is the.
• 4:00
  Speaker B: Bookmark the character.
• 4:02
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 4:02
  Speaker B: Not.
• 4:03
  Speaker A: Not. Bookmark's the thing. Yes. And also I was reminding myself that book, that Mark is the kid and.
• 4:10
  Speaker B: And not.
• 4:11
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 4:11
  Speaker B: Yes. Mark is the main child character.
• 4:14
  Speaker A: Ben is the.
• 4:14
  Speaker B: Yes. Ben is the adult.
• 4:16
  Speaker A: I just. For Whatever. Yep. Still can't keep those two straight.
• 4:20
  Speaker B: Our next comment was from Kelly Napier, who said, oh, man, do I love Stephen King novels. I don't think I've read something of his yet that I haven't liked. So, of course, even though this wasn't his strongest outing, I picked the book. The only thing I liked in the movie was them combining some of the characters. Because it was a lot in the book. My husband chose to watch this one with me again.
• 4:50
  Speaker A: Didn'T he say that it was three hours long and be like, I'll skip this one? Because that for me, I would be like, oh, it's three hours. I'm good. I'll skip this one.
• 4:59
  Speaker B: And on the Mark index, this one rated. Well, that was a thing we watched.
• 5:06
  Speaker A: I don't know where that falls on the scale. Not as bad as other ones, I feel like.
• 5:10
  Speaker B: But yeah, maybe not as bad as other ones. I feel like that was kind of how I felt when we finished watching the movie as well. I was kind of like, well, that. That was a thing.
• 5:19
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's fine.
• 5:20
  Speaker B: That was a thing I've now consumed.
• 5:21
  Speaker A: Yep.
• 5:22
  Speaker B: Our next comment was from Shelby's listening to the Thunderbolts score and Shelby said. Shelby was also the patron who requested Salem's Lot and Shelby said. I'm really glad Katie enjoyed the book. Personally, I have mixed thoughts on this one. On one hand, there these are some of King's best scares. The scene of Mark waking up to the child vampire in the window is in my top five. On the other hand, this book is not helped by the number of characters and King doesn't flesh them out beyond their starting archetypes. With the exception of Mark the the main kid. That's something he did much better in later books like the Stand. Maybe it's just the actors doing a good job, but I thought the movie was better at making the characters feel like people other than Mark. Of course, he's the vampire expert in the book, but the movie really takes his role as the one who knows what's up and gives it to Ben in the second half. I assume it's because Ben is the main character, but I still hate it. The visuals in this movie are top notch, but I agree most of the scares don't measure up. The still shots I saw of the vampire kid in the window were far scarier before I knew how much music accompanied those scenes. I did really like Mike the vampire in the rocking chair, though.
• 6:38
  Speaker A: I actually forgot to mention that. But that was. I liked that.
• 6:41
  Speaker B: Yeah, that was creepy. Yeah, with the contact lenses, it's hard to tell at the start if he's sleeping with his eyes open. And it creeped me out the first time I saw this movie. I do love that scene where he comes back in the film, even if the part where he becomes a vampire is much scarier in the book. Side note, thanks so much to Stephen King for naming three important characters Mark, Matt and Mike. That's not confusing or frustrating at all.
• 7:05
  Speaker A: And then I was confused in Ben and Mark for some reason. So it's just.
• 7:08
  Speaker B: I know. I mean, they even renamed the Matt character for the movie and it was still like too much.
• 7:13
  Speaker A: What was the Matt character?
• 7:14
  Speaker B: That was the teacher. They renamed him Jason.
• 7:17
  Speaker A: Oh yeah, yeah. Mr. Burke or whatever.
• 7:19
  Speaker B: Yeah, he was barely in the movie, so like, whatever. The funeral scene and burial of Dani is far superior in the book. I was wondering how they were going to show Mike getting the paranoid feeling that the kid's corpse is watching him from inside the coffin. They tried, but the dread is not the same. Might be controversial, but for me it's a tie. The book scares her better, but the movie trims down and improves on many of the characters while delivering on the visuals.
• 7:50
  Speaker A: Sounds fair. From what I've read, I bet I would feel similarly because I don't. Nothing about the book that you described particularly stuck out to me is like, I think I would really like this.
• 7:59
  Speaker B: I feel like I would similarly say, yeah, I think you probably wouldn't, but yeah. Other thoughts? I still love the look of Barlow, even if I don't love that Strager had to do all the talking for him in the movie. Those vampire contacts look like they hurt.
• 8:13
  Speaker A: Famously. They did. Assuming you didn't. Or for anybody who didn't listen to the last prequel. They could only film with his contacts in for like 15 minutes at a time. And he had to take them out. Cause they would like mess with his eyes and stuff. And he. The whole thing was miserable. Like all of the makeup and everything he said was just miserable. The actor who played Barlow, I don't mind the look of Barlow, but it's too derivative for me to care too much.
• 8:37
  Speaker B: I felt the same way. I think the glowing contacts is really interesting. It's creepy. It's creepy and it's interesting. Movie makeup and I like movie makeup. But the look of him overall, I think is just too derivative of Nosferatu for me to find it super interesting. Shelby went on to say, I adore the inside of the Marston house in this movie. It's the best looking, scary house I've ever seen. I went into this the first time knowing it was a made for TV movie. And when we got inside, my jaw was on the floor.
• 9:09
  Speaker A: Yeah, couldn't agree with that more. I think I would agree that it may be the best looking, like super weird, creepy interior of a house.
• 9:19
  Speaker B: I almost can't believe that they built that and didn't just find a rotting old house somewhere.
• 9:26
  Speaker A: It's impressive. I say that. I haven't seen things, like I said, I haven't seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which pretty famously has a very creepy, weird old house. But thinking of some of the other famous creepy houses, they're obviously going for very different things. But the mansion in Psycho and stuff like that, I'm trying to think of one that's like this is a dilapidated, creepy, spooky house. And I don't think there's anything that I've seen that compares to this one. It's just on top of being creepy, it also has this weird, ephemeral beauty that is like super captivating.
• 10:02
  Speaker B: Susan's death is better in the movie. I prefer it not being a carbon copy of Lucy's death in Dracula. How would we know it was Dracula, though, Shelby, If Stephen King didn't point out to us that it was Dracula, how would we know? The 2004 version of Salem's Lot has Captain Holt, and the 2024 version has Bob from Thunderbolt.
• 10:25
  Speaker A: I don't know who Bob from Thunderbolt is. Is that what's his name from Stranger Things?
• 10:29
  Speaker B: Maybe. Yeah, maybe. I'll probably check them out sometime. Out of morbid curiosity, after watching the trailers, I'll be astonished if the 2004 one is better. Is the better of the two. Doesn't the tooth. I think. I think I said. We said the 2004 one also had Rob Lowe.
• 10:47
  Speaker A: Yes, I believe the 2004 one has Low.
• 10:51
  Speaker B: Sounds really funny to me. I don't know why, but that sounds very funny to me.
• 10:56
  Speaker A: I would agree with that. I wonder who Captain Holt plays.
• 11:00
  Speaker B: Maybe the teacher, maybe. That feels like. I don't know. It's pure speculation.
• 11:05
  Speaker A: I think he would be sick as the. As Stryker.
• 11:08
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 11:10
  Speaker A: To be fair, I think the only thing I've ever seen him in is Brooklyn 9 9. And I know he's a very. He was a very esteemed actor who was in lots of stuff, but I literally think I've only ever seen him in Brooklyn 9 9.
• 11:21
  Speaker B: There's a scene with a school bus in the book that appears to have made it into the 2004 version because we see it in the trailer. Thanks so much for checking out my recommendation. Are there more vampires coming up? I don't have any immediate plans for more vampire properties.
• 11:39
  Speaker A: He plays Matt Burke, the teacher.
• 11:41
  Speaker B: That's the teacher, yeah.
• 11:42
  Speaker A: Look at that.
• 11:42
  Speaker B: Nailed it.
• 11:44
  Speaker A: Oh, Straker's played by Donald Sutherland. That's fun.
• 11:48
  Speaker B: Oh, that's interesting.
• 11:49
  Speaker A: Yeah. Susan's played by Samantha Mathis, who wasn't anybody that I recognized. Rutger Hauer plays Kurt Barlow, which is super fun. That one seems like it could be interesting. It's an interesting cast.
• 12:02
  Speaker B: Is Samantha Mathis not the lady who was in Harlots?
• 12:09
  Speaker A: No, that's Samantha Morton, I believe, who was in Harlots. She's British. Samantha Mathis has been in mainly horror movies, it looks like, as well as some TV and stuff. But, I mean, her top build on IMDb number one is a movie called Broken Arrow with John Travolta. I don't know what that is, but she was in American Psycho. Oh, she played Daisy in the Super Mario Brothers movies from 1993.
• 12:34
  Speaker B: All right, well, we don't have any more vampire properties in our immediate plans.
• 12:40
  Speaker A: Not in the foreseeable well, immediate future. Yeah, probably in the foreseeable future.
• 12:47
  Speaker B: All right, our next comment was from top salesman for May at TFIL pod, which is Nathan. Yes, and Nathan said so. I tried to watch the movie first this time. This was partially because I, like Katie, was way behind on through the book, but also I thought it might change my perspective and make me more receptive to the film without the immediate comparison to the book. This did not work, as I frankly hated this movie.
• 13:18
  Speaker A: That's interesting.
• 13:19
  Speaker B: It had a hard task to do because the book depends so much on the town feeling real and full of people jumping through so many characters heads, even though even those largely unconnected to the main plot. But it did have three hours to accomplish that and just utterly failed. Far too much of the beginning of this movie was shots of Ben typing or staring at the Marston house when we could have been meeting more of the townsfolk, if only briefly. It ended up feeling to. To me like there were. It ended up feeling to me like there were like eight families in the already largely empty town. And so the creeping sense of more and more. More folks being turned just wasn't there. The book felt so much more developed and lived in, so it easily wins.
• 14:05
  Speaker A: That's fair. I didn't have that feeling upon watching the movie. But now that you mention it, I do agree, I guess, with the idea of we don't really see much in the way of the townsfolk other than a little bit in some of the school recital scenes. I think we might see some people in the crowd, but there's not a lot of scenes where we see him and go to the grocery store and see.
• 14:28
  Speaker B: You know what I mean? Yeah, it doesn't really feel.
• 14:30
  Speaker A: It does feel like kind of an empty town other than. Than the characters we explicitly meet. I guess I could. I don't know. I didn't find it particularly boring or like we spent too much time with like watching Ben type or anything like that. But I don't necessarily disagree that the town doesn't that by. They don't show us much of the people in town other than our very specific, like eight main characters. And so by extension, when it gets to the point where like, oh no, the town's all becoming vampires, you're like, how many people live in this town? I guess that's fair. I didn't really think about that while watching the movie, or at least it didn't really affect my viewing of the movie, but I don't know.
• 15:06
  Speaker B: No, I agree with Nathan and maybe it's because I was also comparing it to the book, watching it, but as we were watching it, it gave me the impression of, like, that the part of the town that had people in it was only the part we were in.
• 15:22
  Speaker A: Right. Yeah.
• 15:24
  Speaker B: Which is true technically, but I feel like I shouldn't get that impression.
• 15:28
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. I hadn't really. Like I said, I hadn't really thought about it, but.
• 15:32
  Speaker B: So Nathan went on to say part of the reason the movie does so little at the beginning is that I think it is trying to create a Jaws like sense of dread for the monster without a reveal. But it didn't really work. If anything, the beginning made me think something was weird about the house. And there was, but that still didn't really pay off. More on this later. I think the largest problem is that Kurt Barlow, even when he shows up in the movie, is barely a character. Brian mentioned in passing that the guy who played him wasn't credited in the list of main actors. And after watching that, makes sense. He has one significant scene where he faces the priest, but otherwise he does nothing. And even in that scene, Straker does most of the talking for him in the book. He directly seduces multiple characters with his promises of what they want. He speaks and interacts with them directly. Also, his note to the hunting party when he changes locations makes him an active participant in the cat and mouse game, not just a body waiting around for the good guys to come and stake.
• 16:38
  Speaker A: I can't disagree with that. I didn't find him a particularly compelling.
• 16:42
  Speaker B: Yeah, he was not a particular.
• 16:44
  Speaker A: Strager's definitely more of the antagonist of the film, and he's fine, but it's. Yeah, Barlow is more of a faceless, voiceless. Not faceless, but a voiceless kind of monster that almost feels more at the whim of Straker as opposed to the other way around, which is not the point.
• 17:07
  Speaker B: On the subject of the house, I feel like it was meant to have a bigger part or meaning in the story, but Kang never really developed it. It kind of feels like the serial killer in Gerald's game. Like there was a separate Marston House book that got grafted onto this one. It's supposed to be evil, but to what end? Just to be attractive to a vampire. Any house with a vampire in it would be evil on some level, so why give it such prominence and then the start of a backstory, but never fully develop it. It could have been like a ghost house or a vampire den as it is. But there doesn't seem to be any reason for it to be both, at least nothing that really advances the story or plot.
• 17:46
  Speaker A: I would tend to agree. It does feel like. And I felt that way going in when we found out that it was both a vampire story, but also about this house.
• 17:56
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 17:56
  Speaker A: I was like, okay, so it's.
• 17:57
  Speaker B: No, I agree. And I do feel like maybe this was an instance where King was, like, finding the story as he went and then didn't go back and edit it all the way, because I think it does kind of start out as being more of the house. And then at some point, we were like, actually, it's because there's a vampire that moved into the house.
• 18:21
  Speaker A: Yes. And I think it doesn't. I think the thing. For me, I don't even think it necessarily has to have anything, Be anything that advances the story or the plot or the narrative directly. It could be an interesting thematic thing, but it doesn't even feel like a particularly interesting thematic element of. But I think that's what it is. To me, it feels like the very early development of King playing with the themes in his story and knowing he wants to. Like. Like, when he starts with the house story, he knows he wants to do this story kind of about. About the essence of evil and, like, corrupt and, like. Like, evil places. And what does it mean for someone to be evil or for a place to be evil? And can places be evil and corrupt people? Or, like, is. Is evil inherent to a place or does the person bring the evil to, Like, I feel like those are all ideas you kind of wanted to play with. With, like, the Marston house element of the story and then was like, okay, I guess I can kind of. If I'm, like, playing with that, I can kind of shoehorn in this idea of, like, a vampire, I can shoehorn. This other idea I had, like, he didn't know how to finish that idea.
• 19:28
  Speaker B: Right.
• 19:28
  Speaker A: So he's like, well, I had this other idea for what if Dracula comes to America? So let's combine those and do a thing where I'm like, well, the house is evil, so it attracts evil things, and one of the evil things it attracts is Dracula. I don't know.
• 19:42
  Speaker B: Yeah. Well, and I think the other problem, too, is that I think you're right that I think he was at least initially trying to explore those ideas through the house. But to me, the more compelling exploration of those themes on the nature of evil that we find in this book is the exploration of how he corrupts the townspeople.
• 20:06
  Speaker A: Right? Yes.
• 20:08
  Speaker B: In this book, I think that's the more interesting thing than is the house evil.
• 20:13
  Speaker A: And so it just kind of feels like some disparate ideas kind of just duct taped together in a way that doesn't. Similar to Gerald's game. Kind of like the way that ends. Like he said, it just kind of feels like it's not a completely cohesive idea, which is. I haven't read almost any Stephen King, but having watched Gerald's Game and this, and knowing that those feelings about both of those are things that came from the book, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just an element of a lot of King's writings where he. When you are so prolific, he just has lots of ideas. And sometimes some of those ideas he just kind of duct tapes together to put a story, you know, to put a novel on.
• 20:51
  Speaker B: Sometimes it does feel like he's kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall and then.
• 20:56
  Speaker A: And sometimes that works. Like, sometimes you get the Shining, and then other times you get.
• 21:00
  Speaker B: And I was just gonna bring up clearly this idea of, like, a place that is evil and, like, corrupts and, like, the nature of evil being t to this specific location is something that he was intrigued enough by to go back and do it better.
• 21:16
  Speaker A: The Shining is just a much better version of that element of is the Marston house evil? It's a second pass at is the Marston house evil? And what does it say about the people who live there? And what does it do to them? And is the evil inside them already? And like, all of that sort of stuff is way more intricately and, like, compellingly explored in the Shining from. You know, I haven't read it, but in the movie, in my opinion, it does.
• 21:40
  Speaker B: So, yeah, I thought it was much better explored in the book too. From my memory of the book. It's been a minute.
• 21:45
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 21:46
  Speaker B: The timeline of this book slash film confused me, and I could never get a sense of how much time was supposed to have passed. Perhaps because the book and movie gave me very different vibes on this. It's made fairly clear in the book that the vampires feed on one person a night. And the book even explicitly says this creates a geometric progression of vampire population growth.
• 22:09
  Speaker A: That exact line is also in the.
• 22:10
  Speaker B: Movie, eg, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, et cetera.
• 22:13
  Speaker A: Ben says that to somebody in the movie.
• 22:15
  Speaker B: Don't remember that being in the movie at all, but I believe you.
• 22:19
  Speaker A: Him or the teacher. Somebody explicitly says, no, it's Ben. I think he's talking to Susan or the Doctor and says they're multiplying. He literally says Geometric progression. Or he says those exact words. He's like, two makes four makes eight makes 16 or whatever.
• 22:34
  Speaker B: So, yeah, by this math, the whole town of 1319 would have been turned on the 11th night, and there would have been hundreds of vampires wandering around for the few nights previous. But in the book, we don't see that many vampires around. It should have been tougher to hide from vampires or even to avoid just running into one by accident at night towards the end of the story. And that never really felt like a danger as far as the movie. It felt like there was basically no time at all that passed. Like, the whole period after Dany is turned feels around three to five days, which means there are, like eight to 32 vampires around. It certainly did not seem like there were that many vampires in the room with Barlow. We must have to assume that almost none of them died in the fire, because otherwise it seems bizarre that Ben and Mark would feel like such a threat, would feel such a threat from them. They staked the master pretty easily, all things considered, and took out his human aid in the same night. I feel like if they stayed around for the next day, the cleanup would have been much easier than running and giving the vamps time to sire more folks who are chasing that is fair.
• 23:42
  Speaker A: If they had just left till morning and then come back and just kill them all.
• 23:46
  Speaker B: I don't know.
• 23:47
  Speaker A: I will say that I. I never got the vibe in the movie. This idea that very early in that Nathan said something along the lines of, it's made fairly clear in the book that the vampires feed on one person a night. That the one person per night thing was not something I got from the movie. So that didn't affect my. You know, how long is this? I was comparing it to most vampire stories where they just bite as many people as they want. Like, it's not really a rule.
• 24:16
  Speaker B: Like, they're plague rat.
• 24:17
  Speaker A: Yeah. And they're not even really feeding. Like, you know, it depends on the story, but sometimes they're not even necessarily. Necessarily, like, matter, like, feeding.
• 24:26
  Speaker B: I will say I did get the vibe in this book that they had to feed on the same person multiple times to turn them, like, fully into a vampire. And I don't know if that's accurate, but that's just the vibe that I got.
• 24:42
  Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, the timeline didn't matter to me that much in the movie. At least it didn't. I felt. It felt fine. Like, it felt like it took place over the course of, like. Well, specifically from the time Danny got turned to the end, I would say like a week, but I. The number of vampires and the impending threat all felt fairly cohesive. I don't know, it didn't. It didn't stick out to me as like, not making sense or not feeling like there was enough time for there to be that many vampires or too much time and there should be more. Van. I don't know. I didn't. Maybe my brain just didn't think about that. But that wasn't something that affected my. My enjoyment of the film necessarily.
• 25:19
  Speaker B: A few other thoughts from Nathan. In the book, Jon Snow is one of the borders at Ava's place who gets turned and so comes back to life.
• 25:27
  Speaker A: Really?
• 25:28
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 25:28
  Speaker A: That's funny.
• 25:29
  Speaker B: I noted that in the book as well.
• 25:30
  Speaker A: Spelled wrong, but yeah.
• 25:32
  Speaker B: Spelled with an H, but close enough. It took forever to get to Barlow on the final day in the movie. They knew where he was and yet it still took till the end of daylight to stake him. There were obstacles to overcome, but they didn't even start taking those on until later in the day in the book. It almost felt comical as they toured the town, making stops along the way with the constable and at the church while the time just drained away. They didn't need the guns since Straker was dead, or the holy water because they already killed Susan with just a stake and no holy water. I mean, they do say that. I think they say that they're taking the gun because it'll slow them down, at least in the book.
• 26:12
  Speaker A: Because I assume they would think they might run into more or less.
• 26:15
  Speaker B: Yeah, more like recently turned townsfolk vampire.
• 26:19
  Speaker A: And maybe for Barlow, they think they might also need like, maybe he's more powerful.
• 26:22
  Speaker B: They might. I could see that. And holy water. Also, if I was going to go fight a den of vampires with like a big bad vampire at the center, I would take as many weapons as I could carry.
• 26:35
  Speaker A: I'm getting a holy water super soaker.
• 26:39
  Speaker B: In the movie, there is no nighttime between when Susan gets taken by Straker to Barlow and when Ben kills him. So when did she get turned? Ben and the doctor run into Mark outside the house and it's clearly the same day when they got in. It's a good question.
• 26:55
  Speaker A: Does it need to be nighttime to get turned?
• 26:57
  Speaker B: Oh, well, for somebody to bite her. Yeah. Yeah, because they. Unless she didn't get turned.
• 27:01
  Speaker A: She did not necessarily have to get turned by Barney.
• 27:03
  Speaker B: Right. But it would still need to be nighttime for somebody to bite her.
• 27:06
  Speaker A: Sure. But we don't see her turned until two years later.
• 27:11
  Speaker B: That's.
• 27:11
  Speaker A: She could have still been a human when they left.
• 27:13
  Speaker B: She could have been a human when they left.
• 27:14
  Speaker A: And then one of the other vampires in town that was still alive. Bitter.
• 27:18
  Speaker B: That's fair.
• 27:19
  Speaker A: I mean, that. That. That would work at least.
• 27:21
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 27:21
  Speaker A: I think that does feel weird. You assume the idea, right, is supposed to be that he takes her to Barlow. Barlow bites and turns her. But I don't think you ne. It does work the other way, at least.
• 27:34
  Speaker B: Interesting. I learned from this book that in the 70s, all adults hated or were at best indifferent to kids.
• 27:41
  Speaker A: True.
• 27:42
  Speaker B: Multiple folks think the most hateful stuff towards children. And the Glicks were apparently okay with their children just wandering through the W alone to Mark's house. Please don't activate Gen X.
• 27:53
  Speaker A: That's a different thing. Two. Those are two different things. There's one thing of going through the woods to get to their friend's house in a small town versus kid. Adults did hate children. I feel like not hate them, but they were. There's a. There was a definitely a weirder level of disdain for children as you go back in history.
• 28:12
  Speaker B: Yeah. Also, a lot of adults do just hate kids.
• 28:16
  Speaker A: True.
• 28:16
  Speaker B: And a lot of them have kids and they shouldn't.
• 28:18
  Speaker A: True. Very true. It's also not just a 70s thing going through the woods to get to your prince house. It was a thing all the way up until probably like, I don't know, a decade ago.
• 28:29
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Depending on where you were 20 years ago.
• 28:31
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 28:32
  Speaker B: Speaking of terrible adults, the best kill by the vampires is when all of the vampire children attack the bus driver, who in the book would just abandon them along the route if he didn't like their behavior or suspected them of crimes they certainly didn't do. That guy. He deserved it. Also, speaking of terrible adults, the scenes with the McDougal family were by far the most harrowing and hard to read scenes in the book. This is what I was referring to when I said that I didn't know if the infidelity scene was the worst one. For me, it was the baby scenes.
• 29:07
  Speaker A: Oh, I don't. Yeah. You didn't talk about this in the.
• 29:10
  Speaker B: Episode because we already had so much other stuff to talk about. I thought the infant abuse was terrible and was ready for the mom to get eviscerated by vampires. Then we got her reaction to the baby's death and her absolute inability or refusal to accept that he was no longer alive just broke my heart. I just couldn't even deal. Call hand. The priest sent Mark's parents. A note that says, don't worry about your son. He's with me. Looking back from the modern day, that's a really creepy thing to get from a Catholic priest. Yeah. Things that would not age well. I assume they changed the teacher's name from Matt to Jason because the similarity of Matt and Mark is confusing. But apparently that was not enough to fix this.
• 29:53
  Speaker A: Well, it was. It fixed my. I never confused Matt and J or Mark and Jason. So it fixed that.
• 30:00
  Speaker B: At least something about Mark and Ben.
• 30:03
  Speaker A: I think it was literally Ben Mears and Mark. I think it was Mark and Mears, I think is what. Cause some people called him Mears occasionally. And I think that. Confused.
• 30:13
  Speaker B: Yeah. I think the book claims that aspirin and LSD are similar chemically and that just isn't even vaguely true. Beyond them both being organic compounds, this feels like some proto rfk. The drugs aren't healing us, they are making us sick. BS or some war on drugs everything is scary and can hurt your kids thing. Yeah. And I. And this was. I've seen stuff kind of like this pop up in other earlier Stephen King's books where he was really into, like. And maybe it was just a time period thing, but he also talks about, like, ESP in this book, which he does in other earlier books as well.
• 30:55
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 30:56
  Speaker B: And like, was kind of into pseudoscience. Yeah, kind of into pseudoscience stuff. And I think was maybe really into like the like, MK Ultra kind of.
• 31:05
  Speaker A: Oh. I mean, there's a ton of really fascinating stuff there. It's a fascinating thing. But. Yeah, the. Yeah, that. That idea of like, oh, this. This chemical is one. Did you know that this chemical they put in soda is only one thing, one chemical bond different than arson or arsenic or whatever. And it's like, okay, but that's a pretty important.
• 31:26
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's like.
• 31:27
  Speaker A: That's true for like, most things, like.
• 31:30
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. No, it's a thing that I've noticed in other works of his. The dog abuse was absolutely unneeded in this story, as you all mentioned. It wasn't clear why it happened and it just set a mood that was already being said. I resent the movie for making me see a dead dog depicted on screen for no real effect.
• 31:49
  Speaker A: I will say this one didn't bother me at all because it was such a clearly.
• 31:52
  Speaker B: It was a very clearly fake dog.
• 31:54
  Speaker A: Like, it didn't look remotely real.
• 31:56
  Speaker B: It looked like a.
• 31:56
  Speaker A: The worst part was when it yelped, because that sounded like a real dog Yelp.
• 32:00
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 32:00
  Speaker A: But when we actually saw it, I was like, okay, that is like a very fake dog.
• 32:06
  Speaker B: And to end at the beginning. Why does this story start in media res? I initially thought there would be more switching back and forth between the timelines, since there isn't. I'm not sure what the future bit at the beginning accomplishes, except to spoil that. Only Mark and Ben are left.
• 32:23
  Speaker A: I think the goal, at least in the film, I mean, from. Because the book's the same, right? Yeah, it's a hook.
• 32:31
  Speaker B: Yeah. No, I agree. That's all it is. Yeah, it's a hook because you don't know what, why, what they're running, what are they scared from or what they're going to do.
• 32:41
  Speaker A: Well, at least in the movie, like, why polar water glowing. What? Why is this? You know, who are these people? Like, what are they? Why are they in Mexico? These two white people, like in a random church in Mexico, you know, like, right. There's a lot. It just raises a lot of questions. It's a hook to get you into the story, like what's going on here.
• 32:57
  Speaker B: And especially if you don't know it's about vampires, then you know.
• 33:01
  Speaker A: Yeah. And then you work your way back and kind of. Oh, and then we get back there. It's literally just a narrative, like an interest hook. It is a. It's not necessarily like important. It doesn't do anything super interesting other. Again, other than get you interested in the story as opposed to just starting on Mark driving or Ben driving to Salem's Lot. Every time. Been driving to Salem's Lot and walking around town for 30 minutes. Like, you know, it's just not that Giving us that little bit of intrigue at the beginning and promise that this is going somewhere interesting and spooky.
• 33:37
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's a spooky mystery. And then Nathan left one other comment and said on reading through the other comments, I am surprised how many other folks thought the streamlining of characters for the movie was a positive. I really thought it ruined the major vibe of the book that this town was full of people. Some of them probably deserved to die and some didn't, but they were all going to anyway. And we could feel the danger ratchet up as one by one they got turned. I agree with that. I thought the movie felt very bare bones, even though it did annoy me that there were so many characters in the book. Alright. We didn't get a ton of comments in other places this time around. On Facebook, we had two votes for the book, one for the movie on Instagram we had one for the book, one for the movie, and one listener who couldn't decide. And on Threads we had one vote for the book and zero for the movie. And then I know single lone threads voter, please come back, vote again. And then on Goodreads we had one vote for the book, zero for the movie, and Mikko said I didn't really care about either version of the story. Maybe I was expecting something more action y and ended up bored reading all the small town drama waiting for the vampires. While there were individual scenes where I felt tension both in the book and the movie, it didn't last, nor did I feel any proper escalation. I was also constantly losing track of the myriad characters, which didn't help. The movie made some good changes, like aging up Susan, but parts haven't aged well. The Barlow jump scare, for example, which I believe is his reveal, is so bad you can almost hear him yell boo. And bonking the heads together only looks silly.
• 35:33
  Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
• 35:34
  Speaker B: Yeah. While I had problems with the book, I don't think the movie told the story particularly well. And most likely it would have left me confused multiple times had I not read the book first. The book is better.
• 35:47
  Speaker A: There you go. That was one of our few book is better votes.
• 35:51
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, no, I think most people thought the book is better.
• 35:55
  Speaker A: Oh, sorry. Yes. Yeah, I had that flipped at night. I thought he said movie is better. Yes, book is better. Yeah, that was what most people thought.
• 36:01
  Speaker B: And the book was our winner this week with nine votes to the movies, two with an asterisk, because I believe one of those was Tim Wahoo. Oh, yeah, doesn't count. Plus two listeners who couldn't decide.
• 36:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, if you want your vote to count, Tim, start taking it seriously. All right, that is it. Thank you all so much for all your comments. We love getting that feedback. Katie, it's time to learn a little bit about the Author of our 2025 summer series, James Dashner. No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.
• 36:37
  Speaker B: James Dashner is an American writer best known for the Maze Runner series and his young adult fantasy series, the 13th reality. I guess that's his, like, next most famous thing I've never heard of, and his career isn't super interesting. The Maze Runner series is pretty much the only highlight, however.
• 36:59
  Speaker A: I mean, look, I've never written a wildly popular YA series, so.
• 37:04
  Speaker B: Oh, hold your roll.
• 37:06
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 37:06
  Speaker B: I learned two things from reading his Wikipedia page that I want to bring up. Okay, the less important thing. Less important, but will probably still end up being Very relevant to our discussion of the series themes because, boy howdy, it always is. Is that James Dashner is a Mormon.
• 37:26
  Speaker A: Yep. So where are these YA authors? All from? A very specific religious.
• 37:34
  Speaker B: I don't know, like, sex. I don't know.
• 37:36
  Speaker A: I guess it's not that specific, but, you know, like, what? Wasn't a Twilight. She's.
• 37:40
  Speaker B: Yeah, she was Mormon. Yeah. Stephanie Meyer's Mormon, famously. And then Divergent. She's not Mormon, but she was like. She was, like, super, like. Yeah. Christian. And it was very clear from the books that she was, like, very Christian.
• 37:55
  Speaker A: Yeah. Huh.
• 37:56
  Speaker B: And then Erica was just weird.
• 38:00
  Speaker A: Yeah. Good for everything, honestly. Of all of them.
• 38:03
  Speaker B: Maybe the, um. So, yeah. So Dashner was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, AKA the Mormon Church. He has a degree from Brigham Young University, AKA the Mormon University, and currently lives in Provo, Utah, a city with a 90% Mormon population, with his wife, who I assume is also Mormon, given that. Given. Yeah, given that they met at byu.
• 38:27
  Speaker A: And that's a safe bet.
• 38:28
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 38:29
  Speaker A: I don't think there's a large non Mormon population at byu. I'm sure there is a few, but I don't think it's a lot.
• 38:34
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, there's not really a lot of non Mormon people in Provo, period.
• 38:40
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 38:40
  Speaker B: So, yeah. Second thing that I want to bring up about James Dashner is that he was accused of sexual harassment. In early 2018 during the height of the MeToo movement. There were anonymously posted comments on the School Library Journal website that claimed harassment by Dashner, with one commenter claiming to have been subject to, quote, months of manipulation, grooming, and gaslighting. Following this, Dashner published a statement on Twitter which said, in part, quote, I didn't honor or fully understand boundaries and power dynamics. I can sincerely say that I have never intentionally hurt another person, but to those affected, I am so deeply sorry. I am taking any and all criticisms and accusations very seriously, and I will seek counseling and guidance to address them.
• 39:32
  Speaker A: Okay, sure, sure.
• 39:34
  Speaker B: I don't know if he ever did that.
• 39:36
  Speaker A: Yeah. That's not as boilerplate, generic of that statement as possible. So, yeah, sure.
• 39:44
  Speaker B: After that, he was dropped by his agent, Michael Barrett, and by his publisher, Penguin Random House. He did, in fact, continue to publish books, including more books set in the Maze Runner universe. So I'm not sure it really negatively affected his career in any way, but fascinating.
• 40:05
  Speaker A: Knowing nothing about this series and now knowing that he's Mormon, I'm like, oh, God, what is this gonna be.
• 40:11
  Speaker B: I literally knew nothing about this man before I. I like popped over to his Wikipedia page and I was like, oh, it's not very long. And then I started reading and I was like, oh, okay.
• 40:21
  Speaker A: I'm also. I'm not sure I know enough about Mormonism to be able to piece together how much of that has bled into the series or not. You know what I mean?
• 40:31
  Speaker B: I guess we'll see.
• 40:32
  Speaker A: We'll see. We will see. Well, speaking of it, let's preview now the first book in the Maze Runner series. The Maze Runner. Can you tell me anything about yourself? Who you are?
• 40:45
  Speaker B: Where you came from?
• 40:50
  Speaker A: Can you tell me your name? I can't remember anything. Day one. Greeny, Rise and shine. What is this place? Welcome to the Glade. Who put us here? We don't know. Let's do there. You guys can't just keep me here.
• 41:20
  Speaker B: I can't let you leave.
• 41:21
  Speaker A: Why won't you tell me what's out there? That's the maze. Every morning when those doors open, the runners look for a way out. No one has ever survived a night in the maze. What happened?
• 41:41
  Speaker B: The Maze Runner is a 2009 young adult dystopian novel by aforementioned author James Dashner. It is the first in a series of five novels. There's also an additional three novel spin off series set in the same universe. According to Dashner, he had the initial idea for the book in 2005. In a 2015 HuffPost interview, he said he had an idea about a bunch of teenagers living inside an unsolvable maze full of hideous creatures. In the future, in a dark dystopian world, it would be an experiment to study their minds.
• 42:19
  Speaker A: Spoilers.
• 42:20
  Speaker B: Terrible things would be done to them. Awful things. Completely hopeless. Until the victims turn everything on its head.
• 42:27
  Speaker A: Well, I feel like I just had the whole thing spoiled.
• 42:29
  Speaker B: I'm sorry.
• 42:31
  Speaker A: I was going in blank and now I know it's an experiment.
• 42:35
  Speaker B: Well, I mean, I do too now, having read this. So Dashner has also stated that William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies was an influence on the novels. That seems obvious.
• 42:48
  Speaker A: Yeah. From the five chapters so far.
• 42:52
  Speaker B: And that he envisioned the novels as movies during the writing process. Even though. So even though the book was published in 2009, it didn't really pop off until around 2011, during the height of the YA dystopian trend with the Hunger Games and Divergent leaving audiences clamoring for more heroic teens fighting the system.
• 43:14
  Speaker A: Oh yeah, I guess she's normal, right?
• 43:17
  Speaker B: Suzanne Collins.
• 43:17
  Speaker A: Suzanne Collins.
• 43:19
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. She seems pretty normal.
• 43:21
  Speaker A: Yeah. She also probably wrote the best series.
• 43:24
  Speaker B: I was gonna say she also probably wrote the best series, so. But the Maze Runner won the Young.
• 43:33
  Speaker A: Adult well, we say that we haven't read the Maze Runner yet.
• 43:36
  Speaker B: Maybe this series is really good. Maybe it's fantastic.
• 43:39
  Speaker A: Five chapters in, I'm underwhelmed.
• 43:41
  Speaker B: I'm skeptical. Five chapters in. But. But it did win the Young Adult Library Services Association Best Fiction for Young Adults Award in 2011. It was a number one New York Times bestseller and was on the list for 148 weeks and was a Kirkus Reviews Teen Book of the Year. It also won several smaller awards in 2012, including the Lincoln Award, the Truman Readers Award, and the Evergreen Teen Book Award.
• 44:12
  Speaker A: Sweet.
• 44:13
  Speaker B: A couple reviews Kirkus Reviews wrote of the Maze Runner hard to put down. This is clearly just a first installment, and it will leave readers dying to find out what comes next. Jessica Harrison of the Deseret Morning News labeled the Maze Runner as a quote, thrilling, adventurous book for kids ages 13 plus. That will get readers hearts pumping and leave them asking for more. Though she noted that the fictionalized slang.
• 44:42
  Speaker A: Was a drawback, I will say that it hasn't both like, so far, I'm like, this is fine. As far as, like, again, I'm only a handful of chapters in. But like, I'm like, as far as fictional slang goes, it's fine. It's not driving me crazy yet. Maybe it will, but.
• 44:58
  Speaker B: And in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Sarah Abrams recommended the Maze Runner to middle school students. Writing Readers who seek adventure and are curious about living on their own will find the Maze Runner an engaging read.
• 45:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, I'm interested to see so far, again, barely into it. It does feel like a lot more like a book for a younger audience, middle school or younger. Seems, I don't know, something about either the prose or the style or something. So far it feels a lot, I won't say a lot simpler than something like the Hunger Games, but I'm finding it to be like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how to describe. We'll see. It's way too early to make any sort of assessments. All right, that is it for our preview of the Maze Runner, the book. Let's learn now about the film. We don't belong here. Somebody built the maze. I think it's time we find out what we're really up against. You're not like the others. You're curious. What the hell was that? This is the first real clue you found. Who knows where this might lead us?
• 46:11
  Speaker B: It's a girl. Thomas.
• 46:17
  Speaker A: Everything started changing the moment you showed up.
• 46:19
  Speaker B: What if we were sent here for a reason?
• 46:22
  Speaker A: The doors aren't closing. They're here. The Maze Runner is a 2014 film directed by West Ball, known for the Maze Runner, Maze the Scorch Trials, and Maze the Death Cure, as well as Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. And he's currently attached to direct the Legend of Zelda movie that's in development from Nintendo. So he was there for the whole series though. He did all of it. And the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. I don't. That was like, I think the most recent Planet of the Apes movie, which I haven't seen any of those newer ones like the Andy Serkis ones, but I know most of them are pretty good. That one. I don't know how well it was received. The film was written by Noah Oppenheim, who wrote Allegiant and Jackie, among other Things, the biopic about Jackie Onassis, Grant Pierce Myers, who has literally written zero other things other than this, according to IMDb, and T.S. nolan, who wrote the Scorch Trials, the Death Cure. So both of the sequels, as well as Pacific Uprising, the sequel to Pacific Rim, and the Atom Project. So mostly dealing in sci fi stuff. And yeah, the film stars Dylan o' Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Emil Amin, Thomas Brody Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Will Poulter, Patricia Clarkson, Blake Cooper, Dexter Darden, Jacob Lattimore, Chris Sheffield, Joe Adler, Randall D. Cunningham, Alexander Flores and Don McManus. It has a 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 57% on Metacritic, and a 6.8 out of 10 on IMDb. It made $348.3 million against a budget of just 34 million. So quite a good haul all things considered. And it was nominated for some MTV Movie Awards and a Kid's Choice Award for Favorite Book. So the book was nominated for a Kid's Choice Award, but it was listed on IMDb. So on January 11th of 2011, 20th Century Fox announced that they had purchased the rights to the Maze Runner and that Katherine Hardwick was set to direct the director of 13 Lords of Dogtown, Twilight, Famously and Red Riding Hood, among other things. But a year later, Wes Bell would be confirmed as the director. Ball had produced an animated post apocalyptic short film called Ruin and shown that which I'd actually seen before and didn't realize this was him. Like I didn't know it was attached to him or that he's the guy who directed the Maze Runner movies. But I have seen Ruin before. It's like an 8. It's on YouTube. If you just search like Ruin West Ball, you'll probably find it. He showed it to Fox and the studio was so impressed with it and felt that it had a similar enough tone to the Maze Runner. It was like a post apocalyptic, like, animated thing about a guy, like running from machines or something. It's very short, little, like very little narrative to it. But they thought it was similar enough and they were so impressed with what he did that they offered him this film. Getting into some notes that I thought were interesting. Dylan o' Brien, who was the lead in the film, was initially rejected by Ball. And he said of this quote, Dylan was actually. I saw him early on, very early on, and I overlooked him. It was a big learning experience there because I overlooked him because of his hair. He had Teen Wolf hair.
• 49:34
  Speaker B: He was.
• 49:34
  Speaker A: He was on Teen Wolf on MTV or vh, Teen Wolf, Sci Fi or whatever that I think it was on mtv. He had Teen Wolf hair. And I couldn't see past that. And so we were looking for our Thomas. And it's a tough role to make because he comes in as a boy and he leaves as a man. So it can't be like this badass action star that comes into the movie. It's about vulnerability up front. And when he comes out and comes into his own. And then the next movies are about the leader that emerges from the group. So finally, Fox says, we just did this movie, the Internship. There's this kid that's in this thing. He's like 20 years old. We think he's kind of got something. So I watch his tape and I was like, wait a minute, I've seen this kid before. I looked him up online and there was one picture of him with a totally shaped head. And it's this sweet, vulnerable looking kid. And I was like, whoa, interesting. And I said, wait a minute. He's just so familiar. And I looked back at my old audition tapes, which we had thousands of, and there's Dylan, that guy. I said, no, definitely not him. So I brought him. So we brought him back in and we started to talk with him. And I'm like, he's the coolest dude ever. End quote. Which I thought was very funny. It's just that whole. That whole quote was in the Wikipedia article for how they cast Dylan o' Brien.
• 50:37
  Speaker B: That was a journey.
• 50:38
  Speaker A: I know. Oh, so good. This one's also fun. Ball apparently was like, pretty active on Twitter back when during the production of the film and revealed a lot of details about the film on Twitter and got a lot of messages from kids who wanted to play a character named Chuck. I don't know any idea who that is. I don't think I've met Chuck yet. One person who constantly bothered him was this kid named Blake Cooper, who literally said he sent him like hundreds of messages until eventually Ball told him to give his tape to his casting director, which I guess he gave him an email address or something like that. And he did. And so they cast him because of Twitter. This kid, Blake Cooper got his role in the movie by pestering the director on Twitter, according to this, which is very funny.
• 51:26
  Speaker B: Wow. Back when good things came out of.
• 51:29
  Speaker A: Twitter, I mentioned earlier that Dylan o' Brien was in Teen Wolf and in order for him to finish filming this movie, there's an episode called Lunar Eclipse in that show where his character is unconscious for most of the episode. According again. So these are IMDb trivia effects, by the way, and I have to read these. These next two IMDb trivia facts were literally back to back on the IMDb trivia going down the page. First one, Kaya Scodelario, who plays the main woman character, the female lead. I think Kaia Scodelario's favorite day on set was when she spent an entire day shooting on the top of a tree with Dylan o' Brien. She said that was when they really spent time together as actors and got to know each other better. Dylan o' Brien's favorite scene to shoot was the wrestling sequence with Will Poulter, which those are back to back on IMDb trivia, which honestly makes me think. Which are very funny back to back. And honestly makes me wonder if these come from, like, the same interview where they were interviewing both of them. Yeah, and he said that, like, as a punchline to her because she's like, probably went on and on about how my favorite day shooting was hanging out with Dylan and we got to know each other and he's like, my favorite day shooting was wrestling Will Poulter. Like, that honestly may be how it played out. So it may be intentionally funny by Dylan o' Brien, but either way, I thought it was funny. So getting into some reviews and I got a lot of them because there was somebody put whoever curated the Maze Runner Wikipedia page put every single review they could find. And I'm here for it because I love reading reviews before we do the movie. Or, like, snippets from reviews, not the whole thing for Newsday, Rafer Guzman gave it a three out of four saying, quote, it's solid, well crafted and entertaining. Writing for RogerEbert.com, who obviously was dead at this time. Christy Lemire or may not have been dead, but it was retired for sure and almost with nearing passing away, I.
• 53:20
  Speaker B: Would say almost dead.
• 53:22
  Speaker A: Well, I don't know. I don't remember what year Ebert died. It was around this time. It was around 2010, I can't remember. But Christy Lemire writing for RogerEbert.com said she found the film intriguing, saying, quote, it tells us a story we think we've heard countless times before, but with a refreshingly different tone and degree of detail. Soren Anderson for the Seattle Times said the film was, quote, vastly superior to the book that inspired it and gave it three out of four. For the San Jose Mercury News, Tony Hicks said, quote, he was hooked by the combination of fine acting, intriguing premise and riveting scenery. ABC Radio Brisbane gave the film in a minus praising its intriguing premise, saying quote it held my attention for its 2 full hour run. 2 hour full 2 hour run time. For the Hollywood Reporter, Justin Lowe said it was quote consistently engaging. This is like pull quotes. I think somebody was running like PR on the page for the movie. There are some more negative reviews here in a minute. And for Variety, Ella Taylor wrote, quote, as world creation YA pictures go, the Maze Runner feels refreshingly low tech and properly story driven.
• 54:28
  Speaker B: I feel like that might have been a dig at Divergent.
• 54:31
  Speaker A: Yes, I think so. Writing for because I didn't mention but this movie came out in September of 2014 and Divergent came out in April of 2014. So diversion came out six months before this. Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun Times said, quote, it's well acted and intelligent. It's a well acted and intelligent thriller. Futuristic sci fi romp. Bill Jabiri writing for New York New York Magazine said, quote, I was quite riveted. Michael Spragal for the Orange County Register gave it a B saying, quote ball is deft though. Ball is deft though at evoking claustrophobia of every kind, whether in the open air prison of the Glade or the actual tight spaces of the maze. And he elicits a hair trigger performance from o' Brien. Writing for USA Today, Claudia Puig said, quote a sci fi thriller set in a vaguely post apocalyptic future must create a fully drawn universe to thoroughly captivate the viewer. But Maze Runner feels only partially formed. She gave it a two out of four. Richard Corliss writing for Time said, quote, like Jean Paul Sartre's no Exit style existentialism. I'm trying to figure out how to say it. Like Jean Paul Sartre's no Exit. Tension, tension, tension. Sure, it's hyphenating. No Exit and existentialism. One word. It's a terrible portmanteau, but more crowded and with the musk of bottled up testosterone. For Grantland, Wesley Morris said, quote, I think I have a touch of a apocalypse excessive sleepiness caused by prolonged exposure to three and four part series in which adolescents rebel against oppressive governments represented by esteemed actors. End quote. So yeah, they were definitely done with Divergent and Hunger Games and yeah, yeah, and then Stephen Rhea for the Philadelphia Inquirer gave it array, I think gave it two and a half out of four stars, saying, quote, it's bleak business. And as it hurries towards its explosive expository conclusion, the film becomes nonsensical too. And finally, for the Boston Globe, film critic Ethan Gillsdorf said, teens should eat up this fantasies, scenery chewing, angst and doom and the hopeful tale of survival and empowerment to be continued in the inevitable sequel or sequels, end quote. So generally positive, but some mixed reviews. And I do think these reviews that I sourced from Wikipedia were highly curated by somebody who was, you know, a fan of the film because it's mostly like poster pull quotes.
• 57:07
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 57:08
  Speaker A: Positive things when when the overall like we know from the IMDb or from the Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic score it, you know it has a 66% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 57 on Metacritic, which is actually not bad. Like that's for this kind of movie. It's like fine but it's not particularly good either. So as always you can do us a favor by heading over to Facebook, Instagram, threads, Goodreads, Blue sky, any of those places interact. We'd love to hear from you and see you have to say about anything we talk about. You can also help us out by heading over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and dropping us a nice little review. And you can Support us@patreon.com ThisFilmIsLit and get access to bonus content. Katie, where can people watch the Maze Runner?
• 57:48
  Speaker B: Well, as always you can check with your local library. We do have a Blu Ray copy of that incoming or a local video rental store. If you still have one of those you can check with them. Otherwise you can stream this with a subscription to Fubo, MGM and Philo. I feel like I just say sounds in this segment every other week. Or you can rent it for around $4 through Apple TV, Amazon, Fandango at home, or YouTube.
• 58:22
  Speaker A: All right. I'm interested to see what this whole thing is. We shall, so we shall again, five chapters in. I'm. I'm whelmed, shall we say.
• 58:35
  Speaker B: Yeah, I'm also five chapters in. I'm. It's not horrible.
• 58:39
  Speaker A: It's not, like, bad.
• 58:40
  Speaker B: It's not, like, bad. But I'm also. I'm finding the way that the world building is being met out. Kind of obnoxious.
• 58:47
  Speaker A: So far, that has also been my experience. I'm like, okay, can we. All right.
• 58:51
  Speaker B: I'm like, you guys clearly don't know. Just tell this kid you don't know. Just tell him you don't know.
• 58:56
  Speaker A: Well, it's. I have also found the experience a little frustrating so far, but I. I have a feeling that will hopefully get better as it goes and you learn more of what's going on because I. It's intentional. You're supposed to be.
• 59:07
  Speaker B: I know it's intentional.
• 59:08
  Speaker A: You're supposed to be in the same situation the protagonist is.
• 59:10
  Speaker B: I'm not enjoying the way that it's intentional.
• 59:13
  Speaker A: I agree. That has also been my experience so far. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes from there. Again, we're very, very. Five chapters may sound like a little bit, but it's like.
• 59:23
  Speaker B: It's like 13 pages. It's like 35 pages. It's 35 pages. Yeah.
• 59:27
  Speaker A: It felt like nothing. It is paid. They're very short chapters. So. All right, we'll be back in one week's time to talk about probably one week's time. This one. I'm gonna preemptively say this next episode may be a little late because.
• 59:39
  Speaker B: No, I'm. I'm gonna put out a notice on. On all of our social media that our. Our recording schedule might be a little wonky for the next couple weeks because we have. We have a difficult run coming up at work.
• 59:51
  Speaker A: Yes, Very, very busy, like, real job schedule for the next couple weeks.
• 59:56
  Speaker B: So. So our. Our recording and posting schedule may be a little bit off kilter for a few weeks.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker A: We will get back to it once things hopefully even out a little bit, you know, a month or two from now. So, yeah, it'll be a little hectic, but it. But the episodes will be out. They just may be a little late until next week. Week or when it'll be next week. It's just a matter of when. Until the next episode. Guys, gals, not Battery palace and everybody.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker B: Else, keep reading books, watching movies, and keep being awesome.