Society (1989)
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Good lord. This is one insane film.
Society (1989)
Episode 64, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast
Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of 2 guys and a chainsaw. I’m Todd. Craig? Craig, are you there?
Craig: What the fuck did we just watch? I’m speechless. I’m I’m in a state of confusion. I don’t know what to think about the world anymore.
Todd: You’re not ready to join high society. Is that what you’re saying?
Craig: Where’s your ambition?
Todd: Craig, where’s your where’s your American spirit? Oh, man. This this was one messed up movie. We chose, the 1989 horror film Society. This is something that I had seen on the shelves, and I didn’t realize it until I saw the box art that there’s an odd picture of a woman kind of like peeling off her face or something it wasn’t to be frank it wasn’t box art that really captured my attention I just remembered it obviously wasn’t one that we chose to pick up The tagline on it says, the rich have always fed off the poor. This time it’s for real, and that’s a pretty apt description of what we get in this film. So, yeah, it is from the producer of the reanimator, which is actually a movie I really enjoy a lot. Had you heard of this movie before, Craig? Because I I didn’t No.
Craig: No. I had never heard of it. I had never I I had never seen the box art and, you told me not to, read anything about it before I watched it. And I’m glad that I didn’t because if I had read anything about it, I I don’t think that it would have been as shocking. So if you haven’t seen this movie and it’s something that you’re interested in, turn off this podcast before, we get going because it really is, I think something that you should allow yourself to be surprised by if you don’t know anything about it already.
Todd: Yes. This is a movie I think most horror fans are gonna wanna see, especially horror fans of the eighties or people who like body horror, if you’re a fan
Craig: Yeah. Of
Todd: well, I’d say the reanimator, but or or basket case, but mostly if you’re a fan of pretty much anything that David Cronenberg has put out, like Videodrome or his whole catalog, then this movie is going to be interesting to you. Also, if you’re a fan of, special, practical effects because there are a lot of those in this movie, and I noticed when we were going through the credits and this is something I confirmed later that the special effects were done by a guy named screaming mad George who was responsible for the special effects in another movie we watched recently, which was Silent Night, Deadly Night 5, The Toymaker.
Craig: Interesting. Yeah. There’s I didn’t I didn’t know that, but I did notice there was there’s one guy in this movie. His name is Petrie, and he’s played, oh gosh, I didn’t even write down his name, but he was was so familiar, and it I couldn’t figure out where he was from. And so I finally, after the movie, looked it up, and he was Pinot from Silent Night, Deadly Night 5. So, a little bit of crossover there too.
Todd: Brian Bremmer. Yeah. From Petrie to Pinot. Yeah.
Craig: It was driving me nuts because he was so familiar. It makes sense since we just watched that.
Todd: Yeah. You know what? I I looked at his, ouvoir, and he did, pumpkin head before that. Do you know pumpkin head?
Craig: Yeah. Yeah.
Todd: That’s a great movie. So that guy
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: That guy’s, a little more interesting than I thought he was when we watched silent night deadly night 5.
Craig: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Todd: Alright. So, anyway, society, starts out, and I’ll say that the movie is pretty heavy handed. It starts out in a white house, very opulent looking, opulent eighties looking house. It’s what we imagined that, high society was like back then. It was a lot of the modern look with a cold white, kitchen and walls and a lot of emptiness. Oh, it just looks like an IKEA, basically.
Craig: Yeah. Yeah.
Todd: Anyway, it so it’s a large mansion, and it zooms in on the door, and we get this very, I thought, stylish Todd cam and some really good sound design, while our main protagonist, Bill, who is a high school student that, like all high school students in these movies doesn’t look young enough to be a high school student anyway, he’s going through the house and he’s very upset about something it’s like he’s searching for something he hears very strange noises going on like cackling and it’s just hard to pin down but he ends up going into the kitchen grabbing a knife swinging around, and then gets kind of cornered in the by the front door, and then it pulls out and it reveals that this is just like, Bill’s nightmare or his dream. At least that’s what it seems to be. And he’s Mhmm. He’s actually talking to a psychiatrist. And this whole intro, I think, really sets the tone for the movie well because it’s very dreamlike, and I think it gets us into the mind of I think it’s just actually very well done. It it gets us into the the mind of a guy who we’re going to be questioning. We’re supposed to be questioning his sanity throughout the film
Craig: yeah
Todd: and as he’s talking to the psychiatrist he bites into an apple and he looks at the apple, and it almost reminded me a little bit actually of The Lost Boys where he looks at the apple and there are just worms coming out of it, but he just stares at it in that he knows that this is a vision in his head and finally puts the apple down but of course we’re kind of wondering what that’s all about so he’s talking to a psychiatrist he’s obviously kind of troubled by his family and you get the sense that this is one of those guy going through puberty weird point in his life kind of films, and he’s exhibiting the emotional kind of hormonal trauma that goes along with that stage in your life. But he’s also super rich, and that gets hammered into us throughout the movie. We cut to another scene of him playing basketball with his friend named Milo, and they’re talking and I don’t know. I got the feeling. Was Milo supposed to be not quite as well off as them, or were were you all just completely in Beverly Hills, Richmond?
Craig: Well, I think we were in Beverly Hills, but I think that Milo is like lower Craig Beverly Hills. Yeah. You know that that opening scene, Frank, oh, excuse me, not Frank. I I called him that for a reason. Bill, he’s played by a guy named Billy Warlock who I totally recognize, because when I was a kid, my mom watched Days of Our Lives every day, and he was on that for a long time right around this time. And his his character’s name on that was Frank. That’s why I I was confused. But, yeah, he seems he seems paranoid. I I I feel like something’s gonna happen. And if I scratch the surface, there’ll be something terrible underneath. And that kind of establishes, like, what you said, like, we’re supposed to be questioning his sanity. And we can’t just jump to the Milo scene without saying that right after that scene Ah. We get the opening credits and it’s over this I was like, what is happening? Like Yeah. It it’s really dark and it’s it’s it seems like it’s maybe shot through a filter or or they put a filter over the film later, and it’s all hues of red. And it looks like I couldn’t tell what it was, but it was so bizarre. And all I wrote down on my notes was, is this a blood orgy? Like what what is happening? And it’s not explained at all. Then it just jumps to that very normal scene of a couple kids playing basketball. Of course, we will find out what’s going on here later. But just right from the beginning, it’s so surreal. And that’s how I would describe this movie. I would I would it surreal. I would call it Kafkaesque. It’s just oh, man. From start to finish, I was like, what is going on? This is so bizarre. Oh, yeah. But yeah. Yeah. So then we cut to this very domestic scene of them playing basketball.
Todd: Yeah. We meet Jenny who we find out is Bill’s sister. They’re talking about a guy, named David who may or may not be coming by her sister is dressing up in her room and so we get immediately into there where she’s dressing and she drops an earring or she’s looking for an earring rather.
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: And there’s some movement in her closet. And again, you know, again, this movie starts out so surreal, and now we’re in a very domestic scene, and everything seems to be pretty happy, and the movie is scored almost completely throughout. And honestly, if I have one knock on the movie, I don’t think that’s the best part. I really don’t like the the score behind it. It feels really cheap, and maybe a little too prevalent. It’s got this. I don’t know. It’s a little bit like it’s all done with an organ anyway, but but we’re supposed to feel some tension here. Although, this seems like a pretty normal kind of area, and it’s way too early in the movie for us to for Jenny to, like, getting be getting slaughtered or something by some strange person’s pocket. Anyway, out jumps this guy, and it turns out to be this David, who she knows, who it seemed like was being set up as a boyfriend of hers, but I think we we we find out later maybe a former boyfriend or just a former Former.
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: Yeah. Who was interested in her. And he leaps out, and he runs down the stairs and runs out, and then, he we see his parents, and his parents are, I’m sorry, Jenny and Bill’s parents are totally cheesy, eighties rich yuppie people.
Craig: Yeah. Yeah. Totally stereotyped. But at the same time, didn’t you totally get a creepy vibe from them right from the beginning?
Todd: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And and because they seem completely unconcerned, like, about pretty much everything that happens throughout this movie. Uh-huh. Even when this guy was hiding up in their daughter’s thing, they’re just they just kind of brushed that off, oh well, and they’re way more interested in talking about her coming out party, which is the subject of everything, that they talk about or seem to be working towards in this movie. And I really liked this aspect of the film that you have this layer of society that seems totally unconcerned with everything but themselves no matter what’s going on around them, even when it involves their kids, even it involves things that should be kind of disturbing or troubling to them, they’re completely absolutely uninterested in that. At least you get the impression that everything’s going right by them. So that was what made them so creepy I thought and you get that established right from the beginning and I think this movie hits you with a hammer with this theme could continue. It’s the point. It’s the it’s the title of the movie society. And even their house, you know, this is when we’re downstairs and we’re in their foyer, which which you can’t even see all the walls. It’s so big. Kinda looks like a set, to be honest, but
Craig: Yeah. It does.
Todd: So they’re all white and all smiles and grins. Oh, and then and then there’s another really interesting shot where it maybe it was just me, but I thought it was played kind of creepy where after all this is kind of done and they’re done talking, the sister turns around and says to Billy, can you zip me up? And just the way that that is shot, it just seems a little creepy, incestuous.
Craig: It does. Yeah. And and you’re totally right. I think it totally was the way that it was shot. You know, the the camera, Todd doesn’t, like, slow pan in. It just cuts to a really close-up shot of her back, and he’s, like, kind of zipping her up slowly. It does. It seems sensual and it’s weird. But the other weird thing is she’s got, like, I don’t know what was supposed to be sweat or if it was supposed to be some remnants of her shower that she just got out of or maybe something else. But then he also sees something like bulge underneath her skin and her back. And like he’s shocked by it, but he doesn’t say anything. And this I think that this movie, they were less concerned about any kind of logic than they were about just the surreal nature of it and the effects. Because, like, he sees this happen, but he he doesn’t say anything. He’s like, oh, you just got a little water on your back. Like Yeah. If if I were in that position with anybody, my sister, anybody, and I saw something weird bulge underneath their skin, you know, and and then just go right back, I think I’d say something. I think that would freak me out a little bit, but it doesn’t. And I couldn’t get the sense of whether or not that was him questioning his own sanity. I think that that’s what we were supposed to think. Yeah. He knows that he’s paranoid. He knows that he may be seeing things because of the whole thing with the apple. And so but it it was just it was weird. But, of course, obviously, we know something is weird and and wrong with this family.
Todd: Yeah. You get that sense even if even if you’re going to go with the through line that Billy is simply imagining a lot of things. There’s still a lot that’s wrong with this this family that you can’t pin down. But because of the opening credits scene, like you said, being so strange, this hearkens back to that too a little bit. So, you know, it all puts us on edge. It does a really good job of that. And so the next shot that we get is of a cheerleader at Beverly Hills High, who we later find out is, Billy’s girlfriend, Shauna, and she’s doing a little cheer, kinda dumb, doing a little cheer on stage before the big debate. And, Billy, we find out, is running for, like, I don’t know, class president or something.
Craig: I couldn’t tell. It looked that way. It was some kind of debate.
Todd: Against, a guy named Petrie, who is the person we mentioned earlier for the we remember from Saturday Night, Deadly Night. So he’s running against him, and so they do this whole little debate thing in front of the whole class. And there’s a girl in the front row who, interestingly enough, in a movie that’s basically chock full of white people, is the only person who’s got a little bit more of a dark complexion and seems like she has
Craig: Mhmm.
Todd: A different kind of background. And I thought that might be a little significant, and I’m not really sure that it is. I just think it was the casting. But, she’s really kind of distracting him by coming on to him in a sort of way from the front row. Yeah. Just like
Craig: Yeah. Not subtly at all.
Todd: No. Yeah. She’s just, like, spreading her legs a little bit and,
Craig: Licking her lips.
Todd: Yeah. She’s a really attractive woman.
Craig: She is. Yeah.
Todd: And, her name we find out later is is Clarissa. From this point until about halfway through the movie, it becomes almost like the dream girl. Right? She’s Mhmm. She’s the girl that’s on his mind that he kind of sees from a distance every now and then.
Craig: But the other funny thing about this scene, first of all, something that’s inadvertently funny. They they say at the beginning of the debate when they’re introducing people that Billy is the star basketball player of the school. This guy can’t be over, like, 56. Like like, he’s a tiny little guy. There’s no way that he’s the star basketball player. But then also, you know, with that whole, the girl in the front flirting with him trying to seduce him and whatnot, it’s played for comedy. And and the movie is billed as a horror comedy, and I didn’t really see the attempts at comedy really felt they were few and far between, first of all, and they really fell flat to me. Agreed. What what did you think?
Todd: Yeah. I I agree with you. I thought it was it it got to be again, it’s like a Cronenberg movie or even like a David Lynch movie where the attempts at comedy, there’s just too much bizarre stuff in it for the comedy to really come through and become light hearted right you just have a tone that’s set up from the very beginning that is so strange that you’ve got to filter everything through that and when it comes through on the other side there’s nothing to laugh at. Even the comedy even the attempts at comedy, you wonder if if it’s even supposed to be funny. Does that make sense?
Craig: Right. Yeah.
Todd: And if it was supposed to be funny and we were supposed to be laughing out loud, it it was not successful in almost every No.
Craig: It’s it yeah. It’s just too bizarre. I mean, even when we get to the last 30 minutes where things really get batshit Craig, I I feel like it’s supposed to also be, like, darkly comic, and I don’t know. For me, it was just so bizarre that I couldn’t appreciate, the comedy. It was really weird. After that scene, he goes back to the psychologist, which he does sporadically. And, and he talks about, I don’t know. He’s talking about the paranoia surrounding his, you know, his paranoia surrounding his family and stuff. And the the doctor says to him, you know, you really deserve what’s gonna happen to you, you know. What’s gonna happen? You’re gonna make a wonderful contribution to society. And little things like that get dropped here and there. All through the movie, I thought that the twist was gonna be that it really was all in his head. And as it turns out, it’s not, but, really up until near the very end, I was really thinking, okay, they’ve got me convinced that something weird is going on, so the twist is gonna be, that he really is just crazy and he’s paranoid and all of these things that he’s thinking and seeing and and whatever that they are just a product of his imagination.
Todd: You know, it could have gone in that direction, and it would have been a pretty interesting movie because he’s set up as the outcast in a way of his family. He’s kind of on the debate team or whatever, he’s running for president or whatever that is, but he’s also the star basketball player, he’s a little jockey, and he’s not really he can’t really fit in with what his parents are talking about, and even what his sister is talking about, they’re totally uninteresting to him, And it seems to be set up like that’s why he’s going to therapy is not just because, but I think part of it is is because something that rich people are perceived to be able to do you know because therapy is something you have to be able to afford and so right therapy I think kind of like exercising or jogging kind of in America seems to be something that poor people think are a hallmark of the rich because well, they have the time and the the leisure and the the money and the extra whatever you need to be able to do those activities. And so on the one hand, the therapy kind of points to that level of social status, but it also is a way that we can kind of look into and see that, yeah, he realizes that he’s different from his family, he can’t really relate to them, and he’s trying to work through that and trying to figure out the next step, which then again also adds to that feeling that maybe this is all in his head. But then there’s another scene, where he is going upstairs to get something.
Craig: Suntan lotion.
Todd: Thank you.
Craig: Because they’re going because he’s going to the beach.
Todd: Yeah. He’s going to the beach, he goes upstairs to get it, and it’s in his sister’s room, and his sister is taking a shower. And there’s, again, a little bit of that, I would have to say, kind of incestuous curiosity vibe going here because he does grab the suntan lotion but then he wanders a little bit into look in Todd in to see his sister showering, and the shower has that translucent kind of glass, that’s distorting the
Craig: fog glass. Yeah.
Todd: Yeah. Yeah. But you can still see the image, behind it. And even we have to kind of stare at it for a minute or 2 to figure out if we’re seeing something weird or not. Again, right? I mean, it’s it’s
Craig: I just I’m I’m watching it. First of all, the reason I at least I think the reason that he is, looking at her at all is because she’s like moaning and making weird noises. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And and, so when he looks in there, like you said, like we have to look really close to it. And I’m looking and I’m looking and I’m like, wait a minute. Why are her boobs on her back? Like, what? Because you can totally see her boobs and then right below it, it’s her butt. And I’m like, what is happening? Did she grow new boobs on her back? Is that what that was that was, like, popping out before? Like, does she have 4 boobs? Like, it’s so weird. It is. But then he opens the door then he opens the door, and she’s just normal. And she’s like, what are you doing? And she covers herself up and and he leaves. So again, I’m I I okay. Maybe he’s just nuts.
Todd: Yeah. It’s it’s a very Lynch ian moment in the movie. I I really actually thought that this was these these scenes were really well done for a for a low budget film, that’s produced and directed by, Brian Usna, who’s the same guy who brought us the reanimator. And and I’m not knocking reanimator, but it’s definitely a low budget movie. It’s not high art.
Craig: Did he Todd did he produce that one? Because He produced What I read was that they wanted him to direct Bride of Re Animator
Todd: Yes.
Craig: And he said that he would, but only if he got to make this movie first. And so that’s how this movie ended up getting made.
Todd: Well, yeah. And then he jumps into, like, Silent Night, Deadly Night 4, which I guess is the connection with the he he must have had something to do with 5 as well, which is kinda why it’s so many people in this, including the our our guy kinda got involved with that. But, I mean, I’m really pretty impressed with what he did with this, his first directing, directing effort for a movie, and then he went on to do, by the way, honey, I shrunk the kids. He he did the story, for that movie.
Craig: Yeah. Yeah. I saw that, and I was very surprised because it’s a very different movie. It really is.
Todd: Oh my gosh. But, yeah, I I just thought these scenes were really well done. Again, it I was wondering the whole time. Is this in his head? Is it not? But also just the fact that it lingered on this long enough and it was just obscure enough and all of the scenes like this are kind of like this for us to wonder wait a minute is are we seeing something strange or no, wait oh yeah yeah her boobs are on her
Craig: back, you know it puts us in
Todd: the character’s head as well and and that was really again, I I think it was really clever.
Craig: I do Todd, and and I thought that as far as I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s directing or editing or or some combination, but, the movie’s really fast paced, but it’s really just a series of these really surreal moments. Because like right after that, he goes outside, he’s going to the beach, and the parents are out there with the gardener, and the gardener’s kinda down on the ground. It looks like he’s maybe pruning something, and they’re watching and admiring, you know, their garden or whatever. But when Billy gets up there, what the gardener is doing is pulling all these slugs out of, out of the garden and putting them on a plate, like a dinner plate. And the parents are like, Oh, that one looks good. Oh, yes. That’s a beauty. And Bill just looks at them like, you’re weird, but whatever. Going to the beach. See you later. He just he and again, I I I don’t think it’s ex we’re supposed to expect realism here. But again, this is one of those things like, okay? Like, that I guess, you just don’t question the fact that your parents are collecting slugs on a plate? Alright.
Todd: It it
Craig: to me, I don’t at the beach.
Todd: I was thinking of, like, escargot. That that’s what I was thinking with the slugs.
Craig: It it crossed my mind too, but you don’t get escargot out of No.
Todd: Garden slugs. You don’t. You’re right.
Craig: I can almost guarantee you that the people who live in in Bel Air are not harvesting their own escargot in the garden.
Todd: No. I I know. I completely agree. It serves to emphasize the fact that these people just live in a completely different world or totally unconcerned with anything going on around them, including Billy, and he himself just can’t relate just like we can’t relate. The you know, what’s what’s interesting about this film is that we get these what I describe what we described earlier, these really well done surreal strange moments against these really just flat out weird strange moments that aren’t even that surreal at all, and I feel like this whole beach scene is just one Yeah. Thing like this after another. He is now, basically laying down next to his girlfriend, Shauna, and she’s in a bikini, and she’s super attractive. And her main concern throughout this whole film is that she get invited to this big party that this guy, Ted Ferguson is throwing, who’s another super rich dude who is apparently really popular, but he’s kind of the bully of this movie, and he’s a little bit down the way on the beach with his friends, and she says, why don’t you go down there and talk to him and see if we can get invited to this party? He doesn’t really care, but he does anyway. Now you’re gonna have to help me with the sequence of the scene, Craig, because there’s a whole bunch of stuff with the suntan lotion
Craig: here. Okay. Yeah. I I I thought maybe you were gonna skip over it for all some reasons because
Todd: There’s no way we’re gonna skip over the suntan lotion. Okay.
Craig: Yeah. Okay. So he’s, like, rubbing suntan lotion on her stomach or whatever, and then they start making out. And then there’s this weird thing where these kids are, like, army crawling, like, like, right next to them, and they they they, like, sneak up right in between their legs and grab this suntan lotion and stand up and squirt it all over the girl, all over her face and all over her boobs. And then and then they throw the suntan lotion, and then he go the Billy goes and gets it, but right before he gets there, that his dream girl, Clarissa is standing there in a bikini and she picks it up and squirts it all over his face. There’s a lot of white stuff getting shot on people’s faces and boobs in this scene. And I was like, I’m giving my screen side eye like, what are you doing? That’s dirty. Exactly.
Todd: And he’s, like, on his hands and knees, and he’s looking up at her. It’s all yeah. It’s super suggestive.
Craig: Well, and that’s the thing. Like, it it felt like it was trying to be both this weird surreal thing and at the same time, like, an eighties sex comedy. And and I don’t know. I mean, it’s fine. Because it was so surreal Todd didn’t bother me or take me out of it when they would do these, you know, jokey kind of things but it makes it even all the more surreal, like, because it just seems so out of place. Yeah. And then, right after that, right after he gets squirted on the face, which he doesn’t even wipe off.
Todd: I mean,
Craig: it’s it’s so strange. Then he’s, like, backing. He’s gonna go, try to talk to this Ferguson guy to get invited to the party or whatever. And he backs into this large, heavily made up I’ll say woman because the character was supposed to be a woman. But that was surely
Todd: a dude. Right? Yeah. It’s a very androgynous looking character. Kind of reminded me of,
Craig: Like, Divine?
Todd: Yes. Exactly. Divine. Yes.
Craig: Yeah. That’s the first thing that popped into my head was John Waters. I mean, it it looked it it looked like a character stepped right out of a John Waters movie. Very large, very imposing, very odd looking.
Todd: Which just who just kinda stares at him, and he stares back, and then they walk away. And you’re like, what
Craig: is this all about?
Todd: It’s we we we’re introduced to these strange characters, but this this character’s flat out strange, just completely flat out. So she didn’t say anything, but she does pop up a couple more times later, and it isn’t until much later that you realize, that you understand who she is even though it doesn’t even really make them a difference. So, yeah, he goes over and he talks to David, and he’s the typical jerky bully guy. And Todd Ted
Craig: Ted Todd Ted
Todd: yeah but it cuts for a moment to his parents and they’re sitting and talking to this judge guy who is apparently a bigwig that they keep talking about and they want they keep inviting him over and he’s gonna come to her coming out party, but his sister comes in and mentions this earring that she had, and she says it’s kind of weird, and they look at it, And then it cuts back to the beach, and he is done with Todd, and I don’t think it’s
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: Ted Ferguson. He has not he has not become successful at getting invited to this park. Right. But then he runs into David, hit this guy, and David says Ted says Bill Billy Billy you got I’ve got something you’ve got to see this you gotta see you gotta hear this and so he pulls him aside on the beach and he plays a tape for him and it is a he says don’t be bad at me but, I put a bug in your sister’s ear, and it turns out that that’s was in the earring that the parents see.
Craig: That’s what he had been doing in her bathroom was bugging her earring. Exactly. And, and I put a
Todd: transmitter under the car, whatever, and I’ve been recording your family. He gets upset about that, but he listens to this tape. I’m gonna car, whatever, and I’ve been recording your family. He gets upset about that, but he listens to this tape, and this tape is super disturbing.
Craig: I remember my own coming out. I was so excited. Then you can do it with women as well as men. Of course. Look, you know the schedule. 1st, we die and then copulation. Someone your own age first, then with your mother and me. Then in comes the host.
Todd: You’ll be ready.
Craig: Oh, you know, I could hardly keep a straight face when Bill apologized to me about not being able to make it tonight. Don’t be concerned about your brother, Jen. He’s too busy with things in his own world to worry about, aren’t He really lucked out, Jen. Ted Ferguson is really cute for our first partner. Ted Ferguson? Ted Ferguson? Yeah. Jenny and Ferguson. That’s just the beginning. Here, listen. Wow. Your boobs look totally sexy. Guys are gonna pop high once the second they see you. I’m a little nervous, though. It’s fun. Oh, relax, Jenny. Just gump with it. It’s so much fun to see how far you can stretch. Yeah. The hotter and wetter you get, the more you can do. It’s great. I swear, I I was watching this I was watching this and I just had this look of horror and disgust on my face like the movie if nothing else, it does a really good job of shocking you. I mean, I was shocked several times throughout this movie. I knew this family was weird. I knew they were Todd, but I didn’t see this coming. I mean it was and and just that they’re talking about it so casually and like, oh, this is just what we do with the coming out parties. And it’s so gross. Like, it’s just disgusting. Oh, man. Oh, I I I didn’t know what to think.
Todd: Well, it honestly, it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you’re gonna get in this movie. Yeah. In a movie like this. Right? I mean, this is like an eighties horror film comedy kinda low budget, but it usually doesn’t go in these kind of places. This is for, like, heavy drama type weird strange few movies do really go this far, actually.
Craig: Right. Right.
Todd: But then he runs to the psychiatrist, in the kind of in the middle of the night or in the middle of the evening or whatever when the psychiatrist is is not available, and he hands him the tape. He says, Look, you’ve got to just listen to this, I don’t care, and he’s like, I gotta go to bed, you gotta leave, no, well just listen to this tape, listen to this tape, listen to this tape. He’s like, Fine, I’ll listen to it. Then he gets a call and he goes back to the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist is like what are you doing what’s going on and he plays the tape and the tape is completely normal. They’re just talking about the parts. So either the tape has been changed or, Billy is going crazy and hearing things that he
Craig: Mhmm.
Todd: Whatever, and that’s what you’re supposed to think. And so at this point on, the movie has been building towards this, invasion to the body snatchers or invaders from Mars kind of deal, and that’s exactly what what you get, absolutely. Now now is the point in the movie where your face your mind is faced with making a decision, like, okay, is there some conspiracy against this guy or is it all in his head? And from here on out, the rest of the movie was me trying to figure out which of the 2 it was. Was it that way for you?
Craig: Yeah. And at this point, I still really thought that it being in his head was a possibility, and I thought that the movie was doing a really good job of messing with my head, like I I I really didn’t know. Usually I feel like I have a better idea, you know, if they’re trying to tease things, I feel like I’m pretty good at figuring things out, but I really didn’t know That tape really threw me for a loop, because it’s it’s altered and it’s totally normal, but it follows the same pattern of the conversation. So if he were paranoid and was was hearing things, it would I mean, it would kind of make sense because the things that they say when we hear it the second time around, they all sound very normal, but if you just twist around some of the words a little bit, you could get to where it was originally. So I was thinking, well, maybe his mind is just playing tricks on him. I I really was unsure. There’s a lot to suggest that there is something shady going on a lot. You know, the fact that, Dave was so concerned and upset about this. You know, if he if if it had just been a normal conversation, why would he have been so concerned or upset about it? But I’m still questioning my mind. Well, maybe that whole exchange was was, you know, messed up in in Billy’s head. So, I was really confused.
Todd: Yeah. And, also the psychiatrist and, you know, I didn’t realize this until after the movie, which is almost hard to believe that these psychiatrist scenes were actually shot after. They weren’t in the original script. They added these later, and it’s hard to imagine this movie making a lot of sense without it in there quite honestly because it does provide some really good context, and it gives us a chance to get into his head and see what he’s thinking, but the psychiatrist in this scene says to him, look, people are what they are. You have to accept society’s rules, it’s a question of what you were born into, but I thought it was pretty relevant to Todd. This is a kind of movie that could be remade in in Trump’s America and would have a lot more
Craig: Oh, yeah.
Todd: To say.
Craig: Oh, yeah.
Todd: You know, it’s Absolutely. Again, it hits it all over the head, with a hammer, though, with Yeah.
Craig: Yeah. It does. I mean, it’s it’s clearly social commentary, you know, and it’s it’s it’s bold faced. It’s not it’s not beating around the bush in any way. Well, anyway, so, Billy grabs the cassette and he he well, first of all, he calls in front of the psychiatrist. And again, I thought this was so stupid. He calls in front of the psychiatrist and says, Dave, you have another copy of the tape. You gotta meet me at this certain place right now. And he runs out. And of course, when he gets there, just minutes later, Dave’s van is there, and it’s been in a terrible accident, and they’re taking Dave dead presumably away. And so he goes home and his mom and his dad and his sister are all just sitting in the, like, sitting room. They’re not doing anything. I mean, it just seems like they’re just waiting for him to come in. And when he comes in, they’re like, you got a 10agram. I don’t remember getting telegrams in 1989, but apparently apparently they’re fancy in Beverly Hills and they do telegrams. But he is he he has now been invited, to Ferguson’s party. And he’s he doesn’t understand. They have heard about the accident, but they’re totally unconcerned about it, and and totally without any kind of emotion or sympathy. Even the sister who had dated this guy at one time, is is totally unconcerned. All they’re concerned about is getting him to go to this party, which he does. And then this scene, I just I don’t know how I felt about this scene. So he gets to the party, and he’s looking for Ferguson, but first he bumps into Clarissa again, And they kind of flirt a little bit, and then she, Milo shows up, I think. It’s not really important. There’s kind of Milo’s kind of this character that, kind of orbits around the whole movie, but he’s really not all that important. Clarissa goes into this tent. Like, there’s this big tent set up in this backyard and, David follows her in there, and Ferguson is in there. And and Billy is questioning him, and he’s saying things like, I wanna know, what went down at my sister’s party or whatever. And Ferguson tells the truth. He says, we all had dinner and then I banged. He doesn’t say that. But then I banged your sister and then everybody else was so turned on they all did too. And I think that Billy punches him, and and Ferguson takes him out of the tent and throws him in the pool. And then what I thought was so weird, and again it’s just kind of the surreal nature of the the movie, you just kinda have to go with it I guess, but Billy gets out of the pool and just continues to flirt with Clarissa. Like Yeah. This nukes that he got confirmed wasn’t all that particularly shocking or upsetting. Like, oh, I’m mad that the cute girl’s flirting with me, so let’s go to your bedroom.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: Where we will have a dirty sex scene.
Todd: Yeah. It’s you’re right. It is a bit uneven. The well, and even when Clarissa shows up, again, it’s done in that dream girl kind of way where he sees her from across, and then we get this this slow dolly into her face, as he sees her. And then the very next shot is of the 2 of them dancing. It’s like, what happens in between there and there? Mhmm. And, this other girl pops in and and I was like, who is she? This other girl pops in and looks like she’s upset and and walks away, and I was like, who is she? Like, that’s not his girlfriend. It turns out it’s his girlfriend’s friend, who later, you know, is telling about this. But, yeah, yeah, so then they go up and they make out, and there’s this really raunchy sex scene, and there is another hand that comes into play, it’s like her hand coming around her own shoulder that he sees.
Craig: The wrong way. Yeah. Like, it it’s it’s it it like, in a way that it shouldn’t be able to. And then I don’t remember. Does he fall out of the bed when he sees that?
Todd: Pushes himself away from her, which has him fall out of the bed, and then he turns around and looks up, and she’s leaning kind of over the side of the bed and it’s like, well, how you know what’s going on? What’s wrong? And, once again you get this shot where you have to stare at it for like a minute or 2, like it lingers there so you think it’s important but it takes you a few more seconds to realize wait a minute are her legs flipped around? She’s kind of half covered with a blanket, and so between her top and her legs is the blanket covering her, but then her legs maybe seem to be backwards.
Craig: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it just it’s it’s like one of those things where you look at it and you can tell that something’s not right, and it takes your mind a minute to figure out, wait a second, why are her legs facing the wrong way? And I I feel like he kind of rubs his eyes or shakes his head or something and looks back at her, and she’s normal again. Yeah. So I I I had no idea what was going on there.
Todd: Really well done, though. I I like that.
Craig: Yeah. It was well done. And they you know, I read about how they did it. I mean, they just did it with with 2, you know, the actress and then another person, and they just, you know, positioned them in the bed so that it looked like there was one body, but but contorted. And and it is effective. It’s it’s really unsettling as are many things, and, oh my god, we haven’t even gotten
Todd: Well, they go they go downstairs, and she makes them some tea. And she asks them
Clip: How do you like your tea? Cream? Sugar? Or do you want me to pee in it?
Craig: I’m sorry. No. What? Like, I didn’t like, she asks it totally deadpan. Like, she’s serious. And I’m like, what? It and again, he just kinda blows it off, and they start making out again. And we see kind of this POV of somebody walking in on them. And, he’s like, oh, Clarissa. Clarissa. And he sits up, and she turns around, and her boobs are hanging out. And then it’s that big creepy drag queen again who turns out to be her mom. And apparently, she doesn’t care at all that her mom is just Yeah. You know, and and she basically just kinda kicks her mom out, but not before her mom starts hacking and eventually hacks something up and puts it into Billy’s hand, and it’s like a freaking hairball. I’m like, what is going on? Oh Todd. It’s just so strange.
Todd: No. Yeah. Yeah. He goes home and he runs upstairs and opens the door, and his parents and his sister are kind of lounging on the bed. Sitting up, and dad is giving his sister a massage. It is really creepy, incestuous moment.
Craig: It’s gross. Right. And, like, they’re not dressed. Like they’re not nude, but they’re in their under things. And, yeah, at this point, obviously, something I think it was at this point that I thought there’s no misinterpreting this. There’s no rational explanation for this. It’s too weird. It’s too gross. Something is really going on.
Todd: Oh, yeah. And then there’s a funeral scene after this for his friend, and they walk up and there’s like he has like a looks like kind of a birthmark or something his friend has on his face and he kind of touches one of them touches his face and that spot kind of crumbles away or his finger kind of goes into his cheek a little bit it’s again it’s just kind of a weird out of nowhere bit and Petrie approaches Todd him, after this and says, meet me in the woods. There’s some stuff I need to tell you about your family, and it seems like, okay, this is the guy who’s maybe been in on this but is having a change of heart and wants to let him know what’s going on and so this isn’t a safe place for that and he says basically meet me in the woods down here at a certain time so Billy goes out and drives, down to the woods and goes to meet him, but when he goes into the woods, there’s just a car there. And when he opens the back door of the car, Petrie’s throat is slashed, but there’s somebody else there, and he’s kinda wandering around. There’s this, like, a, like, a, what is it? It’s like a sweater or a, sweater?
Craig: No idea what was that was. I had no idea what was going on there.
Todd: Where did that come from? Was it supposed to be Petrie’s? Was it supposed to be his?
Craig: I I don’t know. Petrie was wearing? I missed it entirely. It was like he and it’s it it ultimately doesn’t pay off. I mean, not nothing comes of it, but it’s like yeah. There’s like a a a sweater, like, hanging in the bushes, and it like, he sees it, and it’s like and then some guy in all black jumps out and grabs it and takes off running.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: And, he he doesn’t catch the guy. Did did you know do you have any idea what was going on with the sweater?
Todd: Well, it comes up later. The sweater comes up later.
Craig: Oh, I missed it.
Todd: Yeah. Later on, when he’s doing his debate again, and he’s being, he’s being, what do you call it, heckled in the front row by Ferguson. Ferguson is holding that sweater. He’s he’s got
Craig: his sister wide. I totally missed that.
Todd: Yeah. So he’s kinda
Craig: following up. It turns out as it turns out, this whole thing was a setup or at least that’s what it appears to be because Milo, Billy didn’t know it, but Milo had followed him there. And Milo, after Billy left, had seen, Petrie and Ferguson come out of the woods together. So it was just a setup. And I I think what they were trying to do was trying to make him look crazy in front of other people to then justify what they were gonna do later. Because, Billy goes home and he’s ambushed by his family and the judge and the doctor and these ambulance guys take him well, they they tranquilize him, knock him out, and then they take him to the hospital. And when Milo goes to the hospital to check up on him, the lady at the desk tells him that he’s in the morgue, that he’s dead. And he says that can’t be. And, what then we see Billy, he’s not dead. He’s in a hospital bed. He, he, he in kind of in his waking state, he thinks that he hears, David, the guy that he thought was dead. But when he wakes up, nobody’s there. And he goes out to the car, to his car, which has mysteriously been placed right outside the hospital, and he, at this point, seems like he’s kinda coming unhinged. And, Milo is there waiting, and he says, What’s going on? You know, they’re setting you up for something you don’t understand. You’re officially dead now. They’re setting you up for something. And, so he says, no. Don’t you get it? I’m free now. I mean, it seems bizarre to me. But anyway, so then he goes he drives, I guess, to Clarissa’s house, which I didn’t really understand why. He’s really aggressive with her and, like, chokes her and, hits her. I I didn’t understand what the purpose of that was. Did you? Was he trying to get information out of her or something?
Todd: I have no idea. Except that maybe he was just mad at her. Like, in his crazy state, he came to realize that she was bad or she was doing bad things, so he wanted to go over there and, like, yell at her. That that’s the only thing I could think of. Yeah.
Craig: Well, it was unsettling because up until the up until this point, this guy, you know, has kind of been the hero, and now he’s smacking girls around. And I was like, what? Maybe he really has lost his mind. I don’t know. But anyway, it all culminates when he she tells him don’t go home. And he says, of course, I’m going home. They want me to come home. So he goes home and he’s walking around in his house much like he was in that initial dream in the beginning. And he gets a knife, and he’s holding a knife, and he’s looking for his parents, but he can’t find them. He looks out the window and sees that they are arriving home, And so he waits in the dark behind the door until they come in, and when they come in, he says something like, hello, mom. And then all of the lights come on, and everybody is there. All of the society is there. Ferguson, all the young people, the judge, all the old people, they’re all there. It’s this big gathering. And they, the I think the cop, who has been shady this whole time, puts puts, Billy in one of those I don’t know what they’re called, like choke sticks that that animal control uses. Yeah. That’s the big stick with the wire at the end. You get the animal’s head in. They put them in one of those and get them down on the ground. And this is where I don’t even know what to say. I don’t even like I don’t know I don’t know how to describe I don’t even know how to describe what happens next.
Todd: Well, they break in, they they’re basically taunting him, and his parents show up, and they’re all laughing at him. And, I mean, you kinda knew what was coming in a way. You knew that this was going to be some kind of invader Todd the invasion of the Todd snatchers type of scenario at this point where, he is not like everybody else around him, and, you know, his his dad just taunts him, and he looks at him, and he says,
Craig: you’re a different race from us, a different species, a different class. You’re not one of us. You have to be born in the society. Alien Todd. No. No. We’re not from outer space or anything like that. We have been here as long as you have. Have. It’s a matter of good breeding, really.
Todd: Which confirms, Billy’s suspicions the whole time that he’s adopted. You know? And and Mhmm. Again, we’re still playing with a lot of adolescent things. You know? How many of us, you know, growing up, at one point go through this feeling, you know, where where where you’re kind of against your parents, and you maybe you don’t literally believe that you’re adopted, but you certainly feel that way. You know? Like, they you know, I’m not like them or whatever. But you know he’s in for it because he’s gonna get it, but you’re not quite sure what he’s gonna get. And then they drag in, David, his friend who we thought was dead, you know, whose cheek was like falling apart earlier. And I wasn’t clear how he came back from the dead either, but he’s there, and he’s screaming and yelling. Go ahead.
Craig: I don’t think he was ever dead. I think they staged that. And and so whatever that was in the coffin, I don’t think that was really him.
Todd: Oh, okay. That’s probably it. So that then the coffin scene makes a little more sense to me. So yeah. So so he comes in and he’s down on the ground next to him too, and the judge comes in and he’s basically like,
Craig: I do love the smell of the hunt and the taste of the shunt. And I was like, oh my god. What is hap what’s going to happen? The taste of the shot. And I could’ve never in a 100 years predicted what was about to happen.
Todd: They all descend on on David, everybody, and they’re taking off their clothes, and they reach into his skin, in some places. Like, David has suddenly become really, really soft, and pliable. Mhmm. Yeah. And he’s screaming. And in the meantime, they’re grabbing it. They’re reaching into his skin, they’re like melding with his body, they’re going up to him with their mouths, and it looks like they’re gonna bite pieces off of him like a kind of like a zombie movie except Uh-huh. They as they pull away, their mouths and lips just become elongated and it’s, oh my gosh, there’s no way to to really describe it.
Craig: No. You would have to see it. You would have to see it because it’s so gross and so bizarre. I mean it’s lovecraftian. It’s, I mean it’s nightmare. It’s nightmarish. It’s literally the stuff of nightmares. And it’s like, I guess they’re feeding off of him. And then at the end oh, and at some point so so Billy’s watching all of this and Ferguson, is, like, taunting him and saying, watch because this is what’s gonna happen to you next. And then for and and Billy’s like, why are you doing this or something like that? And he says, oh, you silly boy. Don’t you know the rich have always sucked off low class shit like you, which I thought was a really interesting choice of words. And and Yes. If I heard that context, I would think something very different.
Todd: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. It was, the whole thing just becomes a basically a big orgy like, again, very like David Cronenberg filming an orgy where it they it pans out, and it’s just this amorphous mass of flesh, that you can’t tell who’s who or what’s what, and there’s not even human anymore. And everybody’s laughing. It’s a big nightmare monster. Yeah. And I guess they they had these ideas. The filmmakers had these ideas first. Like, the idea first was the special effects for this film, and they basically went backwards and developed a plot around this.
Craig: Right. Yeah. Which oh my gosh. How do where do you start to develop a plot around this? It’s so weird. I mean, even before they all and again, I I feel like they’re trying to incorporate comedy even before it turns into that one big mass. Mean, they’re all kind of connected, but, I guess the judge gets to kind of do the final thing or whatever, and he, like, crawls up to Dave and says, now we’re finally gonna get to the bottom of this. And he takes his hand and shoves it up Dave’s ass, and then, like, shoves it all the way up so that it comes out of his mouth and eyeballs and then kinda just, like, pulls it all down into one amorphous thing, and that’s when the whole big orgy is going on. And it’s just surreal and just gross in the visual. There’s there’s little to no blood, because the director was concerned that the MPAA would, make him cut it if there was blood. But blood could not, I don’t think, have made this any more disgusting than it was. In fact, blood may have added a sense of realism to it that would have made it even less nightmarish. I mean, it’s just you you you gotta see it to believe it.
Todd: Yeah. Yeah. There’s nothing else like it, on film, I don’t think. Yeah. And the funny thing is is even in some later scenes where there’s a little bit more talking going on, and this scene lasts way too long, there is way too much talking and other stuff that’s kind of happening amidst all this, but you can even, like, the the the head with the fist and hand through it is just kind of, like, bobbing up and down while the judge is chatting with somebody else later. Mhmm. It’s all happening, continuing to happen around them, and they’re supposed to be funny moments, I think. I think we’re supposed to be laughing at a lot of this, but it’s so strange, so bizarre, and so disturbing that I just couldn’t bring myself to think any of it was funny.
Craig: Right. Like, I think so, Clarissa lets, David go, and David they block the door so he can’t get out, so he runs upstairs. And he ends up in his mom and dad’s bedroom. And at first, you just see the mom laying in bed, but it looks like instead of legs, she now has man arms. And then she gets out of bed, and she’s walking towards him, and it’s, you know, it’s all practical effects. It’s all in the way that it’s shot. Some of it’s, you know, clearly a puppet. But she gets up to him, and then, like, the sister, like, pops out of her vag. Like, like, the sister’s head pops out of her vag and, like, talks to the kid. And then he he turns around, and the dad is, like, I guess, on all fours, but we’re just seeing him from behind. And his face is coming out of his butthole, and he’s and he’s like and he’s like, hey, Billy. I think it was supposed to be funny, but it was so gross and surreal that the last thing that I was gonna do was laugh. I mean, I I could recognize that they were going for the comedy, but it’s so gross that, no, I I was not laughing at all. I I I would I wish that I had a camera. I wish that I had trained a camera on me while I was watching this because I think that in itself would have been entertaining to watch because the looks on my face must have just been priceless.
Todd: Now doesn’t the doesn’t the weird mom come in at some point too?
Craig: It’s kind of a subplot that, Clarissa’s mom, Milo uses her to get inside. And and it’s really not all that important except for when, Billy is runs downstairs to escape his parents. He’s trapped again. And in another totally why would this happen moment, he, like, challenges Ferguson to a fight. He’s like, me and you, 1 on 1, man to man. Like, really? Now? Yeah.
Todd: This is not gonna work.
Craig: Yeah. And and, they fight, and Ferguson is is kicking his butt. And, but, Clarissa tries to intervene, and he punches her. And so the mom tackles him. But, I mean, it doesn’t amount to anything. Eventually, he gets back up, and they start fighting again. And then I don’t remember what Ferguson says to him. He’s got he’s, you know, Billy’s beat the Craig out he’s had the crap beat out of him, And, I guess Ferguson’s, like, holding his face. And then it looks like he starts to make out with them. Like, that’s what it looks like, and it holds there for a long time, which is also something I thought was odd for something in the late eighties, early nineties. But he’s doing the shunting thing. He’s, like, sucking the stuff out of him or whatever. But and and I don’t know how to explain this. Billy does the same thing that the judge had done. I don’t know if he got some strength because of his connection to Ferguson or what, but he takes his fist and punches up presumably through David’s butthole, and he does the same thing, grabs from the inside his face and pulls and turns him completely inside out.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: And then he’s just a massive, like, worms and maggots and and gross stuff. And and at that point, it’s like everybody is scared of him because he’s done that and he’s capable of it. And so his dad kind of confronts him one more time, and he he punches his dad out. And then he and Milo and, Clarissa run out together, get in the car, drive away, and that’s it. Yeah.
Todd: And I’m
Craig: like, are you serious? That’s the it? Like, we there. I thought it was so strange, and I was left with so many questions. But ultimately, you know, I don’t think that they could ever be answered. So what what what would be the point in trying to explain this totally nonsensical, surrealistic, weird ass movie.
Todd: I don’t know, man. It’s that’s it. And and it just had something to say about society, and it did. And it’s done. And they showed us what they wanted to show us which was the gross special effects, at the end which is completely memorable, and you’ll never forget it once you’ve seen it. Yes. And yeah. Oh my god.
Craig: I don’t think I’m asleep for a week. And it’s not that it was scary. I I I wasn’t scared. It was just so bizarre and gross. Like, I I I walked back to to our the back room in our house, and I told my partner. I said, I may be scarred for life. Like, I I don’t know. That being said that being said, if you are a horror fan like us, you’ve gotta watch this movie. I can’t believe that I had never seen it, never heard of it. I don’t know how it felt between the Craig. You know, it opened theatrically here. It did terribly, and then it just kinda disappeared. I guess it was a big hit in Europe. Oh. Maybe American audience is just weren’t ready. I don’t think I was ready. I was gonna say I’m not sure
Todd: we’re ready yet still. Just in some ways, it’s even more disturbing than things that we’ve seen at hostel. Yeah. Yes. It’s very much interested in making this social commentary that, about the upper class, about how unconcerned they are about anybody but themselves, about how they feed off of the poor, and how inside they’re nothing but maggots and worms and and and gross stuff. Mhmm. So there’s that aspect to it. And then, you know, it’s also doing this this weird, kind of sexual body stuff, which takes it to a whole other level. It’s it’s invasion of the body snatchers as like a weirdo porno kinda thing. You know?
Craig: Yeah. It’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It’s Rosemary’s Baby. It’s, Mulholland Drive. It’s it’s, you know, there’s a little bit of John Waters in there like I said before. It’s this crazy combination of different genres that I don’t know if I’d even say that it worked. I definitely wouldn’t say it 100% worked. But as a standalone, unique, different film, my gosh, if that’s what they were going for, then absolutely they were successful.
Todd: And then this, of course, led to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids somehow. Disney must have seen this and this is the man for
Craig: me for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
Todd: Well, thank you for listening to another episode. If you enjoyed this, please, share it with a friend. We’re on Itunes, Google Play, and Stitcher. You can find us online. If you happen to have seen this movie, we’d love to hear what you thought about it. Leave us a comment on Facebook or on Google Plus. Until next time, I am Todd.
Craig: And I’m Craig. With 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.
Was going to listen to the review but took your advice and watched the movie first. Found it streaming on the Horror Hall Roku channel. Holy hell. Not likely to forget this one. Now to listen to your take.