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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.
Emily: Okay.
Jeremy: We don't do things in the
night, we just forget what we're doing.
Ben: it's fine.
I've seen a Haunted House movie, so I
can probably recap this one from memory.
Jeremy: Good evening and welcome to
Progressively Horrified, the podcast
where we hold horror to progressive
standards it never agreed to.
Tonight, we're talking about the Korean
found footage film Ganjim Haunted Asylum.
I'm your host Jeremy Whitley and
with me tonight I have a panel
of cinephiles and cinebytes.
First, they're here to challenge
the sexy werewolf, sexy vampire
binary, my co host Ben Kahn.
Ben, how are you tonight?
Ben: Ooh, boy do I appreciate an
update to the found footage formula.
But wow, does that mean a lot
of close ups on people's chins.
A lot of chin action
going on in this film.
Jeremy: You gotta have great
skin to be in this film.
The cameras are right
there the whole time.
Ben: into a whole other topic.
On beauty standards and
entertainment industries.
Jeremy: And the cinnamon roll of
Cenobites, our co host, Emily Martin.
How are you tonight, Emily?
Emily: I'm feeling alright, despite what
the world may do, and what they may say.
That asylum is haunted.
It is one of the most
haunted asyla I've ever seen.
Ben: Okay, for those of you at home who
don't know why Emily is speaking like
a noir person, Emily has great blinds,
which are the light is hitting her just
right in that noir detective bars way.
And she has a black and
white filter going on.
So we here in the podcast get
it, but you and the listener
are probably very confused.
Emily: That's just how I talk now.
Like, that's just how I talk now.
Jeremy: Just imagine that she
said that in black and white.
Ben: This is who I am dad.
Emily: My dad would be so proud
if I was in black and white.
Um, but yeah, I'm doing all right.
Onto the Sila.
They're so crazy, aren't they?
Jeremy: Yeah, and uh, we have
two guests tonight, two, uh,
long time friends of the podcast.
First, comics writer, illustrator,
and all around revolutionary, Steens.
Welcome back, Steens!
Steenz: Happy to be back, especially
now that we're all noirified.
It's a whole new experience for me.
Jeremy: Reminds me of the
days when all podcasts were
in black and white, you know?
Back in the early days of podcasts.
Ben: Aw.
Emily: all right, tonight we're
talking about The Haunted Asylum.
Jeremy: And our buddy from the
Diversity Horror Blog, it's Morgan!
Morgan, great to see you!
Morgan: Great to see you too.
I'm really excited for this one.
And I love the Twilight Zone aesthetic
we've all got going on right now.
The world's
Emily: got
Jeremy: a Twilight Zone
aesthetic, honestly.
Ben: Right off the bat, my favorite part
of this movie is this is now the second
Asian film we've covered that has done
the leather jacket equals American trope.
It's not
Steenz: the second one.
Shin Godzilla did it.
Ben: Oh no, do we have a third one?
Is there more that did it?
Because I know we have it
we have it in Shin Godzilla.
Emily: Oh, I, not, okay.
I'm just thinking of movies that, I don't
think we've done Godzilla Final Wars.
Yet,
Jeremy: yeah, it's a signifier.
I feel like Asian American women
specifically, like woman shows up
and she's got a leather jacket on.
You can bet she has some
Americanisms to throw at you.
Emily: Good for her though.
Love her.
Well,
Ben: which brings us to our movie
today, which is Gonjiam Haunted Asylum.
Morgan Steen's.
Thank you so much.
You both for being with us
tonight to talk about this movie.
Steenz: I'm really excited.
Yeah, I love this movie.
It's definitely one of those where,
uh, I forgot how scary it actually is.
and how many great scary scenes there are.
It's wonderful when a found footage movie
can come through and actually scare you,
Jeremy: Yeah, remember this was
one that you recommended like
the first time you were on.
You were talking about how good this
movie was and it's, it's been sort
of like, Cycling through our list
and finally we got around to it.
Ben: This is a great case of
good execution triumphing.
Because I feel like the general plot is,
if you've seen a Haunted House movie, you
know how this movie is going to go down.
But it still does it all very well and
delivers some absolute knockout scares.
Morgan: I like it a lot because
it reminds me of one of my other
favorite Haunted House movies,
which is called Brave Encounters,
which is basically like Ghost Bros.
the movie.
Incredible title.
Steenz: Yes.
And it's excellent.
I agree.
It's very similar in style.
Morgan: Yeah, where it has the film
crew who don't really necessarily
believe what they're doing going
into the haunted asylum and biting
off more than they can chew.
Emily: That sounds awesome.
Morgan: Oh, it is.
Steenz: Yeah, you know, it's,
I think it's really well done.
It's one of the, first ones I feel
like that did that trope of ghost
team, but they actually know that
this is bullshit kind of films.
And, I know a lot of people
didn't like the second, but I also
really enjoyed the second one.
Emily: Good to know.
Yeah.
What brought you to this film?
What is, what brought you
Ben: to Room 402?
Steenz: so for a long time, I had been,
uh, in the found footage subreddit
and there's always really great.
recommendations there.
And I think if you're in there for
at least a year, you'll have gone
through and watched like every found
footage movie that there is available.
And, it's pretty much where I go.
If I feel like I know there's a new one
out, I don't know if I saw it, let's
see what the subreddit has for me.
And, uh, Gunjum Haunted
Asylum was one of those films.
So I really attribute, the found
footage subreddit for cluing me
in on this really great film.
Ben: I really.
Right off the bat, I really like how
this far this movie pushed the concept
of the found footage, taking us from,
like, the camcorders of Blair Witch to,
full on GoPro stabilizers, room, you
know, see, room cameras, motion tracking
cameras, so even, so we can still have
our nice pans, you know, the drones.
Like, I'm still not sure what the
drones were supposed to accomplish
inside the asylum, or if they were
just for, like, b roll footage?
Steenz: But I like seeing drones
in found footage horror movies.
I think it's really well done
in The House is October Brought.
The House that movie, I feel like I
butchered the title, but, like, they
actually use The drones and it was
like, this is a good reason to use them.
So I, I agree.
I wish they would have done
something more with it.
Morgan: Yeah, like in that Blair Witch
sequel where they have the drone to try to
find out where they were and they sent the
drone up and it was just for us for miles.
Yeah,
Emily: I mean, that's what happens
unless your drone can like, bob and
weave, somebody doing on the, uh.
The controls there.
Morgan, what brought you to
the, uh, The Haunted Asylum?
Morgan: Well, two of my favorite
types of horror movie are
haunted houses and found footage.
Oh, damn.
Ben: So this is like the
chocolate meets peanut butter.
Morgan: Exactly.
And I was just looking for something
that had both of those elements.
I don't even know how I found it.
I think I was just Googling.
And we came across this movie.
And my wife and I are
like, okay, let's rent it.
It's probably going to be trashy and fun.
And it was actually very scary.
So, we, we ended up buying it.
but yes, it's, it's an enjoyable watch
and it does have some good scares in it.
Also, part of the plot
Ben: is the CNN 7 Most
Haunted Places on Earth.
Anyway, part of the plot of the movie,
part of the plot of that movie is the
CNN 7 Most Haunted Places on Earth list.
That is a real list.
Morgan: Yup.
Ben: I'm not sure, you might need, I think
you might need like an internet archive
to find it, and I'm not sure how many of
these places haven't been demolished this
asylum has been super fucking demolished.
Morgan: I know, I was so upset when
he found that out, cause I wanna visit
it, I love Visiting like old asylums
and hospitals and haunted buildings.
I feel
Ben: like this movie, like it was
probably the victim of its success
where like this movie came out made
it even more haunted and big and
famous and some like city or national
government was like, no, fuck this.
It's gone.
God, I need it.
It's fucking gone.
Emily: Yeah, that is the double
edged sword of urbex kind of stuff
where you have these locations
that are fascinating, but then.
Like, anything where tourists come in
large numbers it's not preserved anymore,
it's not, your sense of childlike wonder,
unless you can, like, make, that might
be the, future, though, I'm now seeing,
unfurl before me, this future of, like,
haunted asylum, like, like, ghost tours,
but for, like, abandoned neighborhoods,
Ben: I mean, Philadelphia made one
of their major tourism centers a
haunted ass prison, but Philly's
also just built different, so
I don't know what to tell ya.
Morgan: They also have the
Pennhurst Asylum, which I actually
visited, when I was in Philly.
They do a haunted house there at
the Pennhurst Asylum every year, and
they incorporate the asylum as part
of the haunted house, and they have
some great effects and it's quite
scary and I, I enjoyed it a lot.
Definitely one of the top
haunted houses I've ever been to.
Steenz: I also just love that like
they started it with that top seven
scariest XYZ because it's so realistic,
you know, how many people are looking
that up online, you know, what are
the scariest places on earth and like
talking to their discord and like,
hey, should we, we should go to this.
It just feels appropriate.
It feels, Like, perfect for the
time that this was made, you know?
Yeah, I
Ben: definitely know
I'm one of those people.
I'm still just thinking, of course
Philly is the one city which has
multiple haunted ass attractions.
Emily: Oh, there's, there's
a lot, I mean People
Ben: think Flo People think
Florida's a fighty part of America.
In Philly, if you they got,
like, ten fistfights and you
get a free Wawa sandwich rule.
Emily: That's very good.
That's a good one.
I like that.
Ben: Thank you.
Emily: One of the best things about
this movie for me is the consistency.
A lot of found footage movies struggle
with this and, right off the bat,
it's, it was very impressive to me
just how much they stuck with the
actual found footage, being accountable
for everything that was going on in
terms of, like, what they were doing.
Because a lot of these, you see these
things going on and people are like, why
are, why would they still be filming.
In that case,
Ben: It's usually an absolutely a real.
Area where you have to, like, suspend your
disbelief, like Cloverfield, where they're
running through their lives through
subway tunnels, and they're still filming.
Emily: Yeah, yeah, and with Blair Witch
Project, at least it was a small enough
group, and there was enough of a reason
for them to keep the camera on to
create this like an actual narrative.
But, and the Ganjam whole conceit
is That they have all of the, they
have all this stuff going on and they
show us everything going on and then
they actually play with that I just
felt like it was a really good job of
staying consistent with that conceit.
Ben: Well, even just to the
degree of like, we are strapping
you into these cameras.
You cannot stop recording.
Yes.
Yeah.
Emily: And I'm, I mean, I'm not
terribly sure how a lot of these
like, or, these GoPro kind of.
Exploration videos work.
You know, I don't know what
the, what exactly it looks like.
I've seen people wearing GoPros
and I've seen people with, with
body cams and things like that,
Ben: but the economics, I'm still a
little hazy on it's a live stream and
I guess they get ad revenue, depending
on the live stream numbers, which.
Are they already selling the ads?
Is the ads retroactive?
It doesn't matter, we don't need
to go into a streaming economy.
Steenz: Yeah, and this really is
pretty just like, the more viewers
you have, the more money you make.
That's exactly
Ben: what it is, it's like get
a million views, get a million
money, that's all you need to know.
Steenz: Exactly, exactly.
Yeah,
Ben: I am looking into that
into more than two years.
There's any need to
for once, I will not
overthink a detail of a movie.
Emily: You sure?
Jeremy: I mean, I think the next
step after this is to like make your
own sports drink and then decide to
become a boxer or something like that.
Right?
Like that's how you, that's how
you make money at streaming.
Emily: I don't know about the boxer one,
but you know, I mean, I'm out of touch.
Ben: Oh, I would be so good at
being punched by Mike Tyson.
I mean, he would just smash
my face and I would go down.
I'd be amazing at it.
Jeremy: I was just thinking
I'd love to see I would
Ben: lose so fucking hard.
Jeremy: I'd love to see an
asylum ghost kill Logan Paul
is all I was thinking, like,
Ben: I want to
Jeremy: say, I want to
see That would be money
Emily: steaming content for me.
I want to see Mike Tyson fight
Ben: ghosts, but then I remembered They
made an entire animated series about that,
and I could just go watch that after this.
Emily: So do we want to
jump on in to this movie?
Yes,
Ben: yes.
Uh, Jeremy, do you want to give
us our writers, directors, stars?
Jeremy: Actually, Emily, you want
to do the pronunciation on this?
This is a little more in
your ballpark than mine.
Steenz: All right.
Ben: Appreciate how you saw me
throw that ball at you when you were
just like, nope, gonna throw that
Steenz: ball right on over.
Ben: I've
Jeremy: got the names in here, but, uh.
Emily: Um, yep.
it's directed by Jean Beaumchic written
by Jean Beaumchic and Park Sang min
starring Wee Ha Joon, Park Ji Hyun, Oh
Ha Yeon, Moon Hee Won, Park Sung Hoon.
Yuji Won, Lee Sung Wook, and Park Ji Ah.
Jeremy: Park Ji Ah, who actually plays
the, like, hospital director in this,
has the most, like, bomb IMDb photos.
She looks amazing in her IMDb.
Like, in the, uh, actual
movie, she's very,
Ben: like,
Jeremy: she's very, like, old
woman that runs asylum is creepy.
But on IMDb,
Ben: is she a boss ass business
lady who's like staring icy daggers?
Yeah, exactly.
Oh, fuck.
Yeah, she
Emily: is.
She is girl bossing at me right now.
That stripes on that suit.
Ben: Girl bossing between all of
the guys doing like girl boss.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Between all of the boys doing
pensive K pop stare, like all of
the guys are like mouth on fist
looking sort of just past you, Korn.
And she's like, what?
Emily: Yeah, she's very chin forward.
And I, I appreciate that about her.
Like this
Steenz: movie.
Emily: Yes.
Yes.
Maybe that was part of
the casting process.
Yeah, that you have to
have a lot of facial
Jeremy: hair to be in this one.
Emily: Although she was the
only one that wasn't wearing
like a GoPro the whole time.
It's true.
Well, as far as we know, it's found
Ben: her.
Emily: Oh, cool.
Um,
Ben: All right.
uh, recap.
Should I just kind of dive into it?
Everyone please feel free to
interrupt and save my ass.
so we start with our classic horror
prequel where two boys are recording
themselves exploring, uh, Gonjiam
Psychiatric Hospital or Haunted Asylum,
which, right, that makes sense, that's
Psychiatric Hospital, they wouldn't have
officially called it Haunted Asylum.
That would have been weird.
I didn't quite put that together,
but yeah, that makes sense that
the government didn't open up
an explicitly haunted asylum.
Jeremy: where we send all the haunting
Ben: the energy that led to
Gaijin Haunted House People.
I love it.
Anyway, they try to get into where the
story of the hospital is that Once upon a
time there was a very renowned hospital,
but the director loved ping pong, and
also all of the patients died and went
missing, and that's why it's haunted
as shit, and part of the ghost haunting
is, uh, the sound of a ping pong ball.
I really thought that was gonna
climax in a more of a sports like way.
Movie direction, but where they
have to like compete with ghosts,
but no that doesn't happen.
It's just it just makes
ping pong terrifying That's
Jeremy: an inspired choice the ping pong.
So like the ping pong a ping pong ball
is such a distinctive sound and yes The
moment that that happens in the movie and
the ping pong ball comes flying toward
them, you're like, Oh shit, ping pong!
Like,
Steenz: Oh no!
It's really cool that they use a ping pong
versus, like, anything else, you know?
Because, like, even with, like, a
creepy wheelchair, that's just a
squeaky noise that could be anything.
Yeah.
ping pong ball, like,
everybody knows that sound.
It's similar to, like, In the Conjuring,
with the clapping game, it's like, it's
very specific noises that can only be
attributed to one thing that makes it very
clear that this is going to scare you.
Emily: Yeah, and it is also a very,
I mean, it is akin to a lot of spooky
sounds like water dropping, water
droplets and things like that, but
it's very, it's distinguishable.
Ben: I mean, it is a testament to this
movie's success that when a ping pong
ball just starts bouncing down the hall,
your reaction is, Oh, they're fucked.
They're so fucked.
They're like, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Like, they're done.
They're done.
It was giving me
Morgan: Changeling vibes where the red
ball bounces down the stairs and it's like
the most terrifying ball in existence.
Steenz: It is.
That's a really good
Ben: Like, that the movie sets out to make
a ping pong ball terrifying and succeeds.
Kudos.
Kudos.
Respectful golf clap, movie.
Jeremy: speaking of the water droplet
thing, they do kind of the same thing
as like, the grudge does with the noise
that the, creature in the grudge makes,
where you like, you'll hear a thing
in the background, like a bicycle or
something, and it'll, you'll be like,
that's, that's a bicycle, and then
it'll become the sound of the creature,
and you're like, ah, god, got me.
Ben: Oh, the little
Jeremy: boy,
Ben: meow, groan sound, or like,
just the sounds in the grudge.
I've never even seen the grudge.
I've only seen the trailers for
the American remake of the grudge.
And those sounds still
stay with me to this day.
Emily: I haven't seen The
Grudge either, so I guess,
Steenz: That's wild.
That's like such a classic horror film.
I can't believe I've never seen it before.
It's so
Emily: good.
I know what I'm doing tonight!
Steenz: Yeah!
You
Ben: should!
Jeremy: Well, we just talked
about Ringu, so I guess it's
time to add Juan to the list.
Ben: Well, vs.
Grudge!
A movie, I have been assured, is terrible!
Emily: Eventually, yes, we will get there.
But anyway, so, speaking of getting there
Ben: Well, they tried to get
into 402, but nope, ping pong
ball, and they're just gone.
Just gone.
Uh, we see a ghost face and
their broadcast is over.
And then after hearing, like
covering the disappearance, we get
to Ha Joon owner of Horror Times.
Emily, am I fucking up
that pronunciation too bad?
Okay.
Ha Joon is so professionally handsome.
And also crazy.
Also, like, truly unbalanced.
I really, there was definitely a point
where I thought the twist, there was
gonna be a twist, and the twist was
that ghosts aren't real, and it's not
actually haunted, it's just Hajun,
like, So desperate reviews that he's
going to like murder to stage the videos
Emily: Yes, I also want to comment
that it is very Smooth the way
that they show this It is also
found footage of these two kids.
Ben: We never leave the found footage
perspective Yeah, at no point are we
in a objective reality of the film.
It is always footage.
Emily: Yeah.
And at first it is presented
as part of Horror Times.
So Horror Times is covering this story.
It's so smooth.
I just, I appreciate it.
And I mean,
Ben: credit to Hajoon, that
animation department that they
got at Hard Times is sleek.
Like they got some nice
ass graphics going on,
Steenz: their transitions,
Ben: their backgrounds.
Steenz: Like company for sure.
I mean, it's clear why they
have so many followers.
Everything is just really well produced.
honestly, it's kind of funny
that it's so well produced.
It's like, wow.
That's because a lot of it is fake.
How
Jeremy: well it's made is the least
believable part of it, like, I've seen
a lot of guys on the internet doing
similar things that are less well made.
Steenz: Yeah.
Ben: So yeah, so Hajun decides like,
great, we're going to explore it.
And by we, I mean, not me.
Steenz: So they have this thing where, uh,
They get three applicants to join them on
their tour of a haunted space, which is
a very clever way to get people fooled.
You know, if you have three people
who are not in on the lie, That's
a great way to make it seem even
more real because now you've got
people who were like, I was there.
It was totally real.
I wouldn't lie to you,
which is really cool.
I don't know very many, like, at least not
in the found footage film era, uh, area,
people having a team of people going in
and half of them are like, this is fake.
And half of them are like, this is real.
It's usually one or the other,
Emily: Yeah,
Ben: I do wish I guess if I could
throw a criticism of the movie is that
I think it's pacing could be tighter.
Like, I, I think it could be, I
think it could like, because it's
really not until like a full solid
hour in that we're getting truly
supernatural haunting stuff going on.
Emily: But it's still spooky.
Ben: And it's spooky, but
I think everything could be
just like a little tight.
Like, I think the reveal, I think the
reveals of it's like they're faking
it and shit starts getting real.
I think you could push both those
up by like around 15 minutes.
Jeremy: They do spend a surprising
amount of time at the beginning,
like getting to the asylum.
Well, you
Ben: can't cut any of the time they
spend playing on the big bouncy
thing from the movie heavyweights.
Emily: That's fun though.
Steenz: It is fun.
That's why I'm
Emily: saying
Steenz: you can't cut it.
It's a sedential.
Yeah, it's very, it's very, very.
I just, I
Morgan: can't
Steenz: turn this
Morgan: tone off.
I found it interesting that
they picked three women to be.
Basically they're victims.
Um, so it's a group of guys
who are deciding to terrorize
these three women, essentially.
For the views.
Cause Jun seems like the kind
of asshole who would do that.
This
Ben: is kind of the Scream
Queen equivalent of Bowfinger?
Emily: Well, didn't
they have a guy though?
Didn't they have that one guy?
Oh yeah, there's that one guy.
And he
Ben: sucked, but then he got too
scared so he forgot to suck for
the second part of the movie.
Emily: Which is weird when that happens.
Ben: Right?
Emily: Yeah, so, they get these,
new people in on their whole scheme
and we don't really quite know
other than the fact that they're
investigating this disappearance of
Steenz: Um,
Emily: and then we do have a good chunk
of the movie That is all of them kind
of getting to know each other I do agree
with Ben a bit that we didn't necessarily
need to go as long but it was it was no
Ben: it again Like I'm not saying Oh
things should have been cut I think it
just could have been like maybe just
a little tighter or even just like
a few review You know more more just
like just a little more time spent
on the shits gotten very real phase
Just cause that's so, that's so fun.
Like, I love this shit's gotten to
like, uncontrollably real phase.
but no, like, I truly would not cut,
like, again, the brunch, the heavy,
again, it really did take me out of the
movie where I'm like, that's the thing
I've seen in the movie, heavyweights
and nowhere else in existence.
How is it that it's in it?
Heavyweights, the 90s Ben Stiller
weight loss camp movie, and
a Korean haunted house film.
Emily: I think we need to talk about those
things, those, big bouncy things more.
I mean, I'm sure that they're just
a lawsuit waiting to happen, but
the I Tell me where I can find one!
I want to go
Ben: on one!
It looks so
Emily: fun!
Yeah, I'd probably break my spine,
I would just roll off of it.
It looks fun to just, like, encounter.
Jeremy: I do think the conceit of, like,
starting at this brunch, and you, you
getting to know, like, Okay, these three
guys are the ones that are in on it.
Like, they don't admit to being in on
it, but they're like the core crew.
They're the guys from Horror Times.
And then, like, you get the, you know,
three girls and the, like, very, you
were, you were saying, uh, he sucks.
Very twitchy, dude.
You know, the new guy.
And I assume that's why they chose him,
because he is, like, super twitchy,
and he's the first one that, like, Even
when all three of the girls, including
the, the girl who is a little less on
the brave side are still like, all in,
this guy is like, nope, nope, nope,
nope, don't like it, don't like it.
Morgan: Yeah.
Well, and I thought it was funny
that he keeps giving the woman who's
more timid, the nursing student,
he keeps giving her a hard time.
He's like, Oh, we
shouldn't have brought her.
And yet she turns out
to be braver than he is.
Emily: Yeah,
Jeremy: absolutely.
Ben: Yeah.
But yeah, so we pretty much lay out
the goal of this stream, investigate
the haunted, break it, get a million
views and therefore get lots of
money, money, dollar, dollar bill.
All right.
Profit.
Yeah.
Step one.
Posts, Step 2, Views, Step 3, Profit.
It's not the meme, it's not the meme.
Step 2 is figured out.
Okay, he's got it.
It's a good plan for Hajun, except for
the part where everyone dies of ghosts.
Emily: I mean Spoilers.
Ben: So yeah, so while they make base camp
the six yeah, so every, so Hajun stays
at base camp to monitor the situation and
quarterback the cameras while everyone
goes into the asylum to explore it
and set up cameras and all that stuff.
You know, they find dirty underwear,
so they make that a landmark
that'll be important later, kind of.
they find creepy dolls, they find
creepy showers, everything you expect
to find, you know, creepy boxes with,
those boxes were creepy as fuck.
Emily: Yeah, well, it's,
it's the standard, like,
spooky hospital fare, right?
Where you have, like, oh, here's the room
where there's, plumbing And here's the
old office pictures, which, it's great
because the pictures seem very convenient.
You know, a lot of things are
very convenient at this point.
Ben: And speaking of convenient,
they also find a creepy doll from a,
one of the photos of the patients.
Ooh, creepy doll.
Uh,
Steenz: also where we see that the
director of the asylum plays ping
pong, so now you know where the
ping pong comes from, those photos.
Emily: More
Ben: indulgent movie would have
just had her slamming like a ping
pong ball through someone's head.
Emily: This isn't The Void.
Ben: Would have been a wildly
different movie, but that movie
also would have been cool.
Emily: I The show, at the very beginning,
also has a lot of the whole background
of the asylum or the psychiatric
hospital, once known as one of the best
psychiatric hospitals in Korea at the
time, and then it has all this whole
history, and this is where the Japanese
occupation comes in, and like a unit 731
adjacent thing, and, there's this whole
story about the director going nuts.
And so a lot of that has been set up.
So now that we're seeing the pictures,
we see that rein re that the,
basically the story is backed up.
Ben: Yeah.
And that, in terms of a theme
of the movie, I think again,
it kind, I think more so than
even most haunted house stories.
It I, and again, correct me to throw
in your own interpretations if you
saw other themes, but I would say
the main theme of the movie is how.
these horrors of the past shouldn't
be exploited for just very shallow
and crass greed and commercialism.
Emily: Yes.
Jeremy: Yeah, I mean, the enemies
of this the villains of this are, of
course, ghosts, but also capitalism.
Yeah.
Emily: Very important.
Ben: Uh, again, Hajoon was gonna
end up being the real villain for
a significant chunk of the movie.
Morgan: In a way, he still is.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah,
Ben: yeah.
I thought he was just gonna go like
full Jack Torrance, like shining though.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: Or he's like, the ghosts
have chosen you to I think ghosts
want me to have the best stream.
Steenz: That would be so corny.
It would not nearly be as good
if that is what it turned out.
Emily: I mean, I'm glad
that it wasn't I agree.
Steenz: I
Ben: agree.
Emily: But I mean, it
kind of was, but let's
Ben: Yeah, anyway, he's like, well
she starts noticing that shit's going
wrong, like stoves are turning on
that shouldn't be turned on, stoves,
hot plates, burners, what have you,
lights, some classic poltergeist
Jeremy: y shit.
In the camp, even, at this
point, like, it's far exceeded
the bounds of the asylum.
Ben: Yes, I'm not sure what the
property limit for these ghosts are.
Unclear.
Emily: I've heard that ghosts own the
entire, like, segment of land, where
it goes, like, all the way down to
the earth's core, like in a conical.
formation and an
Jeremy: account of space.
Ben: Oh, so it was a ghost
fault that there was earthquakes
in New York this week?
Emily: I don't think it was the g
Well, I mean, it obviously was Gozer.
Come on.
Anyway, uh, I hope you
chose well, by the way.
Did you guys choose the
form of your destructor?
We already elected
Ben: Eric Adams, what
more do you want from
Emily: us?
Ben: Very good.
Oh, that ended up working
out delightfully well.
Jeremy: Are you talking
about the joke or Eric Adams?
Because I think the second
one is No, the joke.
Ben: The joke.
His mayorsy has
Emily: not gone well.
It's bad.
In terms of choosing the form
of the destructor, you're
going to be destroyed anyway.
Ben: All the libraries are closed
and I have to walk past like,
nine cops in the train station
playing Candy Crush to get to work.
Anyway, where were we?
They're not
Emily: joking.
Jeremy: The crime and the candy.
I'm really
Emily: not.
Ben: Oh, right.
I mean, so, at this point is when shit
starts like, really getting weird.
Like, Jihyun puts her hand in the
creepy hole, and oh, it's not a
trick this time, her hand's all
like, scratched up and bloody.
And Jihyun and Charlotte decide
it is time to get the fuck out!
Especially after fucking
around with the haunted doll,
which Charlotte was not about.
Steenz: Whoa, whoa, whoa,
you made the hugest jump.
You skipped a huge deal of the movie.
Jeremy: Yes!
Yes!
Steenz: The part where
they're like, let's summon
Jeremy: the demons.
Steenz: And then you go through each
Yeah, so they see a bunch of different
things on each floor that scare them,
ceiling hair, bath hair, everything is
creepy in these, on these floors, but
they make the very first ritual, their
first ritual is to get these bells hung
up, so like, hang up all these bells,
and they have a candle, and an altar,
and the bells are supposed to ring, and
the candles glow out, and it's all scary,
and everyone's like, oh my gosh, it's,
it's crazy, and then you have two guys
who are left, and they make it very clear
to the viewer that this was all staged.
So Horror Times has now been revealed
to the viewer that this is all a farce.
Uh, which is why they get these three.
Random people who apply to do this so
that they can essentially scare them into
thinking that they're there for real.
Emily: Yeah, they have yes, they
have this you know, sort of like
a seance situation and they also.
I can't overlook the the
vandalism that Charlotte does.
Which is apparently her thing.
Like, she's done that in, um
Ben: Well, she's been to two
of the seven on the CNN list.
Three.
Three of them.
Emily: Three?
Yeah, which is like
Ben: Does it show I was not
prepared to do the recap tonight?
Great.
Emily: That's
Morgan: I just want to
know which other one
Jeremy: she's been to, honestly.
That was
Morgan: The Ossuary, and the
Island of Dolls in Mexico, and
I forget what the third one is.
I think
Emily: she was at the,
she, Logan Pauled it.
I think she was at the, Oh
yes, yes, the Suicide Forest
Morgan: in Japan.
Emily: Yeah, yeah, what is it, the actual
name of it is like the Green, the Sea
of, the Tree Sea or something like that.
That
Ben: ghost didn't take Logan Paul
as a curse on the rest of us.
Emily: well, we don't know, do we?
What is he doing now?
We don't know.
He's maybe he's still fighting
Mike Tyson, apparently.
Oh, good for him.
No,
Jeremy: he was wrestling
last night at WrestleMania.
Did he win?
Yes, unfortunately.
Emily: Oh, no.
I assume he's a heel.
Jeremy: He's a heel.
He came out in a tank made entirely
of bottles of his own sports drink.
And then shot a cannon
from his own sports drink.
And then had a mat on the ring
of his own sports drink and his
friend who is also a streamer was
there dressed as his sports drink.
And then he jumped around some and
wrestled some guys and did win somehow.
I don't know how this walking
commercial continues to be he's
a, he's a champion in the WWE.
So
Emily: that's, that's a us champion.
I mean, I guess that like,
after you are a disgraced.
Influencer, that may be the only
way out, is to actually embrace
the fact that you're a heel, and
then your ass kicked a bunch.
Ben: In terms of people in the wrestling
industry, he's still probably in the
upper percentages of moral quality.
Emily: That's not great.
Jeremy: As far as I know, he's not
involved in any current sex trafficking
scandals, which is why Vince McMahon no
longer works for his own company, so.
Ben: My overused line of of course
pro wrestling isn't a real sport.
Real sports aren't allowed to
have a body count that high.
Emily: Depends on where you are
.
Jeremy: Anyway.
Ben: Anyway, anyway.
The good ones do anyway.
That's neither here nor there.
The jingle
Jeremy: some bells that, I'm sorry.
I'm
Ben: easily distracted.
Emily: It's okay.
Me too.
We're, yeah, the,
Jeremy: the horror times guys reveal
the, to us importantly, not to the
extreme or to the other people there
with them that, uh, this is a setup.
We're, we're sort of seeing through their
conversation with the guy back at camp.
So they have actively summoned, uh, ghosts
and then pretended to make, you know, the
ghosts showed up, but as we will learn
shortly, the ghosts got the invitation.
Um,
Ben: did they even need the ceremony?
I feel like the ghosts were going
to get them ceremony or no ceremony.
Steenz: I don't know.
I, I feel like.
The ceremony couldn't have helped.
Ben: No, it definitely didn't help.
Steenz: Well,
Ben: we see, well, because Charlotte pours
out the water in the one room and then
like the very last thing we see in the
whole movie is that water boiling over.
Steenz: But, I think when it really
starts to get scary is when, uh, one
of the guys who was a part of the team
puts his arm into like an old locker
and he pretends he's getting caught and
he's like, oh my gosh, I'm being caught.
And he ends up getting free.
And so it's interesting, I was
going to say, it's interesting
because as a viewer, we like know
that he's thinking it, you know?
So we're expecting that the
other characters to find out once
they put their hand in as well.
And then the fact that it turns
out that she does get caught.
Now we're cued in that the ghost is
real and that ritual did not help.
Ben: I love that.
I love that moment.
Steenz: Yeah, when
Ben: she pulls her hand out and it becomes
very clear that shit has gotten very real
Jeremy: at least one of the
guys in the hospital is like,
hey, uh, fuck this actually
From the team is like actually fuck
this and the guy Maggie Mays is like,
oh no, you guys are staying there
Ben: Well, this is where we get to all the
scenes where I thought Hajoon was going
to be the villain, because they're like,
hey, shit seems like actually haunted so
we want more money, give us a bigger cut,
and he blips the fuck out, showing that,
again, the real villain will always be
the rage of bosses in the face of workers
advocating for higher wages and rights.
Steenz: Yeah, I mean, if you're going to
sacrifice yourself, basically, because you
don't, you now know that ghosts are real.
How much do you ask
for an increase in pay?
You know, I think that what they
asked for was perfectly acceptable.
Yeah, absolutely.
He reacts the
Ben: way a business owner tends to
when his employees try to unionize.
Steenz: Exactly.
Yeah.
Jeremy: They've been promoted from fake
ghost wrangler to actual ghost wranglers.
They deserve a promotion,
uh, deserve more money.
I'm pretty
Emily: sure, that would count, like,
on the capitalist spectrum as skilled
labor is an actual ghost wrangler.
But, you know, you never know,
because, everything is bad.
Ben: But, uh, I think they're
essential labor, which makes
them the most disposable.
Is how it works now.
Language is fun.
Language is fun.
You can twist it to do
terrible, terrible things.
Emily: Yeah
Steenz: But yeah, after it gets
Things get actually for real scary.
Ben: Yeah.
Steenz: We're like, well we're leaving.
Peace.
This is crazy.
Why would we stay for this?
Knowing that they're about to get haunted.
Two of them that leave and
one of them is still staying.
Charlotte
Ben: and Jihyun.
Fun.
Steenz: Yeah, they bounce.
Ben: Look, we're just
getting the fuck out.
Oh, we also get to change in graffiti.
Charlie makes graffiti.
And then later it's changed and
Hajoon is like, no, it didn't.
She lied.
Like women lie.
Keep, keep going.
Cause Hajoon's a real
piece of shit like that.
But Jihyun and Charlotte
are just, they're outtie.
They eventually, they find the the
underwear up and then they keep going
and then they find the underwear again.
They realize they fucked and
they knock Anne out of this.
Steenz: Yeah, that's one of my favorite,
like, tropes, is when they realize
they're in, like, a time loop, or, like,
a spatial loop, there's no way for them
to actually get out, or they've either
gone in a complete circle, all that kind
of stuff is It's really, really fun.
So that was exciting to watch
them realize how fucked they were.
Ben: Yeah.
Honestly, I think is the best scare
of the movie at this point, which is
Charlotte is freaking the fuck out.
She's scared of her mind, but at
least she's got Jihyun with her
until Jihyun is mad paralyzed
or mad paralyzed, mad possessed.
Emily: Yeah, that was one of the few,
like, honestly, because the rest of
the movie had been so solid, that
was one of the few effects that I
thought was, like, A little goofy.
Just because this movie had already
established such high standards
of like everything going on there.
I'll tell you though,
Ben: you know what?
You typed in this movie on YouTube.
This clip here, that is the first clip
that's going to be on the search results.
Steenz: Yeah.
Yeah.
While it was low budget, I think what
mattered most was less the visuals
and more the sound because her like,
Ben: Oh, the sound is so like,
Steenz: like noise is so, so
terrifying that it's like, it's
Ben: spiritual nails on chalkboard.
Yeah.
Steenz: When you are watching a
scary movie and you want to look
away, so you cover your eyes,
but you can't stop listening.
So you have to hear
this scary shit as well.
So I love it.
Morgan: That weird
whispering that she does.
Emily: Yeah, her muttering.
that was the spookiest part, like, the
part where their eyes got all big and they
had, like, the weird, filter for what was,
uh, the thing was, it was already a GoPro.
So everybody had like, kind of
a, a forehead view at this point,
but it looked kind of cute.
In a way the actual, like, everything
else around that was really
effective and I do want to just
underscore the, this turning point.
Where the director is basically
gaslighting them and saying, like,
oh, no, this graffiti is the same as
before you did it wrong, because that
was the 1 of the big points where he.
Actually was buying in.
Like, he believed that there was something
going on, but he wanted to deny it.
Yeah, he did research.
He went back and
Jeremy: checked it in the footage and
was like no, definitely the same guys.
And it was clearly not the same.
Morgan: The graffiti said, let's live.
And then it changed to let's die.
And he compares them side to side.
And he's like, Oh, they changed.
But he's like, no, they didn't change.
What are you talking about?
I love
Ben: the idea that this ghost
just saw the graffiti and was
like, Oh, you, you think, you
Steenz: think.
Ben: It's
Steenz: like also wild
that like, I don't know.
That's a not a, that's a huge change.
You know, it's a
completely different word.
If someone tried to gaslight me
into thinking that that hadn't
changed, I'd be like, you're crazy.
Like,
Emily: yeah.
And it's not like, I mean, it's in Hangul.
So, I mean, it's not like you can't
just like change something about it.
It's completely different characters.
They wouldn't
Steenz: know.
They wouldn't know.
Ben: Well, there's a great moment where
he's, Haijun is reviewing the footage
and he realizes that there's a shot
in there of all six of them and that
nobody could have been recording it.
Emily: Yeah, I love
Steenz: that.
I love that.
That's one of my
Ben: favorite moments.
Steenz: It's a good moment because it
reminds you that they're recording,
you know, it reminds you that like,
the reason you can see these people
is because we put cameras there.
So if you can see all six of them,
then there's a problem because we
didn't set this up, you know, and it
can be different with, there's a lot
of found footage movies who like,
forget that they're a found footage
movie, and they start, having the
camera go in ways that isn't typical.
And so like, When we see it, it's really
easy to not really even notice it because
we know as the viewers that we're watching
a movie, of course, we're going to see
them, it's a good reminder that this
is real footage that we're looking at.
This is a problem
Emily: and that's 1 of the things that
I, picked up with the consistency.
And the other cool thing about
it is that it also opens up
the possibility for the film.
To have, like, different viewpoints.
Which I think is incredibly clever.
So, and he has like this whole
kind of breakdown about it.
And then again doesn't
mention it to anybody.
Like, he is dealing with haunting, but
he's sort of like trying to suppress it.
Yeah.
Um,
Ben: gotta get that million views.
Emily: Yeah, I got it.
Cause he, he, from the get go, he says,
We're gonna get a million views, and
he's looking at the stakes, he's actually
looking at the views as they're going.
Ben: Look, if he can get a
million views, then he can move
on to the next phase of the plan.
Selling workshops, teaching
how to get a million views.
Yeah.
That's the real money maker.
Emily: The other thing that is interesting
about that whole bit is that he also
deals with as things are escalating, he
deals with his Power going out and that
because it's already been established
that the ghosts can fuck with power and
they can fuck with all sorts of things.
And they're also starting to
fuck with, like, the screen and
screen looks all glitched out.
Ben: Partial slender man rules.
Emily: Yeah.
This is obviously that
they, uh, then now it is.
Acceptable for like his computer
to go out and then come back on
and still be without being like in
startup mode or anything like that.
Like, the narrative is tight enough that
you don't like, really quibble about it.
Yeah,
Ben: yeah, that falls under suspension
disbelief or it's a sign that ghosts
are have now possessed the computer and
are fucking with what it's shelling him.
Emily: And considering what
computers have done in the past.
I'm here for it.
I mean, I'm not here for
it, but I believe it.
Jeremy: I mean, that's what's
really happening with technology.
They are recording and sending,
sending their recordings back to
at least the tent at this point.
Yeah, the live stream as well as
fucking with signal and I do really
like they have, they do a lot of bits
with, um, and found footage has done
this a lot over the years of like
playing with what would normally be
static or digital static and this where
occasionally you'll have something
that sort of smears across the screen.
Yeah.
They do it, they do a good job of
employing that to, you know, Oh, yeah.
Scary ends and this.
Mm
Ben: hmm.
Emily: Yeah, which, it's really easy to
make that cheesy, and it is not cheesy.
Ben: No, they do a good job with it.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: Right, so, Sungwook and Sunghoon
freaked out because ghosts are
real, but excited because they're
gonna get more money from them.
Sweet, sweet views.
Uh, they go back to the wheelchair
room, where they find, oh
shit, it's moving by itself.
Also, oh shit, everything is floating.
And they are just getting
knocked the fuck out.
The room is fucking throwing hands.
They are not ready to run the
ones with the haunted asylum
Emily: this skin of rank monster
doesn't look doesn't fuck around.
Ben: No
Emily: Isn't like oh no, it's gone It's
like no It's like the in that scene in
poltergeist where they like open the
door to the room and it's just like
Books flying around and cackling and now
Ben: they are fucked up and sung
wook is just dragged away by an
invisible force well the song hun just
fucking like Bounces off the door.
Is that
Emily: what happens?
Yeah.
He's thrown against the door, like the
mist throw the Dracula mist, throws
renfield against the door and like
Dracula of the Bram stoker variety.
Francis ford coppola.com.
Ben: Yeah.
So anyway, after G Huon is just completely
fucking, you know, black eyed, making
nose, whatever the opposite of A SMR is.
Nightmare as SMR,
Emily: that's my As MR, I mean.
Ben: That's why we love you, Emily.
Emily: Yeah, I love it when the
demons whisper to me at night.
It's very soothing.
Ben: Charlotte just runs and runs
and runs until she reaches base camp.
And as soon as she opens up, it's, Uh
oh, she's in room 402 in the asylum.
She never got out.
None of them are getting out.
It's that kind of horror movie.
Steenz: And this part is probably I
think it was the scariest scene, oh,
Ben: this was terrifying.
Steenz: Yeah, there's a creature, a
thing, in this room with Charlotte,
pretty far away, but close enough
that we can see it via the camera.
And every time Charlotte tries
to look away, I'm like, oh my
god, oh no, you're not gonna like
what you see if you look back.
It is just, it gets
more and more stressful.
I found that like, My ears and
my shoulders were touching.
I was so stressed out in this scene.
Emily: Yeah.
It's very, it's very weeping angel where,
every time you look away, it gets closer.
Ben: It's just that inescapable horror.
It didn't, like, death is, it hasn't
happened, but it is inevitable.
There is nothing that can
be done at this point.
There is no way out.
There is no fighting this thing off.
You are just, you're just done.
You are just ghost victim now.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, and she's just fucking
pulled into the darkness of 402.
Uh, where we will hear her
screams later in the movie.
She will return as screaming.
But for now, Sung Hoon wakes up and
he goes to Ji Yeon and Ah Yeon who
have been trying to get into room 402.
And Sung Hoon informs them that
Uh, lets them know that, hey,
this is all fake, this is, they,
they faked it, but now it's real.
Fake stuff was fake, but now real stuff
is real, and they gotta get the fuck out.
Cause they don't realize that
the part where they could get the
fuck out has long since passed.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: But, uh, Hajun and his aim is
so fucking mad that the cat is out
of the bag, and he's telling the
live audience that they faked it.
And he just goes full on just murder crazy
I mean not that he does murder crazy,
but that's just clearly what he's got
going on right now, if that happened.
Emily: Yeah, he's numbers are still
Jeremy: going up.
Emily: Yeah.
But yeah, he starts panicking and
he leaves his station because he's
been editing all of this on the fly.
Like he, that's his purpose
here is editing all of this
stuff to be streamed live.
So all of this is live, he does have
ads and stuff that he could put in.
So he, he has a lot of
like, production going on.
There's still a lot of, TV smoke and
mirrors between this actual horrible
thing happening and the live stream.
So people, can still be incredulous
or, credulous or credulous.
There we go.
Ben: I'm a big fan of incredulous.
Emily: Yeah.
Incredulous.
That's not how that word works,
but yeah, credulous or incredulous.
Anyway,
Ben: it's a perfectly cromulent word.
Emily: Thank you.
Ben: Yeah, anyway yeah, they hear
Charlotte screaming from within 402,
but before they can save her, or try
to figure out what next it's their
turn, and that, it just opens them
up, and into the hell room they go.
And, uh, this isn't as terrifying
as Charlotte's death scene, but it's
pretty high up there, where they are
just there in water, and there's just
ghosts all around them, and there's
no exit anywhere, and they're just
Jeremy: Yeah,
Emily: yeah,
Jeremy: they're arguing in the hallway and
suddenly a ping pong ball comes bouncing
out of the darkness and that's A ping
pong ball has never been this scary.
Steenz: Yeah.
Oh,
Jeremy: you know that
Ben: is like they are fucked like
We knew they were fucked at some
point, but now they are fucked
Emily: in
Ben: this specific time.
Emily: Yes.
Ben: Yeah, and they're just gone,
they're just darkness, just ghosts.
Hajoon, like, he's just like, we
did it, we're so close to a million.
This has been so worth it.
Everything's coming up, Hajoon.
Uh, but he goes in to get that last vote
and just make sure it gets to a million.
Even if it kills him, because, that's
the, that's where we're at now with
Haiju, and that's the level of rational
decision making and he's just chillin
until he's like, So there he goes,
I think there's a ghost behind me.
And then there's this wonderful
thing where he flips around, like,
the screen on the camcorder and is
like, Yup, there's a ghost behind me.
And the director of the hospital just
straight up strangles him to death.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: But like, ghostly.
Emily: Yeah, in a spooky, ghosty way.
Ben: Yeah, until, you know, our
last one, uh, You know, I'm not
gonna say survivor, but our last
one's still technically alive.
Sungwook, uh, awakens, he's
strapped to the wheelchair, to
the self propelling wheelchair.
Where room 402 is ready to swallow him up
Emily: the whole idea of room 402 is
that they can't get in like they are
fully Taking a buzzsaw to that shit,
trying to get in there, cause nobody
can get into room 402, but then we
have this like, spatial warping, where
people walk into room 402, it's so good.
Ben: It's a portal to hell.
Not literal hell, but
just like, Fuckin hell.
Emily: Nightmare.
Yeah, it's a spooky non
space, and I love that.
Like, scenes, like we were saying,
like the whole kind of time
loop, space loop aspect of it.
Steenz: Yeah, it makes it seem like
there's no way out of this, you know?
Yeah.
Ben: And there isn't.
They are so fucked.
Steenz: Yeah.
Ben: Like, we watch a lot of
movies, I don't know I have trouble
recalling protagonists that were
more Utterly, hopelessly fucked.
Uh, but we still have our epilogue
which reveals that womp womp the live
stream had actually cut off after Sung
Hoon admitted that it was all fake.
So nobody saw all the real stuff going on.
And they make fun of Hajun and then
the ladies that I've been sitting
at the side of the screen, that's
the background, they, they get up,
which I think is supposed to show
that, like, computers haunted.
Emily: Yeah, so this is
also a part that I kind of.
was kind of took me out of it was that
this, you would see a screen that was
essentially like their YouTube page and
like some YouTube pages have, like their
main pages will have a, uh, wallpaper.
And in this case, it's a, the actual
window was being the video window was
being flanked by this image of like a uh,
Sadako, like character who, Sitting in a
chair, you know, your usual, like, scary
little girl and then at this very end
of this glitching out stream, the little
girl suddenly gets up and, you know, I'm
not sure if that was the actual stream.
Because the stream on his computer
was glitching out, but I don't know if
the actual stream was glitching out.
Because a lot of people
seem to be disinterested.
It shows
Ben: that his screensaver was
the real villain all along.
Emily: Yeah,
Ben: there you go.
Part of me wonders if it was just like,
a final creepy image to go out on.
I think it's a way of wondering of
like, cause we know that it, that these
ghosts and this curse affects technology
and I wonder if this is just, a visual
representation of showing that both,
these ghosts have utterly taken over
this technology, this live stream and
the stream itself is almost haunted now.
Emily: Yeah.
Steenz: Yeah.
I think the last bit of the movie was
probably well, we didn't need that.
It could have, it could have
really just ended with the death
of those characters and maybe
like, Yeah, it was enough that they
Ben: died.
You didn't have to all show
that their channel was flopping.
Steenz: Yeah.
Yeah.
Although it is like kind of funny that
like none of it was actually seen.
I guess it's a way to like fix
the question of like, well,
what happens now that everyone's
seeing that ghost are real?
Well, you don't, we don't have to worry
about that because they never got to that.
So I, I do think it, was necessary
for us to see that no one really saw
in it, saw it, but I don't think it
was necessary for their screensaver
to get up and be a little spooky.
Yeah,
Ben: yeah.
I think it definitely, I think it
shows, you know, oh look, Hajun, for
all of how much he sacrificed for this
stream, nobody ever actually saw what
he got, but I don't think the movie
really focused on him enough to sell
that as a emotional, like, linchpin.
Also, they were already
fucked by that point.
Emily: Yeah, well, I like that.
By the time
Ben: they do that first
ceremony, they're all dead.
None of them was getting out
once that ceremony went down.
Emily: Yeah, well, I did like that
that little note that the stream
had actually just kind of flopped
because that's how the internet is,
no matter what, like, they could
have had the whole thing running.
And everyone's like, oh, this is fake.
This is so fake.
Oh my god.
This is so over the top.
I don't believe this.
They must have done, because people
will do that anyway, I mean, you have
a lot of people out there that deny.
I mean, this is not funny territory, but
there's people who will still see shit
on videos and deny it that is happening.
So, and especially with, like, a media
Ben: Google Bridge Conspiracy if you
want to be really sad for a while.
Yeah, like, like that.
Emily: Yeah that's how we
know the Mothman isn't real.
Ben: Because he would never
put up with this bullshit.
Emily: Anyway.
We
Ben: need a hero to save us.
You
Emily: need a hero.
A mothman, a gumbo, nickelback.
Jeremy: Alright, so I think
we've reached the end of this.
Emily: Look at this mothman.
Jeremy: Go
Ben: to Spotify soon!
Emily: So, yeah, there's a lot, this
movie, I mean, we just talked about the
ending, kind of, nailed it home, that
whole narrative of the farce of this,
like, what these people put, Their lives
on the line for, and this sort of like,
they bit off more than they can chew, but
also for the vine, essentially, like, to
Ben: I think there is a, I think
there's a harshness this movie
views them, like, especially.
You know, our Horror Times staffers,
like, more so than most Haunted House
movies, I feel like this movie has a
particular condemnation of its main
characters, where it feels like you
were doing something truly wrong, like
something very solemn happened here
and you were making a mockery of it.
And now you receive
nightmarish ass punishment.
Yeah.
Emily: Yeah,
Jeremy: no, nobody makes
it out of this alive.
like Not even the drone!
Ben: The drone
Jeremy: crashes!
Emily: Yeah.
Well, the drone deserved
it for being a drone.
Jeremy: It is quite a bit like,
Flare Witch in that respect
in that nobody makes it out.
I do think what you're talking about
with the, like, extra bit with the
channel and everything at the end.
I think they would have done well to
learn sort of the lesson of the end of the
Blair Witch, which is like the creepiest
thing about that movie is at the end
you're like, what the fuck happened?
Like it just stopped.
Emily: Yeah, you don't need
to put a hat on that hat.
Like, we got it.
Ben: A found footage movie doesn't
need an epilogue, necessarily.
Yeah, no button needed.
Yeah.
I mean,
Emily: much like that.
Maybe
Ben: a Hugh Jackman cameo, but
Emily: It just goes to an ad,
like it's, the stream ends, and
then it goes like, play next?
Ben: Oh no, that should have been
the, that should have been the
ending if it just went to like
a fucking shampoo commercial.
Like that would have done it, that
like, in this scene, but I feel like,
Honestly, I feel like that would have
actually worked, not just in a funny
ha ha way, but in a very poignant
way of like, Oh, look at these people
who try to exploit deaf or crass
commercialism, and now their own deafs
went unwatched, unremarked, forgotten
in the sea of just bullshit capitalism
that they tried to, like, master.
Emily: Yeah, so I've said a lot of
things about this movie, about how much I
think it works, how much I think that, I
mean, and there's a lot of found footage
stuff out there that is a variation
on a theme and everything, and, I have
struggled to find found footage super
compelling because of that, because
so much of it is so much the same,
but this is really like, if it's not
broke, you don't have to fix it, kind
of, processing of the found footage.
. I also found it was really cool
that they used the production
technique of Blair Witch Project.
In the story, whereas when Blair Witch
Project, they didn't have a script.
They did have actors they had locations.
And basically the directors would
follow these kids around the woods.
They would leave a stake in the
ground and say, do some shit here.
And then the directors would come
out in the middle of the night
and scare the shit out of them.
And just by, like,
making noises and stuff.
So, it was a lot easier
for the actors to kind of.
Act in that way and I think that's
part of the credit of the movie.
Uh, and does feel pretty real,
but in this case, it's a lot
more difficult to do that now.
Because people know what you're doing.
Jeremy: Yeah, I think this is a very
good update of the sort of found footage
formula because, you know, there is
so much more footage out there now.
I mean, people have cameras in
their pockets all the time and we're
talking about, you know, these I
mean, this sort of well known tropes
of these, GoPros and everything.
You can just use that to and take
it to sort of the next level.
Ben: like we said, I think the one
that like, there's more potential
for this kind of exploration of
technology and genre, like, I think
there's potential for an almost rear
window style thriller using drones.
Emily: Yeah, and I mean, I think
some movies are doing that and
there's some movies out there that
have been doing that, but, um.
This one, I mean, it's just,
again, the consistency.
It's that whole thing about how you
know it's working when you're not
paying attention, like if you're not,
you don't notice the mechanism, the
mechanism is working and, you don't need
to put any bells and whistles on it.
and this movie is so successful at that.
that's just showing us everything that
is going into the production, which
is why I think like a lot of the front
piece of the movie with the characters
is this works for me as well as it does.
Jeremy: Yeah, it contextualizes it nicely.
When we look at our questions here, I
think definitely, I mean, we've talked
about some of the ways in which it deals
specifically with, class and capitalism,
especially I think that's, that's
somewhere where it hits really strong.
And I think the message is, is pretty
clear there as far as like, capitalism
is sort of the villain here that
I don't know, how do you guys feel
about how, like, being set in an
asylum, how this then sort of reflects
on, Dealing with, mental health and
mental disability and things like
Ben: I mean, it plays into the decades
long global connection with, abusive
mental health practices with horror.
I mean, It doesn't help that pretty
much anytime you hear the words
asylum, your brain goes like, oh,
that's gonna be haunted as fuck.
.
Steenz: Yeah.
Yeah.
But I mean, it's haunted for a reason.
It's haunted because, yeah.
Fucked up shit that happened there that
was happening against these people.
So I'd
Ben: say, yeah, on one hand
Steenz: it's definitely like a
trope that we see all the time,
which is asylums are scary, but.
There's also an opportunity for a viewer
to, to see and be like, well, these fucked
up things happened because we did fucked
up things to these people, you know?
Ben: Yeah.
The trope is because historically,
even the most well meaning of mental
institutions was usually doing a lot of
stuff we would now call Fucking torture.
Yeah.
Emily: Yeah.
And I mean, and that's, that was, they're,
Ben: they're bad in fiction
because they have unfortunately
been very bad in real life.
Emily: Yeah, the trope
Ben: did not come from nowhere.
Emily: This narrative does not
blame the institution itself
so much as the people involved.
Ben: Well, I found interesting
was we're never given an, are we
given an answer to the mystery?
Like, like we're not really told one
way or the other, whether the director.
We never really find any answers.
We're just subject to the ghostly fuckery.
Emily: Yeah, well, we know that something
bad happened, and I think it's, it is
another one of those things where it's
better to leave the question unanswered.
Ben: Oh, agreed.
Hundred percent.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Not saying the movie should have
answered it, just saying it's
interesting that they chose not to.
Emily: Yeah.
And I think, and
Ben: I'm with you, it was the right call.
Emily: Yeah.
So I think that, that wasn't really
ever like followed through on.
It was just, we knew it was fucked
up because it looked like one of the
things that we saw from one of those
rooms were like the little cabinet that
one of the the Urbex folks, one of the
camera people put their hand through
Steenz: it.
Emily: Was heavily implied that that
was just used as like a solitary
confinement, um, that these patients
were punished with these forms of torture.
And that was 1 of those forms of torture.
We didn't see a lot of other
very explicit evidence of
torture or what exactly happened.
And I think that is better
in terms of, because.
The fact that it is an asylum and the
fact that we do see, like, that photo
of the director and all of her patients,
there is a very strong argument to be
made about the ableism involved there.
in anything with hospitals and
wheelchairs and any, like, these,
like, the spooky wheelchair that
is floating, there is an ableist.
Angle to that that I can
definitely understand.
I don't think that this is in terms
of all these other movies that
deal with, institutions and haunted
institutions and all this kind of stuff.
I think this movie does
actually a pretty good job.
Of being specific enough that it's not
just falling into these lazy categories
of like, oh, isn't this asylum spooky?
Because it's, it's the
crazy people, you know,
Jeremy: I think it sort of helps
and then it is and we talked a
little bit with the ring about how.
In a lot of cases, hauntings in, Japanese
folklore especially, but in Korean
as well, are not like, not, places
are necessarily haunted by a person
who is evil, but by like a bad thing
that has happened there has caused it
to remain disturbed and unsafe, and
I think, in this case, I think that
works well for the mental institution
trope because you don't say, Oh, you're
being haunted by dead, crazy people.
It's like, no, something terrible
happened to the people who were in this
institution and that has caused there
to be, this unrest remaining there.
Emily: Yeah, so yeah, I think that,
you can't get away from the ableism
involved in any sort of depiction
of medical equipment as being scary.
As relatable as it can be, because,
going to the hospital can be
scary, because it's where you get
a lot of crazy news sometimes.
But I think that's a step in horror
that this movie actually moves forward
with in terms of not dwelling on these
particular things as much as other movies.
It's now, like, I'm saying in the
context of the greater genre of, like,
Horror movies set in institutions,
hospitals, asylums, things like that.
And, this character is very
important with that too.
Because being specific about what is
going on here, you know, you could
say that about a whole bunch of
different institutions, no matter what.
And it becomes less about how able
the people are involved, and more
about, What the institution means
for people who are are dealing with
disability and things like that?
Jeremy: Morgan, did you have
something you wanted to add to that?
Emily: Yeah.
Morgan: Yeah.
Yeah.
Sure.
I mean, I like that.
The people are not scary because
the patients are not scary because
they have a mental illness.
It's.
They are scary because they
have literally been tortured.
And I, I actually work
in, like, health care and.
There is so much stigma against
mental health and I, that I hate
that when it's used in movies that
like the crazy person is dangerous
because they are crazy or scary
because they have this mental health.
So, it was refreshing.
I I agreed that the movie didn't focus
on the mental illness of the patients.
Although it did kind of prey
on the protagonist's fear Of
mental illness because, but
the stigma is lying with them.
It's not the patients
have done anything wrong.
Yeah.
And I just thought that was nice that
we didn't have to see the patients
be the villains other than, like,
that they were basically vengeful
spirits who had been tortured.
Steenz: Yeah.
Morgan: yeah, I was also noticing
when they went to like the shower
rooms traditionally people with mental
health issues have also been like, they
use like cold water, water torture.
Because I think it, like,
cures mental illness.
I know that that was common
in the States and Europe.
I don't know if it was the same in Asia,
but that's kind of what it reminded me of.
So I was wondering if maybe they take the
patients into those, like, the shower room
and we're blasting them with cold water.
Steenz: Oh,
Morgan: yeah.
Which is probably why the
shower's all turned on.
Ben: But cold water isn't relaxing.
Nice warm shower, that'll
help with my mental health.
Well, they thought like
it would shock you.
A voluntarily cold shower
in front of people?
That is not helping my
mental health, not at all.
I got no candles, I don't got my
relaxing music, this is no good.
Morgan: Well, it was the theory that
they could like shock your senses
back to like That's a bad theory!
I know, it's a
Ben: terrible theory.
Why can't I just that's the, if it's
broken, just let's just hit it a few,
let's just hit the engine a few times
and that ought to get it running again.
Well,
Morgan: essentially, I mean, it's
the same reason for like electroshock
therapy, which ironically they
have found actually is very good at
treating depression because it kind
of resets the neurons in your brain.
But the way they do it now is very
different than how they used to do it.
Ben: I'm worried how much of our, like,
mental health professionals was just like,
well, I was watching Gilligan's Island
last night and he got hit on the head and
he turned dumb, but then he got hit on the
head again and it made him smart again,
Morgan: so.
I mean, these are the same people
who came up with lobotomies.
Like, they're like, let's stick
an ice pick in there and swirl
it around and see what happens.
Emily: Yeah, I mean, it's a
it's very much do the cocaine
for the ghosts in your blood.
Yes.
Logic
Ben: I like this dum dum voice.
It's something I made for like,
I watch Gilligan's Island.
I psychologist, I go to Yale.
Emily: Well, I mean, you've got like.
Y'all take
Ben: fucking anybody
who's rich from New Haven.
Yeah.
Morgan: Well, I mean, when you look
at the history of like psychology,
it's actually very horrifying.
Yeah.
I mean, just medicine in general of
what they used to do because, and so
much of our modern medicine comes from
them just like experimenting with,
like you said, hitting someone with
a coconut to see what would happen.
Ben: It's a little
depressing how much of our.
Just our entire scientific knowledge
comes from a period of time where rich
white people had lots of resources
for silly hobbies and lots of free
time, and so they just discovered
electromagnetism while fucking around.
Yeah.
Access
Jeremy: to dead bodies.
Yeah,
Morgan: or they just do a medical
experiments on living bodies because
they were poor and couldn't stop
them or they were slaves and they
couldn't stop them, which kind
of brings us back to what was it?
Unit 731.
I think there was inference that that
sort of thing was happening to the mental
patients that they were essentially being
experimented on because they were helpless
and couldn't do anything about it.
Emily: Yeah, and I mean, that's a very
like, it's kind of a, very briefly
mentioned, but I mean, it's one of those
things that you mention it and you're
like, okay, you don't, um, you don't
really need the details at that point.
In fact, I don't, I don't
recommend the details.
it's a really, really, I mean, it's just.
some of the worst kind of human
experimentation and, you know,
and I think that's another thing
where the institution, the medical
institution is vilified because of
these things that have happened.
Morgan: Yeah,
Emily: at institutions where they
have been sort of, taken over by the
military or, whatever corrupt force.
this is the site of a conspiracy and
it's not like, a psychiatric ward.
thing.
It's just what happened here.
Jeremy: Yeah, I think perhaps
on the plus side then we also do
not get anything in the way of
LGBTQIA people or themes in this.
Cause if, if it was, it
would just be torture.
So maybe that's best
left out of, of this one.
I think also we, I mean, I, I, for
one, don't feel qualified to say
whether there's much in the way of
discussion of race and social justice
in this other than what we've already
talked about in the way of class.
But I do got to ask, do you guys feel
like this, this movie was feminist?
Steenz: Yeah.
I mean, in the way that
they all had names and
Jeremy: characteristics, they
Steenz: all had.
goals and they were all three
dimensional and they all spoke to
each other about things that weren't
just the other guys in the room.
So, you know, it follows a lot of
things and also I really like the
characterization of all three of the
female characters, you know, Charlotte is
the American leather jacket wearing cool
girl who's done half of this already, you
know, so she's not too scared of anything.
And then the timid girl who ends up
being one of the last few survivors.
I mean, so it's like, yeah, I don't,
I don't see how, how it is it.
I like
Jeremy: really questionable
choice in footwear for this
expedition, but aside from that.
Morgan: Yeah.
Yeah.
I felt like the women characters
almost stood out more than the male
characters, like the women, like,
they all seemed very distinct, whereas
the guys Other than the captain and
the cowardly guy, the two other guys
just kind of seemed interchangeable.
Oh yeah, they were
Ben: just like thing one and thing two.
Literally.
Yeah, yeah.
Morgan: Like they even
had similar haircuts.
They, like, they were not that distinct,
whereas the three women had very
distinct styles and personalities.
I
Steenz: feel like they probably
Did that for the show, because
remember they're picking those
applicants for a reason, right?
the applicants that would be the best
for the show and Since this is all a
farce the two guys that were You know
horror times producers like they don't
really need to have too much character
because it's really not about them It's
really about scaring their applicants
Jeremy: I feel like that's really
realistic to these guys, too,
because like, those guys always think
that they're very cool and have a
lot of different stuff going on.
And then like, you watch them and
you're like, Oh, it's other guy, guy,
Steenz: other
Jeremy: guy and handsome guy.
All right.
Steenz: Yeah, I think major difference
between all three of them is You know,
the senior producer was in a completely
different area, but, and it took until
the, the turn where we find out that
it's a farce for them to even have
much of a difference because one of
them is like, actually, I'm scared.
Can we get the fuck out?
And the other one is like,
but don't you want money?
So that's slight, slight personality, but
not enough for us to really like know them
as much as we did the other characters.
Jeremy: Different levels of
how much they want money.
Steenz: Yeah,
Jeremy: exactly.
Emily: Go ahead.
Morgan: Oh, I also think it's interesting
how the women didn't behave as expected.
Like, the nursing student who comes off
as very timid at first she's actually
turns out to be one of the braver
characters, um, and who laughs a lot.
For a very long time.
Where Charlotte, who's like, very cocky
about it, and she's said, Oh, I've been
to all these scary places before, and
she's writing her name on the wall.
The
Ben: first, the first to bounce.
Morgan: Yeah, she freaks the fuck out.
Emily: Yeah, which is, there's so
much about that to me, the fact that
she is so confident, and then she
bugs out like, That this is so such a
such a different experience for her.
Yeah.
She's like, because she's, you know,
obviously gone through and been like,
who goes and been sort of in control of
the situation, like these guys are or
that they think they are for a while.
And then the second that things get
weird, she's out and from a character
that you'd think would be curious.
Yeah.
Steenz: Yeah.
Emily: And, you know, none of
these characters are curious.
Now, a lot of us think, like, oh, if
someone is in a, if, what if people
going to an asylum and they just, like,
talk to the ghost instead of yelling
at the ghost, you know, or whatever.
I mean, again, that doesn't
make tension, maybe,
but uh, yeah, female characters were
more than just pragmatic which is the
other side of the trope That I see
is that you have like these crazy,
wild and crazy guys and then the, the
female characters are like, this guy,
God and even with the really squirrely
guy that was that kept saying that
the nursing student should leave.
She was still fucking with him.
Before, like before the, the, Oh, yeah,
Ben: she was not taking him seriously.
Emily: The, entire expeditions,
like, on site started, but she
was, like, teasing him too.
So, there was a lot of, character
there and I think that was on purpose.
Like, I think that, there was a decision
made in the production of this movie.
That these guys would be very simple about
choosing women to, uh, be their victims,
essentially, that they would think that
the women would bring so much drama and,
be so scared and everything like that.
And also this, like, there's a
point earlier where they're like,
oh, it's a triple date and, that's.
Thrown out the window, like, that
is put a stop to immediately.
Morgan: Yeah I also thought.
I mean, as much as Charlotte freaks
out, she is also kind of smart in that
Ben: no, Charlotte is smart enough.
No, don't go fucking with goat dolls.
Morgan: Yeah, Charlotte is kind
of savvy because she has been
to scary places and nothing like
this has ever happened before.
And she's like, okay, this is
seriously like, she went to the aisle
Ben: of dolls and they didn't
have creepy moving dolls.
Morgan: Yeah, and then once that one
woman gets injured by sticking her arm
in the box and she gets the scratches
Charlotte's like fuck this We're out.
We're out.
We just stick around but this is
Ben: dangerous.
We're leaving that would be the smart
move in a movie where Yes, you're in a
movie where there are no smart moves.
You're just fucked.
Morgan: Yeah Unfortunately, it was too
late, but it was smart of her to say it's
time to we're gonna leave I was like, yes,
but you don't usually see that in movies
usually they're like we're gonna be greedy
and We're gonna stay like the two guys
did but the women were smarter than that
and decided that they were gonna peace out
Jeremy: Yeah, absolutely So I think,
guys, do we recommend this overall?
Oh, definitely.
Yes.
Ben: For sure.
Steenz: Oh
Ben: yeah, absolutely.
Like a very well executed
found footage movie, 100%.
Steenz: Yeah, it was fun
from beginning to end.
I like that we got to
know these characters.
It's really easy for found footage
movies to continue the trope of they're
all friends but they treat each other
like shit, Which I feel like is It's
so annoying, because if your friends
treat you like that, they're not your
friends, but I feel like it dovetails
Ben: into the well known phenomenon
of the straights are not okay.
Steenz: Exactly, exactly.
And so it's nice to see a group of people
who are not only Working well together,
but actually getting along with each
other too, we don't have to worry about
someone being, yeah, I mean, like, one
of the worst things about like found
footage movies, in my opinion, is when
someone is like, don't joke around.
This isn't funny.
And I'm like, yeah, we
know it's not funny.
No one will do this.
This is, you'd have to be a psychopath
to make someone believe that you just got
got by a ghost and you think that's funny.
Like it's crazy to me.
So it's, it's nice when it's clear
what's going on with these people.
Their relationships are very clear.
Uh, everyone has really great character
development and it's actually very scary.
Sometimes it's really hard to get found
footage movies to be scary because
you're so caught up in the, uh, shaky
cam of it all, but this has found a
way to get you to forget about the
fact that it's found footage and more
you get more focused on the story.
Emily: Yeah, for sure.
Ben: Yeah.
So, uh, should we hop
into the recommendations?
What would we all recommend?
Y'all like this movie?
Emily: Yeah, I'm in.
I love this.
This is definitely a phenomenal
found, like an example of
the found footage genre.
Like if, up here, Blair Witch Projects.
the last time I think I, we did a found
footage movie with Steens that was Host.
Yeah.
Which was real on Zoom.
So, and they did.
Ben: Oh, love that movie.
Yeah,
Emily: And then if you want to watch
something that is funny and sort
of kind of like what this movie is
making fun of, watch Ghost Files.
That's the one, right?
With the, hey demons, it's me, your boy.
Yes.
Ben: Yes,
Emily: because I think they used
to be BuzzFeed unsolved and I
can't really in good conscience
suggest anything out of BuzzFeed.
Yeah,
Ben: would recommend the ghost
stories anime, but only the dub
Uh, for a more serious recommendation,
I'm gonna pick a movie we've covered on
this podcast, and that is The Descent.
Uh, so if you want another movie about a
group of people blinging themselves into
an absolutely nightmarishly horrific,
no win, absolutely everybody is fucked
situation, check out The Descent.
But also definitely the ghost story stuff.
Right.
Morgan: I'll go with the movie
I recommended earlier, Grave
Encounters, if you like this movie.
Grave Encounters is very similar set up.
It's a team of Basically ghost
bros, like those, uh, T Learning
Channel TLC, like, ghost hunting
shows that are incredibly stupid.
So it's these guys, but then
they get locked into a haunted
asylum, they think it's fake,
they're trying to make the show.
Turns out it's not fake and they've
never actually encountered a real
ghost, so they don't know what
to do, and it's quite creepy.
Steenz: That's a really great suggestion.
I love Grave Encounters, so much so that
my recommendation is Grave Encounters 2.
I really do think people should
watch it and go in with an open mind,
because even though Grave Encounters
was an excellent no notes movie Grave
Encounters 2 does have some problems,
but it is Still very good and still
very scary, and there's one part in
particular that is super, super scary and
actually went viral online for a while,
so I highly recommend watching Grave
Encounters 2 for a B plus experience, so.
Emily: Definitely noted there.
Jeremy: Yeah, I'm gonna
recommend something.
It is also found footage, but I think
couldn't couldn't be more different in
a lot of ways than than this that is
the movie creep and Yeah, if you enjoy
creep also creep too, which is Similar
in some ways but very different in some
interesting ways But yeah If you think
Mark Duplass seems like the guy that you'd
want to hang out with You won't by the
end of this, because it's just a, it's
just a movie about a guy that gets hired
to like document a guy's day and goes to
this strange house out in the middle of
nowhere to, to document this guy's day
and walk around and film him and stuff.
And the guy seems nice, but weird.
And you know, is having all these strange
conversations with him and really sort
of like pulling him along into situations
where he's, He's less and less safe and,
uh, I mean, things obviously take a turn
from there it's sort of incredible because
it is like a two man job, basically.
I know it is Patrick Bryce and Mark
Duplass, and they sort of like,
they're both like producers and
writers and stuff on here as well as
Sir Patrick Bryce is directing it, and
Mark Duplass is, for a large portion
of this, the only person on screen.
So, um, yeah.
Mike Duplass has always seemed
like a really nice guy in,
like, stuff he's been in.
By the end of this movie,
you'll be like, I don't know.
I don't know if he's a nice guy.
He seems like a bad guy.
Ben: Oh, I can imagine him being
an incredible, like, seedy villain.
Like, you know, like, he seems
like he's a good guy at first, but
then becomes the most insidious
motherfucker you've ever seen.
Steenz: That's great.
Jeremy: That's, I mean, not to spoil
things, but there is one point where
he just shows up wearing a mask.
And does not explain why he's
wearing the mask and stops talking.
And you're like, Oh no, Oh no, as, as
watching it, you're like, I need to
leave, you need to leave, I need to
leave, we all need to get out of here.
Yeah.
It's, I mean, having, you know, having
done the comic conventions and things
they've done, having had interactions,
not unlike this with people before.
It's one of those, like.
Oh, yeah, this is why you
don't go to a third location.
All right, got it.
Emily: Very much.
You're saying so real.
Jeremy: Yeah.
There are plenty of people that
you meet at a show and you think
they're nice when you meet them and
then you hang around with them for
a little bit and you're like, hmm.
Steenz: You're like, oh.
Some
Jeremy: questionable things.
Steenz: Yeah.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Always fun stuff.
Um, on, on that note, on that fun stuff
speaking of conventions and creeps
and, uh, things that you're doing.
Steins, why don't you tell us, uh,
what you're up to, where people
can check you out and, uh, see what
you're, what you're up to online.
Steenz: Yeah, so, uh, you can read
my ongoing nationally syndicated
comic strip, Heart of the City, in
most local newspapers or on GoComics.
com for free.
Um, my next book is
coming out October 8th.
I think?
Yeah, it's called PsyQuest.
It's a visual history of tabletop
role playing games, so if you're
interested in something like
that, I highly recommend it.
We go through time and space and talk
about, board games and psychology
and role playing and how it all
comes together to create what we know
and love as tabletop role playing
games, Yeah, it does sound awesome.
Yeah, definitely one of the reasons
why I did it because it's awesome.
also keep an eye out if you
are in the Midwest area, uh,
Slice is a program that I run.
I'm board president.
It's the St.
Louis Independent Comics Expo.
That's also happening in October.
I recommend following us online and
seeing what other kind of programming
we're going to have throughout
the year leading up to the Expo.
Uh, we got some really good
stuff coming up, including a
Feathered Friends sketch crawl.
So that should be really, really fun.
So yeah, uh, look me up online.
Oh, hey, Steens everywhere.
I'm Pretty much the only one.
Steen's Comics, and you'll find me.
Emily: Can you talk about Unico?
Steenz: Oh yeah, of course!
Yeah, Unico, has been re launched, and
it's awesome if you guys are into Tezuka
properties, similar to like Astro Boy.
And, uh, I was asked to do a mini
comic, celebrating its, release
back into the, uh, the culture.
And, that should be available
at the end of the year as well.
I did a little.
8 page, 10 page, I don't know, short
comic about Unico and he's been, uh, been
dropped off in Queens, so he's really
making local fans happier by being there.
So, yeah.
That
Emily: sounds amazing.
I love
Steenz: Unico.
Emily: yeah, I, I kickstarted that.
And, uh, Sam Satine is
out here in Santa Rosa.
So, hopefully, we could do
a show with him as well, but
Steenz: absolutely.
Yeah.
He's a big fan of, horror movies.
So he'd be a great addition
to the progressively horrified
podcast roster for sure.
Emily: Awesome.
Awesome.
And Morgan.
Morgan: You can find me
online at diversityhorror.
blogspot.
com.
I run a blog called Diversity Horror,
where I review diverse horror fiction.
So that's fiction featuring
BIPOC folks, LGBTQIA folks.
and people with disabilities.
Uh, you can also find me at Diversity
Horror on Twitter and Instagram, and I
refuse to call it X because if Elon Musk
cannot respect people's names, then I
am going to dead name his stupid site.
Yeah.
Emily: I'm with you there.
I have a quick question about the blog.
Have you rec have you covered Night Bitch?
Morgan: Not yet.
Not yet.
Emily: Okay.
But it's, it's
Morgan: one of the ones
I'm planning on doing.
Emily: So go on and follow Morgan.
So for when they, uh, they
cover Night Bitch as well as
all of the other cool stuff.
It's on over there.
Jeremy: Thank you.
Awesome.
Emily, why don't you tell people
where they can find you online?
Emily: Megamoth.
net, baby.
It's got, it's basically my card.
It has everything.
I'm on Patreon.
I'm on Instagram.
Those are the places where you
can see my art, also on Tumblr.
I also do not use the
dreaded Twitter very much.
Although I am on Twitter, Megamoth.
And Blue Sky, more
importantly, on Megamoth.
As well as the podcast,
it's ProgHorrorPod.
So I'm mostly, if you want to
hang out on the dead horse that
is Twitter, it's ProgHorrorPod.
I don't blame you, a lot of people
still are because they gotta
check out Prog Horror Pod and
then you'll find me through there.
And just go to Blue Sky.
Blue Sky deserves more love.
Ben: Blue Sky is great.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, I'm enjoying Blue Sky.
Steenz: Yeah.
Likewise, you can also
find me on Blue Sky.
Same here.
Jeremy: You're like Neil Gaiman.
It's like 20 percent Neil
Gaiman over there right now, so.
Steenz: It really, really is.
Oh my god.
You know
Emily: what?
Ben: That's a lot of Neil Gaiman,
a lot of Taskmaster fan art.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Uh, and Ben, what is, where
can people follow you online?
Ben: Yes.
On Twitter where I'm mostly
just cross posting content.
I write for blue sky and promo
stuff, but on Twitter, I am at Ben
the Kahn and Instagram and blue sky.
You can find me at Ben Kahn
comics as well as Ben Kahn comics.
com.
And yeah, and just keep an eye out for.
news about some upcoming works that
will hopefully be announced soon, and
future comics like, Dashing for Wayward
Princes from, uh, myself and Jeremy
coming out from, uh, Simon Schuster.
Emily: I'm excited about everyone's
projects, like, for real.
Jeremy: yeah, speaking of, uh, projects
you can, uh, pre order my Romance graphic
novel navigating with you right now you
can go buy all the other stuff that's out
that I've written, including, Dog Night.
If you're listening to this in May
when it comes out, uh, I will be in
hotlanta at momocon later this month,
so come see me there May 24th, 27th.
There's comics, there's anime,
there's manga, there's games,
there's tabletop games, it's wild.
So, yeah, come visit us there otherwise
you can find me online both on, uh,
Twitter and Instagram at jrome58 but
even better at bluesky and tumblr
at jeremy whitley, uh, and you can
find me on my website jeremywhitley.
com thank you so much to everybody for
joining us today, Steins Morgan, it was
really a pleasure, this was a great one,
Steenz: always wonderful,
Jeremy: yes, this was a lot of fun.
Steenz: Yeah, thank you for having
me and also thanks for rescheduling.
I was really upset when my power
went out last time and so I'm happy
that I was able to do this again.
Yes, thank you.
Ben: Yes, no, it all worked out and I'm
so glad we're able to have you both here.
Thank you again so much for coming on.
Morgan: Of course, I
love being on the show.
Jeremy: Yeah, it was a coincidence last
time that both of you had different
issues so it was like, well, let's
Steenz: just reschedule it.
I can talk to
Jeremy: these two anytime, Yeah,
we're not, we're not special.
You're very special.
Emily: Super kind of special.
Jeremy: Alright, uh, well
this has been a ball.
And until next time,
everybody, stay horrified.