A show about Weird Stuff, hosted by AP Strange. AP interviews cool weirdos about their work, and invites friends on to discuss second sequels in franchises in a series called "Third Time's the Charm". Other fun surprises await...
Pardon me while I have a strange interlude. There is nothing else. Life is an obscure oboe, plumbing a ride on the omnibus of art. And the misty corridors of time, and in those corridors, I see figures. Strange figures.
AP Strange:Welcome back, my friends, to the AP Strange Show. I am your host, AP Strange. This is my show, and this right now is our imaginary sponsor for today, which is, doctor Logan's cognitive behavioral therapy clinic for the undead. If you're surrounded by the undead, you most likely will not be able to kill them all, and you may not have a place to go. So you might as well teach them how to behave.
AP Strange:And, doctor Logan has a tried and trusted method for making that happen. So enroll your zombies in the school of doctor Logan and his clinic for cognitive behavioral therapy or the undead. And tonight on the show, we're doing a, third time's the charm movie episode. This one going back to 1985, and the movie in question is Day of the Dead, which is the third of the George Romero zombie movies following the dawn of the dead, which followed the night of the living dead, of course. And here to talk about it with me is a a man I've known for quite a while.
AP Strange:We've kind of, we've been moots on the Internet for different way, shape, shape, or form. We met up in Exeter, New Hampshire at the, UFO Festival once and, paid our respects to Betty and Barney Hill. That was cool. But he is he is the cohost of Bring Me the Axe, which is a wonderful podcast about horror movies and 99¢ rental, which also covers a lot of horror movies, but mostly just, like, trash movies that you find on the shelves back in the day. And, Radio Free Haddonfield, which is a really cool music show.
AP Strange:My guest tonight, welcome to the show, Brian White.
Bryan White:Hey. Thank you for having me.
AP Strange:Of course, man. Yeah. Yeah.
Bryan White:That's quite a that's quite an introduction there. I got a lot going on.
AP Strange:Yeah. You're a busy man. Yeah. When I, became aware of Bring Me the Axe, I checked it out, and I'm like, oh, there's there's a whole other show to you. And then you you've been doing music for a long time, though, the music shows.
AP Strange:But No.
Bryan White:The music show is actually just part of our our Patreon, like, offerings because we we've got a couple of things that we do over there. Radio Free Haddonfield is is it's like an hour long, like, music and chatter, like a DJ show. And then the other one that we do for it, like, when the we and we do it like we do with Bring Me the Axe and 99¢ rattle where it's like, when that one is off the week that that that's off, we've got an X Files rewatch show called Do You Think I'm Spooky? That is odd. Oh.
Bryan White:And, yeah, that's, like, 50% us talking about the X Files and then, like, 50 us talking about what happened on that day in history. Because as it happens, the nineties was a really, really weird decade.
AP Strange:It really was. Yeah. And it's a lot of stuff that you might forget about. And then, as soon as you remember, you're like, yeah. That was that was pretty weird.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:Like, one of the things that we we just talked about, we did the episode we did the episode Space just recently, which is such a dog. It's like one of the series worst. But on the the week that it was, it was off, there was a there was a a report that Dave turned up about a cult in Ukraine that was arrested at the time. I'm not really sure what they were arrested for, but they arrested a 50 members of a cult called the Great White Brotherhood. And we couldn't figure we couldn't find out, like, anything really about them because as it you know, anybody who's I'm sure people who listen to this this podcast know that, like, that covers the great white brotherhood covers a lot of weirdness and, like
AP Strange:Right.
Bryan White:Just never know what you're gonna get when you search.
AP Strange:Yeah. It's probably not all related to each other. You know?
Bryan White:No. Because, like, it's all part of, like, theosophy and then, like, I like, I am activity, which is, like, also kind of theosophical. But it's, like, it's it's tied up in so much of, of that, like, secret chiefs, ascended masters stuff. Like, Aleister Crowley was always writing about the the the white lodge and the black lodge, that sort of thing. So, like, yeah, this you never you never know what you're gonna find, but that's a really weird story.
Bryan White:And then when they when they were arrested, none of them would talk to the authorities. They all just maintained this stoic code code of silence.
AP Strange:So I guess nobody knows.
Bryan White:Nobody knows. I mean, I'm sure somebody knows. I mean, we just didn't look that deep. But Right. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. So, since you mentioned it, space, is that the one where there was, like, a frozen organism in the ice and it No.
Bryan White:That's that's that one's actually called ice. That's the one that I believe actually is the episode before space. Okay. It's like this run of x files episodes in the first season where there's just like one word because there's, like, there's ice, there's space, there's fire, which is coming up. Conduit was another episode we did recently.
Bryan White:No. That's that episode, Ice, is essentially it's the one that, I think that's Morgan and Wong who wrote it, and it's it's a just a a egregious rip off of the thing.
AP Strange:Okay. But it's a great episode. So That one and ice just kinda bleed together in my memory, I guess, because I don't revisit the first season all that often. It's Oh, I don't
Bryan White:blame you. I don't blame you. We're really going through it because that's a show that, like, we both have very, very fond memories of. Everybody does. You know?
Bryan White:It's one of the greatest science fiction. Like, maybe one of the greatest television shows of all time. But, man, what a wobbly what a wobbly first season it was. Like, it really doesn't pay. That show doesn't really pick up until until season two.
Bryan White:And Space is the one that's about, he's he's an astronaut who comes back to Earth, essentially kind of possessed by a Mars ghost or something. Has a it's really, really strange. It's mostly a bottle episode that takes place. It's sort of like NASA, mission mission control. It's really, really bad.
Bryan White:It is an episode. It's the it was the very first episode of the show that I ever saw, and I I disliked it so much that I didn't get back to the X Files until the season two finale when I was like, oh, shit. That's actually a really good show. Yeah.
AP Strange:Alright. Well, I mean, Toomes' first season. Right? I I feel like it kinda picks up a little bit. That's that
Bryan White:that one that show oh, boy. That that show that episode really kinda is is a real early one. It's, I think it's episode three or four. So, like, they had a real home run, like, right out of the gate. Like, the first couple of episodes of the of the show are really good, and then it just kinda cools and coasts for a while.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:But yeah. But Yeah.
AP Strange:We took a while for Mulder and Scully to kind of build that dynamic that you end up loving them for. You know? It's really well in
Bryan White:Well, what we're finding is they actually they had great chemistry, like, right off the bat. Like, they just worked.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:It it did but it did it definitely it took writers a little while to kinda figure out what that is, but just David Duchovny and Jillian Anderson just ruled together immediately. Like, they just jived.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just kinda felt like they didn't write them terribly consistently at first.
Bryan White:Sure. Yeah. Because, like, that episode particular space, is, like, a complete contradiction of all the episodes that have featured both of them before. Like, yeah. It's it's yeah.
Bryan White:It's a it's a rough watch. That episode is just so fucking bad, but it's followed by an episode called fallen angel, which is really where things start to pick up. That's a that's a great one right there. That episode is gonna be coming out in our Patreon feed, next week.
AP Strange:Alright. Well, I'll be interested when you get to season, I think, three because there's an episode that takes place in my hometown.
Bryan White:Oh, no
AP Strange:kidding. Excelsis Day, the one with the old folks home.
Bryan White:Oh, yeah. Okay.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It takes place in Worcester. I remember seeing that as a kid.
AP Strange:I like seeing Worcester, Massachusetts and the little type on the side. My brother and I, like, lost our minds. Yeah. I think
Bryan White:what's the one I there's the one with the, I believe the satanic school board one. It's the the hand the hand that hurts is what it is, but it's in the title of the episode is actually German. And that one takes place in New Hampshire, and that was the one where I was
AP Strange:like, yes.
Bryan White:There it is. My it's my hometown. That's my my my turf.
AP Strange:And that's a fantastic episode.
Bryan White:That's a great one too. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. But, yeah, we can't get too sidetracked on X Files here. Here.
Bryan White:We can't get too I can well, second. We'll get too deep in the
AP Strange:weeds there, man. We'll be talking about that all night. Because, we have zombies
Bryan White:to talk about. Yes.
AP Strange:We do. When I when I pitched this movie to you as one we could talk about, it seemed like it seemed like you were, more than eager to do it because this is you said this was one of your favorites?
Bryan White:Yeah. Oh, this this is this is my favorite of the Romero zombie movies.
AP Strange:Okay.
Bryan White:Yeah. It's also it also happens to be George Romero's favorite of the zombie movies that he made also.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, that's pretty interesting because it seemed like from the limited amount of research that I do and for listeners, if you listen to Bring Me the Acts like Brian and his brother Dave, they get really deep into real research for the movies. So, so my mine is pretty minimal in comparison. But what I came across was that, Romero had wanted this movie to be the Gone with the Wind of zombie films.
Bryan White:And it
AP Strange:took me a while to figure out what that could possibly mean. And then, you know, I think this morning, I was like, oh, of course. He just means he wanted it to be like the classic zombie.
Bryan White:Yeah. He wanted it to be, like, grand in scope and very, very big and, you know, like, that was that was the whole thing. You can, you can find the original, like, I and I prob I I don't think it's the first draft, but I believe the second draft of his original script is out there on the Internet. I you might even be able to read it at archive.org, but it is a way different movie than what we get. What we get is great.
Bryan White:I think it's absolutely fantastic. It's driven by, like, wild characters and, like, very silly dialogue and extraordinarily gross special effects. Yeah. But the original idea for this movie was, it took place, like, in a jungle in a sort of similar situation where this this whole zombie thing is, like, well and fully out of hand, and, there's, like, really no coming back from it. And a bunch of scientists live in this compound that's, like, surrounded by an electric fence.
Bryan White:And, of course, there's zombies all over the place, and there's a sort of, like, military guard that was assigned to them to sort of protect them. But they live in this, like, bunker underneath underneath the the laboratory, And it's this, you know, it's the same sort of kind of political dynamic in the movie that we do have where it's, you know, they neither side is really talking to each other. The scientists are trying to figure out a way to kind of live in the situation that they've got while the military just wants to obliterate everything. And so that's where the that's where the sort of dramatic tension lies. But what they're doing in what the scientists have done is they've essentially, like, trained and domesticated a large group of zombies.
Bryan White:And I believe the way that it works is they only attack people and other zombies if the like, if the target is not wearing a certain kind of, like, a colored vest, I think is how they sort of differentiate friend from foe. And, like, that was the original idea. But the company that distributes it, United Film Distribution Company, I think it's called, were like, okay. Well, this is great. We'll give you $7,000,000, which, you know, that's a significant a significant budget
AP Strange:for George Romero. Yeah.
Bryan White:And he was like and they were like, the only thing with that we want is it's gotta have an r rating. And he was like, woah. Woah. Woah. Woah.
Bryan White:Woah. I don't know if you know this about me. I don't do rated movies. And they were like, fine. We'll give you 3,500,000.0.
Bryan White:And he was like, alright. Fine. I'll do that.
AP Strange:Right. So then he had to pair it down as well. Right?
Bryan White:Yeah. And so what we trip. Yeah. So what we get is this, like it's just this kind of it's almost like a it's almost like a prolonged bottle episode. Like, most of this episode most of this movie takes place, just in this, like, a couple of rooms in what's supposed to be, like, a military compound.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:But, Yeah.
AP Strange:It seems like they had, like, one set, and they used a lot of their budget on the opening scene where they go into the city in a helicopter.
Bryan White:Right. Yeah. Right. Because that's, that god. What is that?
Bryan White:Is that Sarasota? It's it's somewhere everywhere. It's somewhere down there. It's it's one it's just it's like it's a major city in Florida that they, like, they cleared the streets, so they trashed it up to make it look like the end of the world had happened. So, yeah, a lot of money went to that to that scene, and it's very impressive.
Bryan White:I you know, it's
AP Strange:That's good. Yeah.
Bryan White:Yeah. It's something.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:But but, yeah, like, this movie in particular, like, I I might have been, like, 13 when I saw it the first time, and we had just seen dawn of the dead as well. And so, like, we were kinda ripping through it. And I don't think we'd even, like, seen night of the living dead at that point, but or or I had when I was much younger, and I but I didn't put it all together that these were all sort of connected in any sort of meaningful way.
AP Strange:Yeah. But, yeah. They don't really they're not really, like, sequels in the sense that you have a continuing character or anything like that. They just all kind of exist, theoretically in the same universe. You know?
Bryan White:Right. Right. Like yeah. Like, really, the only sort of consistent character are the zombies and the fact that, like, the the world is is kind of gradually coming to an end.
AP Strange:Yeah. So, I mean, I think that the three, the original three, Night of the Living Dead
Bryan White:Oh, yeah. There's only there's only three. There's no there's no other sequels after this one.
AP Strange:Okay. Well, I mean, I don't I don't care I don't
Bryan White:care what re I don't care what, what what reality tells you. There's there's no other sequels after this one. There's no land of the dead. There's no, survival of the dead.
AP Strange:But what about return of the living dead? That's a whole different thing. But
Bryan White:Yeah. So that return of living dead came out the same year, believe a few months prior to this. And that one is not really a sequel. It's Right.
AP Strange:I know. It's a it's a whole different animal.
Bryan White:So well, kind of. It's, John Russo, who was, Romero's producer on Night of the Living Dead, had, because of the sort of weird copyright situation that that that sort of fell on Night of the Living Dead upon its release where it just it fell into the the public domain immediately. He had, I believe, had written a a book that was like a direct sequel to Night of the Living Dead. And they were he and then eventually, he was like, well, fuck it. I'm just gonna make this movie.
Bryan White:And so that's what they did with that one, which is why he they say in that one, he's like, when James Karen is talking to, fuck. No. This is Tommy. That's his name in Friday the thirteenth. But he's telling he's like, have you ever seen that movie, Night of the Living Dead?
Bryan White:Like, it's supposed to sort of tie the two of them two of them together. They're I mean, obviously, they're not. There's no continuity between the two of them except for the zombies. But it's sort of like, it was definitely intended to be like, hey. Remember that other movie?
AP Strange:Yeah. But it was also tongue in cheek and, like, punk rock and
Bryan White:Oh, yeah. That one's very that one's very funny. I I I fucking adore that movie too. Like, I I have a I have a, I have a hard time sort of deciding which one I like better, like this Day of the Dead or Return of the Living Dead. I think Return of the Living Dead sort of ekes it out a little bit
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:In the end, and I I prefer I would prefer to watch that one just because it's got a really wicked sense of humor, and and the music is so good in it.
AP Strange:Oh, yeah. Yeah. You got the cramps.
Bryan White:The zombie the zombie makeup is incredible. Oh, yeah. You got forty five grave on the soundtrack. We got, I the flesh eaters. It's such a good goddamn soundtrack.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yep. Yeah. But I I like them both for their their own merits, you know, because, speaking of soundtracks, like, Day of the Dead has that really great classic, like, synthy, like, synthy soundtrack with some, like, guitar work going on.
Bryan White:Yeah. It's a what's well, yeah. The thing like, coming off, this is compared to the to Dawn of the Dead, which has a soundtrack by Goblin, which is that Italian progressive rock. Did all of, like, Argento's movies and stuff like that. This one is is way more subdued, a little more laid back.
Bryan White:Mhmm. I was like, the, god. Who's the guy who did it? It was we got a note here about it. Oh, John it's a guy named John Harrison who did it.
Bryan White:Okay. Yeah. He also did a soundtrack for Creepshow.
AP Strange:Alright. Yeah.
Bryan White:It's yeah. He he's, like, he he's a man of many talents, it turns out. Like, I found out that, like, apart from just, like, providing the soundtracks to these Robeiro movies, he also directed those Dune miniseries for sci fi channel.
AP Strange:Interesting.
Bryan White:But but, yeah, like, the soundtrack is is definitely is definitely, alright. As far as I'm concerned, it's it's perfectly suitable. I like it on its own, but I don't really find myself going bad. And I listen to a lot of film music too, but I don't really go back to this one terribly often.
AP Strange:Well, it's a vibe is kind of the way I would put it. It's like Yeah. Yeah. I like that. Always match the energy of the scene, which is kinda yeah.
AP Strange:But that's the closing unsettling.
Bryan White:Yeah. The closing sound like, the closing song during the credits has lyrics and stuff. It's wild. And it's, again, it's kind of a love song too, which is which is even funnier.
AP Strange:Well, you know, there's a happy ending. So Yeah. The way I like to think about the original trilogy, though, is that you have the three different you have three different templates for a zombie movie because I think Night of the Living Dead is the most common one you'll ever see with zombie movies where, you're at right the movie begins before the outbreak does.
Bryan White:Right? So As it's as it's happening, like, that one really drops you into it. And as it turns out, it's been a couple of weeks since there's been a like, these, like, strange murders. And then, like, as the movie starts, it's starting to reach, like, a fever pitch.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. And you but you see the characters start to, like, notice it and all that. You you follow one character, and all of a sudden, there's zombies everywhere. You know?
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. But Dawn of the Dead is a totally different template where it's the escapees of hold up somewhere. I I think this is a different kind of zombie movie where you
Bryan White:Right. Like, each one of these is like a template for, like, an entire subgenre of zombie movies. Like, these you know, obviously, before night of the living dead, there hadn't really ever been anything like this. There've been zombie movies, but not not like this. They always handle they handle them a little bit differently.
Bryan White:They're more like like voodoo zombies is kinda how how it is. But, like, you know
AP Strange:white zombie.
Bryan White:Yeah. Like, I walked with a zombie. Like, that that's Yeah. That sort of stuff, that Jacques Tourneur stuff. But but, yeah, like, Night of the Living Dead is the one where, like, yeah, it's the template for, like, this is start like, this is starting to happen to become a problem.
Bryan White:And then at dawn dawn of the dead, you is the template for the survivors trying to make a thing of it.
AP Strange:Right. And I think Day of the Dead is a template. That's a really rare one, but I I swear I swear there's other movies like this. And I think you see it a bit in the in the Walking Dead, which is just kind of, like, old organizational powers trying to hold on to that. Like,
Bryan White:kind of military
AP Strange:kind of,
Bryan White:That or, the the trope is we're our own worst enemies.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. You know? Right.
Bryan White:Because that's that's really where where what the walking dead comes up, where it's like the zombies. You know, people always get bit and then ripped apart on that show, but, like, really Right. The problem are other groups of of survivors.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:Or, twenty eight days later did something very similar, which I feel is, like, really, really close to this movie where it's like our protectors are ultimately going to turn on us.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. But yeah.
AP Strange:I mean, I I did I did like that because, like, we already established talking about the original script. This is this is an underground military base, and, it's a, made me think of, like, deep underground military bases and UFO lore.
Bryan White:Yeah. Yeah. The, what is it? The the I think it's supposed to be, like, a nuclear missile base.
AP Strange:Right.
Bryan White:Because the at least the I believe the the location that they use for that elevator in it Mhmm. Is an actual Nike missile base. Like, a Nike missile elevator from what they they found down in Florida. Like, these were where these were missiles that were actually pointed at Cuba at one point.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it was a real military base in Cuba somewhere that's attached to some kind of cavern system.
AP Strange:Mhmm.
Bryan White:Yeah. Which is actually located in Pennsylvania.
AP Strange:Yeah. Right.
Bryan White:Yeah. Which is why, like, when you see them, like, running through the halls and stuff like that, there's the you see, like, boats and, RVs just, like, parked there because, like, what that was was it was a storage space in a limestone mine in, like, in pencils near, not Philadelphia. The, the other one, Pittsburgh.
AP Strange:Pittsburgh. Yeah. Yep. I feel like I've been to some of those caverns before out in Pennsylvania. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. I don't remember what they were called, though. But, yeah, I mean, it's a cool setup, and, I I think you had mentioned this already, the way that everybody acts. I think, like, everybody's really heightened up, and they're all angry at each other all of the time.
Bryan White:Right. But, like, to a to a cartoonish degree.
AP Strange:Right.
Bryan White:We we've got, we've got, Lori Cardell who's playing, playing the lead. And she's the she's actually the daughter of of Bill Cardell who in Night of the Living Dead is the newsman who's on the ground with, like, the sheriff and his guys.
AP Strange:Chili Billy. Chili Billy. Moderated.
Bryan White:Yeah. He had a he had a he had a a horror he was a horror host.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:Not quite like Sven Ghouli or anything like that. Like, he didn't have a character. He was just himself. But yeah. Yeah.
Bryan White:I think he was a he was a Pittsburgh area horror movie host, at the time when they made that movie. And, yeah, his daughter ends up in one of Romero's movies as well. Yeah. Joe Joe Pilato as captain Rhodes is like an all timer for me. I actually I met him at they they used to do it.
Bryan White:They actually used to do the rock and shock horror con in Worcester. Right.
AP Strange:I remember that.
Bryan White:And I went to I went to not the first one. I went to the second one, and he, it was him and, like, Laurie was there. And, Gary Klar, the guy who plays Steel was there. And they had him at a little table. And, I would walk through every now and then, like, because, you know, they're there signing autographs and stuff like that.
Bryan White:I would walk by them their their table and occasionally, he would, like, stand up and start doing scenes from the movie with them very, very loudly. It was awesome. Also, he was very, very drunk. But but it was it was fantastic. Like, it was it turned around, and he did the, like, I'm running this monkey farm Frankenstein part.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:Yeah. He was he was great. But he
AP Strange:hasn't been in very, very many things prior to this. I don't know.
Bryan White:No. He was he was in, he's in a deleted scene from dawn of the dead, and he's in Knight Riders, which I believe is the movie. No. It was not the one that came out because he'd done a few. Romero made a few movies prior to this, but, yeah, he did Knight Riders.
Bryan White:I think that's 1981. But, yeah, other than that, yeah, he wasn't in much. I think he's done some television. But
AP Strange:It looked like voice acting. He did a lot of voice acting after this for, like, strange, action centered cartoon shows and things like that. So Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah.
AP Strange:But, I mean, yeah, every every line of his is classic. Like
Bryan White:It's like yeah. Everybody else is, like, acting at, like, a at a at a nice even five, and he is at an 11. And he ripped the knob off, so you can't bring him down.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. I'm running this monkey farm Frankenstein. Like, I wanna know what you got going on in there. He's just like, holy cow.
Bryan White:Jerking each other off. He's he's in his his manner is just so intense. It must have been so much fun to play that character.
AP Strange:Yeah. It's just, like, wild eyed and sneering the whole time, like, complete lunatic. Mhmm. Yeah. And and Laurie is Laurie Cardell's, character there is no nonsense, and she's
Bryan White:really She's all bit she's all business. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. But to the point where it becomes absurd because it's like you could just, you know, relax too.
Bryan White:Well, I mean, to her credit, she is, like, the only woman in a in a in a military installation that is just full of men on the edge.
AP Strange:Yep. Yep. Because you have Steel and, like, his buddy,
Bryan White:Yeah. Him and Rickles are Rickles. Rickles is also out of control in in that entire movie. Like, right up to the point where his whole thing is he is like a the the snickering, like, laughing hyena through the thing all the way up to his death.
AP Strange:Yeah. He laughs all the way through his death.
Bryan White:Yeah. But that guy and he's he is acting the shit out of that part too. Like, everything he does is just swinging for the fences, playing it for the back row.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:Yeah. And he and he looks like the bass player from, like, a thrash band in the eighties too, which is Right. His his whole thing he is a such a wild character.
AP Strange:Yeah. And, I mean, those two guys, Steele and Rickles, are just kind of, pretty much nobody else in that unit you you do you even get lines from? You you don't even
Bryan White:know that. Yeah. Every note there's there's, the I think the only other the only other character who we get a name from is Torres, who's, like, the guy who who gets his, like, his head ripped off at the end. Yeah. But most of them are just, like, nameless soldiers.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah.
Bryan White:You know, the only one that ever really sticks out to me is Greg Nicotero is that is the one is the one of these soldiers just because he
AP Strange:did special effects on it. And then, of course, he went on to become Greg Nicotero. So Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was gonna mention that earlier because we talked about we mentioned The Walking Dead, so, of course Yeah.
AP Strange:We come in full circle. Nicotero is in this, and, I think he gets his head entirely pulled off at one point.
Bryan White:He gets shot. He's the one he's the one he gets he gets shot when the zombie gets loose, when they're trying to bring it out of the pen. And the the one that gets loose, he bites the guy with the machine gun who sprays him with bullets. And so he he dies. And then he's the one who, oh, yeah.
Bryan White:He's the one that that Logan, like, cuts the head off to see if it's still if it remains, like, active and stuff. That's a cool that's a cool city too. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. So he has the head just separated sitting on a on a
Bryan White:That's right.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, which is which is just a a long running interest of mine. And, listeners, if you haven't already, you can check out my blog and find a post about head transplant movies.
AP Strange:I have a pretty comprehensive list on there for anybody interested. But, Yeah. So, I guess I guess the whole thing with this and and who we haven't mentioned yet is doctor Logan, also known as Frankenstein. Yeah. So, I mean, he the whole premise and his whole idea, the whole scientific endeavor here is that, doctor Logan thinks if we can change the behavior of the zombies so that they don't wanna kill you and eat you, it's a lot more it it might be a better way to go than than, trying to kill them or just trying to get away from them.
Bryan White:Yeah. And he's he's such a wild character as well, like, because he's he's our stock standard, like, mad scientist. He's been driven mad by the situation. He's driven entirely by data and logic. And he seems to be in spite of the fact that his idea is completely insane, he's the only person who really seems to have grasped the gravity of their situation.
AP Strange:Right.
Bryan White:Because, like, the other scientists are trying to find a way to sort of reverse whatever is happening. They want, like, I don't know, a vaccine or something like that. He's the one who's just like, no. No. No.
Bryan White:No. This we are fucked. This is this is it. The only way to, like, to to exist in this world is to somehow find a way to coexist with these things that that exist solely to eat us.
AP Strange:Yeah. And, you know I, for one, welcome our zombie.
Bryan White:Right. Right. Because at one point, he comes he comes when he comes into the into the the mess hall as they're all meeting, and he's like he's like Covered
AP Strange:in blood.
Bryan White:Yeah. Oh god. He's constantly he's constantly gory and mess his hair is a fucking mess. But he he he walks in. He's like, by my calculations, they outnumber us 400,000 to one, which is significant.
Bryan White:I did the math once. I was like, I wonder what that is. So I, like, looked up the world, like, the estimated world population in 1985, and I I did that I did that math. And if, like I mean, honestly, who knows where we got got where he got that number from, but that would put the number of, like, global survivors at somewhere about 10,000.
AP Strange:Wow.
Bryan White:Yeah. So, like Yeah. If he's if he's right, then, like, they're completely screwed. Like, there are literally billions of zombies out there.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:And so and so logically, the only thing to do is to sort of train them like dogs.
AP Strange:Yeah. You know? Yeah. It sort it sorta makes sense, but, like, how the the logistics of it are like, well, how does
Bryan White:that scale is right. I mean, that's where it all breaks down is is, like, his his plan works, but it works on one zombie. You know? And the and the rest of them seem to show some kind of some kind of potential, but we've got we've got Bub who, yeah, who knows what kind of what kind of effort it was to get him to that to that state. Mhmm.
Bryan White:But if that's, yeah, if that's if that's Logan's plan, like, I mean, it works, but Jesus Christ, will it work at scale? Because you gotta be able to wrap this shit up fast.
AP Strange:Yeah. Right. Unless you can get one zombie really well trained to go out and then train the other zombies. Right. You know, just have it spread like a virus through all of them.
Bryan White:At first, we'll have one monkey butler, but then he'll train the others. They'll regale us with tales of the forest.
AP Strange:Yeah. But that actor is great. Richard Liberty, I guess.
Bryan White:Richard Liberty. He is fantastic. He is that that's the thing is we got in 1985, we got two rad featured zombies. We got Bub, and we got Tar Man.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:And both of them are just fantastic. Bub is so such a great character. Sherman Howard, I think, is his name as the actor. He's fantastic. He's so good.
Bryan White:He's so expressive. It's like watching it's like watching a like a toddler interact with with all the stuff that like, all the people around him and all the stuff that he's given. He's so he's such a great character. Like, right down to the end, like, when, like, things are are starting to come apart and, like, his chain comes loose, And he goes and he goes he he takes the chain, and instead of just, like, stumbling, shambling out into the into the to the facility, he goes to doctor Logan to, like, show him, like, hey. My my chain's loose.
Bryan White:You might wanna fix this. And, unfortunately
AP Strange:Right.
Bryan White:Logan is dead at that point. But, yeah, like, what a you kinda feel for him in that moment because, like, you you see him react to it. Mhmm.
AP Strange:Yeah. I'm I'm also shades of there's shades of there, and I'm sure this was intentional since they called doctor Logan Frankenstein throughout the thing. There's kind of shades of, like, Boris Karloff's Frankenstein monster.
Bryan White:Yeah. Yeah. Like like, he's like, he's almost like a misunderstood
AP Strange:like Yeah.
Bryan White:He because, like, his situation
AP Strange:things. Yeah.
Bryan White:Yeah. Like, his situation isn't entirely his fault. Like, he's just he's the the like, the violence of the zombies is is just instinctual. So you you could you could kind of understand him a little bit. And the fact that you kinda we spend way more time with this one zombie than we do most of the most of the cast.
Bryan White:Right. They it really it really kinda helps you it really kinda helps you appreciate, appreciate that character more than more than you normally would.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, definitely an all time great zombie. And you do spend a lot of time with him, and you really get a good look at him, which is great because he looks great. He's very aggressive.
Bryan White:And he has, like I don't know what happened on this movie, but, like, Tom Savini had upped his game so hard. Yeah. It it because, you know, his he's he's a, like, a very, very talented special effects guy. But, like, some of his stuff is really kinda shabby, but up at this point, the look like, his the makeup on the featured zombies is amazing. The, like, on camera effects that he's doing are so detailed and so gross.
Bryan White:It's like it is a a such a a massive step up from everything that he had done on Creepshow.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:You know?
AP Strange:Yeah. But Creepshow is supposed to look like a comic book drawing too.
Bryan White:Yeah. I mean, even the stuff at Creepshow is really good too.
AP Strange:I thought so. Yeah. Yeah. But I I it was supposed to have that comic booky, like, unreality quality to it, I think. Right.
Bryan White:Right. But, like, you know, like, there's there's certain things like the makeup he did. And, I mean, granted, Friday the thirteenth is, like, five years prior. Some of the some of the stuff of that is very is very rubbery, and, the the you you get, like, too good a look at some of the some of the mannequins as they're getting killed. And it's like, Yeah.
Bryan White:Maybe they maybe they should have cut away a little sooner. But by this point, like, he is firing on all cylinders like this stuff. And I think I think that Nick Catteros and and Howard Berger also worked on this movie as well. Like, two the two guys, the the k and the b and k and b, or the n and the b rather. Howard Kurtz didn't have anything to do with this one.
Bryan White:But, like, they I think they were they were the ones who sort of brought the kind of the fact that, like, when when the zombies actually rip and tear in this one, there's, like, tendons that pull and stuff like that. Like, I believe that was that was their creation. So
AP Strange:Yeah. And I had a note here, like, more faces getting ripped than we usually expect to see. I know.
Bryan White:I know. I know. Because, like, you you go back, like, eight years for Dawn of the Dead, and, like, it's it's like, Romero always has that sort of feeding frenzy scene in it, but, like, this time, like, it is just the quality of it, the detail. I think the one of the reasons why I I like this movie as much as I do is just because of how colorful it is and particularly how gory it is. Because it is a huge step up.
Bryan White:Like, Dawn of the Dead's got some real nasty scenes, but, like, this the feeding frenzy at the end of this one, the very first time I saw it, like, after the movie was over, I was like I was like, spend the night at a friend's house. And, like, the movie ended, and we, like, shut the lights out, went to bed, and, like, it kinda haunted me for a little while. Like Yeah. Never I'd never, up to that point, seen anything like this.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, the the scene where Rhodes gets his due is really just I mean, it's hard to beat that in any movie, any horror movie. It's just like one of those I watched it now. It's just like cheering for my couch. It's like, yeah.
AP Strange:Oh, he's
Bryan White:such a he's such a shithead. He's the absolute worst. He's just so evil. But when he gets ripped apart, like, you're like, yes. He's choke on him.
AP Strange:Well, the expression on his face when he opens the door and it's just dozens of zombies. I was like, ah. Yeah. And, like, I think diluting is Yeah.
Bryan White:My my favorite one of those, like, of those kind of big hero kills in that one is is the death of Torres. He's the first one to he's the first one to go because they pull he starts screaming as they pull his head off, and the scream continues. It shouldn't do that, but it gets the pitch gets higher and higher and higher because they're pulling his his his vocal cords.
AP Strange:Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Wouldn't it get lower, though?
Bryan White:If they were getting tightening if they got tight now, the the I mean, it would this wouldn't this wouldn't happen at all. Well, I mean, if we're being honest, but but, like, it's like tightening a guitar string. You know? It gets it you know, the tension makes, makes the the pitch go higher.
AP Strange:That's true. Yeah. No. Yeah. You're right.
AP Strange:But, yeah, we're talking about the physics or the acoustics of let's stretch this off, I guess, when your head's getting pulled off. Yeah.
Bryan White:It's god. That's such a that's such a great one. Fucking poor poor Rickles. They you see them you see them, like, rip at his eye, and the whole thing just, like, pops. It's so gross.
Bryan White:It's just so fucking gross as he's laughing as they, you know, laughing his ass off as they kill him.
AP Strange:Yep. Yep. That's all he's got. Well, I mean and it's beautiful too because this is all just this is this is a revenge kill from the guy that's traumatized at the very beginning, the the guy that's been traumatized the whole movie.
Bryan White:Right. Miguel? Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yep. And, you know, you got the sense that he was never treated well by these guys anyway because
Bryan White:Oh god. No. They're so racist.
AP Strange:Racist and just yeah. So so yeah. I mean, the fact that he brings the lift up and lets all the zombies in to feed on him and then lets all the them down Yeah. Into the facility. It's it's pretty great.
Bryan White:It's poetic.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yep. We skipped over two of the characters in here as well that we see right at the beginning and that spend a lot of time in the movie doing nothing at all. And
Bryan White:then Right. Right.
AP Strange:Which is the yeah. The pilot and the radio operator.
Bryan White:Yeah. Is it John and, John and Philip? I can't I can never remember those guys' name. I don't think they ever really say their names. They're just the drunk radio op and the Yeah.
Bryan White:And the pilot.
AP Strange:I think the radio operator, they just call McDermott. They call him by the way.
Bryan White:Okay. Yeah. Because he's a he's he's got he's the most gigantic Irish stereotype you've ever seen.
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, that confused me because I had the I I really had to question it. I'm like, is he supposed to have an Irish accent? Like, I couldn't put it together the whole movie. I I looked him up.
AP Strange:His the actor's name is, like, Jarlath, Jarlath Corey or something like that.
Bryan White:It's yeah.
AP Strange:I can't can't read my own writing. I made a note. But, but, yeah, I mean, I think he's he's clearly supposed to be like like like, oh, I'm Irish. You know? Like Yeah.
Bryan White:Because all Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, he's constantly always always crossing himself.
AP Strange:Yeah. He's got he's got
Bryan White:a flask with whiskey in it all the time. Like, he it's like, Jesus Christ. Take the foot off the gas just a little bit.
AP Strange:But he doesn't I don't know. It didn't sound like a, like, a convincing accent to me. It seemed like sometimes it was there.
Bryan White:I know. And the thing is is I don't I don't know if I've ever seen him in anything else, so I couldn't tell you if it's real or not. His name certainly sounds European, so maybe.
AP Strange:I mean, he's kinda wild eyed too. He's got this he's got really quirky expressions.
Bryan White:Right. Right. And then we've got our, maybe he's Jamaican, maybe he's Haitian, the pilot for of the helicopter, which really kinda flies in the face of these sort of these very similar characters in in other Romero movies where he's put them sort of front and center.
AP Strange:You know? Dwayne Jones reasonable ones.
Bryan White:Yeah. Like Dwayne Jones in in Night of the Living Dead, and we've got, Ken Furey in in Dawn of the Dead. Like, these these, you know, these African American characters who are sort of, like, in control, and they're they're very they're very assertive. And, like, this guy is just like, yeah, I just wanna get the fuck out of here. I want absolutely nothing to do with this place, which like, I don't know if he did this if he did this sort of, like, knowingly or what, but, yeah, it's a it's a weird choice given the sort of the the legacy of these of these Romero zombie movies.
AP Strange:Yeah. And they basically have, like, a weird little RV set up inside one of the caverns. Yeah. Yeah. They live they live like a couple.
Bryan White:Yeah. They're like they're like the odd couple.
AP Strange:And, yeah, they just sit there and wait until somebody needs a helicopter or a radio. And since there's no one to get on the radio, like, the radio operator's job is now just to sit and drink.
Bryan White:Pretty much. Yeah. I mean, I suppose it does make sense. Like, if this is this is your job and your equipment doesn't work and you haven't reached anybody in, like, in months, I mean, what else are you gonna do? You're you're surrounded by by cases of booze.
AP Strange:Right. Right. I mean so, I mean, their plan, I guess, was to leave and land on an island somewhere and just live out their days there, but you think he's gonna run out of booze eventually.
Bryan White:Right. It's a it is a it's a finite resource.
AP Strange:You better learn how to make, like, coconut wine or something. Right. Right.
Bryan White:Yeah. Again, the way given the way that this movie ends is also very is also very unusual for, for one of these these zombie movies because, like, Night of the Living Dead ends. Sorry if you've never seen it. And no. There are no survivors.
Bryan White:His original plan for Dawn of the Dead was also to have no survivors. As a matter of fact, according to Tom Savini, they shot an ending, where, god. No. I'm not blown. I'm forgetting his name.
Bryan White:But Ken Ferree's character, Peter, gets get he's you know, he always waits in that room, and the zombies overrun him, and they they kill him there. And then Fran waits for him in the helicopter with the blades turning, and the zombies all climb up the ladder like they do at the end of the movie. Instead of, like, him sort of, like, coming to his senses and joining her and they get in the helicopter, she leaps up and gets killed by the helicopter blades.
AP Strange:Oh, god.
Bryan White:And so, yeah, like, the the ending and it's it's almost like they had to sort of, like, force Romero to kinda give you at least a glimmer of hope of some kind of for that one. And so this movie is just like, oh, well, they get away, and they they live happily ever after on this island where there doesn't seem to be any zombies.
AP Strange:Yeah. And one wonders, though, how safe would you be? Because the zombies probably could walk underwater. Like
Bryan White:Well, if you've seen the what is it? Lucio Fulci's zombie. Yeah. They they swim.
AP Strange:Yeah. And that's exactly what I was referring to because it has one of the single best scenes ever filmed where a zombie fights a shark, and there's also a topless snorkeling woman involved Yep. Watching the whole thing. Yeah.
Bryan White:I mean the best.
AP Strange:What else do you need? Zombies versus shark?
Bryan White:They they they give you the whole they give you the total package in that scene.
AP Strange:Thank you, Legio Fulci. That that was kind of, like, the Italian version of wasn't that, like, the Italian dawn of the dead pretty much?
Bryan White:So, zombie two It was sold in Italy as zombie two.
AP Strange:Right.
Bryan White:Because in in Italy, dawn of the dead was called zombie. And so the the the way, like, the way that the Italian film industry works, like, you can just do that. You can just, like, imply that your movie is a is a sequel to some to some other movie, and, like and they they do it because it's not like they there's also been, like, movies produced over there, like, in the eighties that were sort of like, hey. You like did you like the Terminator? Well, here's Terminator two, and it's just like some completely unrelated Bruno Mate.
AP Strange:Okay.
Bryan White:Like, no budget nightmare. There's there's movies that have, sort of exploited the popularity of alien by being alien too. You know? Alright. So yeah.
Bryan White:But, yeah, his movie was intended to be sold as a sequel to dawn of the dead despite the fact that there's zero in common. Like, there's absolutely nothing, which is why when it came over here, they just called it zombie. Because nobody if they said zombie two, it'd be like, where's zombie one? Right?
AP Strange:Right. Okay. So it'd be like troll two. Right. Right.
AP Strange:Because, you know,
Bryan White:there's also there's also, like, troll three and troll four, over there, but they're just, like, retitled versions of, like, other other movies, you know, that they're just are completely were provide were just they were picked up for distribution by some, like, unscrupulous Italian film distributor who was like, oh, yeah. Troll two is pretty popular. We'll we'll call this Troll three.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:No. That's just kinda how it works.
AP Strange:Okay. Now you know more about this than I, but this is something that we we touched on earlier as far as, like, the ratings go. Mhmm. Because I feel like this is something that doesn't matter nowadays. I could be wrong, but I feel like like ratings really don't carry the kind of weight they did.
AP Strange:And, also, ratings weren't really codified in the way, that they later would be at that point. You know? Like, the eighties, they were still kind of, like, deciding what what rating meant what. You know?
Bryan White:Right. Because, like, there there are PG rated movies in the in the eighties that have, like that are pretty violent or or they have a lot of, like, a lot of, a lot of language or, even like like what is it? 16 candles is PG, and it's got nudity in it. Yeah. So, like, yeah, it's really kind of
AP Strange:Wasn't wasn't Texas Chainsaw Massacre PG?
Bryan White:No. No. T the the rumor is that Tobe Hooper wanted Texas Chainsaw Massacre to be a PG rated movie.
AP Strange:Oh, okay. So or PG 13 then. PG even a thing?
Bryan White:No. No. PG 13 was the first PG 13 movies came out in 1984.
AP Strange:Okay.
Bryan White:I believe I think one of them is the the very first PG rated movie or the first movie to get a PG 13 rating is called I think it's called the the Flamingo Kid. It's a Matt Dillon movie, but the first one released was Red Dawn. And those and the PG 13 was, a direct result of, Steven Spielberg kinda pushing the the envelope for, like, what what could get a PG rated movie. Like, you know, the the Nazis heads all explode and their faces melt at the end of of Raiders of the Lost Ark. But, like, he was such a he was such a powerful force in Hollywood that, like, the MPAA would be like, oh, we're giving this an r rating, and he would just go to them and be like, come on.
Bryan White:It's me. And they would be like, fine. PG. And then a guy rips his own face off in in, you know, in poltergeist, and they're like, Steven Steven, how are we supposed to give this a PG rating? And he's like, guys, come on.
Bryan White:ET just came out, and it's almost a billion dollars in sales. You know? Yeah. So they're like that. But then and after that, they were like, no.
Bryan White:No. No. No. We gotta we gotta we gotta be a little bit more. We gotta have something between PG and R because so many so many filmmakers were really kinda pushing the envelope there.
Bryan White:But in this movie's case, Dawn of the Dead Dawn of the Dead was released unrated. You and you can do that. Like, you don't you do not have to nowadays, it doesn't fucking matter because it it turns out, like, the direct to video market eventually kinda rendered that stuff moot because you you when you release a movie, you don't have to submit it for certification. But the downside to doing that is, there are certain implications that come with that. So if if it's unrated, then it probably was gonna get, like, you know, in the eighties when they still gave the x rating.
Bryan White:You know, it probably means that it was gonna get an x rating. And if it got an x rating, well, you know, people because of pornography assumed that it was, like, a a pornographic movie. And it was just, like, you know, not just, like, more violent than an r rated movie. You know? Okay.
Bryan White:So what people would do and Romero in particular because he he knew that, like, if I if I submit this movie, they're gonna make me cut this awesome violence down significantly. And I'm I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna compromise my vision because, like, he, you know, above it all was a filmmaker. Like, his whole thing was he he got into this. He and he kinda like a lot of these guys in the seventies sort of fell into horror by accident.
Bryan White:It just so happened that he was really good at making them. But his intention was he was like he was gonna be in a tour. You know? He was gonna be like Rowan Polanski or Stanley Kubrick or something like that. That was weird.
Bryan White:That's where his vision lie. And so, you know, he just happened to make these really, really kinda gory movies when they were like, oh, no. No. No. We we're not gonna give Don of the dead in our rating, you fucking crazy.
Bryan White:They rip a guy's guts out literally.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:And and he and he's like, well, you know, then fuck it. We we'll just release this unrated. And, the the problem that comes with that is, theaters a lot of theaters, particularly in, like, the suburbs or in, like, more rural communities, they won't book those kind of movies. Newspapers won't advertise them, which, and I I I don't know if it just changed into the eighties, but I remember looking at, the the movie listings in the Boston Globe, like in the eighties and seeing ads for movies like Demons and, Devil in the Flesh, which I believe were both released here as x rated movies. So I don't know.
Bryan White:Maybe it was just the Globe that did that, but, like, it was a it was a significant problem for you if you had a movie that you just released uncertified. And then eventually, you know, movies that movies start going to to videotape, and, ratings don't matter. You know? It it literally because every video store in America this is before Blockbuster had really kinda codified, the, a sort of, like, a method for for buying movies. But, like, every video store in America at the time was, like, little shops were so hungry for for to get tapes on their shelves.
Bryan White:They just buy everything.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:And so it did not matter if your movie was rated or unrated. And in some cases, it was better if your movie was unrated. You know? You could Right. You know, you could proudly say, like like, the faces of death tape, you know, banned in 56 countries.
Bryan White:Like, that was a selling point for for them. You know? A movie that was that was released unrated, you could that was like, oh, shit. Like, this must be real like, this must be real hard. And because, like, nobody was checking IDs at a video store, like, anybody could rent anything, really, as long as it wasn't you know, you weren't a kid trying to get behind the beaded curtain.
AP Strange:Right. Right.
Bryan White:You know?
AP Strange:So yeah. Like, it just keeps magical time. I don't I don't remember ever going to a Blockbuster, really. I mean, the independent video stores were just around, and you'd rather go to one of those. You know?
Bryan White:We yeah. Like, a lot of our a lot of our listenership, like, for our pod is, like, is generally much younger than us. And so there's a lot, like and we follow a bunch of these people on Instagram, and there's a lot of, like, blockbuster nostalgia. And I get that because, like, for, you know, people who are, like, just getting into their forties, by the time that, like, you know, Friday night pizza in a in a movie, like, the only place in town to go is, like, Blockbuster anymore because they had just they had just taken over and choked out all the competition. But, like, yeah, for us, you know, we're we're a little older.
Bryan White:And our experience with the video store, which which really is kind of like the the the driving thrust behind the pod both podcasts is, like, there was a time where, like, within a bike a, like, a bike ride from our house, like, where there was, like, three or four different, like, little
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:Little video stores with, like, you know, poor lighting and a a really, really bored, like, teenager tenant who, like, just did not give a shit what, like, a couple of 13 year olds were renting. So
AP Strange:Yeah. It was a lot like clerks. I mean, everybody It really was. Yeah. Just Randall and clerks.
AP Strange:You know? Yeah. But you and your brother both worked at one. Right?
Bryan White:I've been No. But we no. But we hung around. He he he was he was like a regular at this one that was, like, up the street from us. He'd like he hung around there to such a point that, like, when they started to, like, cycle out posters and standees, they'd be like, hey, Dave.
Bryan White:You want this stuff? And he'd be like, yes. I do. And, like, had a a closet just full of, like, rolled up movie posters and, like, movie standees and, like, promo materials that they would send to video stores.
AP Strange:Oh, okay. I misunderstood then listening to your show. I've I had the impression that you both, like, at one time worked at a at at this local store.
Bryan White:No. But, like, thinking back, I'm like, why didn't I ever have a job at a video store? It sounds like it was awesome.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, when I was growing up, I had two there was, like, a video one called video signals and one called adopt a video. Alright. Alright. Yeah.
AP Strange:And there was a third that was just a porno one, the Gallo Gallo Video. Yeah. And they they had classic local TV commercials, like the regional
Bryan White:Oh, shit. That's awesome.
AP Strange:Where they they acted like they were the mob. It was the most ridiculous setup, and I wish I I could find this. You can find some Gallo Video commercials on YouTube.
Bryan White:That's awesome.
AP Strange:But not the original one, which kills me, which was this guy come talking about how they have a great video selection and all this stuff. Meanwhile, there's these goons, like, pulling a corpse out of the trunk of the car that he pulled up in and trying to shove it through the video return slot.
Bryan White:That's awesome.
AP Strange:For the kids listening now, this is a slot big enough for a VHS tape to go in, and they're returning it when the store is closed. But, and then they they turn and they say, hey, boss. This guy ain't gonna fit. And he would turn around and go, put him in there. And that was, like, their tagline.
AP Strange:It was just
Bryan White:a steady new No. The place we we our very first, when we, like, we first got a a VCR in, like, 1983 family. We we drove down to some electronics store outside of Boston that was that was you know, had a sale on them. We brought them home. We got our first, membership at a place in Salem called, Video Paradise.
Bryan White:And that was our that was our place to to go. And then we well, we moved up we moved up from from there to to New Hampshire. God. Hollywood And Vine. Hollywood East was the one place that my friend Mike and I would go after school.
Bryan White:And I'm trying to I can't remember what the place was that Dave spent so much time at, but that place, was owned by a guy who was a huge Star Trek fan. And he had made a Star Trek fan film, about the Kirk about Kirk and the Enterprise crew looking for space weed. And as a and as a result, they because they're Trekkies and gigantic nerds, they had built, like, a a screen like, a one to one enterprise bridge. Wow. And when they were done with the movie, which you could rent at at his video store, obviously, but when when they were done with it, like, he just kept the bridge set in the front of the video store.
AP Strange:Wow. That's amazing. Yeah.
Bryan White:It was great. It was awesome. And then eventually, I think I think he eventually sold the place. They they were like, get this get this shit out of here. But Wait.
AP Strange:So when you were browsing for a video, were you on the bridge, or did you just, like, walk through it together?
Bryan White:Walk through it. Like, if you wanted to sit in if you wanted to sit in Kirk's, you know, captain's chair, like, you could you could do that. But, but, yeah, like, you Wow. The best like, it was, like, it was a it was a big space too. Like Right.
Bryan White:You know? But, yeah, it was cool. It was really it was really great.
AP Strange:That's fantastic. Because there is there is a guy in, like, Ticonderoga in New York that has, like, a recreation of the bridge in his house. And it's like this little Star Trek museum.
Bryan White:That's, that's fantastic.
AP Strange:I've heard it's pretty pretty cool. And then Benal went there once, and he told me about it. I'm like, I gotta go there somewhere. It gets
Bryan White:a If I remember out that way, I'm gonna remember that.
AP Strange:Yeah. Ever go to Lake George. It's a, Fort Ticonderoga area.
Bryan White:Yeah.
AP Strange:But, Yeah. So Yeah.
Bryan White:That was that was quite a that was quite a detour. But but yeah. So, yeah, ultimately, you know, the the the the reason that that going unrated was used to was at one time definitely a problem. But I think going into the eighties, particularly by the time that this movie came out, it wasn't really as big as big a problem as it might have been in, like, 1978.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, it really seems like there's this whole maybe about a decade where where distribution was going to be greatly affected by whatever Yeah. Also, like, you know that got or or not.
Bryan White:That period of the seventies also, like, that's that's the golden age of pornography. So it kinda makes sense that, like, you know, an x rated movie might be mistaken for a triple x rated movie. You know?
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. And that's kinda when in The UK, they were really cracking down on a lot of that stuff too.
Bryan White:Oh, sure. Yeah. The whole the video nasties thing is, we we've done a few of them. I don't think we've ever actually covered a movie that was because there's several there were several two of the video nasties in The UK, there were several tiers. And, there was a bunch of them where, like, if you had a video store and you were renting them because sometimes they would do this, they would get, like, you know, they would import them from, like, France or something like that.
Bryan White:And they put them under the under the counter. And, like, if you got busted, like, renting those tapes, like, you went to jail.
AP Strange:Yeah. You know? Yeah.
Bryan White:But there was there was but, also, there were, like, two or three other tiers where it was, like, yeah, there was like a fine or they would just confiscate the tape or something like that. And most of them were were completely, were completely arbitrary. It was it was sorta like, like, the what is it? The the the PMRC's, like, list of of songs where it was like, where, like, where did you pull these titles from? Like Yeah.
Bryan White:Because, yeah. Some of the, like, some of the ones that were outright bad, I think, like, Driller Killer, which is this, like, Abel Ferrara, movie that's, like, really, really grimy and and gross. It's like a real kinda grind house nasty picture.
AP Strange:If you
Bryan White:watch it, you you feel a little you feel a little greasy when you're done with it. You know? But at the same time, like, some of the other ones are like like, blood bloody moon, which is like a Jess Franco movie where I think the person who hired him to make the movie was like, make me, you know, like, Halloween. And he watched Halloween, and he was like, got it. He made this movie that's absolutely nothing.
Bryan White:Like, it's a grotesque misunderstanding of Halloween is really what it is. But, like, now there's really nothing terribly, like, offensive about it either. There's a couple of gory kills, but they kinda suck. So it's like I who, like, who who really knows who is sort of, like, pulling these these titles and making lists out of them? But, like, it seems almost random.
AP Strange:Yeah. And, I mean, I feel that way kind of in general about movies where it's really difficult to kind of, have anybody decide what any governing body decide what what has artistic merit, what doesn't, and what's Oh, sure.
Bryan White:Yeah. You're and
AP Strange:what's offensive. Like, that's
Bryan White:You're you're subjecting your your your movie, your art to the, you know, the very subjective, I'm forgetting the word here. Just like the whims of of, like, two or three people. Like, the like, they're very even today, they're like, the the the board of the MPAA, they're very, they they they're regarded about that. Like, you could find out who those people are, but it's just like a small group of people
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:Who are determining, like, what's gonna get an r rating. You know?
AP Strange:Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And I guess if you have the if you have the, if you if you have the presence of someone like Spielberg, you can you can kinda Oh, yeah.
Bryan White:Like, if you got, like, if you got power, like, I mean, by the time, like, by the time that they were like, you know, oh, we're gonna give Holtergeist our rating, you know, he he had, like, something like he was responsible for, like, $3,000,000,000 in, like, '80 in, like, nineteen seventies and 19 eighties dollars in terms of box office. So he could do whatever the hell he wanted. Like, he was he released, like, two movie not well, he didn't release two movies. He but he released ET and, you know, had a very heavy hand in the production of Poltergeist. So, like, you know, it's, like, almost like making two movies in one year, and both of them were enormously popular and successful.
AP Strange:Right. And, I mean, that scene is legitimately disturbing where the guy scared
Bryan White:the hell out of me, man. I saw that when I was 10, and it was the it's the first time I was like, oh my god. I've flown too close to the sun with this one. Right.
AP Strange:It still bothers me. If I watch it now, like, I kinda have to look away, and that's We
Bryan White:just we just did that one. I did that one. I guested on, I guested on another podcast, and Dave and I talked about that one with the host. And we just did that one for Halloween with, with our friend Sean Abele. And our whole remark about it now is, like, watching it as adults, it's it's it's pretty corny.
Bryan White:But, like, back then, I'd never seen anything like that, and I was just a little just a little kid who was just so freaked out by it.
AP Strange:Well, it it doesn't look real. I mean, the the effects aren't the best. But
Bryan White:No. Like, it's it's clearly a dummy face, and there's Steven Spielberg's hands in front of it that are just like Right.
AP Strange:Yeah. And it's like, why would you continue pulling your own face after the first chunk came off? But, yeah, that that I think the unreality of it bothered me more than anything else. Like
Bryan White:It's just it's well, it is it is very aggressive. Like, the because it's it's a sort of escalation
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:Of, like, scary shit that happens in the kitchen, and then all of a sudden, this guy is just, like is is, you know, he's he's being shown a horrible thing by whatever spirit,
AP Strange:you know, possesses the house. It's
Bryan White:it's it's it is very, very intense. So it's there's definitely something to it.
AP Strange:Right. Right. Yeah. I'm gonna definitely have to do Poltergeist three at some point. Oof.
AP Strange:That's the way to watch that one. Is that If you insist. Is there a tower in that one?
Bryan White:That's the one that takes place in a high rise. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. I'd have to watch it again, but I just remember it being bad.
Bryan White:That's all. That one in the movies. I think I saw that one of the movies a couple of times too. Like, I don't want I don't know. Because I have not seen it in a really long time.
Bryan White:The last time I watched it, I was like, what is this movie? It's terrible.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:Yeah. But also but also, like, I I believe they they they kinda carried it out and finished it because Heather O'Rourke died about halfway through the production. And I think the filmmakers have said, like, since then, they're like, her family and, like, everybody involved was like, you'd be sort of, like, doing her a disservice if you didn't finish this movie. And so you sorta kinda get what you get in the end, but their intentions were good at least.
AP Strange:Yeah. Because there was one more after that too, I think. Right?
Bryan White:No. The third one was the last one.
AP Strange:That was the last one.
Bryan White:There is a there was a remake from, a little ways from a little ways back, and there was a cable TV show of of Poltergeist. That's
AP Strange:Oh, okay.
Bryan White:That's that's okay. That's pretty good. It was on Showtime, I think.
AP Strange:Interesting. Okay. Did not know that. Alright. So for for Day of the Dead going back into zombie land, because, yeah, the only note I have on here that we didn't cover was, that Romero is in the movie.
AP Strange:He has a brief cameo as, zombie with scarf.
Bryan White:Of course, you're gonna put yourself in your own movie. I'd do that.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, I think that's pretty great because I I was not able to pick that one out, but, some of the zombies that come wandering in at the end of that movie
Bryan White:are ridiculous.
AP Strange:Giant. Yeah. They are ridiculous.
Bryan White:I I was noticing it too because there's there's like, one of the very first zombies you see sort of, like like, shambling down the hall is a ballerina who's still working on on her point shoes.
AP Strange:Yep. And there's I think there's a clown zombie in
Bryan White:there. There's a clown. There's a there's an army guy. Yeah. There's there's a whole bunch of, like, there's a bunch of them.
Bryan White:Because, like, in dawn of the dead, he did the same thing where there's a couple of zombies that that are very noticeable, like the nurse zombie and the guy who kinda gets stuck on the escalator. Like, you see them throughout the movie in different locations. And so, like, I obviously, he was like, well, I gotta do that again for this movie.
AP Strange:Right. And then he's like, yeah. You make me up like a zombie and just throw a scarf on me and
Bryan White:Oh god. I would do that in a fucking second. If I made a horror movie, I would make it contra I would make them contractually obligated to put me in the movie as a zombie.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah.
Bryan White:Apparently, they when they made them when they made the movie, they did this with Dawn of the Dead too. But, like, for all of the extras, all of the extras were paid a dollar, and they were also given, they were given hats that said I survived Day of the Dead. And I periodically I look at, like, heritage auctions and eBay to see if if ever if one of those hats ever goes up for sale, I would buy that in a goddamn second. Because I did that with, dawn of the dead as well. The crew shirts were a very particular Dawn of the Dead T shirt, and you can get they those go up for sale every now and then, but, counterfeits are very hard are very easy to find.
Bryan White:So, like, Heritage Auctions sells them. One day, I'm gonna get one.
AP Strange:Yeah. Hell, yeah, man. That's that that would be quite the thing to own, and then probably put it behind glass or something and hang up on the wall. Yeah. Yeah.
AP Strange:Because I can't imagine those, would would have, would hold up too well if you wore them too much
Bryan White:Yeah.
AP Strange:At this point because it was quite a while ago. But, Yeah. So as far as as far as the the big three Romero zombie movies there, it the this one's on the top for you.
Bryan White:Yep. Yep. I think and I think this is and, I mean, they're it's really kinda hard to sort of pick a favorite. I mean, this is my obvious favorite, but, like, below that, I think night of the living dead is my is my next favorite. That's a very close second.
Bryan White:That's such a bleak movie, and it is so it is so grim.
AP Strange:Yeah. It's on the top for me. I I night the original Night of the Living Dead is, probably in my top horror movies of all time. I I really love that one.
Bryan White:But, I mean, back to the back to that point. Yeah. And so Dawn of the Dead would be a very also, like, would be a very close third, but, like, they they they switch positions every now and then. But
AP Strange:I feel like Dawn of the Dead almost, like, hasn't aged as well. You know? Like, it feels like it's kind of it's got got kind of it came out in the eighties.
Bryan White:It came out in '78.
AP Strange:And Seventy eight. Okay. Because I feel like it has a very disco era feel to
Bryan White:it. You know, and the thing is is that, like, now in the age of, like, four k, like, UHD presentations, like, you see you can really see how shabby the makeup is.
AP Strange:Yeah. A lot of it's, like, blue, like, blue tinted and kinda weird.
Bryan White:Yeah. They they intended it they it was intended to be to come, to come off as gray. Yeah. But, like, once the film was, you know, once the negative was was developed, it it kinda looks it kinda looks blue. And so, like, that's it doesn't it doesn't just it doesn't look as good.
Bryan White:It really kinda wears its budget on its sleeve. You know, the black and white in Night of the Living Dead really works in its favor despite the fact that, like, even the cheapest like, the, like, the crappiest horror movies at the time, like, Herschel Gordon Lewis movies were coming out in, like, glorious Technicolor.
AP Strange:So here,
Bryan White:you know, here comes this movie in in in black and white. But it really it really works in its favor, because it's like a real kinda high contrast black and white on top of it all. Right. And, you know, it really goes
AP Strange:to scenes. You know?
Bryan White:Yeah. You know? Because there there's a couple of there's a couple of shots. Like, there's one where, they're, you know, they're running through. They're trying to seal the house up and and, like, Barbara is just kind of, like, you know, catatonic in the kitchen and and Ben goes to, like, fight the zombie off and push him out of the house and, like, the zombie gets, like, knocked back and the camera sort of pulls back and all of a sudden there's, like, seven or more, like, seven zombies behind him that just kinda, like, emerge from the darkness.
Bryan White:It is, you know, despite the fact that it's got this name and this kind of reputation for being sort of like a schlocky, drive in movie, like, it is a very sophisticated horror movie. Like, we just we just did a, like, a there's an episode that's coming out. I don't know. Might it might might coincide with the release of this one. But, like, the one that we did on that one is, like, a real, real, like, deep examination of that movie because,
AP Strange:oh, man. It is We're getting ready to yeah. We're getting ready to record this, and I and I listened to your your episode on Blackula, and you mentioned that you're gonna be doing that doing the Night of Living Dead. I'm like, I think that's gonna come out later on. I'm just the day of the dead episode, so that'll be kinda cool.
Bryan White:Yeah. And it's so easily for it's so easy to forget that the movie really is. I mean, it's extraordinarily well made. You know, it it was it was kind of like a low budget movie for its time, obviously, but, like, oh, it is so well made. It is so pessimistic.
Bryan White:It's just I'm I'm like, maybe I I prefer that one just because, like, if this is if Day of the Dead, you know, in all of its, like, cynical Reagan era glory is my is my favorite one, then obviously, like, the next most cynical one is gonna, you know, come up in second place.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. And considering that, Romero botched the copyright on the original, which meant that he just really didn't make the money off of it that he otherwise would have.
Bryan White:And and, you know, it wasn't even him. It was, the Walter Reed organization who was the the company that eventually picked it up. They were releasing it as Night of the Flesh Eaters, And the and Walter Reed was like, we're gonna change the name to, night of the living dead. And but they didn't attack because back then, like, you had to you you the the the copyright wasn't implicit. It was, it had to, you know, you had to show the title card on the screen.
Bryan White:It had to have the little copyright under it. So they just put neither the living dead, title card on it, but didn't copyright it. And so whoops. Yeah. It went.
Bryan White:And that movie made so much money of which Right. Romero and, like, the latent image saw none of.
AP Strange:Yeah. But, I mean, he was kind of able to make good on it with with sequels at least. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it
Bryan White:it did you know, it, like, a year like, a year after it was released, it got it it sort of became a favorite among the the Andy Warhol crowd. And so, like, it, you know, it it it bought him, it didn't, you know, didn't make him any money, but it certainly sort of, like, opened a door for him Yeah. Sort of, like Right. To move it. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. And, I mean, I think at that point, audience audiences wanted more. You know? Eventually, they'd wanna see
Bryan White:Oh, yeah. It's set it's that movie Yeah. In made in '68. Like, that movie really sort of set the pace for what was what was gonna come out in the seventies. Like, I'm not sure, like, a movie without a movie like Night of the Living Dead that's, like, so rel relentlessly bleak.
Bryan White:You know, there wouldn't necessarily be, like, a Last House on the Left, which is, you know, kind of like the the preeminent early seventies, like, grindhouse horror movie. Because, like, that that movie then goes and sort of, like, kinda sets the pace for the rest of the seventies where it's, like, all this kind of, like, brutal, brutal, like, lo fi directory, or documentary style sort of filmmaking for for that is, you know, until until Halloween came along. Like, everybody was just trying to make their own version of Last House on the Left. And, like, I don't know if you actually got there without a movie like Night of the Living Dead, which is like, oh, yeah. I know.
Bryan White:You could show zombies, like, eating guts and stuff like that. Like, you can make a movie that's just like this this bleak and relentless and
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:You know, this is cynical, and and people will and people will love it.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, my son expressed an interest in horror movies at one point. I think maybe he was, like, 12. And I was like, none of the living dead is probably fine. Like, it's Yeah.
AP Strange:You know, it's older, and it's it's not, like, that graphic. It's black and white. But I I kinda forgot. You know? Like, he wasn't really prepared for it at the time because they're they're, like, biting into an a severed arm and then eating intestines and stuff.
Bryan White:And the hero dies.
AP Strange:He was hiding his face and just kinda, like, I'm like, oh, man. Sorry. Sorry, buddy. Maybe you weren't ready for this.
Bryan White:Yeah. Now now consider this. When when night of living dead was was released, it got it got released as a as the b picture on a double feature with doctor who and the Daleks. And so they were sending it out to matinees for children to watch. And there is a sort of famous famous it's not it's not a review, but it's an article Roger Ebert wrote around the time that it came out about his experience of watching this movie in a in a movie theater full of children.
Bryan White:And it's like, not like, none of them knew what to what was coming. Like, they started out like like kids at a movie theater, and by the end of it, they were just, like, silent.
AP Strange:Yeah. I was gonna I I was gonna predict that maybe there was some crying and wetting of the pants going on.
Bryan White:I would I would imagine because, like, no. They they didn't they didn't make horror movies where, like, the where all of the good guys get killed at the end.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. Somebody's gotta survive. Yeah.
Bryan White:Yeah. Because that movie that movie makes has feels absolutely no responsibility whatsoever to reassure you as the viewer that, like, everything's gonna be okay.
AP Strange:Well, even though, like I mean, you say everybody's dead, but the final shot is you still have the newscast you're talking about it. So clearly people survived. And the final shot is, like, them, like, hanging a zombie up in the tree and, like, burning a pile of of, zombies.
Bryan White:Yeah. The final shot is them throwing Ben's body on the pile right before they set it on fire.
AP Strange:Yeah. So, so they won. You know? You kinda get the feeling that it was contained. So it's almost like this is a split timeline where, one universe went into the Return of the Living Dead where they had contained the
Bryan White:Oh, where? Where they got it under control?
AP Strange:Yeah. And then and then, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead are in a a variant of that universe where they didn't really have them under control after all. Right. Right. Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. So it's a multiverse of of living dead.
Bryan White:Take that take that Marvel Cinematic Universe.
AP Strange:The multiverse of the living dead coming to us. Yeah. So so yeah. I mean, we I was glad to get some zombie talk going on here because, I was getting a little tired of not talking about zombies. When I first came up with this idea of, third time's a charm, I think I mentioned this in a in a prior episode, but I kind of assumed that I would just be doing horror movies all the time.
AP Strange:Because, like Yeah.
Bryan White:Because there's not too many there's not too many other, like, sort of genres that go, like, that go this deep.
AP Strange:Right.
Bryan White:And good god. That's gotta be that's gotta be a rough go of it too. Like, because usually by the time part three comes out, it's like, we're already running out of gas here. Like, Hellraiser three, Child's Play three. Like, oh, these these are Right.
Bryan White:Nah. These are not good movies.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. I mean, I that's why I wanted the the I mean, that was kind of the impetus for the idea. It was just like, that's you got choices you can make when you get to the third one. If you if you're gonna do a second sequel, it's like, sometimes it's just phoning it in.
AP Strange:Sometimes it's like, where can we take this? Because
Bryan White:Yeah. Very few very few three quills ever really figure it out. Like, this is this is one of the rare occasions. Friday the thirteenth part three is another one that, like, really kind of gets it right, like, really under starts to understand where they're going with those movies. So
AP Strange:Yeah. That's where it starts to get good in the Friday the thirteenth ones, I think. You know? That's so and and or you can just do something totally different like Halloween free. You know?
Bryan White:Yeah. Exactly.
AP Strange:Yeah. So, but yeah. I mean, up till recently, I I feel like I haven't had nearly enough horror movies going on. So I was like I was like, alright. Day of the Dead, it's happening.
AP Strange:And I'm very glad that you came on to talk about it with me because, I could tell that you had the enthusiasm for it, and and I really enjoy listening to your show, shows about about movies because it's just you have a lot of great insight about it and and and an obvious passion for for the bizarre cinema and the the horror and the the odd choices that direct directors sometimes make.
Bryan White:Oh, yeah, man. Yeah. Sometimes, like, sometimes, though, like, it's some of the movies we do, it's like, what what was going on here? You know?
AP Strange:Well, there was that one you covered one recently about, it was a musical, like, the
Bryan White:the the apple. The apple is a the apple is very funny because it's director Menachem Golan who was the the golden and the golden globus sort of eighties canon film empire.
AP Strange:Yeah.
Bryan White:He made that movie thinking, like, he had, like, he had the West Side Story on his hands. Right. Or like The Wizard of Oz. Like, he was like, this is gonna this is gonna take the world by storm. I got the next Grease here, and he released it and went to I believe it was the Montreal Film Festival where they, like, handed records out of the soundtrack because it's a it's a musical to people who were there.
Bryan White:And but, like, before the movie was even half over, like, the attendees were literally throwing the records at the screen, and people were, like, rolling in the aisles laughing. And he left before the movie was over and went back to his hotel room and was going had to be had to be pulled away from the balcony because he was going to leap from it.
AP Strange:Yeah. So I mean, you told me about, when when when you were talking about the movie in the episode, I was like, this sounds like a crazy fever dream. Like, this sounds like it can't possibly be real. I never heard of it at all. So you guys describing it.
AP Strange:I was like, this is this is just a train wreck. Like, I almost wanna watch it now because it's so so I'm so hot.
Bryan White:It's you know what? Just take it to face stick it to face value. Just believe just believe me. It's something. Because it's also it's not terribly it's not terribly good.
AP Strange:Right.
Bryan White:There is there is another we did another Canon one earlier last year called, X-ray. It's also called Hospital Massacre, but it's commonly it's called X-ray. You can watch it on Tubi. That is it's a Canon slasher movie from '82, I wanna say. And it is like a and again, same sort of people, like, it's it's going globe is producing.
Bryan White:It's the it's a guy Boaz Davidson, who's their sort of, like, house director at the time. They hadn't really sort of broken into Hollywood proper yet, so they brought all of their sort of Israeli film people with them. It is like a slasher movie made on another planet. It is it it is a weird, baffling misunderstanding of slasher movies, but it is really good in that it is it is just minute to minute. It is one of the most unpredictable movies I've I've ever seen.
Bryan White:I love it. When when Dave brought it to my attention, because you can get it through you get there's a really great version you can get through vinegar syndrome. He I was like, I watched something something that was really short, and I was like, what I I need something to watch. What what are you watching right now? He's like, I'm watching a movie called X-ray.
Bryan White:Watch it right right now. Do just drop whatever you're doing. Watch this movie. And before the movie was even a third of the way over, like, I had the d I had the Blu ray on order, and then we like, both of us independent of one another watched it, like, twice within twenty four hours. Like, we had become properly obsessed with that one.
Bryan White:That is that is one that we did we did an episode with our our friends from from, Week a Horror, which is like a the left the Latinx horror movie podcast. And they were just like, what is this movie, you guys? So highly recommended. It's completely bonkers. It is so weird and incomprehensible.
Bryan White:That's that's one that I would say, like, definitely watch definitely watch that one.
AP Strange:What year was that that it came out?
Bryan White:That was that was '82, I think. It's '81 or '82. Eighty '2 is for some reason or one reason or another. Nineteen eighty two is, like, our sweet spot. Like, we've done so many movies from 1982.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. Just keep coming back for more.
Bryan White:It's just it was a great year for horror movies, apparently. Like, the whole thing we kicked off our entire series with Amityville two, the possession, which I believe is also nineteen eighty two. So, yeah, we're just kind of, like, cursed to exist in 1982, which is fine with me. There's a ton of great movies that year.
AP Strange:Yeah. Hell, yeah. So, in in in wrapping up here, where where can people find you? I mean, we already kinda we've been talking about the show, but I I will recommend audiences definitely go check out Bring Me the Axe.
Bryan White:Yeah. You can find, you can find Bring Me the Axe Bring Me the Axe, anywhere you get podcasts. Bring Me the Axe horror podcast. If you, you know, subscribe to that one, you get 99¢ rental in the same feed, but 99¢ rental also exists in its own feed. You can look that one up.
Bryan White:Up. There's, you find us on Instagram, bring me the axe pod, on Instagram. Dave's got his own thing, that queer wolf. And, yeah, and I'm on Blue Sky. You can just look up again.
Bryan White:Bring me the axe on Blue Sky if you wanna you wanna follow me there. I mostly just kind of complain about politics there, though. So I don't know. It's that terribly exciting. Pictures of my cat and, red random thoughts on whatever horror movie I happen to be watching at the time.
AP Strange:Alright. Excellent. Yeah. So I will recommend people check that out once again. And, I guess I guess we have a fair fair understanding of what kind of monkey farm we're running around here.
Bryan White:We we know exactly who's running it.
AP Strange:Yep. Alright. Well, thank you so much, Brian, for coming on, and, I'll talk to you soon.
Bryan White:This is great. Thanks for having me.