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A podcast that holds horror to standards horror never agreed to. Hosts Jeremy Whitley, Ben Kahn, Emily Martin and guests watch, read, listen to, and check out movies, tv shows, comics, books, art and anything else from the horror genre and discuss it through a progressive lens. We'll talk feminism in horror, LGBTQ+ issues and representation in horror, racial and social justice in horror, disability and mental health/illness in horror, and the work of female and POC directors, writers, and creators in horror.
We're the podcast horror never agreed to take part in.
Ben: You find yourself in a
waiting room and there will be
like a version of Judge Judy.
Emily: My dad watches so much, judge
Judy, and I can't, I cannot handle it
Jeremy: Does he watch
the new Judge Judy show
Emily: I maybe, I don't
Jeremy: Justice, I think it's called,
it's on one of the streaming platforms.
I, I saw an ad for it and I
was like, that can't be real.
Emily: I mean, it's definitely
not streaming, so, no,
Jeremy: you guys
Ben: How are y'all doing?
Happy birthday, Jeremy.
Jeremy: Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
The, the official day is on Friday,
but uh, thought this was a good uh,
good time to throw in this ridiculous
piece of important cinema right
Ben: I had never seen it before, so I'm
Jeremy: Oh, I'm so happy.
Ben: this is a pretty important
one for me to cross off the list.
Emily: Yes.
I'm glad that you have Come here with us.
I'm all out of bubblegum.
That's all I have.
Jeremy: good evening and welcome to
Progressively Horrified the podcast for
the old horror to progressive standards.
Never agreed to tonight.
It's my birthday.
So for once, we're gonna watch
a movie with our real message.
So hold onto your butts.
It's time to talk about they live.
I'm your host Jeremy Whitley, and
with me tonight I have a panel
of cinephiles and Sena bytes.
First, they're here to challenge the
sexy werewolf, sexy vampire binary.
My co-host Ben Kahn.
Ben, how are you tonight?
Ben: I have never seen a movie that
has aged both so fantastically and
been so prescient, and yet also aged
so horrifically at the same time.
Jeremy: It couldn't be more eighties.
They live in the same New York
as the Ninja Turtles, I swear.
And it's not
Emily: a Los Angeles.
Yeah.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ben: This is a movie with the political
message of capitalism is exploitative.
Oligarchs will use controlled media to
sow descent and beware for true societal,
psychological ops, and also don't
trust women and valorize mass shooters.
It, it's a real scatter
board of like, bullseye and
Jeremy: mass shooters was like
not a thing at the point that
this movie came out, which I think
is, is the a point against it.
Like it's
Ben: I know, I know.
It might be that.
There's so much that is so true today
that it throws you off where it's like,
oh, you did not realize how uncomfortable
this workplace shooting imagery would be.
In 1988,
Jeremy: Yeah, absolutely.
And of course our co-host the
Cinnamon Roll of Seno Bites.
Emily Martin.
Emily, how are you tonight?
Emily: I'm good.
I'm considering just changing all of
my artist statements, LinkedIn profile,
all that stuff to the, descriptor.
Gay abandoned rushes to meet
the roaring nineties, just to
describe myself in my style.
A line that was not reproduced in
the subtitles, and that's a crime.
Jeremy: Yeah, sadly, it's
Ben: I watched this movie on YouTube and
found it impossible to watch with the
subtitles on because the subtitles are
constantly 12 seconds behind the movie.
Emily: shit.
Oh no.
Jeremy: I watched this movie on digital
video disc a thing on which I owned
Ben: Oh damn.
Emily: wow.
Ben: getting fucking fancy.
Jeremy: Yeah, it doesn't
have subtitles on dvd.
Emily: I watched it on Amazon Prime
where it did have subtitles, but
the subtitles deviated significantly
from the actual dialogue,
especially when it came to swears.
So a lot less swears.
Ben: No subtitle Experience
for me Will Ever Top.
When I watched Def Race 2000, like the
original, like seventies one, back when
YouTube had like autogenerated subtitles,
Emily: Oh, they still have those.
Ben: at no point in the movie do
the subtitles recognize Sylvester
Stallone's lines as human speech.
Emily: Well, I mean,
Ben: Not that they get them wrong,
that no subtitles whatsoever up here.
When he is talking, it just does
not recognize that there are sounds
happening that it needs to describe.
Jeremy: I can't imagine it was
much better with Jason Statham.
It's probably just like lots of
question marks, English grunting
uh, Ben, you said this was your
first time uh, watching they live.
I know Emily and I have seen it before.
What are, what are your sort of
immediate impressions of they live?
Ben: What an absolutely delightful.
Over the top.
Hilarious.
Just like.
Love of movie making that also h
hits so deep in my soul and just
blocks every bit of cynicism and
makes me go, oh, we're fucked.
We're so fucked.
Emily: a little Idiocracy like
Ben: 1988 and everything's
just gotten worse.
Emily: I mean,
Jeremy: Yeah.
except, what I will say about
this movie is this movie is very
sure that it has absolutely no gay
subtext, except it really loves
this shirtless rowdy Roddy Piper.
Emily: And Keith,
Ben: And can
Emily: Roddy Pipe are like cohabitating,
you know, and having like a very heart
to heart moment with each other in a
hotel room that they can get together.
Ben: also?
Okay.
In terms of queer content, like.
Ronnie has that line where it
is like ain't love of grand
after they check into the hotel.
So I'm not sure if that's homophobic
or I don't know what that was like.
I wasn't sure how to interpret that line.
Also, you will never fucking convince me
that Holly Holly's neighbors the pistachio
open Hawaiian shirt wearing that next
door are like just the living it up.
Gay couple.
Jeremy: Oh yeah.
I
mean, they're up in the Hollywood Hills.
Emily: Yeah, for
Ben: Yeah, just the fucking
eighties Hollywood gays.
Jeremy: Yeah, no, no.
We uh, I mean, usually we do
a whole like synopsis and talk
about what happens in the movie.
I think the important thing to say
about this is that it is written
and directed by John Carpenter.
It is based on a short story from
the sixties by Ray Nelson called
eight o'clock in the morning.
So I'm guessing it was almost a
settle in the eighties as it is now.
And it is a movie.
I mean, it is a
Emily: but it's a movie.
Jeremy: but it is a movie about how
uh, the upper elites are stealthily
controlling you by putting subliminal
messages in all of your entertainment.
And in this case, they're actually
aliens, except for some of them are people
working with the aliens that are happy
to help bring, you know, the rest of
Ben: Oh yes.
One of this movie's important
themes is that not all skin
folk are kin folk or human folk
Emily: Well those guys didn't have skin,
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ben: I'm talking more of the humans
that the humans that they constantly
get bet portray by the normal humans.
Emily: yeah, this is in the most
literal term, not all skin folk
or kinfolk, because Yeah, it's
like skin versus without skin.
Ben: I mean, it's an
anti-capitalism movie.
I mean, it's very good and very
anti oligarch movie, and it's
very good at showing the the
alluring corruptness of capitalism.
Jeremy: yeah.
I, I think it's important to say
outright that in the early two thousands,
some uh, neo-Nazi assholes tried to
co-opt this movie as it being about
Jews secretly running the world.
And John Carpenter straight up came online
and was like, this is about Reaganomics.
You stupid assholes.
Go away.
Emily: Good for
Ben: be clear.
Again, as team Jewish person,
there's nothing remotely
anti-Semitic in the movie whatsoever.
Emily: fuck David.
E man.
Jeremy: all the aliens that we see
in human form are all white like
Ben: Super waspy aliens,
Emily: yeah.
Like was me to the extreme, like, you
know, their hair is feathered and clothed.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Emily: Mostly blonde.
Jeremy: we do need to
talk about the stars of this
movie because they're amazing.
This is one of, this is one of a
handful and perhaps the only good
movie in which the professional
wrestler, rowdy Roddy Piper Stars.
And boy, that man loved this
movie till the day he died.
Ben: As well.
He should.
It's fantastic.
Also, he's in some absolute
bangers of, it's always sunny
in Philadelphia episodes.
Jeremy: yeah.
Emily: Oh, I didn't know that.
Ben: Oh yeah.
He plays the, he plays a
professional wrestler with some
demons named to the mani to maniac,
Emily: Okay.
I mean, doesn't sound like too
Ben: He's only in a few
episodes, but every e time he
appears, he is just amazing.
Jeremy: I will say Lottie has some
like weird politics that he is, he is
not entirely clear on because like,
he has been asked about how he feels
about the politics of this movie,
and he said that he loves the movie.
He's been asked how he feels about, you
know, other political stuff in the past.
And he's basically said like,
listen, I don't have any right
to talk about American politics.
I'm from fucking Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Like I got nothing to say about it.
But you know, I, I love this movie.
I love what it's saying.
I think my favorite thing about this
movie is when he got cast in this movie
by John Carpenter, his boss at the W w F.
Now, w w e Vince McMahon told
him he could not do this movie.
He told him he needed to find another
movie that Vince would find a movie
that paid him twice as much to do,
and Roddy told him he could go fuck
himself and let himself get fired,
and then went out and did this movie.
And then he was been very vocal about the
fact that when he ended up coming back,
he got paid four times what he did before.
Ben: Hell yeah.
I mean he is singularly delightful in
this, like so much of what sells this
movie is like serious yet fun tone.
Like I'm not sure if it's
quite camp, but it takes itself
so seriously in a silly way.
And so much of that is just the energy
that Roddy Piper brings that, and I
don't think any other actor at the
time could bring this very singular
energy that he does to the movie.
Emily: So we're saying things
like singular energy, and I wanna
be perfectly clear about Mr.
Rowdy and his performance.
It is campy.
He delivers these quips
with about the same.
Cadence as like some AI do, but
the biggest difference is that,
you know, that his heart is in it.
Honestly, the most convincing, like actual
delivery, like, I mean, he's a wrestler
and he is, he's being a cartoon character.
And that's what's important about
this movie, like other movies.
Ben: are still far away from
Dave Batista hitting the acting
Emily: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I mean, like, honestly, if
I'm gonna be brutally honest about
this, like I could have even gone
for something more campy and crazy.
Like if it was Randy Savage and he was
like, oh yeah, run out of Bubble Gum.
Like that kind
Ben: What if Ultimate
Warrior made they live
Emily: But he's a cartoon
character and that's fine.
And
Ben: for those of you at home, Jeremy
just made the biggest cringe face
when I mentioned Ultimate Warrior.
Jeremy: I mean, the ultimate warrior
was a super right wing crackhead who
died of, of doing too much cocaine.
Who I happened to love when I was the
age that I saw this movie the first time.
But like Hulk Hogan has turned
out to be a real dipshit, and
as he got older, he is dead now.
So, unlike Hulk Hogan, he can't
continue to do stupid shit every day.
But
yeah, he's, oh God.
Emily: But yeah, so,
Ben: should I be laughing this much?
Emily: no, it's fine.
I think it's, I think it's hilarious.
You know,
Ben: pretty
Jeremy: you were talking about the cartoon
characteristic of him, and I think one of
the things you're referring to, and one of
the things that people know best from this
movie, Is the line he says when he walks
into the bank with the shotgun and he
says, I came here to chew bubble gum and
kick ass, and I'm all outta bubble gum.
My favorite fact is that that is not in
the script of this movie, is that like
he needed to deliver a one-liner here.
And so he and John Carpenter sat down
and went through Roddy's notebook where
he'd written down shit for his character
to say in the ring in wrestling.
And like they found that as like one
of his things he'd written down and
John Carpenter was like, I love that.
That's perfect for the movie.
And so they put it
in the movie.
Emily: What did that come from Him?
Jeremy: Yeah, it comes from Roddy, Roddy
Ben: That's
Emily: that's that's important.
It's really important, y'all,
this is a cultural touchstone.
This is, you're witnessing the birth
of a meme here, like, and a serious
Ben: just a
straight up, I mean
also just a straight
up iconic film moment.
Emily: Yeah.
And, but like, again, he's like, I just
wanna say he's, acting opposite Keith.
David, who is like an actor.
And it's really funny because
he's like, you can see Keith,
David like trying really hard
to act and rowdy rowdy piper's.
Like, oh yeah, this sunglasses,
Jeremy: Yeah.
Cause like
Emily: a bitch and she's in heat.
Ben: Seeing Keith David in 1988 has
made me realize Keith, David has
never been baby a day in his life.
Jeremy: yeah.
Cause this is like a year after the thing.
Like John Carpenter made the
thing, put Keith David in that.
He liked him so much that he
was like, Hey, you wanna be this
character in this movie too.
Roddy's part was written for
Kurt, and he was just like, you've
been in my last four movies.
I gotta find somebody else
to be the hero of this movie.
Ben: That
out
Emily: Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jeremy: yeah.
So he, he went and got
Ben: just like again, at what age
did Keith, David get that voice?
Like at this point, I'm just
imagining 12 year old Keith.
David already starting to
have a goatee with that voice.
Emily: He's never had hair.
Ben: Keith David has never
been baby a day in his life.
Jeremy: mother, I'm going
to be late to school.
You've
gotta
Ben: Okay.
The baby Forest
Emily: peel.
Yeah.
Ben: from the key and field.
Go, go Gaga.
Emily: Go Gogo.
Jeremy: Yeah.
And you know, for the fact
that like Keith, David is.
An actor with like a Capital A that
he's so down for this movie that
like him and Roddy like actually
choreographed this fight scene themselves.
This
fight scene's supposed to be 30 seconds,
it's supposed to be 30 seconds in the
script, and they not only choreographed
it, they're actually hitting each
other, like with the exception of like
the punches to the face and the groin,
they're actually hitting each other
and like, you know, the two of them
like went into fucking John Carpenter's
backyard and worked this shit out.
And I love that.
Like, I
fucking love that
Ben: favorite fight scenes I've ever seen.
Jeremy: It goes on so
Ben: it,
that that's what makes it great, that it
just, and also that it goes on for so long
and it contributes nothing to the plot.
Emily: It's character
Ben: no
Jeremy: on these sunglasses
Emily: Yeah.
That's their conversation that.
Ben: And then q a six minute
fight scene that puts way too much
recent superhero fair to shame
Emily: Listen, they, okay, first of
all, they go through this fight scene.
They're like about to kill each other
in a certain minute, and then like the
next scene, they're checking into a motel
with each other, like all fucked up.
And that's love baby.
Like that's character development.
That's an arc.
Ben: After like the first 30 seconds,
like every 10 seconds that go by, you're
waiting for one of these guys to just
be like, what the fuck are we doing?
Fine.
Gimme the fucking sunglasses.
Emily: they, they start
Ben: don't, and it just keeps, oh, when
Keith, David like reaches out this hand
to help him up and then hits him again and
the fight goes on for another two minutes.
Emily: So good.
Ben: Amazing.
Emily: Oh good.
Ben: To carpenter's credit, it's
just like, it's a like, or I don't
know, just like cinematographer's
credit, it's well shot.
It is just basic like, Hey, we
are going to put the camera a far
enough distance away to show both
your bodies and then y'all are just
going to do your crazy choreography.
And we're just not, and we're just
gonna have the camera roll and we'll
do a cut like every 20 seconds or so.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: otherwise, we're just gonna
let you, we're just gonna capture
just this fucking no hold bar.
Be like bare knuckle brawl
Emily: So,
Ben: from two men who have no
ill feelings towards each other.
Emily: Yeah, you know, again,
this movie has about as much
subtlety as this fight scene.
Ben: Just the love and craft and balls
to the wall nest of this six minute fight
scene between the two main protagonists
that serves no plot and
just their willingness to
say, fuck it, let's go hard.
Emily: I.
Ben: I mean, that's the kind of stuff
that makes a movie a cult classic.
Emily: I will say that the most like
natural feeling, like non cartoony, like
real human acting point in this movie
from Roddy, Roddy Piper is when Keith,
David smashes the bottle and it fucks up,
like the prop bottle gets smashed wrong
or whatever, and he starts laughing.
It, that was good, but, okay, so
Ben: I love when Roddy first goes
for a nut shot and Keith, David
starts just like fucking calling
him out for dirty fighting.
Emily: and then like Keith, David hits
him in the nuts like five times in a row.
Ben: Well, by that point, Roddy,
like, once Roddy opened the
door to that like, you know,
Emily: Well,
Ben: Keith table was like, I didn't
start this shit, but I'm all finish it.
He didn't, but that was the energy.
But that was the attitude he had.
Emily: Roddy's character in this movie
is consistently like indestructible too.
Like the fucking, the girl like throws
him out of like a third story window onto
a fucking like hypodermic needle covered
hillside in LA and he just walks off.
He
Ben: survives the movie somehow.
Emily: well.
He doesn't, he gets exploded at the end.
Spoilers.
Ben: Yeah, He explodes, but then
we cut to after the, he exploding.
He is like, yep, fucking still here.
Flipping you off.
Emily: Yeah.
I mean, he's, I'm pretty sure he's dead.
Jeremy: I love that.
Like his last action of this movie
is to give them, like literally
give them the finger, like.
Ben: Roddy Piper is too
dumb to die in this movie.
Emily: I am.
A little pissed.
Like I, I am, my head canon is that
he is dead because so is Keith.
David.
And that's less problematic.
Our Friday is dead and Keith, David's
Jeremy: They're together in heaven.
Emily: they're together
in heaven looking over us.
Ben: Roddy's acting and line delivery,
fucking the Chew bubble gum and kick
ass iconic, can we appreciate that He
brings just as if not more gravitas and
action movie one-liners to the line.
I ain't daddy's little boy.
No more
Emily: I dunno if gravitas is the word.
Ben: attempted gravitas.
Emily: I feel like deliberateness,
like all of his line
readings are very deliberate.
Ben: That is like delivered
with all the confidence.
Like he's attempting to capture Arnold
Schwarzenegger saying, I lied in commando.
And what I'm learning is you
can't have the phrase daddy's
little boy in an action one-liner.
Jeremy: Nah, I,
Emily: I,
mean, there's a lot of challenges that he
attempts and, you know, I think that like
it's important to shoot for the stars.
Jeremy: I mean, we talk a lot about
like stage actors being in film
and how they stage act and stuff.
This is a man who was used to delivering
most of his lines to a chanting live
audience before dropping the microphone
and punching somebody in the face like,
Emily: yeah.
Ben: honestly, you, you can see that
WW Innocent is acting, which is one
reason why the fight scene is so great.
It's where his natural
skills actually get to shine.
And like, I mean, his ability to just
sell this fight like this is just so
believable as two men for no goddamn
reason at all, giving everything they
have to just the carnal pleasure of
pummeling another man with their fists.
Emily: Yeah, and it's all, I
mean, it's pretty consensual, I
think in a certain, in a a certain
Ben: Oh, a hundred percent.
This is absolutely a consensual fight.
Both of these men have dozens of
opportunities to stop punching each other,
and at no point do they choose to do
Emily: They're, they're wrapped in this,
in the process of punching each other.
They are, this is how they communicate.
It
is an
Ben: is some like stuff that
would be like, it's not gay.
It's like the Spartans.
They'd be like, ah, let me tell
you some stuff about the Spartans.
And they'd be like, we
don't want to hear it.
Emily: Yeah.
Well, you know, if you don't wanna hear
it doesn't mean that it's not true.
I do wanna really quick because
for the benefit of our listeners
that have not seen they live,
I am going to recap this movie,
Ben: Go watch it.
Emily: route.
Well first go watch
Ben: you're a listener who hasn't go
Emily: Okay.
But basically, Roddy, Roddy
Piper, he plays a guy named
George Nada or something.
I don't, they don't
really say his name in the
Jeremy: It's just, yeah, he doesn't,
he has no name in the movie.
His build is not a, the character
that he's based on from the
short story is named George Nada.
But I, I think Nada is like, you know,
doesn't really matter what his name is.
He is as every man as it gets.
Emily: yes,
Jeremy: He is a, a modern hobo
who rolls up on a train with his
backpack and is looking for work.
Emily: He's got a
perfectly feathered mullet.
He arrives , at the local
construction yard, meets Keith.
David follows Keith, David to a, a camp
where folks are squatting and a lot
of very well-groomed folks, but they
do have food and, and showers there.
And the nearby church is making magical
sunglasses that show everyone that,
like the world is run by aliens.
And then Roddy, Roddy Piper
finds out that, and then he's
like, oh, they're aliens.
And it very, very quickly escalates to
him finding every alien and shooting it.
Jeremy: Yeah, and we, we find out
that not only with these, not only
can you see that some of these people
are aliens disguised by some sort
of signal that they're putting out,
but also all of our media just has
underlying signs under it that say
things like, obey watch tv, buy things.
The money literally says money,
or, this is your God on it.
It's very subtle.
Emily: Oh yeah.
It's so artistically like nuanced,
Ben: I, I do love the concept of Roddy's
character, though, just like this, almost
stepping out of like our ideas of the
Great Depression, Americana, like the
Great America and like nomadic laborer
who believes in rock flag and eagle.
Like he has lines about how like
he believes like if he just works
hard and follows the rules, then
this country will take care of him.
And even the country's like, dude, we've
been through eight years of Reaganomics.
That is not gonna
fucking happen.
Emily: And you know, I mean, that's
the thing is that he doesn't, it
doesn't take a lot for him to be
convinced, like, oh, I'm wrong.
Oh fuck, okay, well, it's on now.
I'm all out of bubble gum.
Ben: it is.
It is crazy how, you look at this, you
think about like, NAFTA and Clinton,
and you think of it as more of like
a 21st century problem, but fuck, and
here's 1988 and here's a movie where
one, a main character, one of the,
like the major supporting characters.
Backstory is Deindustrialization
is fucking over middle class
Americans in the Midwest.
Jeremy: I mean like the men that pop
up on the TV that are hacking the tv,
literally say that they are like slowly
whittling down the middle class and
you know, everybody is the richer,
taking more and more and everybody
else is getting poor, which is like
literally a thing that's been in every
pre presidential debate since then.
And like it still this
scene in particular right?
Where like, Okay.
There's the church that's making magic
sunglasses that helps you see the stuff.
But to get to that, they literally
bulldoze a homeless encampment,
which is like a thing that
happens every fucking day still.
Ben: Yeah, that's the thing.
Like I watched that and I'm
like, you don't even need
like those sunglasses and the
resistance.
Like they would've just
bulldozed that anyway.
Emily: yeah, I mean, yeah,
like that's, that happened
recently here in Burn County.
Like really?
Like in Sausalito yeah, I think
Ben: The very first line of the movie,
the very fucking first line of smoking
dialogue in this movie is don't
apply for food stamps computer hour.
We're at a food stamps, so
don't even try getting help.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Emily: Yeah.
Jeremy: The, there's, there's
a lot of like silence over this
god forsaken bass riff that
plays through half of this movie.
But there's a
Emily: me.
All of the movie.
The entire movie.
Jeremy: there's a lot of not much else
going on in the first half except for
him looking at all of the bad stuff
that's going on, and it just feels like
he could be walking from scene to scene
and going, ah, things are tough all over.
Like,
Emily: Which is funny because
this movie this bass riff, this
like keyboard, saxophone, and
bass
Yeah I'm pretty sure is the is is
lifted by Square, I guess they were
square soft at the time to be the
slum music for Final Fantasy seven.
Like I'm
pretty sure that is the exact thing.
And they play when you're going around and
you're seeing, you're talking to MPCs and
they're like, all, like, times are tough.
Jeremy: and this is not,
this is not, unique to this
Ben: All citizens of Medgar
are really Roddy Piper.
Emily: That's who you have to
impress when you do all the squats
is there's Roddy Roddy's there.
And then you have Barrett
who's, well, he's based on Mr.
T, but you know,
Jeremy: He's a Keith,
Ben: you do gotta give a credit for Roddy.
Like he is just hanging out that
construction site shirtless.
And it's like, yeah, you're
definitely a pro wrestler.
Emily: yeah,
Jeremy: mean, and he's got a, he's got
a better body than most pro wrestlers
at the time because I think, you know,
eighties was a lot more like they've
got big arm muscles and then just like
a, you know, a keg in the middle and
like, dude, that's, that's ripped.
He's got
Ben: Oh, this dude, he's, he is looking
good in jeans and a mullet and nothing
Emily: Yeah.
He's got
Ben: He can crack a, he can
crack walnuts in those biceps,
Jeremy: I mean this, I don't, I
don't, know if you guys remember,
like when we had Lan on here.
He talked about meeting Roddy,
Roddy Piper, and him like
putting him in the sleeper hold.
Now he was gonna pretend
to be knocked out.
And how
like Roddy literally put him in the
sleeper hold and like clenched and
he doesn't remember anything after
Emily: and then he was on the floor.
Oh
Ben: I I believe it with those muscles.
Holy fuck.
Emily: Yeah.
So, do we wanna, I wanna
ask a question to the forum.
This movie did predict I mean, life
imitates art, imitates life, right.
So, I mean, if it did predict,
it certainly inspired things like
drones everywhere Apple Watch
Ben: Security drones.
Yep.
Emily: like, well, for I, I'm pretty sure
Ben: Well, I feel like, I'm pretty
sure Shepherd Fairy got the ideas from
Emily: Yeah.
Which is really hilarious to me because
then Shepherd Ferry took that idea
and then applied it to Obama and then,
yeah.
Yes.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Emily: But that worked, which is like,
Yeah, if you think about it, like, yeah,
Ben: So it all comes back to the
drones, is what you're saying.
Emily: and Andre the Giant, Shepherd
Ferry's work started with the Obey
with a picture of Andre the Giant
a k a, Andre the Giant has a posse.
Ben: I mean, I feel like this movie was
just very, I mean, I feel like Carpenter
was just very aware of how fucked
Reaganomics were, and we kind of haven't
ever escaped Reaganomics 40 years later.
So it's just like, is it prescient
or are we just still trapped in the
same political nightmare that he was
in 1988?
Emily: I think it's, the latter.
You know, I think that movies like
this need to happen because obviously
being subtle doesn't change a lot.
In some, in some cases, like this
movie was as unsettled as you can
get and unfortunately, you know,
we did get she ferry and you know,
there's that apple Watch can be cool,
Ben: where I think this movie
was a thousand percent ahead of its
time and totally predicted a trend.
This movie was ahead of the curve
in horror in liminal spaces.
Did y'all notice that?
How, like they're, that backstage,
they very well utilized liminal that
these beings exist from liminal space.
Emily: They, they come from
basically the back rooms, but
this is long before the back room.
This is like, this is, you know,
parking garage, back rooms instead
of like the convention center
part that's not being used for the
convention back rooms that you get
lost in, in like fucking disassociate
Ben: I will say the backrooms, backrooms
does have a better design versus, oh shit.
I definitely got lost in the JT Center.
Emily: Yeah, well the backrooms
also has like fucking print monsters
that come after you, but that's
different spoilers for the back rooms.
Jeremy: Yeah, so I, I think Basically
like he runs away from this bulldozing
and, and comes back to find a pair of
these glasses and then realizes that
when he puts them on, he can see who
the aliens are, he can see what the real
subliminal messages are behind everything.
He goes a little crazy and says
some shit to people who look like
aliens about how ugly they are.
Ben: him just openly insulting
this old lady to her face in,
Emily: He jumps to the insult, like
he straight up jumps to the insult.
He's not like, are you okay?
Where's your skin go?
He's just like, holy shit.
You're like putting a wig
on a pig or something.
And I'm
Ben: he calls her for mal to hide face.
Emily: which is like, I don't
know how that works, but I mean
it's points for creativity.
Jeremy: Yeah, it's it's, it's wild.
And, you know, then he, he proceeds
to go to the bank and just starts
shooting all of the you know,
alien people who were at the bank.
That he, he sees one of them use
his little watch to, to tell on
him and then use it to teleport.
That's a, whole wild thing.
He then
Ben: Yeah, that's just Chekov's.
Teleporter.
Jeremy: he
has to, recruit Keith.
David.
He has to like, get his brother uh,
in, shirtless construction back to
help him figure all this shit out.
So he tries to force him to put
glasses on and they have a five
minute fight about it in an alleyway.
Ben: Incredible.
Emily: Yeah,
and that's not hyperbole folks.
Ben: much about it, but again, like.
The whole, like the alien
faces and what they look like.
I knew that was coming.
I'm here to chew bubble gum and kick ass.
I knew that line was coming.
I knew the shootouts were coming, that
there was this uninterrupted six minute
fist fight between two men for no
goddamn reason was an absolute surprise.
And again, one of those
jokes just how long it is.
It's one of those things where like, as
it keeps going, it starts funny, then
it stops being funny and then it comes
back around to being fucking hilarious.
Yes.
Emily: Like the death of
karu except the opposite.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ben: Oh, it's such a good scene.
Emily: All the timing in this movie,
like the timing is so awkward with, with
Roddy's like delivery that I feel like,
Ben: And it's great.
Emily: like ev all the timing
in this movie is hilarious.
Jeremy: He's on
Emily: no matter what.
Ben: Roddy plays this character
as a man who has already taken
at least two head injuries.
Emily: he's all outta bubble gum.
Ben: I, the other line that I did
not know, and I'm kind of happy also
hasn't become as meme worthy, is
Life's a Bitch and she's back in heat.
Emily: yeah.
I don't know what the fuck
that's supposed to mean.
I'm really
Ben: was, Some of those
lines were, mm, choices.
Emily: Yeah, there's some things in this
movie that lingering on them is not great.
You know, like there's the,
there's the mass shooter.
Element to it, which is
like, oh, that age Well,
Ben: Again, you do gotta give it that.
Like that was not a
big societal concern.
That was not like imagery.
People were aware they had
to be careful about in 1988.
Like it absolutely is something
that hasn't aged well, but it's
also not something I necessarily
hold against the movie.
Emily: yeah.
I'm not, I that's a blind spot.
That's un that's
understandable for the movie.
And
Ben: yeah.
Emily: the
Ben: Because overall I am in the
mo, I am in favor of the message
of like fucking guillotine the ray.
Like let's get some, like
oligarchs are outta control.
Let's start making shit uncomfortable.
Is a message I'm in favor of.
It's just the specific venue
of workplace mass shooters.
Emily: there's some context issues.
Yeah.
Jeremy: and I mean, I think to Roddy's
credit, with one exception, he never
kills anybody who isn't an alien.
Like, and that exception is well earned.
Emily: Yes, because they're
definitely you know, not kin folk.
Jeremy: We,
Ben: Oh no.
He
Jeremy: I totally skipped
over talking about Holly, who,
Emily: Holly
Jeremy: he,
yeah.
He kidnaps a woman who's going back to her
car who turns out to be the like producer
at this TV station that's putting out all
of these signals and she is totally okay.
Definitely human.
But pretty obviously from the
moment she uh, shows up is not cool.
Emily: No, she's not
Alley.
Ben: I love between
like the, between this movie and video
drone, there's like this persistent late
eighties, like eighties theme of like,
television is an inherently corrosive.
Like just tool of consumerism
dev, void of artistic merit.
And that's the one thing these movies
did not predict is just like the real
cultural 180 we've made on television.
Jeremy: Well, the one thing that's of of
interest to me in that regard is there
is a, a segment where they are, we are
listening to a film critic who looks
a little bit like Gene Siskel who is
talking about that damn John Carpenter and
Ben: Okay.
I loved that.
George
Romero, he named, dropped himself and
Emily: He named Anne Romero.
Yeah, but like, here's the thing, it's
like, yo, John, I know you've been here
since Halloween or whatever, but isn't
it a bit early to be so self-referential?
I mean, I don't know, like, especially
like in this movie, it's like super meta
and super self-referential and it's like
the, budget of this film is like $2.
I don't think it actually is,
but it certainly looks like it,
everything still comes across great.
Ben: By now, he had made escape
from New York, the thing Starman
and big trouble in little China.
Emily: well you think about the
effects in big trouble in Little China
and the thing, and then you watch
this movie and you know, the effects
that we get are rubber mask that is
barely integrated into its wearer and.
the super still shots of the sunglasses
vision, which are all, but I mean, it
still comes across like it's, it is
so surprising to me because you see
how late this is in John carpenter's
Ben: realize until now that
John Carpenter is still alive.
Emily: Oh
Ben: for you, John Carpenter.
Emily: He said, I have to say something.
He was interviewed recently and he said
one of the most like badass, hilarious
things I've ever heard about horror.
Someone was asking, I'm like, how
do you feel about elevated horror?
And he's like, what the
fuck are you talking about?
And they're like, you know, 8 24.
And he's like, I'm not familiar.
And I was
Ben: God bless.
I feel like, I feel like utter when it
comes to the elevated horror debate.
I feel beyond numb from it because
we are all folks with a comic book
background and we have all already
been through the whole, it's not a
comic book, it's a graphic novel.
Fucking, and we're, I'm like,
I'm not doing this again.
Get fucked.
I've been through this.
Emily: Yeah.
Yeah.
Ben: No,
Emily: It's horror.
It's
Ben: it's fucking, it's fucking horror.
Emily: We can put droning on it.
Ben: At what point when the U
F O alien is digesting Stephen
Yon, does it become elevated?
Jeremy: So Holly, also her o o other
major acting role is appearing as
evil in in Masters of the Universe.
Emily: She has those
great eyeballs though.
Like I know though, I figure why she
was, she gets casted cause she has this
really cool, I mean, she's hot, but
like she's also, and you know, she's
got that like fem fatal thing going
on, but she has some cool ass eyeballs.
Ben: Yes.
The movie really doesn't
give her much to work with.
Like if there is one legitimate law,
it is that like I Do y'all think
this movie is a feminist movie?
Because I think it is not
Emily: No, but I think the take that
it has on masculinity like almost
goes so far that it comes back around
because it's so like over the top.
With these two dudes, like
learning how to love each other
Ben: Roddy.
I mean, Roddy is one of Filmmaking's
great jimbos in this movie.
Emily: I don't think this, I
honestly don't think that this
movie's feminist, there's some,
some hard lines in this movie that,
that certainly like, fall short of
anything meaningful in that arena.
But I mean, it, does like
attempt to discuss racial social
justice and stuff like that.
Under the blanket of class and all that.
I mean, it's,
Ben: It does address how oligarchs use
differences to keep, general masses
divided and unaware of their, an unaware
of the degree of their exploitation.
Emily: I mean, when Roddy and Keith,
David are bunking together, they do talk
about how fucked up it is that these
overlords are making them hate each other.
You know, which I think is
it's also one of the more like,
heartfelt scenes in the film.
Jeremy just shared with us the I M D B
apparently was listening in telling him
to obey and recommending Judy Justice
Jeremy: Judge Judy's new show on free V
Emily: I'm a freebie.
Well, it's free.
I will say, I was looking this
movie up on GOs on Google, and
Ben: never heard it referred to as GOs,
but I wanna only call it GOs from now
on.
Emily: got it from, we Bear Bears.
Like We Bear Bears does this
thing where he calls it Googs and
then Griffin McElroy plays the
Ben: I know we bear bears.
Emily: but you, you know, shorty.
Ben: I don't, I only know the show exists.
I haven't
Emily: Okay.
Okay.
Well, it's the whole thing.
Like
Ben: I'm not actually that hip.
I'm not with it.
Emily: you're hip and waist.
That I'm not hip.
Ben: I, I am a millennial ass millennial
Emily: I mean, I'm 40, so listen, every
time I go on Discord, I feel like my
bones are falling apart out of my body.
But okay, so I was going
on Google and I was
looking this
Ben: that one lady from
the old, from the beach.
That makes you old.
Emily: Don't, I don't
wanna talk about that.
oh yeah.
Futurama.
Yeah, that's right.
That's right.
Ben: Uh, I, I don't
know if y'all seen that.
Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, deep fake
conversation, but I can now only refer
to it as the beach that makes you old.
Emily: I haven't seen it.
I've seen the Alex Jones Evangelian
reaction, which is upsetting to me because
of how, like I'm certain how unedited
it is, but I was looking at this movie
on Google and immediately Google's like,
can't find what you're looking for.
Try searching with your camera.
And I'm like, Google, are,
Ben: No stop.
Emily: Google, are you trying to
say something with this movie?
This context is confusing.
Jeremy: this movie has
plenty to say about.
Racial and social justice and class
and government and, and shit like that.
It does not have room for
any sort of L G B T content.
It has moderate room for disability, but
not, not in any sort of like main way.
And also like, it has difficulty coming
across as feminist, considering the
only major female character is a,
is a rather low class femme fatal.
Like you know, , she first throws
Roddy out a window and then
Ben: which is amazing by the way.
Love that.
Stunned.
Emily: I wouldn't call her low class.
She's a high class, but she's a low
Ben: Yeah, that is, she
lives in the Hollywood Hills.
That is a nice house.
She takes the fucking nice ass wine bottle
and then just clubs them out the window.
Emily: Yeah, like that dude goes
flying, like she was playing
dead or alive or some shit.
Like he was flying out that
window to the next platform.
Jeremy: I mean,
flying through shit and off of shit
is what Roddy Piper did for a living.
So like
Ben: I mean, but then she is also depicted
as a heartless, traitor and murderer.
Jeremy: Yeah, she does, she does
w I mean, we know that she knows
about all of this stuff by the end.
Like we know that, like she's
been in on it the whole time.
That's how she got a house in the
Hollywood Hills, which he should have
glommed onto, but like, yeah, she
does then show up at their terrorist
coffee meeting and rat everybody
else out to the stormtroopers.
Which, yeah, the, the literal L A P
D stormtroopers are somewhere between
frightening and funny to me that
they sort of like, They just sort
of jog around town and battalions
of SWAT troopers is like one on the
nose, but maybe, maybe not too much.
Emily: One of the few things
that this movie did subtly
Jeremy: They're just, they're just
jogging around and in platoons, like
they're fucking super fascist, you know?
Uh,
Ben: Mean, how about when like they
bulldoze into the secret meeting and
it is just a wall of police and guns?
Jeremy: yeah.
Yeah.
They make it
Emily: of them had a P K E meter
Jeremy: Yeah, that's exactly what it is.
Emily: is straight up p k meter?
Jeremy: It's
tracking, it is tracking them through
the building with a p k meter.
Ben: Doesn't that device show
up like three different devices
in Star Trek or something too?
Emily: probably.
Jeremy: Wouldn't surprise me.
Emily: Probably.
I hope whoever invented that thing,
that prop, it's getting money.
Ben: I don't think that's how props work.
Emily: Well,
Ben: If something else, if they do,
then whoever invented those like glowing
orange tubes that showed up in a bunch of
eighties sci-fi movies and also Star Trek.
Emily: I mean,
Ben: Hope they got paid.
Emily: neon stuff was
invented, but I don't know.
Ben: I do love neon.
Jeremy: Yeah.
So they, they end up like once, once
they're back together, once they've hung
around, they uh, meet up with one of the
guys they knew that was one of the guys
at the homeless shelter and at the church.
And he is like, Hey, come
to this like meeting, we're
planning our, our terrorism.
And so they go and there's coffee
and there's donuts and it's
great until you know, Roddy's.
Former kidnapping that he's
in love with, shows up.
And she's like, ah, I've seen the,
I've seen what's really going on here.
And then the whole, the
whole place gets bulldozed.
Everybody gets murdered except
for the two of them who managed
to escape to an alley with one of
the watches from the uh, aliens.
And they don't know how to use it to
teleport, but it does get damaged.
And when that happens, it creates
a passageway into the tunnels
under the city that the aliens use.
And uh, they end up wandering into
a gala that's just going on at that
same time where all of the aliens and
they're, this is where we really learn
that there's a bunch of humans that are
in on it too, and are happy to betray
all of their people as long as they
get money and resources and wealth.
Emily: So the,
the guy with the Van
Dyke that shows up here?
Jeremy: it's their bunny, Colonel Sanders.
Emily: Yeah.
Colonel Sanders.
He says like, I knew this, he, he's
treating Roddy like he knows him.
Ben: So I had to look this up on Wiki.
Apparently he was someone who lived
in the like, uh, unhoused camp.
Emily: Oh, okay.
Ben: He is another drifter apparently,
according to the Wikipedia page.
Cuz I was also who the thing
like, who the fuck is this guy
Emily: Yeah,
Ben: now?
Wikipedia could be lying.
Jeremy: he's got a real Colonel Sanders
affect about him and shows them around
the underground because obviously
they've been recruited cuz they're there.
Ben: Yeah.
Big.
What if Colonel Sanders
betrayed the union?
Jeremy: yeah.
And uh, you know, they end up at the
TV studio and uh, they decide to shoot
their way through the TV studio to
try to get to wherever the signal is.
It's disguising all of these guys
and sending out all the messages
that are messing with people's heads.
They, they fight their
way through the TV studio.
They find Holly while they're
there, they're still Roddy's, still
convinced that she's a good guy.
So they take her with her up to
the roof and he's gonna go figure
out where the signal's coming from.
So, tells them to stay hidden,
no sooner does he walk away.
Then Holly shoots Keith,
Dave in the back of the head.
And then he comes out onto the roof
and he's like, are you guys clear?
And she's like, I am.
And threatens him with the gun, but
tries to get him to come with her.
At which point a helicopter shows
up next to them on the roof.
And uh, he is they're
like, throw your gun down.
He does, but then he pulls another
one out of his sleeve and shoots her.
You know, they're still gonna shoot him.
So he shoots the satellite dish
in the process and it blows
up and sparks go everywhere.
And he falls to the ground and
gives him the finger as he dies.
Because that's how
Emily: And then we get tits for some
reason because this movie was like,
oh shit, we forgot to put tits in it.
Ben: Fuck, you're not allowed to release
an eighties movie of without tits.
Quick, get something in here.
Jeremy: Yeah, it literally,
Ben: We gotta sneak it
Jeremy: has post credit tips.
Like
they're, they're showing everybody, like
the signal is going away, so everybody's
seeing what the aliens actually look like.
And, you know, this one woman is, is mid
coitus when her boyfriend is revealed
to be an alien, or I don't know if he's
Ben: well, that wasn't originally
in the movie, but they sent it to
the M P A A and it came back with
them being like, where are the tits?
We can No, like
Jeremy: We can't
Ben: 17.
So they had to Yes.
It's like, this is NC 17, so they had to
put in tits in order to get a release.
So they had to film that.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Emily: We can't sell this without titty.
How are we gonna get kids to watch it?
I'm making a
Ben: I just like the idea that that
was part of like the briefly like
updated eighties Hayes code went
from no nudity to require nudity.
Emily: I mean, the
seventies did something.
Ben: I mean usher in a golden age of film
Emily: Yep.
Ben: and disco
Emily: I mean they all kind
of the base, what can we say,
the magical power of bass.
Both the, the
Ben: of magic when you think about it.
Emily: It is magic.
Jeremy: I do appreciate that.
There are several scenes in this
movie, like as he's figuring out that
these aliens are everywhere, where
he sees aliens talking to humans
and they're all having a real like
Colin Robinson effect on the humans.
Emily: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Jeremy: They're like, I don't know man.
Go for it.
I wearing them down.
Emily: yeah.
Everybody's just like, I just please.
So do we think that science
fiction exists in this world?
Because all the books just say
like, obey and sleep, and, you know,
eat, spend
Jeremy: Orin's got card
write science fiction too.
Emily: That's true.
Nice.
Jeremy: Oh
Emily: Take that or send Scott card.
Jeremy: yeah.
Ben: Weird fucking homophobic
Emily: Yeah.
Jeremy: I, fucking love this movie.
It's ridiculous and funny and much
longer than it has any right to be
because especially that first half
hour, there's a lot of ruddy Piper
looking at things in the same base riff.
Ben: It's delightful.
Emily: I mean, I think it's
effective for what that is.
Like, you know, that's, that you don't
need dialogue for character development.
I watch 8 24 movies.
I know this,
Ben: I mean, especially like the
character
doesn't need a lot of dialogue to come
across for what they're going for.
Like the look and just.
Whatever the fuck energy
it is he's bringing to it.
Just sell this kind of like, like
you said, this almost folkloric,
nomadic American laborer.
Like
Emily: I mean, I think that the more
dialogue he has, like the less we're
gonna be invested in his character.
So, you know,
Ben: Yeah, we need, yeah, he
needs to like, he belongs on
postcards, not actually talking.
Emily: yeah, yeah,
Ben: is,
he
Jeremy: on postcards
with a flag and a eagle.
Emily: yeah.
Jeremy: Mm.
Ben: he exists to be the kind of
person that a politician points to is
like get on stage and tell you that
what a good American you are now.
Get off stage so I can
take away your healthcare.
Emily: Do you remember?
When we could just put like as,
this is something that I lament
every day in this millennium as an
artist and a character designer.
That time when you just put sunglasses
on something and it was automatically
that, like it was automatically that, you
know, you felt like you could hear the
eagles calling and squealing overhead,
Ben: Yeah.
Yeah.
And they look so good in those sunglasses.
Like they look legitimately
like fucking awesome.
Except for the first scene when Keith,
David puts on the glasses and him
and Roddy are just walking down the
street looking so fucking stoned.
Emily: I mean the glasses do make you
apparently make you feel like you're high
Ben: that's what they're going for.
It's just an exception to the
them looking cool is when they
look like they are teenagers who
have just ripped a massive blunt.
Emily: But
Jeremy: I do also love the point
in halfway through the movie
when John Carpenter goes, I do
wanna see their eyes though.
I guess we'll just give them contact
lenses in this scene, and then they'll
just have 'em the rest of the time.
Emily: listen, I was gonna
Ben: That's exactly what
Emily: that
they choose are like the
biggest bulkiest sunglasses.
Like these things were
cool in the eighties.
Yes.
Ben: was the eighties.
Emily: I mean, there were other
cool sunglasses in the eighties.
Like you had wraparounds, you
could have like fucking cyberpunk
ass sunglasses in the eighties.
But these specific sunglasses were
the ones that they chose and they
were very big and very blocky.
I mean, cool spots, sunglasses were at
least like, they had curves, you know?
You remember?
Cool spot.
You guys remember Cool spot?
Ben: I don't remember.
Cool
Emily: Cool spots?
Cool spots.
This circle from the seven up.
Can that they put sunglasses
on,
Ben: I play.
You
wanna hear the most ni Hey, y'all already.
Oh yeah.
I was about to say, y'all already
hear the most nineties fucking
sentence I rented the cool spot, S
N E S video game from Blockbuster.
Emily: Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Like this shit bled into the nineties,
but this was an eighties concept.
Jeremy: Did you pay for it with a check?
Ben: I was five.
I don't know how my parents
fucking paid for Blockbuster
Emily: they probably used cash.
Like the the papers that say I am your God
on them.
Jeremy: wanna
Ben: Look, we got that and we got a,
and we got a bizarrely censored Chris
Rock comedy, and it was a night on
the town at the video rental store.
Emily: Bless though.
Here in, Sonoma County, we had a
chain of video stores called Video
Droid and that shit was off the hook.
I just wanna shout out to video Droid.
Bless you.
We miss you every day.
You were the last Yeah.
Kiss.
I'm pouring one out right
now from my white wine glass.
So,
Jeremy: You don't wanna hear.
I feel like we're winding down.
You don't wanna hear
like the weirdest shit.
Emily: Yeah.
Jeremy: Ray Nelson, the guy who
wrote eight o'clock in the morning
on which his movie is based also was
the inventor of the propeller beanie
Emily: he actually do that or
is that just something he said?
Jeremy: while he was still in high school.
Their varying version of the story.
But in 1947 at a small science convention,
a small science fiction convention in
Cadillac, Michigan, Nelson, and some
friends were cartooning, parodying,
science fiction icons of the day.
And Nelson found some scraps of
plastic and attached them to his hat.
Soon they became proudly worn,
the feature of science fiction,
the science fiction crowd.
So this man also a cartoonist on top of
writing, eight o'clock in the morning,
Emily: Bless him.
I hope he's not racist.
Jeremy: his name is Del Faraday Nelson.
Emily: That's a pretty cool name.
We have Faraday in there.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Emily: I wonder if that's a, that
was the name he was given, or if
that's a name that he chose because
that is a science fiction ass name.
Ray Faraday.
Jeremy: Red.
Yeah.
It's, he goes by Ray Nelson, but
his name is Rodell Faraday Nelson.
Or he went, he's dead, obviously.
He was born in 1931.
Emily: Nice.
Jeremy: yeah yeah, man.
Obviously he talked not feminist, not
very progressive on the queer side.
Uh, But it definitely has some,
race and social justice stuff that
is still weirdly relevant today.
Emily: You could make an argument
that this movie got Obama elected.
Jeremy: I mean, you could, I wouldn't,
but you could make that argument.
Emily: You can make a
lot of arguments though.
It doesn't mean that they're correct.
Jeremy: Yeah.
I will say
Ben: I mean, look, there's also the
Jeremy: than Rowdy Rowdy
Piper, but he never made one.
That was good.
Emily: No.
Ben: I mean, there's also
the argument that Jerry Ryan
got Obama elected president.
Emily: I mean, there's a lot
of, there's a lot of things.
It's unlike this movie, things
are a bit more complicated.
Jeremy: Now would you guys
recommend this film to people?
Ben: Fuck
yeah.
Emily: Hell
Ben: Fuck yeah.
Jeremy: Absolutely.
I mean, I literally did.
That's why we're here.
Emily: Yeah.
Like, I mean,
Ben: I mean, how could you not?
Emily: that's the thing though, is it
there's a lot of movies out there that
are bad and are, you can make fun of them.
This movie doesn't like,
have a lot of craft.
Like it's, this is not the thing, this
is not escape from New York levels
of like incredibly crafted science
fiction, gritty, or background.
Like this is this movie
is super campy, but it's
Jeremy: will say the special effects in
the black and white stuff like not, I mean
the masks for one, but also the little
like alien drones and stuff are really
well done for what they are at the time.
Like John Carpenter knows how to make
some good fucking special effects.
Emily: I mean, they, they don't
look as good in this movie.
I'm sure that the craft is
of the actual items is fine.
It's just whatever, like,
however this movie is shot.
Cuz it also comes out in the character,
like in all of the makeup and everything.
Like there's some weird lighting
stuff that's going on that makes
everything just like a little
funky, a little plastic looking.
But that said, this movie
is fun and memorable and it
has something cool to say.
You know, it's barely horror.
It's more just like political
cartoon, but with a little
bit more, like, a little bit.
It's political cartoon.
I wanna say more about that, but
it's, there's not a lot you can really
say because it's just, it's very
straightforward and very fun that way.
Ben: And its themes are also very obvious.
Emily: Yeah.
Jeremy: So obvious, even
Nazis don't get them.
Emily: Yes.
Ben: Like and art is the
problem isn't art, it's Nazis.
Emily: yeah.
Yeah.
There's a certain kind of person that
will just project what they want on
something, regardless of its message.
And, you know, I believe Nazis
fit into that category because
how else can you live that way?
Ben: So I think that's the real
message of tonight is Nazis are bad.
Emily: that too,
Ben: So if you are listening to this
episode and you were a Nazi, I hope
we've convinced you to not be a Nazi.
Emily: Do not don't.
You'll enjoy life so much
more if you just calm down and
Ben: Fuck their lives.
I'll enjoy my life more if
there are less Nazis are
Emily: win-win, win-win.
I'm saying like, less
Nazis better for everybody.
So what don't we recommend?
If you like this movie,
Ben: so I have a very strong
recommendation and it's a movie we've
already covered, but I think if you
like this movie and you want something
that is both very action driven and
manages to be both incredibly fun and
have very similar and well executed
messages I'm gonna recommend Mayhem
starring Steven Yon and Samara Weaving.
Emily: Hell yeah.
That's a good one.
Jeremy: We have talked about it
on here, so look up when you do.
Emily: It's on our letterbox.
It's pretty high.
Ben: Yep.
It's a good movie.
Emily: I'll go,
I suppose.
Um, Well, I mean, there's a lot of, a
lot of things that came to mind when I
was watching the movie that I wrote down.
I mean, you watch the thing, if
you really like to watch Keith
David running around with Dudes and
mullets, I mean, it's a good movie.
It's very different.
But if you want a movie that is that
also, or a show or just like a thing
that came out of the eighties that is
also highly critical of television and
doesn't involve so much body horror as
video drone, go check out Max Headroom
20 Minutes into the Future, or the Max
Headroom series starring Matt Reer.
I think he was in the Mac 20 Minutes
into the Future, which is from 1985.
Max Headroom was Matt Reer with
makeup on his head to make him look
like he was made out of cg, but he
wasn't very little of Max Headroom was
actually cg, but it Predicted a lot
of stuff about where media was going.
It talked a lot about subliminal messaging
and the power of corporate media and
the classism in corporate media and
like, in advertising especially in a fun
kind of underrated cyberpunk setting.
And also the Max Headroom incident that
Max Headroom inspired, that also inspired
the like whole scenario of hacker, like
the hacker taking over the um, the TV
channel here is very much inspired by the
Max Headroom incident where somebody in
a Max Headroom mask did take over a TV
channel and say a bunch of crazy shit.
So check the, just look that up.
It's on YouTube.
But yeah.
Check out Max Headroom.
It's also funny.
Jeremy: Yeah, check out Max Head.
That's cool.
What I would say is that if you enjoyed
Rowdy, rowdy Piper, almost no other
movies that he made are very good.
You can watch how comes to Frogtown if you
want but also living in the blessed era
of YouTube, you can just go on and search
for uh, Roddy Piper's greatest promos and
see all of his uh, interviews and shit
on wrestling where he would just he was
a villain for most of his time and would
absolutely just talk shit about anybody.
And he's great.
So like you can, you know, sit down and
watch a bunch of, you know, 2, 3, 5 minute
bits of him just tearing people apart.
He's fantastic.
I mean, if you, if you, like I came to
chew bubblegum and kick ass and I'm all of
a bubblegum, that's like just a sampling
of what most of his, his promos were like.
So you can check that out.
He's got some good matches
out there if you wanna watch.
They're, you know, mostly a bit
older cuz obviously he's dead,
so he is not wrestling anymore.
his daughter, teal Piper uh,
wrestles for uh, women of wrestling
in, in Chicago these days.
So you can check out her wrestling.
She uh, does some stuff occasionally
other places, but she's fantastic as well.
She's still out there kicking
people's asses, so check her
Emily: She saw lot of gum.
Jeremy: Yes.
She never had any, her
father didn't leave her any,
Emily: No.
No.
Well, you
Jeremy: she just had to kick asses.
Emily: sweat trickle down doesn't work.
Speaking of Reaganomics But, uh, Yeah,
so, you know, it's important to conserve
your gum, but also sometimes you can,
and, you know, you can kick ass and
chew bubble gum at the same time.
Jeremy: Hmm.
Ben: It's called multitasking.
Emily: I mean, you may
swallow it accidentally.
Jeremy: I mean, they
didn't invent multitasking.
Ben: To be fair, it is a choking
hazard doing both at the same time.
So maybe don't multi those tasks.
Emily: This is true.
Jeremy: yeah, I think that
about wraps it up for this one.
If you guys wanna find us online,
you can find Emily Mega Moth on
Twitter, mega underscore moth
on Instagram and@megamoth.net.
Ben is on Twitter at ben MCC Conn and on
their website@benconncomics.com, where
you can pick up all their books and
pre-order El Campbell wins their weekend,
their debut graphic novel or their debut.
Novel from Scholastic.
And finally for me, you can find me
on Twitter and Instagram at Jro five
eight on my website@jeremywhitley.com.
Or you can find everything I write
and you can uh, pre-order my book The
Dog Night, which is a graphic novel.
It's coming out in May.
Emily: It's not, it's not super graphic.
It's not like,
Jeremy: yeah,
Emily: as graphic as
the end of this movie.
Jeremy: no, nothing is.
Ben: So what you did there,
Jeremy: and of course the podcast is
on Patreon at progressively horrified
our website at progressively horrified
transistor fm on Twitter at Prague
Horror Pod, where we would love to
hear from you and we would love for
you to rate and review the podcast
wherever you're listening to it.
Now, giving it five stars helps more
people find us and they can learn
also about the value of they Live
and what an important film it is.
Emily: Obey
Jeremy: Yeah.
Emily: five stars.
Jeremy: thank you guys
so much for joining me.
Uh, This has been a, a
great birthday watch.
Emily: You, Jeremy.
thank you for being you.
Thank you for living Um,
Ben: Birthday.
Jeremy: Uh, It was between this and
watching the uh, doom movie with Carl
Urban and The Rock, so we'll just
have to save that one for another
Emily: okay, so when you're
Ben: Don't get me wrong, I'm kind
of pretty excited for that one
Emily: Yeah, me too, honestly.
Jeremy: I fucking love that movie.
It is underrated.
Emily: birthday.
Happy birthday.
Happy birthday.
Happy birthday.
Ben: Also, from that, you know, that
temporary era where the Rock was willing
to be on screen with other people
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ben: for those of you, a few months
from now, when you're listening to
this, we are recording this not long
after Shazam two has come out in
theaters, so there is your context
Emily: Oh, Shazam too.
Two, sorry.
I always get that
Ben: and what did you think?
I said,
Emily: I thought you meant Kazam.
Ben: oh, my
Jeremy: If only,
Ben: star.
Jeremy: if only Kazam two was coming up.
I think Dwayne
Johnson would be
Ben: to star in
that.
Emily: Shaq though.
Shaq would still have to be there.
Like
Jeremy: Yeah, he'd be the other Kazam.
There's two Kazam now
there's the rock and check.
Ben: they've been talking about some
like surprise cameos in the flash
fucking Shaquille O'Neal Steel comes out.
Jeremy: That'd be
Emily: you'll O'Neill Steel.
Ben: Yeah
Emily: That's good.
Ben: that's what I'm talking about.
Don't do that.
That's a bad idea.
They should have done
that for Crisis on Infant.
That would've been so funny in
crisis on infant nerves if they
got Shaquille O'Neal for the cw.
Jeremy: Do you know uh, Shaq did
some, some wrestling as well.
Emily: I
Ben: I didn't, but I believe it.
Jeremy: My, my favorite thing,
this is, I love this fact.
Uh, Shaq wrestled at uh, an a e W for
a little bit, and he, he actually like
promoed alongside Jade Cargill, who was
one of the current women's champions.
And they did a mixed tags match in which
um, Cody Rhodes knocked him off of the
apron of the ring and threw a table.
And Shaq was so hurt by this that
they had to put him in a put him on a
stretcher and wheel him to an ambulance,
and then like one of the announcers
went to interview him at the ambulance.
And they opened the door to the
ambulance and Shaq wasn't there, and
they haven't followed up on this
story in the year since this happened.
like,
Emily: So there's like a mystery shack.
Jeremy: Jack disappeared and
has never been seen again.
As far as a e w Laura goes
Ben: Amazing.
Emily: I mean, if you're gonna, if
you're gonna build Laura that way,
I think that that is that's valid.
Jeremy: Yeah, Shaq.
Shaq was never seen
again, as far as we know.
Emily: But yet John Cena is never seen.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Emily: Ever.
Jeremy: Can't see him.
Emily: Yeah.
Jeremy: And, and it works out for what?
It's worked out well for Cody cuz he
is in WWE now and is about to wrestle
for the championship in WrestleMania.
So good
Emily: I don't know any of this, but
I'm d I'm down to hear all about it.
For real though.
But maybe not today cuz I want eat dinner.
Jeremy: All right.
But yeah, until next
time, stay horrified.
And I'm all outta bubble gum.