SPEAKER_04 0:04

What kind of person would I be at a strip club? I would try to touch.

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Don't touch them, be respectful.

SPEAKER_05 0:13

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hack or Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. Come on in and stay a while. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the Halloween party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack. A total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_04 0:31

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_05 0:33

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with the perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris. I'm your friendly neighborhood slash enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the gore lover Alexis. Hey everyone. The cowardly creeper Ryan. Hiya. And the Scream Queen Paris.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Hey scare actors.

SPEAKER_05 0:53

We're back at it again with a movie about haunts, but this time things take a turn toward the extreme. Before we give up the good Zoe, we do have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

We do have some follow-up, Chris. We recently reviewed a film called Hellfest. Only a few of us were actually here for this. Ryan and I were not. I had a chance to watch the film myself. I enjoyed a lot of it, but ultimately it landed on the soft hack side.

SPEAKER_05 1:17

You're killing me.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

But we wanted to ask our friends and our listeners how they felt. We asked on Twitter, uh, was this movie a hack or a slash? Uh and actually, one of the actors in this film, Bex, they retweeted our poll, and it had more votes than any of our polls have ever had. Uh so the results this time are nothing if not accurate. 23% of voters gave the movie a hack, and 77% gave it a slash. So ultimately, I think this bodes pretty well for this movie. We also have a couple comments from our friends. Uh, Ken on Facebook said, I was surprised that Hellfest was such a fun watch, even with its eerie atmosphere and at times scary, especially when it gets to the climax and the ending like a bombshell, though for me it's a low slash. One of our patrons, Daniel, said, Honestly, I give it a light slash. I thought it was good, but could have been better. The only problem I really had with it was the lack of climax. It was terrifying though to see people running around from a killer and everyone thinking it's a joke or part of the haunted house attraction. And that is such a valid fear. And I know, Alexis, you mentioned that in this episode, that that's one of the reasons you hate haunted houses, because like, what if these people, what if one of these people actually like gets the wise idea to like kill somebody for real?

SPEAKER_04 2:26

Exactly. What we will be talking about tonight is another prime example.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Oh, definitely. We also have a comment from our friend Freyday Parade on Twitter. They said, I really enjoyed Hellfest. In a time where I would be celebrating Halloween with my best friends, it filled a bit of my soul. The set design was awesome. I felt that Q deserved a slightly bigger death, but that was only because everyone else had a separate method of death. And I feel like that's pretty agreeable. That was like a quick little two for one where it was kind of like, oh.

SPEAKER_05 2:54

I will say though, that tweet came with a photo of some delicious-looking parsnip soup, and I've never had a parsnip in my life, but it seems delicious.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

I also saw that soup, and it looked like a great combo for our podcast.

SPEAKER_05 3:05

It's like an awesome carrot, basically. That's what a parsnip is. It looked like a Caucasian carrot when I looked up with the I cannot.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Lastly, we want to take a moment to thank one of our newest patrons, Spencer. Uh, thank you so much, Spencer, for taking some time and energy to support our podcast. Uh, Spencer also had a hot take to share about this movie. They said, I went to the theater expecting your generic slasher. Once there, I was taken in by atmosphere reeking of the Halloween season with dialogue that felt real. I genuinely laughed out loud at jokes because the characters interacted the way I'd imagine them to. Total slash.

SPEAKER_05 3:41

I love that. Spencer is our newest patron, but also one of our oldest listeners in terms of like longtime listener, first-time caller situation. Absolutely love him.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Longtime listener, first-time patron, and that's our follow-up.

SPEAKER_05 3:55

This week we have another found footage romp through the haunted house attractions. This film features five friends road tripping across America in search of haunts, more specifically, extreme haunts. And it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. This film was originally shot in the late 2000s before the Russia Found Footage film sparked by the stunning success of paranormal activity. This film was shot in standard definition originally, and as it gained intention and prominence, they received the backing of a studio to help them refilm it in a higher definition and with better quality audio. This week we're talking about the 2014 release of The Houses October built. Now, who had seen this before? I definitely have.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

Yeah, I mean, you know the deal. I ain't seen it.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

I also have not seen this before.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Can I ask a question? Did you just say that this was filmed twice?

SPEAKER_05 4:40

Yes, we'll uh we'll unpack that as the episode goes on, but this film was filmed and made more of like an independent production type situation, and then it had a studio back and more formally, so this is actually the second rendition of this movie. Oh, very interesting. Okay, cool. Yeah. I had heard great things about this movie, and I've partially seen it before. Uh a couple years ago, I went to a local haunt with friends and I went back to their place, and this movie was put on just to kind of like unwind from the haunted house fest, and I was excited for it, and then I fell asleep, which I like never do in movies. And I've never considered it a knock to this movie though, because I was absurdly tired and we had been out for a while that day. So I was expecting to watch this and feel really silly for falling asleep the first time, but what were you folks expecting?

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Honestly, with a title like The House is October built, I was expecting this to be like some lifetime original, like melodramatic shit, because that is the most ridiculous title I've ever heard.

SPEAKER_03 5:37

Agreed. It's kind of silly. For me, I've made a decision here, and that is that I will intentionally come up with expectations before I look at anything about a movie. Um, because one, you guys know a lot of these things I haven't seen or heard of. So I go in blind, and then you ask me my expectations, and my expectations are to watch a movie. Um, so here, uh, my expectation was that October maybe was a person of a woman. It's got a great girl name, right? October. That's cute. That was gonna be also, of course, we had like a creepy girl in the in the artwork. So I was I was going for some creepy girl does some things. That that was my expectation.

SPEAKER_05 6:13

I love that approach so much, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:15

I'm trying to be better for the people.

SPEAKER_05 6:17

That's excellent.

SPEAKER_04 6:18

I feel like I had this very similar feeling or expectation. Um, it's trying I'm trying to recall the first time I like watched this, how I felt. And I don't know, Chris, did you mention like for me to watch this? Because I really thought I watched it with you, but I'm assuming I did not.

SPEAKER_05 6:33

You did not watch it with me because I've only slept through this movie one time in my life, and that was two years ago with uh Dan and Leah, who used to be on the show.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

Maybe she recommended it to you. That sounds like something she'd do.

SPEAKER_05 6:44

Yeah, I'll say that this time I was entertained, but honestly, I was not entertained in the way that I was expecting to be. I remember a particular haunt worker that's in this movie. I have this memory of them being more prominent than they actually were. So I came for the plot I thought existed, but I actually ended up staying happily for the exploration of all the badass haunts that we get in this movie. You know, just to set the premise, there are folks in this movie who are on a road trip stopping at multiple haunts along the way, trying to find an extreme one. So you actually get a wide variety of things in this movie.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

Yeah, I agree. I think the thing that this movie expresses the best is what it's like to be on a road trip because it's always great and goes downhill. Um, and I I you you feel those like feelings of uh when you're with a group of people and not wanting to do what what someone that's leading the group wants to do, which is the worst and literally always how group trips and group things go. Um I I didn't feel as much fear during this that I expected. That that that was something that stood out to me for sure.

SPEAKER_04 7:50

I think this um movie just struck a nerve with me because I'm forever getting bombarded because I like horror movies, and by possibly people on this podcast asking me to go to haunted houses. And sometimes I will be like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll go. And then nope. I mean, if you know me, I'm not I'm not I'm not going. It was just very unsettling, and my fears that surround haunted houses definitely came out in this movie, and it just still is just this creepy vibe.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

And uh I basically thought about you the whole time and how much you would never go. The more of these movies we watch, the more you're never gonna go with us.

SPEAKER_04 8:25

You know the funny thing is though? That you once agreed to go. Yeah, that is true. And uh pretty much played my friends, the Chris.

SPEAKER_05 8:33

I was like, Yeah, yeah, I'll go. Sorry, I had to work. Yeah, I like God, the Airbnb and everything. And I was like, damn, did not need this many rooms.

SPEAKER_04 8:40

I do like watching people go through haunted houses. So I very thoroughly enjoyed this movie because it at le visually at least, because I was able to like go through my YouTube video collection that I have. I also do roller coasters too. I watch roller coasters, POV roller coaster videos. I'm so weird.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

I don't want to blow your mind here, but going to a haunted house is very similar to watching one on YouTube. You just scream a little bit more, but very similar, really enjoyable experience in the same way.

SPEAKER_04 9:11

Yeah, but I like being a little bit, you know, distant from it. Yeah, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 9:16

I don't need a chainsaw in my face. They just always do the same things. They chase you out with a chainless chainsaw. That was a good alliteration. And then uh you, you know, someone pretends to grab you, someone tells someone your name, and the whole time they just scream, Alexis.

SPEAKER_04 9:30

If they did that, literally, I would hate every single one of you if you had said that. That's what we're doing. Well, don't worry, I'm ever going.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Alexis, don't listen to them. It is much scarier when you're actually in the haunted house. And I actually thought this movie was scary on its own. So as somebody who's been on both sides of like watching a haunted house and being in a haunted house, I can say it is definitely scarier when you're in there.

SPEAKER_03 9:51

I didn't know you were a wuss, Paris. I thought more of you. Damn.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

But hey, I still go. I'll like pay for my ticket and put myself through it, even though I know I'm gonna be stressed and anxious the whole time because some part of me enjoys it, even though I hate it.

SPEAKER_05 10:06

Gosh, what is up with y'all? No, I I love them so much. And you guys are talking about road trips being bad. I love road trips. I've come to realize I'm less a fan of the solo road trips that I've become used to. But a few years ago, we as a podcast did a haunted house road trip where we each anonymously did a blind pick. Like we researched on our own, didn't tell anybody else where we were going. We went to three haunted house stops. One of them ended up being shit. And it wasn't the fault of the person who picked it, it was just the person who showed up late to the escape room to let us into the escape room was total trash. But we went to Terror Behind the Walls in Philly, where they can touch you, which is amazing. And then we went to the nightmare factory in North Carolina. That was the first and only time I've actually been scared in a haunted house because they don't touch you, but they get really fucking close to it. And it was a little slow that night, so they actually wanted to give everybody their money's worth. They made your group go in alone and they wouldn't let the next people start until you were out on the other side.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

That's always the best, I think.

SPEAKER_05 11:06

The one that scared me, we were crawling through a mausoleum, so you had to like crawl your way through the entire time.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

I hate when they make you crawl.

SPEAKER_05 11:12

Yeah, they had like cutouts where they could stand up and they had some really nimble people. So there was someone like really small crouched down, it's like speeding towards me. And uh, of course, you know, Dan and Leah had like said my name, and so they're all like, the true talent. It had never happened before. And I I think that's part of what I looked forward to when to reliving when I watched this movie again. So I had like these fond memories of of that kind of trip. And I will say that I was I was disappointed that this was less of what I remembered it being. I was disappointed it didn't lean far enough in one direction. It it it goes for documentary, for narrative horror film, and then just a haunt celebration. And I feel like it kind of loses itself being bounced around those three things. The pacing though is is really what let me down the most. There was a lot in here that I I feel like I would have preferred to see cut out.

SPEAKER_04 12:05

I'd agree with that just because um at one point I thought the attention was building, at least for me. You know, there were some things happening and it was happening sequentially, and then I hit this point where it's kind of goofy, and I'm like, okay, what's going on here? But yeah, they lost me a little bit in the middle, and I think that for watching it a second time, I think I never picked that up on the first watch, but definitely on this watch I had.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Can I say that while I was watching this, I felt like I had already seen it, partially because we just watched Hellfest, we just watched uh Hellhouse LLC one and two. Um, and it was like, okay, found footage, group of friends, haunted house. Uh we've done this. Um, but I was very surprised that this one managed to feel like I was really watching an actual documentary, especially with a lot of the interviews of the scare actors, and I would love to talk more about that because I feel like some of those could have just been actual scare actors that were interviewed for this movie.

SPEAKER_05 13:03

We will discuss it.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

I also felt like the ad-libbing was really successful as well, which like is one of my biggest pet peeves when that's not done well. Like, I really thought that these people were very natural on camera, just behaving like they normally would in their group of friends. And I'm not saying I would be in this group of friends, but I believed them as being like a circle.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

I agree with you in that I believed these people. But you know what truly surprised me?

SPEAKER_02 13:26

What?

SPEAKER_03 13:26

And by surprise me, I mean didn't surprise me at all. How much I hate the found footage.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

I felt bad.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

And my first thought, our boy Mac is not here tonight, but my first thought literally right at the beginning of this movie is ooh, Mac Ankle like this. Because there is this isn't like steady cam found footage. This is like we bought this camcorder at Walmart, and I'm just rolling with my friends found footage. And it's it's a little intense in sometimes. If you if you're weak to the dizziness and those types of things and different points of views, it could be a little tough in here.

SPEAKER_04 13:59

But they did it so well, like that I mean, every part of this movie like literally just fit into a perfect puzzle piece. I never at one point was like, this feels fake, these interviews feel fake. And Paris, I I would I'd love to know. I mean, I don't know if anyone knows, but if if they were were real, like they seem really real, and some of the like it's we I don't know. When people when you're doing that kind of, you know, and Chris can probably speak a lot to it, but like when you're doing a lot of like interviewing, if one is an actor and one I I don't know, I just feel like if you're interviewing someone, you're usually getting the raw person saying some weird ass stuff, I'm sure. Oh especially yes, yes, especially scare actors.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Yes, some of these things these people said on camera, I was just like, uh, are you a real person? Because I think you might be.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

Yes, and I was so surprised at how well they weaved those in. You kind of got what the their point was towards the end of the story in these snippets, so it got more menacing as the story went on, which surprised me and appreciated.

SPEAKER_05 15:01

So it sounds like it scared you a little bit then.

SPEAKER_04 15:03

Oh, this movie hella scared me. You know I don't go into haunted houses, and this is freaking why this movie and all the other ones.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

I'm glad it scared you. I was the least scared. There's some creepy characters here that I enjoyed to watch, but I definitely there was, I don't know, there was there was nothing to be afraid of here to me, which is weird, especially with the ending. I wasn't even scared during the ending, which is a pretty scary experience.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

I was definitely scared during this movie. Um, I think comparing this to Hellhouse LLC is apt because in that movie you have this feeling of disorientation that feels very intentional, like they're trying to make you feel disoriented, and you can only be so scared of that. This felt like the people holding the camera were disoriented, and as a result, I was also disoriented, which definitely helped me be more afraid. And there were just a lot of times where I was like, I don't know what's going on, but I don't like it, and I want it to stop. And then there's like one specific character that I hated so much, and every time that they appeared on the screen, I was just like, kill me now.

SPEAKER_05 16:03

Ooh, okay. So I can't wait to see uh see who that one is gonna be. This isn't one that scared me, and I will say that when you talk about Hellhouse LLC, I think if you like Hellhouse LLC in the way it scares, I don't think you're gonna feel that with this movie. Par for the course here, right? With with Alexis, with Paris. Hellhouse LLC freaked me out, but this movie doesn't. I think because I'm not afraid of haunted houses, I'm not afraid of it. Like I enjoy it, I get I I thrive in that environment. So I think it's just it didn't have the potential to scare me.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

I agree, Chris. I think you're totally right. Because I'm the same way. I'm the person laughing and talking trash with the actors in the in the haunts, you know? And it's funny because all these actors were like, I get my life's thrill from scaring people. And I was like, man, they probably hate when I roll in. Cause I'm like, yo, what up? How you doing? What do they pay you, bro? Do you want some chocolate? What can I bring you? You need some pizza? Are you good? How has your night been? They probably are like, please leave me alone. I just want to see you scream.

SPEAKER_05 16:56

Well, it's probably less annoying to have that and someone saying, Hey, what can I bring you? Aside from like, man, you ain't fucking scary. You're a dumbass. I hate those people.

SPEAKER_04 17:06

Nah, I always I'm always talking trash, but not in that way. I should really find this um YouTube account. Um, so there's a guy I talked to like years ago, and he was a scare actor down um at a local place where we live. Oh, you have personal experience. Yes. Well, the thing is, like, he's very tall. Like, I guess he could be menacing, and like he would record himself scaring these people and like post them on YouTube and on his Instagram or Facebook. And I was like, Oh my goodness, like this is crazy. Like, I I don't know, he's just like normal, but like they're like they're kind of you know, actors I feel like are weird people in general. Like, you just have to be kind of weird to be a celebrity, yes, and an actor at all, and an actor, much less like a local actor who's scaring people, like you know, you've got these weird sounds, and you're like giving your all. And that it it it was a ride up and it also was a ride down really quickly. I don't know if that was because he was a scare actor or not.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

I mean, it does sound like good YouTube content, to be fair.

SPEAKER_04 18:06

I I enjoy watching people get scared. If I find it, I'll put it in the show notes.

SPEAKER_05 18:11

Well, if my uh current career doesn't pan out, I'll be sure to start a local haunt and just make a YouTube channel out of that. There you go. Why not? We've made the comparisons to the movies, but uh you know, yes, this is another found footage movie. Um yes, this is another haunt movie, but I think disappointments aside, if it stands fairly well on its own. Uh it has just enough in it, I feel, to make it like a better celebration of the haunt scene versus just a movie that uses haunts as a plot device.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

Yeah, totally. There was uh this reminds me of something I've seen before, but that thing was an actual documentary on these extreme haunted houses. Because you know I was right on that. It's called Haunters. It's pretty good. But um, it reminded me of something similar, but it wasn't a movie based on that.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

You're a walking contradiction, Alexis. I really am.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

I like all the scary things. I will go to Haunted Houses, like whatever they do here at Busch Gardens, and I'll go like the week before so I can see all the decorations, but don't need to be scared.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

I have to be honest, this movie is not original to me. I think um where they end up going in the end, you know, uh in a in a theoretical sense, uh, is maybe uh maybe more original, but like overall it feels like things I've seen before, and maybe that has to do with the the the series of movies we've watched recently, but I don't get a big sense of originality from this.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

I feel that too, Ryan. Of all the movies that we've watched these past couple weeks that kind of fit into this same lane, I feel like this one is the closest to doing it in an original way. Um, but it's still not quite original enough for me to give it that seal of approval.

SPEAKER_03 19:49

There's something about people on a road trip altogether, you know? It's just like eh, we've been there. You wouldn't go on a road trip with friends?

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Um, I first of all that RV smelled like farts, and we know that's a fact.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

It was very small for all those adults. I know.

SPEAKER_05 20:02

Yeah, four men and one woman, and it's just they all looked kind of gross except for her, so yeah, it was pretty intense.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

I don't know. I'm not like a well, okay, I've never been on a road trip to stop places. I've only been on a road trip to to a destination, I guess, which is kind of not a road trip, mostly just a drive with one stop at Wawa. I don't know. I'm I'm not I'm like a once I get in the car, I'm on a roll type of person, which is maybe something I need to change in the world.

SPEAKER_05 20:28

It is my dream to rent an RV and have this kind of trip.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

When I am retired, I plan to spend months and months on the West Coast in an RV.

SPEAKER_05 20:37

I'm also excited because my girlfriend really wants to do van life, and I'm thrilled with the possibility of that in our future. Because I'm honestly like every fall, I'm gonna be doing shit like this, and I'm gonna drag one of you with me at least. Very cool, but be careful, vans get smelly too.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

Yeah, I'll come, but we have to bring so much Fabriz.

SPEAKER_04 20:54

Totally be down for that. But I'm all let's go to like the real places that are haunted and like go.

SPEAKER_03 20:59

So, okay, since we're here, listen, we have to have this conversation. So, would you go places like uh the you know, like the penitentiary? It's in like uh Pennsylvania, Philly. I actually went to it. Oh, took a tour. Yeah, so you can't do a real creepy thing.

SPEAKER_05 21:13

Here's the bullshit. She goes there to take a tour, but she won't go there with us, same place for a haunted house attraction.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

I mean, that's different.

SPEAKER_04 21:22

It's completely different. No one's popping out and scaring me. It's just ominous, just creepy. It's just creepy in general.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

And you know, ghosts aren't real, so there's nothing really to be afraid of. Uh you heard me.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

When I lived in Pennsylvania, we were in high school, we would do this all the time. We would just like find some spooky abandoned building and just like go in at midnight with our flashlights and just spook around. And it's like the only thing you really have to fear is like stepping on a rotted floorboard and like falling into a basement. But like that's kind of the the fun that I'm I'm here for. Because you know there's not like actually somebody that's trying to scare you, you know. And then if a ghost follows you home and you deal with that for the next couple of days. Days, then that's kind of a bonus.

SPEAKER_04 22:02

Okay. Who gives uh Ghost Life only a few days? Like uh let him hang around.

SPEAKER_05 22:08

Yeah, I was gonna say your boy knows how to call Ghostbusters, it's fine.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

I usually help them cross over.

SPEAKER_05 22:13

He invites them in for some nice tea. And they're like, wow, he's super nice. We're leaving. Bye. I do enjoy that kind of fun as well, like urban exploration. I'm a fan of like going to creepy places. But I think one of the things that appealed to me in a in a different way is I think we see a little bit of that in this movie. Not necessarily like real haunted places, but once you get off the beaten path of like where these characters are going and you see the places they kind of end up as the film builds to its climax, it seems kind of fucking spooky.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:46

It is, but it's I mean, I kind of feel like that the guy in the movie that's like when they say backwoods and he goes, backwoods? Like, like, where are you really in the backwoods? What do you mean, backwoods? What do you mean, backwoods? Like, bro, I mean the country.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

This group of friends was backwoods.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Yeah, honestly. They weren't even from like the city.

SPEAKER_05 23:07

They started out in Tyler, Texas. Oh, yeah. And I actually used to live right near Tyler, Texas. It was like the next major city. So when I saw that in the in the beginning of this movie, I was like, oh man, my my little Texan heart for that brief few years I lived there.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

I'm gonna pull a Mac here. I've been talking about the ending a lot, and no one else has mentioned it yet. And I maybe didn't really care for it that much. And I'm very interested to see if y'all were big fans.

SPEAKER_04 23:32

Is it because there wasn't a conclusive ending? Like it was kind of locked up in the air for you to interpret it. In my opinion, that's how the ending was.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

Yeah, that's a way to describe it. A lot of it was darkness, and that was something that I didn't enjoy. Um, I feel like we got a lot of information in this movie until the last 10 minutes, you know? It kind of took away from me.

SPEAKER_05 23:52

Until we got zero information all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

I'm right there with you.

SPEAKER_04 23:55

Yeah, I I I like I enjoyed the spookiness and you know, the kind of, you know, let's let you interpret this ending sort of kind of thing. But um, I thought it was successful. I don't know on a successful scaleness, um, I'm making up a word. Yeah, I don't know. Like it wasn't the best, but I I I liked it for what it was in this context. I know the first time I watched it, I was like, what the hell? This is stupid. But then this time I think I was able to appreciate it a little bit more. So on the scale of successivity, so one to five. I'm going a two. I would say a 3.7, maybe a four.

SPEAKER_05 24:31

Okay, almost a four. That's very specific.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

It is okay. I definitely thought this ending sucked, but I'd still give it like a four.

SPEAKER_03 24:38

A four.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

You're totally right, Ryan. Like, we go from being like disoriented but still kind of aware, to just being so disoriented to the point where you're like, I don't actually know what's going on or what I should be afraid of right now. Yeah. Um, and I thought it was kind of a letdown after the movie had done a lot of things for me up to that point.

SPEAKER_05 24:54

Man, all right. Well, I mean, I was fine with the ending. Uh well, I enjoyed the buildup to it. I enjoyed the chaos of it, but I will say there is still a lot that I wanted more of or differently, which we'll discuss in the second half. But what I really want to know is how this is all going to impact this movie score. And before we get down to rating this movie, Alexis, this is another one of those weird fucking movies where it's not really fair to say body count. So once again, what is our got got count?

SPEAKER_04 25:22

Yeah, I like that we're bringing this in because you know, when you're just gotten, got, got out of a scene, um, I'm assuming you're dead, but I've learned you cannot when there's multiple movies in a franchise, you can never be super sure. Sometimes a death is not in fact a death. Yes, or sometimes you just got got. And yeah, so um without ruining, um, I'm gonna leave it as it's a high got got score. But then any animals get got.

SPEAKER_03 25:51

Once again, I have great news. No animals got got in this movie. Almost No Animals in the Haunt. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 25:57

Almost one animal, but wasn't really an animal. Yeah, almost one, but he was not getting got.

SPEAKER_05 26:02

He was doing the get there you go. Fantastic. Well, let's go ahead and get into writing this movie. The house is October built, the 2014 rendition of it. Was it a hack or a slash?

SPEAKER_03 26:13

So this movie's a hack for me. Straightforward. The best way I can describe how I feel about it is that up until the last 10 minutes or so, right? So up until um we get to the ending, this is basically a vlog on YouTube, more or less, about a road trip. And um you know, you guys know how I feel about found footage. I feel that usually there's a reason it's lost footage and nobody found it. Um I I just I don't like care necessarily about these characters. Not that, not that they were the worst, it's just like, I don't know. It just didn't like hit me. It didn't scare me. I didn't get wrapped up in it. There's definitely some things that I enjoyed. It's not the worst movie I've ever seen at all, but this is uh this is a hack for me.

SPEAKER_04 27:03

Well, this is a slash for me. Um, I I won't uh leave our listeners to hanging, but um, I know I watched this movie before. I enjoyed it then. It gives me all these, you know, vibes that I love about Halloween, how I love about the season. And although I don't go to haunted houses, I freaking appreciate them. And I think it makes this movie makes me so scared because we've talked about this before. There's unfortunately crazy people, and this movie like kind of demonstrates like there's people could be out there and like I was gonna say getting their rocks off, but uh I mean, kind of it really does it for him scaring people and like maybe with an ulterior motive, um, which is why I don't go to haunted houses, which is why I'm telling you guys you shouldn't either. Uh but I I like how it instills that fear, and I love the way they craft these interviews into the um storyline, and it it's done so fluidly that I don't think there's any part that's disjointed or that's fake or that we've seen in Hellhouse Hellhouse LLC, especially number two, where it seems like it was just forcefully put in and not like um natural. So I really love that about this movie, and yeah, it definitely scared me for sure. And for that and multiple other reasons, I'll have to give this a slash.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

Wow. Paris, you get the chance here. Who are you gonna side with?

SPEAKER_02 28:24

You're both making really good points that I've also at some point agreed with. Like I said, like at first I went to this movie, I was like, okay, it's like five to six white friends found footage, haunted house, cue me, rolling my eyes. And for the beginning part, I was like, I'm gonna give this a chance, but it's feeling hacky. And then, like, as I got into the dialogue, I was like, okay, the ad-libbing is actually surprisingly good. The expectations that I had for this which were low. And I really liked the way that they sort of placed the element of fear on the fact that like there's very little like regulation into who can be a scare actor. Like, I have a few cousins in Pennsylvania that used to do this for years, and I know them. I wouldn't want them to be scare actors in a haunted house that I was in. A shout out to my cousins. So I thought that was like a very real and tangible fear. And there was specifically like one character, this like scraggly haired bitch, that like really made my skin crawl, and I hated it so much anytime she was on the screen. So I was really scared for a lot of this movie. And then the ending happened, and I was like, really? Because they had gone from doing such a good job of being like, oh, we're scaring you, you don't know what's going on, but like you know that you're in danger, but not really. And at the end it was like, you might be in danger, but do you care? Because you can barely see anything for like 10 minutes, and then like the final got got of our characters is very underwhelming to me. They like kind of play on this fear that I don't relate to in any way. Um, so it ended on a bad note, and overall I'm giving it a hack.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

Unsurprising. Very unsurprising, but so satisfying.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

But I was surprised by how much I did enjoy.

SPEAKER_05 29:58

Hmm. Fascinating. I mean, I'll agree with you. I'll agree with you in a lot of things. The movie has some flaws that really make it impossible for me to love it. I blamed my falling asleep the first time around my exhaustion. Honestly, watching it a second time, I can feel the moments that were just dragging on too long. It's a slow burn, yeah, but at points it's too slow. There are better haunted house movies, better found footage movies. Uh, there's a lot of fun in this movie, and there's some solid moments with characters. So I do have plenty of good things to say, but it's still missing something. And that's where I struggle. This is one when I sit down to like really think about it. It's one I'll only watch in October. And maybe not even that, honestly. I probably would only watch it if I'm like specifically going on a haunted house trip. I did have some fun with it. There's some good things that we'll have to say in the second half here. So it's gonna get a soft slash from me. Acceptable for a good spooky season watch, but not cream of the crop and not ranking up high on my list at all.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

I feel that.

SPEAKER_05 30:57

So there you have it, folks. Today we are split down the middle when it comes down to the houses October built from 2014. Check this movie out. You can find it streaming online. Join us in the second half because we gotta figure out who this craggly haired bitch is that Harrison's referring to. We'll see you in a bit.

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SPEAKER_05 32:07

Welcome back, folks. You are now entering the spoiler zone for the houses October built. The 2014 film has earned two hacks and two slashers, so this house is divided. We have a lot to unpack here, and we gotta get into the specifics of our ratings, but one of the things that uh gets kind of disappointing about this movie is the fact there's like really no gore at all. So, Alexis, what's the uh scarometer like?

SPEAKER_04 32:29

There is not a lot of gore, so it was but I feel like if you added a lot of gore in this movie, it could take away from like the um what I actually thought would be like real. Like it wouldn't be like super realistic, but um you know I'm gonna say this is on a scale of one to one hundred. This is definitely like in the 90s for sure for me. What?

SPEAKER_03 32:51

That's I that's a speeding ticket for the scarometer. Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

You guys don't think so? I think because this is rooted in some sort of like reality for me. And when you get to the end, you have this freaking normal looking guy who literally is getting interviewed and he goes, Oh yeah, it's for five hours I get to be like my real person and like you know, really get let all my demons out, or I'm not sure of the exact quote, but it was creepy enough for me to be like, oh shit. And I'm already terrified of haunted houses, so this just like up the ante for me ever and even more.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

I would like to note you're a person that has been on this podcast saying that you'd like to purge. So, like, do you have room to judge this man?

SPEAKER_04 33:36

Um, probably not, but a very freaky moment for me was when we have um the dollface girl. Porcelain, yes. Porcelain. Oh gosh, it was so creepy. One creepy in general, two. I just hate her eyes in the mask. And just darting. It's the most unsettling thing about this movie. And then all of a sudden she screams.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

The squawking.

SPEAKER_04 34:01

And then you see Mikey. Mikey, like, lost like Mikey would be my reaction. I'd be like, what? Also, he brought her in there, but it was like his reaction was Oh my god, I know. Oh my gosh, I am so like, I don't even know what I did. I'm gonna kick her ass out of this RV.

SPEAKER_03 34:16

But I get Mikey trying to like trying to like talk to her because I feel like you know, they're approaching them like, oh, these are just people, like they're going up and talking to them and stuff like that the whole time. So I totally get him going out to do that. And then she comes in with him, and it was just like, what are y'all doing sitting in a circle with a creepy, creepy lady?

SPEAKER_05 34:33

You saying that is uh enough reason for me to not invite you on the RV road trip. Oh, yeah. Because I don't want you fucking going out talking to strangers and bringing them in this fucking car and bringing them back.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

Okay, these people were literally on a trip to talk to strangers, mostly to figure out the little blue skeleton thing, but then also just they were like, Oh, let's go out, let's go ask them questions. But they were also a hundred miles away from that previous attraction where this chick was from. Meaning, I mean, I'm not saying he should have gone and talked to her, but he did, and I still don't understand how she got back in the RV. He was just like hell the door for her.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

Yeah, and also, like, I'm not convinced that she is a person, just because one, how the hell did she get all the way to exactly where they were, hundreds of miles away? I'm fairly certain that she's like some haunted doll ghost bitch, and she doesn't behave by like normal law.

SPEAKER_05 35:19

So she's October.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

Like there's something supernatural going on.

SPEAKER_05 35:22

Can we confirm she's this graggly-haired bitch?

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Oh, for sure, with like those four tracks glued to that spooky doll mask, and also like the mouth didn't move, but the eyes did. What was that?

SPEAKER_03 35:32

The mouth did open a little bit, but not much. It didn't move naturally.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

It was like fake lips or something. Yeah, it was something weird.

SPEAKER_03 35:39

For me, on the scarometer, this is like a a 40, 45, definitely below a 50. Definitely not speeding on the highway, definitely not getting a speeding ticket.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

I'm gonna split the difference here a little bit, and I feel like I landed somewhere around like 75, maybe 80, um, because I was pretty scared for like a good chunk of this movie, but it wasn't like Brahms scared, and it wasn't like Child's Play scared, um, but it was scared nonetheless, and I feel like that doll character had a lot of the fear for me in it, because obviously the two things I named were spooky doll characters, but overall I wouldn't put this in like the top 10 scariest movies I've ever seen. So I think 75 is a nice, a nice scarometer score.

SPEAKER_05 36:20

Oh, my scarometer is cruising in a school zone. I'm at like a 15 tops. Ooh, I like it.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

Really?

SPEAKER_05 36:27

And again, I think it's just because so much of the movie is them chilling in the RV, making their weird fucking jokes to each other, stopping at a strip club, which I could have done without. But the moments that were supposed to be scary, right? So like porcelain coming in or their RV getting banged around, those kind of things were great. That's what moved the needle up to 15. Had this been more, had there been more of that in this movie, the scerometer would have been higher for me. But so much of it was just going to haunts, and I love it, but I'm not scared by it.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

I feel that. I'm gonna bump mine down to a 70 because it was mostly just like a kind of fun documentary. You swayed me five points, Chris.

SPEAKER_05 37:06

Oh, I'm so glad I can get you slow down a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

So for as scary as I found this porcelain character to be, um, it actually wasn't my favorite scene. What? Uh my favorite scene, Chris, was the zombie strip club. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

Of course it was.

SPEAKER_05 37:24

So many boobs. So many fake boobs.

SPEAKER_02 37:27

The fakest.

SPEAKER_05 37:28

You know, it's funny because I thought this was gonna be the one situation where the only man on the show isn't compelled by all the boobs in the movie. That's my job.

SPEAKER_02 37:38

For me, it was something I'd never seen before, which is like sexy fake boobs strippers in Halloween masks, which I'm like, that's fun. The world needs more of that.

SPEAKER_03 37:48

You have not been on the internet. Let me tell you, let me tell you something. I know that you live in Florida, in South Florida. You haven't been to enough strip clubs because this is what they do for Halloween. Really? This is normal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

I've actually never been to a strip club.

SPEAKER_05 38:03

Okay, well, that's weird. Same. I went to one uh side of the road, middle of nowhere strip club called Cafe Risque. And boy was it risque in indeed. It was it was a suspicious situation.

SPEAKER_03 38:15

As they always are. Let me just be clear. Everywhere, strip clubs are not the same thing. Uh they carry different stigmas in different places, and in Miami, it's it's not necessarily what you might think it is if you live somewhere else. And even in Virginia, they're just different. When you live in Miami, it's just a different experience, and it's kind of just normal, which is weird, probably, but it is what it is. Dude, this is definitely what they do for Halloween. It's great, it's an interesting experience. And what else would you do besides if you're a dancer? Why wouldn't you just be wearing a mask and creepy makeup and stuff?

SPEAKER_02 38:44

Honestly, I need to go to a strip club for Halloween one year now because this is one of my favorite things I've seen all year. Um, I just like love the juxtaposition of something like spooky but also slutty. So this was like really it for me.

SPEAKER_03 38:57

I mean, that's kind of how people approach Halloween altogether, right? Yeah, I will agree.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

Truly.

SPEAKER_05 39:02

Okay, so maybe Patreon content then. Uh only fans content.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

Paris and Alexis go to a spooky strip club.

SPEAKER_05 39:10

Okay, the rest of us will go to a haunted house.

SPEAKER_04 39:12

I'd totally rather go to a haunted strip club with masks than go to a haunted house. So you guys, Paris and I will go to the strip club.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

What if the dancers also try to scare you?

SPEAKER_05 39:26

But then you know they're gonna try to touch you and dance on you.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

They like lull you into a false sense of security and then they're like, boo.

SPEAKER_04 39:32

Listen, they're allowed to touch you, so you have less less safety. I thought, but you can't touch them. Uh, depends where you go. Because I always thought about that. Who what kind of person would I be at a strip club? I would try to touch.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

Don't touch them, be respectful.

SPEAKER_04 39:45

Yeah, so I would try to touch because I wouldn't know what to do.

SPEAKER_05 39:48

They're just there to do their work.

SPEAKER_03 39:49

You would. You figure it out. But I'm just saying, okay, hear me out. What if you had to go through a mini Halloween haunt before you got into the strip club? And then inside it was like a party for like getting through, you know?

SPEAKER_04 40:03

Sponsored by Hackerslash. Is that what's going on?

SPEAKER_03 40:05

Yeah, you get to pick sides.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

But then what if some people get so scared they pee their pants and then a stripper has to sit on their pee pants lap?

SPEAKER_03 40:12

That's a strange experience. That literally doesn't happen to anyone in public in person in real life.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

Why did I think of that first thing? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 40:20

I don't know. It's very strange because no one's done that in in real life since they were like 12. I'm gonna go off the rails here a little bit and combine like my favorite scene and my favorite visual element. And it is um all the creepy people that chase them, all you know, across straight lines. They like overall, especially for me when they were surrounding them, when they were like just outside, like just chilling outside. And that was I that was just so creepy. Um, I don't know if you guys have stayed in a camper in like a obscure place before. I've only I guess I've only stayed in a camper in like a campground, but like a a pretty dark, like you know, you have power and that's about it for the campground. Um and in that situation, like you're in this really cool, safe place, right? You feel like you're kind of in a little apartment and you're chilling and you're with, you know, your family or whoever. But then there's this like weird existence because you remember that you're in the middle of nowhere. So like there could just be things outside, and in particular, usually it's animals. Like the hills have eyes. Yeah. So you have this, like, it is a very creepy experience because if you look out windows, I mean, I guess anytime at night, if you start looking out of windows, things get really weird. Because if you see something, then you're inside and you know something's outside. Um, and that is probably like one of the scariest parts of this movie for me, is just like they're they're messing with them and they're just all lined up outside. And oh, it was intense. I enjoyed it a lot.

SPEAKER_05 41:45

Yeah, the point where the RV is getting rocked, and they turn on the lights after the power goes out, and then they're all there, and then all of a sudden they're not there.

SPEAKER_03 41:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:53

That was what bumped my my tick up to 15. But one of the other moments I loved was the towards the end when you get that chaos and they're like um surprise explosion, and then it's don't look up, and then they're emerging from the back of the camper. Fucking terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 42:11

Yeah, because like how safe is a camper really?

SPEAKER_03 42:14

It uh truly less safe than your car because it has more like windows and like glass, and there's an entrance on the roof. Usually, there's a way you could get in. If not, maybe not necessarily an entrance, but a way you could get in, and then there's doors. It's not good.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

I also don't know if this is true, but I feel like every camper has like a really shitty screen door.

SPEAKER_03 42:32

Correct. They're basically made from like it's a it's I mean, it's a trailer door, it's a trailer park screen door, basically.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

I don't feel protected.

SPEAKER_04 42:42

You shouldn't. So mine was also like Ryan's tied to a visual element. Um, you know how I love my haunted houses. So right when they're getting into I think the second or third one, um, where they're like in this elevator and things are going crazy. I was like, oh my gosh, what's going on? Yes. And like it just builds up so much intensity for me. And then you get this part where it's like you're they're going through, and I don't know why I'm very intrigued with Psych Ward haunted houses. That's like my go-to thing on um YouTube, but like it was so crazy. And then I was thinking, like, you know, with whatever what with what was going on in the movie, I was like, okay, what if some of these people were like really crazy and in there? So I I was like going through that, and then I just every scene, every turn, and I think like that's where they had the chainsaw part. Um, and when you get towards the end of this, you know, they're like chasing them, and it was just very intense for me, and it really like upped the ante. And I just and I I but I also visually liked looking at the set design. And I talked about this before when we did um Hellfest, is I liked all those visual elements going into it. It's like so intriguing to look into haunted houses and not be scared. I can tell you that for sure.

SPEAKER_05 43:56

I didn't love the wardrobe of the scare actors, particularly the ones that That were stalking the group of friends. My favorite is porcelain, obviously, because she's so fucking weird. But second favorite, very close second, the feaster bunny. Credited as the feaster bunny.

SPEAKER_03 44:12

Dude, he was awesome. He gave that, he gave that look. Yeah. Like that turn the turn the head sideways like an animal and did like little hand gestures.

SPEAKER_05 44:21

So when I first saw him, I legitimately thought he was like an alpaca. Like I couldn't tell what he was.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

Just like a wild alpaca?

SPEAKER_05 44:29

Oh no, like I knew he was a scare actor, right? But like I didn't know what the costume was supposed to be.

SPEAKER_02 44:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 44:33

I thought it was a chupacabra, honestly. But no, I when I saw him, I was like, man, like I can't quite make out because there's so much blood and like scars on the costume. I couldn't really tell what it was. Also because he's a human. Yeah, exactly. But when he started doing the bunny motions, they're like, this guy, fucking love him. With an axe. Oh my god, so good.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

See, Chris, I was with you when you were talking about the wardrobe because I felt like a lot of those characters were very well styled uh for what they were going for. But you lost me at the bunny because that bunny actually did nothing for me. I didn't really find him scary. Um, but who I did find scary was Giggles, the uh creepily dancing clown that they found at that bar. Uh, partially because the way he moved, or I guess the way they moved, was so bizarre and just unnatural. And they're all just kind of like sitting there, like, what the fuck is this guy doing? Uh and the clown just like gets closer to the camera and you get like a really good detail shot of all the work that went into that mask. And I was like, that's actually a really good mask. And clowns don't normally scare me, but this one did.

SPEAKER_03 45:31

See, Paris, I totally disagree. The the bunny was amazing, it was so good. That was like one of the only moments that I even cared about. Once we got to that point in the movie, I was like, I don't care about anything until he came through with that axe, just chilling, and I wanted that axe to slant. Like, I was really looking for a death much earlier than we got anything. I was and I was like, come on, this is perfect. And then this will like propel the movie, like he'll just be missing, and you know, it'll be great. Also, the main clown, which I'm sure has a name that also like stood in front of their camper originally, so he was like the first main guy that was pissed off when they got on the roof. Oh, yeah. She was like, he was my favorite creepy guy. Those eyebrows. Yeah. Creepy. They were intense.

SPEAKER_05 46:11

There was a lot going on. Ooh. I think one of the best things about this movie, looking at those scare actors, looking at the haunts, there's a quote in the beginning of the movie that says, I'm afraid of what human beings do to other real human beings. In Paris, that bar scene with Giggles the Clown, when those two men just go corner brandy in the bathroom, that kind of shit is actually terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I hated that part. And I also felt like it was kind of unnecessary. I was like, this feels like a cheap kind of scare and not like the good kind of scare.

SPEAKER_03 46:41

Yeah, but also I feel like there are certain places where you don't just roll up. And they basically just in Baton Rouge rolled into this bar and said, Hey, we're looking for giggles, which just makes them look like a mark. So I I think it I think it was legit whether or not it, you know, needed to be in the movie or whatever, you know, I I it didn't take away from anything for me. But that's that's a legitimate scene. Like they're like, oh, these city boys think they know what they're doing. Like, yeah, that that the that's that's some some people in the south that are in a certain place and this is their home, and you just rolled in looking for some guy.

SPEAKER_05 47:14

Yeah, I think that could have been borderline one of the worst parts of the movie for me, just because there was this constant, like, Brandy, get back in the trailer, Brandy, do this, Brandy, do that. There's one point where they're like, Yeah, hey, more beer, and she's like, That's not what I'm on this trip for. But they didn't go that far, right? They didn't go that hard in the movie, so it it kind of redeemed itself from that. The worst part for me actually was that strip club. It just felt like nudity that didn't need to be there, and it just felt like a whole sideshow on this on this trip that just I don't know, it's it wasn't necessary to me. I feel like it just took away from all the haunts.

SPEAKER_03 47:47

Yes, but don't you think that they would actually stop there, this group of people?

SPEAKER_05 47:50

I don't fucking care. I think that's my problem. I want to go for the haunts. Well, to be fair, I didn't care about much of it.

SPEAKER_04 47:56

I feel like they would be that group that would stop, but I also didn't need it either. It was like, I was like, all of a sudden, and it was like uh which I would go to this place if I were given the choice between this or a haunted house, but there was just a lot of like boobs, like it was more than I nev normally see. And I was like, I was kind of thrown back about it. I was like, okay, we get we get the gist. Okay, we can cut to another scene.

SPEAKER_05 48:19

It wasn't just a boob. I wanna I've seen movies about strippers that had less boob than this movie.

SPEAKER_02 48:26

For sure.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

Yeah, yeah. But and it was like so packed into one scene. Like sometimes we get like some boobs here, some boobs there. This is just like, y'all, we're gonna look at boobs for a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 48:36

This is it. It was caps lock boobs.

SPEAKER_05 48:39

Yes, caps lock boobs, indeed. And nothing of consequence occurs there. It's not like they meet giggles there. Brandy's definitely not happy after that, but that's pretty much it. Right. Like, if they had like put giggles there, I would have been happy with it. It would have been fine. Agreed.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Yeah, that would have made more sense. Um, I will say though that this movie showed me a lot of like sort of offshoots of haunts that I didn't know existed. One being like a zombie strip club. I was like, oh, that's a thing. I thought it was just done for this movie, but you guys have helped to educate me that this is actually a thing that happens. Um, but then also like the zombie paintball.

SPEAKER_04 49:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

Like that was really cool. And I'd never heard of that, and I was like, this is looks very fun. Um, so I feel like it did a good job of kind of showcasing like the different like like side genre or like sub-genres of haunts that exist out there. So I feel like that's the only way I can even try to justify the capsock boob scene.

SPEAKER_05 49:32

Right. I I did the zombie paintball in Virginia when I lived there, and it actually is so much fun.

SPEAKER_03 49:40

Yes. I oh my gosh, I would like to to to stand here right now, even though I'm sitting, I'd like to stand and tell you guys how much I loved the concept of zombie paintball. And I'm sure that that's a real thing because what why wouldn't it be? But why have I never heard of it?

SPEAKER_02 49:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:56

Girl, it's happening in Chesapeake. Go. I'll go do it tomorrow, okay? Please don't tempt me because this to me, this was the best part of the movie.

SPEAKER_05 50:06

There's no reason to not do it, and they actually space you out well enough so that like you get to have your own zombies and you're not just like all shooting at one guy, and it's like, oh, did I even hit him?

SPEAKER_03 50:17

I'm so bored when they so like you know, they're going to all these haunts, and um, you know, I do enjoy the whole thing about like haunted houses. There's an experience that you have when you're waiting in line at haunted houses that they showed really well in this movie. There's um there's just a lot of different bits that we get from this. Like, you know, if you get there early, you see the actors like kind of being normal people and stuff like that. And then when they went, so all of it was cool, and then when they went to the zombie freaking paintball, I was like, dude, this is amazing. This is a thing I would get on a road trip to go do, not to go to some stupid blue skeleton, this is gonna be real thing. Um, and it it it was just like, I don't know, that was something that made me so happy. That was literally my favorite part of the whole movie. You get on a ay tractor and and ride off and just kill some zombies with your paintball. Exactly. So good.

SPEAKER_02 51:09

I feel like in general, though, the thing that I liked most about this film was the way it captured so many different aspects of going to a haunt. Um, there were a lot of the more like off-the-beaten path ones that I recognized uh from my experiences, like in rural Pennsylvania that like my cousins worked at. Um, so I feel like of all the films we've watched recently that explore the concept of showcasing a haunt in a horror movie, this is the one that captured the essence most familiarly to me.

SPEAKER_03 51:38

I agree. Hellhouse LLC. We've never put on a haunt, we've never done that. So we don't know what that feels like. So we don't really relate to those characters on that level. This movie definitely did a much better job of like making you feel like what it's like. You gotta find people that want to go with you. You might not be with your best friends because your best friends don't want to go, Alexis. So you gotta find other people and you gotta figure out what what they want to do. And everyone has if you like are picking where you want to go, everybody's into different things, you know. There's always a weirdo in the group. Um, there's always like a baby in the group. So you're right, you're right, Perry. So it's very realistic and very relatable.

SPEAKER_02 52:12

Imagine just like bringing a baby on this trip.

SPEAKER_05 52:15

God, that'd be a fucking nightmare. I know we're gonna get here into the characters, and I think Brandy is one of the ones that really shined in this movie for me. I think I feel like she had one of the most authentic performances, even though they all gel together as a group very well. But one thing I just want to shout out real quick the way the story is structured, by starting with the end, then cutting back to the beginning. I absolutely love that approach to filmmaking, and I did appreciate the way it unfolded in that direction.

SPEAKER_04 52:44

Yeah, I think you have a good point because they definitely gel really well. Like I could not that I could pick out a person to match all of our personalities, but it just felt very like what it would be like hanging out with your friends going to a haunted house, from what I would understand it would be like because I would never go.

SPEAKER_03 53:02

This is exactly what I imagined it would be like if I ever did this. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 53:08

I feel like, yeah, these characters are very believable, but I don't think they were very memorable. Like for me, there was Brandy because she was the girl, there was Mikey because he had the beard, and then there were just like two or three other interchangeable white dudes that were all just a blur to me.

SPEAKER_05 53:23

Yep. I I totally agree. One who wrote poems and raps.

SPEAKER_02 53:27

Oh god, I forgot about that scene. That was horror.

SPEAKER_05 53:30

I don't know how I didn't call that the worst part of the movie. I'm sorry. And then you went back and edit that.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

We now we've said it.

SPEAKER_03 53:36

It was like at first it was a poem and then it was a rap, and I was like, I don't like what's happening here. But also, again, to be fair, these are realistic friends that you go on road trips like this with, okay?

SPEAKER_02 53:47

Like it was believably horrible and cringy.

SPEAKER_03 53:50

Just not friends I'd be with. Chris, you don't ask for this to happen, but it happens. Like, you know, how many people are gonna go on a cross-state line road trip to see haunted houses with you?

SPEAKER_05 54:00

Oh, for sure. I just mean I'm not gonna be road tripping with someone who raps about their experience living on a farm in the Midwest.

SPEAKER_03 54:09

Does that mean you leave them on the road along the way once they start rapping? Is that the deal?

SPEAKER_02 54:14

I think they don't get invited.

SPEAKER_03 54:15

Mostly that, but if they reveal themselves to be an imposter later, then yes, they're getting kicked out. Paris, I I so deeply agree with you. There's Mikey and Brandy, and I couldn't even tell you which of the three dudes is the one that was very intent on going to this creepy place in New Orleans. They just blend together to me. They really do. Yeah. It was just like uh I know one of them is really intense in this in this project here, in this goal, but other than that, I they are who they are. They're just, you know, live free, be who you want to be, but they meant nothing to me. And they mean nothing to me now, to be fair.

SPEAKER_02 54:49

I feel like though there were some other characters in this that weren't as forgettable, and that was just like the pack of clowns that just seemed to multiply as they went on throughout this journey.

SPEAKER_05 55:00

Um, get wet and they multiply, yes.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

Ew. And I have a question for you, my friends. Has anybody here played Twisted Metal before?

SPEAKER_05 55:08

No. Yes? Oh my god. Yes, it's great.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

Okay, do you remember in Twisted Metal 4 when Sweetooth had like that band of like little clown minions?

SPEAKER_05 55:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

That was the vibe that this pack of ghouls was giving me. And I was like, oh, I haven't thought about this game in years, but I miss that game.

SPEAKER_05 55:22

I haven't thought about it until this moment. Thank you so much for bringing such a fond memory back to my heart.

SPEAKER_03 55:27

It's like one of the most popular PlayStation games that we all wish we had again, but I'm sure it wouldn't be as great if we played it now.

SPEAKER_04 55:34

No idea what you guys are talking about, really, but I do agree that every one of these clowns is super scary, but also very super unique.

SPEAKER_03 55:42

Yeah, they all had a different personality. That's the thing about creepy clowns. They're all like their own person, you know. One of them's got a foot fetish. Ew, what? I'm just joking. Thing for big feet. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 55:55

Oh god. My favorite clown was actually not one of the creepy clowns. It's when they're at the haunt and one of the clowns that's what are you filming? And they're like, Oh, to catch a predator. And she's like, To catch a predator, I gotta go. It just seemed like so silly and just like believable. I just fucking loved it. One of the characters that disappointed me was Zach. Zach conducting the interview with that like off-duty clown felt so stilted and awkward. When they originally shot this movie, Brandy was the one doing the interviews. Some of the footage in this movie is from the original. So everything you see that's small that is actually from the original when they tried to go for like a more documentary feel. Oh, okay. But I think she was just generally better and had more presence, if that makes sense. I was disappointed to see Zach kind of like take front and center in this one.

SPEAKER_02 56:46

Yeah, he was very vanilla.

SPEAKER_05 56:48

But one character I could relate to for one brief moment and literally zero other moments was Mikey when he's sleeping face down, and they're like, Come on, you gotta get up. He's like, I need eight minutes to totally get ready. I'll be fine. You get ready. And that's me on every trip. Not me.

SPEAKER_03 57:04

I was just gonna say that. That is not me. If you don't wake me up an hour and a half ahead of time, I ain't going nowhere.

SPEAKER_02 57:11

Yeah, we've been up for like an hour. We will let Chris sleep and then the three of us will fight over the bathroom.

SPEAKER_03 57:15

There we go. Exactly. Exactly. Speaking of end, Chris, why are why? Why was the end all black? Why didn't we see anything? Why don't I know what happened to these characters? Why don't I know if anyone's dead? Why can't we even have a body count? Because we don't know who died.

SPEAKER_04 57:30

I know. To me, that's the thing. It's like you don't know. So maybe they were an extreme like maybe the whole time they were setting them up because they had already like talked about it and put on the internet their intentions. So maybe it was like this was part of the game, and like you get buried alive for like an hour and then they dig you up. You don't know that. Or maybe these people are so psychotic that they actually killed them. I I I like that perspective that you could use.

SPEAKER_03 57:57

You're I yeah, I mean, I guess you have you have the right point because they post these videos online.

SPEAKER_04 58:00

Like, you can get stabbed in a, I'm sure, extreme haunted house. I've seen them like watch haunters on there. They literally like throw a throw-up in your face and like all this sort of stuff. It's disgusting.

SPEAKER_02 58:11

My interpretation of the ending was just that they like each character was having their specific fears exploited, so they were getting like a personalized haunt experience. Like uh the one character early on, see he was like, Um, I'm not afraid of like a spooky chainsaw or whatever, but I'm afraid of like not knowing, and like I think he was the one who was just trapped in complete darkness with just the glow stick, which maybe for him that was scary, but as an as a viewer, I wasn't scared at all. Um, and then I don't know if that was actually it because I could only kind of piece it together for a few of the characters, but other ones I was like, I'm not sure if this was his fear, but that's kind of the vibe I got from it. But ultimately, like ending in a buried alive moment did not do it for me because being buried alive is not scary.

SPEAKER_05 58:53

Early on in the movie, Brandy does talk about how she's claustrophobic and they keep joking about getting her into a coffin.

SPEAKER_02 58:58

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:59

Being buried alive is terrifying, and there is a movie where Ryan Reynolds is straight up just buried alive, and the whole movie's him in the fucking coffin, and that shit is scary.

SPEAKER_03 59:09

Like, yes, the idea of being buried alive is scary, but watching someone buried alive doesn't scare me.

SPEAKER_05 59:16

So this movie, just to set this up, the end was intended to be open, right? And that going through the darkness with a glow stick, when they premiered this movie for the first time in a theater, the audience, and remember this is shot in more of like a documentary style, the audience was 100% convinced that everything they saw was real. So when Bobby Rowe, who like directed this movie, he's the guy with the longer hair, when he saw that, he actually cancelled the QA that was supposed to happen with the cast afterwards, and the cast like the lights went down, the movie ended, they were all handed a glow stick and they had to make their way out of the theater in total darkness. So that was like a a nod to that.

SPEAKER_02 59:54

That's kind of fun.

SPEAKER_03 59:55

So I have a rogue question to ask, and this is gonna sound very strange, but this is what was going through my mind at the end of the movie, okay? And everyone has to take a guess here, and I don't know the answer, so it it's just a silly question. How much dirt, like depth-wise, would be soundproof? Because Brandy is like screaming in this coffin or casket, whatever. She's in a coffin, basically, she's in wood and she's underground. So, like, how much dirt do you put on top of a person before you can hear their stop hearing their screams?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:25

Is the answer six feet?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:26

I don't know. That I mean, that's usually like the depth.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:29

Yeah, when you're six feet under, so maybe that's it.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:31

Yeah, but you're also not making sounds under there, so how would we really know?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:34

That was a very shallow grave. We can say that though.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:37

That that's what I'm saying, and like imagine standing on like you're just standing on the ground and underneath you you can hear someone screaming. Like that would be the creepiest feeling. That's scarier. That's scarier than this movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:52

That's scarier than being in the coffin, I think. When you're in the coffin, one, it's comfy. Two, if you're not claustrophobic, it's like nice and snug. So in my mind, I was like, just like go to sleep, wake up when they're gone and done burying you, and then just like kill Bill your way out.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:08

The oxygen level is a um variable in this.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:12

I mean, so then you fall die in your sleep. That's ideal.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:16

There is a strategy to escaping a coffin when you're buried alive.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:20

And is it to kill Bill your way out?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:22

It's not to scream. That would be my first instinct. And then I'm like, nope, I need to conserve this energy and this oxygen in here. Smart woman.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:29

Here are the steps. One, conserve your air supply. So take a deep breath, then hold it for as long as possible. Press up on the coffin lid with your hands, remove your shirt, break through the coffin, use your hands to push the dirt toward your feet as the dirt is coming in so that it doesn't suffocate you, and then try your hardest to sit up. Because once you sit up, then you can start digging your way out. This sounds hopeless. Deeper descriptions that I will include in our show notes for our listeners, don't worry. There are more thorough steps than that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:59

You just have to have 5G when you're buried, so you can look this up.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:02

I I I encourage you to commit it to memory before you go out of your house when uh COVID-19 ends. I know I said earlier that I intend to probably never watch this movie again unless I'm going on a haunted house road trip, which I do hope to do with all of you at some point in the future. How about you guys? Anybody gonna watch this again? No intentions.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:18

I'm not gonna watch it again either, but I am gonna recommend it to my cousins that have worked as scare actors because I think they would love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:23

I am totally watching this again. I it it gives me all the um Halloween vibes um without going to the dangerous places that require you to get that kind of experience. So um, yeah, of course, of course I'm watching this again.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:35

Okay, that's fair. At least that makes one of us out of the four. Maybe you can take some of this trivia with you on your next rewatch so that you can pick up and appreciate things a little bit more on your next watch. You guys ready for some fact or fiction?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:46

No.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:46

Bobby and Zach had a tradition growing up. Each weekend in October, they would watch a horror movie and then go to a local haunted house attraction. When Bobby finished up graduate film studies, he immediately reached out to Zack with the idea of making a horror film out of that original October tradition. Fact. Fact.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:03

That's cute, fact.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:04

It's actually fiction. So Bobby and Zack, before this, sold many horror movie scripts. Their tradition is real. However, Bobby went to film school, they worked together to write some scripts, and none were made into movies at all. And they were kind of pissed about it. They felt like they were making things that were different from the rest of the horror movies that were coming out around the time. Keep in mind, this is around 2009. They decided to make this movie in order to quote unquote do something about it instead of just pissing the moaning. This was a very uh Mac question of you, by the way. You don't you don't uh play fact or fiction with me often, Ryan, so you gotta know that I will set some context and then I will make a statement, and it's up to you to pick out what's correct or incorrect.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:46

The fragment of falsehood.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:48

Yes, exactly. Alright. Next up. This was a passion project for Bobby and Zach, as we just stated. They did want to honor their original October tradition, but they didn't have the major backing of a studio yet. So when making the first version of the film, they opted to pull a clerks and just maxed out their own credit cards to finance the film. Fact. Fact.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:08

I also feel like that's a fact.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:10

Or maybe they spent like five bucks.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:12

Oh, they totally just spent like five bucks, Ryan. I'm saying fiction, I changed my mind.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:16

Sorry, that's a fact. I mean, RVs are expensive, bruh. Very true. That is that is maxing out your credit card worthy. Now, next up, in terms of the cast, the team put an emphasis on anonymity and chemistry. There are a few small exceptions to that anonymity, though. For example, Bobby was actually an all-American pitcher at UCLA, and his brother Mike hosted a show called Feed the Beast on Travel Channel.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:38

Uh um, this is fact, because isn't that Mike Rowe? Or something row. On on some sort of TV. Uh, but yeah, I'm just gonna say fact. You're onto something there with dirty jobs. Yes. But I'm gonna go fiction.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:54

Yeah, I I support this fiction.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:57

Uh, it is actually fact, Bobby was an all-American pitcher at UCLA, but he decided to abandon his baseball dreams and actually turned his attention towards horror filmmaking. Alright, next up, now we've talked about that chemistry and that anonymity. The cast of this film is incredibly close in real life. Since Bobby and Mikey are both brothers, Bobby and Zach are actually longtime friends, and Jeff went to school with Bobby. The only exception is Brandy. She was actually an actress and a dancer they cast specifically for this film. She had only appeared in small roles, with her biggest being a dancer in Allie McBeal, if you can remember that show, so she was easily affordable.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:33

A fiction. That's a little long.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:36

I'm gonna go fact, only because I do feel like she was the one thing that at times felt like an actor.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:42

Really? I felt like she was the most natural, and I'm very shocked to think that she could have been an actor. Uh, so I'm gonna say this is fiction.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:51

Alright, so it is fiction, but it's only fiction because Brandy's actually a longtime friend of Bobby and Zach as well. Hmm. Not surprised. She actually is. An actress, she actually is a dancer, she actually was on Ally McBeal, and she is the first and last person they ever considered for this role.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:07

That's nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:08

Nice to be wanted for something.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:09

Absolutely. And wanted for something more than just getting more beer from the RV. And here's your last one. All the scale-down interview footage you see in the 2014 film was footage from the original 2011 version we established earlier. That movie leaned heavier into the documentary style and relied on actual interviews with real haunt owners, workers, and customers to tell its story. None of the interviews were scripted. You're tripping me up on that last part, but I'm gonna say fact. I'll go fact.Feels good.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:37

I want to believe. Yeah, that that that felt so real, so I'm gonna say fact.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:41

It's a fact, a hundred percent. All those interviews you see, all the talk about body parts and bodies and people dying in haunts, that is 100% real.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:50

Which is crazy because some of those stories were nuts.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:52

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:53

I mean, like the one where like somebody accidentally replaced their fake news with a a real news and then did actually kill themselves, and everyone's just like walking through the haunt, like, oh, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:02

To be fair, that was like a story from a person that had known somebody. So, like, is it true?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:07

That's true. I guess it could be.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:09

There actually is a real story, and it's actually documented in the news. In 1990, a young man who had been in the attraction, he had a noose around his neck, and he was supposed to just like step off onto the ground, so it looks like he's just barely hanging. He had done the stunt several times on a Saturday, he was like 17 years old, and something happened and malfunctioned, and he actually hung, and tourgoers passed by him, and he was already dead. And the driver of that of that little bus was actually concerned because he hadn't given the speech. Like this guy was supposed to say something, so it had been hours that he was dead.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:44

That's scary.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:44

Yeah, I believe that though, unfortunately. Absolutely. Now, there's a ton that you can learn about this kind of situation here. That being said, yeah, the people and uh who put in the efforts to make these haunts loved the season and they they love to serve, right? And it's a shame that so many of these are now closed due to COVID-19. So hopefully they can bounce back and have some successful business. I know I'll be frequenting that once it's safe. But there you have it, folks. The houses October built made a house divided for us with two hacks and two slashes. We've had a lot to talk about here, but the conversation doesn't end here because this movie is highly regarded, even if Alexis is the only one who likes it strongly at this table tonight. So we want to know what you think. Keep in mind there are a number of ways you can reach out to us, starting with our website, hackerslash.com, and on our social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:30

And if you're a scare actor, we really want to hear from you. So hit us up at our Hackerslash Hotline. It's spooky cool. Our number is 757-606-0128. You can text us or call us or leave us a voicemail or an audio message with your creepiest voice.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:46

Or if you have a suggestion of which spooky strip club Alexis and I should go to, you can send us an email to feedback at hackerslash.com. Or if you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider becoming one of our patrons. You can visit patreon.com/slash hacker slash and earn cool perks for as low as one dollar a month, like our friend Spencer.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:05

We'll see you next time. Bye.