You’re Next (2011)

Episode 58, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Today’s film is a fairly recent movie, 2011, so it’s about five years old, uh, by Adam Windguard, and it is called You’re Next. This one holds a little bit of significance for me and Craig, uh, simply because it was filmed not far from our hometown there in Kirksville.

Uh, the, the story takes place in a Missouri. Although I, I haven’t seen many of these kind of homes. This is probably a little off the beaten path, huh? Uh, down, uh, down in the Columbia, Missouri area. Um, we, I don’t think the filmmakers are really from there or anything. We just, they just chose that location, uh, to film.

And they did film the whole thing on location in this mansion, so it really does have that feel to it as well, that it’s not really a movie set, but it’s an actual place. I saw this movie a couple years ago, maybe, uh, maybe, maybe two years ago, or maybe last year, actually, when I was doing my Halloween reviews, where I would watch one horror movie a day.

And then review it online, which was a pretty grueling experience. But, I mean, you know, you could really love horror movies, and I do, but when you absolutely must watch one every single day, it really becomes a chore. 

Craig: Yeah, I bet. 

Todd: Anyway, um, I did have some things to say about this then, but I have to say I’d probably revise my review now.

I enjoyed it a lot more, I think, after I had seen it the first time. How about you, Craig? What’s your experience been with this film? 

Craig: Well, I saw it when it came out in the theaters, and I think I saw it in the theater. I don’t really even remember why, but I found the marketing campaign really intriguing.

You know, the trailer looked good. It looked scary. It looked violent. And plus, home invasion movies, I just find to be Pretty darn scary anyway, you know, monsters can be scary in their own right, but these types of things could potentially happen and that kind of ups the ante and, uh, I enjoyed it at the time.

I thought that it was clever, um, it didn’t, I mean, you know, home invasion movies often have a lot of things in common and this has a lot of things in common with some others, but, uh, it didn’t seem just like a carbon copy of something that I had already seen, um, and I, you know, I enjoyed the pacing of it.

It’s, you know, they, they give us a little bit of, uh, exposition in the beginning, but it, the action picks up really fast and it just, it never slows down until the end. And, and I appreciate that. It held my attention and It felt even shorter than it was, um, even though it’s, it’s really not a long movie.

It’s just a little over an hour and a half, but 

Todd: yeah, I liked it. So let’s, uh, let’s start out just by kind of setting the scene for everybody. So it starts out with a couple having sex and, uh, there’s, uh, an older man and a younger gal and you really don’t get to know these people too well before they’re murdered.

Uh, she goes downstairs afterwards, see some noises outside the back of her house or the back of his house. I guess some big windows in it, uh, face into the living room. So she puts a CD on repeat. And I only bring up this fact because I thought it was kind of a nice touch. Even though I’m not sure how many people just casually go down and put their CDs on disc repeat, it sure made for a nice way of bringing this catchy tune, I thought, into the movie over and over again.

It’s a song, I don’t have the name of the song here, but it sounds like something like maybe by The Cure or something like that, even though it’s not. And anyway, she pours herself a drink, and she sits there, she hears some noises in the back, and of course somebody kills her. And the guy comes downstairs and doesn’t notice that she’s not there, takes a sip from the drink that she left there, but then, um, sees on the window, written in what must be blood, is the words, You’re next.

And then he gets it as well. That, uh, comes into significance a little bit later, um, You could say. I felt it was more or less just a device to start the movie off with a kill. 

Craig: Yeah, well, it establishes tone, you know, I mean, we, we, we see that this is going to be the kind of brutal violence that we’re probably going to experience throughout the course of the movie and, and if anything, this first, uh, These first couple of kills are tamer than the ones that we see later.

Um, we don’t really, I mean, we, we don’t see the girl really get killed at all. We see a little bit of the aftermath and the guy, we see a machete being swung at him, but we really don’t see much of the impact. You know, there’s blood splatter and whatnot, but, um, it, it, it is very brutal and it’s violence, um, ramped up even more as we go on.

Um, I thought it was effective scene. I wonder. You know, I read that, um, after they first screened this at whatever film festival, they, they, it premiered it at, um, the, uh, producers based on audience response thought that it needed to be tightened up a little bit. And, and what they did was they tightened up the first half hour.

Uh, and, and I think that they cut out some of the exposition. with the family that we’re about to be introduced to. Um, and so I, I kind of wonder if maybe this was some, and I have no idea if this is the case or not, but I kind of wonder if maybe this was something that was put in After the fact to get to grab the audience’s attention and give them an indication.

Yes, this is going to be violent. It may take us the next 10 or 15 minutes to get there, but we are going to get there. Um, and I thought it worked, uh, pretty well. And then it just moves, you know, we move into the next scene, which is really where we start to meet this ensemble cast of characters, um, who make up this family.

Um, and that’s, that’s one of the reasons why we picked this movie. We, you know, thanksgiving is coming up. Um, we were thinking, you know, are there any good thanksgiving horror movies? And there are some out there, but they tend to lean towards the ridiculous and the comedy and that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But I suggested this one because Even though it’s not set at Thanksgiving, it very well could be, because it’s this whole family coming together, um, to celebrate what it, what they are actually celebrating is the mom and dad’s 35th anniversary, but it’s the first time that they’ve all been together in a long time, and you very much get the vibe of this being like a family holiday, you know, once everybody arrives, there’s tension in the family.

I mean, of course, there’s also love and affection, but there’s also tension. Boy, there’s not a lot of 

Todd: that love and affection, is there? 

Craig: Not a whole lot. No. I mean, the first people we meet are the parents, Paul and Aubrey. Uh, Paul played by Rob Moran, who I don’t really know much about. But Aubrey played by here we go again.

Barbara Crampton, who we’ve reviewed like how many of her movies at this point? 

Todd: Oh, my gosh, three or four. It seems like 

Craig: Right. She’s from chopping mall. And what else? Uh, we are still here. So at least a couple. Um, and I think she’s great in this movie. Uh, she looks fantastic. Um, in fact, she really doesn’t look old enough to be the mother of these adult children that she has.

Um, she, she’s lovely. She’s beautiful woman. Um, but she, she plays in this movie very fragile and, and I don’t know if I missed something. I don’t think that we’re ever told exactly what her frailty is, but it seems like she has some frailty of mental character, like she, she’s, uh, fragile and, and they all are aware of that.

We, we find out that she takes medication. We don’t really know, um, what it is, but I thought that she played that really well, um, but they’re coming and they’re the first to arrive at this mansion. And, and like you said, it really is. I mean, it’s. It’s a really large house, um, and it’s, and it’s kind of rural.

It’s set kind of in the woods, so it’s isolated. It turns out that those people that we just saw getting killed, those were these people’s neighbors. And Paul and Aubrey, On their way to their house, drive by the neighbor’s house and, and comment that, um, it’s uncharacteristic for him to be home at this time of year, but the, the dad has heard that he’s recently left his wife for a student.

Um, and so we, all that does really is establish that the carnage that we’ve just witnessed is right next door to this house. And so, You know, we can anticipate that something bad is going to go down, but they get to, um, the house and they find that the door is already unlocked, which is kind of unsettling.

They assume that maybe the workmen who have been there and, you know, getting the house ready for them have left it open by mistake until Aubrey hears a noise. Um, and it’s a pretty substantial noise, you know, it sounds like something dropped or somebody falling. It even shakes the chandelier in the room where she is.

Um, but Paul, the husband had been in the basement and hadn’t heard it and seems to be very skeptical and thinking that It’s probably just in her head. 

Clip: Did you hear that? Just now. 

Craig: Hear what? 

Clip: I heard. Footsteps. I think someone’s in the house. You sure? Oh, we gotta get outta here. Aubrey. Hurry. Yeah, no, you go outside.

I’m gonna check the upstairs. You come outside with me. It’s just a creaky old house. Oh, there is someone up there.

I will take this with me. Okay. Are you happy? No. Alright. You wait outside. I’ll be on in a minute. Careful. I will. 

Todd: That, that’s a strange point for me. I would point that out as maybe a slight flaw. Just, not that the scene is bad, but I feel like it could have been written a little more realistically. If, if you came back to this big old house, and you even yourself had commented that the front door was open, then if your wife is convinced there might be somebody upstairs, I, even if, even if she’s got some mental issues, I wouldn’t dismiss her outright.

does. I mean, he is so thoroughly unconvinced. He’s almost putting her down before he, okay, I’ll go upstairs and check it out. But I guess since we don’t really, 

Craig: yeah, I guess since we don’t really know the nature of her problem, I don’t know. It really didn’t because he doesn’t dismiss her altogether. I mean, he does go up and look around and, and, and, I guess really it’s more to ease her fears.

He takes something with him. I don’t remember what it was. He grabbed something out of the hat stand or something and takes it with him. And so, no, you know, I didn’t see it as being particularly unbelievable also because these people don’t know that they’re living in a horror movie, you know, like we do, and, and we know that they should be practicing more caution, but they don’t know that.

And if I. I don’t know. I mean, we keep our doors locked. If I came home and the door was unlocked and then I thought I heard somebody in the house, I would probably be a little bit more panicked in the moment than he was, um, but I don’t know. I see what you’re saying. 

Todd: Yeah. I will say, though, that, and Adam Wingard comes from, I guess you could say a stable of filmmakers right now.

It’s like they’re all buddies and they all star in or act in or write for each other’s films. Ty West is one of those guys, and I feel like what he does really well Along with Ty West is, they really have a knack for this certain sense of dread and fear that can be slowly ratcheted up. They really know how to shoot a scene that may or may not have a jump scare coming, but you’re really a bit on edge.

And I felt that way with this guy walking around the upstairs. He lingers on, eventually the scene kind of starts to linger on this closet door that he’s about to open. And it’s Has even has an old fa I mean, this is the genius of this, actually, is that it even has a very distinctive doorknob. It has one of those glass, uh, doorknobs that you find in older houses instead of newer houses, and that had to be an intentional choice, because then you recognize it later.

Uh, but it’s it’s really a neat, uh, filmmaking point, in that he comes up to it, and he’s It’s, it’s a little bit ajar, and he’s coming up from behind, he starts to open it, and you’re expecting a kind of jump scare at this point, at least I was. And you get a jump scare, and that jump scare is the, the hand on his shoulder, which is a more terrifying jump scare than a cat, you know, springing out of it, or a lion or something.

But this hand comes from behind him in the hall, on his shoulder, and this figure, and very quickly from behind him. And he swings around, and man, you’d expect him to swing that. Whatever he’s got an umbrella or something in his hand at him, uh, but he doesn’t and it turns out to be his son Crispin Who we’d actually seen driving in a car a quick scene with him And uh his girlfriend Aaron, uh about a scene before this And uh, and so as soon as that’s over crispin says, uh, you know, are you okay dad?

And uh, he says oh, okay. Oh crispin. I’m, so glad it was you here and at first I thought oh You Crispin somehow got in the house and was there before them or he somehow snuck in, but it wasn’t. But Crispin says, uh, something about his mom about, uh, is there a reason mom is crying in the driveway? And so you go from this disoriented state, like, Oh, there’s something in the house.

Oh, it may be coming out of here. Oh, what’s that behind him? Oh, it’s just his son. And then why in the world is his son in the house? And what’s the timeline on all this until the son resolves it by. Saying that, oh, your mom is crying in the driveway, and that takes a couple beats before you realize, oh.

Since he’s been upstairs looking, the kids have arrived and the son came upstairs looking for dad when mom said that dad was upstairs looking for some unknown killer. I know I’m breaking this down maybe way too much, more than it needs, but it’s just the way that they set this up. He’s really skillful and really good about this tension and these scares.

And even when there’s a jump scare, somehow it’s just a little scarier than your classic jump scare in these other films. And then what What is the icing on the cake is when they, as they leave, the camera slowly pans just slightly to the left, back toward that open door, and it creaks open just slightly.

Craig: Uh, yeah, so, you know, it’s dark in there, we can’t see what’s going on, but the indication that, you know, Had the dad had the opportunity to actually open it, maybe there would have been something in there. And as it turns out, there probably was, but I liked this moment too. And I don’t think that you’re overanalyzing it too much.

I think that it’s important to mention because, um, in this, again, it shows us a certain tone. I mean, there’s, this is a brutal movie. It’s a violent movie. It’s pretty scary, I think, but there’s also some dark comedy too. Um, and it’s subtle, you know, it’s not, it’s not, Over the top. It’s not in your face, but you know, just lines like that.

Uh, is there a reason mom’s crying in the driveway? I mean, there’s a little bit of dark humor there and it kind of carries, um, throughout, um, in, in some of the dialogue, but you’re right. So, and, and Crispin is played by A. J. Bowen, who I think if I remember correctly, is also one of the filmmakers in that group that you mentioned.

Um, and his girlfriend, Erin, is played by Sharni Vinson, who I have never seen in anything before that I can think of in this movie. She has an Australian accent, but that’s part of her character. I don’t know if she’s actually an Australian actress. Um, but she’s this dark, complected, very beautiful girl.

And she ends up being really the central character of the movie. I mean, of course we don’t know that at this point. She’s just the son’s girlfriend. Um, but, but she ends up. Being, really, the heart of the movie, and I think she’s great, you know, I think, um, She is a beacon, and this, you know, I think this movie’s good anyway, but I think that her performance, and just the way she’s written, her character, um, I really, really like, and the actress pulled it off, uh, very well.

Would you agree? 

Todd: Oh yeah, and I think it was pretty smart writing, too. You know, she starts out being the outsider to this family, and most movies have to have this element to it. If you got, like, the big family gathering, you have to have an outsider there, so that Mm hmm. To kind of explain away things, and, oh, this is my brother.

So, first of all, you gotta have somebody to introduce everyone to, so that you get all their names real fast. fast. And then they’ve got to tell their relationships to them so that they, uh, you don’t, you don’t kind of get them confused and you don’t waste a lot of time trying to figure out who’s who and how they’re related.

Um, and then of course, you know, she’s someone that, that you can bounce off ideas and feelings about the family. Oh, your brother’s a little strange. Oh, so and so is like this. And, uh, it’s just a real economical way of taking what could be you. A really confusing first half of the movie to try to, when you, when you’re so concerned about just learning the characters and who they are and keeping them straight.

There are a lot of characters in this movie at the beginning. Uh, you know, you have a, you usually have a character like this as a device in there. But then they also gave her an Australian accent. Whether that was a real choice because the actress, because they wanted her to be, or just because the actress that they liked happened to have one and they decided to keep it, regardless, uh, it’s great because it also sets her apart from everybody else, so it sets her apart psychologically, it sets her apart in a way culturally, so you get this idea, well, maybe this woman is from another world, and so she, um, that helps a little bit later, I think, um, and then also, it sets her apart in that it just helps culturally.

keep everybody straight. I mean, there are times when you’re not, you can’t remember who looks like who, but you can, she opens her mouth and you always remember, oh yeah, this is Crispin’s girlfriend. And at least I appreciated that at the beginning. And you’re right, she’s written very well through this movie, and very believably, I thought.

She starts out as the outsider, as kind of, I guess what you would say the underdog to the family gathering, right? And then when things start to fall apart, she’s the one who jumps in and remarkably, Even to Crispin, who at one point even remarks, uh, It’s a very telling line later, where he says, I’ve never seen you act like this before.

Craig: Uh huh, uh huh. 

Todd: It really, uh, provides a believable transition, and it really drives the movie, because a Home Invasion movie could be a whole bunch of victims sitting in here, but this, her character becomes a very believable transition. Way to fight back and provide some pressure on the invaders themselves, which I think is one of those twists to this home invasion genre that maybe you were referencing earlier.

Craig: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, her outsider Ness really becomes highly significant. Um, and, and like you said, Crispin, who We would guess would know her better than anybody else. Um, it says, I’ve never seen this side of you. And it’s because there are things about her that he doesn’t know. Um, I think we should at least mention that at some point they get there, Crispin and Aaron get there.

They’re the first ones there. They arrive in the evening. Sometime in that evening, Aubrey gets up in the middle of the night, the mom, uh, to get a drink of water. Um, and she doesn’t see anything, but we see that these masked men, or at least one masked man in an animal, a white animal mask is, um, Uh, watching her from outside, nothing comes of it at that moment, but we are now aware probably that whoever those guys were that killed the people in the beginning have now, for whatever reason, whether it be random or whether it be not random, they are now, um, stalking this house, uh, as well, and, and danger is, um, right around the corner.

Um, but then, this is, you know, this is where I like. Up to that point, all of this, you know, it’s not like it’s boring. It’s not, it’s interesting. The, like you said, there’s some suspense built and whatnot, but then things really start to pick up when Crispin and Aaron wake up the next morning to find that, um, the brother Drake.

played by Joe Swanberg and his wife, Kelly, uh, played by Margaret Laney have already arrived and Aaron has already greeted them and is having what seems to be friendly conversation with them. But when Crispin comes in, um, there’s clearly tension between him and Drake. Um, and as it turns out, Drake is just an asshole.

He is such a jerk. Like several, several of the members of this family have questionable character, but this guy is just obnoxious and he’s rude and he’s all the time trying to pick at, you know, people’s sensitivities and, and put people down and make people feel low, and he’s just a jerk. 

Clip: Reminds me of when you were a kid.

You should’ve seen him. No, you shouldn’t have. Yeah. He’s like a little, like a little sleepy chubby angel. Really? Yeah. He’s always a little chubby. This is only a little chubby. I have a round face. It doesn’t mean I’m fat. That’s right. It doesn’t mean he’s fat. No, it means you’re beautiful. All the fat on him means he’s fat.

Okay. Don’t go just by his face. It’s not fat. 

Craig: Luckily, he gets what’s coming to him later on. But anyway, um, and, and then, you know, it’s not really significant, but Audrey sends Aaron to the neighbors for milk and that song is still playing. So she assumes somebody’s home, but nobody answers. And so she goes away from there.

And then I guess the day. You know, we, we see some scenes between Crispin and Drake and Paul, who is the dad. And, um, Paul asked Crispin questions about his career and, and Crispin has to admit that it’s not going very well. And his dad pretty blatantly shows his disappointment. So we see that there is tension in this family.

They are not the portrait of the family that hangs in their great room, you know, looking all prim and proper and happy that that’s not what they are. Um, that evening. Amy, the daughter, who seems to me maybe to be the youngest, uh, regardless, she’s the only girl and she’s definitely daddy’s girl. She’s played by Amy Simets and her boyfriend, Tariq, who is played by Ty West, the filmmaker that you had mentioned earlier, um, who’s kind of in this group of, of young directors right now.

Um, they arrive and right on their heels, um, The, what appears to be the youngest son, Felix, played by Nicholas Tucci, arrives with his girlfriend named Zee, Z E E, played by Wendy Glenn, and she, um, Felix seems to be kind of brooding, but Zee is straight up, like, not extreme goth, it’s not like she’s in, you know, white face paint or anything, but, you know, heavy, heavy eye makeup, all black clothes, black hair, everything you know, there’s this, you know, And, uh, they all arrive, and of course the parents are happy to see everybody.

At one point, the mother stops them all while they’re greeting one another and says, I’m just so happy that we’re all here. Thank you so much for coming. Um, and they sit down to this nice family meal. And that’s kind of where everything just goes to hell in the handbasket. 

Todd: And I love this, actually my favorite scene of the whole movie is this dinner scene with the family.

Because you didn’t realize you were watching a horror movie. This would be a domestic drama of a film where each member of the family is ribbing each other, but not in a good way. And it’s mostly because Drake is such a jerk. 

Clip: Um, so Tyreek, what do you do? I’m a filmmaker. Is that right? Wow. Yeah, he’s really good.

I don’t think I know any filmmakers. That’s exotic. There’s not a lot of this out there. Interesting. Have you been on TV? I’m not on TV. I’ve only made one documentary. It was at the Cleveland Underground Film Festival. What is an underground film festival? Do they show them movies underground? No, no, no.

They show them above ground. But they It’s really intellectual. They show intellectual films. Like an intellectual film festival. I just think, do you do commercials? Cause those are my favorite. No. No. No, you don’t do commercials. Really? I just think that is just the height of the art form these days. It is just short and punchy.

You really gotta just zing the ideas on in there. That’s why I watch TV these days. That’s why I watch, I mean it’s better than the shows now. Well, he makes documentaries, so It’s different. Yeah, but I mean, I think that I’ve seen documentary commercials. I don’t think they have to be limited to any particular thing.

It’s not a, you know, I mean, the starving artist thing just never made sense to me. I just think you should consider it, Tyree. Sure. 

Todd: It’s so satisfying. I don’t know, there’s something about it. And I think the first time I watched this movie, this scene actually put me off. I felt like it was a little forced.

Drake seemed almost so jerky as to be unbelievable. And I don’t know if it was just the mood I was in at the time, but this time around, it just felt a little more natural, a little better for me. So 

Craig: yeah, see, yeah, I would, I would disagree with you there and maybe you’re, you see it more like I do now, but it didn’t seem unrealistic to me at all.

Um, Yes, he’s, he’s, he’s over the, he’s an over the top jerk. And he’s clearly trying to bait people with these passive aggressive comments about their careers. And, you know, he’s just belittling and demeaning. But I’ve met people like that. You know, there really are those people out there who are just shit disturbers and want conflict and want argument intention and disagreement.

And, uh, And I thought, you know, the way that they respond to each other, it’s not like, it’s not a civilized argument. They’re just throwing barbs back and forth at one another to the point where we can’t even really understand what they’re saying. It’s just chaos. And I, I liked that. I thought that it, you know, it showed the, the very large chasms in this family.

Um, and, and you see the poor mother sitting there trying to get everybody to calm down. I mean, she’s fragile, everybody, and she’s trying to get To get people to just stop. I, I felt bad for her. It was difficult to find sympathy with the other characters. Even though Drake is the one who instigates things, Crispin is also very defensive.

And, and jumps to his own defense in a way that’s really kind of un It’s off putting it’s not somebody that you would you could really have an argument with in a rational way And so it’s it’s difficult to find sympathy for those characters But I did feel bad for the mom and I was thinking how awkward you know This is the first time that they’ve all met the others the kids significant others except for maybe kelly.

Um drake’s wife Um, and so I was thinking, you know, if I was one of their significant others This would be the most awkward thing ever in the world and um I, I, I think that it’s in part because it’s awkward, not entirely because I think he sees or hear something outside, but I think that it’s in part because it’s awkward that Amy’s, uh, boyfriend Tariq gets, stands up in the middle of all this, uh, chaos and without anybody noticing, walks to the window and is looking out the window clearly having seen something, but he doesn’t know what he’s looking at.

And, um, As all this commotion is still going on, we see the glass shatter and he just gets shot straight through the head with an arrow. And the only person who notices anything is Erin, who hears it. She hears the glass break and she looks around her to see shards of glass on the floor. But Tariq is directly behind her, so she doesn’t see him immediately.

Um, it’s, it’s, I believe, um, Drake, who finally sees him, and when he stops arguing, and they notice that his attention is focused elsewhere, everybody else turns, and they see Tariq standing there with this arrow through his head, bleeding from his wound, and he collapses, and then it just erupts into complete, Chaos.

Everybody’s freaking out. Nobody knows what’s happening. Nobody’s knowing what to do. And I felt that that was very believable too. I mean, it really felt like chaos. It really felt like panic. People were not taking measures for self preservation. Like, obviously this guy had just gotten shot through the window, and here they are standing, shrieking and sobbing right in front of these windows, except for Aaron, who immediately gets out of harm’s way and then starts to try to get other people out of harm’s way as well.

But I just, and it really feels like this is the beginning of a rollercoaster ride, and it kind of is. From this point, things happen so fast, and the pace really does not relent. And 

Todd: you know, you mentioned earlier about the humor, it, it’s also pretty funny that they’re having this dispute and nobody notices that a guy just got shot by an arrow through the, uh, through the window.

And then it’s funny too. It’s a very dark humor, but it’s really funny in their panic and that they’re still bickering and arguing like they were earlier. Yeah. Uh, Drake gets shot in the back at some point. They, they all grab a chair and try to, uh, and, and run out of the room. It’s very tense because that gives you the killer’s point of view through the window.

Even from behind the crossbow that they’re using, you know, you could see how everybody’s being targeted as they run by and you wonder if they’re going to get shot. It is. So it’s really well filmed in that way as well, I think. Um, but yeah, you’re right. It just runs really quickly. Uh, Aaron takes control.

At one point, and here’s another criticism I have of the movie, they end up in the of this large house, and they’ve, they’ve locked the door, and they’re kind of standing at the door, completely ignoring the, the windowed room now, just off to their right. And I think, of course, in their panic, and I, and I agree with you, Craig, that they are acting irrationally, so, and I don’t think any of us would be thinking too much about the windowed room.

We’d somehow get into the other room, We’re tending to Drake, and then we’re focused on how can we get out of there, and the answer to that seems to lie right in front of us, which is the door. And so then they have this, this hilarious argument, I think, about who’s going to run out the door, because they decide that maybe that’s the best thing, is that if they can run quick enough, they can get to one of the cars and past the assailants that are outside.

Yeah, it’s not a very rational argument. Um, and yeah, maybe irrational people would think along these lines as they’re going. And I think part of the comedy here is just that we want to set it up so they can argue about, uh, you know, who would be running the fastest and who can volunteer. We need to do something!

Clip: Somebody should make a run for the cars and try to go get help! No! No! We can’t go out there! Mom, it’s the only way! It’s the only way we’re out of this! Whoever’s the fastest runner. Who is that? I’m the fastest, but I got this fuckin arrow in my leg. What does your shoulder have to do with your legs? I’m the fastest.

He has a fuckin arrow in his back! Stop yelling at me, Kelly! You fuckin know what it has to do with your legs if you never run, you fat slut! I’m not fat! Shut the fuck up! I hate you! I will promise that you guys never give me any credit for anything! It’s not about that. Nobody needs to run. We need to all stay inside.

I don’t know how many people can make it. We believe in you. I can 

Craig: run 3 miles in 23 minutes. It’s silly and stupid, but it’s funny. And it doesn’t seem out of character for these people. I mean, they just seem that douchey that they would still be, even in this moment, they would be so self involved. Um, it’s, it’s ridiculous.

Uh, I, I, uh, I, I can’t really do it without being a little bit spoilery, but it’s significant to note that it’s Felix that says somebody needs to run out. Um, and I didn’t notice that the first time around watching it, and I don’t think that you would. There’s nothing that really calls any attention to it, but it is significant that he’s the one.

I guess eventually they agree, in part because of her pleading that nobody ever gives her a chance, that they’re gonna let Amy, um, make a run for the car. And there’s this kind of dramatic scene where it, it, um, Um, it goes into slow motion if I remember correctly, and she like cracks her necks and takes off her shoes, uh, in preparation, and then she just starts gearing up for a run at full speed, and, um, Felix says, Open the door at the very last second.

They won’t expect her to come barreling out of here full speed. And so that’s exactly what happens, but it plays out in slow motion. So we get her slowly running towards the door with her dad. And I think Aaron or maybe Felix at either side of this double door. And right as she gets close enough, they open it up.

And right as she’s going through the doorway, we see that. A piece of piano wire or razor wire has been strung in the doorway that hits her right smack in the neck and slits her throat, and she falls back, and of course everybody again just goes into panic, the mother is shrieking, everybody’s crying, and uh, she lays there in pain.

bleeds to death. And, you know, these deaths come at a pretty pace and this poor, fragile mother is just losing it like as I’m sure any mother would. But oh my God, she’s just in this emotional nightmare. And, um, uh, the actress, Barbara Crampton, I think, plays it very well. You know, she plays a woman who is losing her mind.

You know, it’s just been broken at these events and I thought it was good. 

Todd: Well, you know, this was a scene that Did bother me the first time I saw it and I guess like I said in seeing it again I I can give it a little I relaxed a little bit more I think but this is such a specific way for a person to go And it was such a very specific setup that when I first saw the movie I was like, oh, please give me a break and I can’t imagine that that most people wouldn’t feel that way even later on when you find out, um You You know, why Felix?

Well, I mean, we’re going to spoil it all anyway, that Felix is one of the people behind this, so that, and if you can piece together and remember that Felix was the one who suggested someone run out the door, then it makes more sense. But the problem is, is that, first of all, it doesn’t seem very significant at the time that he suggests it.

It’s not like he stands there and argues for it. It’s kind of a comment that he makes and everyone immediately goes along with it, so it passes you by pretty quickly. And then By the time you find out that Felix is one of the people behind this It’s so far removed from this scene, that even reflecting back on the scene, it still seems ridiculous.

So, that’s, that’s one of the things that really put me off, and I still think it’s kind of a cheap, um, silly way. It made for a great kill, but Right. It still seems to me one of the weakest of, of premises that this, that, that they would set up this very specific razor wire that he would so easily convince someone they need to run out and that, that, that that would happen.

It’s at the right height for her neck and all that. It’s just goof. Exactly. Yeah. 

Craig: Yeah, it relies on a lot of, uh, coincidences, um, in order for it to work out, um, or very specific circumstances. Well, and not conventionally. Had it been. Go ahead. Go ahead. 

Todd: Well, I was going to say, not to mention the fact that the notion of running straight out the door into your assailants is, it’s not a plan that if I were concocting it in advance I would go, alright, they’ll totally go for this.

Yeah. No. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: Anyway. 

Craig: Yeah, no, it doesn’t make a, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. As you said, it does make for an interesting scene, and I appreciate it for that reason. Here again, watching this movie, I’d say for a second time, but that’d be a lie. I’ve seen this movie several times. Um, but watching it and, and watching it carefully, um, I noticed that, um, the reactions to Amy’s death were somewhat questionable too.

The mother and Kelly were are both freaking out. Um, the dad is down, you know, with her on the floor. Uh, but Felix and Zoe, or Zee, Felix and Zee are just kind of standing back in the background, not really with much reaction at all. Now that’s not to say that that’s out of character for them, they’re kind of dark anyway, so maybe it wouldn’t be in character for them to be panicking in the same way.

Um, but it is significant. Um, and uh, another character reacts, uh, kind of oddly to, um, but anyway. Again, the, the, the things just keep happening. Um, at some point Aaron is with. Crispin and she gets out her phone. They’ve all tried their phones and they don’t work. Um, and the dad says, it doesn’t make any sense.

I was calling people today. There is service out here. And Felix says, Oh, well, somebody must be using a jammer. You can buy them on the internet. It jams all cell phone, uh, equipment. Again, another hint that he’s actually involved, um, for later on. But Aaron, um. In Crispin’s presence, she pulls out her phone and he’s like, there’s no service.

And she says, well, but in some places, even if there’s no service, if you text 9 1 1 at some point, if any glimmer of service comes around, it will go through and they can respond to you then. Um, but, uh, after directly after that, the dad takes, and here’s another thing that I thought was pretty. Unrealistic.

And this happens several times, but it always happens in these types of movies. The dad says, you know, I’ve got to take your mom upstairs. You know, she’s got to lay down. Um, and he takes her up there and she’s crying and he puts her in bed and he leaves her in there by herself. Now, of course they think that the threat is coming from the outside, but still, how good of an idea is it to separate each other?

You know, let’s take her up and leave her alone. That doesn’t make. Any kind of sense. And of course it doesn’t make any kind of sense because as she’s lying there crying, we see. One of the masked men crawl out from under her bed, um, and kill her in her bed. Uh, and she shrieks and everybody runs up there, finds her dead.

Again, they find your next written on the wall. Um, and, uh, I think everybody else leaves the room except for Kelly, uh, who is Drake’s wife. And she lingers and she’s kind of looking around and she, gets the idea to look under the bed, which makes sense. I don’t know why anybody else wasn’t looking for this killer.

Where else would he be? I mean, he’s got to be there somewhere, but now she’s alone. She looks down under the bed. Surprise, surprise, the killer is still under there. Um, and so she just takes off running. I just felt like she was kind of like, screw this. And she just takes off running through the woods. I mean, she, she runs past everybody in the house.

She’s screaming, she’s crying. Everybody’s like, what’s going on? Um, but she just takes off running through the woods. Um, and it cuts back and forth between her and the house. We, we see. That, uh, the, the bad guys outside do see her running, and, um, eventually they chase her to the neighbor’s house, where she finds the dead bodies, and, and she then is, uh, dispatched there.

Um, but these things, I mean, it just, it’s, it just moves, moves, moves. 

Todd: Yeah, and, uh, There’s also a moment in between there where, uh, Erin, Erin who again is taking control, and I think this is the line where Crispin says, I’ve never seen you act like this before, and she is also going around and locking all of the windows in the house, and uh, trying to grab, you know, trying to lock the doors, and she ends up, In, I believe, the kitchen, and, uh, a guy, I thought it was a very effective scare, smashes right through the window and grabs her by the head, but she’s able to swing around, and I guess she had grabbed an arrow?

Or was this the arrow from Drake’s back? Had he pulled it out by now? I don’t know. But she has something long and sharp in her hand already, and she just swings it around and stabs him. Stabs the, the mask in the face and you hear, you know, a man yell and, and stumble back into the darkness. This is the first point.

And I think there are a couple times when I, this, a couple reasons why I feel like this movie shows its cards just a little too early, and this is one of them. You know, even though it’s a home invasion movie, even though we know it’s people that are masked coming through, the creepiness of the masks and everything really still suggests that, that, a sinister aspect to it.

And when you, when you don’t know who the killers are, when you have no idea, when they’re not talking, right, uh, it’s, It’s just 10 times freakier because once you find out that they’re human, even though you know, they’re human, once you get that affirmation where somebody gets hurt and they go, Oh, uh, I think it loses a little bit of, of that.

First of all, you know, that they’re vulnerable. They’re not going to go through here and they’re not an unstoppable force. But then second of all, you hear a human voice kind of scream back in pain. Um, then you really know that they’re vulnerable and you know that they’re not monsters. They, they are. In a sense, just people to, I think that I always feel like that needs to happen later, you know, in the movie, it’s a small thing, but it somehow it, it drains it of just a little bit of suspense for me.

Craig: Okay, I am going to totally 100 percent disagree with you on this one because this is what I think sets this movie apart from these other home invasion movies. In these other home invasion movies, so rarely do the victims really fight back. I mean, it’s and again, you know, when it comes to fight or flight, I would probably choose flight also.

Um, and it’s not to say that they never fight back, but usually not very effectively. And I love that in this movie, because they didn’t know who they were messing with, they, they Become vulnerable and Aaron is just a badass and like she doesn’t she there’s no hesitation In fighting back none at all as soon as she was grabbed by that one person She didn’t pause to see who it was.

I mean, she just turned around and stabbed him um, and and then uh, like very soon after this Crispin has said that he’s going to go try to find, try to get one of the cars. He’s like, well, Kelly got out, maybe they’re distracted with her. And so he goes out to try one of the cars. Um, but Aaron, as she comes out of the kitchen, she’s got all of these weapons.

Like she’s bringing everybody else weapons. And as she walks in another one of the killers jumps through the window, knocks her onto the floor. She drops all of her weapons. But she just immediately and everybody else runs out of the room. Felix and Z run out of the room. Um, the dad is off, I think, you know, looking for bad guys on his own.

Cause he’s pissed off about his wife. Um, but she’s just left alone in there with him and immediately. from the floor. She grabs a meat mallet and she just turns around and destroys him with it. Just destroys him, takes out his knee. So he bends over, immediately just whacks him with this meat mallet in the back of the head.

And then after she’s done it once and he’s down, but he’s still conscious, she knocks him. It’s several more times with this meat mallet right in the head. I mean, she just obliterates him in a matter of seconds, and you just don’t usually see that in these types of movies. And I really liked that. I thought that it made it stand apart.

It gave us a hero to root for, and it gave us, you know, kind of a sense of these bad guys had no idea what they’re in for, and they better watch out because they picked a fight with the wrong girl. 

Todd: Oh, I won’t dispute that. I mean, I, I think that you’re right. It does set this movie apart and it does, uh, it is a nice welcome change, but it, at that point, it becomes a different kind of movie.

And not that that’s a problem. Uh, it just, uh, it ceases, I think, to be a horror film. I, I think it ceases at that point to be, let me just put it this way. I guess, from then on out, I felt like a little bit of the suspense was drained from it, and it became more of an action movie. It became more of the kind of suspense that you get from a Die Hard or something like that.

It’s not that it’s devoid of suspense, but it’s a different kind of suspense. It doesn’t have that element of the unknown behind it. Now we know. Okay. Erin, Erin can fend for herself, she’s probably going to be the one who beats these people back judging by the way she’s set apart here. And these people are super vulnerable, they’re just people coming into the home.

And now it’s just a puzzle for us to unpack. Who’s coming into the house? Why are they doing it? Who else could possibly be mixed up in it? And how is Erin going to dispatch them? And how many people are they going to kill before she dispatches them? You know? Uh. To me that, that’s, it just changes the tone of the movie that was set up so well beforehand.

And also, you know, there’s a little scene in here that’s a little off kilter, because you’re right, at that point, when Kelly runs out and goes to the neighbors with the glass and she’s killed there, they’re going almost for this little Michael Myers vibe there for a second. You notice when, after the, I guess it’s the guy and the lamb.

uh, mask or whatever, sits down after he kills her. It’s this creepy, creepy shot of him, like, just like sitting calmly on the sofa next to this dead body with, of the man with the Kelly in front of him. And he just sits there. And then he cocks his head to the side just a little bit. It was a direct nod to Michael Myers.

And again, Michael Myers is, is a guy, but he’s a really messed up guy and he doesn’t talk and he doesn’t make any sound. And that’s, what’s creepy. And it felt like that was the direction they were going. But it’s off kilter because we get the scene before that where the guy got stabbed in the eye So we heard him scream and yell and then of course immediately following that we get the scene of Aaron beating this guy up So we know that they’re just guys so That seemed a little lame 

Craig: I I get what you’re saying, you know, it didn’t destroy the tension for me because even though she’s tough she’s still up against like We don’t know how many.

I mean, we, at least two or three other guys, um, and we find out very soon because, um, after all this goes down, uh, Felix and Z go upstairs to look for the dad, and the dad has found, he’s opened that closet up that he was about to look in before, and it’s obvious that somebody had been living in that closet, like there’s water bottles with pee and stuff in there, and, um, He, he runs into Felix and Z in the hallway and he’s explaining to them, they’ve been here a long time.

They’ve been watching us. They’re targeting our family. And then this part really shocked me the first time I saw it. From behind him. Appears one of the bad guys with a big knife or a machete and slits his throat and the blood sprays on Felix and Z But they don’t immediately react at least not in the way that you would anticipate that they would react and after the dad falls down Dead the killer just very calmly walks up towards them and And Felix says really?

Did you have to do that right in front of me? And so we know now that Felix and Z are in on it. And I think that Felix even says something like, that’s not what I hired you for. That’s not what I’m paying you for. So we now know that this is an inside job. Some more other stuff happens. Um, Gosh, I, I feel like we talked about how fast it was and now we’re drawing it out.

Um, Aaron and Z make some nail boards like for booby traps to sit outside the window. And this is when Aaron confesses. 

Clip: Oh, I had kind of a weird childhood. I grew up on a survivalist compound. I haven’t even told Crispin that yet. Is 

Craig: that something that is convenient? Sure, but is it out of the realm of possibilities?

And out of the realm of possibility that she wouldn’t have told her fairly new boyfriend this because it’s kind of an odd part of her history? I don’t think it’s unbelievable. And I, I like it and it gives, you know, some credence to how she’s able to do all of these things and why she has been so on her toes all the time.

Um, but when she confesses that to Z, we know. now know that Z is in on it. And so we know that they are aware that she can potentially be a threat. In fact, at one point when they’re making those boards, Aaron turns her back and Z lifts it as though she’s going to hit her. But Aaron turns back around and she and Z puts it back down really quickly.

Todd: Yeah, I think, uh, I think Erin gets a pass on this just because she’s Australian. We know that Australians, you know, I mean, hey, she’s Australian. You could tell me that, you know, she’s scaled mountains and, uh, she’s a survivalist and all this stuff. And sure, I’ll believe it, right? What do we know about Australia?

It’s just a big, dangerous, uh, outback y place, uh, where, you know, Wolf Creek happened. Right, right, right. So, yeah, no, she totally gets a pass on that. And again, that I think part of the genius in casting her in that character is what, what should, what would be written any other way and seem like a really convenient thing, uh, becomes ah, alright.

I really didn’t give it much of a second thought. 

Craig: Yeah, I didn’t either. I, in fact, I liked it very much. Um, but Aaron then goes upstairs and finds the dead dad. And so then she knows there’s something shady with, uh, Felix and Z because they had said that he was upstairs and that he was fine, that he was just resting.

She is confronted by one of the other killers. There’s a chase where she goes through a window there. She’s chased through the forest a little bit, but she ends up getting back in the house. And that’s when she hears Felix and Z Speaking to the killers and the killers are angry because the guy who has gotten killed is one of the other killers brother and you know, this wasn’t all supposed to happen and um, Aaron gets, uh, a text.

She’s sitting in the same room where they are. She’s just concealed, but she gets a text saying that her emergency, uh, text had been received. Um, Which is great, you know, hopefully help is on the way, but they have heard this, and so one of the killers goes after her, um, there’s more chasing, uh, she, uh, she does something that I think is so clever, um, and I’ve never seen anybody in a movie do this before.

She, uh, When this guy is chasing her, she runs out the door, and then immediately takes a right turn and jumps right back in the window. So that when everybody comes chasing her out, they assume that she has run away, but in fact, she’s just ten feet away. She just got snuck back into the house. And I thought that was so smart!

You know, that would be the Usually, people are running up the stairs, or, you know, just running blindly, and, and I just thought that was so clever. It was such a good diversion. 

Todd: It was, and she takes out a guy through the window. One of the guys, like, kind of gets the idea, and he, uh, decides to go back around, and he pokes his head in through the window, and she takes care of him, dispatches him right there.

We’re, uh, completely unnoticed by everybody else, even when they come back, so, so that was a really nice touch. And then 

Craig: Yeah, and then When she’s back in there, there’s kind of this montage where she’s setting up booby traps, and it’s all set to this really kind of cool synth score that I really liked it, but she booby traps the door much in the way that Nancy did in A Nightmare on Elm Street, where she hangs up like a sledgehammer or an axe, maybe even, um, and, and so that when the front door opens, it will fall and get whoever, um, comes in.

But unfortunately for her, when the killer does come back, he comes in through the window. Um, and then there’s a cool scene where she leads, sorry, go ahead. 

Todd: You know, it sets up. I think where the filmmakers are toying with us a little bit because we’re waiting for people to go through that door and we’re seeing when they’re almost going to go through the door but they end up not going through the door.

However, um, the fact that she gets all home alone on this door is really pretty silly. Again, it’s a great device and it comes into play and it’s really satisfying to see it. She had to go get a brick from somewhere to weigh the thing down, she had to get all this string, she was like, screwing things into the wall with her fingers, uh, like, pulling off pieces of the banister and whatnot to hook these things to, I mean, it was really pretty crazy, this would take, even if you’re a survivalist, just to gather all the materials, design this thing and put it together, It’s a lot of work.

It would take a good couple of hours to do when you should really be more concerned about the big, open, broken window that one of the killers just tried to come through, you know, or the back door that they keep coming in through. Um, you’re, you’re, you’re really pinning a lot of hopes on this front door to spend so much time with it.

But yeah, you know, whatever, 

Craig: right. You know, just, I think generally speaking that you concern yourself more with believability than I do, um, even. Even in a movie like this, where it’s, it’s, it’s basically set in, in reality, I mean, there’s nothing supernatural going on here, you know, Erin is not some sort of superhero, she’s just a woman who is well prepared, um, and so, does it, is it, on a timeline, does it make sense that she would take the time to do this?

No, but it’s, it’s in character, and it doesn’t bother me, and it sets up for a nice, uh, shot at the end. But, 

Todd: but, you 

Craig: know, but 

Todd: what I’m saying is, you know, how it becomes a different movie. Once, you know, she starts fighting back, it almost demands more believability at that point. You know what I mean? I don’t know something about the suspension of disbelief that you have when you watch a horror movie or you you kind of there’s Supernatural crap happening.

Anyway, you kind of expect this sort of thing to happen now that it’s become diehard in a house Then, this, at least for me mentally, uh, I’m more attuned to those things, I’m less likely to give them a pass. And I don’t mean like I’m standing there thinking it, I guess it’s just like subconsciously it hits my brain and it doesn’t compute.

Craig: Right, I get what you’re saying, um, and, and that could be said of a lot of these things. I mean, she gets out of things, um, not easily, but luckily in a lot of things. Um, I, I, there’s, she ends up killing that guy and it’s a cool scene. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on it cause we’re running long, but, um, it involves a camera flash and blinding him and taking him out in that way.

But I want to go back just a little bit because right after she found out that Felix and Z were in on it, um, or right after we, the audience find that out, there’s a scene that may be my favorite scene in the whole movie where Felix and, Um, in the basement. Um, and, uh, Drake is saying something about I’ve got to go find Kelly and Felix says to her, didn’t anybody tell you Kelly’s dead?

She’s laying up there dead, which is a lie. He doesn’t even know that Kelly’s dead. So he’s tormenting his brother right before he kills him. And the way he kills them is he grabs a tool. They’ve been gathering tools for weapons. He grabs one off the, uh, The bench or whatever and and stabs his brother and the brother just stands there and looks at him in shock.

And so he grabs another one and stabs him and nothing happens and he grabs another one and stabs him. I think he ends up stabbing him like five times and leaving these instruments in his brother. And he says my favorite line in the whole movie. He says, 

Clip: Would you just die already? This is hard enough for me.

Craig: I laughed out loud when I saw that, uh, in the theater. Oh my gosh. I thought that was the. funniest line, which, and then after she kills the, uh, the bad guy who I, I think that was the last one. Then she’s just left to fight Z and Felix and they end up in a showdown in the kitchen. And it starts out with, um, Aaron and Z fighting.

It’s kind of classic girl fight hair pulling stuff. And, uh, but Felix comes in and shoots Aaron in the shoulder. Or no, she shoots at him. I’m sorry. That’s what happened. She shoots at him. Uh, he shoots at her with the bow and arrow, but misses. And that’s how they end up in the kitchen. Um, she is stabbed by Felix, but then she kills him.

And again, if you want to talk about suspension of disbelief, I think this is where you’re gonna really have to, uh, she, she kills him by breaking The blender over his head and then taking the sharp blending prongs of the blender and impaling them into the top of his head And then turning it on So it’s like drilling into his head and he’s screaming and the blood’s flowing down his face and it’s really stupid but It’s darkly comic and, and again, a good kill.

Realistic? No, surely not. Um, but I loved it. I loved it. Such comedy. 

Todd: I give this a pass for the comedic, for the comedy because you could tell they were just going to be silly. And there’s even, that’s the point at which she gets the text, right? Isn’t that the point? Um, oh no no, that’s when she gets the phone call, sorry.

Uh, Z comes running in. As well, and she quickly, uh, stabs, uh, she quickly stabs Z in the head after she blends, uh, her boyfriend. And there’s this great moment where she just slumps down between the two of them. It’s a great shot. Z’s off to the side. This guy’s got a blender stuck in his head and blood all, there’s just blood everywhere.

And she just sits down almost like she’s taking a breather. Right, right. It’s so good. And then she gets the phone call. And this is a phone call, but not to her. It’s a phone call to To, uh, Z’s phone. So she, I’m sorry, to Felix’s phone. Felix. So she picks it up and, uh, answers it, but doesn’t really say anything.

And it’s Crispin. It’s Crispin calling Z to basically ask, Is everything done in there yet? And Crispin, I thought that was pretty effective, Because we kind of forget about Crispin, uh, at this point. Mhm. She’s run out for help, but, We haven’t seen any flashbacks to him in the woods or what he’s doing or what not.

We totally forget about him because everything else has been going so gangbusters up until this point. And that’s when she depressingly along with the rest of us realizes that Crispin is in on it too. And that sets us up for the final confrontation. For 

Craig: the end, right. And he, you know, he, she doesn’t say anything, but he kind of confesses his whole thing, like, I’m sorry I had to leave, you know I can’t handle violence like that.

Like, what a douche. Um, but he, then he’s like, it’s really cold out here, I’m coming in. So he comes in, and eventually, um, she just kind of steps out of a door frame and he sees her and he’s like, Oh, hey Erin. And then, Where is everybody? She’s like, where’s Felix? And he’s like, I killed him with a blender.

And he’s like, okay, well, what about Z? I killed her too. I 

Todd: can understand 

Craig: that. Okay. 

Todd: I love, I love the dialogue in this. This is, this is like. It is 

Craig: really funny. He explained, she said, you were going to let me get killed. And he says, no, that was never the plan. You were supposed to live. We needed you to be the witness.

You are an outsider. You have no connection to anybody here except for me. You needed to be the one to say that these guys came in and slaughtered our family and that we had nothing to do with it. I don’t know if I buy that because he also says, uh, I mean, someone other than Z because Z was in on it too, and she could have played the exact same role.

So I don’t know. She’s a less credible witness, I suppose, based on her character, but I don’t know. Maybe if Aaron could get out of it alive, he would have been fine with that. I also have a feeling that if she didn’t, he would have been okay with that too. Um, and again, another one of my favorite lines. He just says, How are we supposed to know you were so good at killing people?

Which is kind of weird, actually. This dialogue is so funny. 

Todd: Oh, it, this is so hilarious. It’s so, and it’s delivered so well by the actor. It’s just this college professor, you know, really taking his professor toward his student tone again. And he’s just able to very coldly. And this is kind of why he’s such a.

You know, you kind of hate him too, is just able to coldly rationalize and talk his way out of it. And at one point he’s saying to her, uh, you know, we could run away, think about this, we could run away, we could have the money, um, we could go live on an island, an engagement possibly, or whatever. He’s kind of throwing that out, like the idea that he would even propose marriage to this woman in the midst of this is so hilarious.

Craig: You know, he’s trying to be soft with her, but he basically gives her an ultimatum. He basically says, you can go along with me and we can have all of this stuff and you’ll never have to worry about student loans again. You won’t have to work, blah, blah, blah. Or if I die. You get nothing and all of this was for nothing and she doesn’t even say anything to him She just stabs him in the neck and then stabs him also in the eye and before she stabs him in the eye I think he says why or something like that and she goes why not you know, like at this point She’s killed so many people, you know, why not?

And then the big surprise at the end is as soon as he is dead She is shot And we have no idea because we think everybody’s dead. We think all the killers are dead. We think we don’t know what’s going on. She shot and she goes down and the camera cuts to the window where this cop is, um, standing with his gun drawn.

And it would only make sense that he would shoot her. He had just witnessed her murder somebody. There are bodies everywhere. Um, but it’s just kind of a sad irony. Um, she’s not dead. However. Um, She starts to try to crawl, I guess, maybe towards the door, and she realizes that the cop is, and the cop calls for backup, so backup is coming, um, but then the cop starts to come into the front door, and she screams, no, but he opens the door, and it axes him right in the face, and that’s when it just cuts to, uh, a big animated blood splatter.

plot. You’re next. Um, and that’s the end, the credits and the credits. I really liked to because for each of the characters, they showed like a snapshot of them after they’d been murdered. So it’s all these almost like crime scene photos of these different bodies with the actor’s names next to it. Um, and I thought that was fun to, um, you know, overall I, I enjoyed this movie.

I think it’s a good popcorn movie. I think it’s, um, entertaining. It’s quick paced. There’s a little bit of, uh, dark humor. Um, it’s got, you know, pretty graphic violence and gore, which I don’t always need, but I like it every once in a while. Um, it’s clever in the kills. The characters are not you. flat. Um, they’re not likable most of them, but they’re not flat.

They’re interesting. It’s acted well. I thought it was shot well. I just think overall it’s a pretty solid film. What do you think? 

Todd: Yeah, as an entertaining flick, it really fires on almost all cylinders. I agree with you and I think that’s well acted and the writing is pretty skillful. It’s pretty skillfully plotted.

If you’re willing to overlook a few of the ridiculous moments that I mentioned and That’s what bothered me, I think, about it the first time around. Now that I knew the plot, I was able to enjoy it a little bit more, and I think I was just able to enjoy those other nuances a little better, because I wasn’t being distracted by the implausibility of so much of it.

And, which really comes down to the whole thing. I mean, the whole thing, is completely implausible if the goal of these brothers is for their parents to die so that they can get their inheritance. And maybe they want to pick off a couple of their siblings as well because they hate them so much so that they have more inheritance for themselves.

But right. You can get around this whole mess by just having these killers come in and kill their parents before anyone gets them. There, you know, or if you wanna take off your two siblings, then, uh, you know, have the siblings arrive first and then kill them too. It’s just unnecessarily complicated and convoluted, uh, for any of this to make any sense.

But again, uh, you know, it makes for a fun movie and, uh, and I did enjoy it. I, I would definitely recommend it. Like I said, I enjoyed it a lot better the second time around. 

Craig: Yeah, it’s I would recommend it to, um, like I said, there are so many things that are fairly typical of these types of movies. I mean, you can draw lots of parallels to the strangers, which is another great home invasion movie.

But with the masks are very similar. It’s The motivations are different, but there are definitely parallels. But I thought that this had enough different going for it, um, that it didn’t just seem like more of the same. Uh, and, and I really appreciate originality in general, um, and also specifically in the genre, because we do get a lot of the same sometimes.

And, uh, there’s a place for all of that too. Um, but, uh, this was refreshing. I really liked it. 

Todd: You know, there’s something that we didn’t mention that really bears saying is I thought the music was great. 

Craig: It 

Todd: was great, and it showed such restraint. Uh, not only did we get that song that came in, which is kind of a creepy song anyway, and every time you hear it on the repeat, it’s, I don’t know, it just sounds a little creepier, but it makes sense when it comes in.

But also, there’s a synth y like score behind it, but it only comes in at certain points, and it’s just very effective when it does. The music, um, is just so good. It doesn’t necessarily call attention to itself, but when you think about it, oh, it’s just, it’s just beautiful. It really melds with the movie well.

Very well edited in that respect. 

Craig: Yep. I agree. One hundred percent. 

Todd: Well, thank you again for listening to another episode. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend. Like us on Facebook. You can find our podcast on iTunes and Stitcher, and just get on that social media and let us know what you think about the movie, about this review, and any other films you’d like us to review in the future.

Until then, I’m Todd. And I’m Craig. With Two Guys and a Chainsaw.