Speaker 2 (00:01.698)
Wow, we have got a show this week.
Yes, we sure do.
mean to lean forward, my back was hurting, but now I'm way on the mic and I don't want to move.
You're literally leaning into it.
Maybe that's the theme for this week. We're leaning in to one of the best horror comedies ever made. And joining us is someone who loves this film to their core. I'm gonna lean back.
Speaker 1 (00:35.434)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay, lean back. You two are about to teach me a lot, have a feeling. And I'm here for it.
I think I've mentioned on the Shaun of the Dead episode that this is my favorite horror comedy. And guess what? We're talking about it the day before Halloween.
my gosh. I mean it, come on. We have the perfect movie, we have the perfect guest.
It's horror kismet.
It is horror kismet. Do it. Yes. Welcome to another episode of Die Laughing.
Speaker 2 (01:20.024)
Hey Lindsay
Hey Bart. The best day of the year. Now I'm very excited. I have all the kids in my neighborhood. They come to my house. I keep my door open and I try to get the good candies, right? Actually, I get a lot on Amazon. I know I probably didn't say that out loud because they have so many like weird kind of random candies. So I order a lot on Amazon anyway, and I usually watch a movie and order pizza and I usually am just kind of.
You know what tomorrow is?
Speaker 2 (01:26.38)
Halloween.
Speaker 1 (01:49.27)
by myself because Jackson's doing something with his friends. So I'm really popular, I think is the moral of the story. What are you doing tomorrow?
don't know yet, it's a new place, a new town. The last few years it's been piss poor trick or treaters, so I'm hoping there'll be more tomorrow night. I'm gonna assume there will be, so I've got candy and gonna hand that out and probably go see the midnight screening afterwards and since it's a weekend and that's a rarity for Halloween on a weekend. But I am still a 12 year old boy when it comes to Halloween and I still on November 1st go through a little bit of a depression.
Yeah, and I tend to kind of just like let the, kind of roll the dice and sometimes I'll just watch like whatever is on TV at the time. Cause usually it doesn't like super disappoint, you know? Like Poltergeist, that made me happy one year. was like, my God, I haven't seen this in forever. So we watched that. Sometimes it's just random and it's clue, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. So I'm fine with that too.
I love those cheap public domain channels on Roku, just like classic horror and things like that. And you can just run those on a loop. That's what I've been doing for the last week is just running those on a loop. classic public domain horror movies. great. Yeah. First, let's talk about the movie we're doing this week. Yes. I couldn't think of a more Halloween perfect horror comedy than this one. I think we talked about it on previous episodes. It's my fave. It's my favorite horror comedy.
I remember seeing the trailer for the first time in 1985 and just thinking, I gotta see that fucking movie. So, let's tell the fine folks what our movie is today.
Speaker 1 (03:26.638)
I'm very excited to say this. I'm not excited that you're letting me say it. But today we are talking about the return of the living dead. Fuck!
Yes!
SO FUCKING GOOD!
My favorite horror comedy of all time.
And can we talk about how perfect our guest is for this? The stars have aligned.
Speaker 2 (03:52.408)
The stars have aligned. So let's get right into it because we're have a lot to talk about. Our guest today is someone who is a close friend of both Lindsay and myself. He's a great producer, filmmaker. His company is Last Byte Films, does amazing work, love the guy dearly, love hanging out with him, love chatting with him, and you guys will too. So please welcome to Die Laughing, Joey Carr. Joey!
my gosh you guys I am so excited to be here like genuinely been looking forward to this not only to talk about one of my favorite movies of all time regardless of genre right but to talk to two of my favorite people to creative forces Lindsey and GB Shannon Bart Shannon this is just a thrill for me truly Now let's party it's the time to party man. This is the best
Well, we're very excited to have you.
Yeah. There's so much to talk about. And I, I don't even know if you watched it again, leading up to this, Joey, but I watched it yesterday. One thing I noticed that I guess has just never dawned on me until I watched it yesterday was how economical they are in the editing with the warehouse happens then boom, it's Freddy's friends. Then, then it's the warehouse and it's Freddy friends. If they stayed any longer on either one of those scenarios, you'd get a little bored, but they always like, we're cutting back to this one now we're going back to this one. there's
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:11.624)
Always action going on. So well done.
It's so well done.
I rewatched it as well a couple days ago. again, it's a movie I kind of have memorized, but you know, it's never a bad idea to turn that film on. no, I agree. I noticed that too, because one of the things that I really took from this latest viewing was how many long takes there are. And how much they just let you linger in the shot. The movie is not over edited. It's not over cut. There's a lot of just moments where you're just letting these actors just perform in these wide shots.
And I think that helps with the charm. It helps with the lived in kind of grittiness of the film because there's not a lot of closeups in the film. There's not a lot of just like, let's really hone in on this character's agency or anything. It's just, these are all these people are in this together and we're just going to sit back and we're going to watch how they respond to each other and respond to the situation. And man, it is a.
It almost feels like a voyeur experience. Yeah. Which is, think, what is a part of the appeal, right? You're like, could be any of these characters and I'm watching all of them and I'm standing right here with them watching it all happen.
Speaker 3 (06:06.702)
100%.
Speaker 3 (06:15.886)
Exactly.
It's funny you said that because I read that while they were shooting it, the DP came to Dan O'Bannon one day, the director, and said, you know, on these shots, do you have to let it linker? Do you have to? you have to?
You have to.
You have to let it linger.
And Dan O'Bannon said, well, of course I do. Because the song hadn't come out yet.
Speaker 1 (06:37.112)
Yeah, his directorial debut.
Yeah. Before we start chatting, let's go ahead and watch the trailer together. Oh, trailer. To wet our horror and Halloween appetite. Sorry. Dan O'Bannon's 1985, Return to the Living Dead.
that's right!
Speaker 1 (06:51.79)
Ha!
Speaker 2 (07:09.014)
something strange is
Speaker 2 (07:17.198)
gonna kill you!
Speaker 1 (07:25.481)
that movie.
of a living dead. Sure.
Speaker 1 (07:39.35)
How many did you say? A hundred!
The is, how do we get them back in
Speaker 1 (07:53.966)
Ten right!
Speaker 1 (08:05.742)
That's all of everything! Stupid asshole! Watch your tongue, boy, if you like this job! I like this job!
Stop!
you
Speaker 2 (08:22.048)
Science is battle.
It's a puzzle because technically you're not alive People people
So we're... Well, how do I know for... let me think. It's not a bad question, Bert. In that movie, they destroyed the brain to kill him. Is that what they did? The brain's right!
Speaker 2 (08:58.804)
The are confused.
your day.
usual
Speaker 1 (09:14.766)
It worked
Cups!
Speaker 1 (09:21.486)
It's not a bad question, Bert.
Dead.
Speaker 2 (09:34.126)
Holy shit. Great.
my God. It's so perfect.
It sets the movie up appropriately, know? It doesn't tease you into thinking you're getting something you're not. It's very direct, lets you know like, you're in for a wild ride. It's so brilliant.
I remember seeing it in 1985 for the first time and when Do You Want to Party plays when the skeleton rises from the grave. I was hooked. I was in. I still remember my first thought. I'm seeing the movie. I'm seeing it.
that skeleton with the perfectly non-decomposed eye-
Speaker 1 (10:05.108)
Perfect eyeballs. I love all the perfect eyeballs. It's so good And I mean the posters that way too the poster tells you everything that you need to sort of know about about this movie It's just it's just all so fucking brilliant but that opening shot of the trailer with the The skeleton coming out of the ground and popping his eyes open. I mean, come on
The has a beautiful set of blue peepers. Beautiful. In the movie also Tar Man has a perfect tongue. yeah. And the torso zombie has perfect eyes as well.
Perfect eyes, beautiful blonde hair, beautiful, gorgeous flowing blonde hair. You know, it's funny because, you know, I equate things to before my son is born and after my son is born. And I am sorry to say, fellas, but I have not seen this movie in my son's lifetime. wow. Wow. You know, I'd seen it, I don't know, probably three or four times, five times, I don't know, before that, but I haven't seen it in his lifetime, you know.
Beautiful.
Speaker 1 (11:07.372)
And I was like, my God, I cannot fucking wait to watch this movie. It's been so long. I think I appreciated it more now and liked it more now than even I did when I was younger and watched.
It is a genuine horror comedy masterpiece without question.
It really is. Yeah, think anybody that cares about this genre or anybody who really cares about filmmaking would probably tell you the same.
I think it's a master class in tone management because you cannot make this film the way that it is without understanding how to balance the horror and the comedy. And it does it brilliantly because to me, the movie doesn't really rely heavily on like jokes. You know, it's not over your face. It's not it's very deliberate in how it and its pacing and everything. And so because it doesn't rely on that, it forces you to like
Bingo!
Speaker 3 (11:55.074)
just fully immerse yourself in what these characters are going through and what's happening is not funny to them. Like this is not amusing to them, but the circumstances are funny. The way that these zombies are introduced, everything that they do is hilarious, but the characters are responding as they should. This is a dire situation that they don't know how to get out of.
Joey, that is exactly why it works. I don't need to be a wink and a nod to, right? I want you to understand your stakes. And that's the way satire works. If you're not in it, and if you're a part of the wink and the nod, then it doesn't work. That's one of the things that you really notice throughout this film when they are talking to each other. They are truly sweating and truly afraid. mean, even Freddie, I'm like, this poor guy, he is in pain.
feel his pain. I can feel rigor mortis setting in.
horror element that's so strong, know, watching these people just literally dying while being alive. It is a difficult balancing act that that movie manages to nail.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:02.518)
We covered Shaun of the Dead last week and Shaun of the Dead, just brilliant jokes, brilliant humor, laugh out loud funny. we said it's the pinnacle of horror comedy and I still stand by that, but it's still only my second favorite to this movie. This is my favorite, Shaun of the Dead is my second favorite, even though Shaun of the Dead is way funnier, I don't think anyone's gonna be able to argue against that.
Yeah, and it's a joke a minute movie, you know, it is, you know, it's very winky, it's very, it's having fun and knows it's having fun until it's not. There's still dark moments in Shot of the Dip where it really, you know, it forgets it's a comedy for a while, but you know, it's established itself so well at that point that it's okay, it works.
The humor in this is situational and characters. you you've got these great characters delivering really funny performances, especially James Caron, Frank. That was the person who stood out to me when I first saw the trailer and when I first saw the movie. James Caron, he's the man that gave us Poltergeist. He's the man who built the houses on the native land.
He's yeah
Speaker 3 (14:07.662)
Toons Stones but not the bodies
but not the bodies. son of a bitch. Yeah, Poultergeist, Mulholland Drive. That's right.
BITCH
Speaker 2 (14:16.674)
Yeah. So it's situational humor and it's character humor. There's a few jokes here and there, but not jokey jokes, but just funny lines. yeah, the tone of this is so hard to perfect. And they did. And they did. Let's get started with the backstory a little bit. It was made in 1985, directed by Dan O'Bannon. Dan O'Bannon wrote a little obscure movie that nobody's ever heard of called Alien. You would think you don't need to do anything else. You write Alien, done, your career's over.
His kind of was. Strange, Yeah, weird.
So this was directorial debut, but the screenplay of this and the original story he came from is where it gets really fascinating. the screenplay was an adaptation of a story of the same name by John Russo, who also co-wrote Night of the Living Dead, and Russell Strainer, who was the actor who uttered the classic line, they're coming to get you, Barbara. So they wrote this fucking story. And another great horror connection, originally optioned by Tobey Hooper.
So Toby Hooper was looking to make this thing and eventually backed out of it. So it lands in Dan O'Bannon's hands. Dan O'Bannon writes this just amazing script. But the backstory on.
Does movie have anything to do with the story?
Speaker 2 (15:34.304)
He was the third writer on the story. Yeah, the original story. So, Russo and George Romero, they co-wrote Nine of the Living Dead together. And then after that, they kinda had a falling out about the direction they wanted any future projects to go, which gets us to where we are now, because Russo wanted them to be a little more comedic, and George Romero was very against that and wanted these serious horrors. So that's where they parted ways, and in fact, a judge had to intervene, and Romero was granted of the dead.
So in the future he could use of the dead in his titles and Russo could use living dead. And so that's how that was separated. And because of that separation, we get a movie like this because George Romero would have never made a movie like this. But so this movie is steeped in the Pittsburgh birth of zombies as we know them. the pedigree and the origin of this is just so rad and kind of what leads us to this great, great film.
and it's still not without legal issues.
Yeah, there's some new issues that popped up, right?
You know, I mean, it just kind of talks to the popularity, right, of this film and what it has meant just to filmmaking overall, just the fact that, you know, legal drama and a legacy is still sort of fought over. The IP rights to it and who owns the characters and, you know, it's sort of still an ongoing battle. But anyway, yeah, so maybe we should kind of start at the top and jump into what's going on in this fine feature film, The Return of the Living Dead.
Speaker 2 (17:00.386)
Yeah, let's get it started. So we open on this medical supply company in Louisville, Kentucky. You need
You need a medical flyer.
You need a medical supply.
Don't we all. So right away we're in the warehouse and we meet Bert played by Clue Gulliger, who is the owner of the warehouse and he's headed out for the night. His foreman, Frank, played by James Caron, as we mentioned, just a great character actor who does comedy really well, but has been a dick in a lot of movies also. Clue has an extremely long.
It was the best man. Like he was like go to guy in westerns, but he also was a director too. He had directed one of my favorite short films ever made called Day with the Boys. Highly recommend it. wow. film. kind of like observational follows these children throughout the day, like playing. No dialogue until you realize exactly what these children are doing. I will not spoil. Please watch it.
Speaker 1 (17:59.842)
Yeah, well, and we're talking a career that goes from, you know, the last picture show to this movie to Nightmare on Elm Street to he was in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Right. His son also was like the winner of the third Project Greenlight that HBO produced, that show. He did the movie Feast, I think is what it was called. The first horror movie that they produced through Project Greenlight. That was John Gulliger, yeah, his son. And clues in the film as well, among other folks.
He was.
Speaker 2 (18:32.406)
One thing I noticed watching it yesterday that I certainly didn't notice when I was a teenager seeing it for the first time, they had to gray his hair. That's not the actual color of his hair. It's definitely theater gray that they've sprayed into his hair. So to my eyes, he looks 60. So why do you have to add gray hair to him? But I don't know why how old he wasn't. That was 40 years ago. So he was probably his 40s. So yeah, Frank the Foreman is showing Freddie the new hire around and he's just showing around.
Very thorough showing him around the warehouse. Right off the bat, we get to see the split dogs and skeletons with perfect teeth. All of these just great elements. This scene, again, the first time I ever saw it, I was just totally hooked. There's that great dolly shot where, like you were talking about earlier, Joey, how it's just, everything lingers. So this dolly shot follows them down the aisles of this warehouse and seeing all the stuff and then follows them back. And it goes on for quite a while.
If you watch that shot, really well done. A lot of information relayed with minimal effort.
And it really establishes the dynamic between the two of them that is extremely important to the whole movie. Just their relationship and how like deadly serious but naively stupid Freddie is. And Frank's like just kind of fucking with him. Just kind of not taking us all that seriously. But if you watch Tom Matthews performance, he's just like fully engrossed in everything this man is saying and taking it all very literally, even when he's fucking with him. so good.
So after we see the split dogs and we see the skeletons.
Speaker 1 (20:05.166)
The split fucking dogs. Heartbreak. Oof. So good, but so bad.
He shows them the cadaver that they have in the freezer and another one of those where the first time I saw it, it's like, holy shit, it's a yellow cadaver held up by.
Yeah, lead hook type things, yeah.
to his head. And he's so not fazed by it, just joking around about it the whole time, where just having been around these dead bodies is just his job and he's clowning around. And then they had to the office to do really gruesome stuff, paperwork.
hanging there.
Speaker 1 (20:36.886)
Hehehehehe
He takes Freddie to office to show him some paperwork and immediately, and again what I was talking about earlier about how they, we just cut back and forth between the warehouse stuff and the friends. we cut away from there and we meet Freddie's crew as they're on their way to the warehouse.
iconic introduction
iconic yes
What a motley gang of punks and rockabillies and preppies.
Speaker 3 (21:01.902)
users mixed in with the group, it's just beautiful.
Yeah, which is what the 80s was like Chuck. kind of dresses like ducking a little bit. They're all across the board. Casey, she's sort of an in-betweener. She wears a pretty dress, but has punk hair.
Great jewelry. Love her jewelry. Totally 80s.
We meet Tina, which is Freddie's girlfriend.
Yeah, Tina couldn't be preppier. She's got a cute little hairstyle. And I mean, she just looks like she walked straight out of, you know, the most popular girl in every 80s film.
Speaker 3 (21:34.36)
that she doesn't fit in with this group at all, but clear that she's like, know, her and Freddie are getting serious, maybe that's why he got this job, you know? He finally got a job to kind of like, maybe he's gonna try to settle down a little bit to impress this pretty normie type girl. And so, you know, she's trying to blend in with his friends, like, yeah, I'm fully bought in on the dynamic here.
Yeah. And trash. Can we just talk about trash?
and how can we not?
Let's save trash for last.
We'll get to trash.
Speaker 2 (22:03.214)
We Spider. Spider was also in Friday the 13th, the new beginning. He was also Mo Bitches and Black Dynamite.
Well, his most iconic role truly though is Juana Man, if you remember that film, as the former NBA player who goes in drag to join the WNBA. So that movie is a real movie. It's out there for you to watch anytime.
Good. Excellent. Come right on top of that, Rose.
I hear being added to queues across streaming services all across the globe as we speak. Like I said, there's Chuck and Casey, then there's Scuz. You want to talk about throwaway characters.
I mean, the movie is impeccable across the board, but that role, that actor sucks. That performance sucks. Real guy sucks. That's the only part of this that I think would love to recast, would love to try again. He looks great. Even a lot of his dialogue is clearly bad ADR that they had to do. Everything about it just kind of falls apart. That's my biggest gripe about this movie is that performance and that characterization.
Speaker 1 (22:55.65)
He does.
Speaker 2 (23:06.68)
I had a mole removed from my neck a few years ago. That mole could have played scuz-
You've still got that mole, don't you? Just in case the right part comes along.
yeah, I do.
You know. I got the actor for you.
Yeah, he's definitely the throwaway. I'm not even sure they needed him.
Speaker 2 (23:24.544)
And honestly, I always forget about him until he shows up at the mortuary later and thankfully not around for long. He's like, that guy, I forgot all about that.
Generally speaking, that's what makes this movie so great is how nuanced and well defined each of these people are within like instantaneously. You understand who they are, you understand their dynamics.
rounding out the friends, one who always stuck with me was Suicide. Suicide is like the main punk of the group. He's the driver. He's the one who always drives them around bitching about nobody chipping in for gas. And then we get to Trash. Lord. So Trash is an icon. Trash played by Linnea Quigley. And in this role, Linnea Quigley does what Linnea Quigley does best. And that's disrobe. Any teenage
for gas.
Speaker 1 (23:58.52)
Now,
icon.
Speaker 2 (24:11.98)
boy who saw this as a teenager has always had a lasting fond memory of trash.
Yep, I was about eight years old when I saw this movie the first time. And when she took all of her clothes off, I was like, that's what they look like.
Yeah. Yeah. And I don't care what woman tells you or tries to act differently, but every woman was like, I wish I looked that good naked. I totally do. I just really do, man.
Yeah, I remember that was her job. Her job was to look that good naked, you know?
I know, but my god, she looks so fucking good naked. Please, I objectify. It's fine.
Speaker 2 (24:45.934)
Can I objectify for a second?
Speaker 2 (24:52.194)
This is 1985. we know, looking back at history, breast implants were not perfected in 1985. She is genetically un-flawed in that regard.
No, they were not.
Speaker 3 (25:06.753)
plus
thousand percent. mean like I'm sitting here going how? How?
has been gifted by the horror gods.
I mean there was no other place for her to be than in horror films with tits like that. My god, they're perfection. They are the thing of beauty. Absolutely.
Still out there working at 67? Still doing it.
Speaker 3 (25:28.374)
At the conventions, she owns it, man. She's killer. She's the best.
So we meet that group of Freddie's friends and immediately back to the warehouse and Frank asks Freddie if he's ever seen the movie Night of the Living Dead. They're talking about a zombie movie in a zombie movie. hits every note. So he says it was based on a true story.
Which by the way is what you see at the beginning of this film.
It opens with that.
I had to pause it to see when all the shit goes down in this movie and then everything has been set up perfectly, eight minutes. Eight minutes is when everything happens. Jesus. So Frank tells Freddie that it was based on a true story, tells him of this military grade chemical called 245 trioxin that leached into the ground at a Pennsylvania morgue and it caused these corpses to jerk around.
Speaker 2 (26:17.486)
He says that, you know, they had to change it up because they threatened to sue the filmmakers if they told the story right. So they had to change it up. But Freddie doesn't believe him. And then Frank has a surprise for him. Tells him that an order got mixed up and a military contractor actually delivered several barrels to their warehouse that had been sitting in the basement ever since. This fucking performance here. You know, the corpses. When he sticks his tongue out. It's in the basement.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:43.137)
Man.
It's so good.
much he's just like, so excited to be telling this information to someone. He's been holding it in for so long and he's so happy to just like spill the beans on the one thing he's not supposed to be talking about. Incredible.
mean, Freddie's not the first person to work there since these barrels have been there, right? I think it shows Frank loves that this guy is sort of interested and intrigued and, you know, this may be somebody who could work here for a while. so let me try to impress him by how long we've, you know, had these barrels and what they do. And he's like so wide eyed telling him all of this stuff. I love that he chose Freddie for it.
feels so real, it feels human.
Speaker 2 (27:26.656)
His performance is so good now that I've seen it so many times. I always start watching his performance thinking how it would be if someone hadn't done it that way. And they hadn't done it with the right humor and it would just been meh. But he nailed it in the way it had to happen for this tone to be what it is. And he nailed it.
He nailed it so much that when he passed away, believe it was 2018 at the Academy Awards, they showed, you know, at the in memoriam piece, you get a clip of James Cairn in that office. Even they acknowledged how strong he was in that scene.
And that phone rings and it's his wife and he's like, keep the pot rose top for me. And Freddie jumps out of his fucking skin when that phone rings. God, so good.
They build the tension, the phone call happens, probably jump scares an audience, and then he goes right back into this mundane conversation, and then hangs up the phone. He hangs up the phone and then immediately just goes, I wanna see him. And Freddie's forgotten the conversation. He's like what? what?
The corpses. They're in the basement.
Speaker 2 (28:30.542)
Come.
and then they just run down to the basement. He is so excited.
Run like kids
And they let you know right there watch that third step that's gonna come in handy later
It's a doozy.
Speaker 2 (28:41.198)
So they get down in the basement and Frank shows him the containers. I've always loved how he did, instead of like pulling a piece of paper towel off the roll, he just- Takes the whole Wipes it with the whole paper. Again. Not in the script. That's not in the script. He just did that. So he wipes away the dust off the container and you see the face of a corpse in the container. Great practical corpse as well.
It was waxed, right? It was like a wax design that they melted, they heated. Yeah, yeah, to get that shot.
Yeah. Yep. And then Freddy's concerned about that they may leak and he said, these were made by the Army Corps of Engineers. And then Frank hits it. Hiss.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (29:23.694)
Score perfect.
immediate leak, the gas goes through the ventilation system, spreads throughout the building.
them out cold. You're immediately out breathing it in.
They're laying the floor at the place where it is pouring out. And you would think they would be the ones who go first, but I love this about every zombie movie. It's almost like Philip in Shaun of the Dead. It's like, he's probably should have turned way sooner because Barbara turned real quick. There's always this really fluctuating how quickly someone turns. Some people turn quick, some don't. Maybe it's just stamina. It's stamina.
Everybody's chemistry and makeup is different Bart.
Speaker 3 (29:57.568)
I love how it just introduces the credits at that point. You've kind of forgotten at that point. We haven't even gotten the credits yet. And you said it was eight minutes, right? Before when this happens. Yeah. And then that score pops in, which I honestly would put that score up against any other horror movie ever made. Like I still hum that score to myself at random times in my in my life.
Yeah
Yeah. And even the things that I didn't used to like about it that I now like, like anytime you see a movie that decides to do slow motion scenes later and they do it in post where it's a video slow mo, I was like, eh, that's cheap. But it just makes this film feel even weirder. The fact that it's not a real slow mo shot in camera and it's done in post, which they do it in the credit sequence. We push in to see the cadaver again to remember like,
Oh, there's a cadaver here. Don't forget that we showed you the cadaver earlier. here we cut away to meet this, this military guy coming home from work, total prick to his wife, obviously under a lot of stress.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:00.138)
Huge house, like it looks like it's in Malibu, right on the fucking water. You know, it's like right off the PCH and he's got guards at his gate that let him in. This guy is important, you know that immediately.
And it's lit so broadly, his home. It's almost like a 70s made for TV movie, how it's lit. don't know if that was.
It's like Dallas, you know.
Yeah, I was going to say it's Falcon Crest.
We're gonna shoot all of the military stuff in one day. So let's just throw some light up there and let's get this in the can.
Speaker 1 (31:30.626)
love this scene though. I love this scene. It made me giggle so much. Talking to his wife who's setting the table for dinner. You know she's gotta do the same thing every time, every night and she is working so hard to make her husband happy and I just don't think there's any making him happy.
Telly finds those canisters. How was your day, honey? Usual. Crap.
That's right.
She goes, I made your favorite, lamb chops. He goes, I them for lunch. Back in Louisville, the gang arrives to pick up Freddie. They're a little early, so they have nothing better to do. So they decide to go hang out in the cemetery next door, which is what a lot of young people always do in cities like Louisville.
You
Speaker 3 (32:12.558)
We get them walking into the cemetery. There's a little more dynamic between all of them and Tina starts to leave right now. She hasn't left yet. I think she's not yet. Wait, she was still being able leave. Yeah
So yeah, back at the warehouse, and Freddie wake up, they discover the barrels empty, and they stumble upstairs, hacking and coughing.
immediate assumption is that the corpse melted when it hit the air? That's what he says. says, must have melted. Yeah. OK. Is that how that works? But sure. We'll go with that.
That's what he says.
Speaker 1 (32:42.946)
Yeah.
I always love the amount of sweat that's pouring out of Frank's underarms in this scene. Just from his armpits to his hips. He's got underarms sweating.
He is just I know is that do you think they're like hey, he's dry again get that bucket over here Let's get him all sweaty again
But they are, they're already a little peaked at this point. They're looking at like they've, uh, they've been through it. they get upstairs and immediately they hear some whimpering and they go over to find the split dogs laying on the side. But what do you call that? When a dog goes panting, dogs panting.
Panting.
Speaker 1 (33:19.416)
Thank you.
Name Bart or them one more time.
That's I remember this scene as well just thinking what the fuck these split dogs are have come to life and so Frank grabs a Starts beating them and the whimper and yelp every time he has
Of course.
Speaker 1 (33:38.412)
and our printing.
Speaker 3 (33:42.574)
A little yelping
It's terrifying.
And he stopped them. he stops them. them.
Yeah. Kill those poor dogs. There's also that great shot of the butterflies. I love that.
Ready, stop, Sam.
Speaker 1 (33:58.126)
I gonna say, yeah, the butterflies.
great.
What a simple little touch to also just let you know, everything's come back to life.
Everything back alive.
animated.
Speaker 2 (34:08.866)
And then immediately we hear sounds coming from the freezer. The cadaver has awoken. What a great way to ramp this fucking tension up with that cadaver. And they have to go over and lock the door because the door is unlocked.
And this is where James Cairns really starting to amp it up in a big way that like, man, you've got to trust that actor to hit this because it could become annoying fast. Yep. But he manages to ride that line and never become like so annoying that you want him to fuck off. Like you're still like locked in with him and him and Freddie's dynamic. But man, the wrong actor doing that would have just killed this movie.
just a tweak and it could be annoying. I found them annoying in Return of Living Dead 2.
100 % agree. Yeah.
He was, he was, but I think that that's probably how it was written and probably how.
Speaker 2 (34:58.606)
Yeah, I think Dan O'Bannon had a lot, I think his vision was pretty clear on this about how that was to be delivered and I'm sure he kept them in that very narrow window of tone. then Return of Living Dead 2, it just was all over the map. And I remember that one time I saw it, just like, God, there is no tone to this. It's just so confused, like you said, this is for kids, there's violence, but then it feels like it's made for 12 year olds. Yeah. Yeah, a movie with an identity crisis is what it Exactly.
And a Michael Jackson zombie. So dumb.
So dumb. They're panicked because they realized that shit has gotten real. And I love the line where Frank says, what's your tongue, boy, if you to keep this job. And Freddie goes, keep this job. So he's still thinking everything's going to be okay. So they decide to call Bert a love, love. When he sits down, takes a drink of his coffee, calms down.
This job.
Speaker 3 (35:53.88)
Call me himself.
Speaker 2 (35:58.242)
BIRD
Frank, we have a little problem here.
Just such a good performance. So they're hanging out back at the cemetery and Trash, Linnea Quigley, she starts talking about how she would like to be killed and she says the way she would prefer to be killed to be ripped apart by a bunch of old men, which I think most of us probably feel the same way. That's kind of how we all want to go down.
Yeah, absolutely. That felt right when she said it. was like, yeah, let's rock.
So we see all of Freddie's friends in the cemetery. And again, I saw this in 1985. I was a teenager. I cannot emphasize the impact of the scene of trash disrobing on a concrete coffin.
Speaker 3 (36:39.702)
She doesn't disrobe, she shreds her clothes off of her body while she's fantasizing about being eaten alive by dirty old men.
That's what she's talking about. She's talking about the way she wants to go by basically being eaten alive by men, right? And she is touching herself. And you're like, whoa.
As a key little bit of dialogue in the background, you hear Chuck say, trash has taken off her clothes again. Like this is not the first time. Something triggers with her wherever she is and she just has a blast.
But you're right, Joey. mean, she doesn't just like, let me just unbutton hair and got a little button hair. No, she just rips her fucking clothes off.
Her bottoms come off obviously attached by Velcro. So trash needs the quickest way to get her pants off all the time.
Speaker 1 (37:29.88)
She's constantly in a quick change situation, that trash. But yeah, mean, and then her bottoms just come off and the only hair she got is up on her head. And there's not even a lot of that. She is just a beautiful specimen of a human and she starts dancing on top of that. Well, the only thing that they keep on her, which I'm here for, are her leg warmers. So that made me happy.
I have showed this movie to many people over the years, various ages, and the consensus response I've noticed from people when it gets to this scene, probably not the same response they would give if they were alone when they were watching it, but this is what I always hear. What the fuck? I've heard that so many times.
Because it does it just kind of comes out of fucking nowhere. She literally shreds her clothes off. They have that boombox already. They're playing music.
road flares
with our own light show.
Speaker 1 (38:22.956)
They put up fucking road flares. She's just standing on top of that casket and they're just all around her and they're just letting her do her thing and it's fucking glorious and that last shot that's behind her of her perfect fucking ass I'm like not even a lick of fucking cellulite you cunt. What is happening? God damn it
This is Linnea Quigley in her 20s at her absolute best. And later when she's running up the stairs from behind, when we see her ass up the stairs, like, how often was Linnea Quigley naked on set just walking around like, Linnea, do you need a blanket? Nope. Okay.
Nope, I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, even when they came back up the stairs, she's got some sort of muscle shirt on that's like open on the side. You still see full tit, you know what I mean? And they're just so fucking perfect. God, bitch. I love her.
Stand in character.
Speaker 3 (39:16.192)
I love this scene so much, I love immediately after when suicide, she's like just all over suicide, rubbing all over while he's pouring his heart out, the sensitive suicide.
Well, she's rubbin' his junk.
And he's just pouring his heart out. This is not a costume. This is a way of life. And then he just discards her. Just what is wrong with you, man? And just shoves her away like
Show some respect for the dead!
Chubs are away. Exactly. Meanwhile, every person watching that movie is going, fucking idiot.
Speaker 3 (39:48.962)
He was going through it man, suicide was having a tough day.
Man, he really was. He was bitching about the gas and-
I think suicide's probably our most misunderstood character in this movie. He's a crying on the inside kind of punk is what he is.
sensitive souls.
And he's probably taken well advantage of it many, many, many times. And so this is just the time where he's just in his head a little bit and I'm just trash, I'm not in the mood.
Speaker 2 (40:15.49)
back of the warehouse. Burt shows up, sees the chaos that's going on and they immediately have to deal with the cadaver. Burt goes over to get the pickaxe.
Frank just can't bear it, right? Like, Frank is like, I can't deal with this. And I love the tension of, even before we get to the pickaxe, but the tension of when they know they've gotta let him out of the locker to try to kill him. And the tension of that scene with Frank going, I can't do it, I can't do it. And he's like, well, you better fucking figure it out because you're the one who created this mess. So you're gonna have to kill him, you know? And so Freddie, of course, has to be the one to open the locker, right?
and with Burt standing in the back at the shelves and just very intensely giving him the code.
Speaker 1 (41:03.83)
and when the door opens and he leaps out and right at Burt, just right the fuck in my head.
W line.
straight line, tackles him and lays on top of him and... It's almost like he doesn't know what to do once he gets burnt on the ground. He just sort of lays there.
screaming yell he lets out
Stop!
Speaker 1 (41:23.342)
I'm new to the zombie thing what happens now?
You
You
And you're kind of shocked too when he comes out because he's so that color is bright yellow. He's like.
He's jaundiced, like all the fuck over, you know.
Speaker 3 (41:40.088)
You can also see the costume they're wearing and some of the wide shots between the shelves. It's like a rubbery costume that's there. So yeah, not the best introduction of the eventual very strong effects in this movie, but yeah. It's just inconsistent. It's just inconsistent.
especially when it gets them so they get them on the ground.
Yeah, they do the axe, right? That doesn't work.
still screaming with a pickaxe in his head, just kicking his feet like anyone in pain would be doing. And that's when it's like, it's not working. And Frank says, it worked in the movie. And Freddie goes, mean the movie lied?
And that moment that the movie really turns for two reasons. You've got first, it's kind of a middle finger to Night of the Living Dead, right? Yep. Kind of like Russo saying like, those movies are bullshit. This is the one you need to be listening to. know, they're lying over there. Don't worry about that. But also, like, that's the moment when you realize these people are probably fucked. You know, you cannot destroy this thing in the most traditional way that you think you can.
Speaker 3 (42:37.494)
Yeah, that's where without establishing that pretty quickly, you you realize just how much trouble these people are in.
It didn't work. he's got this pickax in his head and he's kicking around. So then Bert goes over and gets a saw and they start sawing his head off.
And that zombie, he just makes a mess out of that warehouse.
Headlessly running into things left and right.
Everything's just falling over and he's just running into it.
Speaker 2 (43:02.4)
After they subdue him and realize that he's not gonna die, Clue Gallagher looks across the street and sees that the mortuary's light is still on. And the next scene, God, you don't wanna talk about another great performance.
I can't, I love him so much.
He is so phenomenal in this and I don't know whose choice this was to give Ernie, Ernie the mortician to give him platinum blonde hair. The fact that he's wearing a velour jumpsuit.
New Balance jumpsuit. He got the NB just right there on his jacket.
There's a lot of allusions to the possibility this man may be a former Nazi, you know, with the music he's listening to, the type of gun that he has. Exactly, Kaltenbrunner, like I think that's infamous, I guess, Nazi officer. So they clearly still created a very dynamic and interesting and fun character with a rather dark history.
Speaker 2 (43:44.03)
The German he speaks.
Speaker 1 (43:59.458)
Yeah. I think the platinum blonde is because he's in hiding.
could be.
We haven't even said the name of the glorious act.
Don Kalfa
Kalfa.
Speaker 1 (44:09.89)
Don Kalfa.
But that's another example of his introduction being that long take with stuff we talked about earlier, just letting it breathe and just observing this man and his environment.
shoving a tube into the corpse that's on the table. His gloves are covered in blood.
my god. and his apron. I mean it just looks like he hasn't washed that thing since he became a mortician in an embalmer. My god.
Yeah, that first shot, he's shoving a very long tube into this cadaver's stomach on the table, covered in blood, has his headphones on. And then behind him, Bert comes in while he's working, doesn't hear him because he's got headphones on and Bert's trying to get his attention.
Speaker 1 (44:47.63)
Because everybody knows and remembers how good those headphones were in the 80s. You just couldn't hear a single thing. They were real noise cancellation back then. know, I mean, my God.
They had sink sponges for ear cups.
Yeah, correct. I just want to say just for one second, weekend at Bernie's and then I don't have to say anything else and then I'm done. That's all I wanted to say is weekend at Bernie's. OK, and now we can move on.
Don Kalfa in the house. yeah, Bert sneaks up behind him, frightens Ernie, Ernie immediately pulls a gun on him. Which again, I would say element number four or five of weirdness that that Ernie has.
They finally found him.
Speaker 3 (45:27.47)
Exactly, he's finally busted.
So he pulls a guy on him, he offers Burt coffee and walks over, doesn't take his gloves off, but grabs a coffee with those bloody gloves. He's drinking out of his coffee cup with those bloody ass gloves.
God, just perfect. It perfect.
So Bert tells him he's got a problem, says that, know, I've known you for years, can you keep it secret? And then he goes, I got my guys outside and he's like, Bert. And then Frank and Freddie come in with a, on a stretcher, all of the body parts chopped up and he goes, what the hell's in there? And Bert tells Ernie that it's anyone.
Rabbid weasels.
Speaker 2 (46:04.106)
Rabid Weasels
rabid weasels also can we talk about the fact that it's Burton Ernie? I mean just a second I just want to give that a little little little weight there but yeah rabid weasels
At this point, even someone who has no concept of comedy and didn't even know it was a horror comedy at this point, if you didn't get it when they say it's rabid weasels, then you're never gonna get it. Never gonna get it. Never gonna get it.
no, you're going to vibe with this
You're not. You're just not.
Speaker 2 (46:36.526)
So Bert says we have a problem with these rabid weasels. We need to dispose of them. He's, I'll take him outside. He pulls out his gun. He's going to go shoot them.
Thank you, Madam of the Misery.
And he goes, no, you've got to crematorium. He goes like, Bert, that's inhumane.
That's That's inhumane!
I love that he acknowledges the cruelty of that, like, that is next level, like, just burning animals alive.
Speaker 2 (46:57.998)
So at that point Ernie is not going to help so they have to come clean and they open one of the bags up and it's the severed arm of the cadaver and immediately the arm gets to Ernie and grabs hold of his ankle. Staggers back, rips his bitchin' velour jumpsuit, rips the leg. Come on. I know. Where those things are to find these days.
my god.
Speaker 1 (47:23.266)
Damn it! Not the velour!
Well, they're making a comeback.
I like to think Ernie Kelton Brunner had a little bit to do with the comeback of the Blur Fruit.
He did. He sure did.
so he's horrified.
Speaker 1 (47:37.592)
Fashion icon Don Kalfa.
I always love the scene too when he takes the scissors.
Any cuts off the lemon
That's another moment that just like we're just living in it. We're going to let this guy process what's going on. Let him clean himself up a little bit. Yep. Before he makes the decision.
He cuts the leg off of his velour suit and then he's got to try to figure out what to do.
Speaker 2 (47:59.118)
It doesn't say a line of dialogue. It keeps cutting.
Let's go take care of your problem. Yep.
And so immediately we cut to the crematorium and they burned those bags up. We see that all of the smoke goes up into the clouds. The trioxin goes into the clouds, starts to rain, rain comes down, goes into the soil of the cemetery. We got troubles a-brewin'. So they do that, but then their focus shifts to the deteriorating health of Frank and Freddie. And they lay there completely out of sorts on the couch and they decide to call an ambulance.
right here in River City.
Speaker 2 (48:33.216)
And right after that we go to Tina.
Tina's long walk. That's an important walk because it takes its time, but it really shows you the geography of where the cemetery is, where the mortuary is, where the medical supply warehouse is, how close they are in proximity while being far enough to be scary when running from what's about to happen.
And no indeed as Tina walks over to the warehouse. We've established this July 3rd. The character Chuck is Obviously on cocaine the actor sweating bullfucking movie I saw it in 4k at the 48th anniversary last year in 4k. Those beads are dripping off his nose. He's so sweaty Yeah, Tina. She's cold freezing like any woman always chilled walk in the July heat
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:18.529)
Always chilly.
John Philbin, he's still around, know, he was one of the four ex-presidents in Point Break. He's like a surfing dude, he's been in lot of surfing movies and stuff, and he's great, yeah.
Yeah, he's been in a ton of stuff.
So yeah, Tina gets back to the warehouse to pick up Freddie, only to find that the warehouse is in disarray. And she walks out of the basement, goes past the broken step and gets to the basement where we get our first appearance of Tar Man, who's been hiding in the basement the whole time. He wasn't melted in the canister. He just escaped from the canister. And now he's like really big.
Tar Man is a big gamble in this movie because it's the first talking zombie moment and it shows this movie is having fun. like that side of the movie is having fun, these zombies are, while these characters are having the ultimate nightmare of existence.
Speaker 1 (50:10.294)
Yeah, Tar Man is the best, right? And it's a gamble that absolutely paid off, becomes totally memorable, emblematic of the entire film's style. he just, man, I love Tar Man. I can't get enough of him. I mean, just the way that his head kind of like moves and he looks over and like his clothes hanging off of him and strips, but they're black. I mean, it just, he's the coolest looking fucking zombie ever.
in melting off of him, that actor Alan Trotman. Yeah, he brought so much to that.
Because I always assumed that the actor was someone with a spinal problem. But no, he just really contorted his spine in that really cool way. But yeah, like you said, this is the first time we hear a zombie speak. Tarmann says brains. And so now these aren't your grandparents' zombies. These are something totally different. And then she hides in this storage closet. And now we see that not only can they talk, but they can operate machinery. He hooks a chain to the door and starts cranking.
to pull the door off the hinges to get to her.
right before the rain started and that was when the rest of the friends start, they're in the rainstorm, they're saying it burns and so they all run to Suicide's car and they get in the car. They're all kind of freaking out that the rain is, and again, I'm letting it quickly just naked.
Speaker 1 (51:31.542)
Yeah, just totally naked in the backseat half covered up and she goes, what do you all think is in that rain or something? What's her line? line. It's really squirmy.
They escape the rain and while Tina's locked in the closet, they show up, Freddie's friends, looking for Tina and they hear her scream from the basement. So they go down to the basement. They see the door and the chain, the door being winched away and the door gets pulled off and then suicide pulls the curtain back and that's Tar Man who says, probably one of the more iconic lines, even more than brains, more brains. Chomp. Big chomp out of suicide skull.
Yeah
Speaker 3 (52:06.477)
then
Aww.
Well that's when Spider then grah, cause Tarmans is devouring Suicide's brain, Spider takes that paint can and chunks it at him.
at the door and they just all keep running and he's like y'all you want to come back and help me out?
And so Spider kind of becomes like the de facto leader, I guess, once to the sides of that.
Speaker 2 (52:30.35)
Then we come back to the mortuary, the medics have arrived to check on Frank and Freddie and iconic scene. I remember the first time I saw the scene just sort of like, wow, they're alive, but they're dead. They take all of their vitals. They have no pulse. They have no blood pressure. Their temperature is 70 degrees room temperature. So the conversation they have.
It's another long take, long shot that just lets you see it there. To me, is the real horror of this movie, is what these guys are going through when you really realize what is happening to them. There's another scene coming up that's just as equally upsetting, that is
I mean, you can tell then that like their pain is real and you can feel it. And so now by the time we get to this paramedic scene, you're looking at them and you're just like, my God, he sticks out his tongue and it's fucking yellow, his eyes. I mean, they get more and more red with every shot. And that's the other brilliant thing that this film does is throughout this time that they're sort of turning, right? Every time you see them, they look a little worse.
And they look a lot worse at this point.
And I love still to Bert, he was still not helpful. The paramedics are asking him like, what is going on here? He's like, well, like, your lives depend on this.
Speaker 1 (53:49.262)
They're like, yeah, we got into some chemicals, but you know, I can't call that company till tomorrow, so best of luck.
And I love the first line that the paramedics have. One of them says, hey, can I borrow your stethoscope? And he goes, what's matter? And goes, well, something's wrong with mine. I'm not getting anything. And the other one goes, well, I'm not getting anything either. It's just a great way to set up. It would never cross your mind that these people are dead, but they're not dead. So obviously my equipment is faulty. Even a stethoscope with stethoscopes, my guess, don't go out. I think the battery's out on my stethoscope.
All right, but the best part is that they want to talk it amongst themselves about two feet away.
in front of the people they're actually working on.
Yeah, don't talk about me like I'm not here. But the best part is when they start to walk away, Ernie decides he has got to be a part of the conversation and you see them push Ernie away. He Ernie away. I'm like, poor Ernie, this is his profession too.
Speaker 3 (54:42.03)
I know! He's just as involved now as- He knows what rigor mortis looks like.
Yeah, man.
At this point, we cut back to the now the friends are running back to the cemetery in that rain and dead or rising everywhere.
That's when the punks leave medical supply where I was run back to the cemetery. That's when the movie, you know, hits 100 and doesn't let
Man, this is go time.
Speaker 2 (55:09.112)
So they run through the cemetery and this is when Trash gets her wish.
Her wish, her wish comes true. Be careful what you wish for,
She gets taken down by a bunch of mud covered zombies and they just take her down and start ripping her apart even though she had no wounds, no noticeable wounds later.
Yeah, wasn't quite what I think she thought it was gonna be that feeling
I'm confused about that.
Speaker 2 (55:30.732)
Never is when people are trying to sound cool.
But I kinda like how like, you know, she's so tough. You know, she's established, you know, she's very tough. She's, you know, she's gonna rip her clothes off and she's gonna talk about being eaten alive. And then when it comes down to it, she's a frightened teenage girl, essentially, getting killed. And I think Linnea Quigley, you know, again, not the greatest actress in the world, but in that moment, like you do feel for her, you know, she's getting pulled down and just like devoured by these hideous monsters. It's upsetting.
It is genuinely frightening and also they just leave her the fuck alone. They just run off. They help Tina when she falls down. Like, she fell down in the water. Let's help her up. Poor trash is just left there to fend for herself and it doesn't go well for her.
Does not go well, no.
So Scuz, Spider and Tina make it to the mortuary and Ernie lets them in. I think I said in our Shaun of the Dead episode that maybe Dawn of the Dead remake or 28 Days Later is my first back is not true. would be this one. While they go out the back door, they get attacked by a gang of zombies.
Speaker 3 (56:36.11)
They get attacked like one by one at first because they one of them goes to the back of the ambulance and other guy goes to the front and the very scary scene to that zombie that just opens the door and walks through the passenger door and grabs him
Yeah, but it's great. He's turned the lights on and they're just all there. It's a great shot.
great shot. Just covered in mud.
We also have an address that these are fast moving zombies too. Which I think I said in our Shaun of the Dead episode that maybe Dawn of the Dead remake or 28 days later was my first, but that is not true. It would be this one.
Right.
Speaker 3 (57:08.682)
That's not. Everybody thinks it's 28 days later, but it's this. It's Return of the Living Dead.
So yeah, both the medics go down. We saw Tar Man being able to use tools and figure out problem solving. Now we see the undead grab the radio from the ambulance and say, hello dispatch, send more paramedics. More paramedics.
Meramedic
We gotta go back to when Tina, Spider, and Scuz enter the mortuary, right? And that's when Ernie and Burt realize what's going on. That something, somehow, they don't know exactly how this has happened, but the dead have risen from the cemetery. And Burt's reaction, as a kid, like, scared me almost more than anything else, because he is mortified. He's just like, shit! And he like turns around, he's like shaking, I mean, he has like white knuckles.
and then earning with the classic line immediately after. Bert, I think things are getting out of hand. No shit, buddy.
Speaker 1 (58:09.422)
Thank you Captain Obvious, yeah.
And at this point, Burt still takes zero responsibility. Like, how did this happen? How is this happening? They're coming out of the graves. It can't have anything to do with what we just did.
This is completely unrelated.
But honestly though, like it would be hard to put two and two together when you haven't realized that they release this, you know, this trioxin, two, four, five trioxin. He doesn't understand that quite yet. You know, I mean, I do understand his sort of not really getting it, but he can't be so thick to understand that they have to be connected. We clearly unleashed something here.
and his refusal to just take any accountability for it. Chuck and Casey have made it back to the medical supply warehouse. They've busted back in there and end up in the office because they're looking for a phone. And so they go to the office, grab a phone, but immediately a zombie jumps through the window before they can make the call, rips the phone off the hinges. I always had a problem with this scene in the sense that when they close that door, that is a screen door.
Speaker 3 (59:18.722)
And that zombie
Chihuahua trying to get in that back door.
Obviously that's a zombie that does not have natural ability.
Yeah, he was one of the older zombies.
think it's here or maybe a few minutes later where Casey says to Chuck, Chuck, I never liked you, but would you hold me tight?
Speaker 2 (59:51.744)
And no shock to anyone, he's sweating god damn bullets.
Bolt is on so much fucking cocaine.
Spider and Chuck are sweating through this whole movie, really nobody else is except for Frank's, obviously, special effects sweat.
Well, clearly the men didn't get last looks, the women did.
True, exactly. True.
Speaker 1 (01:00:12.664)
So Ernie goes out, sees the paramedic's van and shuts the door and there's one of the paramedics in the background.
Get the little person zombie. I guess it's not a little person, it's man without legs. guess is who that was. The brain's falling out of his mouth.
brain's fucking falling out. it's terrifying.
The scream he screamed.
I went so good.
Speaker 2 (01:00:36.918)
And the way he tries to run after him but the actor slips in the mud on his little stubs.
Yeah, and that's the take they use to love it. Yeah
I do too. That's great. yeah, creepy as shit. His scream was creepy. The makeup was creepy. Just very well.
Ernie runs back in and he's like, he can barely even talk. He's like, yeah, we can't, no, we're not doing that, can't that, this can't happen anymore, guys. And he starts like pulling down the shades and stuff.
Well there's a great montage in them having to nail all the wind whip strut and everything. So great. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:01:06.274)
The best part is Ernie grabbing that big old bookcase and they're just standing there watching him and he's like, help me!
It is a big bookcase, but you can look at it and go, one zombie hand is just going to push that thing over.
Right over and it almost does it almost tips over a couple times
Right. So at least they had to wear with all to drive some nails in the sides.
That scene was longer than I remembered. Like they go, have any hammer and nails? And they cut to the closet and they're all just, it's almost like they all know where everything is. Here's some hammer and nails. And they just all grab it they all go back and they start boarding up the windows.
Speaker 1 (01:01:39.65)
But I think that that's part of what I love about it is the characters are in such chaos, right? Like, just like any of us would be. They're complete idiots, but absolutely the best kind, right? But they have heart, you know? And so you're rooting for them because you're like, this is kind of what real people would do. They're sort of us on our worst day. And I think that's why the humor hits so well.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
and Spider come into the embalming room and they want answers and Bert says, don't have to tell you anything, dick brain. And again, Scuzz's line with the knife is 80 yard. You can tell he fucked up his line.
They pull a knife on him.
Speaker 1 (01:02:22.446)
It's so bad.
Yeah. bad. That's really the only moment where the movie kind of slows down and lets these characters have like a little bit of a disagreement in that way because I think a worse movie would have like spent way too much time like making sure we understand, ooh, these punks are from this, are from the streets. And while these guys are the more collected professionals or whatever, and they don't do that, you know, they're, they're, establish what's going on. They don't like lean heavily into that because
Good night.
Speaker 3 (01:02:50.742)
We don't need to. The movie's going at that point. They're just trying to survive. And the fact that we don't waste time on just, okay, well, you know, we're the punks. We're not going to listen to you old guys or whatever. You know, they don't waste time with that. think that's just brilliantly done.
While they're in the embalming room, that's when Frank and Freddie are really screaming at this point. And Tina just like all over Freddie, kissing his head and holding him. It's like, he was sprayed with that shit. she should be the next to turn because it's all in her mouth. That's when they realized where Ernie realizes that Rigamortis is setting in on Frank and Freddie.
they're in so much pain.
Speaker 2 (01:03:33.07)
and picks him up and cracks his neck and then lifts up his shirt and sees that the blood is pooling on his back, just like on a corpse.
I took a lot of Ben Nye makeup on the back. That took an industrial bruise kit from Ben Nye.
He at Freddie and he's like, you're fucking dead!
You're gonna turn into one of those things out there. It's so bad.
The next scene, the zombies are breaking through the glass in the sanctuary. And so they start fighting them off. And thank God.
Speaker 2 (01:04:06.958)
Yes. correct me if I'm wrong. When Scuz is fighting, when they're all fighting the zombies at the windows and he gets pulled into the window and a zombie takes a bite out of his head and pulls back... Blood spore. Blood spore everywhere. This is the first time I ever... I always thought it was a torso. They pull, they come back and it's just a zombie torso. I see one of the characters hack its lower half off as they were coming through the bars and they chopped it in half to a torso.
It was about time.
Speaker 3 (01:04:21.154)
Pray.
Speaker 3 (01:04:35.478)
I don't think so. think it was a torso because while you're thinking of I think is the scene where it's an arm that's come through that they're chopping and you see the arm kind of slowly kind of fall off. I think it is just a torso.
Okay, no, I wasn't thinking of that scene. I guess it's just the timing of when the torso's coming out, someone stabs in, and it looks like they may have stabbed in at their spine, but it may have just been, it may just have looked a little bit like that. But they pull it in, and it's a talking, moving torso that they pin down to the floor with this spine wiggling around.
final fluid leaking out, foo.
Yeah, beautiful blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes and she's a nice little forest green color.
Golden locks, yes.
Speaker 3 (01:05:19.971)
Yes.
She is. And another element to show Ernie is he's a thinker. He's thinking about all of this. He wants to get this zombie onto an exam table.
The interrogation room.
Exactly. So they strap it down on an exam table and start asking it questions. Like a tit scene. I roll my eyes even when I was a teenager when she says, I'll say the line, but then I'll tell you what I heard in my head. says, the brains ease the pain because being dead hurts. heard brains ease the pain mainly on the plane. That's how I heard it. Just.
The second tit scene.
Speaker 2 (01:05:59.704)
Just a little too rhymey for my taste. So then we find out, so there's a reason, this is the first zombie movie I've ever seen where we find out a backstory or a reason why the zombies want to eat you. Because for whatever reason, being dead hurts and eating someone's brain helps with the pain. It's death, ibuprofen.
Ha ha ha ha!
Speaker 3 (01:06:22.584)
think that's one of the scariest things to consider in this whole movie. The idea of feeling yourself rot is terrifying. And especially to these people in this moment who were inches away from dying themselves to be then told, when you go, it's also going to be the most pain you've ever felt in your entire life once you're there. That is where the horror to me really hits its highest moment.
They feel every single bit of their death and being dead. Even if they died peacefully in their sleep, the pain starts now. And they've gotta do something to satiate it. And the only thing that does that is brains, more brain.
Yeah. I'm going to assume death is peace and then the trioxin is what causes the pain of being dead. Now they're alert dead, can think and speak and all of that. And now they're in agony. The unnatural has happened. You live through a painful life. think, finally you get to a point where you can rest. And now just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in. Right. This is when they realized like Frank and Freddie are going to turn.
Yeah, they feel their death.
Speaker 2 (01:07:33.58)
So then they decide to take them to the sanctuary and leave them and Tina...
I don't want to leave Freddy, he's staying in
And so clue God Gullagher says, we're going to lock you in here. And he's like, I don't care. So they lock him inside. Freddy's doing a lot of wailing and talking, but God damn Frank, man. He's in such pain, just rolling there foaming at the mouth. He is going through some shit.
Yeah, he's about gone at that point, right? Like, he's... he's cooked.
Why you?
Speaker 1 (01:08:15.442)
That took me about three seconds longer than it should have. Yes, please.
my. Outside, now we got cops. Cops show up and some of the worst wardrobe you'll ever see a cop wear. It's raining, so we just need blue windbreakers and some really ill-fitting hats with rubber booties on them. It'll work. The cops get taken down right away and then we get a second line, which is, send more. There was not enough.
creepy death-like effect on his voice like there was on the Sendmore paramedics.
At that point it feels like pretty rote to them. There's like send more cops
Send more cops. The guys were like, hey, can we have some more cops, please?
Speaker 1 (01:09:06.998)
Yeah, they've see they get smarter as they go. They have nailed the voice. The first one was send more paramedics and now it's like send more send more cops.
Once they realize, like, need to say whatever, they'll send them more, just keep them coming.
Maybe it's the brain eating. So not only is it like ibuprofen to the pain, but it also wetens your vocal cords. So. Yeah. wow. sound really good. Maybe that's what RFK Jr. needs to do, just eat a little brain and go, god damn, now I sound.
brain
Speaker 1 (01:09:27.992)
That's right.
Speaker 1 (01:09:35.694)
Yeah, don't let's not give him that idea. Okay. Speaking of is that like a do we think that that's like a real thing? Were they using like calf brains?
Well apparently they paid the zombie actors extra if they were willing to eat the actual calf brain on camera. And supposedly Dan O'Bannon did it first to show them that it's, yeah, it's safe to do or whatever.
Back in the sanctuary.
We gotta go back for a second though. That's the moment we also get a better shot of Linnea Quigley as the mutated zombie that she is.
That's right, we got a couple of those, right. You're right, before that we get to see her still doing the Linnea Quigley sexy walk even as the undead.
Speaker 1 (01:10:19.48)
my god, come on girl and she gets a long walk
There's the man with the shopping cart that somehow has been unaffected by all of this
Homeless guy. You know what he is? He's Tom Waits from The Dead Don't Die.
Yes.
out in the and the zombies won't touch you.
Speaker 1 (01:10:35.596)
Yeah, the homeless guy is doing just fine.
There's light across her whole body, he sees a sexy naked woman walking towards him. There's shadow across her face. And then when she steps forward.
He does what suicide should have done earlier, right? Sits and stares at her.
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (01:10:55.16)
She bites his head and then maybe one of the cops, I believe.
What about the decision-making was there you had beautiful Linnea Quigley and they like turned her into this horrendous ghoul that no other zombie looks at all like that. It's a completely different unique makeup they chose for her.
My theory is that she was still so goddamn sexy naked as just a zombie that they were like, no one's scared by this. She's just still too hot.
We're gonna add an additional jump scare when you actually see what her face looks like, yeah.
Which then it looks like one of the vampires from Vamp at that point. She doesn't really look like a zombie at all. She looks more like a demon.
Speaker 1 (01:11:36.302)
And again, like we said, her body is just still perfectly intact, but now seafoam green. But yeah, not a bite out of her. She's still gorgeous from the neck down.
Yeah, why would you want to deface that beautiful body with a biter too?
No, no, no. She's like a snake. just regenerates if they bite her, you know, she just returns to her perfect, you know, so.
I assume that she turns into a zombie because of the rain. But like, suicide in the basement, he gets bitten in the brain, but he doesn't become a zombie. Neither does Scuzz, I guess, because they're not affected by...
We don't have any, do we? Do any people turn from being bitten?
Speaker 3 (01:12:20.91)
I don't think so. guess it's just because of the rain is why becomes a zombie after that.
Yeah.
So that's really the only trope of other zombie films that doesn't happen in this movie.
The bite doesn't
But yeah, I thought about that yesterday too. It's like, nobody turns from a bite. It's all from the chemical itself. Back in the sanctuary, Freddy is, well, Freddy passes, first of all. Freddy's talking to Tina and then his eyes roll back in his head and he dies and then he wakes up and then he attacks her. And then she starts screaming. So just a throwaway line back in the mortuary, Ernie says, you know, we can use acid and then.
Speaker 1 (01:12:40.238)
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:13:03.054)
pulls out this jar of acid and is like, wow, it's not enough. And he's like, it's very powerful. And then when they hear Tina screaming, they go to the sanctuary and Freddy's coming towards the door and Ernie just throws the whole thing into his face. It's like, well, why did you even have the scene about using it and how important was he using? Then you just wasted it all on Freddy. And all it did was just burn Freddy's eyes. That's all it did. It's like, wow, how powerful is that?
The whole thing!
Speaker 3 (01:13:22.762)
Wasted all just in his face,
Speaker 3 (01:13:29.112)
slowed him down for the time being at least.
Slowed down for time being. So when they open the doors of the sanctuary, I think it's Bert who knocks Freddy back on his back. Tina comes out and then while they're struggling with Freddy throwing acid, of that, Frank, the sneaky snake that Frank is just tiptoes right between them, almost like beep, beep, beep with his hands up in the air and escapes the room. They don't even worry about Frank and he gets out.
Yeah, and his instinct is to not kill them.
And then he had the mental awareness, like he's not turned into the zombie, but he suddenly can has like control of himself to like get out of the room and go do what he's about to do. Very strange.
Yeah, he somehow is able to keep it all together. Even though I guess he's still turned or maybe we're going to assume he is still on the cusp of turning. Yeah. Um, but either way, yeah, it's a, his, his experience is definitely different than Freddy's. great scene in the sanctuary. Spider starts kind of freaking out. And so Ernie has to slap him not once, but twice.
Speaker 3 (01:14:27.192)
Give them two hands, yeah. Each chief gets them love.
And Spider just takes it. So now their new plan is to get the cop car and get out of town with the cop. So that's the plan. But during all of that, that's going down with Freddy, Ernie breaks his ankle.
you
Speaker 3 (01:14:39.918)
Blue.
Speaker 3 (01:14:46.19)
Moving the pew in front of the door I think right that shot of his ankle breaking though is the one moment We're like the wide shot lingering hold holding on the wide kind of fails because nothing happens to him Yeah, can watch his leg. He sets the pew down and suddenly Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah
Doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (01:15:04.192)
He's in great pain.
Again, great acting when they're trying to get out to the car and Bert checks on them and he goes, how's your ankle? And he goes, well, it's broke. And then the next shot when he has it up, it's swollen. It's a big fat broken ankle. Yeah, so he can't walk. Yeah, it happened so quickly and without really getting to see what did it other than he just steps wrong, which I guess sometimes you just step.
It happens to the Grizzlies players a lot.
That's happening. Bert and Spider make a run for it out to the cop car and.
or not.
Speaker 3 (01:15:41.064)
swinging their weapons fighting their way through the zombies
Yeah, zombies are all over them and they realize they're not going to be able to get Tina and Ernie. they take off. Zombies attacking them everywhere. They get back to the warehouse and crash right into the warehouse.
that's on fire ignites. Yeah.
Back at the sanctuary, we see Frank, he's decided what he wants to do to himself instead of becoming the undead.
God, he takes his wedding ring off kiss it. Yeah, so heartbreaking. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:16:12.792)
Yeah.
He takes his wedding ring off and the song choice for this it's burn the flame by Rocky Erickson. I had never heard Rocky Erickson in my life until I saw this movie. And to this day, I am a hardcore Rocky Erickson fan because this movie got to meet Rocky Erickson, which is as as you can, as much as you can meet Rocky Erickson, you're standing next to him. I don't think he knew you were there. Yeah. So just that this movie.
so many impacts on me, but Rocky Ericson, that song, it is on my Halloween playlist right now. I will listen to it tonight. I will listen to it tomorrow. the whole soundtrack is just great. Yeah. Great 80s tracks, great 70s tracks, and just a creepy, creepy song. So yeah, Frank, it crawls inside of the crematorium.
pushes the buttons, turns the flames on, you can tell it's burning his hands as he climbs in, he's screaming, and then he closes the door and burns himself alive. Again, one of probably the of the top five memorable scenes of this movie because you just never see a character in a zombie movie do something like that. whether he's a zombie at this point and he has the wherewithal to do it or he knows he's about to turn, I don't know which is creepier, but they're both very sad.
He's just upset that he didn't get that pot roast. You know that was his favorite meal.
Speaker 2 (01:17:34.274)
Callback.
Thanks everybody. We'll be here all night. We'll be here all week guys.
So we're back at the warehouse and Bert, Spider, Fine, Casey, and Chuck and they're trying to find a usable phone. Bert says there's one in the basement and they're like, don't go around the basement man. There's a fucking creature down there. You don't want to do that.
I'm like, please go down the basement. I want to see Torroman again. Please!
Tar man needed his own spinoff. Everybody has that situational comedy. Tar man comes home or work. Hi honey. How would you day at work? More brain. Good right after.
Speaker 1 (01:18:11.438)
Or he turns into the general same crap
Crap.
working in the meat department of his local grocery store. Man. Bert grabs a baseball bat. Tar Man comes upstairs, right? Tar Man lumbered up those stairs even with the bad step. Opens the door, Tar Man comes in and Bert home run knocks his head off, goes flying.
Yeah, he's upstairs. opens the door.
Speaker 1 (01:18:34.221)
Yep. Yep.
Speaker 3 (01:18:42.126)
And this is another great example of putting your actors in a tough spot because if you watch that shot of the head flying off, it flies across the room and hits Jewel Shepherd right in the leg. Bounces right off. You can see the black goose stain across her leg. Yeah. It's so fucking-
Good. At least it didn't hit my pretty dress.
Bert just calls a number and says, I need the police. And they patch him into the police that are outside with a barricade right outside of the warehouse and says, there are bunch of crazy people there. They're in the cemetery. They've gone mad. As he's talking to him on the phone, he goes, I can't hear you for all this noise. Which is a weird cut because the noise is all in the distance when we, the next shot, they're like way down the road. And it's like, it's not.
that noisy yet. They're not, maybe when they're about 50, when they're 50 yards closer, it's going to be noisy. But, so we see them all running and then cops start firing on them and they're zombies. So they're not going to die. And, they, and the cops are toast and, and bird hears all this on the phone. And I love what like that. What's, what's going on? He just hands the phone. So they're going to know what like screaming. the screaming means the cops are. That's what screaming.
This ends the phone over.
Speaker 1 (01:20:02.672)
The cops are not coming.
So the cops aren't gonna be any help. So Bert sees the phone number on the side of one of the canisters, which by the way, it's a 1-800 number. I'm curious to see if, we should give a call right now on the podcast.
So give it a call.
I think it's the Empire Today number. 800-588-2300.
Seriously, does anyone have the movie close? Or can you pull it up?
Speaker 2 (01:20:39.288)
Okay, here we go. I'm gonna put it on speaker. Let's see what we got here.
thought it was a 555 number. 454.
1-800-
8,000.
8000.
Speaker 1 (01:20:54.04)
This call may be recorded for quality assurance. We have a special promotion today for select callers.
Hello and congratulations. Just for calling today, we're offering you a free medical alert device. You know, it's the little life saving button you can wear on your neck in case of an emergency. These devices are often very extensive. So press 1 now to take advantage of this special offer and enjoy the of mind with 24-7 support. Don't wait. Press 1 now or remain on the line for additional options. Again, press 1 now to claim your free device or remain on the line for additional options.
things are expensive. Push one.
I want additional options. I want to speak to a
Can you guys?
Speaker 2 (01:21:41.26)
Hi Jessica, can you hear me?
Great. So with our promotion today, you actually have the opportunity to
Hi Jessica, can I speak to a real representative?
Is Colonel Glover there?
Hi Jessica, well.
Speaker 3 (01:22:03.81)
He's locked in. Yep, she was locked in. That's amazing. Wow. That number is live.
You need a medical supply. my God.
Cheers!
Speaker 3 (01:22:17.27)
That was amazing. So-
So yeah, so he calls that number to order his medical device. No, he contacts the Colonel from earlier in the movie and the Colonel and his wife were asleep in bed. Colonel gets the call, pops up from bed and starts asking, he's like, and where are you located? Louisville, Kentucky.
I see. I see. Keep saying I see.
I see, I see. And he's a lefty taking all those notes.
And his wife never asked like, what's going on? can tell if she were to, he would go, shut up, woman.
Speaker 1 (01:22:44.504)
But she's in the background like this.
Speaker 1 (01:22:49.326)
A thousand percent she is
Speaker 2 (01:22:56.642)
So the Colonel gets the call that he's been waiting for years, probably his career has never recovered from until these Easter eggs get located.
This has been like a decade at least, right? That these canisters have been missing and this man has just been like going through it.
Two decades. If we're to believe they inspired Night of the Living Dead in 1968. then we're talking 20 years this man has been living, waiting on this phone call. And so boom, he gets his phone call. He's probably gonna eat some lamb chops in celebration later in the day. Gets the phone call and then employs the standard protocol. calls in the numbers, the coordinates, and an eager young military person takes those numbers down and.
control station, locks in Louisville, Kentucky. since what I can only assume is stop motion, the warhead going into the chamber, right? It's a little clicky.
It is. It's clicky. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:23:52.258)
but really impressive. So they fire the missile, headed for Louisville, and it will cut back to the basement versus, wait.
Wait, you hear that? hear that?
You hear that?
And it's the whistle.
Yep.
Speaker 2 (01:24:07.672)
There goes Louisville.
Can we talk about Colonel Glover's setup in his office for just five seconds? Please, please, sure. Oh my God. I am obsessed with all of those levers and his little printer printing out where they are. Yeah, his computer screen and then the phone and then he's got the little thing and he's just dialing everything in. mean, it's like fucking hell. I mean, it's just, it's so impressive all of the shit he's got just right there.
.matrix
Speaker 1 (01:24:37.078)
Right there in that little cabinet in his office in that house.
or establishes how serious this is, you know? Like he needs all this stuff in his home for the minute that...
For the minute that this happens, that this call comes in, he has got to act very quickly, which makes sense why he's got those guards on the outside of his house right on the PCH.
The guards are probably there so he's not allowed to leave because he can't, he can't retire.
Gotta dial in. Well, and that's the thing when he gets home, the first thing he does is go into his office and tell them exactly where he is. I'm home and I will be home for the rest of the night.
Speaker 2 (01:25:11.992)
He's on house arrest. He's on house arrest until those Easter eggs are found. So missiles are in the air. So he then has to report to whoever his head is and he lets them know that the Easter eggs were found. Actually, the call happens first, right? The Easter eggs are found. Yes, sir. Well, there is a problem. Some have hatched. Great line. That's a great line, a great way to put it. So some have hatched, they fire the missile.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:25:39.894)
And then he reports it saying, giving the estimated losses. says, yes, I know the president is visiting Louisville tomorrow. The fact that they just solved this with a nuclear warhead, but the president is still going to visit Louisville tomorrow. Yeah. And then he says the line, yes, sir. There's still some fires burning, but a cleansing rain will put all those.
He
Speaker 3 (01:26:04.194)
And then we get a repeat of the same images that kicked it off, you know, and we see that zombie, but the skeleton with the eyeballs pop right back up and party time again.
Which I have no fucking problem with that shot being used twice.
None.
Well, I think the point of that is just like it's literally repeating itself. So you're going to see the same images again.
And talk of repeating itself, name a movie, I'm sure that happened in maybe the 70s, but name another movie that with the end credits shows highlights of the movie you just watched underneath the credits. I love it too. In you just forgot all the funny bits and the cool bits from this movie, here they are again.
Speaker 1 (01:26:38.99)
my
Speaker 3 (01:26:47.004)
Remind you as you're walking out the door. Yeah.
What a great fucking movie.
I think it's just the epitome of just like degenerate horror comedy. You know, it's not campy over the top like your typical trauma movie or your Evil Dead, which I love. But like those are way more tongue in cheek, way more like playful wink at the audience. Hey, we're all in on the joke kind of movie. This one is just the circumstances make it funny, but the performances and everything make it horrifying.
And I think that it's perfect.
Yeah, and they're also sort of making some statements, right? I mean, it's not just completely without sort of merit and thought and even down to the ending with the government quote unquote, solving the problem, right? Like in the lackadaisical way that they do it and a zero concern for fallout. Just it's sort of nihilistic and- it's-
Speaker 3 (01:27:47.598)
Sure nihilism.
hilarious in that way. You know, you're laughing and then you realize nothing's really ever going to end well.
That would totally happen. You just got to there's an outbreak. Sorry, we got to cut our losses. Adios Louisville. So there it is. That is return of the living dead.
Lights out.
Speaker 1 (01:28:06.53)
There it is. There you have it. my god. It doesn't get better. just doesn't. That's all I have to say about that. It just doesn't get better.
probably seen that movie more than any other in my lifetime and it never gets old. I used to show it in backyards when I would host backyard movie nights. would always be one of the top choices. It's just a great time through and through. Love it.
Interesting. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:28:28.19)
as guilty as I felt that it had been so long since I'd seen it. I was like, what kind of film person am I at all waiting this long to see it? I'm kind of glad I did because it was so much better, even better today because that's 20 years of sort of life experience of, know, seeing all different kinds of horrors, horror comedies, all different kinds of films, know, understanding shots, understanding
know, editing, understanding all of that 20 years later and you're just going, I mean, I just watched it basically mouth open the whole time, just in awe of it, you know? If I wasn't laughing, I was going, my God, I'm gonna have to rewind and watch that fucking scene again. You know, I mean, it just, it's so good. And now I will not wait 20 years again to watch it, because I definitely want to show Jackson from the beginning so that he'll appreciate it. But what a joy it was to rewatch this one.
my daughter and her girlfriend were here while I was watching it. They're on their phones. And then I would look over just to see it. Like, they gotta watch the scene. And I could see both of them just like no longer looking at their phones. And watching the movie, like, this is fucked up. And they go back to their phones and they come back. Yeah, it's even people who jump in a movie in the middle like they did, that you can't not watch it. Like Joey said at the very beginning, tone.
What?
Speaker 1 (01:29:46.882)
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:29:51.05)
the gospel of tone when it comes to movies, you can forgive so much. can forgive mediocre performances and mediocre writing. If a tone is nailed, you're going to have a good time. It's a filmmaker who knows exactly what they want going in and.
We're gonna have a good time.
Speaker 1 (01:30:06.84)
Controlled chaos. It's tightly choreographed.
We gotta talk about why Dan O'Bannon never really got more chances. I mean, I think he was kind of an ornery, like disagreeable guy. And Return of Living Dead was successful enough that you think he would have gave me, he directed like one more movie called like the Resurrection or something. I've never seen it, but it didn't have any sort of like, know, indention on culture in any way. So I just, wonder why he could never, he never got more opportunities. You know, I think.
Really must have just been he was just a disagreeable guy.
Maybe, mean, but he also knew everybody in the fucking business, you know what I mean? Like, he and John Carpenter went to college together.
Yeah, and I think there was a lot of bitterness from I'm reading a book years ago called Shock value that kind of talks about him a lot it seemed like there was a lot of bitterness from him about the success of you know being part of Darkstar John Carpenter's career sales being writing alien Ridley Scott's career sales and he's kind of consistently left behind a little bit and so I think there's just a lot of bitterness there and just and then you know sometimes people just don't get the opportunities they deserve but he he really knocked it out of the park with this movie
Speaker 2 (01:31:14.518)
And I think, I mean, his name will always be synonymous with Alien, and even the Alien series on Hulu, it's right there. Original screenplay, original idea, was Dan O'Bannon. It's his. It will never be taken away from him. And for mainstream film fans, that's what he'll be remembered for. But man, in my heart, it is this movie.
Yeah.
Someone who had such control of tone, I I think it had done three or four movies similar to this. a library that would have been. Joey, at this point, we usually just ask some questions to fill in any spaces that we maybe missed.
Joey, I don't know if you want to maybe go first for us here, but on a scale from sort of straight up horror to full on comedy, where does this one land for you? Does it ever feel like sort of too goofy to be really scary or too gross to be super funny? know, or what is that balance that makes this movie work so well?
I've never been more insulted by a question. is a 10 across the board and every- I mean, truly, like you do not- this is- the movie is a masterpiece of horror comedy across the board. is horrifying, it is hilarious, and again, I find this movie to be like the- it's the perfect movie to introduce someone and find out what their sensibilities are. know, and you can really kind of gauge, you know, what-
Speaker 1 (01:32:14.37)
Sorry, I apologize.
Understood.
Speaker 3 (01:32:41.782)
where you're going to click with people and where you're not. And I have had so much fun showing this movie to people over the years and seeing their reaction and just, it's very hard to watch this movie and not have a great time.
Yeah. Do you ever unfriend people for not liking it or you're like, well, I was going to date this person, but that's no longer going to happen because they didn't appreciate.
No, but I remember I showed this in a backyard in an old house that I lived in, right? And there was a group of people there, some, you know, mix of, you know, guys and girls, whatever, everybody's hanging out and we're watching the movie and this one person, this one young lady would not stop talking to the point of like just being so it's like it was cool. Like you want to just hang out and not watch the movie and go inside or go over here. Right. She was like right in front of the screen. Just would not stop talking.
And I finally had to like be like, yo, like this is not cool. Like this is the outdoor movie night. Like we're watching the movie. And she was just like, well, this movie is stupid anyway. Yeah, never saw her again. I have no idea who she was. Don't care. Wish her nothing but the worst.
Done.
Speaker 2 (01:33:49.123)
and that was the last time I spoke to my mother.
Exactly.
So Joey, would you say that this lands flatly in the middle? It's 50 % comedy, 50 % horror.
I guess so, yeah, I guess you would have to say that. mean, I guess I still more often think of it as a horror movie first than a comedy. Okay. But the comedy obviously works incredibly well. But yeah, if we need to break it down into percentages that way, sure, 50-50 is great. I mean, maybe 55-45, let's do that. We that. Or lean a little more into the horror than the comedy, yeah.
can do.
Speaker 3 (01:34:22.03)
Because the movie, the ending of that movie is not really funny in the sense, well, I guess it's darkly funny in the sense that like, we're about to repeat this because of, you know, moronic government involvement, but this dropping a bomb on a city, pretty, pretty, pretty nihilistic and upsetting.
Yeah, absolutely. What say you Bart Shannon? I'll go.
little more horror because it's a great horror movie. It's just a great, it's a great horror movie. And the comedy is just such a refreshing bonus. So I, because there's so many cool horror parts of this. So I would say, I'd say 65 35. Because even though it's not jokey, the tone of the humor stays throughout the entire film. The situations are farcical. The fact that Tar Man's got a big red tongue that he
slurps when he has the thought of brains. Those type of things are just, and then the characters are so entertaining. Ernie is so weird and entertaining. Frank is so weird and entertaining. So the comedy is there. I can see people watching it and going, this is a horror film. I didn't laugh. So I'd say 95 to five. And I'd call those people losers is what I would call those people. Not in a Trump way, but just in a real,
Losers.
Speaker 2 (01:35:40.27)
Yeah, to their core, will never succeed at being a successful human. So yeah, I'd say 65-35, just because the comedy is peppered throughout, it never ends, it never stops. The end is dark, but it's still kind of like, that's part of it, yeah, that's what they do. They'd nuke us all.
most realistic part of the whole thing.
Yeah, so I'd say 65 35.
Yeah, I mean, I have to sit squarely on that 50-50 fence because every time I'm thinking, gosh, no, this is so much more of a comedy, something happens and you're like, when you really think about, you're like, wow, that's genuinely terrifying. Yeah. You know, and so I just kind of go back and forth with this one. So it's just, there's no way, you know, to say it. think the percentages kind of blur together and in the best way it's scary because it's
and it's funny because it's terrifying. know, like it just, I just, to me, it's just kind of 50-50. Nope. It's good. All right, all right, all right. So who may want to go first on this one? Whoever wants to, this one we kind of think about a little bit more, but if you were trying to get this movie green lit or just trying to convince a friend to watch it, what would your elevator pitch be?
Speaker 2 (01:36:42.094)
50 50.
Speaker 3 (01:37:00.43)
hard because like this you can almost say anything about how brilliant this movie is but you know it's a redefinition of the zombie genre like at that time zombie movies were not really in vogue and Romero was doing his thing and of course there were like Italian horror directors making their stuff but you know at the time it was fully redefined the zombie genre in a way that made it
accessible to mainstream audiences because of how it blends the comedy and the horror in a way that, yeah, I don't know. This is so hard. I I don't know, Bart, what do you got?
I like the redefined part. think it's short and sweet. A dark zombie comedy redefining what zombies are made by some of the people who redefined what zombies are 20 years before. So you want to, so it's bright.
I guess they defined what zombies were, really.
Yeah, before that it was Haitian zombies. It was people stumbling around with what occurs. That's impressive to think about the fact that Night of the Living Dead was so revolutionary when it came out and then this is what zombies are now. They to eat your flesh. And then almost 20 years later, some of the creators of that same movie go, no, this is what zombies are now. Now they are. And as we just talked about, there are movies and TV shows that are still influenced by the changes that they made in this zombie movie.
Speaker 2 (01:38:37.038)
And so 40 fucking years later is incredibly impressive.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I had two that I kinda kept going back and forth between. I had a couple of screw ups accidentally unleash the real zombies from Night of the Living Dead and then call the government, which somehow makes it worse.
You
Somehow. Yeah. Then I had, if punk rock met nuclear annihilation and nobody had a plan?
There you go.
Speaker 2 (01:39:09.656)
Well, you notice none of us mentioned Dan O'Bannon and his connection to Alien, which would get most people hooked. Like, did you like Alien? Of course you did. Well, this is the guy that wrote Alien. This is his directorial debut. And he wrote... It really is.
That's pretty much all you would have to say.
Probably, yeah, but I mean, think you're gonna be setting people up for a different experience though than what they're actually doing. So you gotta really make sure you lean into like, is a satire, this is comedy, know, this is gross, you know, this is a gnarly little movie, but yeah.
that's true. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:39:43.862)
You could just say this is the movie that defined basically how zombie movies are made today. Do you want to watch it? So I think I know the answer to this one, but let's put a little twist on it just to kind of make you tell us a little bit more. So would you recommend this movie to everyone or only a certain kind of fan? What is the right audience for Return of the Living Dead? I know that you both will always recommend somebody watching it, right? But would you
temper that based on the person that you're talking to?
I would recommend it 99 % of the time to just about anyone, even children, because I saw it at a young age. I saw it I was eight years old and immediately knew this was going to be with me the rest of my life. I would maybe not recommend it.
I question about that though. Yeah. I mean, sorry, I don't mean to cut you off because it was so different back then, the nudity in films, right? That was where people saw nudity. Whereas now, you you watch a college football game and it cuts to a film trailer and half of the women in that trailer are in bikinis or are in negliges or you know what I mean? Sure. in lingerie. It's a different world now.
yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:40:59.474)
where, you know, women are much more objectified. So Joey Carr's eight-year-old eyes seeing trash in that scene probably feels different to an eight-year-old today seeing that. I think that may be true.
Well, yeah, I mean, you had to really go out of your way back then to see anything like that. now, you know, unless your parents are have parental lock on all your devices, like any kid can see whatever they want at any time. So the impact wouldn't still be there in the same way, for sure.
Sorry, but you would recommend it pretty much to 99.9.
I think I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone that's recently lost someone or is very old themselves because of the way the movie treats dying and the idea of dying being such a painful experience. But beyond that, I would recommend this to pretty much anyone. I think it just is so much fun to watch and you can't have a bad time with this film. If you do, you're the problem. Yeah.
Right, Yeah, I would absolutely recommend it. mean, you know, and I'm the same way to pretty much anybody. think anybody who loves movies and the type of movies that color a little bit outside lines, right? Like horror fans, horror comedy fans, yeah, but just anybody who appreciates, you know, dark comedy or smart chaos or great filmmaking. I think this is essential viewing. I think it's not just a zombie movie. I think it's a fucking master class.
Speaker 2 (01:42:00.13)
Yeah. I agree.
Speaker 1 (01:42:28.558)
in filmmaking in every sense of the word.
I think especially why I would recommend it to just about anyone, you know, is I think that the gore is never and some people obviously are more sensitive to that than others, but I don't think the gore is ever so much that it would turn someone off to the point of being upset by it. Like, think it did ride the line, but I don't think it's so gnarly that it's going to.
Yeah, there are a couple of brain moments or a couple blood splatter moments that are like, yeah, but other than that, look away. It's not gratuitous. You're absolutely right, you know, and I would like to, I would like to suggest that that Bart Shannon go as tar man tomorrow for Halloween.
for a
Speaker 2 (01:43:13.786)
That's a big costume to pull together in 24 hours. That's a tough one. And also, I don't have any contacts right now. Nobody wants to see a tar man in glasses.
yeah.
Well, we wouldn't be able to see those big beautiful eyes.
You be tar man and I'll be your suicide. How about that?
I'll be Tina.
Speaker 2 (01:43:32.526)
There's a song in there somewhere.
All right, you Bart, you would recommend it. I'm guessing.
Yeah, I wouldn't recommend this to anybody. like, I have a mentor kid, I say kid, he's over 18 now, but he was a teenager, he was 15 when I started mentoring him. Huge horror fan, diehard horror fan. And more into towards the gory end of horror. I recommended this to him two weeks ago. No one is not in his lane because it's probably looks like us watching or me watching a film from the 50s, you know, and how archaic it looks.
But I told them, said, look, this is a great comedy horror, watch this movie. And then anybody else I'd recommend too. And I would say, if you don't like this, then you're a dumb twat.
Pretty much. Yeah, yeah. Would you like to date? I don't know. Do you like the return of the living dead? No. Then get the fuck out of my face. Are you dumb-taught or not?
Speaker 3 (01:44:18.659)
much.
Speaker 2 (01:44:27.694)
depends are you a dumb twat or
Speaker 3 (01:44:33.336)
Well, we know that no dumb twats are listening to this podcast.
That's true.
man, that's true. All right. Well, that's all I got. That's all I for questions, guys.
That was just as much fun as I thought it would be.
my gosh.
Speaker 3 (01:44:50.028)
And a blast. Thank you.
Yeah, thanks for watching this with us and talking about it.
This was a blast, you guys.
By the way, what have you got going on here in Memphis that you want the folks to know about?
Well, I would say right now the main thing is doing a variety of film projects. My team at Last Byte Films, we have a website, lastbytefilms.com. If anyone's curious about the documentary work that we're producing, maybe one day I'll be able to convince my team to make a horror film. Embarking is something we need to be talking about at some point too. But yeah, I've got just various projects going on, lot of regional specific documentaries and things. yeah, please check out lastbytefilms.com to see what we got going on.
Speaker 3 (01:45:32.046)
Happy Halloween to everybody. This is gonna be a fun year. Long weekend ahead of us. It's gonna be a blast.
Happy Halloween!
I love also that people refer now to July 3rd as Return of the Living Dead Day. I love that. I love that people are keeping it alive and I hope new audiences are finding it all the time.
Yeah, absolutely. But you're doing the Lord's work, Joey. I mean, you do so much great work around this city. I mean, and you have for years just killing it.
Same to the both of you. mean, you've both been folks I've looked up to for a long time and the work you're doing is always so admirable and incredible. So thank you for bringing me on. Let me be your third chair this time. And honestly, next time, if I do this podcast again, which I hope I do, I want to do one that I don't like. I want to make sure like, because there's a lot more you can really dig into and you really dislike something, but you want to talk about it. And I think that's just as valid of an experience.
Speaker 2 (01:46:15.982)
They're just as much fun.
Speaker 3 (01:46:24.219)
as a film that you love as long as you come in strong and you have your opinions.
Joey, my man, thank you so much for doing this. I can't believe you and I haven't just sat around talking about Return of the Living Dead when we're around each other.
Pleasure is all.
Speaker 3 (01:46:40.258)
Well, we just spent many hours doing this, so hopefully that covers it for a little while. yeah, so many more to talk about. And again, if I get an opportunity to do this again, I would love to because chatting with you two is such a pleasure.
It's.
Speaker 1 (01:46:53.652)
Absolutely. I mean, there is absolutely nobody better that we should have watched this movie with and had on this episode is you, Joey Carr. I mean, I learned so much from you two today just listening. was it's been awesome.
Man, I'm so on.
think it's a rarity that we've had someone on where it's one of their favorite movies. And has watched them as many times as you have. In fact, I usually give people three options.
I was just gonna say maybe this could be our third.
I think you know what I'm about to say. So I was giving people three options and they picked the one they want to see except for you because I knew, well you said you called dibs right away and I hoping you would do this one. There's one movie I've offered everybody and no one ever accepts it and I think you would be the perfect person if no one accepts it and maybe I just take it off the table until it's time for Joey Carr part two.
Speaker 1 (01:47:43.406)
And no, it's an okay answer, but...
Texas Chainsaw Massacre II.
my god, I love that movie. I have the 4k blu-ray man. That's a brilliant movie vinegar syndrome put out last year two years ago
Well, maybe we'll save that one for you, Joey. We may have to. Nobody else will fucking watch it with us. Yeah, right.
use anything.
Speaker 2 (01:48:02.03)
Kidding.
and bunch of clowns.
Joey Carr, such a pleasure.
Thank Thank you, Joey. We love you so much.
Enjoy your Halloween.
Speaker 3 (01:48:14.402)
You too. Happy Halloween! Have fun tomorrow! Long weekend! Thanks, Joey.
Thank you.
brother.
Right. Joey Carr.
Bart, Joey Carr. What a guy. I love him so much. There's so much to love, but man, the brain on him and just the heart. What a guy. I think half of my film career, well, half I owe to you. The other half I owe to Joey. mean, Craig is in there somewhere. I'm so sick. Okay, Craig started it.
Speaker 2 (01:48:24.962)
What a great dude,
Speaker 2 (01:48:42.326)
I Craig's got it somewhere.
Speaker 1 (01:48:48.564)
You picked up where he left off and Joey Carr is constantly, you know, saying, hey, call Lindsay. I'm like the Mikey of the Memphis film community. I'll eat anything, you know? I mean, just call Lindsay. She'll do it. And he's right. I always will. I love it. So thanks to him, I'm half of the movies I've done.
I know he loves this movie so much and sometimes I felt like I just needed to shut the fuck up because I wanted to hear what he had to
Thanks.
He's man. Yeah, right. Like he's like no no no you missed it a minute 54, you know So much about it. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Oh, man. We got to have him back. We have to
I think we will. I'm gonna take Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 off the table and just hold it for a while since he immediately said he loves the film. But he did say he would like to talk about that film he didn't like.
Speaker 1 (01:49:35.424)
Right. Well, so that means we've got to have him on three times. darn.
This is Halloway.
Oh my god, I'm so excited. I cannot wait for tomorrow. I will order pizza. I will do whatever I want and it's a Friday
Well, I hope you have a wonderful evening tomorrow and an excellent day of the dead. Follow.
Yes, and you as well, my friend. I think we should do it again. You think we should do it again?
Speaker 2 (01:50:01.644)
let's at least do it one more
at just for the people, just for all of our three fans, me and you and Joey Carr. Let's do it for them.
for the people, Lenzie. Bye, lovey-bart.
Have you?
Bye!
Speaker 2 (01:50:18.968)
All music for this podcast is provided by MKE. To hear more of his music, visit his band's website at detectivemusic.com and Detective on Spotify.