The Loved Ones
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If John Hughes directed horror films instead of angsty teen comedies, his first film would’ve been The Loved Ones. It’s ultra-violent, but we found a surprisingly complex message beneath all the gore.
The Loved Ones (2009)
Episode 26, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw
Todd: Welcome to another episode of 2 Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.
Craig: I’m Craig.
Todd: And today, we went with the 2009 thriller torture porn comedy, I guess. Rom com, if you will. Maybe. The Loved Ones. Craig, you’ve been wanting me to watch this movie forever.
Craig: I’ve been trying to get you to watch this for a long time. You, Todd does every Halloween, he does, 30 days or 31 days, where he watches a horror movie every day for the month of October and then does write ups, about them. And so when I saw this, I, suggested this for 1 of them, but I can never get him to watch it. And then, you know, we’ve been doing this, podcast for a while now. And every time we talk about what might we do this week, I would always throw this 1 in the hat. And for one reason or another, we’d end up picking something else until
Todd: Finally, I said, let’s just do it, and can you get off my back? I don’t wanna hear about the loved ones anymore.
Craig: So we so we finally did it, and here it is.
Todd: Well, I have to say, I think it was a pretty good choice. I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. Actually, I thought it was a deeper movie than I was expecting.
Craig: You know, me too. And the funny thing is I’ve seen this before, but just the once, and that’s been quite a while ago. I mean, maybe 2 or 3 years ago, and I had kind of forgotten some of the more subtle plot points. And you don’t really realize until kind of the last half hour that there’s a little bit more going on underneath the surface than just straight up torture porn, which you get a lot of in this movie. Correct.
Todd: And it’s interesting because that dawns on you probably about halfway through, doesn’t it? Or maybe 3 quarters
Clip: of the
Craig: way through. Yeah.
Todd: You realize, oh, yeah. Why in the world are we juxtaposing these horrible scenes of torture with these rather serene scenes of the rest of the family, and then these odd humorous, but also kind of sad scenes of this other couple at the dance. Right. And you go, oh, there’s a point to be made here. Right.
Craig: And there’s a there’s a connection. I mean and but the connection isn’t revealed until later on. And even just watching at this time, I had forgotten. I had been asking myself, well, there’s the there’s a central story, but then there’s kind of this other, story about these 2 kids who go off, to the school dance, and it keeps cutting back to them. And at first, you think it’s just for comedy. Mhmm. And then things start to get not necessarily darker, but a little more serious until finally you do realize that that that side plot is connected to the main plot. And, then the you kind of feel bad for laughing. You know? It’s it’s kinda it’s sad.
Todd: It is. Well, the the story starts out with a guy kid named Brent Yeah. Driving along with his dad in the car. He’s driving. He probably is 16 years Todd. Just got his license. This is an Australian film, by the way, so it takes place in Australia. And there’s a guy in the middle of the road who’s kinda cut up and gross, and Brent and his dad really aren’t paying attention and see this guy a little too late, and Brent swerves to miss him. Comes back around, basically wraps his car around a tree. And the next time we see Brent 6 months later, he’s a totally different person.
Craig: Yeah. In the beginning, in that car scene, it’s really kind of a pleasant, you know, light conversation between father and son, and then there’s this this you can tell. I mean, you don’t see really the aftermath aside from the exterior of the car, but it was a terrible accident. And it cuts to 6 months later, and the kind of I mean, he always kinda had a grungy look with, like, the longer hair or whatever. He listens to heavy metal music, which his dad was kinda ribbing him about. But when we cut to 6 months later, we cut to them to him, Brent, in his high school, and he just looks worn down. Yeah. More you know, he’s pale. He disheveled. So, obviously, in that 6 months, he’s recuperated from whatever injuries he may have sustained in the car accident, but something’s wrong.
Todd: Yeah. Yeah. He has a friend. I never caught his friend’s name.
Craig: Man. Jamie. Jamie was the friend’s name.
Todd: Jamie’s friend, is there. Jamie turns out to be it’s interesting. We get this Jamie character in here, and he approaches Brent, and they just have a quick little exchange.
Clip: Mhmm.
Todd: And this girl that Jamie’s never seen before or something come maybe comes walking down the hall, and she’s totally gawked out. Right. All blacks, long black hair, pale. Ian herself, you know, goes to her locker and, Brent decides to chase after her. It’s it’s like that scene in, you know, the beginning of some eighties high school, you know, sex comedy.
Craig: Oh, yeah. It’s exactly like that. Exactly like that.
Todd: The whole movie actually has parallels, doesn’t it, to, like, Pretty in Pink or something like that?
Clip: Absolutely.
Todd: And he goes to chase after her.
Clip: Yes. She said yes.
Craig: So we’re
Todd: going to the dance. Right. In the meantime, suddenly, just creepily, this girl pops up around the corner, towards Brent, and her name is Lola.
Clip: Mhmm.
Todd: And she’s spacey? I don’t know.
Craig: I mean, she’s a little mousy. She she seems shy. I mean, the the 1st girl that we talked about, her name was Mia, the goth girl. She’s, you know, goth, but if you’re into that, very beautiful girl.
Clip: Yeah.
Craig: And then this girl comes around, and and she seems a little bit more, I don’t know, down home. I mean, she she seems like she would be the quiet girl at school. She’s in some kind of, like, cute pink sweater, like, maybe even a little too cute, like, a little bit young for her.
Todd: And her Parents are, like, rolled up to her knees. Her jeans are rolled
Craig: up to her knees. And her hair is a little mousy and a little disheveled, and, she approaches him in very, very timidly.
Clip: Will you go to the dance with me? Sorry, Oliver. I’m done with Holly.
Craig: I mean, it seems like she’s tried to muster up her courage to ask. And he’s nice. He says, I’m sorry, Lola, but I’m going with Holly. He’s got a girlfriend, Holly. And then he turns around and walks away, and she just kind of watches him walk away. And he goes outside, and Holly is waiting for him. And she, again, you know, a girl that you would have gone to high school with, pretty, but not like actress, movie star pretty.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: And, he tells her, somebody else asked me Todd dance, and she says, well, who was it? But he won’t tell. And then they go off together. She’s just gotten her license, and so, they go off together and start making out in the car. And as the make out session progresses, and it’s getting pretty hot and heavy, she kinda keeps teasing him and asking, you know, who is it? Who is it? Who is it? But he won’t tell. And then they get really hot and heavy. You know? They they’re getting down.
Todd: The the windows are steaming
Craig: up. Yeah. We see outside the window, Lola, just standing and watching them. I mean, you know, like, right
Todd: outside the hallway. Comical
Clip: Yeah.
Todd: Way, but it’s also extremely creepy. Right. Right. And at the same time, the the filmmakers teasing us as well. She notices that he has cuts all over his leg.
Craig: When he takes off it I couldn’t tell if it was his leg or maybe it was his his abdomen or something like that. Could’ve been. Yeah. When he takes off his shirt, I think, is when you see that he’s clearly got cutting scars, and he’s wearing a razor blade around his neck, on a chain. And it seems like she kinda must know about it. It seems like she’s a little bothered by it, but it’s not a shock to her. So she must know this has been going on. And then she takes him home. She says, as he’s getting out, I love you. He kisses her, and then she says, I love you. And he turns back to her and doesn’t say it, but gives her another kiss and gets out. And then he tells her he says it was Lola. It was Lola Stone. And she kinda teased, and he says, well, maybe you should go with
Todd: if her boyfriend’s an emotional retard.
Craig: Right. He says. You’re right. Really sensitive.
Todd: He’s calling it’s, it’s interesting. He’s obviously and then when he comes inside and his mother is just just down Yeah. And just really spaced out, honestly, not really there. And you realize that her his dad didn’t survive the car Craig, and what we’re seeing is a damaged family. Right. He is cutting himself. He’s I guess, he’s listening to this hard rock music all the time. Did did you do a really good job with the music in this film? Yeah. Yeah. I
Craig: didn’t recognize any of it, but I imagine it’s probably popular Australian artist would be my guess. It’s good music, and they do use it to affect really well.
Todd: It really there’s this is another one of those films where there’s hardly a moment that’s not underscored, but it’s not always a score. It’s sometimes pop songs or rock songs. And the way that it jumps between these moments of silence and these moments of him, either lots of times, it’s because the music’s in the car playing or because he has his headphones on. There’s an interesting moment where he’s in his room. It’s just and his mom comes in. And when she does, he pulls his headphones out and the music stops for us.
Craig: Right. And there’ll be other moments where it’ll be a really quiet moment, and then there’ll be a really jarringly loud music cue, that kinda takes you by surprise and introduces a new tone or a new scene or whatever. Yeah. I thought it was I thought it was good.
Todd: I feel it in a way it kinda puts us in this emotional state of these characters. I mean, not only are they teenagers and their emotions are flying back and forth all the time, but they’re he’s also going through a lot and he’s got a lot to deal with from day to day. He’s gotta go come home and be kinda nice to his mom. He’s gotta be there for his girlfriend. He has to deal with his dad’s death
Clip: Right.
Todd: And he’s having a hard time with that, and so he’s doing things like cutting himself. He’s doing things like
Craig: Smoking weed.
Todd: Smoking weed when he was really critical of his dad firing up a cigarette. Right. You know? Those changes are pretty obvious, but they’re very realistic. Yeah. And I felt like the director did a great job of getting us inside that mindset. I really felt what he was feeling in many in many ways.
Craig: Well, and I you know, we’re a couple of oldies, but, you know, it it felt very young. You know, it felt realistic. Like, when you are a teenager, and I you know, music is important in everybody’s lives. But, really, when you’re a teenager, you really kind of the music you listen to is kind of your niche, kind of your thing.
Todd: That’s right.
Craig: And and you get a sense of that, and you get a sense of the characterization, based on the music too. And, really, the style, I don’t know much about this director other than that he hadn’t really done much before this except shorts.
Clip: Yeah.
Craig: I
Todd: think he was fresh out of film school
Clip: Yeah.
Todd: More or less.
Craig: And it kind of has I mean, it’s got a young vibe to it, and it’s almost got, like, I don’t wanna say exactly music video vibe, but there’s something about that. I mean, the music feels kind of integral to the storytelling.
Todd: Yeah. Well, the muse the visuals parallel the music the the music a lot. Yeah. It’s not just underscoring something, but it’s it’s part and parcel of the picture. I’m thinking specifically, maybe you are too of the scene where then he ends up leaving the house and he goes and starts rock climbing. Mhmm. And he’s climbing, and the music is really quite interesting there. And then he gets to a certain point, and he puts his hand on the ledge, and he leans back, and he closes his eyes, and you do wonder, is he gonna kill himself? Is he thinking that he’s gonna be just 1 hand grasp away from ending his own pain?
Craig: Yeah. I mean, he’s upset because his mom comes in to talk to him about the dance, and she’s concerned about the fact that, Holly is going to be driving them.
Clip: Holly’s picking me up. She doesn’t even have a license. She got it today. I’ll give you money for a cab. What’s the difference? It’s still a car. I’m still in a car. But they are experienced. And I wasn’t so dad died?
Craig: So you get the sense that, you know, he’s really struggling with it. He kind of feels either responsible or feels that his mom kind of holds him responsible. Which again, that would be you know, realistically, that would be a really difficult dynamic.
Todd: Oh, yeah.
Craig: I mean, it’s it’s a tragic loss, and you would have feelings of anger and and blame and guilt and and all of those things.
Todd: And that’s what we all go through. A lot of you know, whenever you have a loss or wherever you do something or or involved in some way, in some accident, or something that’s really bad, not only are you questioning yourself, but you’re also questioning how other people are seeing you. Right. Right? Do they blame me? Do they, whatever. And so it’s just a doubling and tripling and quadrupling down of guilt and emotions from all directions. Absolutely. And that’s what this kid’s going through, and you totally get that sense with this I thought the film did a fantastic job of really hammering that home without your dumb tropes, without them getting in some kind of ridiculous argument Right. Storming out of the house or something. It took its time and when you say it was kinda like a music video, I felt like, yeah. It played like a music video where the dialogue isn’t usually even there. Right. But the story is told through the images with the music behind it, and you just get this sense and this feeling.
Craig: Absolutely. And then as he’s going to that cliff face, that he climbs, again, it’s very mute you know, he’s kind of walking in slow motion to this hard music, and, you know, the the vibe is kind of this angry rock. And he he takes the, razor blade off of his neck. And as he’s walking, he just squeezes both hands into fists, and the blood is just running down his arm. And it’s a really interesting visual. And then, absolutely, you know, he gets to the rock face, and you have that scene. He’s you’ve got his dog with him, but he’s climbing. And, of course, you know, it’s not like a safe climb with, like, you know, ropes and whatnot.
Todd: It’s just angry. I’m just like, he’s been there before. He’s done it many times. Right. He’s he’s definitely, trying to get out some steam
Craig: as well. And it’s almost maybe kind of self destructive. Like, we’re wondering, is he gonna jump? Is he gonna fall? And you kinda get the sense, you know, he’s he’s climbing well, but kind of carelessly almost like I don’t know. Not that he wants to fall, but if he did, you know, so what? And that scene, like like you said, where he kind of hangs back, it really I felt like gave you a good idea of the state of mind that he was in, and it’s a dark state of mind. Eventually, his foot slips, and he grabs onto the rock. And so He’s not ready to die yet. Exactly. And it’s communicated well.
Todd: It is. Right?
Craig: And so he climbs up there, and he’s smoking a bowl, and, he’s got his earbuds in. His mom’s worried about him. She’s trying to call. He’s not answering. And then we see and kind of muffled through the music, hear his dog barking at something and see the dog barking at something. And then the dog stops barking, and then we see this guy, this very ominous looking guy coming up behind him. And we can’t see the guy’s face, but, you know, it’s kind of that classic. He’s, like, in workman’s pants and work boots. You know with Craig or something. Exactly. You you know it’s not gonna be good.
Todd: And that was a cool scene too, I thought. The framing, the composition in some of these shots where you get this guy coming up behind him and it’s very ominous, and the kid’s obviously gonna get it somehow. But what you see in a slightly off focus manner in the corner of the frame is he pulls out almost a rag and he fiddles with it in his hand for a second. It just ups the tension and you know what’s coming. Comes over behind him and grabs him, you know, with that rag, knocks him out. There must
Craig: have been some coral form
Todd: or something Right. And drags him away. In the meantime, we are flipping back to his friend Yeah. Who is going to pick up this girl, and it’s funny again. It and again, it’s it’s out of these films. He’s he’s just finishing up smoking a doobie real quick, kinda puts it out, starts spraying a cologne and aftershave all over himself.
Craig: Like the the I think it was actually, like, aerosol deodorant. Yeah. It was he sprayed it all over.
Todd: And he’s got banaca. He’s, like, squirting in his mouth and all this stuff. And then alright. He looks in the mirror and he goes, I’m a rock star. Yeah. And and he’s been in the car across the street from this girl, Mia, who he’s going to pick up. And what comes next is a very odd scene. It’s Todd, and it’s awkward, and it’s funny, but it’s also rather sad. Where Mia comes storming out of the house before he can even get to the door, and he’s dressed in a, well, kind of half nice way.
Craig: Well, he’s got one of those tuxedo T shirts on. He’s got, like, a like a, like, a beige, like, I don’t know, like, smoker’s jacket or or something like that on.
Todd: And and some roses. Yeah. So it’s like it’s really quite sweet. I thought, oh, this cute kid. You know? Oh, you
Craig: can tell he’s super psyched to be going out with this hot girl.
Todd: Yeah. And she comes towards him and she’s in all black and she’s looking pretty good, but you know, she wants to get she’s let’s just go. And she grabs the roses that kinda stops for a minute, and there’s just this moment where you think maybe she’s never really received roses before. Right. She doesn’t really know how to react. You worry that she’s gonna laugh at him. Right. But then you get the sense that she doesn’t even know what to make of it. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s just a brief, you know, few seconds, but so much is communicated in those few seconds.
Craig: And it’s funny. You said it’s it’s kinda sad. It is, but not until you know the context later. You know? Here, it still feels very much like a teen comedy where here come you know, she’s kind of the stereotypical goth girl. You know? She, looks very sullen. You know? She doesn’t smile. And her parents come out and wanna take pictures, And her dad is a cop. He’s in, in uniform. And she goes along with it, but you can tell, like, come on. Seriously. Just do it and get it over with. And then they go off to the dance together.
Todd: But even there, I thought with her parents and the way that they true acted and reacted, it was as though they were beside themselves, you know? Yeah. There’s not much spoken. The dad kinda looks at kid. He doesn’t rib him or doesn’t do anything. He almost gives him looks like good luck with my daughter tonight. Right. But not in a comical way, but almost in a I really don’t know what’s gonna happen. But
Craig: Yeah. But not not comical, but also not unrealistic. No. Not at all. That oftentimes, there is that kind of big disconnect between kids, especially kids if they’re struggling with anything.
Clip: Yeah.
Craig: And that’s kind of the the sense that you get that they kinda don’t know what to do with her
Clip: Yeah.
Craig: Or for her maybe.
Todd: Yeah. And and her dad being a cop and introducing that element right then and there really nails that home a little bit. I don’t know. You just get that sense with a a family where the dad’s a cop. Mhmm. He’s got this young beautiful daughter who’s rebelling.
Clip: Mhmm.
Todd: And but he is the face of authority. Right. You can just imagine in your head in those few minutes while she’s standing out there interacting them what her life must be like at home.
Craig: Right. But the parents, you know, they they come across as nice and warm. You know? It seems like they really wanna see her off. It’s not like we watched Excision a few weeks ago where there was kind of a similar kind of goth dark girl, but you got why she was messed up because her mom was a beast.
Clip: You know,
Craig: you don’t get that feeling here.
Todd: Not at all. And you don’t get that feeling from anybody, really. Yeah. They’re all really real people.
Craig: Yeah. And and and then point. Oh, gosh. Things get so crazy in a little bit.
Todd: They sure do.
Craig: Up to this point, it seems, you know, the people we’ve met seem relatively normal. The next thing we see, I believe, is, the car that presumably has Brent in it, he’s been inducted in, stops at a chicken place, and then we see it driving kind of down a dirt road. It seems like it’s kinda going out of town on the outskirts of town, drives by a, roadkill, like a possum or something on the road. But as soon as it drives by, stops and then backs up, and the car door opens, and you see the some man’s hand pull the roadkill into the car.
Todd: It’s really funny, and odd at the same time.
Craig: Right? Well and then you’re thinking this could be very typical. You know? This could just be your typical crazy slasher
Clip: Yes.
Craig: Guy. Yes. Texas chainsaw kinda deal.
Todd: They’re definitely setting it up for that piece by piece, bit by bit.
Craig: And then we cut to this really odd scene where there’s this girly kind of song playing in the background. It reminded me again. I’m showing my age, but it reminded me, like, early Juliana Hat feel kind of thing, where it’s, you know, this kind of melodic pretty girl singing, am I not pretty enough? And, a little bit of angst in there, but but soft, you know, much softer than anything we’ve seen before. And we’re cutting to these images that at first seemed like typical things that you would see in a girl’s bedroom, and it’s all really close-up. And you see some dolls and things. But as this it’s a very, very short scene. But as it goes on, the more that you see, like, these dolls are positioned in, like, really sexually explicit positions, and some of them have been kind of mutilated Todd I don’t even know how to describe it, but you something’s weird. Yeah. It’s it’s weird. And then is that when we see that it’s Lola in her room? Lola’s flipping through her Scrapbook.
Todd: Scrapbook there, and she has pasted in Brent’s picture Right. With a heart over it and a little red dot sort of on his forehead, and dad comes into the room. And this is when we first we know that this is the guy who’s been stopping and getting the chicken and all that. Right. And it is a very odd exchange between them.
Craig: Well, yeah, the whole thing’s odd. I mean, I think that she hears him come home and she meets him outside, and he opens the trunk. And we know exactly what’s going
Todd: on. Right. Yeah.
Craig: We don’t know if she I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting her to be appalled or anything, but you get you know right away that she’s in on it.
Clip: He looks dead. I didn’t use that much. You’ve ruined it. There it is. Let me hear.
Craig: Like, dang it, dad. Like, I just asked you one thing, and you’ve ruined it. Like, it’s just this petulant thing. Funny.
Todd: Yeah. But is it before that, though, when he presents her with the dress?
Craig: I think it’s right before. I think they get him inside. I think. I don’t know. I could be getting the sequencing messed up. But, she’s in her room, and the dad comes in and he pulls out from behind his back this big pink bag. And she you know, it looks very much if if we didn’t know the context, at first, it would seem like a very sweet moment between father and and daughter.
Todd: It’s very domestic scene in
Craig: the world. Pretty in pink in Zach, like you mentioned. It’s almost exactly.
Todd: Yeah. She opens it up, and she’s thrilled, and she’s happy, and she sees it. And, the dad starts to leave the room, and she says, no. No. No. Wait. Tell me how it looks on.
Craig: Yeah. It’s a dress a dress and shoes.
Todd: And so she starts to strip down to her underwear, and the dad is standing there watching and leering a bit.
Craig: Well, it’s like he It’s wants to look away.
Todd: At the same time, he doesn’t want Todd, and she seems to be inviting it, but not overtly.
Craig: Right. And and the camera, like, I I guess, it’s not exactly a point of view shot, but we’re kind of seeing what he sees
Clip: Mhmm.
Craig: As he’s seeing it. And, like, it’s kind of a slow pan up her body. I mean, she’s not indecent. It’s not anything that, you know, like a 2 piece bathing suit wouldn’t cover. She’s in simple pink panties and a a Todd, but the way that the camera slowly pans up and it’s kinda slow motion as her dress kinda comes up over her curves, you get there’s a weird dynamic going on in this family.
Todd: And that is to say the very freaking east. That eat the half. Oh, man. But you’re right. The Texas chainsaw massacre all the way. This this movie does pull from a lot of different films and and so many different genres. It’s, I don’t know. I mean, there’s there’s a bunch of stuff that happens.
Clip: She
Craig: Well, there’s and there’s a lot of cutting back and forth. Like, I feel like it during this interlude, we then cut back to Jamie and Mia who are now in the parking lot. Yeah. And this is your scene. Again, in a film like Pretty in Pink, this is this is what happens. You’re cutting between these different
Clip: couples who are having
Todd: their different experiences at the dance.
Clip: Girlfriend is there, Holly,
Todd: and the guy girlfriend is there, Holly, and the guy’s not showing up. It’s that whole he stood me up kinda thing, and she doesn’t know what to do, and the mother doesn’t know where he is. And so And the
Craig: mom has gone out and looked for him, but he what she obviously knew that cliff was like his place or whatever, but he’s not there.
Todd: The the dog shows up and the dog’s been stabbed, and so they know that there’s a problem, yet they are paralyzed. They can’t really do anything. And so to my mind anyway, it still devolves into this poor girl who doesn’t get to go to the dance Yeah. Kind of situation. Right. You know? In the meantime, this guy and, Mia what was his name again? Jamie. Jamie and Mia are in the car, and this is what would normally be. This is the wild girl who’s gonna take this naive excited guy, for a ride and show him a really good time, but it doesn’t quite end up like that.
Craig: No. And it’s already, you kinda start to see the humor kind of sapping out. I mean, there’s still a little bit, like, he’s awkward and uncomfortable. He tries to get her to go in the dance, and she just sits in the car. So they end up just sitting in the car smoking and drinking and Music going. Right. And it’s hard to kinda talk about the the movie in sequence because it cuts back and forth so much. After we see that, then we cut back to well, we get, like, one of those you’ve seen it in movies all the time when somebody wakes up and you kind of get the opening eye shot, and and we get that the eyes open. We’re seeing from behind the eyes as they open. And, sitting at a table across from our perspective is the guy, the guy that was the abductor. And he’s just sitting there very oddly and creepily kinda like the weird grin on his face. There’s a a mirror ball, so the lights are spinning. It seems like there’s decorations, like, hung around, a big sign that says end of school dance. And then I loved this shot where he’s looking straight at the guy, and Lola just leans into frame looking at him and smiling. And she’s all made up, and she’s got her hair I mean, her hair is still down, but it’s, you know, nicely combed, and she’s got her pretty pink dress on. And it’s just the creepiest thing.
Todd: And she’s a cute girl.
Craig: She is. Yeah.
Todd: But, woah. They’ve basically made their home up into the evil version of the
Craig: school dicks. And right away I mean, this things there’s no slow build to the brutality of this. Things get brutal right away. Sitting on the table is some sort of bottle of liquid, and the dad he he’s never given a name, I don’t think. She calls him daddy. That’s all Yeah. We know. He hands her the bottle and a syringe, and she sucks this blue liquid up out of the bottle into the syringe. And the dad goes back behind Brent and holds on to him. And she takes whatever is in there. I assume some, like, cleaning solvents
Todd: or something. Like, some domestic cleaning solution. They pulled right out of that. And she
Craig: stabs it into his neck and injects the whole thing, and he’s screaming, but immediately, the scream becomes muffled and scratchy, and they back away from him. And, again, in just like the creepiest shot, we can’t hear you, and they’re laughing. And, oh my gosh, it’s so creepy. So immediately, they disable his voice so that for the rest of the movie, he can’t talk or or scream or anything, and then it just gets bat shit crazy from there.
Todd: It so does. And I’m so glad that we cut back to other stuff going on because I don’t know if I could sit there and take, you know, another martyrs like situation where you’re just watching this person just get get hurt.
Craig: It is tough. It is tough to watch. You’re absolutely right. It’s nice that they give you little breaks because even when the movie was over, we were both just kinda sitting here. I said, dang. That’s exhausting. It is. It’s right.
Todd: Oh, man. Well, anyway, she, she’s doing a bunch of stuff to him. She’s messing with him. He says he needs to pee, and so she’s like, alright, and unzips his pants.
Clip: Bring the hammer, daddy. I killed your dog with this and a nail. You’ve got 10 seconds to go. Todd daddy’s gonna nail it to the chair.
Todd: At some point, he does manage to escape.
Craig: Oh, he’s got that razor around
Todd: his neck. He the razor around his neck, and I guess it falls down.
Craig: Manage to get a hold of it? I don’t remember. Oh, you know what? I I think the first time, he unties it. I think he gets it untied the 1st time. Oh. And then, you know, and that’s after she’s done all kinds of weird stuff to him. Like, they’re sitting there eating chicken, like Oh, yeah. Or, like, if nothing’s going on.
Todd: Finger licking good, and she’s shoving it in his face, and he won’t respond.
Craig: And she and then she tries to force him to, like, suck on her finger. And meanwhile, the dad is standing by threateningly with a hammer. And, like
Todd: He seems to be getting a little jealous about
Clip: it too.
Todd: There’s a really interesting sexual overtones going on here.
Craig: And there’s also a mom apparently, sitting there. They they call her bright eyes. And, she appear she’s awake, but she appears to be catatonic. And very ominously, she’s got a big hole in her forehead or or Yeah. The scars, the the aftermath of
Clip: a hole in her head. Oh, and you know things are not gonna go well.
Craig: But, yeah, they do all that weird finger sucky stuff, and it does seem like the dad’s kind of, getting a little bit jealous. But, eventually, he’s able to he gets his hands free, And then in some moment where they’re distracted or something, he rears up his feet, on the chair and just Kicks her away. Right. Kicks her, you know, down into the table. And he’s able to get up and, his feet are still bound, but he hops away. He gets outside. The dad chases him outside, but can’t find him.
Clip: Yeah.
Craig: So I guess the dad’s gonna get in the car to try to go look for him.
Todd: That’s what it seems like, and this kid was under the car. Right.
Clip: He was
Todd: Manages to get all of his his, restraints off.
Craig: He he took the thing off around his neck. Yeah.
Todd: But, unfortunately, the dad sees him as he pulls away and chases him with the car. I thought that was an interesting parallel with him chasing him with the car, the car itself being a point of fear and sadness for this kid, and we get that POV shot of the dad behind the wheel, looks like he’s almost gonna ram into him, but chases him up a tree instead. They come out and, the girl comes out and he’s up in the tree, and and just like he’s an animal in the tree, they’re starting to throw rocks at him, and she’s really getting off on it.
Craig: Yeah. I mean, that’s what makes it so sick. And I have to say, I don’t know much about this actress. I don’t even have her name written down, but she plays this so well. I mean, she is messed up.
Clip: Yeah.
Craig: She is a psycho. She is an excellent movie psychopath.
Clip: Yeah.
Craig: I mean, I guess, you know, there’s nothing redeem you know, we talked before about villains having kind of shades of humanity and, you know, shades of gray and whatnot. No. Not here. She is just psycho.
Todd: Yeah. And you do kinda wonder how she got that way or if she just always been that way or if it was some influence in the family Because I think once they get him back, they tie him back up. And the next scene Well. Well, the yeah. They nail his feet into the floor,
Craig: first of all. Steel of nails would not even Yeah. That would have been breathable. I mean, they take these huge steel knives and and nail his feet into the floor. And she starts showing him a book. Right.
Todd: And it’s her scrapbook, and it’s her scrapbook essentially of all the people she’s done this to before.
Craig: And it seems like it’s quite a few.
Todd: And it goes back to when she was a little girl. Right. Because you’re seeing an old, it’s a shot of her as a little girl next to this, you know, picture, but then the next shot is of 1 of the victims with their, you know, a big heart carved in their chest Mhmm. And another hole in their head, and there she is as a little girl posed to her.
Craig: 8 or 9 or something like that.
Todd: And you’re like, oh, man. This goes back for a ways.
Craig: And that raises all kinds of questions. Exactly. It does. And that’s kinda what I wondered. Now my thought was is just that she is literally so psychotic that even from the time that she was a young girl, she has been able she’s been in charge. I think so. She’s been able to manipulate her father. I don’t know if the mother maybe had some objection at some point, and that’s why she ends up in the state that she’s in.
Todd: I thought maybe the mother was one of their 1st victims perhaps
Clip: Yeah.
Todd: For that reason.
Craig: Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Get her out of the way so then Lola has even more control, but she clearly has her dad under her thumb, obviously.
Todd: But, you know, keep the family unit together. Don’t destroy mom like you destroy everybody else. They’re all still there. You know, that’s part of the comedy of this, I think, is that they’re a family.
Clip: Yeah.
Todd: And and all of these families in this movie are damaged in some way. They’re all messed up. They’re all dealing with things. This is just the most extreme one.
Craig: Well and see there’s so much weird, oh, so such weird psychology going on between them because there’s obviously tension between the mom well, you can’t tell if there’s tension from her because she’s catatonic. But Lola will say things to the dad like, who’s prettier, me or bright eyes? Or who looks better, me or bright eyes? And then he’s reluctant to say much of it. He’s, well, you you both look nice. And she takes moments to kind of covertly torture. Sometimes covertly, sometimes not even so covertly to torture bright eyes. So, just the just the dynamic is real and it makes you really uncomfortable Yeah. She says, and this is the one that got away. And Brent flashes he sees the photograph, and then he flashes back, and that’s kinda where he puts 22 together and realizes that that guy that he had seen in the road that he had had to swerve to miss, that was one of her victims Yeah. And apparently, the only one who had gotten away. And we don’t know what happened to him. All Lola says is he’s probably dead by now.
Clip: Yeah.
Craig: But, yeah, like you said, it’s established. They’ve been doing this for a while. And not only have they been doing it for a while, but they’ve got a routine. Mhmm. And it’s, it’s wild.
Todd: I think when you talk about her mother, did you notice the parallels between her mother and his mother?
Craig: Yeah. A little bit. I mean,
Todd: yeah. Felt like her mom being in that catatonic state not very far off from his mother. True. Who is completely castrated through this whole film. Yeah. All she does is stare out windows. She doesn’t really know what to do. When Holly comes back to the house, she’s the one who’s taking charge and making phone calls and trying to put 2 and 2 together to find Brent, whereas the mother almost seems helpless, just sort of stumbling around in a way. She even has that same sewn look in her face. The actresses even looked very similar.
Craig: They did. You’re right. I don’t
Todd: think that was a coincidence, you know. Probably not. I think that there were some parallels there as well as, you know, when we go back to the other couple, this is the kind of the stuff that you get out of sweet, sweet looking Lola, is what you would have expected to get out of Mia, the absolutely goth girl. But it turns out that Mia has a different way of dealing with her pain in her life and that is she just, you know, goes inward and she’s doing all this drinking and stuff. We flashback to that scene where finally, I’m never gonna get his name. Jamie.
Craig: Jamie. Jamie. We’re finally I’m writing it down for my Man, before you gosh. You really had your thinking cap on, dude. I I hadn’t made all those parallels. Now you’re saying all that stuff. I’m like, yeah. That’s right. Good on you.
Todd: We get back there where Jamie and, and Mia are in the car, and he’s like, let’s go. Let’s go into the dance, you know, and she opens the door. It just falls out. She’s so out of it, but she’s out of it emotionally too. You know? Not just because they’ve been smoking, not just because they’ve been drinking, and Jamie’s in way over his head.
Clip: Oh, yeah.
Todd: And you can tell this is not the night he was expecting. This is not the fun time he was expecting.
Craig: Well, he’s trying to roll with it.
Todd: He is. Bless his heart. He really is, and he’s trying just very much in the same way, you know, that, like, Holly is has a similar way of dealing with Brent. She doesn’t get judgmental. She doesn’t jump into him or lay onto him, but she displays an extraordinary amount of patience and understanding.
Craig: Well, yep. It but with Jamie and Mia still, I mean, I feel like the director and the filmmakers almost were kind of tricking me because it still feels very much like that can’t hardly or not can’t hardly wait. What’s the American pie kind of thing Uh-huh.
Clip: Where all
Craig: of a sudden, now you’ve got this kinda not nerdy, but, you know, not the popular looking guy
Todd: Yes.
Craig: Who now is on this date with this hot girl, and she’s gotten wasted. And so now he’s got this hot wasted girl on his hands, and while at the same time, he kinda has to take care of her and drag her around. Like, he’s proud to be seen, you know, at the dance. This girl. Uh-huh. And, as they’re as they’re slow dancing, it’s hilarious because everybody else in the dance is totally doing that, like, keep the ruler between you or whatever. And she is virtually just passed out draped on him, and And everybody’s looking at him, and he’s kinda looking around going, yeah.
Todd: And then she reaches her hand down to his crotch and starts to massage it
Clip: or Yeah.
Todd: And do something. I I don’t know. Was she trying to unzip his pants and stuff too right there?
Craig: Messing around. Yeah.
Todd: And and that was hilarious because everybody else starts look around and looking at him. He looks to another guy, another guy kinda winks at him, like, yeah, dude. But other people are just sort of horrified, and he is a bit uncomfortable about it as well. You know? He But
Craig: it’s still kinda playing for funny until she kinda looks up and sees the people watching and says What are you looking at? What are you looking at? And and it it then it’s not so funny. And you there you you kinda get that kinda dark undertone, and then it kinda brings it right back to the humor where the principal or a teacher, whoever taps him on the shoulder, does if you wanna do that kind of thing, take it somewhere else. Very typical of those high school kind of movies, but an interesting juxtaposition leading to something unexpected that I really didn’t see coming. Meanwhile, we’re
Todd: back in this horrible house.
Craig: And, again, it’s just torture after torture. I mean, I can’t even remember. At one point, she says, I’m ready to draw on him now. And, fortunately, thank Todd, we didn’t actually see her doing this, but we see when it cuts to the after shot, the 1st shot we see is just her holding up a fork, a bloody fork. She is carved into this guy with a dinner fork. You know? Not even not like a knife would be like, oh, thank you for the knife. Yeah. She’s carved this big heart in his chest,
Todd: and I think l s, Lola Stone
Clip: on it.
Craig: Yeah. Or maybe it was her initial and his. I don’t know. I couldn’t tell. It was very bloody. Yeah. And then they throw salt on his wounds.
Todd: That that is almost just funny right there. Actually, that reminds me, did you ever see Waxworks, or Waxworks 2
Craig: I think so.
Todd: Touch of the one where there’s this humorous scene with Bruce Campbell, and he’s down in the torture chamber and half of his body’s gone. And then there’s there’s this fight going on in front of him, and the big thing of assault gets thrown and then, of course, it hits him, and this is the other person that hits him and he’s just getting this is a this just reminded me so much of that where, okay, this is it’s horrible, but it’s also almost so over the top that it’s it’s a little goofy.
Craig: But I can see what you mean. But painful. That’s the thing. It just had me squirming in my in my seat. I mean, because he can’t scream, so he has to express this terrible pain through his acting, and he does a really good job. Yeah. I mean, you can really see it in his face. He’s sweating. His eyes are kind of glossed over. I mean, I don’t even know. I couldn’t take that. I would have been passed out
Todd: Oh, yeah.
Craig: Hours ago. Yeah. But it’s almost like he doesn’t wanna give her the satisfaction. Yes. At one point, she I think it’s when the dad is hammering the knives into his feet. She sits straddling him on his lap saying Craig, cry, and she gets really adamant about it. He just refuses.
Clip: He
Craig: just stares at her.
Todd: He’s a really strong person. Yeah. You know, it’s interesting that he see has seemed so neutered up to this point and so ready to die. The resolve that comes into him now that he’s faced with true and real pain. Right. Not the emotional pain of something that happened 6 months ago. And I feel like that’s part of his character arc in this I think so. Is that faced with this now, this this is going to be the cure. You know? Right. This is going to thrust his life into perspective, essentially.
Craig: At some point, they they get him stood up, and they kinda do the dance thing where, again, it’s her Saffy song, and the dad is standing, like, over them sprinkling glitter on them. Of course, they can’t really move because he’s nailed to the floor, and he’s wincing in pain as she kinda sways him back and forth. She tells him
Clip: When I find my prince, this is the song we’re gonna dance to at my wedding. You’re just another Strong.
Craig: And then she reaches her hand up to her dad and says, daddy, come come dance
Clip: with me.
Craig: And it’s almost like it seems like he’s slightly reluctant, but it’s almost a balance of reluctance and desire. Mhmm.
Clip: Does
Craig: that make sense? Yeah. And, so they go to dance, and, again, it’s just that
Todd: She calls him his prince, and there’s a moment where they’re leaning in to kiss. Mhmm. And just before that happens, Brent has sat back down again. Brent’s been trying to get back to his, to his razor.
Craig: I guess he has his pocket. Yeah. But he pulled it out of his pocket and then dropped
Clip: it on the
Todd: chair. And that interrupts their their kiss, and they turn and look to him. Again, a very dark, comedic, black version of one of these scenes from one of those films where they’re the 2 true loves are about to kiss, and then they get interrupted. Right. But a much more sick and twisted version of that. And and then we flip back to to the girl, to Jamie and Mia. Mhmm. And they’re doing it in the back of the oh, she just gets all you know, she gives him what he wants basically. It’s like, do me. And so they Todd doing it. There’s a knock on the on the door, and, he kinda reaches over, and he kind of wipes the steam off the window. And then he, like, rolls the window down, and this guy says, when I said to get out of here, I meant get off school grass. Yeah. Like, oh, they were still, like, in the parking lot. Something is still
Craig: the school. It was
Todd: and that was pretty funny.
Craig: And I don’t really think that this is the correct sequence, but he takes her home. Yeah. Jamie takes Mia home, and, you know, she’s conscious, but just kinda barely. Her dad is the cop. This is the cop that Holly and and Brent’s mom have been talking to about him being missing, and the cop has, you know, found his broken iPad or cell phone or whatever it was. So they know that there’s probably something bad going on. But, when when Jamie takes Mia home, you think that it might kinda be this either awkward or angry, exchange between the father and the daughter or the father and the guy who’s brought the daughter home in this condition. But she just turns and hugs him, like, gives him a big hug and then turns and walks in without saying anything to her dad. And the dad just he doesn’t really say anything. He just kind of, looks at Jamie, and Jamie makes the jokes. It is funny. Something like, well, I guess I danced her off her feet or something like that. And It’s funny. But then the dad walks inside, and he walks to her room, and you can hear from the other side of the door that she’s crying, sobbing. And he opens the door and you see her with her back to him laying on the bed. And I’m pretty sure she said, why can’t you find my brother? Isn’t that what she said? Yep. And then he goes and lays back down with his wife, and we see on their night stand a picture of a teenage boy. It’s the boy. It it’s it was one of Lola’s boys. It’s the one that got away.
Todd: So and so Valentine. Right. It’s the
Craig: one that got away. And so now we realize that the reason that she’s been engaging in all this destructive behavior is because she is broken having lost her brother, and that’s the point where I’m like, oh, man. I guess that wasn’t so funny. Yeah. You know? She’s she’s really in a really bad place, and you feel bad for her and her whole family.
Todd: Yeah. She and Brent are in very similar situations. Yeah. I feel like this whole this whole film is just showing us how different people deal with the prospect of going on when they’ve suffered a great
Craig: loss
Todd: and whether or not they even want to go on.
Craig: And the fact that you can show something so serious in such a crazy movie, I mean, the the torture stuff, the psycho stuff is just that. It’s crazy. Mhmm. I mean, she is just a lunatic, but underscoring all of that is really some real human emotion. And at least in the other characters, she’s just Craig, but the other characters have real stuff that they’re dealing with. And it does. It kinda puts a dark spin on it that I didn’t real I mean, dark in a sad way. Right. Sad kind of Right.
Todd: It’s been on a very dark movie.
Craig: Yeah. Yeah. And, I mean, then we’re we’re getting near the end. We see what is going to happen to Brent. The daddy pulls back a large section of the carpet, and there’s these big trap doors underneath. And they open them up, and you hear stuff from down below. And I don’t know if I caught this the 1st time, but it’s the same muffled kind of screaming that, Brent has been doing. So I guess this is some of her former victims that they have now kept in the in the cellar.
Todd: Which is another above and beyond moment. We were not expecting this. No. Okay. So she killed all these people, blah blah blah. No. They haven’t even killed these people. Right. They have been keeping them underneath the house in this sort of feral
Craig: darkness, tossing in roadkill for them to eat. And that it’s we we know. I mean, it’s that’s gonna be Brent’s fate, and the way that they keep these people well, first of all, I mean, they’re in a huge, like, cement pit. You know? They they couldn’t get out. But I guess the way that they keep them from strategizing or planning or whatever is, they drill holes in their heads and then pour in boiling water. And they start that process with Brent. I mean, she takes on the jacket, the the video jacket, that’s what you see. You see her in this pink dress with this hand drill.
Todd: And she says this is my very first drilling.
Clip: Mhmm.
Todd: So now we also Todd for a little bit of really dark comedy when she can’t quite do it right or whatever, but it’s also obviously extremely brutal. Right.
Craig: And and she does it. I mean, the first time I was watching this movie, I’m thinking
Todd: no way.
Clip: She won’t
Craig: go through it. Way. I thought, you know, somebody’s gonna bust in. The phone’s gonna ring. Something’s gonna happen right at the last minute. But, no, she totally drills the hole in his head. Meanwhile, he’s conscious this whole time, but right at well and then she tries to pour the water in, but the hole is too small, so she asked the dad to make it bigger, which he starts to do, and you can hear it. You can hear the bone chipping. You can see smoke coming up from the burning flesh. It’s horrible. Oh, it’s so gross. But at that moment, he’s able to, untie he well, he’s able to cut the the ropes around his wrist, and he jumps up and slashes the razor blade across daddy’s face. And then there’s a whole ruckus.
Todd: And the whole time you’re going, yes. Yes. Thank God. Give it to these people every which way you can. Finally. Yeah. He And he stabs dad in the neck, like, 10 times. Yes.
Craig: And you’re like, thank you. Thank you. Yes. Stabs him in the neck and then eventually, Pushes him into the pit. Pit and the whatever you wanna call him down there, just start going
Todd: to town on his face. Right. Which is a fantastic moment at the same time, the dumb idiot is just sitting there by the edge of the pit in horror. Mhmm. And what happens, of course, is she comes up behind him and chucks him into the pit.
Craig: Right. He they had tussled a little while too, and he was able to get in some good punches to the face. And, again, you’re like, yes. Give it to her. You’ve been waiting for these people to get their comeuppance for so long, but then he he’s down in the pit. Meanwhile, Holly remembers that Brent had told her that it was Lola who had asked him to the dance. The only lead she’s got. Right. So she and it seems like kind of a loose lead. It’s you know, it’s kind of funny. She she calls the cop, in the middle of the night, and he immediately gets in the car and drives out there, and things get a little silly. You know? Like, he he looks in the window, and he sees blood everywhere, but, of course, he doesn’t call back up. He just breaks in, and, then he hear, Brent is, like, throwing things at the the metal door. So he hears he’s down there, and you know what’s gonna happen. You know? He he opens the doors, and, Brent sees him standing up there in the light, but we see also Lola coming up behind him. And Brent tries to point that as the cop turns around, he gets like a
Todd: Like, it’s almost was it like an axe in
Craig: the face or something? Like a meat cleaver or
Clip: something
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: To the face, and then he gets, down in the pit too. And that was a sad part too because I’m thinking, Todd, this poor guy and now his poor daughter who’s already lost the brother and now has lost her her dad.
Clip: It’s kind
Craig: of a sad thing. And Lola goes in, smothers bright eyes, says Todd night, mommy, and then she comes back, and she looks a mess. I mean, she’s beaten up. She’s got blood on her lips, and her hair is disheveled. And she just looks down at him and says, now I’m going to your house, and I’m gonna stab your mom in the throat like you stabbed my daddy in the throat. And then I’m gonna go to Holly’s house, and I’m gonna stab her in the heart just like you did me. And meanwhile, he’s trapped down there. I mean, the the door’s gotta be the trapdoor above’s gotta be, like, 8 feet above him at least.
Todd: Least. More than that. Yeah. And,
Craig: he stuck down there, and we see Lola. And, again, it’s this great shot there. I loved that shot of her. She’s, like, walking across a field, and it’s kind of in muted color, almost even a little out of focus.
Clip: Mhmm.
Craig: And it’s just this golden sunset, and you just see kind of the pink triangle of her dress walking all the way across the screen.
Todd: With a knife, carrying a knife. And then that interesting shot of her, well, this comes a minute or two later after he figures out how to escape, which is to pile actually, probably Todd thing the cop was down there. It was probably just the extra body he needed. To pile up on top of the bones in order that all the bones that were down there.
Clip: Well,
Craig: and the he had had to kill those cannibals That’s right. Too. So he piled all those up, and he’s kinda able to get out. Meanwhile, Holly, I guess it’s morning now, and she hasn’t heard anything back from the cops. So I think she’s going out
Clip: Yeah. To Lola’s house. I don’t know how she knows where
Craig: she lives, but she’s headed out there.
Todd: She’s driving or something, at least driving down the road for some reason. Right.
Craig: Then we see Lola carrying her scrapbook, all bloodied, very slowly just walking down the center of the highway with this huge, huge butcher knife singing her little ditty, and that goes on for quite a long time. I mean, it was a a long shot, which made it, I thought, very uncomfortable. You know? It’s just showing the depth of her psychosis. And it’s that song. Mhmm. Same one. It’s almost the point in
Todd: the movie where we get this the musical interlude of the theme song.
Craig: Yeah. You know? Holly comes down the road, and Lola sees her before before Holly sees Lola. And so she goes off to the side of the road, and so as Holly’s driving, all of a sudden, something hits her windshield. And then we see kind of in slow motion the pages of the scrapbook falling down around the car, and then Lola appears outside the door.
Todd: Yep. And, opens the door, and, Holly is there’s just this moment between the 2 of them where they’re staring at each other, and Lola or Holly sees the chain, the necklace with the razor blade on it hanging from Lola.
Craig: Yeah. She had picked it up off the floor out of a puddle of blood and put it on.
Todd: And, again, I thought this was an interesting parallel with that scene in the movie where the 2 girl jealous girlfriends come to
Craig: Fight over
Todd: the same guy. Yeah. Exactly. Except in this case, it’s a very literal fight Mhmm. Because 1 person has a knife and is very intent on killing the other. There’s no music behind this part. Mhmm. It does kind of go into silence and just them fighting. In a way, it is a little comical. I think the parallel makes it comical, and also, I mean, I hate to say it, but it’s almost like a bit of a cat fight
Craig: kind of thing. Yeah. It is.
Todd: There’s definitely against each other. They fall out of the car. They kinda roll around a little bit, and then but it’s not that bad because Holly is able to jump up and run off, and Lola’s running after her down the street. Yeah.
Craig: Yeah. And so they’re just running. Meanwhile, like we said, Brent piles up the bodies and is able to get out. And as Holly and, as Mia’s chasing Holly down the middle of the highway, here comes the cop car, and Brent is driving it. And there’s a moment where because Holly’s in the lead, you’re afraid that he’s gonna hit her, and that almost happens. You know, they he comes over a hill, and she’s kind of cresting the hill too coming the opposite direction. And he sees her, but he’s able to swerve around her, and he hits Lola instead. Runs her down, in the road.
Todd: And it’s a direct parallel to what happened before. He swerved around the 1 guy except instead of hitting a tree Mhmm. He hits Lola,
Craig: so it’s
Clip: a good
Craig: thing. So Holly runs to the car. She gets in. She’s immediately horrified by what she sees, but then they kind of embrace. And then again, just such a I I just don’t recall really just to show how psycho she is. Now you’ve got Lola bloodied, and her limbs are like akimbo. Like, she’s broken in every place, and she’s got the knife in her hand. And with the knife and with her elbow, she’s dragging herself towards the car with this just look of complete rage on her face. And they both Holly and Britt kinda turn around in the car and see her. And, he starts to back up. And then it’s just a very, very long, slow pan on Lola’s face until Yep. And that’s it.
Todd: Yep. And you wanted that to happen so badly. Right. But at the same time, it does appear to be in trying to engender the smallest amount of sympathy for Lola because it’s a very slow slow slow pin not just into her face but into her eyes. And we’ve had that shot in that in this movie multiple times. We’ve had that shot going into Brent’s eyes when he’s spaced out and and worrying about his, you know, getting back into his head about his dad. We have that shot coming into his mother’s eyes where she’s staring out the window in just one of these scenes.
Clip: Mhmm.
Todd: And I believe we also had a similar shot, into the eyes of, the the policeman father as he was laying down in the bed. Yep. Yep. You’re right. It seems to be trying to draw parallels between all of characters.
Craig: I agree, but I would also say that, again, I mean, she’s so crazy. I didn’t feel any sympathy for her, but I thought that it was a really interesting shot because I thought that the reason that it was so slow, even though when, you know, in reality, it would have been a a a a very fast moment, but it’s kind of her slowly coming to the realization that it’s over, that she’s not in charge anymore, that that she’s I mean, she has been so determined
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: Throughout, and then, you know, she kinda realizes I I I lose.
Todd: That’s true. It could be. I kind of almost saw it as a surrender. Yeah. Maybe. You know? At, at that moment where she knew what was gonna happen and she was just going to let it happen. Again, might be a bit of a stretch to say that there are direct parallels there, but again, I just I see this movie as as how people deal with loss in different ways, and we don’t know enough of her backstory to be able to draw a complete parallel.
Craig: True.
Todd: And the fact that her mom’s death had to be somewhat sanctioned by her
Clip: Mhmm.
Todd: Or whatever. I kept looking for some kind of evidence or some kind of proof that Lola at one time had a sibling.
Craig: There was one of the pictures in the scrapbook where there was another little boy with her when she was young. I don’t know if that was a brother or if it was just a really early victim. Like, she’s been doing this even since, like, grade school. I I don’t I don’t know.
Todd: Because if that were the case, then the parallels are strikingly obvious. You know? Each one of these families is dealing with the loss
Clip: of a of a of
Todd: a kid in vastly different ways.
Craig: Right. Yeah. I don’t know. I mean, one last scene. It’s actually kind of a silly scene. I get why they wanted to do it. They to allow the mother to be reunited with her son. Obviously, one would think they would go to the hospital first. He’s got this drilled hole in his head. But it’s but it’s, you know, it’s a nice moment where the 3 of them, the mom and Holly and and Brent all embrace. And then that’s the end of the movie, and it just kinda cuts to the credits. Well, actually, it’s the title card again with just the kinda glittery stuff falling down. You know what, Todd? I’m surprised you liked this movie. Really? You know, the more the more I thought about it preparing for today, I thought he might think that it’s kind of mean spirited and violence for violence sake. You didn’t feel that way?
Todd: No. Not at all. No. This is no. I mean and and you’re right because that is a criticism I often have of these torture porn movies. But like I said at the beginning, when we started talking, I felt like this movie had an underlying message that this violence was one way of delivering it. I wouldn’t say that the message was necessarily directly connected to the violence Right. But the violence and the level of brutality between that Lola and her father inflicted on that guy just had me constantly searching my brain for why. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? And I feel like there’s an answer there somewhere even if we’re never gonna find it because there’s so much time spent in the rest of the film on these other very damaged people who are doing self destructive things
Clip: Mhmm.
Todd: That this just seems like a mirror image of that kind of pain and how they’re dealing with it. I just felt there was a message there somewhere, and it kept me interested and kept me intrigued. Well, good. Yeah. If it’d if you had taken out everything else, you know, if it had been just about this guy getting captured, which is how I felt Wolf Creek was. Right.
Craig: Yes.
Todd: I I that to date, that is, I think, just one of the most despicable movies I’ve seen.
Craig: Well, and also an Australian film too. Right?
Todd: It is. Yeah. And maybe that’s just coming to my head because it’s also an Australian film. But, I know a lot of people loved that film too, but I I just didn’t feel that there was a message behind it Mhmm. Like there was behind it.
Clip: It was
Craig: just gratuitous.
Todd: Yeah. It was gratuitous, and it was and it was gross. And even when this movie could be gratuitous, it didn’t always go Not always. Right. Yeah.
Craig: I mean, it’s definitely gory, folks. If you if you This was hard for me to work. Me too. And this kind of stuff doesn’t usually bother me, but it it was tough. It’s and it’s it’s well done. I mean, I think it’s executed well, but it is it is very, very violent, very bloody.
Todd: And part of what makes it tough is the characters were real. The the guy, we we really got to know and feel for Brent in so many different ways and the pain he was going through. Right. To see him going through this this real pain, on top of his emotional pain and guilt and feeling, of course, you’re rooting for him. Of course, you’re on his side, and, of course, you care, and it hurts that much more. Right. As opposed Todd, oh, what was that other one I watched last year I was really bothered by? Oh. Would You Rather?
Craig: Rather. Yeah.
Todd: Where I felt like you get introduced to these characters when they’re not carbon cutouts. You don’t know a thing about them, but you get to see horrible things happen to
Craig: them.
Todd: That to me is gratuitous.
Craig: Well and right. And in that movie, they were just setting it up. You know, they just had to come up. How’s how can we get a bunch of people in a room and then torture them?
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: There there’s more to this than that, I think.
Todd: There really is. And the parallels are so strong with some John Hughes. This is like John John Hughes in his twilight years when he’s off his rocker. Oh gosh. Yeah. Decides to go on a whole different direction. You know? Well, thank you for listening to another episode of 2 Guys in a Chainsaw. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with a friend. Like us on Facebook. Leave us a comment. We’d love to hear what you think. Until next week, I’m Todd. And I’m Craig with 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.