Latest / Xenomania / Dawn of the Dead Changed Zombie Horror Forever - Xenomania 75

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Dawn of the Dead Changed Zombie Horror Forever - Xenomania 75 · Xenomania

• 0:00
  Jon: This week on Xenomania, join us as we go to the mall and visit
• 0:06
  my favorite movie of all time.
• 0:09
  We discuss consumerism, news, zombies, and the best place to hide
• 0:14
  out in a zombie apocalypse, and also the joys of George A. Romero.
• 0:20
  Great zombies, great quotes, and great characters.
• 0:24
  Also, does a co-host slash a favorite movie yet again?
• 0:30
  Find out.
• 0:32
  When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.
• 0:37
  This is Dawn of the Dead.
• 0:39
  This is Xenomania
• 0:56
  Ryan: What?
• 0:57
  Kearns: The holiday John?
• 0:59
  Better than Chanukah and Kwanzaa and Christmas and Halloween and Easter
• 1:04
  and Memorial Day all rolled into one.
• 1:07
  What do you guys think
• 1:11
  Ryan: Day of the Dead
• 1:14
  Kearns: Day
• 1:14
  Jon: Earlier in the 24-hour cycle
• 1:19
  Kearns: That too.
• 1:20
  How about when we do Dawn of the Dead on the podcast?
• 1:24
  Yeah, this is, it for John right here
• 1:27
  Jon: And there is only one Dawn of the Dead.
• 1:30
  I don't wanna hear about Zack Snyder.
• 1:34
  That is not,
• 1:35
  Kearns: Snyder
• 1:35
  Jon: not Dawn of the Dead, and I, I have a Romero quote about that remake
• 1:44
  Kearns: Let's hear it
• 1:45
  Ryan: Do
• 1:45
  Jon: Oh, I wasn't ready.
• 1:47
  Ryan: That
• 1:47
  Kearns: whoops.
• 1:48
  Whoopsie daisy.
• 1:49
  Let's
• 1:50
  Ryan: you,
• 1:50
  Kearns: it.
• 1:50
  Ryan: you s- you sent, you sent us the quote too,
• 1:53
  Jon: I did.
• 1:53
  I have it in my notes and now I've lost it.
• 1:57
  Ryan: He
• 1:57
  Jon: There it is
• 1:58
  Kearns: it, we're
• 1:59
  Ryan: he
• 1:59
  Kearns: Dawn of the Dead tonight, everybody.
• 2:01
  Jon: It is Dawn of the Dead Night.
• 2:04
  I love it.
• 2:06
  Kearns: masterpiece by, uh, uh,
• 2:08
  Jon: George Romero.
• 2:10
  Kearns: Oh,
• 2:10
  Jon: George, George Romero.
• 2:11
  Wrong George.
• 2:12
  Ryan: A. Romero
• 2:14
  Jon: Um, George A. Romero
• 2:16
  Kearns: George A. Romero.
• 2:17
  I just said that to get on John's nerves.
• 2:19
  Jon: Yeah
• 2:19
  Kearns: I
• 2:20
  Ryan: that's why I said Day of the Dead.
• 2:21
  Come
• 2:22
  Jon: Yeah.
• 2:22
  So listen, you can't, you can't get on my nerves with another Romero movie.
• 2:27
  None of them are quite Dawn, but y-
• 2:31
  Ryan: Okay, you
• 2:32
  Jon: I-
• 2:32
  Ryan: this episode, I'll agree with you.
• 2:34
  Jon: And for, for a hand, h- a handful of Lucas movies, I won't
• 2:38
  give you too much trouble either
• 2:39
  Ryan: George?
• 2:40
  Kearns: there's a reason he's a bazillionaire
• 2:42
  Jon: Yeah, yeah
• 2:44
  Ryan: uh, don't talk about episode one or episode two
• 2:47
  Kearns: definitely not gonna tangent into Star Wars
• 2:49
  Jon: No, we are not.
• 2:50
  So anyway, Zack Snyder remade Dawn of the Dead
• 2:55
  Ryan: Yes
• 2:57
  Jon: 2000s, and Romero's quote on the remake.
• 3:01
  "It was better than I expected. I thought it was a good action film."
• 3:06
  Like, he just cuts it right off.
• 3:08
  Like, this is not even a horror movie.
• 3:11
  "The first 15, 20 minutes were terrific, but it sort of lost its reason for being.
• 3:18
  It was more of a video game.
• 3:20
  I'm not terrified of things running at me.
• 3:23
  It's like Space Invaders.
• 3:25
  There was nothing going on underneath." He does not… And he's right.
• 3:29
  I mean, if you're, if, if it's an undead, a dead being, it should not be able to run
• 3:36
  Kearns: Yeah,
• 3:36
  Ryan: appeal
• 3:38
  Kearns: it's a different vibe and a different
• 3:40
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 3:41
  Kearns: The slow-moving barbarians are coming from the west sort of, or
• 3:45
  the east sort of thing is definitely the, you know, the Night of the
• 3:49
  Living Dead, the shambling zombies.
• 3:51
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 3:52
  Kearns: gives the, cast of characters the opportunity to seal their own
• 3:55
  fate as opposed to have enough cardio like in Zombieland, which is
• 4:01
  a spoof on the fast zombie too, but
• 4:03
  Jon: Yeah.
• 4:04
  Yeah.
• 4:05
  Uh, you know, it's, more dread-inducing.
• 4:07
  You get… You have one, you can walk by him.
• 4:10
  You have two, you can walk by him.
• 4:12
  You know, you s-
• 4:13
  Kearns: about Dawn, is that they're running past them in,
• 4:16
  uh, multiple scenes in the mall
• 4:18
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 4:18
  Kearns: it out
• 4:19
  Jon: Yep.
• 4:22
  Yeah, they, and the mall becomes its own character
• 4:26
  Ryan: Yeah, it does.
• 4:26
  It
• 4:27
  Kearns: yourself
• 4:28
  Jon: Oh, I mean, the, the mall is like every, uh, the mall is the
• 4:32
  fifth main character in this movie.
• 4:34
  We have, we have four human main characters and then the mall.
• 4:38
  And it's, it's the Monroeville Mall.
• 4:41
  And before we even talk about it, I wanna talk about the shame that's coming
• 4:45
  within the next year to the Monroeville Mall because it's, it is being demolished
• 4:51
  Ryan: Really?
• 4:54
  Jon: by one of the evil entities of consumerism in our society.
• 5:00
  Ryan: Walmart.
• 5:01
  Jon: ironic.
• 5:01
  Yep, Walmart.
• 5:03
  Ryan: Oh, wow, that was a guess
• 5:04
  Jon: Walmart, yeah.
• 5:05
  So, so the, the lasting symbol of Romero's anti-consumerist movie is being torn
• 5:15
  down by probably the biggest consumerism capitalist corporation in this country,
• 5:22
  Ryan: That's
• 5:22
  Jon: Walmart
• 5:24
  Kearns: Let's name the family to shame them even more.
• 5:26
  Jon: The Walt- the Waltons.
• 5:28
  Kearns: Walton.
• 5:29
  Is it the Waltons?
• 5:30
  Ryan: the Waltons?
• 5:30
  Jon: Waltons, yep.
• 5:31
  Ryan: They got rich after the show?
• 5:35
  Jon: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:36
  Well, this, this show made them rich.
• 5:38
  Ryan: fair
• 5:39
  Jon: is, this is all, it's all TV money, and then they opened some stores and
• 5:44
  Kearns: They also
• 5:44
  Jon: yeah
• 5:45
  Kearns: which is why I will never shop at a Sam's Club
• 5:47
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 5:48
  Kearns: ever.
• 5:49
  Ryan: That's
• 5:49
  Jon: And
• 5:50
  Kearns: baby
• 5:51
  Jon: listen, I, I, I will tell you this, there are petitions to try to save it.
• 5:57
  I think if, I think if a petition to prevent Walmart from doing any-
• 6:01
  something that it wanted to do actually succeeded, it would be the first time
• 6:06
  that's happened, 'cause I don't think Walmart loses these things too ma- too
• 6:09
  often, 'cause they really don't care about the communities they're going into.
• 6:13
  But that's something for something else
• 6:16
  Ryan: the only thing that would change is if Hollywood stepped in
• 6:18
  or something and said this is like a
• 6:19
  Jon: That's fine.
• 6:21
  Ryan: But they won't
• 6:21
  Jon: I… No, y- somebody el- somebody else would have to
• 6:25
  buy it, or the government would probably have to protect it.
• 6:29
  I don't even think Hollywood could save it.
• 6:31
  I don't think… I think, I mean, it, it's kind of def- a defeatist way to start an
• 6:36
  episode on my favorite movie ever, but
• 6:39
  Kearns: mean, it really is appropriate though because it's very on the
• 6:41
  nose for what the movie's about.
• 6:43
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 6:44
  Ryan: Thank you
• 6:47
  Kearns: sort of jumps right into that.
• 6:49
  And it's alm- almost like an evolution of the message of the movie.
• 6:53
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 6:54
  Kearns: these survivors make their way into a mall.
• 6:56
  What is R-
• 6:57
  Jon: Yes
• 6:58
  Kearns: doing with that, guys?
• 7:01
  Jon: Yeah, I mean, it, it's his statement on consumerism, and I mean, when he,
• 7:07
  in 1978 when this comes out, malls are just starting to reach that peak that
• 7:12
  they're gonna be on for about 20 years.
• 7:15
  in the '80s there are about 2,500 malls in the US.
• 7:20
  as of 2025, there's like 700, and that trend has led to something that Romero
• 7:28
  would probably sort of enjoy being named the way it is, the zombie mall
• 7:33
  Ryan: Yeah.
• 7:34
  It's true.
• 7:35
  It's true.
• 7:36
  Some malls, some malls
• 7:38
  Jon: 700
• 7:39
  Ryan: in there anymore.
• 7:40
  You know?
• 7:41
  It's like a ghost town
• 7:42
  Kearns: us that's pretty empty a lot whenever I
• 7:44
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 7:45
  Kearns: kind of scary how big it is and how few people are in it
• 7:49
  Jon: Yep, yep.
• 7:50
  So when Romero gets to the consumerism of this, the first concept is that the
• 7:56
  zombies are the mindless mall shoppers, and it works for a good section of the
• 8:03
  movie that, you know, why are they here?
• 8:06
  Well, it's instinct.
• 8:07
  It's something they liked when they were alive.
• 8:10
  And then, yeah, and then it morphs.
• 8:13
  Then it morphs to, wait, it's not just the zombies that are the mindless consumers.
• 8:19
  It's now in particular Peter, Roger, and Stephen.
• 8:23
  Fran is always sort of held out on the mall.
• 8:26
  Like she's never 100% bought in.
• 8:30
  But you start getting Peter and Roger and Stephen falling in
• 8:36
  love with the concept of staying here because the stuff is there.
• 8:41
  You know, they kind of become the George Carlin place for my stuff joke.
• 8:46
  "My stuff is here. This is where I am." And, you know, it's… And it, it is
• 8:52
  probably a fairly seductive concept to flee and seek shelter in a mall.
• 8:58
  It's, I mean,
• 9:00
  Kearns: about it
• 9:01
  Jon: And this, uh, Dawn of the Dead is where that fantasy comes from, that I'm
• 9:05
  gonna be, I'm gonna be trapped in the mall and have to survive in the mall,
• 9:09
  and look at how much stuff is here.
• 9:11
  Kearns: Yeah, and they
• 9:12
  Jon: And-
• 9:12
  Kearns: you could ever want
• 9:15
  Everything.
• 9:16
  Non-perishable food
• 9:17
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 9:18
  Kearns: Perishable food stuffs galore too that they gotta get
• 9:20
  through before it goes bad.
• 9:22
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 9:23
  Kearns: clothes, toys
• 9:26
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 9:26
  Ryan: mole
• 9:26
  Jon: S- yeah, absolutely.
• 9:29
  So, you know, back to the mall stuff a little bit.
• 9:32
  the first mall opens in Edina, Minnesota in, 1956.
• 9:38
  and that's out of necessity.
• 9:40
  Edina, Minnesota has over 100 days a year where the average
• 9:45
  temperature is below freezing.
• 9:47
  Kearns: Oh,
• 9:47
  Jon: So you're not g- you don't wanna walk store to store.
• 9:50
  Like, the typical shopping in, at that point was, you know, strip malls and
• 9:54
  walking two stores and, you know, the city streets where it's store, store, store.
• 10:01
  Once you get to… Yeah, and once you get to the suburbs, you have that problem of
• 10:05
  thing, you know, things are spread out, so you can't just walk to the next store
• 10:10
  Kearns: Is it a mall though if there's no Panda Express?
• 10:14
  Ryan: Yes
• 10:15
  Jon: Well, mm, no, I don't… I think a Panda Express, uh, to, to maintain your
• 10:21
  status as a mall, you must have a Panda Express, a Subway, or a Sbarro, I think.
• 10:28
  I think you have to have at least one of those three
• 10:30
  Kearns: One of those
• 10:31
  Ryan: It,
• 10:31
  Kearns: So,
• 10:31
  Ryan: if it, what if it's a knockoff?
• 10:32
  Kearns: a mall prior to those three restaurants, in order to maintain
• 10:36
  your status as a mall, you must then incorporate one of those restaurants.
• 10:39
  Jon: Yes.
• 10:40
  Kearns: your steaks.
• 10:41
  Jon: Yes.
• 10:42
  Ryan: What?
• 10:43
  I f- I feel like any mall I went to had to have a, like a McDonald's
• 10:46
  or a Burger King attached to it
• 10:48
  Jon: Yeah, there was, there was almost always at least a fast food option.
• 10:52
  It, and it's so funny to look at the Monroeville Mall in, in Dawn and see
• 10:56
  some of the, the Brown Derby restaurant.
• 11:00
  You know, it's sort of, you know, our mall, the, the mall near here
• 11:04
  had a Friendly's in it at one point
• 11:07
  Ryan: Yep
• 11:07
  Kearns: remember that spot.
• 11:08
  I do remember that
• 11:09
  Jon: you know, so what it, it-
• 11:11
  Kearns: Mickey D's and Burger King, by the way.
• 11:12
  There's a Chick-fil-A in it now.
• 11:14
  The evolution.
• 11:16
  Yeah, that's the fast food option there now.
• 11:18
  And they
• 11:18
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 11:18
  Kearns: they
• 11:19
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 11:19
  Kearns: grill spot too, but it's like an un, you know, off the map kind of spot
• 11:24
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 11:24
  Mm-hmm
• 11:25
  Ryan: picks up now is Charlie's.
• 11:27
  Charlie's Steak.
• 11:28
  Kearns: a Charlie's.
• 11:29
  Ryan: It's not bad.
• 11:30
  Bacon fries are good.
• 11:32
  Bacon cheese fries, that's what I, I recommend.
• 11:34
  Kearns: be the title of your memoir.
• 11:36
  Ryan: Bacon,
• 11:37
  Jon: Bacon fries good
• 11:39
  Kearns: Bacon fries are good
• 11:41
  Jon: So, and to get back to the consumerist element, um, so
• 11:46
  after you get the founding of the malls, by… It's, it's so quick.
• 11:51
  A, a poll found in the early '70s, Americans spent more time at the mall
• 11:56
  than anywhere except for home and work.
• 11:59
  Kearns: That's cool.
• 12:00
  I
• 12:00
  Jon: By the early '70s, so that, you know, the, it, it's the gathering place.
• 12:05
  It's the shopping mecca.
• 12:07
  It's, I mean, the malls for a lot of communities become everything,
• 12:12
  with the possible exception,
• 12:14
  Kearns: too
• 12:15
  Jon: yeah,
• 12:15
  Ryan: Yep.
• 12:15
  Jon: with the p-
• 12:16
  Ryan: Yeah, they
• 12:16
  Jon: yeah, with the possible exception of, of a grocery store,
• 12:20
  it's almost all in the mall
• 12:23
  Ryan: So real quick, you said the first mall technically, or well, in
• 12:27
  at least Minnesota, was the '50s.
• 12:29
  I'm shocked that
• 12:30
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 12:30
  Ryan: were created, like, uh, complexes like that were
• 12:34
  created starting from the '50s.
• 12:35
  I thought it was more of a later thing, like the '70s, like maybe like '72, '73.
• 12:40
  So I'm a little shocked
• 12:41
  Jon: Yeah, it's the beginning of the '70s that they really start
• 12:44
  to find their footing and become an important part of society.
• 12:49
  but, I mean, even if you think about, you know, before the mid-'50s, you
• 12:54
  don't really have the big suburbs that you have now, and, you know,
• 12:59
  you go back 30 years from that, you don't-- You're just starting to get a
• 13:04
  consumer culture with, you know, the goods that people would buy that way.
• 13:10
  You know, and you, like, you, you start to get the rise of a- home appliances and
• 13:15
  shopping like that, and disposable income.
• 13:19
  'Cause it's, I mean, it, like, if you think about the, the idea
• 13:22
  of disposable income, that's not something most Americans had
• 13:26
  as recently as 100 years ago.
• 13:29
  Ryan: It's true
• 13:31
  Kearns: it's just li- living on, by, like working for necessities, which is
• 13:34
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 13:35
  Kearns: heading back toward,
• 13:36
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 13:37
  And, and I mean, the, the other thing you can say about
• 13:41
  Ryan: That's good
• 13:41
  Jon: the malls that the internet's then, the internet and other things
• 13:46
  sort of then solidify is they sort of begin to form the American cultural
• 13:52
  identity where, you know, oh, you know this mall's gonna have a Spencer's, and
• 13:56
  this mall's gonna have a Spencer's, and this mall is gonna have a Spencer's.
• 14:00
  So you start to be able, if you're in LA or Atlanta, you start to
• 14:06
  find a lot of the same things.
• 14:08
  It be- we start to become a less regional country.
• 14:12
  Ryan: Yeah.
• 14:13
  I, I, I agree with that, 'cause like, I feel like especially like
• 14:19
  where we're from, it's like we had specific stores and then they started
• 14:23
  growing everywhere, and that's where a
• 14:25
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 14:26
  Ryan: I guess like had their fall.
• 14:28
  'Cause I feel like there was a few video stores I'd go to, and it
• 14:31
  was like felt like that was like maybe there was like a few others,
• 14:36
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 14:37
  Ryan: once you hear them go across the United States, it's like it doesn't work.
• 14:41
  Jon: Yeah.
• 14:42
  Ryan: It's just sad, you know?
• 14:43
  Jon: Yeah
• 14:44
  Ryan: you want that personal experience and
• 14:47
  Jon: Yeah
• 14:48
  Ryan: to know, not s- to be a random number, I guess
• 14:53
  Jon: Yeah.
• 14:53
  And, and then, you know, with, with the growth of malls, by the time Romero
• 14:57
  is coming back to zombies a decade after Night, when he's tried to make
• 15:02
  a go with, you know, stuff like The Crazies is close in, spirit to the Dead
• 15:08
  movies, but, uh, There's Always Vanilla, Season of the Witch, Amusement Park.
• 15:14
  He's making… He strayed away from horror, and he d- I mean, it was
• 15:18
  sort of his goal and the people he founded Image Ten with's goal
• 15:24
  to not just make horror movies.
• 15:27
  But because of fiasco with the rights for Night, they weren't making money
• 15:35
  You know, and they s- and then they're trying to make these, you
• 15:38
  know, uh, There's Always Vanilla is, is a romantic drama essentially.
• 15:43
  He, he's, he's not
• 15:45
  Ryan: I like the fact that he, like, put his hand in other, um,
• 15:50
  Jon: Yeah, yeah
• 15:52
  Ryan: do.
• 15:52
  I, I, I applaud that
• 15:54
  Jon: Yeah, they, I mean, they, there's, there's so much to th- to those elements.
• 15:59
  Like, I mean, this, this is in a way a maverick Romero surrendering a little bit
• 16:07
  to the demands of, the consumers and to Hollywood to make another zombie movie.
• 16:13
  And you can…
• 16:13
  Kearns: ass a bit,
• 16:14
  Jon: Oh, I'm sure it did.
• 16:16
  I'm sure it did.
• 16:17
  And, uh, like I'm sure that's why it's funded the way it got funded, you know.
• 16:22
  It's about a $650,000 budget for Dawn.
• 16:26
  You know, again, a lot of it is privately sourced or from Dario Argento.
• 16:33
  You know, y- you, you sort of view Argento and Romero as peers, but at
• 16:38
  this point, Argento has made money, and Romero is still kind of a broke filmmaker
• 16:46
  Ryan: It's just crazy 'cause he get Night of the Living Dead, which
• 16:49
  of course he doesn't make money off of, but you get The Crazies.
• 16:52
  And Martin was before this, right?
• 16:55
  Jon: Um, Martin I
• 16:57
  Ryan: after?
• 16:57
  Jon: believe was right after
• 16:59
  Ryan: Okay.
• 17:00
  still, The Crazies
• 17:01
  Kearns: we name some movies from Argento for the listeners?
• 17:05
  Jon: I mean, the big one is always gonna be Suspiria.
• 17:08
  Ryan: Yeah
• 17:09
  Jon: That's gonna be the, that's gonna be the big one, but there's a lot.
• 17:12
  I, I'm not, like, I'm not a huge Italian horror guy.
• 17:16
  I appreciate, like, the work of the Fulcis and the Argentos, but
• 17:21
  they're not always my favorite
• 17:23
  Ryan: He co-wrote Once Upon a Time in the West,
• 17:27
  Jon: Yes.
• 17:28
  Ryan: Leone,
• 17:29
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 17:30
  Ryan: which was his step away from the spaghetti western,
• 17:32
  which is, yeah, you can feel it.
• 17:36
  It's more
• 17:37
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 17:37
  Ryan: which I feel like Argento had that grittiness.
• 17:41
  that's what you get from Dawn of the Dead, too, is besides the
• 17:43
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 17:45
  Ryan: Romero gives you that grittiness, that up-close
• 17:48
  personal feel with the characters.
• 17:50
  And it starts off when they're, I know we've talked about where we started
• 17:54
  off at the mall, but it really starts off in the TV news station and then
• 17:58
  builds off with the SWAT attack.
• 18:00
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 18:01
  Mm-hmm
• 18:02
  Ryan: that these scenes were included, because I've never seen
• 18:04
  those scenes except from the mall on.
• 18:07
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 18:08
  Ryan: kind of gives more of a background in the theme that Romero's going for.
• 18:12
  Jon: Yeah.
• 18:12
  Yeah.
• 18:13
  And, and he sort of, with the apartments, he sort of rehashes some of the themes
• 18:19
  from Night with the race and that.
• 18:21
  Like,
• 18:22
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 18:22
  Jon: know, you get a very racist
• 18:25
  Ryan: Yes.
• 18:25
  Jon: members of the SWAT team, very racist.
• 18:29
  Kearns: is
• 18:29
  Jon: Wooly.
• 18:30
  Ryan: Just an
• 18:31
  Jon: Wooly.
• 18:32
  Yeah, I mean,
• 18:33
  Kearns: Oh,
• 18:33
  Ryan: Wait,
• 18:33
  Jon: Wooly.
• 18:35
  Ryan: Wooly Mammoth
• 18:36
  Jon: Kind of.
• 18:37
  I mean, I, I can't tell you how long I thought his name was Willy,
• 18:41
  but it's, it's, it's W-O-O-L-E-Y
• 18:45
  Ryan: He's more of a Willie 'cause he's a dick for what he
• 18:48
  Jon: But,
• 18:49
  Ryan: you know
• 18:49
  Jon: you know, you, you get, you get the re- that, you know, that which was
• 18:53
  sort of a, a Night of Living Dead theme.
• 18:55
  You get, you know, with… And the rant that, like, like you could throw it away.
• 19:01
  You don't e- you could not pay attention to some of the things that Wooly says,
• 19:05
  but so many of them are things that you'll still hear people complain about today.
• 19:09
  Like, "Oh, look at these people living in these welfare apartments who have
• 19:13
  it so much better than I do." Like, it
• 19:17
  Kearns: he calls that out right away
• 19:19
  Jon: Yeah.
• 19:20
  Ryan: does
• 19:20
  Jon: Yeah.
• 19:22
  Yeah.
• 19:23
  And, and, and to go back to the TV thing, he sort of, Romero's sort of
• 19:28
  ahead on what for-profit news ends up looking like in times of turmoil.
• 19:37
  Ryan: Yeah, he
• 19:38
  Jon: You know,
• 19:38
  Kearns: just the
• 19:39
  Jon: you know, you,
• 19:39
  Kearns: other.
• 19:40
  Jon: y- the yelling at each other, but you have, you know, w- one of the,
• 19:44
  the first time you see Fran after she wakes up, she's pulling the supers,
• 19:49
  you know, the scroll on the bottom of the screen with the rescue stations.
• 19:53
  Sh- she's taking that on herself to take that down because it's
• 19:56
  12 hours old and a lot of those rescue stations have been overrun.
• 20:00
  So they, for 12 hours, they've been sending people to die at rescue stations.
• 20:07
  Kearns: Yeah.
• 20:07
  And
• 20:09
  Jon: And then
• 20:09
  Kearns: them out and the guy argues with her
• 20:12
  Jon: Yeah, the producer comes in, "Where's my supers? We need those on
• 20:14
  the air." Every, every, for as long as they're not on, people are tuning out.
• 20:20
  I, uh, you're not making money anymore.
• 20:23
  The world is over.
• 20:24
  Like, and it, it, and then it, you know, from there, the content devolves into
• 20:30
  the d- the debate television that is what really amounts to 90% of our TV news now.
• 20:37
  Kearns: Yeah
• 20:38
  Jon: You know, it, it, "Here, here's our story.
• 20:40
  Here's two minutes on our story.
• 20:42
  Here's 10 minutes of people yelling at each other about this story
• 20:46
  Kearns: If this is topical, did you guys see the dude who was wearing the
• 20:48
  mask, the flesh mask on famous news network that I sh- I won't name 'cause
• 20:53
  I won't, don't wanna be divisive?
• 20:55
  Ryan: No
• 20:55
  Kearns: haven't seen it yet, there was a guy… So they got called out on having
• 20:59
  the same experts come on as talking heads all the time and whatnot, so they put
• 21:03
  one of those, like, think of like Jackass style when he puts the old man face on.
• 21:07
  He
• 21:08
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 21:08
  Kearns: on, and you can see the layer of it right here moving as he's
• 21:12
  talking, and you can tell it's the dude who's wearing the flesh mask.
• 21:17
  And it's, it's, it went out on the air.
• 21:19
  I, I researched it because it was too wild to be true, but it's true.
• 21:23
  It was, like, a day ago or two days ago.
• 21:25
  Ryan: I
• 21:25
  Jon: I gotta, I'll have to look for that.
• 21:27
  I haven't seen that.
• 21:28
  Kearns: good
• 21:28
  Jon: It's,
• 21:29
  Ryan: I'll be, I'll be
• 21:30
  Jon: you know,
• 21:32
  Kearns: Where,
• 21:32
  Jon: one of the…
• 21:33
  Kearns: to where we are now.
• 21:34
  Jon: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:35
  And l- one of the things I t- I can sometimes be guilty of with Romero and,
• 21:40
  and the messages in his movie is giving him too much credit for foresight.
• 21:46
  I'm not saying he, he recognized that this was what TV news was gonna look like.
• 21:51
  He, uh, Dawn comes out two years before there's even a CNN.
• 21:57
  So you know, you're s- the critique is still guys like Walter Cronkite
• 22:01
  and, you know, an up-and-coming Dan Rather who are, you know,
• 22:04
  pretty staid reporters of the news.
• 22:07
  They're, they're conveying stories.
• 22:10
  You're not yet really getting those full-on arguments.
• 22:14
  But now that, that's, you know, that's every, every channel that gives you
• 22:18
  any kind of news, that's what they do.
• 22:22
  Kearns: Yeah.
• 22:22
  Jon: In a-
• 22:23
  Kearns: like local affiliates, and then even that's got its
• 22:25
  own drawbacks that we won't
• 22:26
  Jon: yeah,
• 22:27
  Kearns: right now
• 22:27
  Jon: yeah.
• 22:28
  I mean, they, like it's even sporting sports TV now.
• 22:31
  Like E- ESPN makes, you know, most of their money at this point really is
• 22:36
  seemingly on shows that are just people arguing about the topics of the day
• 22:41
  Kearns: I remember watching that start up 20 years ago
• 22:44
  Jon: I'm not, I'm not gonna say Romero saw this, but he definitely
• 22:47
  saw that there was an emphasis in, in news that was going more to money
• 22:54
  over public safety and accuracy
• 22:57
  Kearns: Fair enough.
• 22:59
  Fair enough.
• 23:01
  All right.
• 23:02
  Hey, let's lighten things up.
• 23:04
  Jon: Now let's leave… Of course I have a game.
• 23:07
  I'm not gonna h-
• 23:08
  Kearns: us?
• 23:08
  Jon: I'm not gonna have you guys guess the theme because I think you would
• 23:11
  both get it from the first movie.
• 23:14
  Kearns: Zombies.
• 23:16
  Zombies?
• 23:17
  Zombies.
• 23:18
  Jon: y- see?
• 23:18
  You got it before even the first movie.
• 23:21
  Kearns: Zombies.
• 23:21
  Oh, man, I win.
• 23:22
  I win.
• 23:22
  No, I'm
• 23:23
  Jon: You, you got it before even the first movie, so that's
• 23:28
  Kearns: at this cover.
• 23:29
  There's a lot of skin
• 23:30
  Jon: We're gonna go backwards.
• 23:32
  We'll go back.
• 23:33
  This was supposed to be last, but we'll go backwards
• 23:36
  Kearns: Okay, so it's
• 23:37
  Jon: So it's Stash or Slash
• 23:41
  Kearns: Right, sorry.
• 23:42
  Jon: with
• 23:45
  Ryan: episode 999 here
• 23:48
  Jon: Movie number one, Night of the Living Dead.
• 23:51
  Yes, we, we're going Romero for the game for a Romero movie
• 23:56
  Kearns: I love this movie so much.
• 23:59
  I've laughed maniacally hard in fourth grade watching this movie, and like the
• 24:04
  guy getting hit with the fire poker, and
• 24:06
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 24:07
  Kearns: an inflatable.
• 24:08
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 24:09
  Kearns: And just so many things about this movie are wonderful,
• 24:12
  and I have to stash this.
• 24:14
  I cannot slash this
• 24:16
  Ryan: You can put me as a stash too.
• 24:18
  Um, from the opening with, "They're coming to get you, Barbara," the entire
• 24:23
  movie, the message, it's, you know, I feel like any, I don't wanna say
• 24:28
  any age, but anyone can really watch this movie and either be scared, feel
• 24:34
  the horror, understand the message, but overall enjoy a really good movie
• 24:39
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 24:40
  Yeah, I would, I would fully agree with that.
• 24:42
  And I, I mean, I'm gonna shout out a book that I'm currently reading
• 24:46
  by Daniel Kraus called "Partially Devoured," which is a minute-by-minute
• 24:51
  sort of breakdown of, of the movie and then, like, some behind-the-scenes
• 24:55
  stories, biographies of people.
• 24:58
  It's really fascinating to, to sort of get the lay of the land
• 25:03
  that way around making this too.
• 25:08
  All right.
• 25:11
  So movie number two.
• 25:13
  Oops, we went way too fast there.
• 25:16
  Movie number two, An Alumna
• 25:18
  Kearns: are you gonna do this to us?
• 25:22
  Ryan: He revealed the third film, so this is what's gonna make it hard.
• 25:25
  But I'm, I'm gonna… Is this the first one or the second one?
• 25:28
  Jon: This is the first one, Dead Snow 1.
• 25:31
  Ryan: I'm gonna
• 25:32
  Jon: We-
• 25:32
  Ryan: it.
• 25:32
  I'm sorry.
• 25:33
  I love Dead Snow,
• 25:34
  Kearns: Nazi
• 25:35
  Ryan: but I'm slashing it.
• 25:38
  Jon: I know what that means.
• 25:39
  Yep.
• 25:40
  Kearns: Nazi is a dead Nazi
• 25:41
  Jon: Yep
• 25:44
  Kearns: Thank
• 25:45
  Jon: Yep.
• 25:45
  Kearns: German language, for being
• 25:48
  Jon: So,
• 25:48
  Kearns: decipher
• 25:49
  Jon: so Ryan is slashing dead snow.
• 25:52
  Kearns?
• 25:53
  Kearns: I'm having trouble because I really don't want
• 25:54
  to, but I know I have to.
• 25:55
  I'm gonna have to slash it too.
• 25:59
  Jon: Okay
• 25:59
  Ryan: this is gonna be a hard game
• 26:02
  Kearns: Yeah, 'cause I know it's, I, you gave us what's next, but there's
• 26:05
  Ryan: Yeah
• 26:06
  Kearns: probably better coming down, 'cause I know there's of
• 26:08
  other zombie movies I really like,
• 26:10
  Ryan: okay.
• 26:11
  Kearns: take two more
• 26:12
  Jon: Yep.
• 26:12
  So the accidental reveal
• 26:15
  Ryan: Stash.
• 26:17
  Stash.
• 26:18
  Kearns: Is
• 26:18
  Ryan: I love Dan with that
• 26:21
  Jon: No, Dawn by far, but I love Day.
• 26:24
  Ryan: this is my favorite.
• 26:26
  Jon: So
• 26:27
  Ryan: It's just
• 26:28
  Jon: I, I, I'll, I'll reveal this now.
• 26:31
  I don't keep like top five, top 10 lists of movies, like my personal favorites,
• 26:37
  except for my number one, because my favorite movie of all time is Dawn
• 26:43
  Kearns: Is
• 26:44
  Ryan: Okay
• 26:44
  Kearns: episode is so special
• 26:46
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 26:48
  All right, so current
• 26:50
  Kearns: gonna slash it.
• 26:52
  Jon: Ooh
• 26:53
  Kearns: Yeah, I know, I know, I know.
• 26:55
  I don't have as much of an emotional attachment today as you guys do.
• 26:59
  Jon: All right.
• 26:59
  All
• 26:59
  Kearns: Plus, I
• 27:00
  Jon: right
• 27:00
  Kearns: I know you've got, we've got five more.
• 27:03
  Jon: Yeah
• 27:04
  Kearns: Yeah, dude, I gotta slash it.
• 27:06
  Jon: All right, next.
• 27:07
  Kearns: Ooh, this is… That's brutal.
• 27:10
  There's some gritty scenes in this movie
• 27:13
  Ryan: There is.
• 27:15
  You know what?
• 27:16
  I'm, I'm stashing it.
• 27:17
  I really love the battery.
• 27:19
  really do love the battery.
• 27:21
  Jon: That is your last stash, my friend
• 27:25
  Ryan: I'm fine with it.
• 27:26
  am
• 27:27
  Jon: Oh, I mean, you're, you're, you're fine with it right now
• 27:31
  Kearns: I'm gonna have to slash the battery too.
• 27:33
  Um, I really enjoyed it.
• 27:34
  It was such a great take on the, the genre.
• 27:38
  But… And they did some things nobody's ever done before.
• 27:42
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 27:43
  Ryan: have not
• 27:44
  Kearns: I really
• 27:44
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 27:45
  Kearns: they did with nothing basically was phenomenal, but know there's, I
• 27:50
  know I, I know I need to slash it.
• 27:52
  Jon: All right.
• 27:54
  Next
• 27:56
  Kearns: Ooh
• 27:58
  Jon: Sorry, Ryan
• 27:58
  Ryan: You know what, though?
• 27:59
  I'll… I'm fine.
• 28:01
  I'm fine with the battery.
• 28:02
  I'm fine with day,
• 28:04
  Kearns: I might have to slash this
• 28:05
  Ryan: night.
• 28:06
  Kearns: though I absolutely love it.
• 28:07
  Ryan: No more double tap
• 28:09
  Kearns: No more double tap.
• 28:10
  I, I really enjoy this movie, but the problem is, is that
• 28:13
  it's, it's in the arena with real serious zombie films, and this
• 28:18
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 28:19
  Kearns: serious zombie
• 28:20
  Ryan: There's,
• 28:20
  Jon: well,
• 28:21
  Ryan: frying
• 28:21
  Jon: see how, we'll see how serious the rest of this, this game is
• 28:26
  Kearns: up slashing a bunch of movies 'cause I thought The Crazies
• 28:28
  was coming up, I'm gonna be so sad
• 28:30
  Jon: I don't count The Crazies as a zombie movie, so you're gonna be disappointed
• 28:35
  Kearns: That's true.
• 28:36
  It's a virus.
• 28:37
  Jon: Yeah.
• 28:38
  Kearns: I'm still gonna slash it.
• 28:39
  There's three
• 28:39
  Jon: All right, three more.
• 28:41
  So you have to keep, you have to keep, you have to stash two of them,
• 28:46
  and Ryan's just slashing everything.
• 28:49
  Next
• 28:49
  Kearns: it all up.
• 28:50
  Ryan: Oh, you wanna know something though?
• 28:54
  Kearns: Planet of Terror.
• 28:56
  Ryan: I, uh, Planet Terror is so good because you get, uh, Bruce Willis as
• 29:00
  the villain and it's just a good story.
• 29:02
  She gets the machine leg.
• 29:04
  But I always go with, uh, Death Proof, 'cause I love Kurt Russell.
• 29:09
  Kearns: Mm.
• 29:10
  Ryan: love him
• 29:10
  Jon: Lo- I love Kurt Russell, uh, but I love how over-the-top
• 29:15
  Planet Terror is as a zombie movie.
• 29:18
  Like, it, it takes it so much further than anything else at that point really had
• 29:24
  Ryan: Oh, I do agree with that.
• 29:25
  I mean, the biggest scene is Josh Brolin's hand in the, the door handle,
• 29:30
  Jon: I mean, is it or is it, is it our girl with
• 29:33
  Ryan: Both.
• 29:34
  Both
• 29:35
  Kearns: We're gonna have to say AR leg
• 29:37
  Jon: Yeah.
• 29:38
  With an AR leg.
• 29:39
  Kearns: There you
• 29:40
  Ryan: Rose
• 29:41
  Jon: Yeah,
• 29:41
  Ryan: right?
• 29:43
  It all rose
• 29:45
  Jon: Yeah
• 29:45
  Kearns: was, she was it back then
• 29:47
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 29:49
  Kearns: She
• 29:49
  Jon: She was a lot of it.
• 29:51
  Ryan: she was charmed
• 29:53
  Kearns: She was Resident Evil.
• 29:54
  She was in everything that required a badass female.
• 29:56
  Jon: No, you're, you're confusing Rose with Michelle Rodriguez
• 29:59
  Kearns: You're right.
• 30:00
  I am.
• 30:00
  Rose McGowan, very different.
• 30:03
  Jon: Yeah
• 30:06
  A- all right.
• 30:07
  Ready?
• 30:08
  Kearns: different.
• 30:09
  Jon: Two left
• 30:14
  Return of the Living Dead
• 30:17
  Ryan: I'm still fine with my choices
• 30:18
  Kearns: day over returned.
• 30:19
  I'm wondering what his last one is or his first one for that matter
• 30:22
  Jon: Yeah, it was the first one, so you're in an interesting spot.
• 30:26
  It's hard to pick
• 30:28
  Kearns: I'm gonna slash Return of the Living Dead because I
• 30:31
  can't take it and keep Dawn.
• 30:33
  Or like, I couldn't take it and lose Dawn.
• 30:35
  I like Dawn more.
• 30:36
  Or
• 30:37
  Ryan: Oh, yeah.
• 30:37
  Kearns: Derp, derp, derp.
• 30:39
  Day
• 30:39
  Ryan: good.
• 30:39
  We're talking about Dawn, so it works out
• 30:42
  Kearns: The
• 30:42
  Jon: All right.
• 30:42
  Kearns: the Living Dead.
• 30:43
  I got
• 30:43
  Jon: So the last one.
• 30:46
  Kearns: Yeah
• 30:46
  Jon: a, I have a, I have a feeling, Kerns, you're keep- you're, uh,
• 30:50
  stashing a movie you've never seen here.
• 30:52
  So here's the last one
• 30:55
  Kearns: I absolutely have
• 30:56
  Ryan: I've
• 30:56
  Kearns: this movie.
• 30:57
  Ryan: heard of this movie.
• 30:58
  Kearns: the Dead.
• 30:58
  Oh,
• 30:59
  Ryan: You never heard of it?
• 30:59
  Uh, have you heard of it?
• 31:00
  You, you never heard
• 31:02
  Jon: It, it's amazing.
• 31:04
  So the bulk of this movie is shot in one take.
• 31:09
  Ryan: Yes
• 31:09
  Jon: Like, it's just one continuous take, and it, like it… So it's, you know,
• 31:14
  it's the, a, a film crew making a zombie movie when actual zombies start to happen,
• 31:21
  Ryan: That's cool
• 31:22
  Jon: and it, it just, it's bonkers.
• 31:24
  It's over the top.
• 31:26
  Ryan: Is it like a found footage film,
• 31:28
  Jon: No, n-
• 31:29
  Ryan: of
• 31:29
  Jon: I mean, you, you could make that case a little bit, but it's not, I
• 31:34
  wouldn't necessarily classify it as that
• 31:38
  Kearns: Hey, we didn't do the chicken, uh,
• 31:40
  Ryan: Yeah, it's on biology.
• 31:42
  Jon: No.
• 31:42
  Kearns: is not in
• 31:43
  Jon: Yeah.
• 31:43
  Ryan: that
• 31:44
  Jon: there are a lot that I, I had to leave out of this.
• 31:47
  There… I l- I left the goriest, probably the goriest movie I've ever seen off,
• 31:53
  Ryan: Train to Busan?
• 31:54
  Oh
• 31:54
  Jon: Sadness.
• 31:55
  I left Train to Busan off because I know… I don't believe
• 31:58
  either of you have seen it.
• 31:59
  Or
• 32:00
  Kearns: Train to
• 32:00
  Jon: Ryan, Ryan, you haven't?
• 32:02
  Kearns: a thing on it last night.
• 32:04
  It's funny you mention that.
• 32:06
  Ryan: Let's get a whole list of movies
• 32:08
  Kearns: another social experiment style movie
• 32:10
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 32:11
  Ryan: I think, right?
• 32:13
  Jon: There's allegedly an American remake
• 32:16
  Kearns: I could get
• 32:16
  Jon: that's been sort of, I, I may be off again.
• 32:21
  It's been off again, on again, and it may be back to off.
• 32:24
  I'm, I've lost track.
• 32:26
  But it was s- I don't know ex- the exact title, but it was essentially Train to DC
• 32:32
  Ryan: Okay.
• 32:33
  All I mean, I feel like American remakes of like, just real quick, of like, uh,
• 32:38
  any other culture's originals is like very nerve-wracking, like The Grudge,
• 32:42
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 32:44
  Ryan: you know, Train to D.C. now.
• 32:46
  Like, it's like, will you get it right?
• 32:49
  then
• 32:49
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 32:50
  Ryan: you don't, or they don't, I should say.
• 32:52
  They don't get it right.
• 32:53
  And it's like, what are we doing here?
• 32:55
  You know?
• 32:56
  Jon: And, yet I think most of the time we are in the minority in that opinion.
• 33:03
  I think, I mean, just based on how well some of those movies have done at the
• 33:08
  box office, I think we, we as, you know, people who love the horror genre don't
• 33:15
  always accept the American remakes.
• 33:18
  It's the casuals that do,
• 33:20
  Ryan: Yeah.
• 33:21
  Jon: and that's why they keep getting made.
• 33:23
  Like you get, a fascinating Japanese story that, you know, you wanna
• 33:27
  translate for an American audience, and that's, you know, you get "The Grudge."
• 33:32
  Kearns: Yep, that's true.
• 33:33
  And that was during an era though of like the "Scream" movies and stuff
• 33:36
  that was a different type of production value, so I get that gripe as well.
• 33:41
  "47 Ronin" was an example.
• 33:43
  As soon as you mentioned the remake stuff, I thought about, okay, there's
• 33:47
  a big remake of a very beloved movie that was well-received by a lot of
• 33:51
  people, and it's because of Keanu.
• 33:55
  Ryan: Yeah
• 33:56
  Kearns: 100%, the Tengu
• 33:57
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 33:58
  Kearns: and all that stuff, but it's a different movie than the original, just
• 34:01
  Ryan: I mean, some do work.
• 34:03
  I mean, The Departed is one of those movies that work.
• 34:06
  It's a remake of Internal, Internal Affairs?
• 34:09
  Yep, Internal Affairs.
• 34:11
  I mean, like, it does work sometimes, but for, I feel like horror, it just
• 34:16
  doesn't sometimes get that exact message.
• 34:19
  But for
• 34:20
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 34:20
  Ryan: with John though, like the casual viewer, they don't realize
• 34:24
  there's another one somewhere else.
• 34:26
  They just know this until years later they're like, "Oh my God, there's
• 34:29
  an original." But then it's like,
• 34:31
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 34:31
  Ryan: wanna watch it?
• 34:32
  It's probably
• 34:33
  Jon: Yeah.
• 34:34
  Ryan: But
• 34:34
  Jon: Yeah.
• 34:35
  Ryan: It's different
• 34:36
  Jon: No, and, and it's, uh, almost always scarier, almost always
• 34:42
  gorier, and almost always better
• 34:45
  Kearns: Yeah
• 34:47
  Ryan: It's the freedom I feel, um, for the European market, Asian market.
• 34:51
  Uh, the freedom to be able to have no, really no regulations,
• 34:55
  if that makes sense.
• 34:56
  there's a line not to cross, but it's
• 34:58
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 34:59
  Ryan: out further compared to here in America
• 35:04
  Jon: Yeah, that, that, that's entirely reasonable.
• 35:07
  I, I think that plays a lot into it.
• 35:09
  I think it's cultural.
• 35:11
  I think we're… We tend to be so s- prim and proper with stuff
• 35:18
  like that, and we d- we don't want that necessarily from our movies,
• 35:22
  especially something that scares us.
• 35:24
  And we'll make raunchy comedies.
• 35:26
  We're the…
• 35:27
  America's probably the king of the raunchy comedy.
• 35:30
  You know, we'll make ultra-violent action movies, you know, or… But when it
• 35:36
  comes to horror, we w- th- you know, this country will sometimes sorta wimp out
• 35:42
  Ryan: Yeah, they will.
• 35:43
  I mean
• 35:44
  Kearns: puritanical, um, overflow from way back
• 35:48
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 35:50
  Yep, yep.
• 35:50
  So one of the interesting things about Dawn is if you haven't seen
• 35:56
  Dawn of the Dead, it's hard to see now
• 36:00
  Kearns: Uh, yeah, I noticed
• 36:01
  Jon: And like, there's a lot of bootleg copies on YouTube, but they,
• 36:06
  you know, they go down almost as quickly as they get put back up.
• 36:09
  So, you know, it's hard.
• 36:11
  And, you know, you, you don't always get great quality, you don't
• 36:14
  get great transfers, and I mean, that's become sort of the hallmark.
• 36:21
  It's hard to get a physical copy of Dawn
• 36:25
  You know, and, there's a lot of reasons for it.
• 36:27
  The one that most fans, I think, point to is, producer and rights
• 36:33
  holder Richard Rubenstein.
• 36:35
  He takes a lot of the blame for this one of the big things was a few years
• 36:39
  ago, he invested what's reported to be now six million dollars to
• 36:44
  make a 3D transfer of Dawn of the Dead and give it a theatrical run.
• 36:51
  Ryan: Okay
• 36:51
  Jon: He did.
• 36:52
  It wasn't terribly well-received, and it didn't make anywhere near
• 36:56
  the six million dollars back.
• 36:58
  So what he's now been looking to do is make up that co- that lost money in
• 37:06
  selling the rights, and you get… You know, who's gonna… You're not gonna
• 37:10
  get a big studio to release a version of Dawn of the Dead that's worth owning.
• 37:16
  Your, your ideal would probably be Criterion or, or Shout or Arrow.
• 37:23
  But they're really priced out, apparently, by his asking point, and it, they…
• 37:29
  Like, this is not common for Dawn up until this era.
• 37:33
  You could get VHS's, laser discs, DVDs.
• 37:37
  The Blu-ray I lent you guys was y- you know, a 2007 release.
• 37:42
  So it was out there.
• 37:43
  It was a… You know, you could very easily acquire it before that.
• 37:47
  Now you have to rely on imports, and you know, there was a time that
• 37:53
  he was trying to block the imports from being available in the US.
• 37:58
  He did not succeed.
• 38:00
  Ryan: Nice
• 38:01
  Jon: He did not succeed.
• 38:02
  Kearns: Where did
• 38:03
  Jon: And you
• 38:03
  Ryan: in that big boy?
• 38:05
  Kearns: This is before the tariffs
• 38:08
  Jon: this was before the tariffs, but the, I mean, the thing with
• 38:11
  getting import movies physically is, uh, now is they're not coming from
• 38:18
  another country directly to you.
• 38:20
  American retailers now stock them.
• 38:23
  So you just, you have to go to… You, you know, you're not gonna
• 38:27
  get many of them on Amazon because, you know, Amazon doesn't have the
• 38:30
  market for it, I guess, or whatever.
• 38:33
  But, you know, you go someplace.
• 38:34
  My favorite, my personal favorite right now is Orbit, Orbit DVD.
• 38:40
  Free plug for them.
• 38:41
  I mean, but they do a wonderful job.
• 38:45
  Shipping is not terribly expensive.
• 38:47
  They do a good job packaging stuff, and it get, you know, it's quick.
• 38:51
  You know, it's not, you know, the overnight of Amazon, but it's quick.
• 38:56
  Uh, so you can get, you can get Dawn.
• 38:59
  You can't get this version really anymore because it was limited,
• 39:04
  and I believe it's gone now.
• 39:06
  But there's a standard edition of that that still has three cuts of
• 39:10
  the movie and some of the extras.
• 39:12
  I mean, this has, you know, a comic book.
• 39:15
  It has a novelization.
• 39:17
  It's got, you know, some, some essays and stuff, plus cuts and extras and so much.
• 39:24
  I mean, there's three big cuts of this movie to begin with.
• 39:29
  Ryan: Yes, there is
• 39:30
  Jon: You know, you get the theatrical, which is what you guys watched, I believe.
• 39:35
  Ryan: Yep.
• 39:36
  Yeah, it was the
• 39:37
  Jon: There's,
• 39:37
  Ryan: for one
• 39:38
  Jon: there's the Khan cut, which is, you know, uh, 10 or so minutes
• 39:43
  longer, and then there's an Argento cut, which is about 15 minutes
• 39:48
  shorter than the one you guys watched.
• 39:50
  Kearns: Interesting
• 39:53
  Jon: and, like, goes more with the action stuff.
• 39:57
  A lot of the, the quieter scenes from Dawn are removed from his version
• 40:04
  Kearns: This is great.
• 40:07
  So if you're audio only, we're watching Ryan sneezing while muted.
• 40:11
  It's brilliant.
• 40:13
  Oh, poor Ryan.
• 40:15
  Ryan: wanna sneeze.
• 40:16
  Thank you.
• 40:16
  Kearns: And
• 40:16
  Ryan: There's some
• 40:17
  Kearns: There's just… We didn't know why you muted.
• 40:19
  I thought you were yawning or something, and then I just see like… It's
• 40:23
  Ryan: That my allergies, I'm sorry
• 40:25
  Kearns: John, don't let us ruin your flow, man.
• 40:27
  You're giving us
• 40:27
  Jon: No.
• 40:28
  Yeah.
• 40:29
  Ryan: That's why I
• 40:29
  Jon: Yeah
• 40:31
  Ryan: But I feel like with Argento, right, from what I've heard and what
• 40:35
  I've read, is he includes more of like upbeat music, more heavy, heavy
• 40:39
  metal music, more rock music, and
• 40:41
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 40:42
  Ryan: more fast, fast-paced
• 40:44
  Jon: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:45
  And they, it's, it's very… So the last time I watched the Italian cut, I didn't
• 40:51
  realize I was watching the Italian cut.
• 40:53
  I grabbed the wrong disc or s- and I put it on.
• 40:55
  It's very, if you're accustomed to the Romero cuts of this movie, whichever
• 41:01
  one, it's really disorienting almost because it's, it is a, you know,
• 41:07
  just with the music differences, it's a very different movie.
• 41:12
  And then, you know, it's, he cuts out a lot of, and you're like, you know,
• 41:15
  you're waiting for some scenes that you feel like are iconic and they don't,
• 41:19
  they never come because it's too slow
• 41:22
  Kearns: we're staying.
• 41:23
  Can you touch on the music before we move on a little bit?
• 41:26
  Who's the band?
• 41:27
  Jon: Uh, the band is Goblin,
• 41:29
  Kearns: Yeah,
• 41:30
  Jon: and they, they tour.
• 41:33
  Kearns: To
• 41:33
  Jon: a… Yeah, oh, uh, I think, I mean, within the last couple years
• 41:37
  I think they played New York City
• 41:39
  Kearns: Nice.
• 41:39
  Yeah, there's a, there's a following,
• 41:42
  Jon: Yeah, yeah.
• 41:43
  I mean, and they've done other scores and soundtracks.
• 41:47
  Uh, I couldn't name them off the top of my head because that's not, like,
• 41:50
  really where my interest in stuff goes.
• 41:54
  But their work, uh, the stuff they did on Dawn, I spent, you know,
• 41:58
  all my driving time yesterday listening to the Dawn score.
• 42:03
  And they, you, you know, you have the beats that you know from the,
• 42:07
  from the movie, and then you expand these, some of these things to five
• 42:10
  minutes, and you're like, "Wow, that's, that's like a real song.
• 42:14
  That's just not, not just some s- moment in the movie, but
• 42:17
  that's a whole thought-out song."
• 42:21
  Kearns: Interesting.
• 42:21
  Suspiria, to
• 42:23
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 42:24
  Kearns: you referenced earlier, is done by Goblin.
• 42:27
  The rest of them, um, b- people like John and Ryan might know about them.
• 42:31
  Beyond the Darkness, Bloodstained Shadow, Contamination,
• 42:34
  Jon: Yeah.
• 42:34
  There, there are a lot of Italian, a lot of, um,
• 42:38
  Kearns: Hell of
• 42:38
  Jon: a lot of giallos and Italian horror and stuff
• 42:42
  Kearns: Yeah.
• 42:43
  Not as much, um, super like… Nothing as successful as Dawn
• 42:46
  probably except for Suspiria,
• 42:49
  Jon: I mean, s- d- Deep Red d- is v- ve- like a l- I mean, a
• 42:53
  lot of that is also cultural.
• 42:55
  Like, it's the Italian movies not necessarily penetrating
• 42:59
  a large US market, you know?
• 43:01
  S- some of those were pretty, pretty big hits for Argento and Fulci
• 43:07
  and a few other people in there
• 43:10
  Kearns: Cool, cool.
• 43:11
  All right, thanks for indulging me 'cause I thought
• 43:13
  Jon: Yeah.
• 43:13
  Kearns: interested
• 43:14
  Jon: No, I, I love the music in Dawn.
• 43:16
  Like,
• 43:16
  Kearns: nails it
• 43:18
  Jon: mm-hmm.
• 43:19
  Ryan: It
• 43:20
  Jon: I,
• 43:20
  Ryan: perfect atmosphere for the
• 43:22
  Jon: The music sort of serves as a sixth character
• 43:26
  Kearns: Yeah,
• 43:26
  Ryan: see that, yeah.
• 43:28
  when it's like, I don't want to say peaceful, but when they're like, when
• 43:32
  you know the characters are winning, it's
• 43:34
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 43:35
  Ryan: a little more upbeat, but it's like upbeat with a little calmness.
• 43:38
  And then when the intensity rises, the riffs get heavier, it
• 43:42
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 43:42
  Ryan: it gets more menacing.
• 43:44
  And you can tell, I feel like it's like Ennio who a lot of Sergio Leone
• 43:53
  spaghetti westerns, is you can always listen to the tempo when something
• 43:57
  good was happening, something bad was happening, something tense.
• 44:00
  And that's what Goblin does for Dawn of the Dead.
• 44:04
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 44:05
  Ryan: it works.
• 44:07
  Jon: Yeah.
• 44:09
  Yeah.
• 44:10
  A- and so I thi- I think, I mean, we can imagine skip a lot of the plot
• 44:15
  discussion because if you don't know what Dawn of the Dead is at this point, like
• 44:19
  Ryan: Listen
• 44:23
  Jon: I mean
• 44:24
  Kearns: got a couple that really nailed
• 44:26
  Ryan: The, well, the f- first off, we got the SWAT scene, 'cause again,
• 44:30
  that was like my first time seeing the news scene, uh, the TV s- uh,
• 44:35
  station scene, the SWAT scene.
• 44:37
  And the SWAT scene is just so
• 44:39
  Kearns: I apologize.
• 44:40
  You would, uh… Do you remember what I texted you guys about the SWAT scene
• 44:44
  Ryan: Yes.
• 44:44
  Kearns: I f- 'cause I don't remember the beginning of the movie too.
• 44:46
  I was like, "I feel like I'm watching Dirty Harry
• 44:48
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 44:49
  Kearns: with the, with zombies
• 44:51
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 44:51
  Kearns: now." It was, it was a while.
• 44:53
  I wasn't expecting it at all
• 44:55
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 44:56
  And real- really the first time you meet Peter, he could b- he's very intimidating.
• 45:01
  He's very badass in his, you know, his SWAT uniform with the mask
• 45:07
  pulled down, and he looks massive
• 45:11
  Kearns: He basically tells the dude too, "Did you come in here to get
• 45:14
  Blasted?" That kind of
• 45:15
  Jon: W- were you in Woolley's unit?
• 45:17
  Kearns: Yeah, exactly.
• 45:19
  Jon: I didn't see anything
• 45:20
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 45:22
  Ryan: But it just,
• 45:23
  Kearns: the SWAT team?
• 45:24
  Ryan: it's just there's chaos.
• 45:26
  You kinda show where Romero's going with it.
• 45:28
  Yes, 'cause
• 45:29
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 45:30
  Ryan: of the consumerism, but there's more to the consumerism.
• 45:33
  It's society as a whole.
• 45:35
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 45:35
  Ryan: lot of us are split there are some people… I think the message, at
• 45:40
  least what I was getting, is there's so many wrong people in power who
• 45:44
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 45:45
  Ryan: move around their weight a lot,
• 45:47
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 45:48
  Ryan: good eggs that are hidden the reality.
• 45:51
  then when it's that time to, like, make a difference, they take that step forward.
• 45:56
  And that's really
• 45:56
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 45:57
  Ryan: Dawn.
• 45:57
  Like, the zombie apocalypse allows Peter and Roger to take that step forward.
• 46:02
  And kinda like you know.
• 46:06
  Like, I wanna say Romero's idea was… I think his idea was
• 46:10
  leading to, like, we all have to get along, we're all equal, end
• 46:13
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 46:14
  Ryan: all that
• 46:14
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 46:15
  Ryan: mean, even though 1978, still racism going on.
• 46:19
  I mean, it's a
• 46:20
  Jon: Oh, absolutely.
• 46:22
  Yeah
• 46:22
  Ryan: I don't wanna…
• 46:23
  Kearns: like peeking, dude.
• 46:25
  Ryan: that's, I mean, I don't know a lot of, like, that time
• 46:28
  with the racism in the '70s.
• 46:29
  I just know it wasn't good.
• 46:31
  You know, I don't know how worse it was compared to, like, I mean,
• 46:35
  the '60s were the worst, I, I feel.
• 46:37
  Even further back it's even worse.
• 46:40
  Jon: Yeah, I mean,
• 46:41
  Ryan: back, it's like,
• 46:42
  Jon: no, you…
• 46:43
  Ryan: that's what I'm saying.
• 46:44
  Jon: Yeah.
• 46:44
  Yeah
• 46:45
  Ryan: horrible.
• 46:45
  So it's like at that time you would think we'd be more civilized to it, and
• 46:49
  that's what Romero's saying, you know.
• 46:51
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 46:52
  Ryan: of the, the zombie apocalypse happens, it doesn't matter the
• 46:56
  color of your skin or anything.
• 46:57
  You're all equals, and you should be trying to help one another
• 47:00
  Jon: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
• 47:01
  Uh, yeah, and I, I l- I think that's part of why I love the, the SWAT scenes,
• 47:07
  but it, it, they also really encapsulate everything he's gonna do in this movie.
• 47:12
  You get the action, you get, you know, some really great gore effects.
• 47:18
  Ryan: Oh
• 47:19
  Jon: he, the, like this i- this is Tom Savini's, like, coming out party.
• 47:23
  Like, "Look at, look at what I can do." And then, I mean, Tom Savini learned the,
• 47:28
  the, like, learned the technique after being a ph- war photographer in Vietnam.
• 47:34
  And so he, he did a lot of what his, his makeup and, and gore
• 47:40
  effects were based on things he saw
• 47:43
  Ryan: See, that's crazy.
• 47:44
  I didn't even know he was in Vietnam.
• 47:46
  Jon: Yeah.
• 47:47
  Yeah.
• 47:47
  Savini, Savini's a fascinating guy too.
• 47:50
  I'd love to talk a lot more about him at some point.
• 47:53
  I mean, it, it… But so you get that, you get the gore, you get
• 47:58
  the action, you, you get introduced to two very significant people.
• 48:03
  But you also get the quiet moments.
• 48:05
  after Peter threatens Roger, you know, the, you get the one-legged
• 48:11
  preacher come through, and that moment.
• 48:15
  And, you know, where he's, he, you know, he's telling you exactly what Ryan just
• 48:21
  said, "We have to stop the killing."
• 48:24
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 48:25
  Jon: you know, he says, "I think right now you are stronger than us, but
• 48:30
  soon they will be stronger than you."
• 48:35
  And then, you know, he-- that, that's what you're talking about.
• 48:39
  Like, that's right there.
• 48:40
  And then, and then, like, you just sort of get to, in that scene,
• 48:45
  like, an almost hopelessness.
• 48:47
  Like, how on earth are-- would you even survive this?
• 48:53
  Kearns: That's, that's the question.
• 48:55
  That's the big question.
• 48:57
  As you watch the movie, you continually sit there and say, "I wouldn't
• 49:00
  have done that. I would've done this. I wouldn't have done that."
• 49:05
  Jon: Yeah, I don't know.
• 49:05
  I mean, uh, for a lot of this movie, I watch it and I'm like, "Ah, I think that
• 49:09
  might be exactly what I would've done."
• 49:12
  Kearns: Well, I think so too, for the most part.
• 49:15
  They make a lot of the right choices in my opinion.
• 49:17
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 49:19
  Kearns: 'cause that's something we wanted to talk about.
• 49:20
  I think the mall is a great spot to go during the zombie apocalypse, except
• 49:25
  for the one drawback that there's gonna be a lot of people at the mall.
• 49:28
  And one thing I've learned about people is they're dumb, and they're gonna do
• 49:31
  dumb things that get you in trouble.
• 49:35
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 49:35
  Kearns: might not be the best choice, but it's the best choice,
• 49:38
  but it might not be the best choice.
• 49:40
  Jon: So my thing about the mall falls into my concept of the ideal
• 49:47
  number of people you should be stuck with during the apocalypse,
• 49:51
  Kearns: Many
• 49:51
  Jon: it, it's a very small number
• 49:54
  Ryan: I'd say like five, six.
• 49:56
  Jon: Tops.
• 49:57
  Ryan: Yeah
• 49:58
  Jon: Tops.
• 49:59
  Because you start get- once you get beyond that, you start getting into
• 50:03
  people you don't know, and y- you need to really be able to trust people.
• 50:07
  Like, that's… The one thing I think the Dawn remake got right was
• 50:12
  sneaking people in that were bit without the people, uh, the other
• 50:17
  people knowing that they were infected.
• 50:20
  And that, I mean, that's a huge drawback of, of a big group of people is you start
• 50:25
  getting people you don't trust, you don't know, you don't know what they're hiding
• 50:30
  Ryan: It's true
• 50:31
  Jon: And to, to have it be in a place like the mall with four to
• 50:36
  six people, it's hard to defend.
• 50:40
  Kearns: Yes,
• 50:41
  Ryan: Yeah
• 50:42
  Jon: hard…
• 50:42
  Kearns: space
• 50:43
  Jon: the question I wanted to ask you guys is where would
• 50:46
  you go in a zombie apocalypse?
• 50:48
  Where would you wanna get stuck?
• 50:52
  That's a tough call.
• 50:54
  I know where I would get stuck
• 50:57
  Kearns: Uh, don't go first.
• 50:59
  Don't go first, 'cause I'm sure yours is gonna be pretty good.
• 51:01
  I'm sure yours is gonna be pretty good.
• 51:04
  But in our, in our day and age, it's gotta be some sort of consumerist center.
• 51:08
  If we're leaving our home, if we're not allowed to say like, "I'm staying here
• 51:11
  Jon: No, you can say wherever you want.
• 51:13
  Like I'm not, I'm not gonna
• 51:14
  Kearns: I love my, I love my ability to get to my roof and see 360, baby.
• 51:19
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 51:20
  Kearns: And I got a high ground and a low ground, and I got water all around
• 51:23
  me, and I'm feeling pretty good about it.
• 51:26
  I got the pump house too
• 51:27
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 51:28
  Kearns: so I can get, I can get actual well water for very little
• 51:33
  electricity if I can make that work.
• 51:34
  Plus, there's a generator over there.
• 51:36
  Never mind.
• 51:36
  I don't
• 51:37
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 51:38
  Kearns: I just gotta get some fuel.
• 51:40
  So I might stay home if that's on the table, to be honest with you.
• 51:43
  Jon: All right.
• 51:44
  Kearns: to stay home now anyway, so
• 51:46
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 51:47
  Ryan: Right.
• 51:48
  Jon: Ryan?
• 51:48
  Kearns: on every side of the house.
• 51:51
  Ryan: I can see everyone.
• 51:52
  Kearns: gonna get
• 51:52
  Ryan: I can see
• 51:53
  Jon: Well, I mean, you gotta board those
• 51:55
  Ryan: Oh, yeah
• 51:57
  Kearns: first story ones, second story ones.
• 52:00
  Jon: Yeah
• 52:01
  Ryan: What if they start climbing?
• 52:03
  Kearns: won't.
• 52:04
  We're not
• 52:04
  Jon: This isn't World War Z
• 52:06
  Kearns: here.
• 52:06
  Ryan: But
• 52:06
  Kearns: dealing with
• 52:07
  Ryan: on, hold on.
• 52:07
  In Dawn of the Dead, though, the zombies do climb that ladder.
• 52:11
  Kearns: do,
• 52:11
  Jon: Yeah, they get up the ladder, but yeah, I'm not,
• 52:14
  I'm not leaving them a ladder.
• 52:16
  Uh, that, that's actually my least favorite part is that the zombies
• 52:20
  figured out how to climb a ladder
• 52:22
  Ryan: I was I was watching it.
• 52:24
  I was like, I, it's, it's different.
• 52:26
  But it, I think it works 'cause it shows they're evolving and it leads today.
• 52:32
  But that kinda leads to where I would go.
• 52:34
  I would be in a mall.
• 52:36
  there was a mall, uh, some malls have a grocery store attached to it.
• 52:41
  Do something like that.
• 52:42
  You know, some malls have a Home Depot, you know.
• 52:47
  Everything's there, food,
• 52:49
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 52:50
  Ryan: Um, go to the lo- mannequins.
• 52:54
  Cattrall, you know, go to the local Macy's.
• 52:57
  Jon: So some love interests
• 52:59
  Kearns: Yes.
• 52:59
  Ryan: Exactly
• 53:03
  Kearns: When they were running out of the department store,
• 53:04
  one of them had a mannequin
• 53:05
  Jon: Mm, uh-huh
• 53:08
  Ryan: That's a good scene too, actually.
• 53:10
  nah,
• 53:11
  Jon: There's so many
• 53:12
  Ryan: but the mall would work for me.
• 53:13
  I feel like it'd be easy, like if these are the slow-moving zombies
• 53:17
  as we're talking about, they'll be easier to corral, take out.
• 53:21
  You can take them out one by one.
• 53:23
  There's a little more strategy, but it'll work
• 53:28
  Kearns: Work
• 53:31
  Jon: I'm, I'm staying right where I am now
• 53:34
  Kearns: Oh, so you are staying home
• 53:35
  Jon: I'm s- uh, but not s- specifically the upstairs in my home.
• 53:40
  Kearns: Yeah,
• 53:41
  Jon: I'm gonna, I'm gonna board up the windows and the door downstairs.
• 53:46
  Anything that's, you know, reachable from the ground is gonna get boarded,
• 53:51
  and then I'm taking out my stairs.
• 53:54
  Kearns: Oh, that's
• 53:55
  Jon: I'm, I'm destroying the stairs.
• 53:57
  I'll have a rope ladder to go down to the first floor and a rope ladder
• 54:01
  to go out the window or from the, the roof because I will cut a hole in
• 54:05
  the roof so that should anything go wrong, I have that as an escape route,
• 54:10
  Ryan: Okay
• 54:11
  Jon: and I'm staying here
• 54:12
  Kearns: that is the weather.
• 54:13
  The hole in the roof makes it difficult to insulate you from rain
• 54:16
  Jon: Yeah.
• 54:17
  Yeah.
• 54:18
  Ryan: Put
• 54:18
  Jon: But I mean it…
• 54:19
  Ryan: A
• 54:20
  Jon: Yeah, there, there are ways to do that.
• 54:22
  Like, I mean, I've ha- I've had a lot of concepts of this idea
• 54:26
  over the course of my life.
• 54:27
  Kearns: Sure you have.
• 54:28
  Jon: I've had a lot of them.
• 54:30
  A lot of them.
• 54:31
  One of them was h- you know, going to the nearest, uh,
• 54:34
  weapons store and staying there
• 54:37
  Kearns: Yeah, everybody thinks about that.
• 54:40
  Jon: and that's why that comes out.
• 54:41
  Kearns: The problem is walking in the door
• 54:43
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 54:44
  Kearns: place, what are you meeting?
• 54:45
  Probably not friendly people happy to
• 54:48
  Jon: No, everybody's gonna have that idea.
• 54:50
  the other idea I had was like a, a BJ's type of store.
• 54:54
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 54:55
  Jon: know, it, not, not the size of the mall, but still with the essentials
• 55:00
  Kearns: You know, the problem with that is if they get in, it's just an open space.
• 55:03
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 55:04
  Kearns: You're just booking it down aisles
• 55:06
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 55:06
  Kearns: until you
• 55:07
  Jon: But g- generally with most of those stores, there's
• 55:10
  not a ton of ways in and out.
• 55:13
  Kearns: Right
• 55:17
  Jon: which is why what they do in Dawn to keep themselves safe is actually fairly
• 55:22
  genius by putting up the fake wall.
• 55:25
  Kearns: Oh
• 55:26
  Jon: there,
• 55:26
  Kearns: true
• 55:27
  Jon: there's no trace that they're actually in there, uh, you know, until
• 55:31
  Ryan: Well,
• 55:32
  Jon: get to some tragic events and the clear indications that
• 55:36
  zombies do have some memory
• 55:38
  Kearns: Which is, that's interesting.
• 55:40
  That's also a good segue into favorite zombies.
• 55:44
  Jon: It is
• 55:45
  Kearns: Our favorite zombies.
• 55:46
  So, John posed this to me earlier and I was like, "Oh, I didn't really think
• 55:50
  about it. I gotta think about it." But no, one did pop out at me in thinking about
• 55:54
  it, is the guy, the arms-loving zombie.
• 55:59
  I'm using arms because I can't say the G word, but the one,
• 56:02
  he's got a, he's got a, uh,
• 56:04
  Ryan: No worries
• 56:05
  Kearns: toy that he's walking around with for the whole movie, and then at the
• 56:08
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 56:09
  Kearns: favorite part is when Peter comes out and, switches with him.
• 56:14
  Jon: Uh-huh.
• 56:14
  Kearns: it, I
• 56:15
  Jon: Yeah.
• 56:15
  Kearns: He hands him the
• 56:16
  Jon: Yeah
• 56:17
  Kearns: his force multiplier, and he's like, "Oh, yeah.
• 56:19
  Uh, it was a
• 56:20
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 56:21
  Kearns: The zombie
• 56:21
  Jon: And
• 56:22
  Kearns: remembers it
• 56:23
  Jon: like I, I love that zombie because he's proof that the
• 56:28
  zombies can operate doors
• 56:31
  Ryan: Yes
• 56:31
  Kearns: opened the door
• 56:33
  Jon: He's… So the first time you meet him, he's outside the department
• 56:36
  store, the, the department store door when he acquires the force multiplier.
• 56:42
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 56:43
  Jon: Then when they're blocking off the entrances with the
• 56:46
  truck, he's clearly outside.
• 56:48
  Ryan: Yes
• 56:49
  Kearns: you're
• 56:50
  Jon: And then he's back inside by the end.
• 56:53
  You know, after the raiders have broken in, he's back inside.
• 56:56
  Kearns: and he
• 56:57
  Jon: Yeah, he, and makes it to the roof.
• 56:59
  Ryan: growth
• 56:59
  Jon: So zomb- zombies can… Well, the, uh, that's gonna be, like, that's sort
• 57:04
  of a controversial theme with a lot of Romero people later on, like with
• 57:09
  Land in particular, where he's shown evolution in the zombies, where they're
• 57:15
  sort of starting to think about stuff.
• 57:18
  But it's always been there.
• 57:21
  Kearns: Yeah
• 57:22
  Jon: he's always done that.
• 57:24
  They've, you know.
• 57:26
  And that's one of them.
• 57:27
  Like, that's one of those sort of, you know, Bob learned to
• 57:31
  sh- to use the multiplier in Day
• 57:39
  So
• 57:39
  Kearns: too.
• 57:41
  Good old Bob.
• 57:42
  Jon: Hmm.
• 57:43
  Kearns: Ryan?
• 57:44
  Ryan: I, I'll spoiler alert, just going to reveal it.
• 57:48
  It's Steven.
• 57:49
  When Steven gets turned into a zombie, it was much of a shocker because I forgot
• 57:53
  about that, seeing it all those years ago.
• 57:55
  So I saw that.
• 57:56
  I was like, oh man, there, there goes Steve.
• 57:59
  You know, Fran doesn't have her guy.
• 58:00
  Well, she kind of has a guy in Peter.
• 58:03
  I think Peter and her make a better couple, Steven gets like eaten
• 58:07
  alive and he becomes a zombie.
• 58:09
  And that's where we get the whole reveal of the staircase
• 58:12
  because he remembers where it is.
• 58:14
  And it's a nice like little transition
• 58:16
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 58:16
  Ryan: he becomes a zombie.
• 58:17
  He leads the pack and he stares at the wall for a minute.
• 58:20
  And then he's starts roaring, tears it down and goes after everyone.
• 58:26
  it's big in George Romero's dead series, I feel because you get night
• 58:33
  this being his second outing, he had to make it big, bigger than night because
• 58:38
  of everything that he went through.
• 58:40
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 58:40
  Ryan: do it?
• 58:41
  You give the zombie intelligence and you evolve them.
• 58:44
  Jon: Yeah
• 58:44
  Ryan: And I mean, I don't know how you feel about it, John, but I think
• 58:49
  that he had the zombies evolve.
• 58:51
  And I think that's where he was going with this story.
• 58:53
  And it kind of connects to what Sam Raimi just did, where he actually
• 58:59
  gave an outline for what he feels how the evil dead should go.
• 59:04
  And it's just an exact outline of from the first movie to
• 59:07
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 59:08
  Ryan: movie he believes should
• 59:08
  Jon: Mm-hmm
• 59:09
  Ryan: And I believe if Romero did that, we could seen more
• 59:14
  of where he was going with it.
• 59:15
  But I
• 59:16
  Jon: Or
• 59:16
  Ryan: was
• 59:16
  Jon: the Oh yeah, he absolutely was because it's in the book.
• 59:21
  It's in…
• 59:21
  Ryan: Oh,
• 59:23
  Jon: the book The Living Dead, which he had written, I mean, the amount varies
• 59:29
  depending on who you listen to, but it was finished by Daniel Kraus, who I, you
• 59:35
  know, I've already mentioned, and who I didn't realize wrote The Shape of Water.
• 59:39
  Ryan: Oh,
• 59:40
  Jon: I didn't know that.
• 59:41
  I didn't know that dude wrote The Shape of Water.
• 59:44
  Kearns: Pretty sweet
• 59:46
  Jon: but anyway, he finished The Living Dead after Romero died based
• 59:50
  on notes and parts that Romero had already written because among other
• 59:54
  things, apparently Romero wrote a ton but never finished stuff
• 1:00:00
  Kearns: Makes sense
• 1:00:01
  Ryan: He,
• 1:00:02
  Jon: So
• 1:00:02
  Ryan: yeah
• 1:00:03
  Jon: but they, this is the big like conclusion to his Living Dead
• 1:00:07
  series and it's all evolution.
• 1:00:11
  Like there's, at that point the zombies have like basically fully
• 1:00:15
  evolved into a whole other species
• 1:00:18
  Kearns: And that, that comes up in a bunch of different films.
• 1:00:21
  Um,
• 1:00:21
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:00:22
  Kearns: is famous for it, but it
• 1:00:24
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:00:24
  Kearns: It co-opted it, it didn't invent it.
• 1:00:27
  Um, I think a lot of people probably noticed it in
• 1:00:29
  Romero's work and mimicked it,
• 1:00:31
  Jon: Yeah
• 1:00:32
  Kearns: with you, 'cause it's a great concept
• 1:00:34
  Jon: Yeah
• 1:00:36
  Ryan: Yeah, it is The
• 1:00:37
  Jon: Yeah, but it sort of, it sort of brings the zombies back full circle
• 1:00:43
  Kearns: Yeah, and then they're like the next versions and the humans
• 1:00:46
  that were there are not there
• 1:00:47
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:00:48
  Kearns: Interesting
• 1:00:49
  Jon: but it also does, that, that book does establish sort of a life cycle for
• 1:00:54
  the zombies, like a natural life cycle
• 1:00:57
  Kearns: a
• 1:00:58
  Jon: where it's the…
• 1:00:59
  Kearns: 28 years later
• 1:01:00
  Jon: Yeah, where, where they do end.
• 1:01:04
  Like they do have a, they do have a lifespan.
• 1:01:08
  Kearns: Interesting.
• 1:01:08
  That is
• 1:01:09
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:01:09
  Kearns: I have to
• 1:01:10
  Ryan: s-
• 1:01:10
  Kearns: you about
• 1:01:10
  Ryan: wh- yeah,
• 1:01:11
  Jon: It's… I'd have to, I'd have to flip back to the end of
• 1:01:15
  the book, but it's 20-plus years
• 1:01:18
  Kearns: Eh, it's not terrible.
• 1:01:18
  It's better than a cat.
• 1:01:21
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:01:21
  Kearns: did you see the thing I sent you about the cat, the cat
• 1:01:24
  pill or a cat shot that makes them live twice their natural lifespan?
• 1:01:27
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:01:27
  Kearns: Very
• 1:01:28
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:01:28
  Kearns: that shot.
• 1:01:30
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:01:30
  Yeah.
• 1:01:30
  No
• 1:01:30
  Kearns: just elongates their ability to use their kidneys as long
• 1:01:35
  Ryan: you wouldn't do it?
• 1:01:37
  Kearns: It
• 1:01:37
  Jon: Oh.
• 1:01:38
  Kearns: Is the rest of the cat going to be happy
• 1:01:40
  Jon: Yeah
• 1:01:41
  Kearns: or is it just two kidneys that function in a geriatric
• 1:01:44
  cat that wishes it was D-E-A-D?
• 1:01:47
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:01:47
  Yeah.
• 1:01:47
  It's, it's, it's, it's a tough call.
• 1:01:50
  I don't know.
• 1:01:51
  I don't know if I-- You'd ha-
• 1:01:52
  Kearns: will see
• 1:01:52
  Jon: You would have to y- y- Like if it was beyond just like eliminating the
• 1:01:57
  kidney issues, then I'd probably do it.
• 1:02:00
  But if it's just gonna, you know, having had the number of cats that we
• 1:02:04
  have and have had, I know the number of other things that can go wrong
• 1:02:09
  Kearns: Right.
• 1:02:10
  Yeah.
• 1:02:11
  The big C being one of them.
• 1:02:15
  But I digress.
• 1:02:15
  John, did you have a favorite zombie?
• 1:02:19
  Jon: I have a fa- a different favorite almost every time I watch it.
• 1:02:22
  This time, I think it's, the scene where they stop to refuel the helicopter.
• 1:02:27
  Ryan: Yes
• 1:02:28
  Jon: I've alwa- I've always loved the one that, that, like, loses the
• 1:02:31
  top of his head to the helicopter.
• 1:02:33
  Kearns: That's a
• 1:02:33
  Jon: But this, this time the one I really liked the most was the, the one that
• 1:02:38
  corners Peter in the building with the red and black flannel and the messed up face.
• 1:02:44
  Kearns: Oh, okay
• 1:02:45
  Jon: that one I really liked this time
• 1:02:48
  Kearns: Interesting.
• 1:02:49
  And there's other notables.
• 1:02:50
  There's the Hare
• 1:02:51
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:02:52
  Kearns: about in the
• 1:02:52
  Jon: The Hare Krishna one is great.
• 1:02:54
  Kearns: and there's a ton.
• 1:02:55
  Um,
• 1:02:56
  Jon: Yeah
• 1:02:56
  Ryan: john, do you got any reviews for us?
• 1:02:58
  Because I can't see a half star on this film.
• 1:03:02
  I can't even see a one and a half star.
• 1:03:04
  This needs to be five star, six star, seven stars.
• 1:03:08
  a half star.
• 1:03:08
  D- don't lie
• 1:03:10
  Jon: Come on, you, you know I found them.
• 1:03:12
  Ryan: That's a travesty
• 1:03:14
  Jon: You know I found them.
• 1:03:15
  Kearns: I dated a girl named Travesty
• 1:03:21
  Ryan: There's, there's been,
• 1:03:22
  Kearns: with that one.
• 1:03:23
  I
• 1:03:23
  Ryan: there's, been many
• 1:03:26
  Jon: Yeah, I mean, that, that would be, that would be the, the
• 1:03:29
  title of my book on my love life
• 1:03:32
  Ryan: Yeah.
• 1:03:33
  Travesty with devil horns over the Y
• 1:03:36
  Jon: Okay.
• 1:03:37
  Kearns: All right, reviews
• 1:03:38
  Jon: So Dawn of the Dead currently sits at 92% critic score on Rotten
• 1:03:43
  Tomatoes and a 90% audience score.
• 1:03:46
  Kearns: Wow!
• 1:03:47
  Jon: So, you know, we're, we're there.
• 1:03:50
  Um, five stars.
• 1:03:54
  Not only the greatest zombie film ever made, quite possibly the greatest
• 1:03:59
  commentary on humanity's pettiness and fragility ever committed to film.
• 1:04:06
  Repeated viewings required from legendary indie filmmaker George A.
• 1:04:11
  Romero.
• 1:04:13
  Lots of gore, so be ready
• 1:04:16
  Kearns: Huh, good
• 1:04:17
  Ryan: That's a good review
• 1:04:19
  Jon: And I didn't write that.
• 1:04:20
  I agree with it to great, great degree, but I did not write that one.
• 1:04:26
  Um, a- as promised, I found the one stars.
• 1:04:30
  There-- I have two one stars.
• 1:04:31
  I wasn't gonna do one stars because of my feelings for this movie,
• 1:04:35
  but if I do it for everything else, I have to do it for Dawn.
• 1:04:39
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 1:04:40
  Jon: star.
• 1:04:42
  "How is hell does this movie have high rating?
• 1:04:47
  This movie was terrible.
• 1:04:50
  Zombies were slow and stood still all the time.
• 1:04:55
  They were terribly put on with simple pale blue and had no sense of
• 1:05:00
  horror in throughout the whole movie.
• 1:05:04
  There was no fear in this film.
• 1:05:06
  A kid could watch and know it's child's pl- child play.
• 1:05:11
  Movie was garbage and climax was dull and dreadful.
• 1:05:17
  I aim, I aims stop watching go how much this movie sucked.
• 1:05:24
  I hate this film, of course.
• 1:05:27
  I understand it was made in the '70s, worst decade.
• 1:05:31
  This film is overrated by complete 80%.
• 1:05:36
  Films deserve percent 25 at most."
• 1:05:40
  Kearns: Was this written by a zombie?
• 1:05:42
  Ryan: It sounds like it.
• 1:05:43
  They're
• 1:05:43
  Jon: I think so.
• 1:05:44
  Ryan: very upset
• 1:05:45
  Kearns: was
• 1:05:46
  Jon: I think this was written by the Hare Krishna zombie
• 1:05:52
  Kearns: I don't know, man
• 1:05:53
  Jon: unfortunately, this is not the only one-star review I was able to find.
• 1:05:57
  One star: "This hands down is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
• 1:06:05
  So freaking stupid.
• 1:06:08
  Horrible acting, horrible script.
• 1:06:11
  Everyone is portrayed as a complete idiot.
• 1:06:15
  I don't get the hype, and why is it so popular?
• 1:06:19
  It is complete junk."
• 1:06:22
  Kearns: Wow.
• 1:06:23
  Ryan: You're junk, sir. Not you, John,
• 1:06:25
  Jon: You, sir
• 1:06:28
  Are what we call an idiot
• 1:06:31
  Ryan: Yeah
• 1:06:32
  Kearns: not even somebody trying to be edgy.
• 1:06:33
  That's just somebody who's awful.
• 1:06:35
  Jon: Yeah
• 1:06:36
  Ryan: He, they don't see the big picture, and that's, that's the thing.
• 1:06:39
  You know what?
• 1:06:40
  You wanna watch something simple?
• 1:06:42
  Uh
• 1:06:43
  Kearns: Can't deal with bad English teachers.
• 1:06:44
  Gotta train these kids to see these things for what they are
• 1:06:47
  Ryan: Agreed.
• 1:06:48
  Agreed
• 1:06:49
  Kearns: Can't you see the grainy of camera and be like, "Movie bad"?
• 1:06:52
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:06:53
  Kearns: Herbader
• 1:06:55
  Jon: Yep.
• 1:06:56
  Yeah.
• 1:06:57
  Ryan: That's why you gotta push the black and white films.
• 1:06:59
  Show more passion.
• 1:07:01
  Hard to watch, but more passion
• 1:07:05
  Jon: So knowing how some other people think of Z- of Dawn, how about you guys?
• 1:07:10
  Kearns: We could lose a friend right now if you want to, Ryan.
• 1:07:13
  Jon: You good?
• 1:07:14
  You
• 1:07:14
  Ryan: do you mean?
• 1:07:14
  Kearns: and a half stars." Yeah.
• 1:07:15
  Jon: good?
• 1:07:16
  You good?
• 1:07:17
  Kearns: would never talk to us
• 1:07:19
  Jon: I would never,
• 1:07:21
  Ryan: I…
• 1:07:21
  Jon: ever
• 1:07:22
  Ryan: I'm going, ah, man, this is changing my review 'cause I
• 1:07:26
  was gonna go with a one star.
• 1:07:28
  No, I'm joking.
• 1:07:29
  Kearns: Yeah,
• 1:07:29
  Ryan: I'm gonna go with a five out of five.
• 1:07:31
  Yes, it is a perfect movie.
• 1:07:33
  It is excellent.
• 1:07:35
  It's very enjoyable.
• 1:07:36
  The message is deep.
• 1:07:37
  The acting is very well done.
• 1:07:41
  well done.
• 1:07:42
  The evolution of the zombies growing, um, as, uh, the sequel for
• 1:07:48
  Night of the Living Dead has shown.
• 1:07:49
  You know, he has, like, a story arc that he… I would say he really
• 1:07:54
  jump-starts it more with Dawn.
• 1:07:56
  Like, Night is that start, but Dawn is the center of the attraction.
• 1:08:01
  You know, it's like Evil Dead starts it, Evil Dead 2's the main star.
• 1:08:06
  he just nails it, and it's puts him more in the spotlight, and then you get Day,
• 1:08:11
  you get Martin, get classics from him.
• 1:08:15
  And just a great movie.
• 1:08:18
  Watch it.
• 1:08:19
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:08:20
  Ryan: Watch it, people
• 1:08:20
  Kearns: watch it again if you
• 1:08:22
  Jon: Absolutely
• 1:08:22
  Kearns: with Ryan, um, not just to make John happy.
• 1:08:25
  This is one of the rare five out of fives for me.
• 1:08:27
  You got the character development,
• 1:08:29
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:08:30
  Kearns: building, the camera work, the way they cut the scenes together, the overall
• 1:08:35
  message and hidden themes and motifs.
• 1:08:37
  I love the Easter egg stuff.
• 1:08:40
  just kind of obsessed with that in general.
• 1:08:41
  The fact that it's an older movie is u- usually makes it difficult for me
• 1:08:45
  to like stay tuned in because I, my brain has rotted over the last 10 years,
• 1:08:49
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:08:50
  Kearns: didn't.
• 1:08:51
  I had no trouble wa- I did watch it in two sittings 'cause I had to go to sleep.
• 1:08:55
  I didn't wanna go to sleep, which is a good sign too.
• 1:08:57
  I just loved it.
• 1:08:58
  Um, I even thought maybe the ending, 'cause I knew the ending was gonna
• 1:09:01
  be rough to the endings I'm used to, and I think he nailed the ending too.
• 1:09:05
  They chose the right ending, to be honest.
• 1:09:07
  They gave us a little bit of happiness, but they
• 1:09:09
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:09:10
  Kearns: carving out characters,
• 1:09:12
  Jon: Yep.
• 1:09:13
  Kearns: good too.
• 1:09:14
  Yeah, this
• 1:09:14
  Jon: Yep.
• 1:09:15
  Ryan: Did, did you think it was shorter?
• 1:09:17
  Is that why, like… Okay
• 1:09:19
  Kearns: did not assume the runtime was as long as it is.
• 1:09:22
  Um, uh, well, I was watching it and I was like, "All right, well, I probably
• 1:09:24
  got like 20 minutes left. I can grind through that." And then I looked
• 1:09:28
  and it was like an hour and five.
• 1:09:30
  I was like, "Whoa! Okay, bedtime."
• 1:09:33
  Jon: Yep
• 1:09:33
  Ryan: that's, that's the pro- not problem, but that's what I ran into.
• 1:09:36
  I just pushed through it.
• 1:09:37
  I was like, "It'll, it'll be done, like, like 20 minutes," and
• 1:09:41
  then I was like 45 minutes left.
• 1:09:43
  I'm like, "Okay, I'm already in this. Let's just do it."
• 1:09:47
  Jon: Yeah, on- once you get under 45 minutes, you have to push through
• 1:09:51
  Kearns: Don's, uh, famous for not loving movies that run past about
• 1:09:54
  an hour and a half too, and this is
• 1:09:56
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:09:56
  Kearns: film, ladies and
• 1:09:57
  Jon: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:09:58
  So, I mean, I think it's pretty obvious.
• 1:10:00
  I've said it's my favorite movie.
• 1:10:02
  I've given other movies on our, on this show five stars.
• 1:10:05
  Dawn is like the f- the super five.
• 1:10:08
  Kearns: This is
• 1:10:09
  Jon: Like, it's, this is, yeah, this is the blue star five.
• 1:10:12
  This is… It, I, I will put it this way.
• 1:10:19
  Nothing about me exists the way it exists without Dawn.
• 1:10:23
  Like, I w- Dawn, like I had seen horror movies before Dawn.
• 1:10:27
  Dawn's the one that made me fall in love with horror.
• 1:10:30
  It made me fall in love with zombies.
• 1:10:32
  I, it even, it gave me my relationship.
• 1:10:36
  Like, I met Allison online.
• 1:10:40
  You know, we'd had some conversations, and you know, you're in that sort of
• 1:10:43
  phase where you're like, "I don't know.
• 1:10:45
  Is this gonna be something?" Like, does… And then we talked movies,
• 1:10:50
  and this was like the first movie that came up, and it was like, all right,
• 1:10:55
  well, she knows Dawn of the Dead.
• 1:10:58
  Wait, she loves Dawn of the Dead?
• 1:11:00
  I, I mean, I'm done.
• 1:11:01
  Like, it, this is, this, this is… I was done.
• 1:11:05
  I mean, I would like… I, I knew then probably where we, where we were
• 1:11:10
  gonna wind up because of this movie.
• 1:11:13
  Kearns: It's amazing.
• 1:11:13
  That, I never knew that, by the way.
• 1:11:14
  It's
• 1:11:15
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:11:16
  Yeah, that, that's our meet cute.
• 1:11:18
  That's, it's us geeking out about Dawn of the Dead for 45 minutes
• 1:11:22
  Kearns: Gonna be tough to beat that review, ladies and gentlemen, right there.
• 1:11:25
  "I got married because of this movie."
• 1:11:28
  Jon: Huh?
• 1:11:29
  Kearns: That's a
• 1:11:29
  Jon: I mean, it definitely played a part
• 1:11:33
  Kearns: Cool, man.
• 1:11:33
  Jon: in our, in our, in our zombie-themed wedding
• 1:11:37
  Kearns: Yeah,
• 1:11:37
  Ryan: That's cool
• 1:11:39
  Kearns: Wish I knew you back then.
• 1:11:40
  I would've loved being at that wedding.
• 1:11:42
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:11:42
  It was a good time
• 1:11:43
  Kearns: be there when you renew your vows.
• 1:11:45
  All right.
• 1:11:46
  So…
• 1:11:47
  Jon: time we renew them.
• 1:11:48
  Kearns: Oh, really?
• 1:11:50
  Jon: Oh yeah, 'cause five years we renewed our vows in the Night
• 1:11:55
  of the Living Dead cemetery.
• 1:11:57
  Ryan: That's cool
• 1:11:58
  Kearns: cool.
• 1:11:58
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:11:59
  Yeah.
• 1:11:59
  Kearns: stop being so awesome
• 1:12:01
  Jon: I think there's video of that
• 1:12:03
  Kearns: Yeah, we're gonna have to see that.
• 1:12:04
  Can we pull
• 1:12:04
  Jon: I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to see if I can find it
• 1:12:08
  Kearns: That'd be sweet.
• 1:12:09
  All right.
• 1:12:09
  I think it's time for us to do our top fives, and let's be expedient
• 1:12:12
  Jon: I think it is
• 1:12:13
  Kearns: because I am tired
• 1:12:14
  Ryan: Top fives, expedient.
• 1:12:16
  I don't know that word expedient, but we're doing top fives
• 1:12:18
  Kearns: cardboard cutout of me to sit here
• 1:12:23
  Ryan: Just
• 1:12:23
  Kearns: sandwich
• 1:12:24
  Ryan: the stand-in, and then as he starts crumpling over, he's like, "What
• 1:12:27
  happened? the stuff. It's the stuff." But,
• 1:12:32
  Kearns: All right
• 1:12:33
  Ryan: top five, I'm going with top five movies that really didn't
• 1:12:38
  need a remake, or top five remakes that really didn't need to happen
• 1:12:42
  because the original is the best.
• 1:12:44
  And we're gonna start off with the crème de la crème, and that's Dawn of the Dead.
• 1:12:50
  Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead.
• 1:12:52
  Kearns: Action
• 1:12:53
  Ryan: We, we, you know, it a million times on Starz.
• 1:12:57
  agree with George Romero.
• 1:12:59
  as you get older, it's more of an action film.
• 1:13:01
  You do get, like, some pop scares.
• 1:13:03
  in the beginning, they change it up.
• 1:13:05
  Instead of being the TV station, you're in a hospital.
• 1:13:09
  You're seeing the zombie apocalypse happen.
• 1:13:11
  She tries to save her husband.
• 1:13:14
  chaos ensues, and she lands up in the mall, ends up in the mall with,
• 1:13:18
  like, more than, I think it, it's about, like, 10 people, right?
• 1:13:23
  Jon: Mm.
• 1:13:23
  Ryan: doesn't, I… It doesn't work.
• 1:13:26
  I mean, it was, like we've talked, if it's a different title, it works.
• 1:13:31
  It, you know,
• 1:13:32
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:13:32
  Ryan: different idea of the zombie film.
• 1:13:34
  It's trying to reinvigorate it, but it doesn't do it because of the title.
• 1:13:38
  And because Dawn is such a classic, and I'm not just saying that because,
• 1:13:43
  you know, we love George Romero.
• 1:13:44
  We're talking about Dawn tonight.
• 1:13:45
  It's just a better movie because there was a message, and you're trying to
• 1:13:50
  remake that message or, with that remake, trying to utilize that message
• 1:13:54
  and change it and make it modern.
• 1:13:56
  You can't because he already said it.
• 1:13:59
  it still reflects today, and I was th- I've been thinking about
• 1:14:03
  it all week since I've seen it.
• 1:14:04
  message still reflects on how consumerism has taken over, and now it's evolved.
• 1:14:09
  Like how the zombies evolved,
• 1:14:11
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:14:11
  Mm-hmm
• 1:14:12
  Ryan: And again, we mentioned earlier with the malls occupying the dead, it's true.
• 1:14:17
  Even though they're trying to revitalize malls, everyone prefers online shopping
• 1:14:23
  Jon: You can't knock the convenience.
• 1:14:25
  And I mean, I, I, I will say this, aside from what Romero said about the first
• 1:14:29
  20 minutes of the remake, there's some moments in the remake that I really love.
• 1:14:34
  There's, you know, when they're leaving the mall in the two vans and they're just
• 1:14:38
  completely surrounded, I love that visual
• 1:14:42
  Kearns: Yeah, it's a good visual.
• 1:14:44
  That should've been
• 1:14:44
  Jon: But
• 1:14:46
  Kearns: I think it is one of the posters, actually.
• 1:14:48
  Jon: I think it might be, yeah
• 1:14:49
  Kearns: 'cause it's too badass, too metal
• 1:14:51
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:14:52
  Yeah.
• 1:14:53
  All right.
• 1:14:54
  Number four, Ryan
• 1:14:55
  Ryan: four, we're still going in… Yeah, this is number… So number four,
• 1:15:00
  a remake that should have never happened, uh, can tie into consumerism because
• 1:15:04
  it's set during Christmas, but it's the 2006 version of Black Christmas.
• 1:15:10
  The 1974 one does it right.
• 1:15:13
  It's the beginning of the slasher film.
• 1:15:16
  You know, the call is coming basically inside the house.
• 1:15:18
  The killer's inside the house.
• 1:15:20
  You know, he's taking the sorority sisters down one by one, and then
• 1:15:23
  you get this remake that everyone gushes over or loves because they give
• 1:15:28
  the character more of a backstory.
• 1:15:30
  They basically Rob Zombie Halloween it, Rob Zombie does it better with Halloween.
• 1:15:36
  Black Christmas is just a… not a good enough remake.
• 1:15:41
  It doesn't hit any spot that the original did, and it's just, like, a
• 1:15:46
  typical slasher film just to make money.
• 1:15:48
  Even the newer one, I haven't even seen it, but I don't want to because it just
• 1:15:52
  doesn't capture what Black Christmas was.
• 1:15:55
  It's the birth of the slasher film.
• 1:15:57
  You got this creepy killer in the attic.
• 1:16:00
  You got the suspense, the tone.
• 1:16:02
  You know, you feel uncomfortable.
• 1:16:04
  You feel like you hear those phone calls like the girls are hearing it,
• 1:16:07
  and it's personal with the graspy voice.
• 1:16:10
  one, you don't feel anything.
• 1:16:11
  What, you see the kid eat cookies for, like, 20 minutes and then some flesh?
• 1:16:15
  not what it's about.
• 1:16:17
  And that
• 1:16:18
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:16:19
  Ryan: Oh, do you wanna add
• 1:16:20
  Jon: Yeah, no, no, I, I, I'm just gonna add that if you think that the
• 1:16:25
  second remake is borderline unwatchable
• 1:16:30
  Ryan: See, I won't give it the time of day because you, there's certain movies,
• 1:16:34
  yeah, you can remake them and they're fine or they're doable, but there's some
• 1:16:38
  you can't unless you go step by step, which we'll talk about in a couple films.
• 1:16:44
  But we'll, we'll get to number three.
• 1:16:46
  And I don't want, you know, 'cause when Kurt's asleeping tonight, I
• 1:16:49
  don't want him to have nightmares.
• 1:16:50
  But this is a movie that should never have been remade, and
• 1:16:53
  that's A Nightmare on Elm Street.
• 1:16:56
  I, listen, I had so much high hopes 'cause do enjoy Jackie Earl Haley.
• 1:17:03
  I, he played an excellent Rorschach in Watchmen.
• 1:17:06
  Heard he was gonna be Freddy.
• 1:17:07
  I'm like, "Let's give it a shot.
• 1:17:09
  It's gonna be darker.
• 1:17:10
  They're using the original story that was denied by, uh, by
• 1:17:14
  New Line Cinema to Wes Craven.
• 1:17:16
  Let's rock and roll." And it just tanks because they just try to remake the
• 1:17:20
  first film, and they take away certain parts, it, and it just doesn't work.
• 1:17:26
  Like, the new Skin the Cat, that's cool.
• 1:17:28
  You know, it was a nice homage.
• 1:17:30
  But it's too dark compared to what the Freddy we have.
• 1:17:35
  We're used to a fun Freddy.
• 1:17:37
  though he's sadistic, he's a killer, Englund put a lot of heart and soul.
• 1:17:42
  And Jackie Earl Haley gives you a good character in his version
• 1:17:46
  of Freddy, but it's not the same.
• 1:17:48
  just too serious, and you lose a lot of the magic that Robert Englund has built.
• 1:17:53
  And
• 1:17:54
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:17:55
  Ryan: that goes to number two The Hills Have Eyes.
• 1:17:59
  I love the original.
• 1:18:01
  The original is very impactful.
• 1:18:02
  Yes, it's Wes Craven.
• 1:18:04
  It's a Wes Craven film I do enjoy.
• 1:18:06
  I love Wes Craven, except, you know, for a couple.
• 1:18:09
  I cut Swamp Thing.
• 1:18:10
  We won't talk about it.
• 1:18:11
  But The Hills Have Eyes was so shocking when it first came out.
• 1:18:16
  just the family in the desert and goes awry.
• 1:18:21
  I get it.
• 1:18:22
  They wanted to have a popcorn film in 2006.
• 1:18:25
  They wanted to have a remake.
• 1:18:26
  Everyone's, like, competing again.
• 1:18:28
  Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, all these
• 1:18:32
  remakes, and you do Hills Have Eyes.
• 1:18:33
  And it's just for a shock value, I feel.
• 1:18:37
  It's more, you know, brutal, and there's-- just more gross, I feel.
• 1:18:43
  While with the original, yeah, it was brutal, and you had the gross
• 1:18:47
  scene that, you know, you know what I'm talking about, you know.
• 1:18:51
  But it was done in a way where it's like that grittiness of the '70s,
• 1:18:54
  and it works because it's the '70s.
• 1:18:57
  It's a different type of filmmaking.
• 1:18:59
  Uh, when they try doing it, it's just shock value, and it's just like, "What
• 1:19:02
  are we, what are we doing here?" You know?
• 1:19:05
  To even have an NC-17 version of it, really was unheard of at the time, it's
• 1:19:10
  like, do we, do we really need that?
• 1:19:13
  Like, the typical idea of, like, the family who's desolate and from, you
• 1:19:21
  know, the government's mistake is so unique and done right the first time.
• 1:19:26
  You didn't have to do it again.
• 1:19:27
  And that leads me to my number one, and that is the worst remake I
• 1:19:33
  think ever made, and that's Psycho.
• 1:19:36
  Vince Vaughn.
• 1:19:37
  It's just--
• 1:19:40
  It frustrates me 'cause why did we have to have a film-- And Gus Van
• 1:19:45
  Sant is a decent director, but we didn't have to have something that
• 1:19:49
  was spot on the original Psycho scene
• 1:19:52
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:19:53
  Ryan: And,
• 1:19:53
  Jon: Yeah
• 1:19:54
  Ryan: like, it's not necessary
• 1:19:58
  Jon: Yeah, you don't need to… I, like that's my least favorite thing that,
• 1:20:02
  people do is the shot for shot remake
• 1:20:06
  Kearns: With
• 1:20:06
  Ryan: And
• 1:20:09
  Jon: a- and Anne Heche
• 1:20:11
  Ryan: yes.
• 1:20:13
  NH, I mean, okay
• 1:20:15
  Jon: mean, she's fine, but why are we doing this?
• 1:20:18
  Ryan: I feel like if they did it where maybe they wrote a couple
• 1:20:22
  different scenes, did a couple things differently, I feel like Vince Vaughn
• 1:20:25
  could have been a decent Norman Bates if they gave him a little more run.
• 1:20:29
  He can play a good sadistic killer, I think.
• 1:20:32
  But
• 1:20:33
  Jon: Yeah
• 1:20:34
  Ryan: you get Anthony Perkins, you can't beat it, and it's
• 1:20:36
  again, it's the same damn film.
• 1:20:39
  Like, what are we
• 1:20:39
  Jon: But
• 1:20:40
  Ryan: people?
• 1:20:41
  Jon: there, there's a quality to the Anthony Perkins version that I don't
• 1:20:45
  know that Vince Vaughn can get to.
• 1:20:47
  It's, uh, it's sort of like something that makes him human that I don't know
• 1:20:52
  that Vince Vaughn would've gotten to
• 1:20:54
  Ryan: Well, yeah, Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates is more,
• 1:20:57
  innocent because, like, he's got, I don't wanna say childlike.
• 1:21:01
  It's like a childlike innocence on his face.
• 1:21:03
  I, I
• 1:21:04
  Jon: He's vulnerable
• 1:21:06
  Ryan: Uh, well, his,
• 1:21:07
  Kearns: word.
• 1:21:07
  That's the exact word.
• 1:21:09
  Ryan: mean, his one personality is definitely.
• 1:21:11
  His other,
• 1:21:12
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:21:12
  Ryan: so, and that's what blends it so well.
• 1:21:14
  And Vince Vaughn, the
• 1:21:15
  Jon: Mm-hmm.
• 1:21:15
  Ryan: movie, just has, like, a stern face, and you don't know what he's doing.
• 1:21:20
  You don't see, like, a friendliness out of him.
• 1:21:22
  It's just like this guy's creepy from the start, and you just miss it.
• 1:21:28
  But that's my top five.
• 1:21:29
  These are the top five remakes I, I don't think they should've been made.
• 1:21:32
  But John, what is your top five?
• 1:21:34
  Are you, you rocking zombies tonight?
• 1:21:37
  Jon: I'm not.
• 1:21:38
  Ryan: Ooh, George
• 1:21:39
  Jon: There are, there are z- uh, there are zombie movies on my list to be sure.
• 1:21:45
  Um, I'm going with, uh, the George Romero tree.
• 1:21:50
  So all five, all five movies are gonna be either Romero or people that he worked
• 1:21:59
  with in creating some of these movies.
• 1:22:02
  Ryan: Okay
• 1:22:03
  Jon: So my number five is gonna be a movie called Flesh Eater.
• 1:22:08
  Flesh Eater is written and directed by S. William Hinzman, better
• 1:22:13
  known in credits as Bill Hinzman.
• 1:22:15
  He is the first zombie you see in Night of the Living Dead.
• 1:22:19
  He's the zombie that sets the whole thing in motion by attacking Johnny and Barbara.
• 1:22:26
  Yeah, he- that's him.
• 1:22:28
  So, you know, he goes on to… He reprises this role a lot, and really even in
• 1:22:34
  Flesh Eater, i- which is a zombie movie, he's basically that character still.
• 1:22:40
  His own movie, that's what he's playing.
• 1:22:42
  so Flesh Eater is the story of a group of college students on a country
• 1:22:46
  weekend trip who are ambushed by zombies, including Hinzman as a zombie
• 1:22:51
  who looks a lot like his Night ghoul, and yeah, it's, it's low budget.
• 1:22:56
  It's very much in that sort of feel of Night, you know,
• 1:23:01
  the, the independent s- style.
• 1:23:05
  Uh, so that's five.
• 1:23:07
  Number four, we're gonna go to a Stephen King adaptation.
• 1:23:13
  Yeah, we're going with Pet Sematary,
• 1:23:15
  Kearns: Hey
• 1:23:16
  Ryan: Okay
• 1:23:17
  Jon: which is produced by frequent Romero co-producer Richard
• 1:23:22
  Rubinstein, who I brought up earlier.
• 1:23:24
  Kearns: Yeah.
• 1:23:25
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:23:25
  Ryan: Rubinstein.
• 1:23:27
  Jon: Yeah.
• 1:23:27
  So, it's a ton of fun.
• 1:23:30
  I mean, and really you could call Pet Sematary a variation on the zombie movie.
• 1:23:35
  Um, you know, you have a cursed graveyard that brings pets back to
• 1:23:39
  life, though not as they went into it.
• 1:23:43
  And then, I mean, you, you get the, the moment where, uh, Louis Creed
• 1:23:49
  decides, "Oh, well, maybe I should put Gage here, too," and he brings
• 1:23:53
  back his sort of zombie evil child
• 1:23:57
  Ryan: You gotta watch out for that road, that road over
• 1:24:00
  Jon: yes, you do.
• 1:24:01
  Yes, you do
• 1:24:01
  Ryan: That damn road.
• 1:24:04
  Folks don't like coming here
• 1:24:08
  Jon: I, I was worried that my number three was gonna wind up on your list,
• 1:24:12
  Ryan, and we would've had to fight a lot.
• 1:24:14
  Ryan: Which one?
• 1:24:15
  Jon: Uh, my number three is the 1990 Night of the Living Dead remake
• 1:24:20
  Ryan: So, okay, real quick, I was thinking about putting it on there,
• 1:24:25
  not because I don't like it, but I did not because I have a lot of
• 1:24:29
  respect for what Tom Savini did.
• 1:24:31
  And he did it.
• 1:24:32
  Jon: And, And it's a moment as well where in the script Romero addresses some
• 1:24:37
  things he didn't like about the original.
• 1:24:40
  so Night of Living Dead 1990 is a Romero-approved remake by, Tom Savini.
• 1:24:47
  Savini ups the gore.
• 1:24:49
  The story's altered in some notable ways, especially in Barbara.
• 1:24:54
  Barbara is the character that Romero regretted the most from Night of the
• 1:24:59
  Living Dead because of how helpless, how catatonic she is for the entire movie.
• 1:25:05
  He felt like it sort of made women seem weak, and he didn't
• 1:25:08
  wanna repeat that ever again.
• 1:25:10
  And you got that in Dawn, you got that in Day, and then he tweaked elements
• 1:25:15
  of Night for this remake to make sure that Barbara is a tough woman
• 1:25:23
  So that, I mean, that, that would've been where I argued with this, um,
• 1:25:29
  that he, that this is a necessary remake because it fulfills something
• 1:25:35
  that Romero wanted to correct.
• 1:25:38
  And it's, it's just really good.
• 1:25:39
  He changes enough of it that it's, it's a unique experience.
• 1:25:43
  You know, he changes the end.
• 1:25:45
  You have a, you have diff- you have a survivor,
• 1:25:48
  Ryan: I was gonna say,
• 1:25:49
  Jon: you know
• 1:25:50
  Ryan: does he live still?
• 1:25:52
  Jon: Ben does not live in the remake.
• 1:25:54
  Ryan: Okay.
• 1:25:54
  It's been a
• 1:25:55
  Jon: No.
• 1:25:55
  Ryan: It's been a long time since I've seen
• 1:25:57
  Jon: Barbara does.
• 1:25:59
  Barbara does.
• 1:26:00
  And, and it's, and it's her, i- she says early in the movie, "Look at how slow
• 1:26:05
  they are. You could, we could just walk past them." And that's how she survives.
• 1:26:09
  She does exactly what, what she's bold enough to say
• 1:26:17
  So, my number two has a bunch of Romero collaborators involved.
• 1:26:22
  it's Return of the Living Dead, which is written by, John Russo, who's a
• 1:26:28
  long time… was a long time Romero, collaborator, and then they had a
• 1:26:33
  falling out, and, you know, it led to a lot of, a lot of the issues with
• 1:26:37
  some of the, the rights and stuff.
• 1:26:39
  Rudy Ricci, who was originally supposed to be Ben in Night of the
• 1:26:43
  Living Dead, and, Russ Streiner, who was in Night of the Living Dead also.
• 1:26:48
  So, they wrote it.
• 1:26:50
  It's directed by Dan O'Bannon, who also wrote Alien
• 1:26:55
  Ryan: Okay.
• 1:26:55
  Kearns: Nice
• 1:26:57
  Jon: you know, I can, I can, I can almost get to a Romero-Alien connection.
• 1:27:01
  Kearns: That's kinda neat
• 1:27:03
  Jon: Um, and Re- Return is just like, for me, it's the ultimate horror comedy, and
• 1:27:08
  it's also a spiritual sequel to Night.
• 1:27:12
  John Russo wrote it as, you know, this was sort of h- originally his idea to
• 1:27:17
  be the Night of the Living Dead sequel.
• 1:27:21
  And then O'Bannon got it and, you know, did the screenplay and,
• 1:27:25
  you know, tweaked the story and added the more comedic elements.
• 1:27:28
  And you get this horror comedy that works with, you know, a cast of horror icons
• 1:27:34
  and, and probably the gooiest zombie ever in a, in a zombie movie in Tarman
• 1:27:43
  And then my number one, the roots, the foundation of the Romero tree,
• 1:27:48
  the one that started everything.
• 1:27:51
  It's Night of the Living Dead.
• 1:27:52
  Kearns: Mm-hmm.
• 1:27:53
  Jon: I- I- this, this list has to end, end there.
• 1:27:56
  Um, Night's just this beautiful, claustrophobic nightmare of, you
• 1:28:03
  know, the interpersonal dramas, the people not getting along, the
• 1:28:06
  people not being able to function.
• 1:28:09
  And, you know, you couple that with them just being trapped in this
• 1:28:13
  farmhouse surrounded by zombies with, you know, no real good escape option.
• 1:28:20
  I mean, this is the movie that set me out on the horror path, that Dawn
• 1:28:25
  like exploded open for me, and then, I mean… It- Night is the movie.
• 1:28:32
  It's got… Y- you can watch it, uh, just as a straight horror movie.
• 1:28:35
  You can add in his societal moments again, you know, the racial
• 1:28:40
  elements that he, he has in there.
• 1:28:43
  Night of the Living Dead, number one
• 1:28:45
  Kearns: Nice.
• 1:28:46
  Well done.
• 1:28:47
  top fives, gentlemen.
• 1:28:49
  Good top fives.
• 1:28:51
  All right, well, that's it for Dawn of the Dead, John's favorite movie, everybody.
• 1:28:55
  Hope you enjoyed.
• 1:28:58
  We're getting out of here
• 1:29:00
  Jon: We are
• 1:29:01
  Ryan: Have a good one
• 1:29:03
  Jon: See ya!