310: Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

SPEAKER_00 0:04

I've warmed your milk and made your favorite snack. So come on over and unload your sack. Seasons, greetings, and salutations, and welcome to Hack or Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. I think it's time we had a little chat about health and safety. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are horror movie review podcasts dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, a total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a 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 slasher enthusiast, and this week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac and the classic horror connoisseur Sean.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Hey, just because your little fuck buddy died, don't go taking it out on me.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

The people have spoken and our patrons have decided we're getting festive with a holiday musical this week. Now, while the holiday season is usually marked by joyous celebrations, this week's film dances along the line of horror and harmony as it drops us into a town where that cheer takes a turn towards apocalyptic, and a group of high school friends find themselves in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. This week, after winning 42% of the overall patron vote, we're talking about Anna in the Apocalypse.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Now this movie was nominated by my fellow green-eyed Gemini Britney. She says, Musical horror combines two of my favorite genres, and it is a wild ride. The songs are in regular rotation on my playlist, and I know my fellow Gleek Chris will appreciate the insanity. I know this will not be a universal slash, but I'm interested in everyone's thoughts. Maybe I also want to secretly torture any of our pod hosts who hate showtunes.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Well, a couple things here. One, I want to point out that this is a very different cast when Brittany originally made this nomination, so that's fun. But two, hey, that's a lot of high praise, that's a lot of expectation to see if I'll be into it, so let's find out. Who's seen this one before?

SPEAKER_03 2:04

I have never seen this one before. I I don't know that I've heard of it. I don't know. I we were talking about it. I I feel like I've heard of this movie at some point, but I couldn't put my finger on where I've heard it. I I think the name kind of stands out, Anna in the Apocalypse. It's a cool name, but I never definitely never got around to watching it until now.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Yeah, you know, Britney's been making a case for this movie for years, but this was actually my first time getting around to actually watching it.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Yeah, I haven't seen this before either. Once this came up in the nomination, I thought, hmm, I'm gonna wait until we actually cover it for the show. Because even though I've seen it, you know, all over Amazon Prime Video, I've seen it listed in in articles detailing great holiday horror movies, I thought, let's just step away because I feel like a musical horror moment on the show would be really special. Little did I know we'd be doing Repo the Genetic Opera. But going into this, I was expecting a few different things. One, Brittany called me out for being a glee and really enjoying show tunes, but I have to set the record straight. I am someone who really loves the musical that I love, but I would not say that I'm someone who is well versed in musicals, someone who I think could be any kind of authority on the matter. I am what you might call a poser. That might be a more fair term for me. So I went into this with an open mind, looking at some of the gifts that we see from the movie, looking at some of the images. I was expecting Sean of the Dead, but making a musical instead of a straight comedy.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yeah, I think that's pretty, pretty on par with what I thought. I just thought we were getting Shawn of the Dead with a mixture of high school musical. Just mash that up.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Yeah, I don't know if I went into this movie with a fully open mind. I briefly like grazed over the synopsis right before watching this as I was trying to look up where I was gonna watch this movie. I saw things like Christmas and Zombie Apocalypse, and I was both intrigued and admittedly a little bit nervous because I just can't really fathom a Christmas zombie movie. I have also been, I feel like, pretty open about the fact that holiday horror is pretty hit or miss for me. So I was expecting this to be kind of bad if I'm being honest about it.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

You know, that's not an unfair way to go into it, though, Sean. I think when you hear zombie musical, for me it's a little bit of optimism, but I could very easily look at this and be like, oh, what are we doing here? And honestly, I came to a really weird place with this movie early on, and I kind of in my head said the bar, like, okay, this is the stuff that needs to happen in order for this to be a good experience for me. Because it's not starting out as strong as I would hope it would. You know, there's a point where I was like, oh, this is interesting. I don't know how I feel about this yet. Let's take a baseball team, for example. There are superstars, there are people who are going to be absolutely phenomenal first basemen, outfielders, great headers, legendary pitchers, and they make their mark in that position, right? And then there are others who are solid players who, you know, maybe not don't get all the limelight, but then there are the utility guys, the guys who play multiple positions, the guys who really make their niche and being a jack of all trades, master of none, but they're there when you need them. And I found that this movie had a little bit of that energy for me because I wasn't sure going through it if it was a great musical, and I wasn't sure if it was a great horror movie, and then I wasn't sure if it was a great holiday movie. It was just a weird feeling over overall.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

I kind of see that feeling. I don't know. For me, I can tell you what I wasn't feeling, and that was any real emotion from any of these characters. I I don't know why. I I just feel like outside of a very select few moments, the emotions that were like, I guess, attempted or attempted to be portrayed, or maybe should have been portrayed, just kind of fell flat for me. So I didn't get the feels for the severity of some of these situations. It also felt, I think you might have said it, it felt like a very slow start for a zombie flick. We didn't really get zombies for quite some time, and even then, I just felt like we didn't get enough.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

It's very, it's very interesting. I'll I'll tell you while watching this, I had to take an intermission. I had to hit pause just due to my schedule. And I actually found myself looking forward to picking it back up, you know, halfway through the film. Because I think while watching it, it's not that like I necessarily felt a strong connection to the characters and their feelings or anything like that. I just think like as a package, it's something you can dive into and just have a little fun with while you're watching. You don't need it to be super heavy in the comedy to chuckle. You don't need it to be super heavy with the zombies to like have fun with a good zombie time. When it comes to musicals, it's not necessarily my thing. So that wasn't probably the standout part for me, but like it didn't hurt. Most musicals, I'll be honest, most of them hurt to listen to. But this one, it didn't hurt, so it didn't bother me, you know. So I was, I was kind of I was kind of okay while watching it. It was just kind of like a lighter fare, you know, kind of a quick runtime thing. And so I didn't get weighed down by it in any way. It was just like kind of a nice, more casual, uplifting afternoon watch. But I think because of how casual it is and how kind of light it is, it's hard really to pick it apart unless you just like don't like musicals and that's like an easy thing to tear apart. So there wasn't much that really that disappointed me because I'm not I'm not really a musical person. So I kind of imagined, well, you know, who knows? But I was so happy this was not 90 minutes of poorly auto-tuned Patter song. Wow. I was just so pleasantly surprised that like when we had musical numbers, they were kind to my ears to actually have actors singing songs and they could hold a tune, like, great job. I'm not into it. Like, I wasn't like listening to the music going, oh my gosh, I love this song or anything. But I was sitting here thinking, like, okay, this is fine. I can make it through this, the the musical number. It's not gonna take too long. It's it's all right.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

It's interesting that you say that because the musical number that we get, this isn't the first one, it's the second one that I'm thinking of. It's called Hollywood Ending. It was about halfway through that where I had this moment of, ooh, if this was a pure holiday musical and not a horror movie, I wouldn't be into it. Musically, it just was not hitting for me. I wish I could articulate fully why. Maybe it's because there are only a couple vocalists in this movie where I was like, yes, you have it. And the others I was like, ooh, please, no, stop. Not that they're not talented, but there's something missing in the arrangement of these songs. And I think the biggest surprise for me is that I went from that in the beginning of the movie to, and I have to give the disclaimer here. I know because of watching this movie that I am in a very raw, tender, emotional state because I was crying at the end of the movie, bro. I was actually emotionally invested. And I was like, I need all these motherfuckers to die. And did I get what I want? Maybe, but also, why was I crying about it? It was dumb as fuck. I mean, I think I think it says something about the movie, right? Like that's just the power of music overall. I'm someone who I don't listen to a lot of it, but when I do, I really fucking hyperfixate on the lyrics, and man, a lot of these lyrics, they were hitting. It was a pleasant surprise.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

You know, oh man, it this is this is probably gonna seem really crazy, but you know, we've been talking, you know, about this movie being a musical, and I'm talking about like I read the synopsis and everything, but I swear on my life that I did not see anything about a musical. I swear. So when the first song broke out, I was like shook. I was like, no, this is not a fucking musical. It is a fucking musical. You can ask Ari. I screamed out loud. I was like, it's a fucking musical. Gotcha, bitch. It did get me. I don't know how, because I look back and even in the synopsis, or when you look it up, it says pop musical, fight, slash, and sing their way to survival. Don't know how I missed it. I missed all of that. But here's the thing: I don't know that any song was actually like terrible. I don't know that any singing or vocal work was terrible to both of your points. But one thing that I was disappointed with was there was some pretty obvious lip-syncing mismatching. Like there was some moments where I could see that it didn't line up and it didn't time properly. And if you're gonna make a musical, you gotta pay attention to those little details because for someone like me, maybe not everyone's like analyzing shit like that, but for someone like me, that really kind of threw me off for quite a bit.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Eagle Ed Sean's on the case. Nothing's getting by him. No, I 1000% can see what you mean. I wasn't really paying that close attention to it because I find that when I'm listening to shit like this, I was really just kind of caught up zoning out, watching less of what was on screen, but more hearing the words of the song, and I'm like, okay, some of this is fucking great. But absolutely that would drive me up the wall. So eh, we'll see. We'll see, we'll see if I ever have to revisit that.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

But it it does make me think of what you said earlier, Chris, about like, is this you know a good musical? Is it a good zombie movie? Is it a good comedy? But is it a good horror movie? I get like it's in the genre, it's a zombie movie. Is it scary? Nah, nah, it's it's it's not scary. Like what whatsoever. I think it's just too light and it's too silly to even get close to scary unless you just happen to be like mortified of zombies.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

You know what's a little scary in this movie though?

SPEAKER_02 11:29

What?

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Some of these characters dental hygiene. That's about it. This movie has a lot of fun making fun of things. And I wasn't realizing until a particular point that it was in fact in on the joke. I was like, man, are they really dancing their way around this shit, kind of oblivious to like totally what are we doing here? But then there are subtle things that happen that make you realize, no, this movie knows exactly what the fuck it's doing. It's walking a fine line. Does it tip sometimes? Absolutely. But this movie's goal is not to scare you. It's to, I think, hit you with a little bit of the holiday sentiment that some films want to hit you with while also just giving you a good time of a few laughs.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Yeah, I agree. I honestly don't think we should even be discussing Fright Factor when it comes to this film because you know, I again, it's probably not it's not intending to be super scary. I just think any sense of fright that you might have gotten from these zombies was probably instantly obliterated by the musical numbers that ensued right after seeing any zombie. So yeah, it's just not a scary movie, but I could see where it's self-aware in its delivery. I can see that.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Listen, the only way I could have been more self-aware is if the zombies themselves were part of the musical number.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

That's true. We didn't get any zombie musical outbreaks. Yeah, missed opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Yeah, if they had a full thriller moment, I would have died inside of joy and also humiliation, but mostly joy.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

Oh man. I I will give this film some originality points though, for daring to put musical numbers inside of a horror zombie Christmas film because there are surprisingly like there's not a lot of when you look at horror zombie Christmas musicals, that's a new one, right? That's an original film if I've ever heard of one. I mean, there's definitely horror musicals and different musicals, but this one, come on.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Roll the tape back a couple episodes to Paris talking about Let the Right One In, and she was describing yes, it is a the best one of a Swedish vampire child romance friendship horror movie.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

It's true.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

But it does get some credit, right? Again, going back to that baseball analogy, this movie is one hell of a utility player, and it misses a few things here and there. But overall, if I think of other horror musicals, I think this did enough to be different while also holding up the musical identity of it.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Yeah, and it, you know, it's it's got some chutzpah for sure, um, for like putting all of this together, you know, while watching it, there's there's a hundred percent a lot of reminders of Sean of the Dead. Like just like there's almost too many. You know, there's there's great parallels to that movie in scenes and shots, um, and even like character story arcs. There's some things that heavily remind me of of that movie, but it still stands apart. There's a lot a lot that's different, and I think the musical part of it is a big, a big part of what makes it stand out. But for it to be like a horror comedy and to be lighter, they go really hard in the paint when it comes to the actual zombies. And I give them, I think, a lot of credit for just like that combination of this is silly, there's also singing, but at the same time, we took zombies seriously. So I don't know that I've seen anything quite like that. So I'm with you. It's got it's it's definitely original.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

It is. You're right, though. The whole Sean of the Dead of it all, it is definitely, you know, it for all the originality that it has, it also feels a lot like Sean of the Dead.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Oh, yeah. I mean, the ending, the ending for a minute felt like it. Not at the very end, but like towards the end, we get to a plot point, and I was like, oh, that's like a copy. That's bad. And then but it keeps going, thankfully, right? The ending was a little disappointing to me, though, because when I when I watch zombie things, I want you to go one of two ways. Give me a happy ending or kill everybody. And every zombie movie and TV show lives in the gray area in between. And so that's just my improper expectations that they're like most people are unwilling to kill the in, you know, the entirety of their characters, except for what, like Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, that kind of stuff. They'll they'll off everybody, they don't even care. But this one here, like it was it was okay. You know, it was it was slightly positive, but I think you when you have those moments that make Chris cry, probably towards the end of the movie. Uh those for me, I'm like, you know, give me give me less of that, or give me more. Pick pick one or the other.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Okay. I don't know about this, man, because I feel like this movie, had it had such a happy ending, had it had this whole do less of that, this would be such a bad horror movie. It would be fucking awful. It wouldn't be able to take itself seriously, it wouldn't be able to look itself in the mirror and think, yes, I can affirm my existence. No, this I think this movie played its cards really well. I think there were only a few people who I wanted to live, and honestly, not even some of those people made it. And that is what I think is well done here. So, you know, context of that aside, the end of this movie feels a little bit jarring to me. Not that it does anything that is particularly abrupt or incorrect, but I think what it does is totally shift and just makes you linger in a moment. A lot of this movie, while the lyrics kind of rip the plot right wide open, it lets you into the hearts and minds of all these characters. This movie I think lets you sit in silence for a second. And it's the pain of that silence and that reflection that really makes you think, oh shit. And I think that is a smart move.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

Yeah, I don't know. It's interesting. So I think you're onto something with like it played its cards right. I can see that aspect of it, but I think it's how it played its cards that it kind of felt maybe that's the jarring part that you threw out there. I think I'm not like I don't hate the ending, but I do think it was a little bit bland. I see what they tried to do with this attempt to pull on your heartstrings a little bit, right? They they definitely do stuff with some characters that you may not be expecting, but overall, I don't know that it's the most memorable ending only because of how they handled these situations. Maybe there were certain aspects that we can dive into later where they could have spent a little bit more time and developed that scene, uh, but it all just kind of felt like, you know, they're just slamming their cards on the table for the win. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Alright, I can't wait to unpack that later because I didn't put a lot of thought into it while I was watching it, but sitting here reflecting on the ending, listening to both of you, I find that I'm wanting to come to this ending's defense a little bit. Okay. Which is not something that I expected initially, but we'll get there into the spoiler zone. But before we start to rate this movie, Sean, how would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_03 18:28

Yeah, this movie had some decent gore, albeit the light-hearted feeling of the film itself. We see some blood and guts, people eating people, cranial impalements, decapitations, and more to earn like a family-friendly medium gore score, to be honest with you. I think it earned that.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

And what about the animal report?

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Uh, you know, this is all good in the hood here.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings. Then Anna and the Apocalypse from 2017. Was it a hack or a slash?

SPEAKER_02 18:53

I'm gonna jump in here first because, you know, Brittany, my my fellow Green Eyed Gemini, nominated this, so I got to do her the service of saying this movie was a lot of fun. The music was fine. Uh, you know, thankfully the singers carried their tunes. I'm not into musicals a ton, but it's fine. The story, the zombies, the characters, the jokes, the gore, and the overall tone, just I think pretty great. It reminded me, of course, of some some great zombie movies and other parts. It reminded me of some solid horror comedies, and well, uh, it was also a musical. Hugh's music didn't hurt my ears. Good job. But, you know, 90 minutes of light or fair horror comedy. I'm here for it. Overall, I loved the zombies, loved the gore, loved the tone, and it was just a fun little watch. It's a slash.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

You know, here's the thing. I can dig musicals. I really can. I like a lot of musicals out there, uh, but I I haven't really found that I enjoy very many horror musicals outside of like a handful, maybe a select few, right? Like I enjoy the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's a classic. I enjoy Sweeney Todd, Little Shop of Horrors, maybe even The Monster Club. I I like all these things. And I think this movie had a lot of uh ups and downs. I think they did some stuff really well, and then there was some other stuff that I just didn't vibe with. I I don't know. This film feels like it doesn't know whether it wants to be serious, emotional, or silly and campy, whatever it is, it it definitely felt like it was just trying to be the musical Shawn of the Dead. They literally took the whole oblivious to zombie outbreak happening around them right from Shawn of the Dead, and that's all I could think about as soon as I saw that scene. So I think the musical aspect almost took away from any severity or conviction that this movie had. So I don't know. I I would dare to say that it even took away from the comedy aspect sometimes. So it's really hard. I had a lot of ups and downs with this movie. I will say that this musical is better than Repo the Genetic Opera, but that's not saying much because I will sing this loud and I'll sing it proud. This movie's a hack for me.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Alright, so we're a little divided here. Going into this movie, hitting play, and the with the way that it starts, it has some promising opening credits that I was kind of into, but then when the movie itself actually starts, I was like ticking my way downtown, and it was it was honestly on the decline really, really, really fast. For me to enjoy a musical, it has to have characters that I find relatable, it has to have really sticky lyrics that just like completely jam themselves in your brain, and it has to feel like something that I could easily put on shuffle in the car and sing along to. I think the further this movie went on, the better it got. And it invested and planted a lot of seeds in the early stages of the movie that actually had a lot of payoff for me emotionally at the end. And while these lyrics aren't super sticky, they are pretty powerful. Just a quote As I wake half dead in the same old bed, it's a dawn of another day, and I'm like, damn it, that ain't me every fucking day, bro. I hear. You, Anna? I am you, Anna. I understand. This movie has a lot of charm. It has some characters that I could do without. But overall, I find myself at the end having felt something. I found myself searching for the soundtrack on Apple Music. I found myself smiling about it. This isn't the first horror musical we've done, but it is the first one that I would actually consider good. And it's a slash. And with that, and in the apocalypse, as Britney predicted, it was not a universal slash, and it did earn one hack and two slashes. Now you can find this movie streaming online. Check the link in our show notes to see where you can find it right now. Then join us in the second half so we can go through all these spoilers together. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

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SPEAKER_00 24:28

Welcome back, folks. You're now entering the spoiler zone for Anna in the Apocalypse, which is earned one hack and two slashes. Now we have a lot to unpack here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings, let's go through those kills.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

Well, let me just say this movie has a kill count of 61, which is honestly surprising because somehow I still didn't feel like I got enough zombie action. So here's the thing: there's there with 61 kills, and there's some memorable ones. There's plenty of flesh to go around. So let's rip into them. What were your favorite kills?

SPEAKER_00 25:02

I want to go for the one that made me feel the best.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

And that is John.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Not the looking at me like I'm crazy, Mac.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

Um, no, not not crazy.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

That made you feel the best?

SPEAKER_02 25:15

I thought yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

John was absolutely. I want Finn Hudson, but we have Finn Hudson at home. John was wishbran, Corey Monteith and Finn Hudson. May he rest in peace, both of them. But here's the thing for me. I didn't really like John's character. He's supposed to be the lovable, goofy best friend who's in the friend zone. And I think this is the type of person that I just have come to hate at this point. I hate this trope. In my mind, it's like, oh, you're investing all this time and you're just expecting it to pay off into a relationship because you can't just accept the limitations or the context of this relationship. It's okay to just be friends, John. I couldn't really stand him, and I was happy to see him go. But here's why it made me feel the best. It's because I realized that I was just being really aggressive against John for no fucking reason, and he was actually a sweet kid. When he gets killed and he realizes that they're all surrounding around them, he's already a goner. And so he takes her, he plunges himself into the crowd first and just pushes her back out. It was a nice way to go. It was a worthy kill, a nice little send-off. And I'm like, that's how you treat a character who you are supposed to be invested in and you're supposed to care about, but they've come to their grim end. I realized that I was just being an asshole. That's fine.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Two things here. Uh first of all, was he not was his death not Sean of the Dead, the best friend kill, you know?

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Was it was it not absolutely was.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Yeah. The difference is like he didn't get to, you know, come back and play video games, but I I felt a parallel there, and that's okay. It's fun. But the second part is I spent a good, I don't know, first 25 minutes of this movie thinking that he was the gay best friend.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

No, no, no, no. It was very clear to me the second he was fucking eating that thing in the car and he goes had a messy face. I'm like, this is a clueless straight boy who's only there because he wants to be in her pants.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

He was he was the Ryan Reynolds and Jess friends. It was definitely toxic, and he like didn't get it.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

And then the more he would speak to her, the more obvious it was to the viewer that this dude uh is only gonna hold her back in life.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

I need you to hear the second fucking note I wrote down, and it's about him, and I said, God, I hope this guy gets killed. I doubt he'll actually die, but I just really want him not to be alive anymore.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

Oh dang.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

That's my take on John.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

I was like, this guy's gotta go. He's gotta go.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

This is early on into the film.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

I swear to you, I felt it, and I'm like, okay, I don't like this, uh, whatever they're fucking doing here in the car. But when they're at the lunch table, yeah, and he's looking at her all mopey, yeah, yeah, and she says, Well, it's not like you could do anything, and he's like, Oh, yes, puppy dough guys. Yeah, just start get the fuck over yourself.

SPEAKER_03 28:06

I get it.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

You're not gonna actually make a difference in the situation. Fuck off.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

Okay, I get it. It's savage, but I get it. I get it for sure.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

I'm just really tired of it.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

But so John's kill, and don't get me wrong, I also enjoyed the kill. But that's one of the moments where I feel like the cards were just played and they just played them really fast. So, like, I just felt like one, I didn't get a lot of emotion out of that scene. It happened really fast, and I like what they did there, but I don't think they let it simmer enough for me to actually take anything away from that scene. So it felt like we just blew by it.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Oh, I feel like it absolutely simmered just enough, and not as much as you would want in. Okay, let's say like what we got in Shawn of the Dead with his mom, with his best friend. We don't get that level, right? But we get just enough to see how suddenly life can be lost, and then you just gotta move on to the next number, baby. The show must go on. You can't be fucking holding it back for the understudy. However, what they lack in that moment, they bring back at the end as her father is dying. They have this song, you're looking back on all the friends they've lost, yeah, and you see his body twitching. At that moment, the movie made me regret hating John. And I was like, fuck man, John didn't deserve this. Why was I so bitter? John's a cool kid, he's a little fucking stupid light-up sweater.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Wow. I I I gotta say, I'm a fan of uh zombies getting their heads smashed in with pretty much anything, but bowling balls. That that is a unique, really fun take. You know, you could hit them with a bowling ball, and that would probably do it. And that's what I thought we were gonna see. I didn't think we were gonna see the squishy, you know, two bowling ball make head go boom, and I really enjoyed that. Man, that was a great kill.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

It really was, and honestly, just what a great setting overall. That reminds me of two incredible bowling scenes, bowling alley scenes that we get in musicals one, seminal hit classic, Greece Two. The song is called Score tonight. It's absolutely great. But then we also have in Across the Universe, which I've never seen the full movie, I've only seen the musical numbers, and I love the fucking soundtrack.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

You're missing out, it's a great film.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

But I've just seen a face is my absolute favorite song from that movie. Bowling alley scene, fucking phenomenal. It's a great setting.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Man, we're talking about bowling scenes, and I personally loved the scene where the zombie sweater dude or one of the zombie sweater dudes get decapitated by the bowling pin machine, whatever you call that, that like racks up the bowling pins. Decapitated, but not only that, the frickin' decapitated head comes through like the the the bowling ball dispenser and comes out like that. Is a perfect moment of campy horror, and I was eating that shit all up. It was such a great scene.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

Oh, yeah, absolutely was. Which also, though, makes me consider could that happen? Like you actually put a human head, would it actually travel through? Or depend is it depending on the size, the length of the hair, I feel like it would just get caught somewhere, you know?

SPEAKER_03 31:17

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Is the human head giving bowling ball? Because if it is, fucking bravo. But also like the next dump, you know? I feel like we're just like you just get stuck there at some point.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

It's gotta be like a good rounded head. Like it can't just be this wobbly head that just kind of goes off to the left, you know? It's gotta be it has to have a good roll.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

I know a few people like that.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

I want to know if anyone of our listeners is uh you know has worked at a bowling alley. Do you have to sharpen the pin setters so that they would decapitate zombies? You know, do you have to get a nice, nice, smooth, you know, samurai sword like uh sharpness on that thing?

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Because it's famously part of the emergency response plan.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

Right, right. I have to admit, of all the visuals that you get in this movie, and you get a lot, you know, mostly because of the really cool um musical numbers we get. They do a lot of dancing and whatever, the zombies are are where it's at when it comes comes to visuals for me. They made some fun choices here because it is also a Christmas movie. And zombie snowman, zombie Santa, these were fantastic. I think overall the zombies were way more, I don't know if gory is the right word, but like realistic, maybe. How can zombies be realistic because they don't exist? But like I was expecting them to be cartoonish for a musical and for for a musical comedy Christmas zombie flick. I was definitely expecting them to be like really cheesy, and they were like just some like really good, solid zombie makeups here. But the fact that they integrated them into Christmas costumes, just chef's kiss.

SPEAKER_03 32:50

It was great, it was really fun, and I'm right there with you, but I think my favorite visual is actually the gore. I think what they did with the gore, so I know your your emphasis is on like the zombies and all that, but I think the gore too. And you talk about the zombie snowman, and we get that scene where they decapitate that dude with the seesaw or whatever, and you just see the head fly off and the blood just gushing out of the of the head of the body or whatever, and I just thought, man, it it's so good, but then they do more gory shots, and you don't get a lot, like a lot of just like lingering on these shots, but you get enough of the gore, which I think was actually really well done despite the vibe of this movie, and you wouldn't expect it. So, the same reason maybe you wouldn't expect that these zombies would look as realistic as they did, it's the same for me with the gore. Like, I was actually uh shocked that we had some pretty decent looking gore in this movie.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

We really did, and you know, you mentioned the seesaw of it all. My favorite element of this movie is not even just the zombies, but it's how it really worked with its staging and how it blocks each scene. I'm thinking about it coming to life in in what ended up being my favorite scene, even though it's not my favorite musical number at all, and it was also like a shaky part of the movie. But it's the moment where I was like, okay, all right, the movie's in on the joke. And it's leaning into the camp. It's the musical number turning my life around, and she's dancing in the street. We have this whole zombie apocalypse, the outbreak is here, it's in her neighborhood, it's in her yard, it's in her neighbor's house. All of this is happening in the background. And the reason why I love this particular moment is because there comes a point where there's two girls who are still alive, they're beating the shit out of zombies with book bags and blurred out all the way in the background. They're also yelling at her, like, what the fuck are you doing? And they're joking about how oblivious she is, again, because she's a teenager who has her headphones in, and we all know how many jokes get made about people listening to their music too loud and just being cut off from the world and feeling their feelings. That was such a great moment. Especially because it leads right into then the zombie snowman. The second that he falls down, she's talking about being a paramedic, she's a first aider, and she wants to help him out. It's like, okay, you s you make it seem like you're so aware, even though you're just oblivious a few seconds ago. So that dynamic, the depth in that scene and those little touches to really set that apart, and then leading into the comedy of that scene, fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

I think what they did well there is, you know, Sean mentions earlier that that whole moving around through the neighborhood, oblivious to what's going on, it's very Sean of the Dead. But what was nice is they have both of them doing it and meeting in the middle. So she's coming from one side, John's coming from the other. They're both doing their song, they're both oblivious because they're in music land, and then we get together and we do a little dance, and I think that's what really kind of is like, you know, yes, we're paying homage to that. We love the way they did that, but it's a musical and we've got multiple characters and we're gonna weave it together. So I give them, you know, I'll give him I'll give him a kudos for for that kind of a moment because initially when she starts singing and moving through, I I had that same thought, like, come on, guys, be original here. That's just a straight-up copy from the movie. Um, but to see them both going through the uh I don't know, what would you call that graveyard? That was yeah, that was that I think was a fun move.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

She's literally dancing on graves, he's dancing on graves.

SPEAKER_02 36:31

Lovely.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

Like that's just such a good moment. Yes, there are a lot of parallels here with Sean of the Dead. I'm not gonna sit here and say that there aren't. But I do think that thematically there is a difference between Sean in his lack of ambition, embodying how he is already a zombie sh shambling through the street. I feel like there's a difference there walking through oblivious and her being oblivious to the horrors around her because she is convicted in turning her life around and thinking about all the shit that she had to deal with the day before. She's thinking about all the shit with her dad. She has a ticket to go to Australia, she's been saving up for it, and she just wants to take the next step. Yes, it's a similar move, but they mean different things, and I actually really enjoy that.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

Fair. I don't know that I uh that I dived that far into that scene, to be honest. Obviously, we we know this because I couldn't get past the Shauna the Dead of it all. I have two scenes that I really enjoyed for this movie, and one I think was just comedy, and then there was one that really brought me back to a moment in high school for me, and I'm gonna dive into these. So the one that I think was really just funny that I just thought was super campy and hilarious was we get the scene where there's the asthma student breathing heavily behind like with the inhaler, and you think like with the the the audio that you get that it's a zombie and it just ends up being somebody breathing in their inhaler. I don't know why, but that little fake out was so hilarious to me. It was a it was a laugh out loud moment for me.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Because it was the Sean of the Dead of it all, but it not exactly being Sean of the Dead.

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Yes, yeah. But but let me but let me dive into this scene. So the penguin fish song.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

The fish rap.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

The fish rap. Oh boy, okay. It's so good. First, best performance of the film, hands down, but it reminds me of this time in school for me. So in when I went when I was in high school, we had this performance show called Culture Fest. You know, you would you would try to put together different you know, performances culturally, different things, pop, this thing, whatever. And if you were involved in this, you could get out of class for long periods of time. So naturally, my buddies and I were like, fuck yeah, we're joining this culture fest, we're gonna do this, we're getting out of class. So we spend, I don't even know how many months or whatever spending hours, you know, one, two hours a day or whatever, not in class, just messing around, literally dicking around the entire time. The entire time. And we get to about 24 hours before we're supposed to actually perform on stage for the school, and we're like, fuck, we have not put together shit. But let me tell you what we did do. We came together all in tan dickies, white t-shirts, we put the most horrendous choreography you can think of together, and we danced to that song by tattoo, all the things she said. We danced to this song, this horrible choreography, not in like in sync, we were not on time, not on tempo. Half of us were doing one thing, the other half was doing another. We did this in front of the whole school, no shame, made the front page of the paper great moment in history. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

Wait, what was the context behind being on the front page of the paper?

SPEAKER_03 40:21

Oh, they were just, I don't know, it was something like Culture Fest pops off, like hilarious moment, whatever. So it just like became something that most people would probably be embarrassed about, but we were just like, hell yeah, look at that, dude. People in people laughed, and that's all that matters, you know?

SPEAKER_02 40:38

I'm gonna jump into my favorite scene, and I think it's it's not a it's not a big deal, it's a pretty, it's a pretty small moment, but it's when they try to escape using the inflatable pool that was filled with balls. And uh one, brilliant, um, but two, the thing that made it better was the idea of a zombie peeing. Yeah. Like nearby. Yeah. Who who thought like who thought that that, you know, hey, do zombies have to pee? Yeah, of course. And then if they're peeing, they're gonna be peeing on on the ground or on the inflatable pool. I couldn't tell exactly what was happening. I just found it humorous either way. Um, and I um it was a good way to introduce the still alive classmates, you know, by having them bash in the zombies' brains, of course, and get the blood all over the pool. But just imagining multiple teenagers walking around with an inflatable pool over their heads as a way of escaping a zombie apocalypse was just like a great setup.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

It's okay. It's plastic, it's warm plastic.

SPEAKER_02 41:38

It's warm plastic.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

Oh, it's so rough. It is so rough.

SPEAKER_02 41:43

It was definitely giving, you know, let's let's go to the Winchester in that moment. But I still respected it. I liked it.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

No, the biggest let's go to the Winchester moment was when she rolls up with the car later on in the movie. We get that super cut of them hopping into the car, putting it in gear and driving off.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

Oh, that was now honestly. I wish they had had that kind of moment earlier in the film. You know, it would have been it would have been a fun thing to do.

SPEAKER_00 42:08

Okay, so we've obviously talked about a few good scenes here, but I feel like we'd be remiss if we didn't take some time to really break down the musicality of of the whole movie. Listen, some of these songs were pretty mid. I think there are a few things that kind of hit for me. One, the fish rap, obviously a number one hit. We love it.

SPEAKER_03 42:26

But you have to have the choreography with that rap. Like it's good on its own, but if you don't see the dance that goes with it, it's just not, it doesn't hit that same level.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

Okay, so that's fair. Maybe it actually gets a nice humble second place then, because you have to have both first place then would automatically go to it's that time of year, which is the other musical number from that show. And oh my gosh, I just have to talk about how great this fucking moment is. And honestly, it's a great moment in the whole movie, but there's the the quote unload your sack.

SPEAKER_03 43:02

Unload your sack in a song.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

There was unload your sack. It was that it's basically just this movie's version of Santa baby, but yeah, leaning harder into the perversion of it all. Meanwhile, her boyfriend's seat is empty, his grandmother's there cheering her on being so supportive, loving it, eating it up. It's so wholesome. Uh, come on, Santa, give it to me. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_03 43:30

Yeah. It was literally, what did it? It started with like there's a lack of presence in my stocking, and then into that line. Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

That was it was so on point. It was great, because initially it was definitely giving mean girls, uh, but then we took it a completely different direction, and with every moment it just like it just kept kept getting richer, you know? Just like how absurd can we make this?

SPEAKER_00 43:53

Well, it's also giving not only mean girls, but the sisters in Black Christmas twenty.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Oh yeah. A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

Okay, lyrics of that song. Snow is falling on the frosty ground. Christmas tree is spreading all around. It's that time of year, but I'm feeling so blue. There's a lack of presence in my stocking, and my chimney needs a good unblocking.

SPEAKER_03 44:15

Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Come on, Santa Dear. I've been waiting for you. Let me tell you, if you're feeling frozen stiff, my fire's burning hot for you before you take a nap. Let me sit upon your lap. There's only one gift that I want to unwrap when you're near. Maybe it's that time of year. I've warmed your milk and made your favorite snack. So come on over and unload your sack. Tie those reindeer up, cause you may be a while, and I know what'll make you smile.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Might be the best song of this movie, to be honest.

SPEAKER_03 44:47

I I think it is for sure. The whole Soldier at War was an interesting sequence. The Hollywood ending was pretty good, but yeah, that one takes the cake.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

Yeah. I think is the moment where I realized Nick's actor Ben Wiggins is probably the best male vocalist in this movie.

SPEAKER_03 45:03

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 45:05

I also feel like the music that they chose, and the lyrics, of course, like fit the moment and fit his character better than some of the other songs fit the moments they were in. You know, I was thinking um give them a show, I think, felt felt kind of a little weird. I mean, it made sense based on like the title, but like the music itself, I don't I think really captured the like the scene that we were in.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Yeah, it was really just like this standout moment of like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna just go all out, right? It was honestly a more violent parallel to that song, My Way.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

It's like, okay, all right. Well, if I'm gonna fucking go, I might as well go and I'll do it my way. But I actually want to talk about one of the last songs that we get in this movie, and it follows Give Them a Show, it's I Will Believe. Holy shit, folks. This is where I started crying. Because we talked about like family dynamic year. Y'all know my context with my own father. And while I'm a sucker and uh and and and it's so painful to watch anything mom-related in movies, usually dad shit doesn't bother me. This time it did. I'm in a weird place in my life right now. It's genuinely this moment of her dying father starting to sing. And there's a lyric, I lost the things I used to need the most. Where is the light that used to shine? Where is the light that was once mine? But while there is hope, while I still breathe, I will believe. And then later on, if I had reckoned the seconds would slip from me, I'd have paid twice of the price for the memory. Damn. And fuck, man, you can't give me dying parent also super cutting to dead John in the Christmas sweater, also super cutting to Chris and his girlfriend, dud, now shambling as zombies, pinkies still touching like they're proper lesbians. You can't give me all that and expect me to feel nothing. And that's when I realized I thought I didn't give a fuck about these people, but I actually kind of gave a fuck about these people.

SPEAKER_03 47:03

Yeah, I get that. So there's those, there's those moments for sure where I feel like they are trying to pull on your heartstrings and they do hit these moments. I feel like for me, it's like it's the emotional reactions that we get throughout the entire film that I feel like just didn't deliver enough for me to be really invested in what's happening, but I do see what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 47:28

Yeah, I think they were really trying to portray the emotions in the music. And it works in that you know, you get music that it has a meaning behind it. It's not just random songs, but it also kind of backfires because the the emotion is removed from the non-musical parts, uh, which is definitely a bummer because when you get to the point where you're seeing all the the friends and the family at the very end there, I'll agree. Like the the couple that got bit, I didn't want them to go. And you know, they didn't really have this big emotional reaction to it. And in fact, we just stood there watching while it happened. But then you would get to the end, you're like, oh, isn't this so sad? And it's like, why didn't we have that earlier? Why wasn't there a scream and then running away or something?

SPEAKER_00 48:07

I dare say it was more emotional that they stood there embracing each other, realizing what was happening, realizing that they'd still have each other. Because think about just moments ago, his grandmother died. Also, what the fuck, guys?

SPEAKER_03 48:22

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 48:23

Not the sneak attack dead grandma.

SPEAKER_03 48:24

The sneak attack dead grandma, nothing to do with zombies at all. Just died from what, like, I don't know, a heart attack or something?

SPEAKER_00 48:33

Literally a heart attack. They got her up there, and she tried her best to keep her going, but the doctors couldn't fix her, so the school teachers couldn't do shit. The sneak attack really fucking got me, and I think maybe that was like picking at the fucking still fresh wound, and then everything else just like hopped into.

SPEAKER_03 48:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:53

Knowing that we go from that, he's like, at least she's not one of them. Go downstairs, you think they're gonna make it out. I mean, stuff is just feet away. The zombies are distracted, and so for them to just stay there holding each other, embracing each other. I mean, y'all tell me, if you and and your wives got bit and you realize this is it, this is the end, how else would you react?

SPEAKER_03 49:17

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if that if you can react any differently. Um, it it's tough, but even even the moments that we get after that, I think is really interesting too, because when they are both turned into zombies and they're walking across the room, their hands kind of touch like they wanted to hold hands or whatever, but they obviously I don't know, they can't, or but that feeling is still there, so that was interesting.

SPEAKER_00 49:42

Yeah, it felt like it was the process of the transformation, but they weren't fully there yet. You know what I mean? It's like they're turning, but there's still that little flicker of humanity left inside.

SPEAKER_03 49:55

Was given uh Warm Bodies, you know?

SPEAKER_00 49:58

I was gonna say this could be a great prequel to R Warm Bodies, or at least these zombies exist in the same universe as Warm Bodies.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

I'm I'm kind of torn on some of the songs, but like specifically when we get to the headmaster's you know reveal. One, I was expecting that he killed everyone. So the fact that some of them were still alive was kind of a nice surprise, but nothing nothing's gonna stop me now. That that was an interesting one because he he's not a bad singer, right? Like he can he can do his job, it's it's fine or whatever musically, but like I feel like we gave him a lot of attention throughout this movie.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

Yeah. You know what? He has one of those character voices.

SPEAKER_03 50:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:40

I'd be curious to see or hear what he sounds like in other projects. I wonder if this is just what he was putting into this character. But the problem for me is that with this song, with honestly all his moments in other songs, it felt like he was imagining he was giving Scar from Lion King. But he wasn't. He was giving Zazu at best.

SPEAKER_03 51:06

Zazu.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

Maybe even Iago.

SPEAKER_03 51:09

Yeah, I don't know. I think uh I think he had uh he had a good, you know, antagonist type look to him. You know, he had that charisma, I feel like.

SPEAKER_00 51:20

Okay, shout out to Brit who talked about me being a Greek. This man is a fucking knockoff wish brand Sue Sylvester. Oh the girls who get it, get it. It's not for y'all, it's for the listener.

SPEAKER_03 51:31

But but I also think like throughout the movie, as he kind of delves further and further into madness, I feel almost in a way, right? Even like he just gets ruffled, like his hair gets a little bit more wild. I kind of like that aspect of his character.

SPEAKER_00 51:48

Yeah, I mean, I I guess he looked like an antagonist. I think he just looked more scrawny than anything. He looked like one of those people where I would think, I could take you. Like you shouldn't be a real threat in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 52:01

That's true. I mean, if you when you think about the actor in general, he's I mean, he's a he's a funny, he's a funny actor. Um, even his character in Game of Thrones was kind of comical, maybe just in like appearance, because he's got that nice, like, disheveled look really down. Like he he nails it.

SPEAKER_03 52:15

Oh my god. I'm just now linking that. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

Yeah, but you know, I think it works. I honestly think they kind of kept him from being as funny as he can be, because he ended up just being this, you know, jerk, right? And I think he he seemed a little restrained from from his other his other work, which is kind of a bummer because I'd rather have like a crazy, like not the crazy we got, you know, he's a crazy jerk. I'd rather him be like zany uh in terms of being a headmaster and then just like let him be completely unhinged. Um, because he's still, even when the world has fallen apart and he's like trying to control the school, he still seems like very locked down, which is unfortunate.

SPEAKER_00 52:55

You know, I was really hoping there would be more for him. There is that moment where we have a song earlier in the movie, everyone is singing along in the cafeteria, and he comes up and crosses his arm, he looks like he's kind of enjoying it, and then goes away in the shadows. And I thought there, okay, they're gonna try to make him a little bit more endearing. No, he just played one note the whole time. I guess you have to have some kind of constant for the science experiment, huh?

SPEAKER_03 53:21

Yeah, something like that. I I will say though, I think it's probably a given though. Anna's the best character, and that's probably the point, right?

SPEAKER_00 53:30

I mean, she definitely did go full hero mode. Like there's a point where after Chris and his girlfriend get bit in the room and Steph is there watching it and just walking away from it, the screen goes black for a second, and then uh next shot we get is just a zombie fucking dropping, and then we get a hero shot from the ground perspective up at Anna, and I was like, damn Anna, you're kind of hot.

SPEAKER_03 53:54

Well, I was gonna say, so I don't know if that was the term I was gonna go for, but I was gonna say, like, there's this likability of this character, but I do think it comes down to the cuteness of this of this actress, right? I will say that she had some good moments, that was a good moment, but I think I think that was the biggest thing that really just kind of drew you into this character. Very happy, like I'm not happy character. I guess there was ups and downs, but I think it was the most likable character in the movie, but I think they tried to really make a spotlight on her for that.

SPEAKER_02 54:28

I don't know that I agree because as soon as she started talking about uh having planned a gap year and having kept it a secret from her her widow or father, I like didn't like her for a good while.

SPEAKER_03 54:40

Really?

SPEAKER_02 54:40

Like that's kind of a that's kind of a crappy move. I feel like you're really short-sighted, I feel like you're really immature, and that's just be because of how old I am that I was judging her in that way. But yeah, I really kind of disliked her at that moment for probably a good 25 minutes afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

I'm sorry, why?

SPEAKER_02 54:59

I just just how immature and disrespectful that whole that whole thing was of like, you know, he's he's been working with her on like making plans to go forward and whatever, and you know, then she's like, no, I'm not going to, I'm not going to uni. I'm I'm taking a gap year and going to Australia.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

God forbid that she has her own agency back. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 55:21

No, she is allowed to, but um like this is her only parent, and he obviously wants to see her succeed. And so, like, why would you not like have a discussion about it uh and like be really honest and stress how important this is to you um instead of like letting it get blurted out during a car ride.

SPEAKER_00 55:39

Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. I have several points. One, obviously, this is not the situation that she had planned. Obviously, she is not to blame for fucking John with a face full of fucking jelly for blurting it out. This isn't her letting it get blurted out. This is a girl who is becoming a young woman who clearly has a father who loves her and she also loves, but she is overwhelmed and just burdened by the level of protection and control that he has on her life. So yeah, she's taken some time to finance a gap year. She's planning for this. She still wants to do uni later, but she wants time for herself, which I think is totally fine. In fact, I think that moment made me love her more. And I was like, damn, girl, I'm sorry that this happened this way. Because I'm sure looking at the conflict that she had, looking at the relationship that they had, looking at, you know, he has pictures of her on his phone. It's not like he's an absentee, like asshole dad. This is a moment that it just didn't go the way that she intended. And she was pissed that it went that way. She's like, what the fuck? Again, this is a girl whose life is controlled by the fucking men around her. And the second she tries to do something for herself, Mac, I don't mind that at all.

SPEAKER_03 57:00

I don't know if those are the points that I would make, but I will but I will say that one, we have to also acknowledge that she lost her mother just as he lost his wife. So she's dealing with her own shit there. And I think that it's relatable to me because I'm trying to put myself in her shoes and I'm thinking, like, man, as the kind of person that I am, do I want to tell my parents or parent about something like this where I know the reaction I'm gonna get, and I'd rather avoid that conflict, and I'd rather just do my own thing and just and just go about my business and hope for the best. And so, like, in that moment, I don't know if she's thinking or I would be thinking of like, if I'm gonna hurt that person, I'm more thinking of like, do I need to deal with the bullshit that ensues from me telling them what I want to do?

SPEAKER_00 57:51

Yeah, let's also acknowledge that she is presumably, you know, and again, this takes place in another country, right? So I'm not sure what the education years are there. Let's say she's around 18 years old. She can make her own decisions, she obviously could make it buy her own plane ticket, right? Let's also consider the fact that this movie takes place during Christmas and she might have months left to have this conversation.

SPEAKER_02 58:12

True, true. That's that's not wrong. That's not wrong.

SPEAKER_00 58:15

That's just the imperfection of the moment.

SPEAKER_02 58:17

I mean, yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's my imperfection that you know gave me a distaste for her.

SPEAKER_00 58:23

It's not your imperfection, Mac. I just would encourage you to see both sides of the equation instead of just blaming this little young teenage girl for being selfish about her dad when clearly he is pushing her in every fucking direction.

SPEAKER_02 58:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:36

All right, I digress.

SPEAKER_02 58:37

Well, that's yeah, that's true. And he's using, you know, he's using the magic of guilt, insert sparkles here to to try to push her in a direction. In reality, he should have said, you know, I'll support you whichever way you want to go, whatever. I get it, you know. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 58:52

He has his hooks dug in deep. Because in in the reality of this, is it is heartbreaking that he lost his wife. It's heartbreaking that she lost her mother, but he also can't let her go because she's all that he has left.

SPEAKER_03 59:06

And that can be selfish. Yeah. Can be.

SPEAKER_00 59:09

Which is why it's also so sad to have the end of this movie. Yeah. And let's talk about it. Let's fucking talk about it, man. Because this is why it fucked me up with the whole musical number. And we talk about the end of the movie, right? We're talking about did they do enough? And I was talking about like how they linger in things. Just think about where she is. When this movie started, she was in the car. Her dad was in the driver's seat. She was a passenger in her own fucking life, seeking her own agency. Now, end of the movie, she doesn't have that obstacle in her way. But I guarantee she'd give anything to have her dad again. It's a whole perspective shift, right? It is, you know, this question that she's faced with where to next or what next. And she had all these plans before, and she can't even think to have them now. It's silence, and you linger in that.

SPEAKER_03 59:59

There's a smile though.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:01

There is, yeah. But the but the but the other element of this, right, is thinking about like what next. The movie started with what next, and it was with the idea of what next.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:10

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:11

So in the at the end of this, there's also this like heartbreak of like, yes, there is this like moment. Is she thinking, is she smiling to herself thinking about her dad? Is she smiling to herself thinking about what could happen next? Is she smiling, remembering John's dumbass on the fucking jelly face, blurting out her fucking secret? Some best friend. There's a lot of possibility there, there's a lot of feeling there, and that's why I don't think the ending is super perfect, but that moment lingering with her, that was fucking gold for all those reasons. I'm off my soapbox now.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:45

See, that's the the weird thing about this movie is it try it like has this moments where it's like super silly, super gory, and then like super deep, you know? And it's it's tough because when you dive into one like that, it kind of takes you out of the other ones. And uh and maybe that's a good thing, maybe it's kind of kind of necessary, but like yeah, with with her journey in life being interrupted by a zombie outbreak that has killed pretty much what the majority of all humans, they're sitting there just like pondering, you know, when we get to the end. Maybe it's a good pondering because now the the opportunities are open, but you know, I don't know. It just like takes me out of the comedy, it takes me out of the whole zombie thing. It's just kind of like, oh, she's growing and now she has to find her own path because she's all alone. And it's kind of depressing in a way when we were just having a you know, a silly dance routine to kill zombies with a large candy cane. I don't know. It's it is a weird, it's a really weird balance to go back and forth between all of those things.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:41

I love it because it reminds me of the duality of my spirit, Mac popping along to sing along. It's also horribly depressed. This movie is my mood on blast.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:51

It's real life.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:51

Look inside my brain, it's show tunes and sad feelings.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:56

I'm I'm I'm bummed though that we didn't get to keep one character, you know. I was really hoping that dad would make it and that he would get to stick around, but for some reason he would tell her to go off and live her life, whatever it was. And the fact that like he ended up getting bit on the leg at some point was to me a to it was a disappointment. You know, it almost like didn't even need to happen because that the growth between like her growth, yes, good. His growth wasn't as strong because yes, at the end, he's like, You gotta go. He accepts that you're gonna do great. If your mother could see you'd be she'd be so happy, right? Because he was dying. And if he was alive, would he have gotten to that same conclusion? I don't I don't know. Based on everything we saw in the movie, it doesn't feel like it.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:39

No, because if that happened, it would have been Shauna the Dead Mac. It would have been her settling and planting roots in a life that she didn't really want or deserve because she'd be too afraid to leave a man alone.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:52

True, but she's not getting to Australia in a zombie apocalypse. Just want to just want to throw that out there unless she swims.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:58

Yeah, you're gonna row your boat over there.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:00

But also can consider this. It's obviously a pandemic or an epidemic or a zombie apocalypse changes dynamics greatly in relationships, but there's also just the reality that it wasn't just the geographic move she was trying to make. She's trying to have new experiences, and there are a lot of behaviors and a lot of control mechanisms, I'm sure, that existed in that relationship. Not in like a super negative way. I'm not saying that he was a bad dad, but it's it's uh overpowering, it's overwhelming, and she probably wanted to also get away from that. So honestly, if he lived, he she probably would have stuck around and just continue to dwell in what she didn't really want because he wouldn't have had that growth. He would have had the wow, you're here. Now you're definitely not going to Australia, kiddo. You know what I mean? Like he'd get what he wanted and she'd be making the sacrifice.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:56

But did we want to see Nick at the end?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:00

I don't give a shit about Nick. I think he's a great male vocalist, so I'm glad he was there for one more tune. But who I was happy to see, Steph. Honestly, worst part of the movie for me is my own lesbian erasure right here, right now, not talking about her more.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:15

I'm I'm surprised it took us this long to get to Steph, quite honestly, because there was so much about her. Oh goodness. She's obviously a little like OCPD, you know, her her level of needing to control everything around her, um, her tidiness, her planning, uh, it was very familiar. And I pre- and I appreciate it about her. Her short hair was very well kept, loved it, absolutely. It was interesting though that we just got like a random American, you know, like a kid who was just there from overseas. Kind of strange at first because I I don't know anything about you know about the actor. So I'm sitting here thinking, like, is she actually American? Is she from the UK? And they're putting on an accent. I don't know, but I don't care. It it it worked.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:57

Yeah, I really wish we had gotten more of her. I think that was actually the biggest crime in this movie for me because maybe it was so difficult to say more about her because we just didn't get the amount that we deserved. I loved everything that I did see about her. Like we know there's some complication with her family. She feels like she was just just ditched and dropped off at the first opportunity. She has a girlfriend and there is distance there. So what does that look like? Is her girlfriend even in this area, this continent, this country? Is she suddenly on the other side of the world surrounded by no one she knows because her parents kicked her out? Who knows, right? But the point is, like there was a lot of potential there, and I feel like we just didn't get to enjoy all that her character had to offer.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:45

I I agree. I I think like as a just a character, every scene that she's in, she's very compelling. And so I I think we could have we could have gone deeper with that. I think same thing for Lisa. Lisa was one of my top characters, just a complete. Vibe. Absolutely ridiculous. That that that whole song was so dirty and hilarious. But her interactions with her boyfriend were next level. I just I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:11

Yeah, their relationship was kind of fun and hilarious to kind of watch. And just the the moment that you see them even in the cafeteria, and they just walk walk up and start instantly making out with each other from across the table while people are just sitting there eating their lunch. I think was I just trying to picture myself in that moment. I'm like, well, alright, this is happening. This is awkward. Just trying to drink my apple juice here. I can tell you what the best part of the movie was for me, and I think it was actually the glimpses of carnage that we get from these zombie scenes, and we don't get a lot of it. It's not like we get like a ton of really great lengthy scenes of this carnage, but when we do see the carnage, and there's a couple of great scenes where these zombies are like surrounding these bodies and just tearing in and eating this human flesh, I just think those moments were great. Best part, I wish we got a little bit more. I don't think that this movie necessarily needed to see just zombie action from start to finish, but I think if they just gave us a little bit more of that zombie action and we got it a little bit sooner in the film, it might have been a different turn, but I love that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:31

I'm surprised you didn't say that the best part of the movie was John's all of the other reindeer joke.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:38

That was a good one though. Actually, it was.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:41

I did write it down, and it it might be something that I whip out in the holiday season. We'll see.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:47

That's great. That's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:49

Gosh, I I think I I'm gonna feel real bad for saying this, but I think the worst part of the movie for me was the music. And I don't mean that the music is bad, I'm just not super into musicals, but if you're gonna have a musical, there's a way to like transition between the normal speech and the song. And I think it was very abrupt here. And I think that's what kind of threw me off. There was even some moments where we're kind of in the same scene, or we're like right after something happening, and then we like just cut to black, and then a musical starts. And that was that was a bit that was a bit weird to me. Or that like the songs aren't related to the conversation that's happening. And I think there's some musicals where you're watching them, two characters are speaking, one of them says something, that something then becomes the verse of a song that they're going to sing. And so it wasn't quite as smooth when it comes to the transitions between the speech and the music. I think the music was fine. I don't think it's necessarily like bad music. I just think like the it feels almost injected into a lot of the scenes, and that is what made it the bad part, you know, to me. And honestly, again, it's not bad, I just have to pick a worst part.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:00

Do you think it impedes your rewatchability at all?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:03

No, I don't think so. You know, the more we've we've talked during this episode, the more I realize there's a lot of funny musicals that I really enjoy. And what just came to mind to me was like Shmigadoon, had a lot of fun watching that. And I don't I think they made a second season that I never got to watch, but I actually could see myself enjoying it. Same thing here. Like I could see myself enjoying this again. I think if I if I did that, I would have to actually pay attention more to the music next time. This time, because I just wasn't into it, I kind of was like, all right, they're singing, I can kind of tune that out and just look at it. I didn't really get a lot of the meaning in their songs, and so I should probably, you know, like care about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:39

Yeah, I don't know. For for myself, I honestly can't see myself watching this one again. I I just don't see a scenario where I would just wanna like I have an inkling to put this specific movie on. Uh, even when we're in the holiday season, this being a Christmas horror musical, which is very, you know, you know, it's very few and and far between on these types of films, but I just don't see myself even wanting to watch this during the holiday season because I think it does have the Christmas themes. It takes place around Christmas. We've got some random ugly Christmas sweater, we've got Death by Candy Cane, but outside of that, I'm not getting a ton of holiday feels, so I don't know that even it would just be something that I throw into this rotation for you know the holiday season. So I yeah, I just don't know. Again, not that it's a terrible movie, obviously it was a hack for me, but I don't think that I will find myself watching this one again. I can't see a scenario.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:44

Yeah, I'm not gonna probably watch it every single December, but I'm definitely gonna watch it again. I think what I will do more than that though, is add like three or four songs from this movie onto a playlist. I listen to when I want to cry. I think that's what I'll do. I feel like it there's a a few good ones here that maybe really dig in and hit me in an emotional way. Again, not for the quality of the music, but just like the quality of the lyrics. I do think that I'm gonna re-watch this movie maybe in the next year, just so I can get the glory of the fish rap one more time.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:18

Oh gosh. Listen, that beautiful fish rap.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:24

I'll give it another shot for sure. Maybe it'll grow on me even more. I think just talking about this now has opened my eyes to some dormant feelings I had after watching the movie. So maybe I'll enjoy even more on a rewatch, but for now, there you have it, folks. And the apocalypse has earned one hack and two slashes. Now we've certainly had a robust discussion here, but it doesn't end here by any means.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:51

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SPEAKER_02 1:12:02

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