SPEAKER_01 0:04

Not quite sure what the succubus agenda is.

SPEAKER_04 0:07

That is the agenda. Wow, what a job.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hackerslash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. It must be your lucky day because I have some words of wisdom just for you. You listen up now, you hear? If this is your first time listening, welcome to the 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. Totally killer pun intended. We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a perspective we've all gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the gore lover Alexis. Hey everyone. The cowardly creeper Ryan. Hiya. And the Scream Queen Paris.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Hey sweets.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

This week we busted out our VCRs to check out a horror anthology by the folks over at Bloody Disgusting. Before we dive in though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Okay, so a few weeks ago we did an old versus new episode with The Wicker Man, including the 1973 version and the remake from 2006. Uh, I feel like generally we all kind of preferred the original. For the most part, Nicolas Cage was a real standout stinker in the remake. But we wanted to hear what our friends thought and what our listeners thought. And I actually have some really interesting poll results here. Only 36% preferred the original.

SPEAKER_05 1:34

That's so crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

I know. And 64% preferred the one with Nicolas Cage.

SPEAKER_05 1:38

This is absurd, and they are agents of chaos just like him. Yeah, I was gonna say, I think it's because he's so iconic for all of his screaming that that's why people enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Iconic for all the wrong fucking reasons, though. Let's be real. Let's be real. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

But also like maybe more people have just seen the remake than have seen the original. I don't know. I'm trying to justify this in my mind.

SPEAKER_03 2:00

I think they just hated both. And that's really where the problem came in.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

We have a comment from Greg on Twitter who said, While I love both versions for different reasons, if you hand me both movies and ask me to put one on, I'm putting on the 2006 version. It's just a more enjoyable film. The original is a bit slow moving, so there's a chance I can fall asleep. Plus the remake has Nicolas Cage. He has only put out one bad film, Color Out of Space.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Literally the least surprising take coming from Greg.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

At least from Greg it makes sense, you know. The other 63%, I don't know. We have a comment from Scare Troducing who said, This tweet is offensive to Scotland. 73 is a masterpiece.

SPEAKER_05 2:35

Oh my god. I'm dying of these comments right now.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

We have another comment from Rob who said, Love the Wickerman episode of Hacker Slash, even though it did force me to watch the awful remake. Sorry, Rob. The crew nailed it though. It seems weird to say, but I find the original to be a charming film. The remake stripped all of that away and just became awful. Completely shattered my theory that putting Nick Cage in your movie automatically makes it 200% better. We have another comment from one of our listeners, Mel, who said, For the most part, I agree with everyone's takes. In fact, I'm a bit surprised it got three out of four slashes. I honestly thought you would have hated the lack of violence and only one death. I'm glad you guys retroactively appreciated the influence the Wickerman had on Midsummar. I'm happy that most of you appreciated the strange nuances the original brought forth, even if it made a less traditional horror film. And finally we have a comment from one of our patrons, Freya, who said, I was literally about to type and ask if Alexis had seen Mandy. It's got a lot of her favorite things, the 80s and cults and plenty of gore. I've not seen the original Wickerman due to a warning about the animal killing, but the remake is only to be watched with the intention of making fun of it while drinking a few alcoholic bevies, for me at least. Then again, Cage being unapologetically feral is always easy to make fun of. Face off flashbacks.

SPEAKER_05 3:48

Mandy has been on my list. It's just always there, but I don't know, like when I'm watching our movies for a podcast and I get into like these weird things where I'm like, ooh, I want to watch the second one. And then I just kind of go off on tangents there. I need to have a list though, and once a week I need to go off these lists of all these movies I've been still wanting to watch. So thank you for the recommendation. I actually might make that something I listened to in the car ride up to New York this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

We also have a brand new patron that we'd like to thank. It's Marshall. Marshall, we have been hanging out with you on Twitter a lot, and we're so excited to see that you've become a patron. Thank you so much for your support. And if you want to call into the Hackerslash Hotline, now is an excellent time to do so. And that is our follow-up.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Many moons ago, Bloody Disgusting founder Brad Misca conceived an approach for a web series, which ultimately evolved into a collaborative, trustful style anthology production that gave several writers and directors complete creative control over their segments. Among them, well, just to name a few here and bring you all up to speed, the filmmaking collective Radio Silence, who were the minds behind Ready or Not, and are also working on the next scream movie, director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett, whose work we reviewed in Your Next, Joe Swanberg, who also starred in Your Next, and Ty West, who had a brief role in Your Next, but we're mostly familiar with due to his 2009 film The House of the Devil. Ten directors assembled to build a story of a group of vandals who are hired to steal a rare VHS tape, but ultimately find cryptic, inexplicable footage. This week we're talking about VHS. Have any of you seen this before?

SPEAKER_05 5:21

I have, unfortunately. Or fortunately, uh, whichever way you want to look at it. Uh it's super funny that I saw this with my sister. We were like up really late. She's like, you know what movie you need to watch? VHS. And I was like, interesting, haven't seen it. So she puts it on, and her and I are like, you know, doing our thing, eating popcorn in bed and watching the movie. And I watched this and I was just like, oh wow, what is this? And then we proceeded to watch the other ones as well. So I've essentially I think I've seen them all.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Interesting. I didn't even know this movie existed, much less knowing that there was a bunch of sequels that come after it. Y'all know me, you know, I've heard of nothing, basically, in this world.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Except for an American Werewolf in London.

SPEAKER_03 6:03

Yeah, and even that I hadn't seen it, I just knew it existed. So that's an achievement. This movie is completely new to me for this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Much like you, Ryan, with American Werewolf in London. I knew this movie existed, but hadn't seen it. I remember it coming out in 2012 and thinking that title for a movie sounds kind of lame. I figured it would just be kind of like a bee horror movie. Um, so I hadn't watched it until now.

SPEAKER_03 6:25

To be fair, VHS in 2012 is like quite outdated. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Yeah. At that point we've moved on.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

We're way past the time of VHS, exactly. Hey, you know, some people were still using at least mini DV tapes to record things for the government.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Just because they were doesn't mean that they should be. Oh no, it was a hundred percent archaic. Really frustrating. The day we switched over to P2 like memory cards, it was amazing. Actually, I remember watching this movie shortly after getting out of the Navy. I haven't seen any of the other ones in the franchise, but this was a point in my life where after exiting and separating from service, I was unemployed for about eight months, waiting to start in my now current job. And I had a lot of freelance time, and I also had a lot of free time, and I filled that free time with the discovery of this thing called XBMC where you could watch movies for free. So I watched this on a day when I had on this and then every fucking Sharknado movie.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

So I think that tells you exactly what you need to know about the headspace I was in when I watched this shit.

SPEAKER_05 7:27

Yeah, I feel bad for you already, but I actually like watching the Sharknado movies. We'll see how it fares.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Are they worth watching? I've never seen a Sharknado movie.

SPEAKER_05 7:36

Oh, you have to watch. I don't think that you should parry. I think you should, just to say you saw them. Okay, it's cool. Summer's coming up. We can actually put that on to review. Have many drinks.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

So I have experienced this one, right? And you know, time will tell in in just a moment how that worked out for me. But I actually never made it consciously past this first story again, right? This is the time in my life when I'm watching on the Sharknado movies. Clearly, I was doing other things while watching these movies. So basically, it was like a fresh watch for me this time around. But what were you folks expecting going into it?

SPEAKER_03 8:08

So as we were talking about this being on the schedule, we I think Chris had actually mentioned that it was an anthology, and I was quite excited, but I I didn't know what that meant, right? I've only seen like maybe one or two creep shows. Obviously, the first one that comes to mind for as far as seeing anthologies. I had really no idea what to expect, but unfortunately, shaky footage is what I had an expectation for, and boy, we sure did get that.

SPEAKER_05 8:35

Yeah, I wasn't sure. Uh obviously, the first time I had watched this movie, I figured it was some typical found footage, you know, shaky film, maybe an interesting plot, but mostly, in my opinion, they never really have plots.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Trick or Treat had a great plot. I'm just gonna say it. Mostly darkness.

SPEAKER_05 8:52

Mostly darkness, mostly you're figuring out what you're trying to look at the first time around. But this time around, you know, I just found my expectation was I was gonna like it for found footage, but this time I'm just like, you know what? I am not a fan of found footage anymore after this movie for sure. Found footage is a definite, like, weird topic. I don't know. Mac doesn't like him. I kind of like him.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Oh, I love it.

SPEAKER_05 9:16

You love okay, never mind. I don't I'll I'll wait till we get to the spoiler.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

It's debatable whether or not the shaky footage made Alexis throw up while we were watching this movie. So it's questionable. She said it was questionable.

SPEAKER_05 9:29

I think you were trying to make me feel better. Somehow I was drunk. I don't understand. I had a beer and a glass of wine. Yeah, don't get drunk and watch this movie. Do not. And don't fall asleep because then you end up standing over your kitchen sink throwing up somehow.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

This has taken a turn, which I did not expect. One thing I also didn't expect was the found footage of it all. I don't know why I wasn't thinking like this.

SPEAKER_05 9:55

Really? After the name?

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yeah, I for some reason I was thinking more like the ring. Like there was gonna be a VHS tape that was like haunted or some shit.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

But I I guess once Chris said it was an anthology a couple weeks ago, I was like, I don't know, for me, like a found footage anthology feels like two things that don't go together in my mind. But here we are. That's what we got. And I was actually thinking before this, I was like, does anybody like specifically love found footage, or do they just like love some of the good movies that happen to be found footage?

SPEAKER_00 10:22

No, I I love the potential of found footage. I love the approach of found footage. I think a lot of people do a lot of terrible work in found footage because they just think it's easy, or they're like, oh, we can just be really gritty and be really raw, and it's okay because it's found footage, but it's like, no, you still have to make a good fucking movie, right? It's it's artsy. I know Cloverfield is chaotic for people, but I really enjoyed it. I love creep, I love the first paranormal activity movie. Like, there's a lot of good found footage out there for sure.

SPEAKER_05 10:52

I have um some feelings about Cloverfield, but I just worked on a movie theater and had to clean up after that entire movie forever. It felt like, and it was the worst. Forever. Forever. It felt like forever. It was the longest two weeks of that release, like for my life. Still doing it right now in your own home? I'm just like, ugh.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

That's Alexis's purgatory.

SPEAKER_05 11:12

Yeah, it is, and I just recreated the scene on Friday.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Yeah. Considering everyone involved in this movie and and how generally well it was received, I expected it to be generally good, but I I was still expecting a mixed bag because it is an anthology, and the only anthology I've seen and loved every bit of was Trick or Treat. Creep Show was very hit or miss. Like for me, it was it was a good movie, and I respect it, but there were definitely segments of that movie that I was like, oh geez, can we get on with it already? Now, as for this movie, for the most part, I w I was right. This movie is a mixed bag, and there's a lot of good in terms of like technical execution on some things, particularly the visual effects that we get in about three of the different shorts. And I I'm a fair of the bare bones plots and twist in each story. But what I didn't quite expect was the stuff it'd be mixed with is worse than just a general lack of quality. It's not like it's just a shitty movie. It's mixed with an attempt to like tackle the the male gaze, and that ended up feeling more like you're running the male tone-deaf misogyny. There was some good, and then the bad was just so fucking bad that it was hard to be entertained.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

I have uh a kind of similar feeling. Like when I was finished watching this movie, I was really surprised by this feeling that I had, which was almost as if I had seen someone's like private footage that they had like in their house. Like there are some scenes in this movie where I just feel like it's like I just feel like I'm watching some creepy dude's videos that he keeps in his like sock drawer.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Very bad.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

I I mean, there's some moments in this movie that are just like I don't know. I guess I guess that I guess the feeling is a little bit of like exploitation in a way. I don't know. There's just a certain feeling that I had after I watched this movie that I I don't think I've had before from a another movie.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Which is totally fair. I mean, that is partially the intention, but at the same time, there there's like a way to do it and there's like a way to do it well. Right. So I'd love to like hear your journey as you continue the episode, like unpacking all of that. Yeah. Because what you said, the way you just described that, is the way I felt after watching the Poughkeepsie tapes. And that was a disturbing, fucked up movie that and it gave me that lasting feeling. This movie and the Poughkeepsie tapes are totally different in terms of quality and intention. And yeah, I don't know. I'm curious to hear how this grows for you.

SPEAKER_05 13:37

Yeah, it's interesting since I had to watch it twice. It was a journey, it wasn't really what I expected. And honestly, like the way it left me was it felt exploitative. But to me, it felt like super disturbing. And then, you know, thinking about like my thoughts, this is like the first movie I think I've watched I didn't take notes on. Um, and I was like, you know, I'm just gonna actually watch this and take um collect my thoughts after. These stories, I don't know if it was the order they went in, or like some I liked, some I was just like WTF, but the good wasn't enough to like get this weird taste that I had for this movie like out of my mouth.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

I feel that for sure, Alexis. Um, I'm really glad that I knew this was an anthology, uh, because the first like 20 minutes of this movie were truly unbearable for me. And if I didn't know that at some point it would cut off and take a completely different uh narrative turn, I don't know that I would have finished it. Um, like you guys are all saying, there's like a ton of male gaze in this that at one point just gets nauseating, and like through every single story almost you're met with these like very specific types of characters that are just I cannot stand them personally. Um so it felt like even during the the the high points of this movie, there were still those elements present that made me just be like, I hate you and I want you to die, but not in a way that was enjoyable to see them die because they almost did too much of the the parts that I didn't like in a way that didn't quite balance out.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Yeah, there's this is a movie that like a lot of anthologies, there's a an amount of comeuppance, but this one misses the mark for me, right? Because it's in a point where like the comeuppance has arrived, but the people who are on the other side of that, right? Like, so who is technically the antagonist in the situation shouldn't be the fucking antagonist. Like it's it's a really weird dynamic that I wasn't a fan of. And I think, you know, ultimately the biggest surprise for me is how much of a disappointment I felt it was, considering how many incredible people are involved in it, right? There is an astounding lack of diversity in this, and on so many levels, right? It's not just like the ratio of men to women who are involved in the production team. There's like no diversity in uh perspective or in thought. And that's pretty common when you consider like spaces that are dominated by men. So Brad Misca had this really, really cool idea, and he's like, Yeah, we're gonna get people there, they're proven with us. These are all people that we have relationships with through bloody disgusting, and they're all talented filmmakers, right? But you know, at the surface level, it seems fine, and then as you go on, you you're working with people who already get opportunities, and you aren't giving opportunities to anyone else. So when that happens, if it's just one-time thing, cool, whatever, but you're gonna end up with a movie that has massive blind spots, and this movie had a ton of blind spots that I just got lost in.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

Yeah, I mean, I I agree. I don't know. It's really hard to talk about this in like the the abstract before we go into all the spoilers, but there's just a lot that happens, and obviously it's an anthology, so you you get a lot of different components coming together in this movie for sure. I think one thing that it lacked for me completely was horror or fear in any way.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 16:51

The only thing I felt like fear about is like how you know some of these behaviors could be a reality for a person. But I mean, this this movie isn't scary to me at all. And I feel like Alexa said she was very afraid of it, so I was going in expecting some fear, but it didn't happen.

SPEAKER_05 17:08

That feeling I had the first time, I think, is because I was wasn't picking apart the movie necessarily, I was just watching it for what it was, and it reminded me of a sort of ring mentality, like, oh my gosh, if I find a tape like this, yeah. And there there might be like that, was like so scary to me. And then as you see, like, I don't mean to spoil anything for anyone who's watching the rest of them, but eventually, I think in the viral one, it it's similar to like the ring, you watch it and then you die. But I don't I was just so surprised, and I know Chris has touched on this, that there were directors that were prominent, you know, in this movie that directed these shorts, and I didn't know any of that. So essentially this movie was a reunion for your next very quick reunion. It wasn't a five-year, you know, high school, tenure, high school reunion, whatever those are.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Yeah, I am very surprised to hear that so many people involved in your next were also involved in this because of how much I enjoyed your next. Uh, I'm also really surprised to hear that uh this had uh several different directors who kind of all did their own thing because somehow they all landed on the same note for me.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Oh, yeah, did they?

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Which I'm like, what? How? I'm very confused, uh, and also disappointed by that. But yeah, this movie overall, I was also surprised it was found footage. What I'm not surprised by, I guess, would be that Mac just happens to not be here on this episode.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Well, if you recall correctly, originally we were supposed to do this on his on week, and then we would have recorded American Werewolf in London on a night of a full moon, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

I think he made the right choice, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

The calendar mysteriously changed.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

I feel like Mac could use like a medical excuse to get out of watching this movie, like genuinely.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Yeah, just like dizziness and motion sickness.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

Exactly. It's like, oh, I'm sorry, we have to do American Werewolf in London. I can't watch VHS.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah, that was another disappointment. Like, I'm okay with found footage sometimes, but found footage plus like shitty footage is really hard, which is why at one point when we got a story that was like filmed with a much clearer camera, I was like, okay, finally, found footage where I can actually see what the fuck I'm looking at.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

It's just like, can I have found footage, but like with a steady cam?

SPEAKER_05 19:19

Okay, so you guys are being picky about your found footage now.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

I need HD found footage.

SPEAKER_05 19:25

I just need to see one solid frame for like any amount of time. Yeah. When it went upside down, it was pretty like a little much. I was like, nah, I don't I I don't need it. I don't need it.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

It's like this is 2012. This isn't, I don't know, the 90s when people who were first being I I realize some of its older footage, but it was released in 2012.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

So I mean, this film did use some iPhones in the course of its production. Uh I mean the the reality is like I want to see found footage from the you can have an iPhone with a 4K camera era. Yeah. Like that's what I'm looking forward to.

SPEAKER_03 20:02

I mean, it I I can go for old found footage if we use a big heavy camera because it makes things more steady. Like, you know what I mean? It's it's the like uh the idea of like when video cameras were like first accessible to like general and or uh honestly people who didn't have a ton of money, like high school kids and stuff. And you have this like handheld camera and you're just like shaking it, throwing it around, and like you know, not paying attention to what you're filming at all, which is fine, but I don't want to watch a movie with it.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Yes, don't get me started on the oversaturation of the industry based on people who think they can just buy things and suddenly know what they're doing. Yes, exactly. Ryan, like you were saying, I I know that Alexis had shared with us all that you know she was really scared or had her all her lights turned on because she was nervous when she originally sat down to watch this by herself. And this is something that I don't have any fear whatsoever for.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

I felt a tiny inkling of fear, maybe two or three times. Um and I wish that had been explored more.

SPEAKER_05 21:01

Yeah, I know with found footage it wouldn't be natural um to have a lot of jump scares, but I feel like I could have a little bit more in this and been had been more frightful. But like I mentioned before, it turned from it being frightening when I watched it a few years ago to um now just disturbing and shocking, which I think is what it was going for.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Hmm. That's interesting. I'd love to know what actually shocked you in this movie. One thing that the filmmakers associated with this are super proud of is their belief that this movie is very different for found footage.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

Would you agree? Oh, I don't agree at all. I mean it's it's found footage. Each of the stories is not something I haven't seen before in it, you know, in something separate. Uh it doesn't have characters that I've never, you know, like I don't nothing is really original in my opinion.

SPEAKER_05 21:53

Yeah, and since it's like post like Blair Witch. Right. Uh or excuse me, Blair Witch project. Um, because I guess there's two. Um, and you know, it was just like this like saturation at the time, and it just kind of like died out then came back. So to me, like, I don't know. It it's it's all essentially the same, but I find I like some more than others. Um usually that's not necessarily the quality, but just the things that I particularly like about a certain movie are in those found footage.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Yeah, save for maybe like three or four of the horror effects. Um, I'd say that this isn't very original at all. But there are a small number of things that I've never seen before.

SPEAKER_05 22:35

There was one thing though, and it was I was just waiting for this movie to end. Bruh. I could not agree more.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

I don't what what is our runtime here? Almost two hours.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Yeah, almost two hours, but when I was watching it for free on Pluto TV, it was a whole damn two and a half hours.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

Oh man, I didn't watch this movie for free with commercials, but I I mean, when we got to the end of this or toward the end of this, I felt like it was going on forever. And I think at that point I was like, uh, it's like you know when you're at an amusement park for a really long time, you ride lots of roller coasters, and you get to the last one, you're like, Yeah, I don't think I need any more roller coasters. And it it just keeps going and going. And this felt like just like one too many roller coaster rides. So when we got to the end, I was like, Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 23:21

Yeah, and especially if you don't know the order or how many shorts are in this, like short stories, you're just like, Okay, is there another one? Okay, like what's happening? How are these gonna get tied together? And I've seen ABCs of death, and that one's a good one. Um, at least you know when you get to Z, you're at the end. Good point.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

For me, I was definitely checking how far along in the runtime I was throughout. I was like, okay, how much how much more this we got? Um, but interestingly, I actually uh like the first 20 minutes, like I said, I wrote down this is everything bad about Hell House, but in the very end, I was like, this is like Hell House, but better. Um so in a way, there was growth and development.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

You're not wrong.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Um, but everything in between was a journey.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Yeah, so one of the things I'll say about this movie is it starts out with a story that somehow was considered one of the best shorts in the movie, is now its own movie. They made it into its own movie a few years later. For me, that was trash. Like I hated that one. And I felt like they got better as they went on. So the ending, I didn't like the what you see during the credits, but the actual ending of the movie uh just before credits, I was super pleased with.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Yeah, it definitely ended better than it started.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

For sure. But we have to figure out how that translates into the scoring of this movie. But before we get there, Alexis, how many people died?

SPEAKER_05 24:43

Collectively, we have a high 20, which I'm glad. Lately it's been we've been high numbers lately. I've been pretty happy every week to say it was all above ten.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

And what about the animal report? You know, for the the characters that we have in this movie, it's kind of surprising that there are no animals involved. Um, because I feel like, you know, chaotic boys with too much energy. Oh, there's often some animals involved. So we're good this week. We're we're we're all in the clear, nothing to worry about. That's the one thing you can be okay with. No animals getting hurt here.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Thank goodness they didn't stoop quite so low. But let's go ahead and get into these ratings. VHS, the anthology from 2012. Was it a hacker or slash?

SPEAKER_01 25:26

This movie, like I said before, the first 20 minutes were excruciating for me. Um, it had so much like jackass energy, like that show on MTV that I've literally never watched for the reason that it's that. For me, it's the fact that like the framework of the anthology is that like jackass douchebags being destructive and chaotic and like really just horrible vibe that they string along throughout, so you keep coming back to it, that made it really hard for me to watch this. Um, it also blurred right into the first story, which also features a couple straight white douchebags. I actually didn't recognize really, like really at all that those were different characters until it was almost over, and I was like, oh, okay, so these weren't those people from before. Um, some of the stories I think had potential. Um, it definitely, like we were saying, got better as it went along. But literally every story in some way like disrespects a woman's boundaries, completely disregards consent, is exploitative in nature, and has a really voyeuristic quality that doesn't feel good or well done. And this is a very complex hack, but it is certainly a hack.

SPEAKER_05 26:39

I agree with that framework. I feel like, you know, there's, and I mentioned before, there's just like these pieces that I like, and you know, there's these elements that I like about this entire movie, but when they're put together and you do have that jackass energy, that's a great because in the beginning I was like, what is going on? And I've seen this twice, and I still was like, what the hell? I don't know if it was because I watched it a second time and I just picked up on more negativity than I would want. And I don't think to me pleasurable negativity? Is there such a thing? Like, yes, there is. Okay, yes. This wasn't that.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

I mean, you did like teeth, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:16

Yes, like teeth, or you know, terrifier. Like it's gory, it's fun. Like, I love some of these short stories, but when it's all put together, I feel like it shines towards the end and not in the beginning. So for those reasons, I'm going to have to hack this movie for sure.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Yep, I'm uh I'm gonna jump on that train. I don't I don't usually keep my secrets very well here. I think I don't know, you guys are completely on the right track with this and and what it makes me feel. I think saying it's a really complex hack is an accurate statement, but at the same time, it's there's no uncertainty, right? Like it's a hack. It's a hard hack for me. It's a like, please don't ever get this movie near me ever again kind of hack. But it's complex because it's like, I don't know, the and voyeuristic is the the right word to use, I think. The feeling that it gave me after I saw this, and I was like driving home from Alexis's house by myself at night, and I'm just like, I feel like I just like met some really creepy people and they started showing me creepy videos that like I didn't want to see and like force me to watch it, and then now like you know what I mean? It's just like I it's such a weird feeling from this movie, and not like a weird that I think I want to have from a horror movie, not a pleasurable weird, right? Not a pleasurable weird, like a dark part of the internet weird, yeah. You know what I mean? Yes, yeah, and I it just it didn't give me anything that I liked. I don't even think for like uh more than a couple of seconds, and I can't even think of what those things would be, but I can go on and on about the things I didn't like. Unfortunately, and yeah, the story that they base this anthology in just doesn't do anything for me, and then each of the stories uh was a bit of a let on for me. So it's a hack, it's a hard, hard, weird hack.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Okay. So I know I've I've sounded critical thus far, and this movie has earned three hacks, and and I think it's totally justified. But I do want to reiterate that there are really, really cool approaches to storytelling here buried within it. And I really enjoy the last segment and the wild things that go on there. I'm not mad that it's found footage. It's no Poughkeepsie tapes, but the concept isn't necessarily a bad one. And if I could like score each of these individually, I mean I'd give out of the five shorts and the five like films that you see, I'd give four of them slashes. But the problem is the approach to them all is flawed, and I didn't feel good watching this movie. It starts in the worst way possible, it continues in the worst way possible, and then it starts the ascent, and then it starts getting better, and none of it could be redeemed for me. I didn't feel amused by the frat boy antics, I didn't I didn't, you know, vibe with the unrelenting fucking misogyny that's like baked into almost every single one. So it it's a hack. And I in no way think that the people who made this are terrible humans, like they've made incredible things. They're they uh in their interviews they they talk about how proud how proud they are of their work generally, and the thing that they attempted to do with this movie, I think it just fell flat, and I think it fell flat because this movie was made in an echo chamber, and I don't think anybody in there could have like caught each other's blind spots, and that's a bummer.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

The people who should be making these attempts are not these people.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Yes. But the people who who should be making those attempts did make a another horror anthology in 2017 called Double X, and it is a horror anthology of four short stories written and directed by women. So maybe check that out. I haven't seen it yet.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Let's put that on the list.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

I've heard good things. I've heard good things, but for now, VHS from 2012 is a universal hack. And I'm gonna be real, it is surprising. I thought at least Alexis would slash it.

SPEAKER_05 31:09

I feel like maybe because I if it wasn't so shaky, I don't know. I feel like had I ne never seen this movie before, I probably would have gave it a slash, but I think so too. I love the gore. I like some I love elements about this movie, and I say that with love. I really do. But all collectively, all together, I'm fine not watching this, okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

Yeah, you can love some people and never want them in your life again, and that's how uh some parts of this movie are. But apparently you can find this movie on Amazon Prime. You can also watch it for free with ads on Pluto TV. You're really digging yourself in for two and a half hours. Check it out, join us in the second half so we can unpack the layers to this movie. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

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SPEAKER_00 33:06

Now we have a lot of things to drag this movie for, but before we get there, Alexis, what's the gore score?

SPEAKER_05 33:12

I can tell you the um gore did not drag in this movie for sure. It is uh, excuse my language, fucking high. I mean, when you have a vampire that rips off a penis and you have multiple disembowelments, I think you kind of have to give it a high score. I gotta agree.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Succubus energy, it's good.

SPEAKER_05 33:34

I know. I I love uh love the gore in this for sure. Um, so obviously, my favorite kill was one of the douchebags in the hotel room, um, who got his penis ripped off, and then she's just clawing at his body. It was it was great. It was it was nice to see. I know you guys don't necessarily maybe like that sort of violence, um, but you know I'm all for that. As I've learned in our teeth episode when I was like, yep, I hope she rips his dick off. And um this energy is coming back. Let me clarify.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

We're down for this this behavior is cool as long as it's not like uh a feminist uh like facade in front of it. Oh, okay. Yeah, okay. We're here, we're down for the violence. Yeah, we're down for the violence. Yeah, just don't make it seem like it's helpful to women, because it's not. But in this case, it was cool. It had nothing to do with that. She was just doing her uh monster. Primal thing that she needed to do.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Ooh. It was pretty feminist. It was pretty feminist.

SPEAKER_03 34:33

You know, it you can see it that way, but it could also be not seen that way. Like it's it wasn't her she wasn't running on a platform.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

It felt very rape revenge.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

They literally said um their joke when they were making this short was they went out looking for girls, but they found a woman.

SPEAKER_03 34:50

Yeah, I see it as more like a revenge thing, which is it's there's just a nuance. That's all. We're not against this.

SPEAKER_05 34:58

Oh yeah, it's I don't know, because she kept saying she liked the innocent guy, but was he innocent? No. I don't know. I could I could go into a rabbit hole with this one, but um, you know, I appreciate all the close-up shots. There was no shying away from any of this. What I appreciate is that these effects that they have, um, whether they're practical or CGI, are I mean, I I just don't even know because it's like I see a knife and I'm like, wow, that just looks so good. Like it, it, and I think that's what goes to this, it's so disturbing. It looks so real. The gore is just crazy and it's over the top where you're like, this is so much I may need to look away, but it's also like, you know, we we talked about voyeuristics, so you honestly kind of want to watch a little bit, so you're kind of also disturbed. But um, yeah, what is out of 20 kills? I'm sure maybe we won't um have the same. Hopefully, not this time around.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

Oh, hopefully not. Mine uh was from of course the slasher bit. It was Tuesday the 17th, a few days after Friday the 13th, and it was Samantha who gets the knife chucked at her head uh as she's clapping her hand and then walks towards Spider with this knife coming out of her eye socket. It was so good. So good. I loved it.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

I also enjoyed that, but I can't overlook how brutal and head-on the kill for Wendy was in that same short. Um, just the really in-your-face disembowelment with the knife was just very classic to me. Plus, Wendy was kind of a psycho, so made a little bit of sense.

SPEAKER_03 36:31

More on that later. Yeah, you know, I will say for all the deaths that we get, many of them are off-screen. Like we get a I would say like half of them. And one of them's obviously like a uh car accident, but then we have like with the things that are going on in the house with like the Vandal guys, most of those are off-screen. And then, you know, some other questionable things. I guess my favorite kills are Lily's, honestly, like the whole experience of Lily killing all the guys in the hotel room. So I have the same one as you, unfortunately. Any one of those three douches that got killed. Yeah, she was maybe the only like killer in this movie that I enjoyed. So, you know, I didn't have much to choose from.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Actually, I got I still gotta say, I know I said Samantha for Tuesday the 17th, but Sam and Second Honeymoon was also a good death. Yeah. Not that I didn't expect it to happen, but it did come out of nowhere. I thought maybe another night of of shenanigans, uh, although I do love how petty she was with, you know, putting his fucking toothbrush in the toilet.

SPEAKER_03 37:34

That kill sent me down like a a spiral of like the reality of waking up to being stabbed in the throat because I felt like his reaction was exactly what it would be, and you're just like, you could feel the like confusion in his life as he's like gasping for whatever bits of air and choking on blood and stuff. And I was like, I don't, I I can't, I'm not prepared to deal with this right now. Because that's like it, I think that's exactly what it would feel like, and it's too frightening.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Yeah, that Sam Kill was also my runner-up um for a lot of the same reasons as the Wendy Kill. It was just right in your face. Here is a knife murdering a person. And that level of gore was one of the the few things I enjoyed about this movie.

SPEAKER_03 38:15

I also think it's one of the things that contributed to how weird I felt about it because it was so like like I felt like I was watching someone's like secret tapes where they're like Yeah, very snuff film. Very snuff film, yep.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

But I am so interested, and I don't actually wish this upon you, and I don't know when it'll ever get rewound, but I'm so curious to see how you'd feel about the Poughkeepsie tapes because that is a movie that is done well with the intention of the exact feeling you're having.

SPEAKER_03 38:43

You guys have talked about it so many times. You guys have talked about it so many times. I I feel like I have to see it at some point. But the way that you talk about it makes me feel like it's not something that I'll enjoy and it'll kind of sit with me. So therefore, not gonna be something I just pick on my own, probably.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

Yeah, you definitely have to be like prepared and in a place to like if you're someone who could easily binge watch a lot of true crime, but you feel like investigation discovery is too lighthearted for you, then Poughkeepsie tapes is is where you should be.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

Okay, I'm intrigued.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

Yeah, it's where you should be.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

Is it is it from the killer's perspective or someone else's?

SPEAKER_00 39:23

It's okay, so it's like a mockumentary. Uh so it's a fake documentary that's set up where they're talking about the horrors of trying to find the serial killer, and all the tapes are from his perspective. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm not so sure how I'd feel.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

That sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

Paris, you should watch it.

SPEAKER_05 39:41

Like I mentioned, there were like a few shorts that I did like. Um, one of them was um the Halloween night uh in 1998, doing a little bit of research. So Radio Silence was the group who directed this. And when they were approached to do this, they were given three rules, which I didn't know you were given rules, but okay, I guess to make it all flow, you need to. Um so the rule number one was it had to be 12 to 25 minutes, had to have some action, and the blood couldn't be CG. But the special effects guy was like, you know what? I'm gonna prove them wrong and I'm gonna make it so realistic and still use CGI. It ended up being a moot point because he ended up um having to use it either way. So he just was like, who cares about the rules? Yeah, I mean, you know, when you're a special effects person, is there rules? When you're a director, is there rules? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

They have a tendency to go rogue.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

I mean, the whole point is that they all have creative freedom. So they were saying, hey, look, just like keep these three things in mind, otherwise go wild. So that's actually very little direction or much less direction than most people get when they come onto projects. Um and the effects, I was like, oh no, no, no, no, no. I don't think you understand how good I am with effects.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

I would just like to know. I I love the idea of just being like, hey, we're gonna make the movie, you make a section, you make a section, you make a section, we're gonna make it all happen, put it together. You can do whatever you want, whatever you want, we're gonna put it in here. I love that concept. I just don't love it in practice.

SPEAKER_05 41:09

I mean, if you do it really well, like Chris said, trick or treat, like the way those stories are so independent from each other, yet they all have this string that takes you along these little like kooky rides, essentially. I appreciate that. But yeah, it seems pretty hard to be able to navigate all of that, especially if you're using you know CG versus like using practical effects. So I feel like that needs to stay consistent. But I think three rules is a lot, but guess it isn't. So, like I mentioned, I I just love how they're able to get close up and not everything look fake. And that was a visual element that I really, really enjoyed. But um, specifically, there is one scene, and I just loved it, and I'm sure you guys I mean to me, it was very visually appealing and kind of beautiful. Um, was when you have Lily, uh, the guy comes out of the bathroom and Lily's standing there and she's backlit. Yes, and she's got her arms up, like doing I don't know. I thought she was gonna start doing all the single ladies or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

But I thought yoga pose. Yes. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:18

Put that little stretch in.

SPEAKER_00 42:19

I thought Susperia.

SPEAKER_03 42:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:21

And then when she comes out of that, I don't know. It was just so intriguing to me to see that. I I really like that.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Alexis, you have excellent taste. That was the thing I highlighted as my absolute favorite visual element, was specifically that shot because you have like the green light in the background, her arms are over her head, which makes her silhouette look totally weird and out of this world. But then I guess I'll give my runner-up to later when we see Lily. And something I noticed like when we first introduced her is that she kind of has this weird like seam on her face from her nose to her hairline. And I was like, what is that? Is that what is that? Um, and then later you kind of get like a full frontal shot of her face as it like splits open and she's like really up in this guy's face, like trying to. I'm not really sure what she was trying to do. Maybe sex him to death, not quite sure what the succubus agenda is.

SPEAKER_04 43:06

That is the agenda. Wow, what a job.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

Yeah, are they taking applications? But seeing that like up close, um, and it was it was almost it was very like primal, it was very feral, and I feel like the actress did a really great job of portraying that. Um, so seeing her like her natural, really beautiful, exotic bone structure combined with that special effect was really nice to see.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

Yeah, I unfortunately don't have much to say outside of Lily here. Those two things were amazing, and I feel like the rest of the movie really lacked a lot of visual elements for me, and so I didn't have much to get excited about. I had mostly only things that were driving me insane, like the the glitching of, you know, Tuesday the seventeenth and some of the other scenes. So I think Lily is the best part of this whole movie visually.

SPEAKER_00 43:54

Yeah, see, I actually like The Glitching Killer in Tuesday the seventeenth because it is the Slasher approach, but then it puts that modern VHS twist on it. So I think he gets points for originality, not like in the whole of the story, right? But with incorporating the VHS style because some of these fucking segments didn't make a damn lick of sense. Why is the Skype calling a VHS? There is an explanation, but I don't like it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Yeah, I did like the glitchy thing.

SPEAKER_03 44:20

I'm not surprised that you liked it, Chris. It just, I think at the by the time we got there, I was like so distraught by the movement of the cameras at this point. When we got to like a moving camera and a glitching killer, I was just like, ugh, I can't handle it.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

I thought that one segment had of the ones that were super handheld, very shaky. I thought that actually had some of the better because it typically only really shaked when they were running. Agreed. But they needed the stillness of the camera to really pick up on like the glitching lines and then the figure coming into form. Yeah. That that one was saddled with terrible acting, but I love the idea of that one.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

Yep. I I agree as far as I think it was like the exhaustion from the rest of it. It wasn't that one that has the bad shakiness.

SPEAKER_01 45:07

While we're still talking about visuals, I did really like the effects that they used when things all started going to shit in the final story when they're escaping what is basically Hellhouse LLC. I felt like the the arms coming out of the walls were very cool. And then specifically the shot of like the the window on the front door like closing.

SPEAKER_05 45:27

Oh yeah, that was so good.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

Yeah, I was like, that's very well done. And I thought it was CGI, but I might be wrong.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

We'll discuss in fact or fiction, but just remember those arms are very reminiscent of Freddie Krueger when Freddie puts his like face through the wall, and that wasn't CGI in the 80s.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

Yep. Just remember, you know, keep it balanced, but we'll talk about in fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_01 45:49

Ooh, I can't wait.

SPEAKER_03 45:50

Yeah, I had Freddie vibes immediately. I actually forgot about the cool door, but the the arms coming out the wall.

SPEAKER_05 45:55

I was like, ooh. Oh, I just love that entire scene. Like it was crazy. It really was. If I could go into a haunted house, it reminded me of us. That's what all of us being like, cool, we're going to this party, which none of us would really go to, but um a party where we don't know the address? Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_03 46:12

Oh, I'd I'd go.

SPEAKER_01 46:13

Was that a party?

SPEAKER_03 46:14

Something Paris talked us into doing. It sounds like I had to tell Alexis during this that I'm like the lame person, whereas like if I was in this car and we show up to this house and we like don't know what's going on, I was like, no, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be down. I'd be turning us around. If Paris is like, we're going to some party, I'd be like, Oh no, no, we're not.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Um team, stay at the house.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Um team, don't enter the party first.

SPEAKER_03 46:37

Yeah. Alexis would be like, oh, like a party, like, you know, somebody let's go. And I'd be like, I need to know details. Who are they? What do they do? Where are we going to?

SPEAKER_01 46:44

Do I hate them?

SPEAKER_03 46:45

Do they have dogs? Do I have to talk to them? Oh, actually, dogs would maybe get me there. Just to be clear. If you want to invite me to a strange place, dogs might be the way.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

And that's the last we saw of Ryan.

SPEAKER_05 46:58

I totally went walking at the park and someone else brought their dog and I ran up to it. I was like, oh my gosh, a dog. I'm taking it and took the leash and started walking.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

I love that. I definitely enjoyed uh the the aesthetic of the last one, and I think that one goes to show you that that team in general, everyone in this movie was like an up-and-coming director or writer at this time. And I'm really excited to know that while I didn't like VHS as a whole, the team behind this are the ones that are gonna be helming the next Scream movie. Because I feel like it was the better of those. It is not my favorite though, and I have two that I'm debating, so I'd love to hear from you all. What was your favorite segment?

SPEAKER_03 47:38

Ooh, the Halloween night one actually was my favorite. Um, aside from, like I said, the things that I enjoyed from the technically the first of the of the few, not the whole framework, but from amateur night. I really, really liked that one, but I think it was a little bit like short, lacking a little bit of like I don't know, it was like short and sweet and to the point, but I really liked the Halloween one because I thought it had an interesting story, although kind of stupid the way it got set up. I enjoyed how it kind of took us down a road, ended up in somewhere where we didn't plan to be, and then at the end also having her be, you know, someone that does need the ceremony that was going on, right? That actually was an interesting turn to me, and I wouldn't mind seeing more of that movie.

SPEAKER_05 48:22

See, I like the one, and it's weird because there's essentially not really a death in it, but um was the sick thing that happened to Emily when she was younger. Oh yeah, I hated that. It was good because I think it's now taking me back to oh shit, Zoom. I mean, I'm I'm not comparing it to host.

SPEAKER_03 48:40

Like it it has some some remnants, you know, some thoughts now that now that we're here in life.

SPEAKER_05 48:46

And I think there was a lot of like WTF for me. Like, is this a spooky house? Is this like what's going on? Like, I just didn't know, and I like that mystery, and I think it really hooked me to see what was going on with her. And then once they took out was it a baby out of her stomach? A little alien fetus. Yeah, when that happened, I was like, Oh my gosh. I love this one, not because of the baby coming out or the the alien out of the stomach, but it was just so it goes from this, you know, simple conversation to like her taking the camera, and then like now they're all in the same room. And usually typically when you're doing or movies I've seen that have been done like that, everyone clearly is in a separate room. So it's nice to see it all come together like that.

SPEAKER_03 49:30

Yeah, that was one that gave me particular, like uncomfortable, voyeuristic feelings where I was like, I feel like I just watched this really creepy dude's videos that he recorded of his girl.

SPEAKER_05 49:41

Yeah, and I I don't necessarily understand this one the most. So can someone explain to me just the premise of it?

SPEAKER_01 49:48

Harvesting his girlfriend's body for alien organs.

SPEAKER_00 49:52

They're using women to incubate aliens. And he is like the center point. Are there more of him? I don't know. But he is basically gaslighting these women and making them think, well, you know, reassuring them that everything actually is fine, and then he has like a network of doctors for them to see so that he can make things look like an accident, and then they can diagnose them with a mental illness, etc. etc. But the whole point is that they are harvesting alien fetuses.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

Also, the aliens are ghost children.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Okay, is that what it was?

SPEAKER_05 50:23

Okay, I was confused because I was like, but there's ghosts in this thing?

SPEAKER_00 50:27

Like what? No, there actually ends up being aliens. Like, that's the whole like the setup is I mean, they meant you think it's ghosts, but actually it's aliens.

SPEAKER_05 50:36

Gotcha. I like this one even more because it just mess with my head.

SPEAKER_03 50:40

If there's one thing I don't believe in, it's ghosts, and if it's a second thing, it's not actually aliens. I actually do, I'm actually down for that, so it's an interesting uh two to put together.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

That one is is an interesting one, and when you can look at the reception that this movie got, it almost slightly bothers me that so many guys who watch this are like, oh no, it's totally like an allegory for mental illness, and you know, look at how detached he is and how much he really wishes he could help because he's the one, he's the linger seeing all this through, and she probably is kind of crazy. Uh that's upsetting. Y'all are missing the point of gaslighting. Like, oh my gosh, yeah. I I heard about this once, and it was like the gaslighting was a footnote. It was like a oh, just kidding, the guy's in control. But it's like, no, that's the whole fucking point of the goddamn movie.

SPEAKER_03 51:27

He's lying about being in a different place and shows up and is clearly close enough to to come cut something out of her. So, like, yeah. There's no innocence there.

SPEAKER_01 51:38

Yeah, absolutely insane that one. But also, I'm surprised, Alexis, you like that incision scene because I feel like that was the one time where the gore looked like visibly fake.

SPEAKER_05 51:46

I didn't think so.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

When he like did that like perfect straight incision line, and then there was like just like a skin flap that he was poking around.

SPEAKER_05 51:53

I mean, I'm not a medical professional. I'm really not sure how a C section works, and I know it doesn't work like that.

SPEAKER_01 52:00

But it was on the back.

SPEAKER_05 52:02

That was a breastbone section. It was cool to see him cut into her like that. Like, I don't know, like, and just like whoop. I mean, if only things were that easy.

SPEAKER_03 52:11

She just liked it because it was on camera.

SPEAKER_05 52:13

Yeah, we would all be a doctor if we if it was that easy.

SPEAKER_01 52:18

I guess my favorite story would be a toss-up between amateur night and Tuesday the 17th. Um, amateur night, I really only like what happened at the end with Lily, and that's specifically the the culprit of where I was talking about how it did way too much of the thing that I hated, which is focus on a night out with these absolute douchebag garbage men. And it didn't focus enough on Lily and her story because I want to know like who is she, where did she come from, what else is she up to? Um so I'm actually kind of open to watching the movie that Chris was mentioning earlier where she has her own thing. But then also I really liked Tuesday the 17th because I feel like that was an interesting concept and an interesting story that I would also like to see fleshed out, but the monologue at the end where the girl like reveals her agenda was like really bad.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

So I was like Also the acting at the beginning in the car was just like the worst. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:10

I would watch that if it was entirely recast. Yeah. So I guess I'll give it to Tuesday the 17th. Because I hated that one the least.

SPEAKER_00 53:17

Ooh, okay. Best performance in that one for sure goes to the glitch killer. Yeah. Just running around, stepping in his own traps. Well, stepping in her traps, really. But it did remind me of Dead by Daylight. There's a a killer called The Trapper, and you can set bear traps around the map to trap the survivors, but you can also step in your own traps, and it's very embarrassing when it happens, especially if people see you.

SPEAKER_01 53:37

Also, is it just me or did the glitch have like a really fashionable red hat?

SPEAKER_00 53:40

Oh, for sure. There was some red going on there, and I was down for it. So the sick thing that happened to Emily when she was younger was um in the toss-up of like my favorite two. Since it's been covered, I'm gonna go with Second Honeymoon as much as I like Tuesday the 17th. Tuesday the 17th, I adored from like a everything but the acting standpoint. But Second Honeymoon, I think, was the one that I enjoyed the most because I I like and also dislike the resolution. First off, it starts Sophia Takal, who was the d director and co-writer of the 2019 Black Christmas, and I do adore her. But I really enjoyed this idea of you know it being her lover coming in and it mirroring the fortune that they get from the machine, and this guy is just kind of lazy, uh kind of indifferent, kind of into himself, very pushy with her, doesn't respect boundaries, and then his up and comes. Now, that being said, it's one of those things that I don't often like very much. I think I liked their performances the most in terms of like quality of acting. I I really enjoyed him and you're next. So, you know, at its surface, I like the idea, and I think if it was one story in a series of other stories that were not the ones that it was surrounded by, I'd feel really even better about it. But here's my problem, and this is something that I think is is a real big issue with the characters in this movie. Just about all the women are bad to some extent, right? Lily is like the closer that you get to a hero, a you know, a revenge succubus, but she's a monster. She's not a woman. When the tables turn and she's getting the revenge, the guys are fearful of her. And then the audience who was who should have probably been against the guys and on Lily's side are now like, oh shit, but should we be concerned for them? I mean, she's kind of a beast. And then you know, you get into second honeymoon, and it's evil lesbians. Okay, guys, thanks. You get into Tuesday the 17th, and it's one woman who, I mean, Paris Union said she's a bit of a psycho, and she gets these random friends killed because her other friends died. There isn't a good one in the bunch. Even the the girl that gets rescued in 1031 98 is possessed and is the the the vehicle of their death. So that was a huge, huge bummer for me. And then just about all the male characters in this were highly unlikable.

SPEAKER_01 56:10

Yeah, that's actually a really good point, Chris, because as I hacked this movie, it's something that you might not expect because I love a female antagonist, but these ones weren't very well done.

SPEAKER_00 56:21

It's just the bummer that the only one who wasn't a villain in their own way was Emily, and then she was a victim, and she's literally a battered woman. Which deserves representation. But if that's the only represent representation that you're getting, what are you really saying in your attempt to defeat the male gaze?

SPEAKER_05 56:41

Yeah, especially I was thinking even the second girl that's in that, in that one, even if she's like, you know, showing her body off, and it's very like I I'm just trying to think of the word, but yeah, I guess I never even thought about that until now, which is very interesting. I think because I was more disturbed by everything that was going on that I didn't pick up on that. I can totally see it because I'm going through each frame. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, but but this one, but this scene, but this, and I was like, nope, actually, Chrissy, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 57:12

Because then that that woman, right? She has this line where she's like drunk to get into the car and she's in there with Lily, and she was like, Two grown ass women chicks stumble out of a bar into your car. I'm here because I want to be here, you're not in charge of me. And then she passes out and drunk and is nearly raped. You know what I mean? Like it's just the circumstances that the women are are put into is just so frustrating in this movie. And then that's what makes it suck even more. It's like these guys went in with this attempt of like, you know, they're all working together and not really talking to each other. And then one of them even said, Yeah, there's like little to no talk about each other's projects to each other. So he was surprised when he's like watched it for the first time in its entirety and thought, oh wow, male gaze is a common theme. Like if that's what you accidentally stumble into, that is a fucking problem. And you all handled it the same way.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

So my uh my question is, was this the thing like, do they think they did something beneficial in commenting on the male gaze? Like, are they proud of what the what was done here?

SPEAKER_00 58:12

I think it was an afterthought, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:15

Okay. Cause yeah, it definitely doesn't do anything that would even, I mean, they didn't even like bring awareness to something, right? Like they just showed it in and in a very like, like we've said, exploitative way that doesn't make you feel okay, doesn't make you feel good, doesn't make you feel like you can fight it or be against it, right? And none of the women came out as like characters that you would want that you would be proud of, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 58:39

Yeah, like especially the woman who was taken home with the guys, like the other one with Lil and Halloween. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I'm on in an amateur night, and I'm like, really though? Like, why? Like that it was just like very cringy to me, but I think because it was like the portrayal was the cringiest part.

SPEAKER_00 58:58

Also the dudes, but like she's free to do what she wants, but they didn't show her off, right?

SPEAKER_05 59:04

No, not at all. They showed her more as a victim than like okay, her making this choice that she wanted to do it. Yeah, which is because it's totally fine to have a one-night stand.

SPEAKER_03 59:13

Yeah, even if they're D-bags and we hate them, yeah. Do whatever you want. It's happened, but then she's like passed out, and yeah, like literally they have to like physically pull a man off of her. So, like it doesn't help, it doesn't do anything beneficial for the cause, I'd say. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 59:30

It also kind of felt like they were patting themselves on the back when they were like, Don't have sex with that passed out girl because that's statutory rape. And I was like, no, that's not something you should pat yourself on the back for. That's baseline decency.

SPEAKER_00 59:42

It's also not statutory.

SPEAKER_03 59:43

Yeah, it's statutory didn't make sense.

SPEAKER_01 59:45

They said statutory, didn't they?

SPEAKER_03 59:47

Yeah, they did. It didn't make sense at all.

SPEAKER_01 59:49

Which I was like, I don't think that's what that is.

SPEAKER_03 59:51

Yeah, I'm glad that these men that were real trash said that. Like, as a whole, they were not a good group of people. I'm glad there were two people in the room that were like, yo, you gotta get off of her. But like at the same time, you're exactly right. That's not something you get credit for. Like, you don't get credit for doing that. That's like, you know, you didn't kill somebody today, you don't get a good job. Because that's your that's what you're here to do, is not kill people.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:12

You know? Right after you say, no, man, don't do that. She's done, she's done. You de-pant and try to invite yourself into a threesome with a woman who just said no.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:21

Yeah. And then also just the boobs of it all. This is it's very rare that I'm like too many boobs, but every time there were more boobs, I was like, there this is just male gaze all over the place.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:31

Yeah, and the penises were very covered in this. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:35

They weren't that we saw one penis. I think this is the most penis we've seen all year at least.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:40

We almost saw two. When were there boobs besides on Skype?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:44

Oh my god, there were dozens of pendulous tits in this movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:48

I'm sorry, what? What?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

I think we saw every female character's boobs.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:53

The Skype was the pendulous one. There was the one that was ripped off uh in the beginning, at the very beginning of the movie when they like attack a woman and her boyfriend in the parking garage. Oh yeah. Oh god, we didn't even talk about that horrific.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:07

I don't even want to talk about it because that was the worst part like of this movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:11

That's what made me like, I can't watch this.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:12

We struck a passionate chord here.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

Just that as a concept. Ugh.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:16

Yeah. It was, yeah, the whole concept that it was just, oh, there are just bored men in the world and they do stuff like this, and that's the problem.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:24

I I don't know. I just I like to think good in everyone I meet, which is the worst probably quality I have. But um are there people out there who actually do this kind of stuff?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:35

Or is this just like something of course there are absolutely absolutely running around with a video camera? Like a group of people that would do something like this would absolutely run around and film it with a video camera.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:46

Yeah, there's an entire genre of porn called revenge porn, which is very much this-just like non-consensual exposing of women's bodies to people who did not have any right to see them.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:56

I mean, I know what revenge porn is. I'm disgusted in another possible way.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:01

And that's the thing that about this movie that just like that I just couldn't shake it. It's like that feeling. It's like I don't wanna watch anything that doesn't have a point and just has this stuff. You know what I mean? There's nothing that comes from this movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:15

It's just the point was you had they had to go get the VHS.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:19

The stupidest point.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:21

Look, all I'm saying is give me a good honest criminal who's just trying to put food on the table for the family, not the group of chuckle fucks who just want to break break shit and and expose women's bodies.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:31

Chuckle fucks.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:33

The other thing is it it put me in a perspective where I now have to watch these videos and I got nothing from like you know what I mean? Like, there was almost nothing enjoyable, in my opinion, in this movie. I know I'm like, I probably am the the the hackiest of them all today.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:49

But like I'm with you.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:51

I don't know. I just have so little that I enjoyed and and I felt like I was forced to sit through these, like now I have to sit with that. Now I watch some guy run up on some girl and rip her top off. You know what I mean? Even though it's just on like I know it's just a movie, but I just I don't know. I guess I stand in a place where I don't feel like that stuff should be in movies. Like, what's the benefit?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:11

Same. VHS should stand for very hacky shit.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:14

Unless you're you're doing it with a very specific intent. Like there are some movies that we've seen that incorporates that and it feels like they're making a a very specific like I think the perfection is one of those that sticks with you. It handles a really fucked up subject matter. But I think they handle it in a tasteful way. The lasting emotions that that movie has on you, I think, shows that it w it was done with care. Whereas this feels like it wouldn't be hot if we just lift up her shirt.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:44

And then what if we started doing skirts?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:46

And I think uh maybe listeners will be like, you know, what's the point of any movie, right? We don't really, you know, theoretically speaking, you don't really get anything out of a movie when you watch it. But I think what I mean I mean, um listen, I'm serious, you don't but it's just a movie, you just spend some time watching it. Chris does not feel that way, I feel like. I I think you're right, but for me, it's very much movies come into my brain and out of my brain. Very little sticks with me. But what it is is like in a movie, you have scenes that contribute to a a person's character or why they'll do the next thing or why they've done the previous thing. And this was just like, yo, look at these trash dudes. That's it. That's all I got. I didn't get no character development, I didn't get any any, you know, story that I cared about, nothing. It's just look at these trash dudes, and they're gonna see some videos. And those dudes suck too.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:36

Yeah, none of the characters were compelling.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:38

Not compelling at all. I want to see more of the evil lesbians, but I want them to not see them not be evil. I'm happy for their love story. Not happy by the way they got there. But I think the best part of this movie is actually Ty West. So he was the writer and director of the second honeymoon, and I think that's you know, the reason one of the reasons why it felt so good was because it was just four people out on a road trip making this movie together as friends, and it felt less of that frat boy energy, the constant joking and things like that. And I think you know, Ty West, I enjoy his work, but I think Joe Swanberg is also a very accomplished mumble core director in his own right. So I think there's just a layer of like a sense of maturity there that I think was severely lacking from the rest of them.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:26

Chris, I am gonna be honest. It's real hard to come up with the best part of this movie. And I want to be one of those people that says, like, oh, the best part of this movie was the end. But guess what? I don't feel that way either. So uh I will say the second honeymoon is, in my opinion, shot the best and and the least miserable of the rest of the movie, and therefore the best. And I apologize that I'm this person tonight, but it's I just don't have anything for this movie. That is less than trash talk. I'm and it just is what it is. It's gotta get roasted.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:05

Hey, you know what? I just want to remind you how passionate you were about an American werewolf in London, so it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:11

Sometimes the best part is the least worst part.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:13

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:14

For me, I'm gonna give it to just the effects. A lot of the the visuals with uh the gore were very satisfying. Um a lot of the disembowelments, um the scene where Emily was just casually digging like so deep into her arm with scissors. I was like, um, okay, that's an insane thing to do. I understand you're being gaslit, but maybe you're also kind of a little crazy. So yeah, the gore is gonna be the best part for me.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:41

I will add a second to that. There we go. I feel better now.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:46

I do appreciate the gore, but everyone knows that. So I guess I have to say something else that is the best part for me. The best part was on amateur night, like the look of Lily. Like just seeing her for the first time, like she looks innocent, but there's something like you see the scar and you're like, but what's going on? And when she keeps saying, I like you, I like you, I'm like, Nope. Like, and then I just and I it wasn't, I I don't know, just her in general, like the way her body was moving. It was beautiful, honestly. And then she flies, so I was like, Hell yeah, go Lily. So I think she I mean, I think we all can agree, at least she was like a really good character, at least, and probably the best part, if not one of the best parts for this movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:34

That's interesting, Alexis, because I think most people would agree with you about like Lily being one of the best parts of the movie. I know we're all fond of her here tonight, but even then it's not enough to get me to ever watch this movie, and I don't even know that I want to watch the spin-off movie from it.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:50

I think you should just cause I mean I'm gonna be honest, I can't recall it. There's something about every time we watch a first one on the podcast, I have to watch the rest of them. But I since I've seen this twice and I've gotten two different reactions, I don't necessarily need to watch it a third time because I'm just assuming I'll have most likely this reaction. So I'm good with never watching this again.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:14

Yeah, I'm on obviously the same train. I would like to know though, if you watch the second one again, and I would I would be very interested to see how you feel about it now, considering how different you felt watching the first one again.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:27

I absolutely will not watch this again. You cannot pay me to do so. Um I really have said it several times, but the first 20 minutes of this movie were one of the worst pieces of content I've ever viewed, like horror movie or not. Um I've made choices in my life to never be subjected to that kind of like toxic male douchebag jackass energy, and here I was having to sit through it, which I will never do again.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:49

God, we're so tortured. We make it sound like the worst thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:56

Well, we're gonna suffer just a little longer, because we got some fact or fiction coming right at you. Number one. Miska's original vision for the project was for each short story to be dated similar to 103198, hence the slashes in the VHS title. It ultimately fell through though, because some directors objected to the idea.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:15

I'm gonna say fact. Cause I I get the idea and I think it would have been very cool, but I think directors probably wanted their own individuality. Wallpicking, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:26

Yeah, I think you're probably right. It probably is a fact. But also, if I was never on this podcast, I would never know that these individual pieces have names, so like, eh, it doesn't even matter.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:36

I feel like it's fact. Um, but also maybe they were just going for like what you would write with a Sharpie marker on the side of a VHS tape for each title.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:46

So I'll just throw out a fiction to see. At least one of us will be right.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:50

It's fact. They actually felt their segments should feel like they could be happening at any point in time, with the exception of the 90s one, hence no GPS. Makes sense. Number two. The word fuck is said more than 200 times, largely because of a loose competition that was developed on set to see who could slip it in most often without overpowering the rest of the dialogue.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:11

Wait, are you like Mac mixing fact and fiction? Or is this straight either or well it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:19

Fiction is fiction. Uh, if part of a statement is inaccurate, then it is inaccurate. However, I am not gonna like dick you over on a number. Like, oh, just kidding, it was more than 300. That's weird.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:32

Okay. Um, I think this is a fact. Only because I say fuck a lot and I don't even realize it. And you guys have brought it up to my attention, and my friends have too.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:43

So I'm like, oh wow, I do even realize I said it that often. I'm gonna say fiction because it didn't stand out to me, and I feel like if it was that much, it would have. Which also, if it is a fact and I just didn't stand out to me, they were very successful. So I might lose either way here.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:59

Yeah, I'm with Alexis, though. I also say fuck so much that I don't even notice when other people say it, so they may have said it a thousand times and I didn't notice. Uh so I'll say fact.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:08

It is fiction, but you can rest assured that the word fuck was indeed said more than two hundred times. There just no competition whatsoever. Because of the high level of camera shake needed in 103198 scenes of the guys trying to leave the house, the production team had to actually rely on practical effects for the hands coming through the wall and the door's window disappearing.

unknown 1:11:28

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:30

The hands feels like a yes. The door feels like a no. But I'm gonna go fact.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:36

I don't know. I'm gonna say fiction. I don't know the the door. It's the door.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:41

I'm gonna say fiction too. Yeah, the door had to be CGI.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:44

It had to be.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:45

Oh, I can see it. I can imagine it. I think it's a good idea. Tell us, Chris. You can't imagine a very specific patented tool for making a door's window disappear.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:56

Changeo doors.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:58

Exactly. From the makers of Changeo Head. It is in fact fiction. In fact, it took the effects artist for this movie countless hours and having to go frame by frame to track the motion of these effects, but he said it was well worth it and would have been easier to just do practical.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:16

Yeah, it was very well done.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:18

God bless.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:18

Hellhouse LLC should have hired this person.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:21

Yeah. He does consider it a blessing that the movie is shot in HG but then down res, too VHS quality, to mask some of the issues with the CGI. Hmm. Now sticking with 103198. The concept for it was actually based on a dream a member of Radio Silence had, that same effects artist. In this dream, a child lures a group of guys into the house intending to use them to escape. It was only changed to a woman to make it easier to produce. Uh fiction. Uh please be fiction.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:50

I'm gonna say fact because it had a dreamlike quality to it, in that, like, you go deeper into a building, which usually signifies deeper into your subconscious.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:59

It was a fact. Hmm. But not for that reason. It's just all every ounce of it is a fact. Don't know what to tell you. Truth is truth. And our last one here. This film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was the first point the directors of each segment were seeing it in its entirety. The film was regarded as terrifying, and in fact, two people needed medical attention during the screening. It's a lot of details.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:24

I do feel like some people could need medical attention for dizziness.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:27

Oh, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:28

But I don't feel like the directors saw it for the first time. Uh, but maybe I don't know. I'll go fact. I think I'm gonna go fact too.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:36

Yeah, until Ryan mentioned the dizziness thing, I was like, what kind of little bitch would need medical attention after seeing a movie? But that's probably possible. Um you were fine on your own. You didn't need medical attention.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:47

Oh, I don't think I was.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:48

Look at Ryan looking at me. It's questionable for a female.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:52

So I'm I'm team fact for this.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:54

Well, it was indeed a fact. I just dropped the receipts in the group chat. Um they blame it on the camera shake, specifically on amateur night when Clint is falling down the stairs, and the fact that they had just gotten in that day, there's a change in altitude, and they're a little bit drunk. Just kidding, they only had like two drinks.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:12

Oh yeah, remember when he fell down the stairs and you saw his bone?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:15

Well, that concludes our fact or fiction, and with that, folks, VHS has earned a universal hack, an assumed hack from Mac. While we've certainly had a loud discussion here, uh, it doesn't end here by any means. All of us hate it, but a lot of you out there love it. So please tell us why, share your thoughts. Keep in mind there are a number of ways you can reach out to us, starting with our website, hackerslash.com, or on our social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:42

And if you don't hate me for being negative this entire episode, you can reach out to our Hackerslash Hotline. You can leave us a voicemail at 757-606-0128, or visit hackerslash.com slash contact to send us an audio message. And if you miss Mac, you can send us your best impression of him in an email to feedback at hackerslash.com.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:01

Have you enjoyed listening to this episode? Consider becoming one of our patrons like Marshall. You can visit patreon.com slash hacker slash to earn cool perks for as low as $1 a month.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:10

We'll see you next time, folks, and remember your apartment is not haunted, but relationships with gaslighting boyfriends are.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:16

Amen.