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It's 10pm, do you know where your Slithis is? Mark and Richard can help you find out! They discuss the wacky and wonderful Spawn of the Slithis (1978) and solve all of your relationship problems in the very same episode. The turtle race isn't for a couple of hours, so you should listen to this episode.
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What is Legion Podcasts - All Shows?
With a variety of shows, Legion Podcasts brings you discussion on the worlds of horror, film and video games from an assortment of perspectives.
Intro: Jack, I don't know why you have to put on all your clothes.
Intro: You're only going to the living room.
Intro: Wear that nice robe I bought you.
Intro: For 42 years, I have gotten out of bed and put on my clothes.
Intro: I detest bathrobes.
Intro: Why you bought it is still a mystery to me.
Intro: Now, unless you want to go check on the dog, shut up!
Intro: All right.
Intro: Everything is ready, my darling.
Intro: Do not be afraid.
Intro: Soon we'll be together again.
Richard: this sandwich tastes dry as hell. Hello and welcome to hello this is the doomed show I am Richard folks
Richard: I hope you're ready to crawl out of a lagoon or a uh a canal with me and mark. Mark how are you?
Mark: I am much better now that I've seen Slythus.
Richard: Your outlook on life will improve once you've gotten Slythed.
Mark: It's a life changer.
Richard: It's like Star Wars Episode 10, Revenge of the Slythus.
Mark: Slythus, yes.
Mark: Darth Slythus.
Mark: Darth Slythus.
Mark: That's hard to say.
Mark: Never mind.
Richard: This is from 1978.
Richard: And it is directed by, written and directed by Stephen Traxler.
Richard: I know horror fans are very familiar with that name
Richard: Because he went on to be a production manager
Richard: On Waterworld
Richard: And Windtalkers
Richard: Yeah, I don't know why people would
Richard: It was sort of a joke
Richard: Spoiler alert, because this is a long trailer
Richard: But it's kind of great
Mark: But it's a great trailer
Richard: So we're going to go ahead and drop this long trailer in here
Richard: So just get comfy and enjoy yourselves with this magic.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: It was a California summer, and in a sleepy little town called Venice, life seemed so easy.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Until that night, when terror stopped.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: And then things could never be the same.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: It's lit. Spawn from a nuclear hell, it forages for food to survive.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: And last night's brutal slayings brings to seven the total number of Venice residents murdered in this bizarre series of ritualistic mutilations.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: The locals are in panic.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Sure we're scared. Damn scared.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Where will this flesh eater feed next?
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Hey, wise guy. Fred.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Where did you get this substance, Wayne?
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: How can this man's beast be stuffed?
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: It's like nothing I've ever seen before.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Will you survive the nightmare that is a slithous?
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Slithous.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Man, I don't know what the hell I saw.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: You'll scream and scream and scream again
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: as slithous attacks and the blood runs red.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Mr. Connors, why is it murdering people?
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: But what would cause such a change?
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Why, the radioactivity, my dear.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: We catch the badass, Mother.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: I've got an adding that'll hold a great wife.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: I guarantee it won't get away.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: It's alive. We got it on the scanner again.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: It's headed for the harbor.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Jeff, we're gonna follow it. Head it off before it reaches the boat.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Slippers, the demon of science on the sea.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: A horror so outrageous that no one believed.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Until it was too late.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: You ready to put the hook to the slimy beast?
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: - -
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: In the classic tradition of Preacher from the Black Lagoon and The Thing, comes now the most horrifying of them all.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: Slithis.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: For this engagement only, no one will be admitted without a Slithis survival kit.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: These life-saving kits will be available free of charge.
Spawn of the Slithis Trailer: The theater box office.
Richard: My favorite thing about the trailer right at the get-go is talking about how it's summertime in Venice Beach.
Richard: And I'm like, no, people are running around their winter coats.
Richard: There's nobody at the beach at all.
Mark: But my thing is both Walt and I want to know exactly what that flippant survival kit was.
Mark: What does that entail?
Richard: We will talk about the marketing for this movie and how it almost got people killed.
Richard: I've got quite a wonderful story from good old Stephen Thrower, his book Nightmare USA, a beautiful book.
Richard: I really wish they'd re-release it.
Richard: I'm sure, you know, resourceful people will find a copy online.
Richard: I'm going to read from the Media Home Entertainment VHS.
Richard: It proclaims,
Richard: Finally, nature unleashes its revenge.
Richard: And it's I-T ' S, not I-T-S.
Richard: Here's the plot.
Richard: From the pollution of our nuclear waste
Richard: came the killer we couldn't destroy.
Richard: Our worst nightmares come to life
Richard: with the terrifying, scaly monster - Slithus.
Richard: And that's it.
Mark: And that's all you get.
Richard: Do you think that maybe Slithus actually wrote this?
Mark: And that's why it was so bad, because he had that vision,
Mark: the Slithus vision.
Richard: The plastic bottle, yeah.
Mark: Yes, yes.
Richard: This was a listener request from our good pal, Glenn Del Rossi.
Richard: If you get a chance, check out his amazing Instagram.
Richard: Friend of the show, movie collector, cool dude,
Richard: glendale rossi thank you like i said we're gonna spoil this thing and uh we've got probably we're
Richard: i mean there's so much to talk about with this movie so if we get a little carried away with
Richard: the plot folks bear with us you're gonna freaking love it a lot of this cast didn't really work
Richard: again so i'm not gonna get too much into the cast this time around all i know is there's a lady named Jeff
Mark: Okay thank you, what is that about i don't know because that's but they're saying that's
Mark: the character in the movie yep yep i don't think that's right i i uh had the subtitles and they
Richard: make multiple references to her name being jeff it is jeff what is that short for jeffrina
Mark: jeffrina jeff lean
Mark: okay jeffrey may so the movie opens up and we've got a big fluter
Richard: Fluting away, blowing his flute on the music score
Richard: I apologize to the composer
Richard: Of this music, this is Steve Zuckerman
Richard: He made the music for this and I thought it was library tracks
Richard: I honestly thought they'd source this from
Richard: Public domain old timey library
Richard: But no, he actually composed the music for Slithis
Richard: And it's a professional sounding score
Richard: But it's not, I don't like it
Richard: not a big fan of the music in this movie it's fine i bet a year later someone gave him his
Richard: first synthesizer for christmas and he's like oh man i'll never have to hire flutists again
Richard: On a beautiful day in california town which is funny because if you look at imdb on the locations
Richard: where this was filmed you get street addresses like not just city county boulevard or whatever
Richard: literal street addresses because for some reason you can see lots of street signs they're very nice
Mark: street signs in this movie and richard i foresee a road trip for you and i in the near future then
Richard: yes we're gonna do the uh the slithus location scouting i hope someone else has done that
Richard: I would watch that I don't want to go to california it's far away it's far away mark
Richard: and slithus is there i know it's scary scary stuff um tell us about the slow-mo i guess i don't quite
Mark: why it's slow-mo other than to kill time because like you don't need to see a chubby kid throwing
Mark: a frisbee or running in slow-mo but darn it you get that he was husky mark he was a husky okay
Mark: so i want to point out he looked like little fat mark as a child like that was what i look like
Mark: so i in a way inadvertently star in slip it you had some memories come back from that from seeing
Mark: him i did i'm like oh my gosh that yeah that was me except i believe the child was not caucasian
Mark: right that's the only thing i can't claim there you go yeah but other than that you have witnessed
Richard: little fat mark on the throwing frisbee. Yep and they do this cool sound effect when he throws the
Richard: frisbee they like added a weird like to the to the frisbee and it's just it's very dramatic
Richard: and uh the kids go over the hill and what do they find on the shoreline of this
Mark: Oh, the poor poof-its.
Mark: They've been, the dogs, I'm sorry, dogs are poof-its in my household.
Mark: The dogs have been skinned and they're laying there and it disturbs them.
Mark: So they decide to go talk to, is it Mr. Payne?
Mark: P-A-Y-N-E and let him know about the dogs.
Richard: Yes.
Mark: The death of the dog.
Mark: But the one dog is clearly breathing.
Mark: His little tummy is going up and down.
Mark: So I'm like, oh, what good boys or girls.
Richard: Oh boy.
Richard: I was so glad they weren't real.
Richard: I mean, they were real, but I'm glad they weren't dead.
Mark: Yeah, no, they were especially skin like that.
Richard: That's amazing.
Richard: That's amazing.
Richard: This comes to the attention of our hero, sort of, Wayne Connors, played by an actor named Alan Blanchard.
Richard: Mr. Connors is a teacher who does not give a shit about his job, or he just has disdain for his students in general.
Richard: We meet him and his wife, Jeff.
Richard: Jeff is played by Judy Matulski.
Richard: And now Jeff, according to the writer, director of this movie,
Richard: he wanted her to be annoying.
Richard: That was his intention with this character,
Richard: which I don't find her annoying.
Richard: She's just rational.
Mark: I find Wayne way more annoying.
Richard: I know.
Mark: Yeah.
Mark: But now really quick.
Mark: So automatically there's a scene where they're in bed
Mark: and she has her, so it's a profile.
Mark: And I thought, oh my gosh, this could be Bring Steven.
Richard: Ooh, she does have that look about her.
Richard: Good call.
Mark: And then Wayne, if they couldn't get the actor they got,
Mark: I thought for sure it would be Burt Convy or Steve Guttenberg.
Richard: Dude, dude, Burt Convy.
Richard: I'm going to go for him over Guttenberg.
Richard: That's perfect casting right there.
Richard: Maybe if Greg from Brady Bunch is a little older,
Richard: it may be him too.
Richard: But yeah, that's freaking awesome.
Richard: So they're having a discussion about this,
Richard: whatever's killing these dogs,
Richard: because he himself found a dog by the water
Richard: that was similarly flayed or whatever.
Richard: And he doesn't care about being late for work.
Richard: He just wants to talk about this monster with her.
Richard: It's very cute.
Richard: And then that night, presumably,
Richard: we see that the monster has a plastic bottle
Richard: stuck to his face.
Mark: that's why he's mad he can't see.
Richard: Only in his eyes, yeah so we get monster vision and he breaks into a couple's house and this movie very confidently
Richard: shows the monster in shadows but pretty clearly especially on the blu-ray you can really see this
Richard: monster but what's important is this couple mark what is the deal with jack and his wife
Mark: Well, clearly Jack and Helen have other issues other than a sea creature in their house.
Mark: They definitely have.
Mark: I bet there's no communication other than like just belittling and griping at each other because they are so hateful.
Richard: Yeah.
Mark: They need marriage counseling.
Mark: I think that's why Phyllis broke in, honestly.
Mark: Oh.
Mark: Because all they do is like fight with each other.
Richard: He was a proto better help counselor.
Richard: He was doing a home visit and things went wrong.
Richard: yeah i love this so um there's this noise and he hates their dog because the dog like will get out
Richard: and destroy things and so he doesn't want to get out of bed he's yelling about this dog and when he
Richard: finally convinces him to get up because there's so much noise out in the in the house he gets up
Mark: starts getting dressed like fully dressed fully dressed and she does that every morning richard
Richard: yes honey put on your robe he's like i'm not wearing that stupid thing i've been getting
Richard: dressed for 42 years uh he's very set in his ways this is wonderful love him which is that why she
Mark: keeps a pistol in her nightstand yes that's how set in his ways he is um he gets murdered
Richard: immediately by the creature off camera and then she goes out with the gun and does that hilariously
Richard: i don't know how to hold a gun thing where if you fired a gun like that it would probably just hit
Richard: you in the face so she's shooting at it of course bullets have no effect on it she gets killed off camera as well but we see their corpses.
Mark: Now did you notice that like jack is just kind of bloody
Mark: but her skin has been sucked right off of her yes she's like a skeleton lane.
Richard: She was more delicious than him because her face is eaten off when they show her.
Mark: Now, do you think if he had just worn a robe, it would have been easier to tear it off and then his flesh as well?
Mark: It was like too much work. It was like unwrapping a candy bar.
Richard: Yep, yep.
Mark: And Felicis didn't have time.
Richard: He smartly put on his clothes and spared himself the worst of it.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: Damn. Damn, mutt, that's it.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: Jack, what is it? Is Regal all right?
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: Oh, of course he's all right. In and out like a tornado.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: You're going to have a mess to clean up in the morning.
Richard: At school the next day, one of Mr. Conner's irritating students, because he teaches journalism,
Richard: and one of his students shows up, interrupts he and Jeff talking,
Richard: and is playing the radio for him about this couple has been murdered.
Richard: So he wants to go check it out.
Richard: And that's when Jeff tells him, you're not a journalist.
Richard: You're a journalism teacher.
Mark: But yet he has a past.
Mark: Did you notice he points that out later?
Mark: Yes.
Richard: Yes.
Richard: In order to become a journalism teacher, he became a journalist first.
Richard: Couldn't cut it.
Richard: And those who can't journal have to teach journalism.
Richard: I think that's how that works.
Mark: Right.
Mark: Now, just really quick, the two students, I want them to have their own sitcom, and I would watch that religiously.
Richard: Yes.
Richard: Dude, that would be awesome.
Mark: Yeah, I love those two.
Richard: They would have really, like, one of them would have, like, a really unflattering nickname.
Richard: And the other one would be, like, just a normal.
Richard: It would be, like, Jamie and Scraggleface or something like that.
Mark: Yeah, I was thinking Spex.
Mark: Because she had those white glasses on.
Mark: Oh, man.
Richard: Spex and Scraggleface.
Richard: This girl does not have a Scraggleface, whatever that is.
Richard: That's just the first thing I thought of.
Richard: Anyway, he goes to the house, which, of course, is unlocked.
Richard: And there's just no evidence markers, I don't think.
Richard: just blood all over the floor.
Richard: And that's when he meets the most important character in the movie,
Richard: a police officer.
Richard: What's up with this cop?
Mark: He's got a cop and,
Mark: and he offers him a cough drop and everything slowly because he can't do it
Mark: fast because the cop might get,
Mark: you know,
Mark: jittery and shoot him.
Mark: But there's no reason for this officer to have a cougher.
Mark: It doesn't play into anything at all.
Richard: It is an affectation of the character to have this cough.
Richard: And it gives them something to do because Wayne Connors offers him a eucalyptus drop.
Richard: And it's just so cute.
Richard: But that gives him this in to like, kind of like, all right, I've started a convo with this cop.
Richard: We're going to talk about it.
Richard: The funniest thing I noticed, and I might be mistaken, the cop, his holster is completely empty.
Richard: There's no gun in his freaking holster that I could see.
Richard: So he was just going to beat him up if he got fresh.
Mark: Do you think that was a subplot and actually Helen had stolen the gun that was in the nightstand?
Richard: Those were his parents.
Richard: He was coughing from grief.
Mark: Oh.
Richard: Yeah, it's sad.
Richard: Our pal, Mr. Connors, he finds some slime on the ground and he gathers it to take to my real favorite character of the movie, Dr. John.
Mark: Dr. John.
Richard: I love this guy so much.
Richard: He's like a goodish looking kind of guy.
Richard: He's a little short, I think, but he has this like amazingly weird voice.
Mark: Yes.
Mark: It's almost like if a praying mantis or stick bug, a stick bug had sex with John Denver.
Mark: Because that's kind of John Denver-y, but he's also incredibly thin.
Richard: That's a hottie right there.
Richard: Would you like to know more about this actor, Mark?
Mark: I would.
Richard: His name is Dennis Fault, F-A-L-T.
Richard: it's not his fault that he's named that 206 credits he is a voice actor and a dancer
Richard: if he now yes he has shown up in hundreds of things video game narration video game characters
Richard: and he's just like this weird dude um he's got a bunch of dancing credits recently so maybe he was
Mark: there to fill out a dance club scene or something. Automatically when you said dancer i thought he had
Mark: to have been on the cariburnette show during the musical numbers because he looks like one of those
Mark: dancers you would see lots of chest hair yes tops would be incredibly tight.
Richard: Yes, he did the narration for iron chef for an episode of iron chef he narrated some speed racer in the 90s he played
Richard: three characters in a video game I absolutely love called Castlevania: Symphony of the
Castlevania Symphony of the Night: Night, which is just a masterpiece of a video game. Fear has no form. Fear has no name. But now
Castlevania Symphony of the Night: fear has an address. Castlevania Symphony of the Night from Konami.
Richard: But yeah, he's everywhere. This blew my mind.
Richard: He's got an uncredited role as Soviet submarine captain in Godzilla 1985.
Richard: So he must have been living in Japan?
Richard: Or they had scenes with like, oh God, what's his name?
Richard: Milton Berle?
Richard: I'm sorry, Raymond Burr.
Richard: Raymond Burr.
Mark: Raymond Burr.
Mark: Raymond Burr.
Richard: Sorry, I got the ray right.
Richard: So there you go.
Richard: So when they came over to shoot those scenes with Raymond Burr,
Richard: They shot some scenes with some Russian,
Richard: AKA American actors.
Richard: So yeah,
Richard: crazy career,
Richard: but I love his voice.
Richard: His voice sticks out to me,
Richard: which is funny that he became a voice actor.
Richard: I love it.
Richard: Once he gets some of this slime to fricking analyze,
Richard: then Dr.
Richard: John shows up at Jeff and Wayne's place to not only tell them about it,
Richard: but also interrupt their game of baccarat,
Richard: which I thought was very bad.
Richard: Their burp baccarat game.
Richard: now tell me mark what is uh what's dr john going to tell them about this this uh slimy substance?
Mark: It's just endless exposition like everything you need to know he just dumps it right on them right
Mark: there i guess most importantly uh no wait is he the one who brings up the radioactivity and the
Mark: or cultist or is that what everyone yeah yeah so i'm like how do those two correlate with each
Mark: Like I've never once thought of Satan is messing around with radioactivity,
Richard: but they should.
Mark: Apparently they should.
Richard: Yep.
Richard: They're doing it wrong without it.
Mark: Now I'd also like to point out just how sexy Wayne is in his denim jumper.
Richard: Holy shit.
Richard: Thank you for remembering to mention that.
Richard: Cause I was going to forget,
Richard: you know,
Richard: he's got his hands in his pockets of what I thought was his jean jacket.
Richard: Then the camera pans back or he walks,
Richard: you know,
Richard: more into frames.
Richard: We can see the whole outfit and yep.
Richard: Denim jumper and lieta goes is that a canadian tuxedo but not only like is he wearing that but
Mark: i'm thinking it's gotten him sex it's worked because jeff is still sticking around.
Richard: Yes it is tight it's a it's a tight jumper my favorite thing about jeff during all this stuff so so
Richard: john is laying down the giant freaking exposition like you said they keep cutting to shots of jeff
Richard: smiling with a little bit of incredulity in her eyes.
Richard: And then sometimes they cut to her and she's not making any expression at all.
Richard: Like she's waiting for action.
Mark: Yeah, Richard, she just didn't understand it.
Mark: I was so confident.
Richard: None of it made sense.
Mark: What?
Richard: Sorry, Jeff.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: About 20 years ago, a nuclear reactor at the experimental test facility at Lake Sherwin,
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: Wisconsin was discovered to be leaking an infinitesimal amount of radioactive
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: byproduct into the lake.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: This installation,
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: by the way,
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: is the forerunner of a modern day nuclear power plant,
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: like the one two miles down the coast here.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: What does this got to do with the mud?
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: I found.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: Well,
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: now stay with me.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: This is the background phase of a two part story.
Richard: Next,
Richard: we cut to some,
Richard: some bums,
Richard: some,
Richard: and I don't mean butts,
Richard: although these two bums have butts.
Richard: They're,
Richard: they're sleeping in by an old boat.
Richard: Well, drinking and sleeping by an old boat along the canal.
Richard: Mark, tell us about these cool dudes.
Mark: Well, I have my questions about the one cool dude, but we'll talk about that later.
Mark: Anyway, so yes, the one, and they're on tires, two discarded tires.
Mark: And it bothered me that the one had his back pocket of his jeans cut open.
Mark: But like, was it his underwear sticking out of the back?
Mark: Very disturbing.
Mark: Anyway.
Richard: He had a lot of patches all over his pants.
Richard: Very confusing.
Mark: A lot of patches, but it's Bunky and Preston.
Mark: and Preston's had way too much to drink or smoke maybe.
Mark: But what I find disturbing is it's made mention that he's basically defecated in his pants.
Mark: And that disturbs me because later there's another scene,
Mark: and he pretty much, I think he really did defecate.
Mark: Not actuality, but like the character was supposed to have done so.
Mark: And I'm like, you're wearing the same pants.
Mark: And the person interacting with you has not made a comment about the feces smell that you must be reeking of at the time.
Mark: Did you crap your pants?
Mark: He's like, no, I just farted.
Mark: And the other guy's like, no, you crapped your pants.
Mark: I'm like, oh, my God.
Richard: Oh, I'm dying.
Richard: It's so great.
Richard: It's so great.
Richard: This is Preston and Bunky.
Richard: Now, Preston, he looks so much like another actor who he was the shitty boyfriend from Candyman.
Richard: I'm trying to remember that actor's name.
Mark: I recast him as Jeff Cotter.
Richard: Ooh, that's a good casting.
Mark: A taxi in Greece.
Richard: Let's see.
Mark: I can't even picture the shitty boyfriend from Candyman.
Richard: He looks to me like Xander Berkeley.
Richard: Xander with an X from Candyman and Air Force One, Terminator 2, big time.
Richard: I thought this was him like really young, but it's just his brother, his brother from another mother playing Preston.
Richard: But yeah, what was he doing in 78?
Richard: Was he even acting by then?
Richard: No.
Mark: He wasn't even conceived yet.
Richard: No, he was conceived in 1981.
Richard: He was the grown-up son of Joan Crawford in Mommy Dearest.
Mark: Oh, my gosh.
Mark: I love Mommy Dearest so much.
Richard: So, yeah.
Richard: Yeah, Xander Berkley, not in Slithis.
Richard: Some guy who vaguely looks like him, now he's in Slithis.
Richard: But, yes, I love this conversation with these two.
Richard: It's just so great.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: You cracked your pants?
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: God, I was farting.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: You cracked your pants again, you got?
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: Damn it.
Richard: Bunky, he has to go take a leak.
Richard: So he leaves.
Richard: And while he's walking away, he starts seeing some bubbles.
Richard: And then Slithus jumps out of the water and he falls on his face and breaks a bottle and runs away.
Richard: But he survives.
Richard: Off camera, we find out that Slithus has killed a young lady.
Mark: He's got a taste for flesh and he can't be stopped.
Richard: This is the section of the movie I call Desperately Seeking Bunky.
Richard: Where Wayne Connors, he manages to talk to Preston at the canal.
Richard: And then he's asking him where his friend is.
Richard: So he goes looking for Bunky.
Richard: And what happens when he goes to some Venice Beach spirited residents of Venice Beach at the park?
Mark: So they are, I'm assuming they're alcoholics.
Richard: Yes.
Mark: So these three day drinkers, which you would never put together.
Mark: So one's like kind of looks like a dock worker with a knit hat.
Mark: Sure.
Mark: And the other one I think might have more in common with Bunky than we know.
Mark: He's got a tank top and sandals and he's a smoker.
Mark: But there's something about him that I might think he maybe plays for my team.
Mark: And then the other one looks like a sweat hog that dropped out.
Richard: Mr. Carter, my GPA is too low.
Mark: And they're also, to me, older than they should be.
Mark: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mark: Yeah, so Wayne wants to deliver a message to Bunky.
Mark: And they're like, oh, just tell us.
Mark: And he's like, no, no, no, I have to do this myself.
Mark: So eventually he figures out where Bunky lives.
Richard: Yeah, he buys them off with $5 so they can get some wine.
Richard: All I could think of was Trader Joe's.
Richard: They have $3.90 wine.
Mark: I actually, not because of the wine, but when he was talking about that, I thought of Trader Joe's because, no offense to your listeners, but they look like they would frequent Trader Joe's to me.
Richard: Yeah, that's the thing, Mark.
Richard: Trader Joe's is one of our sponsors, so I think you just want to pick that up, dude.
Mark: I am so sorry.
Richard: There goes our revenue stream.
Mark: Yeah, I would never put these three men together.
Richard: No, no. Hey, cheap wine brings together strange bedfellows.
Mark: Truly. Then Wayne makes his way to Bunky's place.
Mark: But it's covered with different sized round mirrors, a disco ball, an alcove with a barber chair in it, and lots of necklaces hanging on the wall.
Mark: which makes me think does Bucky live an ulterior life,
Mark: an alternate lifestyle from other people?
Richard: Right.
Mark: Or does he have a girlfriend or does he have a gay roommate?
Mark: There's so many questions I now have about Bunky.
Richard: Cause you wouldn't think he'd have a place to crash at all.
Mark: Let alone that place.
Richard: Yeah.
Mark: Yeah.
Richard: Oh,
Richard: maybe it's the difference between a hobo and a homeless person.
Richard: He,
Richard: he chooses the lifestyle.
Mark: I thought you were going to say hobo and homo.
Richard: I would not say that.
Richard: I'll let you say that.
Mark: Jeff and Wayne have to meet up with another professor.
Richard: Yes.
Richard: Thank you.
Richard: I almost forgot this guy.
Mark: With his bizarre, it's very Californian because it's all like knotty pine, but it's like dome
Mark: shaped and it's filled with like macrame and mobiles.
Richard: Thank you.
Mark: Professor has like an incredibly messed up face that no one acknowledges.
Mark: And it's not really talked about why he looks like someone threw acid on him right before they came over.
Richard: Dr. John did mention him.
Richard: He said he referred to him as a doctor friend who overdosed on radiation, which meant he was like normal people take small doses all the time.
Mark: Oh, I thought he just fell asleep.
Mark: Like he overdosed and then fell asleep in the radiation.
Mark: And that's what happened to his face.
Richard: I almost completely skipped this whole part.
Richard: I did not know what my note meant.
Richard: I just wrote one thing.
Richard: I wrote turtleneck radioactive doctor.
Richard: So thank you for catching that.
Mark: You're fine.
Mark: But that's where he's the one who mentions the ship owner operator that they should get in touch with him.
Richard: Yes.
Richard: Because they need soil samples from where the power plant is supposedly leaking.
Richard: They need a diver to go down and get it.
Mark: Yes.
Mark: Thank you folks at home.
Richard: I just edited this episode so much.
Richard: You have no idea how much I struggled just to get to this part of this
Richard: fucking overly complicated plot,
Richard: which we love.
Richard: It's fine.
Richard: It's me.
Richard: It's not,
Richard: it's not you slip as it's me.
Mark: No,
Mark: it's never slip.
Mark: Um,
Richard: so he goes to rent a boat and,
Richard: uh,
Richard: we get a great character.
Richard: This is,
Richard: I believe his name.
Richard: He introduces himself as Christopher Columbus.
Richard: Columbus Alexander.
Richard: And this is,
Richard: this is a actor named Mello Alexandria,
Richard: which is amazing.
Richard: I would have just insisted that I go by that name.
Richard: Like,
Richard: yes,
Richard: I'm playing myself in this movie.
Richard: He's great.
Richard: He's the,
Richard: he's the life of the party.
Richard: Just,
Richard: just,
Richard: just a big boisterous character.
Richard: Mark,
Richard: what do you think of this guy?
Mark: So I love him,
Mark: but the minute I saw,
Mark: so he's,
Mark: he's,
Mark: he's a black actor.
Richard: Yeah.
Mark: The minute I saw him,
Mark: I thought, oh my God, no, this poor man's not destined to see the end of the movie.
Richard: Exactly.
Mark: Typical horror movies.
Mark: Correct.
Mark: But then we're also treated to an incredibly awkward first interaction between Wayne and Christopher Columbus Alexander.
Mark: Well, it's 78.
Mark: So you can't really look at it through today's eyes.
Mark: You'd have to look at back from the 70s where the race relations were still uncomfortable.
Mark: Like they didn't quite know how to interact.
Mark: Like probably Wayne's only other interaction was maybe watching Good Times.
Richard: Sure, sure.
Richard: The avenues for white people to pick up on black culture were much smaller.
Mark: Right.
Mark: It's so strange.
Mark: And I believe that Christopher even drops the N-word.
Richard: He might have said something like telling Wayne how he must see him or something like that.
Richard: The handshake was awkward.
Richard: He's like, we'll do it the white way.
Mark: It was very awkward.
Richard: Very awkward.
Mark: Very awkward, yeah.
Mark: But they became fast friends.
Richard: Yes.
Richard: They have slithers in common.
Mark: You know, I don't know how to take you.
Mark: Be cool and maybe we'll learn about one another together.
Richard: they're going to take christopher columbus's boat it's called the creation and they're going to go
Richard: out to do this whole thing with the uh the the soil collecting the diving and the soil collecting
Richard: but first i have to talk about the scene we don't see so there's a quick moment where
Richard: Wayne is talking to his wife Jeff
Richard: and he says
Richard: something to the effect of
Richard: man I still can't believe how much
Richard: crap the
Richard: detective gave me
Richard: about reporting this stuff
Richard: and my head I did like a whiplash
Richard: with my head like sorry what
Richard: he references a scene we don't see Mark
Richard: so when we meet the detective later
Richard: the detective is a whole
Richard: the detective is his own movie
Richard: but yeah we were cheated a scene with him earlier because he knows who Wayne is when we see the two
Mark: of them in a scene together later so they cut some shit do you think they did or do you think they
Richard: just mentioned it oh scenes were edited out of order later I wonder or they just like oh we'll
Mark: we'll drop the detective here we'll put that hint in the viewer's mind and then we'll show the
Richard: detective because that's it we'll talk later that makes more sense i like that so tell me
Mark: about turtle racing so we're treated to a bar full of people who are actually betting on
Mark: turtles and we see the turtle race is quite lengthy like i think it's almost a third of the
Richard: film i don't if i'm not mistaken they're slow and time slows down when you're watching yeah
Mark: It goes on for quite a while, but we're actually seeing this because Doug, Pornstash Doug, has taken Jennifer.
Mark: I really do think that – I'm going to defer to you, Richard, because I'm a gay man, so I don't know.
Mark: Do turtle races like – is it like an aphrodisiac to female?
Richard: Yeah, that's how I met Lietta, actually.
Mark: I thought so.
Mark: i i have never gonna get yeah get her hot and bothered something yeah i've never even seen
Richard: i've never heard of turtle racing ever before this movie no no maybe i have but you know like
Richard: it would be children it'd be children trying to race a turtle you know like there was no rabbits
Richard: to kind of mix it up a little bit you couldn't have any tortoise in the hair going on no no it's
Richard: really cute it's very cute it looks it's very wholesome it's the most wholesome part of the
Richard: movie which is funny because this guy doug who is so sleazy is picking up this girl he's picking up
Richard: he's human trash jenna he is tracent and he has jennifer and doug are going to become lovers
Richard: interrupted but my favorite thing is the announcer at the uh turtle thing he's trying to make this
Richard: turtle racing as exciting as possible and one of the turtles unless i misheard it is named legs
Richard: McGurkle.
Richard: So Legs McGurkle
Richard: the turtle. I love it.
Richard: I fucking love it. Legs McGurkle.
Richard: That's the greatest thing that's ever
Richard: happened. Ever.
Richard: So yes, she's excited. There's a discussion in the
Richard: car about how old she is and she says she's
Richard: 18 and I kind of believe her.
Richard: And then they end up
Mark: at his swanky pad which is a boat and is it a love boat or a sex ship richard it's it's a
Richard: well it features a um an altar to doug that doug made where he there's a there's a great headshot
Richard: of doug on a table with two candles or on each side for some mood lighting so in case you didn't
Richard: know you were in a room with doug there's a altar of doug but yeah what's weird is his friend who
Richard: doesn't live there hangs out in his boat and tries to scare doug so when this person who i don't
Richard: remember his name rex rex thank you for rex he's hiding in in the in the ship and in the little
Richard: boat and jumps out and scares jennifer and then there's this whole thing doug is so sick of this
Richard: rex character what is their relationship i don't understand well because also rex to me sounds i
Mark: I think this has got gay undertones to it.
Mark: Rex also sounds like he might know Bunky.
Mark: I think that Rex and Bunky might be roommates.
Richard: Yes.
Richard: He doesn't want to have his mojo crushed by his dorky friend or more than friend.
Richard: And see, now I'm going to start looking for gay characters in everything we watch.
Mark: He also doesn't seem very preoccupied with Doug, even though he's got Jennifer there.
Mark: He totally does.
Mark: He is fixated on Doug.
Mark: Oh, man.
Richard: Now I know that.
Mark: Doug is fixated on Rex.
Mark: Yeah.
Richard: This is the real reason we pick Slivis, folks.
Richard: So they hook up on the boat, and things are getting hot and heavy, and he decides to go and get wine?
Richard: Oh, he's going to lock the door.
Mark: Yeah, because she's uncomfortable.
Richard: Yes.
Mark: And he doesn't really take no right away for an answer.
Mark: But anyway, she's uncomfortable, so he says, hey, why don't you get naked while I'm gone?
Richard: Yes.
Mark: So he's planning on coming back from locking the door and she's just all nude and ready to go.
Richard: She just wants him to lock the door and he's being a dick about it.
Richard: I love it.
Mark: Oh yeah.
Mark: Doug is horrible.
Mark: So gross.
Richard: So while he's out there, thankfully Slithis murders him.
Richard: Unthankfully, Slithis breaks in and goes after her.
Richard: And again, I got to talk about how confident they were in this monster.
Richard: They're like, Slivis is on screen, bold as life, well lit, so much in this movie.
Richard: They love this freaking creature so much.
Richard: Unfortunately for our pal Jennifer, she takes freaking forever to die because she's a slow-mo dyer.
Mark: A slow-mo dyer, and then we get boob and then not boob.
Richard: Yep, he rips open her top and then she just turns over like, I did not want to show my boob today.
Mark: And then when she's dead, it's covered.
Richard: The funniest thing about all this is they recorded her screaming for 20 minutes and tried to use all the screams in one minute.
Richard: So there's just endless wall to wall screaming, no room for a breath screaming.
Richard: It's so obnoxious.
Richard: It was the one time where the movie got on my nerves.
Richard: I'm like, I started to like turn the volume way down.
Richard: I was like, no, shut up.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: That's my ringtone, Richard.
Richard: I know.
Richard: I know.
Richard: And it rings for half an hour and you don't pick it up.
Richard: so um one thing i love here is we get a little scene with jeff and wayne talking about their
Richard: big day the next day which is they're going to go hunt the slithers because she and dr john and
Richard: them they're going to do this thing but what's important here is that eagle-eyed viewers will
Richard: notice that jeff is reading glamour magazine and i figured this one was shot it was shot in 77
Richard: so I found the issue on eBay.
Richard: I did not buy it.
Richard: I was just going to ask you how much did you pay for it?
Richard: I did not pay for it.
Richard: I'm just looking at the pictures.
Richard: It's free to look, Mark.
Richard: February 1977, Glamour.
Richard: The 10 big fashion questions to check before you buy.
Richard: And your new beauty and health priorities.
Richard: And what happened to romantic men?
Richard: Hello, Slithis.
Mark: Well, see, I was thinking one piece denim jumper.
Richard: Right, right.
Richard: Here's one for Jack and Helen.
Richard: Could your marriage use help, how to tell, and where to get it?
Mark: Slithus.
Mark: I think Slithus is the answer to everything.
Richard: How to tell and where to get it.
Richard: That didn't make sense.
Richard: But yes, Slithus is the answer.
Richard: Here comes the big one.
Richard: Special guide for working women, how to handle money, men, management, mistakes, marriage,
Richard: and last but not least, mothering.
Mark: you can't have all that richard i know a girl can't have it all women cannot do all that and
Richard: then in the smallest font on the bottom right of the cover by the way it's christy brinkley on the
Mark: cover hilarious oh i thought that just went without saying oh yeah big year for christy brinkley
Richard: in the bottom on the smallest font update on gynecological problems and solutions
Richard: again richard slithes he's the cause and the solution oh my lord i found that very fun
Richard: so now we have doomed show royalty before i talk about who this actor is that's playing the detective
Richard: will you please tell me what is going on mark with this uh meeting of the minds between uh
Mark: our journalism teacher and this uh police detective so the detective the lieutenant
Mark: has already had enough of him from before, but we never saw.
Mark: But now I feel that this actor is in a different movie.
Richard: Than everyone else.
Mark: Everyone else.
Mark: So just in my mind, I know this can't physically happen because of Christians,
Mark: but in my mind, Charles Nelson Reilly has made it with Harvey Firestein.
Mark: And that's their offspring is the lieutenant.
Mark: He's amped up to like 12 when everyone else is maybe at a four.
Mark: He's just so upset and distraught,
Mark: but he belongs in like a Sid and Marty Croft show,
Mark: like H.R. Puff and stuff or Lidsville or something.
Mark: He is wonderful, deserves his own movie,
Mark: so not in vibey and character with anyone else.
Mark: He's not like vibing or jiving with anyone else's mojo that they're putting off.
Mark: He's in a totally different film.
Mark: And I almost wonder if they didn't have this actor and they wrote Slyphus all around him.
Mark: And that's why everyone else is so not as interesting as the lieutenant because he's amazing.
Richard: Oh, yes.
Richard: Good call.
Richard: That's funny.
Richard: So this is High Pike, H-Y-P-Y-K-E, his biggest movie ever.
Richard: is Blade Runner. In Blade Runner, when Harrison Ford is shaking people down at this bar with all
Richard: the ladies dancing with the exotic snakes and whatnot, his contact there is a sleazeball
Richard: named Taffy. And you would think you would never connect this actor as the same person.
Richard: Not only does he have totally different, he has no facial hair as this guy Taffy.
Richard: He has his hair slicked back and it's like he's channeling a 1940s sleazeball noir baddie.
Richard: And it's so different than what the insanity that he's doing in Slithis that it's like two different people.
Richard: The reason he's doomed show royalty, however, is from a little episode called Hack-O-Lantern
Richard: that Jeffrey and I did many years ago.
Richard: And he is the evil grandpa in Hack-O-Lantern.
Richard: He's go to hell, Bill.
Richard: He's that guy.
Richard: And he's amazing.
Richard: He's more like that character in this than he is in Blade Runner.
Richard: But this is so crazy.
Richard: This is like, I have to pause the movie for a minute to catch my breath from this performance.
Richard: It's wild.
Richard: Abs, I'm going to play some of his dialogue for you folks
Richard: You have to hear this shit
Richard: It's crazy
Richard: Like you said, they made the movie around him
Richard: I feel like they let him write all of his dialogue
Richard: Because he doesn't talk like anybody else in the movie
Richard: To a point of exaggeration
Mark: It's wonderful on so many levels
Richard: Thank you
Richard: Freaking Glenn Del Rossi
Richard: For picking this movie
Richard: Because I did not know
Richard: It would have taken me years to get to slip this
Richard: This is great
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: And if I were not dissatisfied with this mutilation theory myself, you would not be sitting in my office at this time.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: But I do not believe one word of your slither story.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: Slithis.
Spawn of the Slithis Clip: Oh, pardon me. Slithis. Story.
Richard: Now it's nighttime, and it is the hunt. The hunt is on.
Richard: after a hilarious discussion between john christopher columbus connors and jeff of like just
Richard: terrible editing terrible editing scene it's like a montage almost but it's like the same
Richard: conversation done as a montage i've seen this in movies done subtly where someone has to exposition
Richard: dump and they cut to three locations and it's one of those things your brain it takes your brain out
Richard: the movie a little bit you're like okay this is a fun way to make an exposition scene more tolerable
Richard: by moving people from location to location but you think about them pausing mid-sentence getting in a
Richard: car driving 30 minutes without saying a word going to a new location then starting up the conversation
Richard: again but this is cut with a razor blade this is a rusty razor blade this is so awkward the four of
Richard: them talking and i wish i was there because that's the thing this was a tough movie to shoot we'll
Richard: talk about the scheduling but this part looked like it was a freaking blast to be a part of i
Richard: love it at some point christopher columbus says white boy please and i loved it the monster hunt
Richard: is happening christopher columbus and wayne are on the boat for some reason john and jeff are on the
Richard: on the water hanging out by the water's edge and they have to run for their lives because slithous
Richard: is coming after them.
Richard: Where do they go?
Mark: So they're in that station wagon.
Richard: Beautiful station wagon.
Mark: Whenever I see movies like this, I'm like, yeah.
Mark: But then like Slinthus like just keeps pounding on it.
Richard: Yeah.
Mark: And then eventually rips off the door.
Richard: Yep.
Richard: Yep.
Mark: Well, I really don't know why they didn't get out the other side because you were pounding
Mark: on the one side and just exit through the driver's side.
Mark: They didn't do that.
Mark: A series of like misfortunate events take place afterwards because the station wagon goes
Mark: off a cliff and explodes but before doing that it backs up into another car who just happened to be
Mark: in the wrong place at the wrong time and that one topples over yeah they they knock a poor innocent
Richard: couple it's like their car goes down the dunes like yeah oh my god it's so funny luckily dr john
Richard: is not harmed he's still survived i was so scared thank god as was jeff they managed to survive
Richard: and they've been tracking
Richard: Slithus and throwing some gnarly looking
Richard: fish head chum into the freaking
Richard: water to attract
Richard: Slithus and they've been using some
Richard: sonar which we never see we just hear
Mark: going bloop bloop bloop bloop bloop
Richard: and it comes after them
Richard: so it goes after Christopher Columbus
Richard: and Wayne and they have a big battle royale
Richard: on the boat
Richard: and your theory about is our
Richard: black character going to survive
Richard: does not look very good
Richard: because he's looks like he's having his guts eaten but they didn't want to kill this character
Richard: because they wanted to make a sequel someday thank you trivia and so despite looking dead he's okay
Richard: um they managed to quote unquote kill slithous and they decide to oh my god i'm skipping the
Richard: least important most important characters nick nick and mike oh my god so we get introduced
Richard: the characters that were supposed to yeah somehow these two guys were just like deckhands for for
Richard: christopher columbus they get lines of dialogue and everything like they get they get awkward
Richard: shots where they're introduced they look into the camera like hey what's up then they get lines of
Mark: dialogue and they're immediately killed it's so weird immediately killed yeah well i like is it
Mark: i can't remember if it's mike or nick but like slith is actually like he gets hung upside down
Mark: and Slythus kills him, but then also bites his stomach
Richard: is the last insult.
Richard: Just chewing on them guts.
Mark: Yeah, at the end, they went through all this trouble
Mark: and they're debating whether or not they should keep the thing
Mark: or throw it overboard.
Mark: And I'm like, hello, you keep Slythus.
Mark: You don't drop him back into the water.
Richard: No, and plus, this proves your crazy bullshit theories.
Mark: Right.
Richard: Yes, so they throw him into the water
Richard: and seconds later
Richard: Slithus
Richard: his arm shoots out and grabs
Richard: Wayne by the leg and he screams
Richard: we get a freeze frame, the end
Richard: which I'm so sorry
Richard: this is like after the fact
Mark: but during the fight scene did you notice
Mark: that Slithus' arm came and went
Mark: what?
Mark: go back and watch it
Mark: I think that
Mark: Christopher Columbus Alexander
Mark: was supposed to have cut it off
Mark: because there's certain scenes where slith is doesn't have his arm and then he's like and he's
Mark: got his arm again and then he doesn't have it it goes back and forth please go back and watch this
Richard: i will they must have screwed up they must have forgotten to shoot something or so blatant the
Richard: film their shooting schedule was too tight or something oh my god i did not notice that
Mark: that's amazing i love it now did you at all watch the italian version with the nudity dropped in
Richard: what are you fucking kidding me yeah are you making a joke i'm making a joke oh thank god
Richard: we saw the one lady's we saw we saw the one lady's boob oh my god can you imagine
Mark: but just with like hardcore scenes dropped in without any characters whatsoever
Richard: Dude, I've watched over 50 Jess Franco movies.
Mark: I was just going to say, it's a Franco.
Richard: It's a Franco cut.
Richard: So if you're watching a Jess Franco movie, if you're watching either a French or Italian version, you're going to get some unrelated penises and vaginas.
Mark: You're like, wait a minute, when was Lena Romay in Slithis?
Richard: Right, right.
Richard: I know her body anywhere.
Richard: Thank you, Jess Franco.
Richard: Oh my god
Richard: So yeah, I have a lot of trivia
Richard: I'm going to try to make this quick, folks
Richard: This is insane
Richard: So, first up, this movie was shot in 12 days
Richard: With 15 hour shoots a day, of course
Richard: Because that's what you need for Slithus
Richard: The actor, his name is Wyn Condict
Richard: which that's a crazy name but this guy was sewed into the suit for day like the entire shoot
Richard: i feel bad for him the lady who made it was a non-professional she was she was a seamstress
Richard: and some kind of sculptor or something but yes she made this very uncomfortable costume that he
Mark: couldn't get in and out of every day so yes the director home like oh yeah like when he went home
Mark: what was home life like for
Richard: no I think they're exaggerating
Richard: I think they just he just had to be in it
Richard: for 15 hours I was excited
Mark: to see like solicits like mow the lawn
Mark: and then make sweet love
Richard: yep yep or he put his
Richard: clothes on because he always puts his clothes on when he
Mark: gets up in the middle always and he's not gonna wear
Mark: that robe the film was given an R rating
Richard: from the MPAA so the filmmakers
Richard: trimmed it down to PG
Richard: and then
Richard: resubmitted it got the PG
Richard: and then before they screened it, they put all the gore back in. So people were going to see an
Richard: R-rated movie that was rated PG. There's a fan-made sequel, and I put this in quotes,
Richard: sequel on YouTube called Behold the Slithis. I found this by accident. On YouTube, Behold the
Richard: Slithis. It's a feature-length movie shot on video cameras, made by some kids with help from adults.
Richard: I didn't watch it, but I skipped through it.
Richard: It's crazy.
Richard: This was a fan-made love letter to the original Slithus
Richard: with a monster suit that looks vaguely like the Slithus monster.
Richard: So shout out to whoever those kids are who made this movie.
Richard: Behold the Slithus, 2013.
Richard: But that's not what I got from Stephen Thrower's Nightmare USA.
Richard: Let me jog my memory real quick here of all this.
Richard: There's almost too much here.
Richard: So for about five pages, he talks to the people who made Slithis.
Richard: Mr. Stephen Traxler was a Vietnam vet.
Richard: He wanted to be a filmmaker and was doing some local theater and stuff like that.
Richard: And then got drafted, went in, was a decorated war hero, survived Vietnam, came back, and figured his best way to get into the film industry was just to make an independent movie.
Richard: So he wrote Slithis and shopped it around for years and finally got lucky and found a bunch of investors to make the movie.
Richard: So he raised $100,000 and shot this thing with non-professionals and some professionals, local theater people, and got a terrible distribution deal.
Richard: One of his producers is named Dick Davis, and Dick Davis was a character.
Richard: Aside from stealing most of the money, they made a lot of merch.
Richard: They made the Slithis survival kits, which Mark had the great question of what the hell is in that?
Mark: I pictured tartar sauce.
Richard: Ooh, there was a Slithis.
Richard: That's funny.
Richard: It's vinegar.
Richard: the malt vinegar once he fried up.
Richard: So you could join the Slivis fan club.
Richard: A lot of this merch was never mailed out to anyone.
Richard: The Davis guy just pocketed the money,
Richard: but he was like a really loud braggart
Richard: who would hype up his connection to famous Hollywood types.
Richard: Like he swore he was friends with Mickey Rooney.
Richard: And let me find this here.
Richard: That was really funny.
Mark: Pia Zadora.
Richard: Pia Zadora.
Richard: Davis was described as a small man who is loud and obnoxious,
Richard: and he used to laugh loudly and say to people,
Richard: let's be friends now because the fucking comes later,
Richard: which turned out to be prophetic for everyone else involved
Richard: because he took all the money.
Richard: But the best piece of trivia here is Traxler was having trouble
Richard: getting distribution deals.
Richard: So he had the money.
Richard: The movie was made.
Richard: He was going to be able to show it at a drive-in, but he needed to promote it big time.
Richard: So he went on the local news.
Richard: He went on radio stations.
Richard: He took out ads in the paper to promote the debut of Slithis and made up a bunch of crazy
Richard: shit about what was in the movie and kind of overdid it with the hype machine.
Richard: So the night of the premiere at the drive-in, thousands of people showed up.
Richard: And the promise was that the monster was going to make a personal appearance.
Richard: As the night wore on and more and more and more people showed up, they called the cops to help with crowd control.
Richard: Because at the foot of the screen, there's a little stage.
Richard: And it was going to break because there were so many people crowded against it.
Richard: And then instead of having the monster walk across the stage because they knew people would get killed if the monster went on stage.
Richard: They had the monster stand on a building nearby the theater and they pointed all the spotlights at the monster and everyone rushed to go get the monster because they wanted to like touch it or something.
Richard: So they'd kick the ladder away so people couldn't climb up and get to the monster.
Richard: And the only thing that stopped the riot was they turned the movie on and everyone ran back to their cars to go and sit and watch it.
Mark: That's the power of Flipus.
Richard: that's the power of slithous man slithous slips in and never pulls out
Mark: that should have been the tagline the other one was behold behold slithous was the
Richard: behold the slithous 2013 but yes um tracksler never could make his sequel to this movie it was
Richard: going to be about christopher columbus because he was so taken with that actor and of course who
Richard: wouldn't be he's great he wanted a movie that's starring starring him at hunting down the slithers
Richard: for killing doctor i mean um mr journalism teacher wayne connors but then he has to work with the
Mark: lieutenant so it's just the lieutenant and christopher columbus yes yes so or dr john it was
Richard: it was dr john jeff and christopher columbus let's assume wayne connors didn't survive his
Richard: mauling by the slithers but uh yeah man that's me in mourning she ends up in dr john's arms man
Richard: prolific voice actor dr john oh man but that's all my trivia i i was it was just so much as
Richard: usual nightmare usa it's overwhelming i could have gone into so much more detail i wanted to give you
Richard: guys the not abbreviated enough version of what i learned oh but mark what do you think about this
Mark: one so i i love slithus so much i think slithus was one of the very first blu-rays that i paid a
Mark: ton of money for sure the old code red one right uh i think so i know i love slithus i love aquatic
Mark: horror and it's kind of aquaticy and it's kind of horny sure um but there's just something about
Mark: I think the fact that you could just tell that the person making it really did it with heart, and he felt like he was really doing something worthwhile.
Mark: It wasn't just thrown together.
Mark: And good God, I love that lieutenant.
Richard: Sure, sure.
Richard: Yeah, and I think in retrospect, the director is like, oh, we knew it was bad, blah, blah, blah.
Richard: And I'm like, I think you thought it was good back in the day.
Richard: Like, you know, he's, he's kind of trying to admit it has his faults.
Richard: I'm like, ah, fuck that.
Richard: It's great.
Richard: Yeah.
Richard: This is a great first time watch for me.
Richard: Oh man.
Richard: I was so excited.
Richard: This, this is just fun shit.
Richard: Um, I love the broken editing with this.
Richard: There's some corners cut.
Richard: That's great.
Richard: Um, referring to a scene we never see that was probably important or not is great.
Richard: I love when that happens.
Richard: Uh, but yeah, this, this is consistently entertaining this movie.
Richard: I always check to see how much movie I have left.
Richard: I'm one of those weird people.
Richard: Just,
Richard: just always is just,
Richard: I want to know how much movies left.
Richard: Cause I'm very interested in pacing and how time flies.
Richard: Like when you're watching a movie and you're like,
Richard: good Lord,
Richard: this is like the,
Richard: we're about to get into the climax of the movie.
Richard: And you've only seen half an hour of a 90 minute movie.
Richard: You're like,
Richard: Oh crap.
Richard: What are they going to do?
Richard: This movie?
Richard: I was like,
Richard: they don't have much time left.
Richard: Cause I didn't check until like hour and 10.
Richard: I was like,
Richard: wow.
Richard: so yeah they made a very good um uh very good they made a movie with some some rather good
Richard: pacing i think it's fun even with the exposition because the exposition is amazingly silly
Mark: And the turtle race don't forget that the turtle race i wanted more of that that was so wonderful
Richard: legs mcgurkle was uh now on the on the freaking doom show mount rushmore now
Richard: The only other thing I could find about this movie
Richard: Groovy Doom
Richard: Is a wonderful, wonderful
Richard: Site
Richard: They have zines for sale
Richard: And they always are
Richard: Digging through
Richard: The newspapers
Richard: Of the times
Richard: To find drive-in
Richard: Flyers and movie posters
Richard: To show
Richard: What were movies paired with
Richard: and I found some really fun stuff that Slithis was paired with
Richard: because Slithis did end up getting out there to the people.
Richard: It played a lot.
Richard: I don't know how many years or months it was being distributed
Richard: judging by late 70s, early 80s drive-ins and grindhouse theaters.
Richard: Slithis probably played for like two or three years
Richard: before it finally stopped getting distributed.
Richard: But it played with Phantasm.
Richard: sometimes it played with buck rogers of the 25th century so the movie they cut together from the
Richard: tv show and was um distributed in theaters um it played with a favorite of mine called the dark
Richard: which is wonderful with cathy lee crosby yes yes it freaking played with kingdom of the spiders
Richard: oh baby um it played with uh this is my favorite triple feature it played with the people that time
Richard: forgot and the 1970s king kong oh wow wowie wow wow which you know what mark i've never seen the
Mark: most jarring one would be the phantasm pairing yeah that's that's a weird pairing good call
Richard: but i've never seen the 1976 king kong i've seen clips of it from back in the day on cable
Richard: but I've never watched the whole movie.
Mark: Oh, you need to see that.
Richard: I do.
Mark: I mean, I saw it on original release in the theaters,
Mark: but it's something else.
Richard: Nice.
Mark: Yeah.
Mark: Cool.
Richard: So before I let you flee this place
Richard: and go back to your canal searching to find Slavis,
Richard: we'd like to do a little segment on the show.
Mark: Oh, don't even put that out there.
Mark: Now I can't sleep, Richard.
Richard: eyes wide two in the morning slip is uh before i before you go we have a little segment on here
Richard: called recently seen and loved and uh we pick a movie any genre could be an old favorite could
Richard: be unseen or a first time watch rather uh what do you got mark so mine is not an older film it's a
Mark: fairly recent film, so I don't want to get too into it. It's called Cuckoo from 2024.
Mark: Yay!
Mark: Have you seen Cuckoo?
Richard: It is my favorite movie of the year for 2024.
Mark: Okay. All right. Yeah. So, director Tillman Singer, I'm actually going to ask your input
Mark: on my description of it. To me, it seemed like a extended X-Files shot by David Lynch,
Mark: and just briefly, David Cronenberg popped in and said, hey, let's do this too.
Richard: Yep. And let's barely explain the mechanics of what's happening.
Mark: Which doesn't bother me at all.
Richard: Even though it's really important, but also just like you, I didn't give a fuck.
Richard: I don't care. I don't need to explain.
Richard: After all these hundreds and hundreds of monster movies,
Richard: hundreds and hundreds of science gone wrong,
Richard: I don't want to hear the explanation. Let me use my imagination. That's fine.
Richard: I find it very cute that a lot of people that didn't like Cuckoo, they just needed an explanation of what they need more info about what is happening, why these incidents are taking place in this weird remote mountain area of Germany.
Richard: And I couldn't care less why.
Richard: Because it's style, man.
Richard: It's all about the style.
Richard: Well, it's Germany.
Mark: Yeah.
Richard: Yeah.
Mark: And it's Germany, so you know that that happens anyway.
Richard: Right.
Richard: That's just how they do things over there.
Mark: That's how they roll.
Richard: But I'm glad you enjoyed Cuckoo.
Richard: I love it.
Mark: Yeah, no, it's, oh, I love it.
Mark: I saw it in the theater.
Richard: Back in the States, the last thing I saw on the stage.
Richard: Apparently the Blu-rays are finally shipping, for those of you out there.
Richard: I have a friend who's been waiting.
Richard: They accidentally pre-ordered it.
Richard: They thought they were ordering it, and they waited three months to get a copy of this movie.
Richard: Excellent choice.
Richard: Excellent choice.
Richard: I picked a movie that I used to not like as much as I do now.
Richard: Listeners of the show might remember that when it comes to the big three of Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Friday the 13th, there's almost zero films in those three franchises I don't love in some way.
Richard: And we rewatched, because it was Friday the 13th recently, Friday the 13th Part 8, Jason Takes Manhattan.
Richard: Excuse me, colon, Jason Takes Manhattan.
Richard: And I used to not like this movie that much.
Richard: Nafa, who used to be a co-host on this show, rest in peace, he loved that one because he saw
Richard: Jason Takes Manhattan in the theater with his mom. She took him to see it and they had a blast and
Richard: he's always loved it. And it took me a while to come around to it. And every time I watch it,
Richard: I forget that it is fucking crazy. That movie, every time something crazy happens and you're
Richard: just shaking your head in disbelief before you can open your mouth and talk about it with the
Richard: person you're watching it with or persons um something else crazy happens and you just sit
Richard: there in a stupor because it keeps one-upping itself with crazy shit and it's so awkward and
Richard: weirdly made on top of the crazy shit so it's kind of a broken movie and also one that's trying
Richard: really hard to entertain you it's masterfully stupid it's the only one of the first original run
Richard: of the friday the 13th where the the cut scenes aren't gore because like parts uh parts
Richard: four through seven were cut a lot they filmed a lot of gore they're trying to hedge their bets
Richard: by filming a lot because they knew the mpa was coming for them so the mpaa would cut those gore
Richard: scenes and make it like obviously censored but part eight they tried a different method which is
Richard: they didn't film as much gore scene they saved money and made the movie less gory anyway
Richard: and so most of the deleted scenes on the disc are dialogue explaining what's going on
Richard: all of those got cut because the plot of the movie is this high school is really close to
Richard: Camp Crystal Lake. And because so many people have died, they're shutting the school down.
Richard: So this is the last graduating class and it's their senior trip to take a boat to Vancouver.
Richard: Oops, I meant New York City. They filmed a few shots of New York City and the rest is all
Richard: Vancouver. Yeah, it's real stupid. The worst thing they cut was Jason Voorhees has a tiny
Richard: version of himself as a child that lives in his mouth yes there's a moment when in when jason gets
Richard: spoiler alert uh for you know a 3 000 year old movie jason gets hit with some some radioactive
Richard: waste and he opens his mouth and a bunch of water comes rushing out from crystal lake presumably
Richard: because clean water that comes out and they cut a shot of it they made a giant jason mouth and had
Richard: this little kid actor struggling to get out of the mouth and the movie's so weird why not leave that
Richard: part in you know like they're crazy what they cut i don't know anyway i would love to see
Richard: a new edit of that movie with all those crazy dialogue scenes put back in makes you wonder
Mark: if someone's done it like a like a fan dude if i had the time if i was retired i'm not giving you
Richard: hints here mark i was just gonna say but if i was retired and i had nothing to do and now i don't
Richard: believe fan edits are a bad thing at all i've known people are silly about that's like trying to like
Richard: create a new reality for uh frustrated film fans who are never happy it's like no no no no it's a
Richard: thought experiment i would love to just see what the movie would be like with those scenes put back
Richard: in it doesn't replace the original it's not like uh george it sounds like george lucas tinkering
Mark: with george lucas gets a hold of it and then we just the original jason takes manhattan we never
Mark: get to see again unless you own old vhs copies you got to give george credit he told everybody
Richard: what he when those blu-rays came out of the original star wars trilogy he's like this is
Richard: the last time you'll be able to buy these and it was we didn't know about mcclunky
Richard: anyway enough mcclunky mark thank you for joining me today you are totally welcome i always love
Mark: joining you um flippus was just prime prime fodder to be talked about unless you're me and i couldn't
Richard: talk about anything today but the listeners won't know what i struggled with the power of flippus
Richard: Yeah, man, I still got slithes in my system.
Richard: Folks, thanks for listening.
Richard: Take care of your pet slithes.
Richard: Don't let them into the freaking canals.
Richard: Please don't.
Richard: Don't let your slithes grow up to be cowboys.
Mark: I really am concerned because I also have two dogs.
Mark: I'm just dangling like fate.
Mark: I'm tempting fate.
Mark: I'm like, come on, slithes. Come on.
Richard: You've got it you've got to make uh fake dogs you've got to have some uh some standees
Richard: standees hand puppet stand-ins anyway i'm gonna stop recording this needs to stop
Richard: folks thanks so much for listening to this episode if you'd like to write into the show
Richard: send an email to doomedmoviethon at gmail or hit us up at doomedmoviethon on instagram or at
Richard: doomedmoviethon on twitter or at doomedmoviethon at discord or go to hello this is the doomed show
Richard: on facebook and message us there if you want more hello this is the doomed show go to doomedmoviethon.com
Richard: and click the podcast button for the archive or go to youtube and look up doomedmoviethon and you'll
Richard: find the classic episodes of Hello, This is the Doomed Show. And if that's still not enough,
Richard: I have written some books, you know, about my love of movies over on Amazon.com. Just look up
Richard: Richard Glenn Schmidt and you'll find Giallo Meltdown, A Movie Thon Diary, Giallo Meltdown 2,
Richard: Cinema Somnambulist, or Doomed Movie Thon, the book. Hello, This is the Doomed Show is a proud
Richard: member of the Legion Podcasts Network, goto Legionpodcasts.com and check out the other great
Richard: shows over there.