From Beyond (1986)

Episode 388, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Podcast

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

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, this week I chose the movie, and I wanted to go back to the 80s to a film that wanted to do FOREVER, especially since I fell in love with Brian Yuzna. Brian Yuzna didn’t direct this movie, but he produced it, and then Stuart Gordon, who is a close associate of his, I think the both of them actually wrote the story for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

We did Reanimator that Stuart Gordon directed and really, really enjoyed it, so. I was excited to come to this film, uh, which is called From Beyond. It is a 1988, is it 88? Six? I think. 86, yeah. 86. The year after Reanimator Stuart Gordon, just basically because he was an old theater guy. He started, I believe it’s called The Organic Theater in Chicago, which I’m not sure if it’s still going about 10 years ago.

It was still going. He started it back in the late sixties. But very respected theater troupe and was very used to just working with the same actors over and over again. So he felt like he could get better results on his next feature if he just used the same people. And so we’ve got Barbara Crampton in here, Jeffrey Combs in here, both starring in this movie again, and I wanted to see them again.

So I just thought, let’s just do this. It’s funny because I think a lot of people who are into horror know of this movie, but I don’t. Here people talk about it so much. Yeah, I’d never seen it before. I think I saw the cover art on the video store shelves, but was never particularly compelled to pick it up.

And God, I wish I had because teenage Todd would have frickin loved this movie for so many reasons. But also, you know, 46 year old Todd really digs it too. I I’m just going to come right out and say I loved it. I’d never seen it before. So glad I saw it. I’ll probably watch it again. How about you, Craig?

Craig: No, I haven’t. And much like you, like, I, I kind of can’t believe that I haven’t seen it because the image from the box cover, I know that so well. And I can’t believe that I never. Picked it up now to be fair. I wasn’t really like a big Brian Yesna or Stuart Gordon fan really before we did this.

I think I had seen one or two when I was like in graduate school or doing my Internship or whatever, but you and I now have watched a bunch of these guys movies and they’re wacky and I like that. They’re wacky. It’s right. They’re weird and these in particular are based on HP Lovecraft stories and you and I have talked about this before.

Like, I really like HP Lovecraft in theory, actually reading him. It’s very dense. Kind of stodgy. Yeah. And. This movie and, and Stuart Gordon’s other H. P. Lovecraft adaptations, I feel like make Lovecraft really accessible to me and to other people like me. You did, did you read 

Todd: this story from beyond? No, I was kind of curious about it because what it’s only like seven pages long.

Did you? I did i read it last night 

Craig: because just because i was curious because i really liked the movie and i say i really like the movie that doesn’t mean it’s a good movie like it’s it’s goofy but i did i was entertained and it’s short it’s only an hour and twenty five minutes long what i was really interested to find was that the movie is.

Reasonably faithful to the story. Really? Yeah, and Lovecraft is so heady and he’s typically very vague in his, like he talks about these ancient gods and these ancient beasts and things, but he’s heady. Typically pretty vague in his descriptions of them. He’ll just say like, it was the most awful thing you can imagine.

Like, just, just gazing upon it will kill you. Like, in fact, that happens in this story. I say it’s relatively faithful, but it’s also very different. The, the short story. Is very much like pose the fall of the house of usher where there are really only two characters there is the crazy guy and the guy that’s narrating and visiting him that’s very much what this is like and it’s interesting because Crawford tilling has who is played by Jeffrey combs in this movie.

In the story that name is used, but it’s really used for the character of Edward, the one that gets like super caught up and everything and gets corrupted by it in the story. In this. Unnamed, as far as I remember, narrator visits his old friend, Crawford Tillinghast, and then it’s just a story of this guy, and I visited my friend, and here is this crazy story that he told me, and then he tells the whole story.

Yeah, he tells the whole story of how he invented this machine, but everything is, is very similar, like, there are no tuning forks, but there is Like a big electrical machine that can tune into these other places and when you’re in these other places you can see In a different way, like, and it’s more specific, like it’s supposed to not just bring the little penis out of your head.

But, like, it talks about how, like, we only have access to five senses, but there are astounding senses beyond that. Right. Which is true. Maybe, I don’t know, whatever, but it’s, uh, And at the end, it turns out that the scientist guy lured this guy here because he has to appease the beast. Oh. And so, like, to appease the beast, he has to feed him other people so that it doesn’t eat him.

The only difference, but all the stuff about the, the gland coming out, whatever gland that is, it’s all in there. Really? I, yeah, I was really surprised by how, I mean, it’s a fairly faithful, it’s certainly, the movie certainly takes liberties, but the core of the story is really pretty faithful. 

Todd: Is the, the sexiness and all that in there too?

Probably not right no it’s a different time it’s like 

Craig: i felt like it was kind of suggested by saying there are all sorts of. Senses and sensations that we don’t have access to and i actually like watching the movie i thought that was kind of silly and like. Salacious, like, uh, you get some sexy times in the movie, but it actually, it makes sense.

I mean, it does talking about heightening our ability to experience sensation, whatever that means. I’m certainly going to be interested in,

well, I mean, like, sure. Like, uh, I’d love to smell better, but, uh, let’s talk 

Todd: about my wiener. What can we do in that department? It is what drives technology, you know, the development of the internet and everything. We all know that, you know, I was getting major Hellraiser vibes from this because it’s very similar thematically, right?

A guy who is just kind of seeking for the ultimate pleasures. And so he goes into this nether, this beyond this other dimension to try to find it where he can, where he can get that. And then, of course, it, you know, it’s, it’s a little too much and it sort of starts to overtake him. And it invites that other world into our world.

It’s so Hellraiser that I just kind of feel like Clive Barker was tapping into something here that, but when did Hellraiser come out? 

Craig: I don’t know. That’s I was looking at dates. That’s why I look at it 

Todd: now because I’m super curious. It is so close that it’s almost, this is like the chaster version of Hellraiser, I think, uh, in some ways, 

Craig: but it’s not chased either.

Todd: No, no. 

Craig: I I and I like that about it and I you had already kind of alluded to it hellraiser 1987 oh 

Todd: the year after 

Craig: yeah but that’s that’s 

Todd: it’s too much overlap it’s not gonna they might have been aware of each other while they were in production but this is also like hellraiser was a production that clive barker was you know fretting over for quite a while yeah you know working out so well and it was based on a book yeah he’d already written exactly 

Craig: yeah right yeah.

Speaking of overlap, though, I was super amused to find that Stuart Gordon filmed dolls at the exact, like he was filming this at the same time that he was filming them both at the same time. Crazy, right? We’ve done that movie and I love that movie. And right after we’re done here, we’re going to record a minisode about like the first horror movies that we’ve ever seen.

And I know that wasn’t one of the first ones I’ve ever seen, but it was an. Early one. It’s the one you’re going to talk 

Todd: about. 

Craig: I don’t know if I’ll talk about it at length, but that was one of the early ones. And that’s not a great movie, but I like it 

Todd: a lot. We loved dolls. We did an episode on dolls and we just thought there was something very charming about it.

And I think maybe that was the episode where. I was like, this was not really in my consciousness when I was into horror growing up and when I was watching all these movies and not really knowing who produced what and what not. But now that we’ve been doing this podcast, this whole thread of pictures that have come from Empire pictures and Full Moon productions, they’re basically the same thing, you know, produced by Charles Band.

It’s its own niche within the horror genre and it was something that I. Kind of overlooked when I was, I think when I was a teenager, it was like, Oh, these are the low bud. This is sort of the low budget crap. This is the weird shit that when I did touch upon, I’m like, Oh, that’s bizarre. Now I just appreciate it so much.

Like the inventiveness, the sheer volume of productions that they’ve done and it just set. It seems to be that these folks that have come out of the Charles Band camp and have been making these movies under his production house, they have these whack a doodle movies that we need. You know, you can only watch so much of the same shit over and over and over again.

You need something fresh and weird and wacky and they, they have been delivering for decades. Yeah. And this is right in that realm. And not only that, but you wouldn’t even believe that this movie is low budget. The effects in this film are insane. Yeah. They’re all practical. They’re quite good. It’s gross and it’s weird.

It’s this body horror. It’s sort of like a low rent David Cronenberg. Yeah. And, and yeah, of course it’s low budget, but he even said, I think it was Charles Bander, maybe it was a Stuart Gordon himself said that if they had made this movie in the United States, it would have cost 15 million, but they went to Empire Pictures headquarters at the time, which was in an old Dino De Laurentiis studio, which was literally, I think, a castle in frickin Italy that they had for, for a little while, and they were doing these, these programs there for much cheaper, and so this, this ended up costing only like two, two and a half million, and so they saved money that way, but boy, did they put a lot of money up on screen, I think.

The special effects are just wild. Five different special effects houses working on this, and for that alone, I was just giddy. I mean, I was like watching this. I almost didn’t care about the story because everything that was flashing before my eyes was so damn crazy. I couldn’t stop watching and I loved it.

Craig: Yeah. But, and that’s what I’ve come to expect from Brian Yesna movies. Like. Lots of practical effects and they’re fun. I loved them too. And there are a lot, like there are like monster effects in this and it’s all tangible, you know, like I just, that’s what I love about practical effects. Like I feel like that it’s something that I could touch, right?

Even if it, it may not look as slick. As CGI, but it looks like something that I could touch and I, and it would be slimy and wet and organic. And I don’t know, I, I’m not, I’m not going to speak ill of CGI. CGI is great. Thank God we have it. It led to a lot of great things, but I still love, uh, those practical effects.

But even in dumb. Yes, in the movies that we’ve seen, and I say dumb, I still love this silent night, deadly night. Three or four or 

Todd: five what it five the toy maker. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, he did for do you remember like Clint Howard and those like worm worm leeches thing that was for the initiation. Yeah, 

Craig: I love that.

It was 

Todd: screaming mad George. I think who did the effects for for the initiation, which was that weird, which coven thing with with him and the worms and stuff, but then even five, which I don’t think he directed that. Yeah. And that had, like, Mickey Rooney in it. Oh yeah, we did it too! Yeah, it was like the Toymaker.

And it had the same guy, Screaming Mad George, who did the effects on that. This had five special effects team and none of them were Screaming Mad George. I was kind of surprised because we did Society, which was the Yuzna movie that we will never forget. Oh, I love that movie. Oh, it’s so good. And it’s similar type stuff, really.

All this kind of weird body morphing, gross slimy stuff. Did you read about how difficult it was for them to get, like, an R rating for this film? 

Craig: Yeah, a little bit. But also, I feel like, I read that they didn’t have to cut that much it surprises me that they didn’t mess with the MPAA for reanimator and they just released it unrated.

Yeah, I guess they hoped that they would be able to reach a wider audience with a rating. 

Todd: They were hoping for more money this time around. They, they felt maybe they got burned a little bit on reanimator. You know, I think they were thinking they needed a rating. And so they went a lot of back and forth and Stuart Gordon said the frustrating thing was that the MPAA just, they were like all of it as a whole.

They didn’t give any pointed directions like we’ll cut this scene or cut that scene and they really didn’t want to cut any scenes. So they just started trimming little bits and pieces here and there from different scenes. And finally at one point, they came back and said, look, cut this single frame and we’ll give you an R.

And so thankfully, The majority of what they wanted, especially scene wise, all remained intact. And it’s so quaint, like, today all this would pass, like, with no problem. My gosh. There’s been so much worse. It’s funny because I guess there was a quote from Stuart Gordon who talked about how a member of the MPAA on the board at the time said something like, well, your last movie was super bloody.

And he’s like, so they intentionally went more slimy? Yeah. Than bloody? And he said, they said. Honestly, this is worse. Admits it like it’s 

Craig: more gross. It’s grosser. Yeah, I read that too. And I, I kind of agree when, when you saw that kind of red tinted, it’s not red slime. It’s like slime with like red pigmentation in it, like loading out from under a door.

That was gross. There were a lot of gross things. I also read that they ran out of budget. To do everything that they want to do in the finale and i feel like you can kind well i don’t know i feel like you can kind of tell yeah because the antagonist gets more monstrous throughout the course of the movie and in the end obviously like it’s supposed to be its final form but they had to do a lot like most of it is an extreme face close ups yeah which is fine i like that too i thought the actor was good and menacing and we understand.

We get glimpses of what it looks like. We don’t need to see it in full all the time. That’s fine. I didn’t have a problem with it. In fact, if I hadn’t read that, if I hadn’t read that they ran out of money, I don’t think it would have crossed my mind. I think I would have said, actually, that’s a good choice.

Get in on his face. 

Todd: I thought that was actually good at the end of the day because it was more expressive. The makeup and everything was so good and so seamless in those, even in those close up shots, that it allowed the actor to be expressive, and he was. I was. Really impressed. And I think even Stuart Gordon said at the end of the day they ended up with a better product because of it because he said his original cut might have lingered a little too long on the SFX to make it so that the audience had a little more time to kind of see the seams.

But I think Honestly the sliminess and maybe why it’s so much more gross and in particularly when you kind of look at this movie and how it thematically ends up it’s it’s more sexual 

Craig: this movie is so already it’s 

Todd: this is a 

Craig: horny 

Todd: movie really isn’t this line more than blood and these kind of fluids 

Craig: i 

Todd: love the way god barbara crampton is 

Craig: i gotta tell you there is a moment in this movie where.

It may have been getting a little rumbly in my downstairs. 

Todd: You, wow. I mean, I certainly was, uh. 

Craig: No 

Todd: question 

Craig: here. I don’t know how we’re gonna approach this, like, are we gonna go back and talk about the plot? I don’t know. But there was that moment, there was that moment near the end where Margaret Cranston was getting Next thing i know like 

Todd: yeah there was a moment near the end where i was like yeah definitely movies that never went by the mpaa you know go down this road on a way more frequent basis oh my god 

Craig: that brings up a lot of things.

So stewart gordon had already made reanimator and he had this idea you know all this i’m not talking to you and talking to the listeners stewart gordon had this. Idea that he wanted to do a bunch of hp love. Craft adaptations using the same actors much as I who is the filmmaker I want to say the Vincent price a ground poem movies there Corman Roger Corman Roger Corman’s the ground movies that use and surprise and a lot of the same actors all the time and he did.

For a little while he made two or three movies with these folks and and he fought to get barbara crampton in this movie because she plays like a renowned psychologist it’s just like she’s like 12 no she’s she’s not she’s a fully grown woman but she looks very young and and the producers were concerned that people wouldn’t believe her as a psychologist who cares i can’t believe that horror.

Producers in the eighties were concerned that we weren’t going to believe that Barbara Crampton was old enough to be a renowned psychologist. Who cares? So they put her in like black framed glasses and pulled her hair back to make her look more professional, I guess. 

Todd: Magically. 

Craig: But who cares? But. At the same time, she is so beautiful in this movie.

Oh God. This podcast has made me a huge fan of Barbara Crampton. Like I love her. I love everything she’s in. I get excited when she’s in something new. She still looks fantastic. I think that she is an amazing horror actress. 

Todd: Like. Keep casting her. Full disclosure, when we watched the reanimator, which was one of her first films, of course, everything about how great she looks and how great her body is and how willing she is to do nudity and all that stuff aside, when I saw the reanimator, I thought, oh, you know, this is clearly one of her first films.

Maybe her acting, like, isn’t A hundred percent the best. I don’t remember what my assessment was exactly when we did the reanimator, but that was just my that’s just my impression because it’s been a while this movie. Oh, my God. I was like, this woman is a great actress. She’s really bringing it to a role that she didn’t need to bring it to.

You know, that’s true. This role doesn’t require the degree of Actual convincing emotion that she brings to it and and she’s got the pressure on because there’s a lot of close up. I think Stuart Gordon likes close up, you know, he gets right in the faces of his actors in these scenes, which is dangerous to do when you’re doing a low budget production with B list actors.

And there were moments in here where I was like, Oh, my God, like, she’s really good, like the expression she’s giving or the way she read that line. It was fantastic. 

Craig: I loved her. Jeffrey Combs, on the other hand, who I would count them as co leads. They both have about the same amount of screen time. Jeffrey Combs.

Is one of those actors who he kind of like does that one thing. Yeah, but that’s fine. Yeah, he’s a character actor and he’s kind of like he’s super super expressive in his face. And I think that that’s that’s probably one of the reasons for so many close ups is because Jeffrey comes as a face actor. He is, he is a face actor, but he’s fun to watch and I think that he’s perfect for these types of movies because they are, they’re exaggerated.

They’re hyperbolic. They’re, they’re not set in a realm of reality, right? Jeffrey Combs would have been great. In, like, silent movies, like, You have a fucking gun! That’s the kind of style he brings, and I dig it. And I dig it! I know! I just like this movie overall, and it’s crazy, and I I don’t mind that we’ve been talking for almost half an hour and haven’t gotten to the plot.

It’s fine. It’s simple. 

Todd: The plot’s simple. The plot is 

Craig: so simple, right? 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: I mean, even, like, it’s established in such a simple way. It’s not like we get a bunch of exposition. We open on Jeffrey Combs, and he’s got this room full of computers and this big machine in the middle that entails, like, a bunch of tuning forks and stuff, and then he turns it on, and the lights get all crazy, and he sees Ghost eels, and one of them attacks him.

So basically the story is, he and his mentor have invented this thing that can send out vibrations to stimulate your brain. What is it? Penial gland? And, and I looked this stuff up and, like, it’s, it’s real, like, even H. P. Lovecraft knew about this gland that I’ve never heard of, and it can, like, it can stimulate that gland and it can allow you to, Some other philosopher, Descartes, or somebody else described it as your third eye, like it’s, and you can see different things.

And so they’ve invented this thing, and it, and it works, but then they also see, 

Todd: like, it, it opens up their sight into the other dimension that’s kind of always around us. Right. 

Craig: Yeah, it’s always around us. The story explains that really well. The story. Hold on. I wrote down how I explained it. It said that you see all of this other stuff that’s around us all the time.

But the way that the story explained it was like, you see it, but it’s all like super imposed on reality. So you still see. Everything that’s real, but all this other stuff that you don’t usually see is like superimposed on that. But, the other thing, again, true to the story is, if you move, they can see you too.

And, while the machine is on, if they can see you, they can interact with you, which means they can attack you and That’s what kicks off the plot is that he runs and gets his boss partner. Yeah. Weird pervert. His mentor. 

Todd: He, I mean, this guy, uh, played by Ted Sorrell, who I could have sworn I’d seen in more stuff.

Me too. But I looked him up and I’m like, no, he’s just got a face. It must look like another actor that I can’t name. Same. And you know, immediately this guy’s a dick, you know, he almost comes across as Hugh Hefner, you know, he’s in his lounge, his, his, his silk lounge where, and he comes in and he’s mean.

And he. He jumps in the middle of this field, whereas Jeffrey Combs character, whose name is Crawford, is terrified. 

Clip: Edward, shut it off! Never! Can’t you feel it? Crawford! In the mind!

Troll, you’ve got to turn it off! 

Craig: No! 

Clip: No! No, I want to see more. More than any man has ever seen. Edward! It’s running itself!

Todd: Something’s Coming. And it starts to overtake him. Geoffrey Combs gets bit by one of these giant flying eels, and I think he has that wound on his face the entire Yeah. The entire movie! Because the whole movie only takes place over the course of like a few days, right? Yeah. So, uh, yeah, it bites him, Edward’s called in, and then there’s this cat lady neighbor, or dog lady neighbor.

Who calls the police says weird stuff’s happening across the street like it always is and and then her dog runs off So then she has to go and chase it into the house So she kind of gets up in in there. I thought she was gonna die or her dog was gonna die 

Craig: That was funny. There are funny parts of this movie It’s funny that the dog’s name was bunny and that’s the actual name of the actress who played.

Yeah, I Noticed that I wondered if that was like an in joke I don’t know and and she was funny and and the movie stewart gordon’s movies definitely have a sense of humor they’re not outright. Hominids but they’re just so exaggerated or over the top little campy. Yeah very can’t be i would say but i i don’t mind that in fact i like it so something goes wrong i mean that guy edward or whatever.

Turns out, you find out that he’s, like, a freak, like, he likes to, like, whip, like, chain up women and whip them and stuff. He’s 

Todd: got a sex dungeon, yeah. He 

Craig: has a sex dungeon, and, in that moment, when the main guy, Crawford, knocks on his door, like, the machine works, well There was a cut scene. I don’t remember if they filmed it or not, but on the other side of that door, Edward was supposed to be nailing a woman’s tongue to a board.

Like what?

Todd: That I read that too. I didn’t understand that. I didn’t see how, even in my mind’s eye, I could not picture how this scene would 

Craig: well be you. I feel like you said. That this movie is much like hellraiser and that would have made it even more that would have made it feel like a hellraiser movie that’s like they’re exploring leisure and pain and yeah i am so not into that like i am same here pain no thank you pass i can’t relate but i respect it sure sure that’s your 

Todd: thing yeah do it 

Craig: and i i understand you know exploring boundaries and stuff like that not my thing but no shame whatever.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter. The movie basically becomes Jeffrey Combs. Like supposedly destroys the machine, but he doesn’t really. They can’t. He really just knocks one of the tuning forks off But then he gets put in an institution and we meet Barbara Crampton who is Dr. Catherine McMichael

Dr Catherine mcmichael’s right and she gets introduced to jeffrey combs and she’s fascinated by his story. 

Clip: I was assisting dr. Pretorius with his experiments yes purpose of the experiments to stimulate the pineal gland with resonant vibrations the pineal gland why. Dr. Pretorius believed the pineal was a dormant sensory organ.

Sixth sense. Yes. Well, that’s not a new theory. The philosopher Descartes believed it was the third eye. It’s not a theory. It’s a fact Then your experiments worked. They proved the theory 

Craig: and immediately she wants to recreate the experiments And there’s another doctor in the institution that, like, wants to block it, but can’t, and so, they release Jeffrey Combs into Dr.

Catherine McMichael’s custody, so that she can take him immediately back to the house. And they can immediately put the machine back together because all he did was knock off a tuning fork, so he just puts it back, and then they immediately turn it on, and there’s also another guy, Bubba, right, is that his name?

Todd: Yeah, 

Craig: good 

Todd: ol Bubba by Ken Forey, you know, uh, Mr. Dawn of the Dead, he’s been in so many of these horror movies. I love him 

Craig: in this 

Todd: movie, one of the reasons He was great in this movie. 

Craig: Great in this movie because sometimes I felt his line readings were like I can’t believe I’m doing this. This is the stupidest shit I’ve ever said.

Todd: Yes, he was playing that guy. I mean, you know, 

Craig: it’s a little cringy 

Todd: today, but I’m 

Craig: the only one with any sense. 

Todd: But I’m still not going to use my authority as a policeman to stop any of them. 

Craig: No, no, but he is the only one with any sense. But it’s hilarious. It’s so funny because then they start messing with the machine, but they explain what the machine does and how it opens you up to different things.

Senses and but they they turn it on and barbara krabs 

Todd: yeah the minute they turn the machine on she’s turned on it pretty much it’s obvious from that looks over at jeffrey combs and she have these moments yeah 

Craig: she is a wet like there’s a mess on the floor he’s so into it yeah the story is that edward the the pervert like the monster bit off his head a monster came.

From beyond and bit off his head and we’ve seen that and that’s what jeffrey combs kept saying and that’s why they said he was crazy they’re like he’s like it ate him it ate it okay fine all right now they turn the machine back on they they get all tingly on their insides and then um, then edward shows back up and when he first shows up he’s normal but he’s naked and he’s covered in goo but other than that.

Other than that, it’s just Ted 

Todd: until Jeffrey touches him and then it’s like his flesh is like silly putty. He can just kind of, yeah, press his flesh around and, and you realize it’s not actually the doctor. It’s this creature that is sort of assume the doctor’s form. Clearly part of his personality or something like that, his soul or whatever has sort of transcended to this realm and merged with this creature, I guess, or vice versa.

It’s not very clear. 

Craig: Well, whatever. I think that this creature from beyond, you know, it ate this guy’s head. I think it’s just assuming his base to mess with these folks. And that’s what it does. It keeps messing with them. I think I have a page and a half of notes. I have no idea why I do this. I don’t even look at them.

But it keeps messing with them, but the thing is, like, first of all, Jeffrey Combs tells her from the beginning, no, we can’t do it. Uh huh. And then as soon, as soon as they get there, he fixes it and they do it immediately, like. Yeah. And, and, and then there are bad consequences and they turn it off and they’re like, no.

We can’t do it again. And then they do it again. They do it 

Todd: again. Yeah, I mean, I, Jeffrey Combs, his character is kind of written, the writing’s a little unconvincing here. This guy would be fighting tooth and nail, he’d be climbing the walls, he’d be like, put me back in the institution, I’m not gonna do this shit again.

Craig: We’re just getting me out of here. 

Todd: Yeah, but it’s all this weird bullshit where the police officer turns him over to her custody. So now she’s like you’re either gonna be an institution or here like none of this shit actually happens in real life You can’t just like pass people back and forth into other people’s care like That being said, it gives Geoffrey Combs an excuse to look distressed and upset through the entire thing, and that’s the best you can do with this writing, right?

If it’s gonna be so ridiculous that he’s being forced to do this thing, then, of course, he’s gonna just look wild eyed and upset. About it the entire time he’s fixing the machine up against his will and and putting it together also Catherine her character is kind of the same like you can’t imagine that this woman who goes through these experiences over and over and over again is going to want to just be more energized no it’s so stupid 

Craig: the first time it goes terribly wrong and they’re all traumatized by it but she then cooks herself a full breakfast and is like.

Exhilarated and the cop is like, 

Clip: Well, we learned what we came for. He ain’t crazy and that ate Pretorius’s head. They’re going to think we’re crazy, but that’s their problem. Well, we just have to try the experiment again. Did you say we? Catherine, we can’t. You don’t mean go back up there now, do you? You always run an experiment twice to check the results.

Uh, wait. Now, I saw it get to him, Catherine. Just exactly what you’re feeling, and it ruined him. Pretorius. Yes. I’d like to know more about him. That resonator is a 

Craig: work of genius. And she’s like, well, I know that that didn’t go right, but next time Right. I just need to make sure that I stand by the switch.

Yeah, I just need to make sure that I’m in control so I can turn off the machine. When necessary like yeah, I mean this is also not uncommon like this mad scientist thing like learning with danger. This isn’t uncommon. It’s just like this is a 22 year old.

I just don’t buy it. I like, but again, I don’t, I don’t care. I don’t care. 

Todd: I don’t care either, but we’re talking about it. We’re, we’re critically analyzing it. It’s funny because I don’t buy it. I would potentially buy it. If I just thought, maybe in a way, she’s just as crazy as Pretorius was. Like, deep down inside her psyche, she’s got this, like, super horny bit, that particularly was awakened by the machine.

And she herself is kind of seeking that pleasure, which is sort of where Hellraiser tends to go. Well, this goes there too! It does! There’s that scene where She gives an alternate excuse. You know, it’s like they try to bring it to reality. This is when she’s trying to convince Jeffrey Combs character to do it again.

She’s like, my father, you know, my father was holed up in a mental institution, and he was tortured, and he died, and my whole life’s work Is to make sure this never happens to anyone else again. And so I’m just thinking that this research could be the thing, you know, it proves everything we thought about this gland and yada, So we’ve got to do it again.

I was like, Oh, come on, 

Craig: that was such bullshit. In my notes. I have it as Delmas sob story about dad. Yeah. Who cares? 

Todd: But it just gives us the next great scene because they go up again. She turns it on, she’s by the thing, Praetorius appears again. This time he’s even more monstrous than before. He looks like he’s half transformed the thing from thing, the thing, you know?

Yeah. And then he pulls her, he’s got this tentacle type thing that just kinda slashes out and pulls her towards her, him before she can do anything. Combs runs out of the room, he doesn’t give a shit, he just leaves. Leaving her, this guy’s got her behind the throat and then his, his hand is there, and all of a sudden, he extends his fingers, rips off her shirt.

Oh my god, this got so sexual. 

Craig: Hahahaha! What was he doing? 

Todd: What was he doing with those fingers when they dropped out of the frame? It was pretty insane. So, this gets insane, and she is distressed as f k. And I’m so impressed with Barbara Crampton and how she played this. Geoffrey Combs runs to the basement, I think the guy gets there.

Isn’t this where the giant worm is in the basement? Oh my god, well I mean, 

Craig: they turn the machine off and on. Two or three times the edward monster gets progressively and progressively more and more grotesque yeah it always has his face on like some kind of appendage or stuff there’s also snake like things will like burst out of his face or out of his body or whatever and this Transcribed Part that you’re talking about bubba has said we’re done.

We’re not doing this anymore. Let’s take a nap and then we’re leaving

And so they all like go to bed But she gets up and she turns it on by herself And of course the big monster comes out and then Jeffrey combs comes in like tries to rescue her and I don’t remember exactly what? Happens, but then you’re right. He just runs away. He runs downstairs and there is You A big, like, snake monster, I don’t know how to describe it, it looks like a lamp, it’s like a lamp ray, you know?

Todd: Yeah, it’s kind of like a graboid in a way, kind of a simpler, yeah. Yeah, just a big circular open law 

Craig: lined with teeth. Impressive it is impressive except that in some parts it looked like it was made out of hefty bags which I mean it was still a tangible thing that they were dealing with. And the other thing from this scene that i thought was so funny was that event like bubba comes out and helps.

But they’ve been in bed so he’s just in these tiny briefs briefs 

Todd: the does the whole thing like that it was great. And I enjoyed it.

There’s a little something for everybody in this movie to say, 

Craig: Oh, a little something for everybody. And then, so they, I feel like at this point they beat those monsters and then they’re still not leaving, but they’re trying to leave. 

Todd: Well, she’s so upset by the end of this, I felt like, oh, this is her turning point, like, this is the moment where I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but she’s gonna be convinced she doesn’t need to do this anymore, like, but no, no, she, once she’s by herself in the sex dungeon and gets a look at all that equipment, Suddenly she gets real curious about it.

And, and so the idea is that, you know, I think with every time this sort of thing happens and they’re in the field and their gland gets excited or whatnot, it has a change in effect on them. And that’s, what’s happening. 

Craig: God. And we we’ve completely forgotten about Jeffrey Combs. Jeffrey Combs at one point got eaten halfway by the snake monster, which dissolved all of his hair and left him in kind of a catatonic state, but also Something is like pulsing and happening in his forehead and eventually something pops out of it.

Like we are to believe that the pituitary gland has been so stimulated that it is now grown to the point that it is protruding from their heads. Um, and I, I read that on set, they couldn’t decide what it looked more like, like an asparagus spear, which I think I, that’s what I think it looks like, or a dog stick.

Which I, I can see also in the, the thing that I read, it said, you know, neither one of those descriptions made Barbara Crampton feel very good about it when she had to put it in her mouth. And I read, like, I read that, that, that trivia piece. As I was watching the movie and it hadn’t happened yet and I was like, if Barbara Crampton fillates that pituitary gland, I am going to f ing die and I thought that that was where it was going.

Todd: Oh, it seemed like it. 

Craig: She gets super turned on in the sex dungeon. Yeah. And she like, you know, touches all of the like bondage shit and then she gets in the closet and she’s like, Rubbing leather on her face and fondling her nipples, which I thought was hilarious. Then she puts on a full bondage outfit.

Now, we’re talking g string, tiny, you know, just a tiny little bit covering her lady parts, a corset. And she looks Great. Fantastic. This is what I’m talking about. Like, this is the part where I was like, Hubba Hubba. And Alan is sitting behind me doing a puzzle, and I’m like, Ooh, I’m gonna get a little stirring that’s happening.

And because then she goes over to comatose Geoffrey Combs, no, he’s asleep, and she starts like, sensually like, touching him down his torso, and then she reaches down under the blanket, under his 

Todd: waist, and is like Is doing something down there. And then she pulls her hand out and smells it, holy shit! And he just 

Craig: laughs!

Oh my. And then! She, she straddles him, and it only ends because Bubba comes in and he’s like, what are you, what are you, and he like She’s like, well you told me to get dressed. And she makes some very suggestive comments to him too, like Gets up close to him. She’s ready to throw down with him too. 

Todd: It almost seems like he’s kinda up for it.

He’s fighting it He’s tempted. A bit, yeah. Yeah. I get it, but he’s like, you’re asking for it, but that’s the point where the machine magically comes to life. And this is the part where, you know, it’s like, it’s just a fricking machine. Like, just call the power company, have them cut the line, like chop the lines together.

They have these kind of lame ways. of bringing the machine back to life. In this case, you know, I can kind of get behind the idea that maybe these beings that always exist around us so we just can’t see them, maybe through the power of that machine being turned on enough times, have the ability to move things around.

So, the machine kind of plugs itself back in, and then we get another shot in the basement of that Circuit breaker kind of powering back on and stuff. But then, you know, every attempt to like chop the wires or whenever wires are separated, it’s like, Oh, it doesn’t matter. Like just electricity can just jump from one to the other.

And well, in the courts can plug themselves back in. Yeah, that’s when they go run back upstairs, so the thing comes back on, Pretorius materializes again, but not until they’ve all been sort of covered in bugs and locusts or something like that. 

Craig: That was such a weird scene, they’re all like Crawford, Jeffrey Combs, and, and the girl are, Up there with the machine and bugs start attacking them and then there’s some weird thing where bubba like if he shines a light on them the bugs go away but yeah they’re attracted 

Todd: by the light 

Craig: but then he drops his flashlight and then for some reason the bugs then all attack him 

Todd: because the lights on 

Craig: him I 

Todd: guess I don’t know why he couldn’t step to the side but go on 

Craig: the bugs were attacking the other two for a long time.

And then he falls on the ground and the bugs all start attacking him and they eat away all of his flesh. The other two are virtually on the heart. Like, 

Todd: yeah, 

Craig: that was weird. Whatever. Who cares? I like, uh, his eaten away body looked great. Yeah. The effects in this movie are so 

Todd: good and so fun. I don’t remember how they kind of stop it.

Oh, she blasts the machine with a, with an extinguisher. I don’t know what that means, does it freeze it or something? I don’t, I didn’t know extinguishers froze things. I 

Craig: guess it renders it, 

Todd: yeah. But then it cuts to the hospital, so like now presumably someone’s called the police, they’ve all gone to the hospital, Jeffrey Combs is in really bad shape, he’s sitting there, he’s got that thing poking out of his forehead, and the doctors are like trying to Probit, but they can’t and it’s also weird like you wouldn’t imagine this would just be just another thing for them in the hospital You’d think all stops are called and like this would be a major ordeal Like what is what the fuck is going on with this guy’s forehead, but that’s how it is Then dr.

Block is back and she’s going to do electroshock therapy Because now now custody has been granted to her over Oh, for Barbara Campton’s character, and so now she decides she’s gonna do electroshock therapy on her for, just cause she’s sadistic, I guess. But, Jeffrey Combs wakes up, and this is the part of the movie where I thought it started to really drag, because, Ugh, Jeffrey Combs wakes up, and, and really what we get for the next 20 minutes is him wandering around the hospital with these urges to like, Eat the brains and the specimen jars in the pathology lab, and then, Dr.

Block pops in and he jumps on her, bites her eye out. I think that 

Craig: he’s supposed to be, like, eating their brains through their eye sockets. Because you see, one of the things that we haven’t mentioned and that is in the story is that, This gland is like a third eye and it allows them to see things differently though it’s kind of basic you do see that in the movie like you get weird POV that’s I don’t know what that effect is like 

Todd: a negative or like it’s like it’s like predator vision right right right that’s colorful negative 

Craig: that’s that’s what I was thinking to for whatever reason it sees and is attracted to their brains.

So I think it’s supposed to be he’s eating their brains through their eye socket, but it looks like he’s taken an apple bite out of their eyeballs and he does that with her and he does it with a couple of paramedics and then he and Barbara Crampton both escape. She barely escapes her shock treatment and they just go back to the house so that that interlude at the hospital.

Pointless. But if we didn’t have it then this would only be an hour long and it wouldn’t be feature film. I get it 

Todd: but they get back to the house somewhere in there barbara crampton managed to put together some dynamite with a timer i don’t i didn’t know that she had this special skill i miss that entirely 

Craig: it wasn’t until.

Somebody is it jeffrey combs is like hanging on to her in the house and she’s like we. We have to get out of your I set a bomb and I was like, you said a bomb 

Todd: Oh, you must have been looking away. No, there was all the first thing she did when she walked in the house was go upstairs to the machine and caress it a bunch and then sit down her back and then she pulls out, you know, this comically large, it’s a bunch of dynamite strapped together with a timer on it and straps it to and it’s, it’s got a countdown for four minutes and I thought, okay, well, then she’s just going to walk out of the house, but that doesn’t happen.

Craig: Where did she get a bomb? 

Todd: I don’t know. I don’t know where she got it from. I don’t know where the know how for this came in. Like, literally, she just She stopped by the hardware store. She hopped in a van and drove to this place, is all she did. But, yeah, so, like, I mean, the thing’s gonna explode in five minutes, so that should be it.

But Crawford attacks her and chains her up in the sex dungeon and is about to bite her eyeball out, too. Which reminds me, it was very recently that we saw a movie where somebody Who was possessed or whatever jumped up on someone and bit their eyeball out and I said to you God I’ve never seen a horror movie where this has happened before and now twice within the same month It was evil dead rise evil dead rise.

That was it now. I’ve seen it HAHAHAHAHAHA Twice 

Craig: Twice in a month. Ed, I have Ed, Ed is the monster guy, eats Crawford’s head, and then there are most, there are more ghost eels, but then the ghost eels. Free her. She tricks them into like biting her 

Todd: vines 

Craig: or 

Todd: whatever. They freak Catherine. And then she uses a matchbook to distract them, because apparently they’re all attracted by light, not just those bugs.

Yeah, 

Craig: well, and the Ed monster has eaten it. Crawford’s head, but then the next time the Ed Monster confronts her, Crawford, like, tries to crawl out of its 

Todd: head. 

Craig: Oh 

Todd: god, that was so funny! Actually, I think it was intentionally funny. He crawls out of the head, which is gross, and reminded me a lot of society, actually.

Yeah. Uh huh. But then, He kind of gets pulled back in, and then it’s sort of like Praetorius crawls back out of him, and then he crawls out of him again, It’s like they’re fighting each other. And they’re just fighting each 

Craig: other on the floor. It’s 

Todd: like this crazy Mobius strip of the two of them, like, coming out of each other and fighting each other.

I kind of liked that, actually. I thought that was fun. I did, too. It was super 

Craig: gross. 

Todd: It was disgusting. And 

Craig: practical and slimy and disgusting, and I liked it, too. And then she makes it out. And Oh, no, she jumps out of the third story window, right? Like as the bomb goes off, like it goes off right behind her.

Todd: She’s she’s fine. Well, she does like break both of her legs. Like it was, Oh, does she? Oh yeah. I mean, the grossness doesn’t end there. The minute we see her next, like she’s got two bones sticking out of her knees. I was like, Oh my God, this movie. They don’t care. They’re just going to throw all that at us.

Cause the neighbor lady, the, the dog lady comes back suddenly this house, which sort of seems like it’s out in the middle of nowhere, but it has been established that there is at least one neighbor, like suddenly like 15 people show up. They should have showed up a lot earlier as far as I’m concerned, but whatever.

And this neighbor lady is like, wanders over and she’s like, are you okay? And she sees her legs. She’s like, Oh my God. I missed that too. 

Craig: I must not have been paying very close attention, but then she just says it ain’t him. And then she just starts laughing monotonously. 

Todd: Yeah! I dug that. And that’s the end.

I like that. Like it’s driven her crazy, which is kind of a lovecraft thing, right? Like everyone and their encounters with these monsters just drive them insane. Yeah, I dude I I was it’s not my most favorite of the films we’ve seen but it’s definitely gonna be in the top 20 of films I’ll probably see again just because the sheer insanity of it the joy of the effects Barbara Maybe mostly Barbara Crampton.

I may hit the rewind button, I may ride that, you know, a little bit. But it just had everything as far as I’m concerned. A fine little mad scientist plot I could get behind. Some supernatural gobbledygook that I could buy. A bunch of disgusting, crazy effects. This monster, this thing. thing like thing that just every time it came out just got more and more gross and disgusting and I just loved the gusto with which it dove into that.

Except for that bit in the hospital where it was just kind of boring watching Jeffrey Combs wander around and eat out, you know, five people’s brains. I’ll fast forward through that. And watch the rest of the movie. I loved it. And I thought Barbara Crampton did a fantastic job. I thought he did a great job with the character he was given.

I’ve got pretty much nothing bad to say about it. I wish I had seen it a lot earlier, honestly. 

Craig: I can’t believe. I kept thinking as I was watching the first half hour. I have to have seen this before. I have to have. But I, I, I know for a fact that I haven’t. And, and it was cemented. When Barbara Crampton put on that Dominatrix outfit, I’m like, no, I have I would have remembered this.

Right, exactly. And I can’t believe it because that the image from the cover art, which is of The Edward in one of his later, yeah, with his face like stretched and gross, that’s so at the forefront of my mind. Like that’s such a, an image that I remember and I can’t believe that I haven’t seen it, but I’m glad to have now.

It was fun. It’s silly. Oh, it’s goofy. That’s, that’s what it’s going for. I mean, you can’t past Jeffrey combs. I don’t think you can. I, I, I don’t know. I mean, who knows? Maybe he, uh, maybe he can do things differently and This is just the way he does things. Cause that’s his thing. And I think it’s great. I love it.

I think that he’s super fun. He’s like I said, like he’s so expressive in his face. I’m a little bit envious. I mean, that’s that’s talent. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: And, and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the movie overall. I, I agree with you a hundred percent, even at an hour 25, it was a little long, but only because of those hospital scenes.

And, and it’s not like I was like, Oh, I’m going to stab my eyes out. No, I mean, they were fine. I just get back to the house and let’s wrap this up. Overall, I really enjoyed it. And I think that our, you know, the listeners that communicate with us seem to have similar tastes to us. And I, I think that they will really enjoy it too.

So if you haven’t seen it, check it out, it’s streaming. All 

Todd: over the place for free. Yeah, check this sucker out. Watch the un unrated. I don’t even know I think I did. I see the unrated edition. I’m not even sure and I’m not either. Yeah, it’s fantastic Well, thank you so much for listening this episode and for joining us here If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend You can find us all over online just by googling two guys in a chainsaw podcast find our website Leave us a message Let us know what you thought of this film and what films you’d like us to do in the future If you would like to support us go to our patreon You You can find that from our website as well.

And for just five bucks a month, you can get access to all kinds of great stuff. Uh, we have a little Christopher Pike book club going on so much fun. It’s actually been a blast. And I’m going to about to post a sample of that. Actually, it’ll probably already be out there by the time you hear this podcast.

A lot of fun there. We have a lot of fun with our patrons. We post a mini sodes for them as well. And uncut versions of our phone calls that we do here. Just go on over there and check it out. And if you’d like to support us, it’s just five bucks a month until next time I’m Todd and I’m Craig with two guys and a chainsaw.