P2 (2007)

Episode 61, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Craig:  Hello, and welcome to another edition of 2 Guys in a Chainsaw. I’m Craig.

Todd:  And I’m Todd.

Craig:  And we are continuing our Christmas films this week, and I chose today’s movie. And I chose 2,007’s P2 directed by Frank Calhoun. This is a movie that I just happened to stumble across on Netflix. It was available on Netflix 

Clip:  since then until I watched it, for this recording. What did you know about 

Craig:  p 2 since then until I watched it, for this recording. What did you know about p 2 going in, Todd? 

Todd:  Absolutely nothing. Just slipped right past my radar. So, when you suggested it, I was like, oh, this will be interesting to check out. 

Craig:  Well, I think it passed a lot of people’s radar because, it got a wide release in the United States. It’s an American slash Canadian, film. And it did get a wide release, but it did really, really poorly. And it’s opening weekend, it only pulled in about $2,000,000. And, as of now, I think that it’s, like, the 5th worst opening for a wide release. So it really didn’t find an audience. I don’t remember seeing any marketing for it at all. When it popped up on Netflix, I assumed that it was just one of those, little bit lower grade, films that you see there every once in a while.   I guess, DVD sales did better, and it’s it’s found a little bit of an audience, but people seem to be kind of mixed. There are those out there who think it’s it’s really good, and those out there who for some reason, don’t like it. And I I know which side of the fence I fall on. I’ll be interested to see, which side you fall on. Any initial thoughts before we get going? 

Todd:  You know, when you’re talking about the the history of this movie, I’m wondering I’m thinking back to 2,007, and I’m wondering if it seems like this movie came out around maybe the middle or if not sort of the tail end of the sort of torture porn craze, I would say, where we saw a lot of these movies of people in peril and people doing bad things to each other, like, crazy people. You probably saw 3 or 4 was coming out around this. I wonder if it just kinda got buried among the rest of those kind of films. I mean, when did Wolf Creek come out? Was it around this time as well? 

Craig:  I I don’t remember. I have no idea. 

Todd:  You should’ve done my research. 

Craig:  It’s kinda surprising. Yeah. It’s kinda surprising that, it didn’t do particularly well because the guys who worked on this, the, director Frank Calhoun and one of the writers, Alexander and one of the other guys in the production, I don’t remember who it was, but all 3 of them had also worked together on the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, which had just come out, I think, the year before. And if I remember correctly, that movie did really well, and got pretty positive reviews. So coming off the heels of that, one would have thought that, this would have done well too. Maybe it didn’t have the kind of recognition, name recognition that the Hills Have Eyes had. Maybe that had something to do with that. I don’t know. 

Todd:  And, didn’t do High Tension as well? 

Craig:  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Todd:  And that was 

Craig:  Which was a French film. Right? 

Todd:  Yeah. And that came out here. Now I’m not sure if it it had a wide release here, but I think it it did pretty well, at least, on streaming or video or something like that. It has a bit of a following in the US anyway, a lot a lot more than this one anyway. 

Craig:  Yeah. Definitely. Well, this one is, set at Christmas time. You know, we’ve said before how we’ve done enough Christmas movies now that we’re kinda doing a stretch every once in a while, but I would actually say that this movie has a really distinctive Christmas feel. It opens up, in a parking garage, and we’re just kind of looking slowly around this, parking garage. We see the security cameras and whatnot, and, we see the title of the film, p 2 on 1 of the walls. It’s just referring to the level of this underground, parking garage where the vast majority of the movie is set. And, as we’re going through this parking garage, Santa Baby is, playing in the background.   And, we pan up to this BMW, this nice BMW, and and we kinda the the camera pans around to the back of it so that we’re looking at the trunk. And out of nowhere, we see the lock pop out, and we see an eyeball behind it. And right after that, we see a girl who appears to be bound somehow emerge out of, this car, out of the trunk of this car. And it’s a good jump scare right there at the beginning. It’s it’s, juxtaposed well against the kind of nice Santa Baby song, 

Todd:  in the background. That’s just one of those, ways that people often set up these a lot of creepy movies is, take some song like Santa Baby or, what’s another Elvis song? The American Werewolf in London. Blue Moon? I guess that’s not Elvis. But yeah. Yeah. Take take the song that doesn’t seem too horrible and then slap something horrible over it. And, yeah, it it really kinda turns your stomach a bit. 

Craig:  Yeah. And it got me. I had seen the movie before, but it had been so long I forgot. I mean, I really jumped. It was a it was pretty good scare to get it started out. 

Clip:  Yeah. 

Craig:  Then we jumped to another scene. We don’t know this at the time, but what we’re really doing is we’re jumping back in time. We will eventually work our way back up to this, opening scene that we started with. But we’re introduced to our main character, Angela, played by, Rachel Nichols, who has done mostly TV stuff, stuff like Chicago Fire and Criminal Minds. She does have movies, to her credit Todd. But it it appears that she’s mostly, a TV actress. Lovely young lady, and she works in some corporate building in what I assume is supposed to be New York. Was that the field that you got? Yeah.   It is New York. 

Clip:  Yeah. 

Craig:  It is because she’s she’s working on Christmas Eve, in in some big corp you know, some high rise. We I don’t know exactly what she does, but it’s a very corporate feel, office feel. 

Todd:  Yeah. They just talk about clients a lot. 

Craig:  Right. Right. Exactly. And it seems like she’s working the Christmas party has either happened earlier that night or maybe the the day before. There’s still remnants of the Christmas party around, but it seems like it’s late at night and people are, starting to, file out to go home, and she’s one of the last ones there. And this guy comes into her office. 

Clip:  Hey, July. I I feel terrible about what happened.   It’s okay. It’s fine. Let’s just not worry about it. Okay?   No. No. It’s it’s not okay. I feel like a real jerk. I had too many drinks, and you know how these Christmas parties can be. You know, we had a baby last year, and it’s been a hard year.   I’m sure that it has.   I I simply wanna tell you that I’m just really, really sorry. Okay?   Apology accepted. 

Craig:  So we know that there’s something that’s going on with them, but we don’t have any idea at this point what it is. But it it comes out up later. She talks on the phone, to her sister, Lorraine, and she’s supposed to be going home to New Jersey, that night for their Christmas celebration. But she’s late, and it seems like that’s kind of par for the course for her. You know, it seems like they’re kind of doubtful of whether she’s going to make it or when she’s going to make it, but she assures them that she’s gonna be there. When she does leave, she’s the last one to leave. She runs into Carl, a security guard, who tells her that he does have to work tonight, but that after that they’re closing the building down for the next, 3 days. And so she goes down to the parking garage.   She’s got a Santa suit that she’s supposed to be taking so her dad can dress up, as Santa for his grandkids, her nieces and nephews and whatnot. And, she’s got some gifts and things, and she goes down and we see that her car is the same black BMW that we saw before. But she gets in it, and it appears to be dead. Meanwhile, we see that somebody is watching this car on surveillance. So she grabs the gifts and everything and heads for, the security office where she’s first, greeted by Rocky, this, rottweiler, this that that seems like a pretty aggressive rottweiler. And that’s where she meets our other main character, Thomas, played by Wes Bentley, who I always remember as the the bag boy from American Beauty, the weirdo who is always, like, taking photographs of, like, shopping bags and whatnot. Mhmm. But he’s been in lots and lots of stuff.   He’s a good looking guy, dark haired, blue eyes. He’s also been, in American Horror Story. He was in one of the Hunger Games movies. You’ve seen him around quite a bit. Now we’ve met both of our main characters, though we may not really know that yet. And Thomas seems very nice and helpful, but at the same time, he also seems like he’s kinda got a little bit of an edge to him. He offers to help her with the car. It and she’s grateful, but she thinks it would be better to just get a cab.   But he says, no, I can get you up and running. I’ve got a charger. And and so they try, but he can’t get it started, so she is just gonna get a cab. And it appears like he doesn’t really think that maybe she’s as grateful as she should be, for for, his his assistance. 

Clip:  Yeah. I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what happened. You know, I thought I could do something about it.   That’s okay. You’ve been great. Can you just let me into the elevator room now?   I was just trying to help.   I know, And I I appreciate it. Thank you.   Hey. Listen. I, I know you’re upset about your car not starting, but it’s the holidays, you know? It’s time to be thankful.   No. You know what? You’re right. Yeah? I should be thankful. 

Craig:  Did you have any idea where this was headed at this point? 

Todd:  Yeah. I kinda did. I’d say that maybe it’s just the title of the movie p 2 and the opening scene that proceeds that we know that I knew that we were probably not gonna leave this parking garage. And as the other characters are super friendly and and walk away, this is the only guy who starts to, seem a little strange. The minute she couldn’t start her car and she knocked on the door, and there’s this other guy, there to help her. I thought, well, this is gonna be the guy, right? And I didn’t even read anything about this beforehand, like, I had no idea of the plot, no idea of anything, and to her credit, you know, as far as the writing goes in this movie, I think she deals with him, in a very smart way. She seems to be a smart person who’s probably been come on to by a lot of guys, like a lot of pre girls, have been. And, again, we even get that suggestion maybe from earlier, her interaction with Jim.   Right. So the way that she deals with him is the way I would imagine that women tend to deal with guys like this. They keep their distance, but they say nice things in order not to rile them up a little bit. And so Right. She’s so, oh oh, that’s okay. That’s okay. That’s fine. No.   Really, I appreciate the help, but but, really, let’s let’s get me a cab. Throughout this movie, at least the earlier moment when she starts to become in peril, I think it’s really smart that she deals with him in that way in the beginning at least. But yeah, I saw it coming from a mile away the minute we met this guy. In fact, I actually thought that Tom was not the security guard at the building because when she meets him in that room, he makes a big deal out of looking for his keys, and he’s kind of come in from the back. And I know I’ve seen this in movies before where it’s the guy who has killed the security guard and he’s quickly dressed as the security guard. And so he doesn’t know where the keys are because he’s not the guy, and so he’s looking around. I thought that was the case. I don’t think that’s the case here.   He really was the security guard in this building. If he wasn’t, I don’t think there’s any indication. Is there, Craig, or did I miss that? 

Craig:  No. No. No. I think that’s the suggestion. I think that suggestion is that this really is his job. You know, he’s kind of security, but he’s really just the parking lot attendant. You know, that’s that’s his field, I guess. And we get the sense later on that he has been watching, Angela for a long time, and I I think that’s the case and and that this what’s about to happen is something that he has planned.   I mean, it has to be. There’s no way that he could have just done this on the spur of the moment. There there had to have been a lot of planning that went into it. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  As it turns out, it turns out that he’s a psychopath, and that he’s obsessed with her. He doesn’t know her at all, and she doesn’t know him, but he apparently has been watching her for a long time. And I have to say that, Wes Bentley, I think, does a really good job in this movie. I I I mean, I I I think the guy is just a good actor, period, but he plays a really good job of, I think, of somebody who’s really unhinged, because it really seems like he does want to help her. He does want to be her knight in shining armor. He just doesn’t realize that the way that he’s going about it is totally psychotic. And that being so self unaware, that really reads to me as actual crazy. And that becomes clear very soon because, Angela goes back upstairs and Carl’s not there.   And and I’m thinking, you know, where is Carl? You know, why wouldn’t he be there? You know, she he was just there a little while ago. She calls and tells her family that she’s running late, but that she’s still gonna be there, and and then she calls for a cab. And she waits in the lobby and kind of falls asleep until the cab gets there. And it honks for her. She grabs all her stuff and goes to leave, but the door’s locked, and she can’t get out. And Carl’s still not around, so she can’t get his assistance. So she yells through the window, you know, hold on. Just wait a minute.   I’ll be right there. And she runs back down into the garage. Apparently, it seems like she’s gonna try to exit through the garage, but when she gets down there, it’s all closed up and locked up too. The cab takes off. And right after that happens, all of the lights in the parking garage go out. And so she’s kinda stumbling around in the dark trying to use her phone as a flashlight like we all do. It like, these stupid it’s not like it really provides any kind of illumination at all. But for some reason, we all think that, oh, oh, it’s dark.   I guess our cell phones will work. But anyway, so she’s walking around. I think she trips over something, and she drops her phone under a car. And, when she retrieves it and she stands up, she turns it towards her, and we’re looking at her, and and the light from the phone illuminates Tom standing right behind her. And he grabs her and chloroforms her, and she, the camera fades to black as she passes out. When she wakes up, we see from her kind of groggily waking up, and all we can kind of see in a fuzzy detail is Tom apparently sitting across a table from her in full Santa suit. But that she she she loses consciousness again, and when she wakes up, he is trying to he’s taken off the the beard and the hat, but he’s still got the the Santa coat on And we see that she’s now in a different dress. She’s in this kind of really sultry white dress that, really accentuates her full bosom.   He she’s she’s sick and and confused, from the chloroform, And she tries to get up and she falls down and we see that she is chained to the chair. She vomits on the floor because she’s sick, from the chloroform, but he helps her back up into her seat, and he tells her that he has this holiday dinner. He had actually invited her and asked if she would wanna stay. He’s got some Todd, and and, she said no, of course, because that’s crazy. But, apparently, he didn’t take no for an answer, and here she is. And he’s, like, serving her food and talking to her really nice and asking her questions like you would ask on a first date.   And she is understandably totally confused and frightened, but like you said before, she seems to be really smart. 

Clip:  Listen. Tom. Tom, I have some place to be. You know I have I have obligations.   Yeah. I know. Way too many. You know, make time for yourself. You know? You don’t need to be at everyone’s beck and call.   Southern, maybe we should get a drink in the new year. I’ve   already prepared everything. I mean, it’s all here.   I know. And it it it looks really good.   Yeah? Great. Well, let’s eat. I’m starving.   Tom, this is really sweet of you, and and I mean that, but my whole family is expecting me. I have plans. I mean,   I guess some plans are made to be broken. 

Todd:  This scene I thought was pretty well done. Actually, it reminded me a lot of The Loved Ones. I almost I mean, I think Yeah. Yeah. This movie came first, right, before it, 

Craig:  but it it also I think so. 

Todd:  It seems like, the the director of the loved ones or the writer of the loved ones might have seen this movie and thought, you know, I can take this and and do it one better. In filmmaking, there’s something called the 180 degree rule, where when you’re shooting a scene, there’s an invisible line across the scene that that you don’t cross with the camera unless you have to. So if you can imagine, like, say, a dinner table, you’re only going to shoot from one side of the table. 1 person is looking to the right and talking to a person, and then they’re responding and they’re looking to the left, you know, in the close ups. If you start going back and forth between the different sides of the table, it becomes confusing to you spatially. And suddenly, this person is talking to the right, and then the other person responds, and they’re talking to the right. It seems Todd, So that’s just a general rule of filmmaking, is that you don’t do that. And the way that this scene starts out, she’s on the left, and he’s on the right.   It’s it’s shot from that side of the table, and it’s a position just naturally as people. We’re comfortable with left to right scenarios. So Right. When she’s on the left, she seems like the scene I I guess the scene seems a little friendlier, if that’s what way to put it. Not that she seems like she has the upper hand, but at least, our sympathies, kind of lie in her direction because she’s on the left, and he’s on the right. It’s just a subtle psychological thing, but then, she says the first thing that he doesn’t like. 

Clip:  My boyfriend’s gonna get worried, and he’s gonna come looking for me. 

Todd:  And at that moment, the shot is over her right shoulder and the camera slowly pants behind her and comes around to other side of the table in a in a nice swooping motion, and there’s even a musical cue with it, and that visually is very effective. It’s signaling a sudden change in a shift. And now from this point on, the camera’s on the other side of the table. He’s on the left, and she’s on the right. And he it all of a sudden feels very sinister and wrong. Now he’s in that position of power, and she’s not. It’s really well done, and it’s a very clear shift, that we know that the tone of the movie is gonna change from here on out, and this guy is not gonna be as nice. 

Craig:  Well, I didn’t notice that at all. You’re the filmmaker, I’m not, but it certainly was effective because it really made me uneasy and it really highlighted the shift because he is so friendly, you know, and that’s again, that’s the thing that makes him so psychotic. In one moment, he will be charming. I mean, this is a good looking guy, and if this were if she weren’t chained to the chair and this if she were there consensually, he’s very sweet, but he’s a psycho, and and she is tied to the chair. You know, he’s saying, you know, just very casual things like asking her what her hobbies are, and he says, I like to read. And right now, I’m reading The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. It’s, it’s this story about this guy that loves this girl so much that he’s willing to forgive anything she does, even her infidelities. And he says, It’s a pretty intense story, but that’s what love’s supposed to be, right? And, you know, I’m sure she’s thinking the same thing I’m thinking, Oh, shit.   This guy is a whack job. 

Todd:  Well But 

Craig:  she keeps her cool pretty well. And you’re right. She brings up the boyfriend, and he starts grilling her about the boyfriend. How long have you been together? What’s his name? What does he do? And she says he’s a sportswriter. And and, he’s like, well, what for what publication? She says, The Washington Post. He’s like, Oh, I read that. I don’t remember his name. And he he says, I even have one.   And, he goes to grab it. She’s like, no. He he’s, online. He he does it online. And he just keeps on grilling her, keeps on grilling her, until finally 

Clip:  You know, you haven’t been very talkative since we met. But now you’re telling me all about your boyfriend. Oh, sorry, fiance. So either we become best friends over dinner or you’re lying to me. 

Craig:  And then he says something about her family and he calls them out by name. So this guy has obviously done his homework, and that’s scary in and of itself Todd. I mean, he’s clearly he’s he’s stalking her. She didn’t know it. She had no idea, but he’s who knows how long this has been going on for him to know so much about her. 

Todd:  What what makes it even spookier is that she has never even seen this guy before. Like, this isn’t, like, the parking attendant that she sees every evening and waves at or anything. She has 

Clip:  no recollection of this guy whatsoever from this building. And it’s effective. 

Todd:  I mean, this is a 

Craig:  I would say that it maybe is a little bit long. And it’s not a long movie, it’s only an hour 40. But I it’s really tense and it never really gets slow or boring, but I felt like maybe they could have trimmed it just a little bit. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  It it felt a little long maybe. 

Todd:  My criticism would be that it sometimes loses some of its tension or thinks things, she gets away a little too easily at moments. I think this first part is the most effective and the most tense. I would argue that it kind of loses a little bit of tension here and there as the movie progresses, but you’re right. It doesn’t stop moving, as soon as she starts to to, take things matters into her own hands. 

Craig:  Well, in this whether it’s the performance or or whatever, you know, the the setup, I mean, this office is all very cheerily decorated for Christmas with tons of Christmas lights, and there’s Christmas music playing. And like you said, you know, juxtaposing something that’s she does get away, which she does, I mean, not completely, but, she gets away from him for a while, then it becomes, I think, a little bit more typical. It kind of starts kind of following the same sort of pattern as many slasher movies. Yeah. And and that’s okay. I mean, I don’t have a problem with that, and it’s still enjoyable and fun, but this first part feels very much like something that I haven’t really seen exactly like this before. Yeah. Totally.   And it feels fresh, and I like that. Mhmm. Yeah. He makes her call her family, and it’s a very tense scene where, you know, he dials for her, but he makes her do it on speaker phone. And, as the phone is ringing, he kind of oh, gosh. Like, he kind of runs his hands sensually up her arm and up to her neck, and it seems very sensual until he then puts his hands in a choking fashion around her neck. So, obviously, she’s threatened, and she has to do what he says. 

Todd:  Oh, that was so creepy. 

Craig:  It was creepy, and it was sad, and it was hard to watch. And she’s a good actress too. I mean, trying to keep her cool so as not to alarm her family and also so as not to incur his anger and and wrath. But she, you know, she just tells her sister, I I’m sick. I had to go home. I’m not gonna be able to make it. And the sister, you know, is she’s like, gosh, you always do this. You always put your family for or your work first.   And, meanwhile, she’s crying and the mom gets on the phone and and says, oh, it’s okay, honey. We’ll see you tomorrow. Just get your rest. And then, they hang up. And then he gives her a presence, and it’s the surveillance footage of the incident that we don’t know about, but that was suggested with the whole gym conversation earlier. Apparently at the Christmas party, she and Jim had been on the elevator alone together, and it seemed like they were just kind of joking around with one another, but then he took it too far. And he kinda tried to grab her and and kiss her, and she rebuffed his advances. At that point, he says, let’s go for a ride.   And as he chains her from the he’s down because she’s shackled by her ankle to the chair. So he has to get down to do that. And while he’s doing that, she’s looking around at the table where there’s been food and and dining stuff set up. As soon as she’s unchanged, she jumps up, she grabs a fork, and she stabs him in the back with it. But he’s able to overpower her, and he handcuffs her, behind his back. And I’m thinking, you know, oh man, she’s in trouble now. But he’s again, he’s just such a psycho that he’s like, oh now why would you go and do a thing like that? I’m I’m just trying to help you. And and he remains calm, and he puts her in a car and they start driving around, but she can tell that they’re driving down.   She says, I thought we were going for a ride. And he says, we are, but it’s nicer down here. And this leads to a really chilling scene that I want you to tell our listeners about because I wanna see what you thought about this scene. 

Todd:  Yeah. This was a pretty good scene, actually. And you’re right. It was very chilling. And I guess I wasn’t expecting it. He pulls down to level 4, p 4. We’ve gone from p 2 to p 4, and, and he’s in his car, and she’s chatting with him, and she’s again turning on the charm a little bit. She’s trying to act friendlier towards him, and she’s using his name a lot in the conversation.   And they get down here, and he turns his headlights on, and in front of them is this guy, Jim, who is duct taped to an office chair, in front of a a little bit of a distance in front of a wall, and in front of them. 

Craig:  Oh, my god. Todd, what is this? 

Clip:  This is my present to you. Take this and show him.   Show him what?   Show him you’re not a slut. Take this and teach him he can’t be touching every woman he wants.   Are you talking about what happened in the elevator, Octav? No. No. No. No. You don’t understand. That was a mistake. That was a stupid mistake. 

Craig:  What? He tried to rape you? 

Todd:  No. No. He he 

Clip:  got a little out of hand at the party, Tom. He hardly tried to rape me. Look. He was drunk. He popped up. 

Todd:  I guess it’s a flashlight, like a one of those big heavy flashlights. 

Craig:  Mag lights. Yeah. 

Todd:  Mag yeah. And and hands it to her. And so after a bit of back and forth, and you’re thinking, oh my gosh, this guy is totally gonna get it, she says, okay, I’ll do it, but you need to untie me first, which was a really dumb thing for her to say, I think, because, of course, he’d have to untie her. She shouldn’t have called attention to the fact that he’d have to untie her, and that seems to I don’t know. You could argue it triggers in his mind this idea that, no, maybe I shouldn’t do that, but I sort of feel like he was playing with her all along and that he really intended to beat this guy for her anyway. Whatever the case may be, he goes, no. You know what? I shouldn’t put you in this position. I need to do this myself.   And so he gets out of the car, and of course, she’s screaming and pleading with him. No, no, no, no. Don’t, I’ll do it. She’s kind of trying anything at this point. He walks up to this guy and just starts brutally beating on him, and it’s it’s pretty it’s pretty hard to see. And, of course Yeah. This guy can see her through the windshield as well. And so you can imagine what’s going through her mind.   Like, I I don’t want him to think that I put him up to this. It’s just a terrible situation, terrible situation. Right. He gets back in the car, like, they’re going to leave, but he doesn’t leave. He backs up, and I mean, I knew this was coming too. I knew at the minute he was in the car and they were, you know, they were in the car and he was in the thing, but still, he says, no. Basically, he’s gonna finish the job, and he backs up far and then completely smashed Jim against the wall repeatedly. And it’s Repeatedly.   Yeah. It’s repeatedly, and it is hard to watch. And that, again, is why I say this really comes from that era, I think, where I think movies were going out of their way to be shockingly brutal and shockingly gory. It definitely harkened back to that time, because it pulls no punches and showing you exactly what’s happening to Jim as he’s repeatedly getting smashed up against this wall. It’s pretty gross, and it definitely ups the ante considerably, for the movie. We know that this guy’s psychotic and that he’s just willing to totally kill. He can do it without any kind of remorse whatsoever. So the Yeah. 

Craig:  He can do it with a smile on his face. 

Todd:  Yeah. Exactly. And, you know, at this point, you even you’re not even sure that this guy doesn’t realize this is wrong. You know? It’s not like he’s it ups it to a whole new level where there’s no way a human being could do this to another human being and still think that he’s doing the right thing. So it tells you this guy is is completely unhinged, and also that he’s completely unpredictable. He can’t be manipulated by her, and he can do some absolutely horrible things with a smile on his face. And so, a movie a scene like this sort of has to happen in a movie like this in order to show you exactly what you’re dealing with and put you on that edge of uncomfortability and unpredictability. And the fact that this girl’s sweet talking just is not going to get her out of this situation, she realizes it, and now the film becomes how is how am I gonna get out of this, for her? 

Craig:  Yeah. I thought that this scene was really effective too, for a couple of reasons. The the the gore effects, you know, I can take or leave gore. You know, if it’s done well, great. I think movies can be suggestive without a lot of graphic imagery, and and that can be really effective too. But here, the gore is super brutal, and it’s so well done that it really looks real. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  And, that I mean, that it’s it’s really unsettling. The other thing, that was really unsettling for me, I mean, it’s just well acted. You know, these two main actors, just do a really, really good job, And the exchange between them in the car before he beats Tom, I thought was so effective when she was, you know, saying his name over and over again. And it’s not like, you know, he was just like, stop it. Like, he full out freaks out on her. Like, he’s screaming in at the top of his lungs at her, and we really see that that that charming facade behind that, there is a lot of anger and and violence. And, I I thought that was really good. I thought it was a great scene, and you’re right.   It kind of just establishes, wow, she is really, really in trouble. Gosh, what happens next? Oh, and another thing, you know, he’s so psycho. Like, he he first of all, he, like, gives, Jim a lecture beforehand, kind of explaining why he’s getting this punishment. And then after he beats him with the with the flashlight multiple times, he leans in and says 

Clip:  Way to run Christmas, asshole. 

Craig:  And, like, he’s sincere about it. Like like, you did this. You ruined Christmas, and it’s messed up. Well, let’s see. At that point, the the whole time this has been going on, she has been trying to get the door unlocked, and and and she does. I mean, it’s it’s difficult because she’s handcuffed. She’s handcuffed through, like, 4 5ths of this movie, which makes everything even more difficult for her. Made me feel bad for the actress. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  It felt like that that surely had to hurt after a while. But she gets out and she runs. And he doesn’t take off after her, which I thought was interesting. He lets her go and instead he stays there and kind of cleans up the mess. We see him over the surveillance cameras pulling the body away, putting up industrial flats, putting them over the stain in the wall from where he smashed this guy against the wall. Meanwhile, she runs back to the office, and she gets she’s trying to get her purse because she wants her phone, but she has to deal with Rocky who’s really close to her purse. She she gets a hold of it, but the dog snaps at it and gets a hold of it too. So she’s playing tug of war, with Rocky.   And here, I’m thinking, I’ve got a rottweiler. This girl is not gonna win a tug of war with a rottweiler. And she doesn’t, really. The the purse, I think, tears in half, but her phone falls out and she’s able to get it. And she also grabs, a set of passkeys, off the desk. And so she’s running around, trying to get her phone to get service, but it has no service. She gets to the gate, and, she’s searching for service, she can’t get any, but if she puts the phone through a hole in the gate, there’s a little bit of service. So she does that, but then of course, she drops it. 

Todd:  But I 

Craig:  think that she had already dialed 911. She can’t tell if there’s anybody on it. She says, If there if anybody can hear me, and she explains her situation. She says, What’s happening? She says, Where she is. Meanwhile, Tom’s looking for her and he’s getting close, And, we think that he’s going to find her because her handcuffs are stuck in the gate. She can’t get out, but right at the last minute, Tom comes around the corner and she’s not there. And she, runs to an elevator and, gets in the elevator just right in the nick of time, but I don’t know if the elevator is locked or something. I mean, earlier we had seen Carl lock the main elevator that they had used to come down.   So I don’t know if this elevator is locked. She can she can only get it to move in between the floors of the parking garage. Yeah. Maybe it’s just a parking garage elevator. I don’t know. 

Todd:  I think I think it was the lock because they make a big deal, out of Carl locking the elevator just visually a couple times in the in the movie. And I think she even says, well, why why is it locked or something like that? But, yeah, and and I feel like this whole sequence here, this is where I lost a little bit of attention because I felt like this was happening a little too easy for her. I hate those scenes in a movie. I mean, you’re always rooting for her. Right? You always want the character to get out of these situations, so you’re like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, don’t find her. Don’t find her. I mean, that’s going on in your head, but at the same time without the impending danger, you lose the tension and the gut wrenchingness of the scene and the bit where her arms almost seem stuck through the door and they’re intercutting that with, Jim getting closer.   They pull one of those old tricks where he comes around the corner and suddenly she’s gotten out. Like, she’s just not there. And I can’t really tell where or how. It’s just a little too easy, because this is a big wide empty parking garage. A voice should travel through here like nothing, footsteps will travel through here like nothing, and he’s getting super, super close, and suddenly she’s not there, and she’s managed to escape. That happens so often in this movie, just so conveniently, that it it really kills, I think, some of the some of the Todd. Even though I’m rooting for her, even though I want her to get away, you know, it’s there’s a part of you that’s a little like, what? It’s it’s a mixture of disappointment and a little bit of disbelief too of that she’s able to then run away from this guy and make it to this elevator, and he’s even got the dog with him at this point, doesn’t he? Uh-huh. Yeah.   Yeah. He’s searching for her. He’s got the flashlight swinging around, and she’s able to evade him and this dog. A dog which, I mean, if I remember correctly, there’s a shot of her kind of around the corner just maybe about 30 feet away from him and this dog. 

Craig:  Yeah. Yeah. 

Todd:  And the dog I thought, well, the dog’s gonna smell her or sense her or with its hearing, it’s gonna be able to hear her breath or something, but he doesn’t. It’s a little too convenient. 

Craig:  Well, I I get what you’re saying. That part actually felt very tense to me because I thought that he was going to come around the corner and she was still gonna be there. And so it was kind of a relief to me when she was gone. Realistic? Maybe not. And then this next scene that’s coming up Todd, realistic? Certainly not. And I almost again, you know, I I don’t hate this scene. I appreciate it for what it is. It it pulls me out a little bit, because it just feels so unrealistic.   She gets in the elevator, and she stops it there, which I thought was actually pretty genius. 

Todd:  It’s brilliant. 

Clip:  You know? 

Craig:  I mean, even if even if she had to wait it out for the next 3 days. I mean Yeah. In theory, she could. But what happens is, you know, she tries to call security on on the thing in the elevator, and somebody comes on, got an Indian accent. I knew it was Tom from the beginning, and eventually he reveals himself that it is. And he’s just saying things like 

Todd:  You know, if you just give us a chance, it can work out. You’ll go to like me. You know, that’s that’s usually what happens when 2 people are forced to to be together in a stressful situation. They have to depend on one another. 

Craig:  And at this point, you know, safe behind the doors of this elevator, she’s letting them have it, telling them how she really feels. And so she’s saying, I’m not coming out. There’s nothing you can do to make me come out. Well, apparently there is because he lowers a fire hose into the shaft from the floor above and turns it on. And, water starts to fill the elevator, which wouldn’t happen. 

Todd:  Like, it 

Craig:  it just it just wouldn’t happen. I mean, the the it first of all, it could have run down the sides, and I’m sure that there’s some sort of drainage, in elevators. It’s not like this is a watertight deal. 

Clip:  Yeah. 

Craig:  But not only that. So she’s freaking out, and and then something comes falling through the ceiling that he’s obviously thrown from above, and it’s Carl. It’s Carl’s dead body. So she, gets out at P3, and she takes off running again and hides under a truck. So then he, Tom, comes back down. He goes in, he looks at Carl, first, and he says to him, Way to ruin Christmas, Carl. And like, it sounds really funny when I say it, but when he says it, he’s so sincere in saying it that it’s really it’s creepy. I mean, this guy is just totally whacked.   So he he he kind of finds her under the truck, and and he doesn’t actually look under there, but I think he thinks she’s under there. And he she is, and he’s talking to her. And he’s also popping the tires. And every time he pops a tire, it lowers down. And so after he’s popped 2 on one side, she rolls out the other side and takes off and gets away again. Again, I guess you can consider that realistic that he doesn’t feel like he needs to chase her because she’s stuck in here. She can’t get out. And he has access to these security cameras which show every part of the building so he can find her.   And I guess that’s kinda what he does. He goes back to the office, and I loved this scene too. He he puts a an Elvis ornament on the turntable of a record player and puts the record on, and it’s Blue Christmas by Elvis Presley. And he does the entire number. Like, he does a Elvis impersonation, which is actually quite good. I mean, the guy can move. And there’s there’s a you see a picture of him on the bulletin board in full, Elvis garb. So apparently, this is something that he does.   And I just thought that it was really creepy to watch him stand there and dance and sing while he’s watching her run around on the security cameras. But eventually, he gets so into his performance that he doesn’t see that she grabs a fire ax and starts taking out the security cameras. And then she does what I wanted her to do. She heads back towards the office with the ax. 

Todd:  Yeah. And, you know, this bit where she’s taken out the security cameras, I thought, oh, wow. This is cool. Because as you say, he doesn’t notice. Every time she whacks a camera, he’s kind of into his performance or he’s turned around or he’s twirling or something. And the way that the screens are set up, they can only show, you know, so many cameras at once. And so, when a camera goes out, it’s not like in other movies where the camera goes out and then all we see is fuzz, and somebody notices, hey, camera 3 is out. But it just gets replaced automatically by another feed.   So she’s doing a really smart thing and whacking out all these cameras. Now, she’s not whacking out enough of them, 

Craig:  Right. 

Todd:  But then none of that ends up going anywhere. Like, I thought for sure that this would turn out in her favor, but the way the rest of the movie plays out, it doesn’t really even seem to matter because it doesn’t really come into play. He doesn’t turn around and notice, hey. Wait a minute. I can’t find her and go back out again. He doesn’t, he doesn’t run to the to the screens and frantically look for her at any point and find where is she? 

Clip:  You know 

Craig:  what I mean? 

Todd:  There’s there’s just nothing, and that’s one of the weaknesses here of this setup. The great thing about it that I thought was really good is that the movie constantly reminds you that there are security cameras all around.   Right. Right.   It seems like there’s no inch you can go. And we’re seeing the security cameras early on, and, of of course, the whole thing is predicated on the fact that he’s monitoring her. And, the incident that incites him to take action happens on a security camera in in the elevator. Yet the problem with the security cameras is there’s only one place you can see them, and that is in the office. So if she’s out running around and he needs to find her, eventually, he can he can watch these cameras, but he’s gonna have to leave there. At which point, she’s going to have moved changed her position. So it seems like this really sinister thing, but, honestly, it doesn’t end up mattering, and it couldn’t end up mattering because of that weakness. So I was a little disappointed too, and that that didn’t end up being as effective as I thought it would be.   And her knocking out those cameras didn’t really make any difference for her in the long run. 

Craig:  Not really. I mean, I I guess it kind of allowed her to get back to the office unnoticed, I guess. But it seems it seems like he knew that she was eventually gonna have to end up there. I don’t know. Yeah. Because he’s gone. This was a trap. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  Right. It seem it seems like this is a trap that he has set. And and so as the song ends, she’s sneaking into the office, and the song ends, and she sees that the TV is playing again. Not the security monitors, but the TV he had shown her the other video on. And it’s video from his perspective, like he’s clearly holding a handheld camera, and it’s of her unconscious. And he’s putting that red lipstick on her, and then he’s kind of fondling her breasts, and, it it looks like his hand is maybe kind of going up her skirt, and she takes the accent and and destroys, the, TV because she’s so upset by what she’s seeing. Unfortunately, he his plan worked. She was distracted so that he was able to sneak up behind her and he tases her, and she’s unconscious.   At that moment, the cops arrive and he sees them at the gate. And so he talks to him on the monitor, well, he tases her again to make sure she stays unconscious. Again, not really believable because tasers don’t knock you out, unless they give you a heart attack, in which case you’d be dead. But anyway, she’s, she’s knocked out. He goes down to talk to the police, and they say they received a call, about a disturbance. So apparently, her call had gone through. It bothered me that they were coming through the same gate where she had dropped her phone and they don’t notice that. I mean, I guess if they weren’t paying attention and they pulled over it with the car, then they wouldn’t see it.   But I would think if I were pulling slowly down towards the gate, I would notice a phone on the ground. Yeah. But they don’t. They wanna look around, and, they do. And it it it looks at some they they appear very suspicious, but he’s very calm and just says, Nope. It’s it’s been real quiet. Nothing’s happened here. Meanwhile, we realize, we find out that before he has gone to go to the cops, he has locked her in the BMW.   So we have now looped our way back around to where we began. And the cops drive by the BMW. She tries to, scream from inside it. That’s why, Tom turns on Santa Baby and plays it over the the Todd speakers, the intercom, is to kinda muffle her cries. And the cops, eventually leave. But she gets out as they’re leaving, and she’s running, running, running, trying to get to them before they leave, but she’s just a split second too late. Tom is there putting the gate down, Tom and Rocky both. And so she turns and runs away again, and this time, Tom VIck’s Rocky on her. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  And you talk about this scene because it’s too hard for me. 

Todd:  Well, this movie is definitely willing to go places. I will say that the before that, the the cop sequence was really well done. I guess we keep saying this, you know, there are individual sequences in this movie that are really well done. To me, the movie as a whole pieced together, I won’t say I didn’t like it. I guess I would just say that it didn’t hold the interest for me, and maybe I’ve seen too many of these movies. Maybe I’m getting kind of tired of the psychotic guy keeps a woman in peril somewhere, and then she’s trying to get out, and it’s this cat and mouse thing. But then, of course, I pointed out some weaknesses earlier. This the cop sequence that was really great that they showed us the bit of her in the trunk beforehand.   It was more than just a clever way of giving us a jump scare early on in the movie, you know, which which horror films have to do, but it it lets you know she does burst out of this trunk, and you’re just hoping with that knowledge. You’re hoping that she’s gonna do it while the cops are coming by. So it’s a case where being armed with that knowledge really ratchets up the tension in the scene because you know she’s going to escape. You’re just hoping it’s gonna be in time, and as you say, of course, it turns out not to be, and I also like the fact that the cops are not your horror movie cops who just come and take the other guy’s word for it, poke around, and then leave. They really do us a thorough sweep of the place, and they grill him too. And I was really impressed with that and really sad, you know, as a viewer Todd obviously that, that that it worked, you know, that the guy was able to stave them off. They escape. Right.   But here’s another thing which I think is again a weakness, and it’s just a movie trope, really. You sic the dog on the person, and in in an instant that person should be gone. There’s no way you can outrun this dog. No. 

Craig:  No. No way. 

Todd:  But she’s able to run pretty darn far away from this dog. Ends up, breaking her way into the back of a car and diving into the back seat. The dog leaves through the window and no. I I love animals. I love animals, but of course the whole thing I’m thinking this entire time is you gotta get you gotta take this dog out, you’ve gotta take this dog out. I was thinking this in the earlier scene she had with him when the dog was chained, I was going my god woman, the dog is chained to a wall, there’s only so far he can go and you are within reach of so many things right now and you clearly have plenty of time, whack this dog over the head, I know it’s a dog, but the dog is not cute and cuddly. It’s trying to kill you. Right.   And take the opportunity to take out the dog, but she doesn’t then, and this time, she obviously she definitely, has to. And so, she has I guess she still has a screwdriver or something from 

Craig:  It’s a tire iron. She she that’s what she got out of the that’s what she got out of the trunk with. She had used a tire iron to pop the lock out, 

Todd:  and she still has it. That’s right. And she just nails the tie this dog through the head with the tire iron. And I don’t know. Maybe this is even a more brutal no. But it’s it’s a bloodier. Yeah. Blood sprays everywhere, and she kills this dog.   And I know I know, Craig. I mean, the poor dog, it Todd didn’t deserve this. The dog doesn’t know what’s going on. And, you know, anytime you kill dogs is is kind of a sad thing. But I don’t know, man. This wasn’t that hard for me to watch. I wanted that dog to die. 

Craig:  Oh, no. And no. And and she had Todd, and and Yeah. 

Todd:  You know, 

Craig:  again, it wasn’t the dog’s fault. You know, that’s it was doing what it had been trained to do. It’s just violence against animals just bothers me anytime, anywhere. It it it’s just really difficult for me to watch. She had to do it. I probably would’ve done the same thing. It’s just it’s you know, that dog looks just like my dog. Oh.   So, so it it was it was just unsettling. And I was glad that my dog wasn’t in the room because I wouldn’t have want her to see that. 

Todd:  That’s hilarious. 

Craig:  But, anyway, she gets out, and she breaks into this rent a car place, which is down in this garage. He comes and he finds the dog, and he’s saying things like, 

Todd:  Why would you do that? He’s just an animal. Angela, Why would you kill Todd defenseless animal? After all I did for you to help you, this is what I get? You killed my dog. You really started to piss me off.   I mean, he’s 

Craig:  just crazy. Like, he has absolutely no ration no reason, at all. I mean, he’s just crazy. He sees her bloody handprints on the on the door. She’s tried to call 911, but, it was busy. Of course, it’s always busy. Yeah. I 

Todd:  groaned at that. I’m sorry. I totally groaned at that. 911. Please hold. Our lines are busy. Oh, come on. 

Craig:  Right. Right. I don’t know. I mean, the holidays are I guess, crime rates do go up on the holidays. I don’t suppose. 

Todd:  But, you know, she could’ve called anybody. She could’ve called her sister. I mean, there’s there’s some True. Yeah. You know? I don’t know. She had time. She clearly 

Craig:  Well, I don’t know. Maybe she’s like me and doesn’t really know anybody’s numbers. I don’t know anybody’s phone numbers. I just punched their name in my phone. You know? It made a point. Who knows? Anyway, so she actually tricks him, and I thought this was really clever. She’s hiding in something, and it appears that she’s hiding in this cabinet that he has found, and there’s even a little piece of her dress sticking out of it. But when he opens it up, she’s not in there.   What she has done is she’s torn off a little piece of her dress to trick him. And, when she’s not in there, he turns around, she’s right behind him, and she sprays him in the eyes with something. I I don’t know. 

Todd:  I don’t know what it is. 

Craig:  Todd doesn’t really matter. Something aerosol that burns, his eyes. And, she has grabbed keys from this rental car place. She runs out there. She she finds the car. She gets in. She’s driving this car court towards the gate, and I’m like, this is it. She’s gonna make it.   She’s gonna drive the car through the gate, and she’s gonna be out. But right as she gets to the gate, somehow he’s gotten in his car, and he rams her from the side so that she can’t go out. 

Todd:  That was surprising. That that really hits me. 

Craig:  It was surprising. I don’t know if I believe that it could have really happened. I don’t know how he got there faster than her. 

Todd:  There’s no way. And and and now he can see again. I mean, you know, I mean 

Craig:  Right. And maybe we’re supposed to believe that just he happens to get there right at the same time. I don’t know. I I don’t really care. I mean, it it doesn’t bother me. It was it was exciting. Yeah. It was.   But her car is still I mean, he hits her hard, but both of their cars are still operational. So she takes off again. He takes off after her, but somehow he pulls around so he ends up in front of her, and they’re face to face, and it’s this classic game of chicken. And he’s revving his engines, and I love it. At this point, she just goes, let’s effing do this. I love it. And they both start barreling at one another, and she is you know, this is it. You know, this is the end of the road for her.   It’s all or nothing. She does not puss out. He does. And so she goes right by him. And again, I’m thinking this is it. She’s gonna make it. But then she crashes the car and flips the car. And it’s that classic thing where the horn is blaring because her head she’s unconscious with her head down against the horn.   And he goes to the car, opens it up, and starts to try to help her again. And she takes this nail file. Again, she has this because she got it out of the back of the car. I think it’s a nail file or some sort of maybe it’s screwdriver. I don’t remember. And she stabs him in the eyeball with it. And then 

Todd:  They show they show the stabbing close-up, like, 2 or 3 times. Yeah. 

Craig:  Yeah. So gross. And then so he’s down on the ground in pain and she’s, again, smart, smart girl. She takes her handcuffs and uses her handcuffs to choke him out. So smart. After she’s after he’s he’s not unconscious, but he’s choking and and coughing on the floor. She gets the key off of his belt, uncuffs herself, and cuffs him to the car. And meanwhile, we see that due to the accident, gas is now leaking out, beneath him.   And at this point, I I again, I thought that Wes Bentley did such a good job because he he goes back to his kind, charming self. 

Todd:  I just I just wanted to be friends. 

Clip:  I’m alone. I’m always 

Craig:  alone. I almost felt bad for the guy. Yeah. You know, I almost that this poor guy really is just he doesn’t have anybody. Maybe he doesn’t have anybody because he’s Craig, but I felt bad for him nonetheless. And and it and it looks like she’s just gonna walk away and and leave him there and and get out and probably call the cops, And that’s when he makes the mistake of, again, showing his true colors and calling her a word that no tough girl like this is gonna take laying down. He calls her a stupid effing c Todd. And that just stops her in her tracks And she turns around and she’s got the taser and the gas is coming towards her and she goes, Merry Christmas, Thomas.   And she sets the taser to the gasoline. It erupts in fire. It gets to him and, catches him on fire and he’s screaming. Again, a good performance. I mean, it’s it felt very real. It it it looked like he was in pain. And eventually it blows up. The sprinklers come on, and she walks out, into Christmas morning in New York City.   She’s alone walking down the street. She’s all bloody and she’s barefoot and it’s snowing, and we see the fire trucks coming. It cuts to black and we hear a voice, presumably a fireman saying, ma’am, ma’am, are you okay? And that’s the end of the movie. Yeah. But then we get the credits and normally credits, you know, are nothing to talk about, but I really thought this was really clever. In the first third of the credits, they show all these stills from the movie. It so it looks like snapshots, and that’s how they show them on the screen. It looks like, a photograph.   And they it shows all these scenes that make it look like we have just watched a comedy. 

Clip:  And I just thought that was 

Craig:  I thought it was so clever. I just thought it was such a clever way to end this movie that was really very violent and and suspenseful. I just thought it was a a nice end. I it put a smile on my face at the end. 

Todd:  Yeah. I took them as, like, snapshots that you might take at a family Christmas gathering. Right. You know, I I have to say, I thought this movie was pretty pedestrian. And I don’t know if I had seen it when it came out in 2007 if I would feel the same way. Maybe it’s just that I’ve seen a lot of movies like this, and this movie didn’t feel like it had much more to offer in that regard, except for, like you said, that little bit of setup where he’s got her chained to the table and he’s he’s cooked a dinner for. Again, I’ve seen that in in the loved ones, but again, that came after this movie, so I can’t really hold it too much against it. But I guess I’m just maybe getting tired of these kind of woman in peril because the psychotic guy has has chained her up and and loves her kind of films.   And if I’m gonna see 1, I wanna see one that has a little bit more of a twist to it. And this movie, I don’t know, not only did it not offer much of anything new, but like I said earlier, I felt like she just could it was just one sequence after another, and it almost like a sitcom. You know how a sitcom always has to end by resetting everything back to where you were? Yeah. That’s how this movie felt like none of the sequences really upped the stakes much, after she’s fleeing. None of the sequences really change her situation. It’s like, oh, she got out of that Craig, now she’s gonna be in a new Craig. Now she got out of this scrape, now she’s gonna be in a new Craig. And she never, for a woman who has the determination and the smarts to do what she does at the very end, which is pretty complicated, pretending Todd to to be unconscious, stabbing the guy in the eye, then choking him to the point of death that why she didn’t choke him to death, I don’t know, but maybe she thought he was dead, taking his keys off, unlocking herself, and then locking her to there.   There were so many other times in this movie when she could have done the smart thing that she didn’t. When she goes in and she’s like gonna gonna take him out with the ax and then gets distracted by the screen so much that she blows her cover by smashing it. 

Craig:  True. 

Todd:  The, you know, the whole 911 sequence is nice. It’s really smart that she’s gone to this trouble of putting her dress in the door, but she just maces the guy and doesn’t finish the job. Right. She maces him and runs off, and when she gets escapes from underneath the truck, she there’s just this convenient hole in the wall that she ducks to, so that she can escape for the next sequence. That was disappointing to me. His other movie, I felt like wasn’t really like this, High Tension. I felt and maybe I’m misremembering that movie too, but I felt like High Tension was a film. And again, he did he directed High Tension.   I think he just wrote and produced this movie. Uh-huh. But, yeah. That one held a lot more for me. And by the way, we’re gonna have to do that movie. I don’t think it’s on our list, but we’ve gotta put that on our list. 

Craig:  Yeah. I’ve seen it, but I remember nothing about it. I I don’t remember anything. It’s been so long since I’ve seen it. I understand I understand your complaints about the movie, and I agree with them for the most part, But I like this movie. I don’t love it, but I I actually kinda really like it. And I think that the largest reason for that is because of the performances of the lead actors. I thought that they both did a really good job.   The the Angela, Rachel Nichols, again, I’ve never seen her in anything else, but I thought that she really held her own. And Wes Bentley as Thomas, I just thought his performance was phenomenal, which is ironic because he’s later, said in, interviews that this movie was filmed during a decade in his life where he was severely addicted, Todd, I think it was cocaine and, heroin. Really? And he was really just yeah. He was really just taking roles, taking whatever roles he could get to have money to pay for drugs. And I I wouldn’t have believed that if if if it hadn’t come from his own mouth because he seemed very much in control of his performance. There were a couple of times because I had read that before I watched it again, there were a couple of times that I noticed that he had, like, sweat on his forehead and stuff, but that’s not out of character. 

Todd:  You know? That could usually just 

Craig:  be from the lights or whatever. So the fact that he was able to pull off such a strong performance at such a dark time in his life, I find impressive. And I just liked it. The other thing that I like about it is there’s enough of a Christmas atmosphere for me to really kind of feel like this is a Christmassy movie, and it will be something that I can have at my disposal if I want a Christmas horror movie during this time of year. It I I I would I probably will. I would and will watch this movie again, probably around Christmas time in the future. And like you said, the the cinematography is is good, I think. It’s got a lot going for it.   The things that you mentioned as as being, kind of where it has some, I don’t know, some some downsides. I I agree with, but I think that the good stuff outweighs the bad stuff. 

Todd:  You know, I agree with you about the performances. They are really stellar, and this movie would have been horrible without fantastic performances from them. 

Clip:  Mhmm. 

Todd:  Really would have been bad. You’re right. This is this is like, this movie is to horror films as Die Hard is to action films. 

Craig:  Right. Yeah. Yeah. 

Todd:  It’s it’s a Christmas movie, in in all the right tones, even though it it’s not about Santa Claus and people, giving and sharing goodwill with each other. 

Craig:  Well, thank you for joining us for another episode of 2 Guys and a Chainsaw. We will be back next week with another Christmas movie, and this one is one of my absolute favorites. I’m so looking forward to it. Next week, we will be talking about Gremlins, which is just a quintessential, Christmas movie in my mind. So, if you’re a fan of that movie, make sure you check-in next week. If you liked this podcast, we have a whole backlog of episodes available. We are on Itunes. We’re on Stitcher.   You can find us on Facebook. Let us know what you thought of this episode. Or if you’ve seen this movie, let us know what you thought, whether you, agreed or disagreed with our assessment. And until next week, I’m Craig 

Todd:  And I’m Todd. 

Craig:  With 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.