Terrified (2017)

Episode 456, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

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

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, it’s about time for another request. As always, we take a few of the requests that we’ve received that we put on our long request pile. And those come from all over. Those come from Facebook. They come from people posting on our website from YouTube comments, even a one or two on Instagram, things like that.

And we, we put them in a big pile and then we draw a few out every now and then and send them to our patrons as a quiz. Metaphorically. Yeah, metaphorically, of course. 

Craig: That’s hilarious. Like I just. See you like printing them out and can you imagine That would 

Todd: be so me though, I, if I was bored enough, it might be something mystical I would try to do to bring some mystery to the process.

No, we just like go through and I, I honestly kind of go like, oh, which of these do we, are we really gonna get excited about? Yeah. You know? Sure. And then maybe throw in one that we don’t know anything about that we might not get excited about, but you know. 

Craig: Yeah. We’re, 

Todd: we’re fair. Anyway, this request that came through from the patrons, they really wanted us to do 2000 seventeens.

Terrified. An Argentinian film that I think was distributed here on Shutter more than anything else. It had a very limited release in Argentina, and I think also in a few horror festivals where it did quite well. But you know, from 2017 and to me, 2017, I think, oh, that, that wasn’t that long ago. Actually, it’s like eight years ago.

Right? So. God, I had just moved to China when this came out. That’s probably why I don’t know much about it. 

Craig: Yeah, I, I mean, I, I I measure my life in pre and post pandemic. So you go, so this was pre pandemic. That was a long time ago. 

Todd: God Pre pandemic by a few years. It’s crazy. Well, here we are, uh, 20 seventeens terrified.

The director is Demian rug and he most recently did when Evil lurks 2023. Did you ever see that? Uh, I want to say yes. But I don’t remember. I’m gonna look it up while you’re talking. All right. It was really, it was all over shutter and the different streaming services, I think heavily promoted on Netflix when it came out too.

I ended up seeing it and I put a pin in it thinking we should do this on the podcast at some point. And I think it has also been requested, so we will probably get to it. I could tell this is almost a warmup for when Evil lurks, ’cause it sort of has. We have seen it. We’ve done 

Craig: it 

Todd: recently. Did we? Oh 

Craig: yeah, that’s right.

And we both, and we both really liked it.

Oh my God, what’s wrong with me? It was really good. It was that one where like there was just some like evil entity that was infecting people and those two brothers tried to get rid of it by getting rid of that big gross, fat guy that was infected. Yes. That he fell out of the truck and then there passed down.

Yeah. It was great. Oh, it was wonderful. I didn’t know it was the same guy, but now that I do, that makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. 

Todd: It is very stylistically similar, isn’t it? Yeah. It almost feels like a rehearsal for that movie, like he had the idea for both. Anyway, I saw this movie described on Wikipedia as a hyperlink.

Supernatural horror film. Have you ever heard that term before, a hyperlink film? No. So according to Wikipedia, hyperlink cinema is a style of filmmaking characterized by complex or multiline narrative structures with multiple characters under one unifying theme. Okay. Yeah, you can kind of see what they’re talking about here.

We’re playing here with time a little bit. There’s time jumps. There’s sort of parallel stories in a way with these, especially as we get into the fighting the entity with different characters in different locations. Yeah. At the same time, 

Craig: that’s, that’s funny because that’s one of the things that I found most interesting about this film is that ultimately somebody who feels like a side character ultimately becomes.

The main character. Mm. At least in my view. And I was surprised by that. And I, I don’t know. I liked it, I guess, but yeah, it, that makes sense. That hyperlink idea that it’s just a bunch of characters who are kind of connected by a central story, but there’s not necessarily a protagonist. Mm-hmm. That’s, that’s interesting.

Todd: It is. And also, you know, kind of follows through, I wonder if they call one evil alerts a hyperlink film too, because I sort of feel like that is a little bit. Like that. Although when Evil lurks followed more of a linear progression, there wasn’t a lot of time jumping in that one. 

Craig: Yeah, I see how when Evil Lurks could have been, I don’t think that it was at least as, not as much as this one because it followed that one dad for, you know, the, that one.

Yeah. Dad was mostly the main character, but it could have done the same thing that it did here, you know? ’cause it’s kind of a, in fact, I think that it might have worked even. Better. I don’t know. It just would’ve been different for when evil lurks, because that was more of a community thing. Yeah. This is really local.

Yeah. You know, like there’s, there’s a, it’s, it’s, it involves a small group of people in this small area of space and the people who are interested in that small area of space. Whereas when evil looked, felt like. This could be large 

Todd: scale. Yeah, it wa it was everywhere. It did. Well, it kind of became large scale, didn’t it?

Yeah. It seems like it moved through the country pretty quickly once it got out, right? Yeah. Oh God. Isn’t that hilarious? That I totally forgot we did that. That is well, and that I didn’t know and that now that I 

Craig: do know, I’m like, oh my God. That makes sense. Uhhuh. Honestly, what I was thinking about with this movie, especially through the first half, I was thinking, I’m not sure what’s going on and I’m not sure I really care.

And, and I think that part of that may have been because I didn’t have a protagonist to grab onto. Right. And in the second half of the story really unexpectedly, and, and I’ll be interested to hear if your experience was similar, I really started to grab onto that. Cop, right? What’s his name? F Une. Yeah.

Yeah. Funes. Yeah. I, I was like, oh, okay. This is the character I’m supposed to care about. And when I figure that out, about halfway through the movie, I was like, oh, I do care about him and I am invested mm-hmm. In what happens. And, and, and so honestly, that made the second half of the movie far more engaging and enjoyable.

To me in the first half. I just wasn’t sure. I was afraid though, throughout I felt that it was exceptionally made. Like it’s, it Oh yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s exceptional. In, in its cinematography and it’s acting and everything. It’s exceptionally made. But in the first half I was like, oh, I’m afraid I’m not gonna like this.

Todd: Yeah. I was feeling similarly. I was just a little distracted. I thought at times it was a little slow, but then other times, you know, I looked at the clock and I’m like, oh God. We’re like two thirds of the way through it already. And I think you’re right. I think until we had someone to latch onto and really care about, it was just like there’s this evil entity and there’s not much that we know about it.

And it’s kind of just taking out these people that we never got to meet or care about. And then these investigators come along who we just barely know and seem like, yeah, like they’re kind of pretty competent. And what they’re doing and experienced. So like they don’t even seem to feel that scared about, they seem more curious than scared through the whole thing until, yeah.

But 

Craig: you know, with them, like with we’re getting ahead of ourselves, we’re gonna have to jump back. But with those investigators, I questioned their motives and I wasn’t sure what was going on with them. Right. Well, and I think that’s. A credit to the movie that I didn’t know what was going on with them.

Because I think that the way that the movie is structured, you’re not supposed to, I think you’re supposed to question them right initially, but then you jump back in time anyway. This is a haunted house story. Yeah. Ultimately, it’s not even that unique in terms of being a haunted house story. Like I’ve seen this kind of thing before, right?

Where it seems like it’s a haunted house, but then you also see like a. Creepy, pale, naked, bald, hairless guy creeping around. Mm-hmm. And so you wonder. Is it, I mean, it appears supernatural, but it could just be some creepy guy sneaking around your house. I don’t know. I would be really surprised if you had seen the movie, but I think that some of our viewers may have.

There was a movie called, I’m pretty sure, the Pact, and I have no idea what was called, why it was called that, because I don’t remember there being any pact involved. But this young woman moved into a house and this kind of thing kept happening. And by the way. If you don’t want a spoiler for this movie, ’cause you haven’t seen it, skip ahead a minute and a half ’cause I’m gonna spoil it.

This woman thought that. Weird stuff was going on and we, the audience saw this creeper like creeping around her house, but it was like, it seemed like the house was on it as it turns out. No, there was just some creeper I living in her house. 

Todd: It’s like black Christmas. 

Craig: Right, 

Todd: right. Oh funny. 

Craig: So, you know, I wasn’t entirely sure, but that’s ultimately what it is.

But I think that one of the strengths of the movie is that it intentionally. Confounds you. Yes. In, in its structure. And I, I think that that’s very smart. And I give Damian Ruga and his editors and whoever else worked on it credit, because I think that’s a really smart way to do it. You know, it throws you into something that seems semi-familiar.

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: But then it takes you in different directions. I, I’m trying to bring us to. The cold open. 

Todd: Right. 

Craig: Frankly, the, the open was one of my favorite parts of the movie. But tell them what happens when we come in. You know, the very first thing we see is just a very domestic, mundane shot of a woman washing her dishes.

Todd: It’s like so many haunted house. Movies Start this way, right? This woman, I believe her name’s Clara, just washing her dishes and she hears something from the drain. She says she heard voices telling her things. I couldn’t make that out. Or maybe it was in Spanish and I just didn’t, didn’t hear that part.

But there’s bubbles. Coming up from the drain, you know, almost like someone’s talking through it. I, I really liked that bit. It got really, really close. Like you said, this is a really well-made movie and the cinematography is very inventive and really quite nice. But again, this is sort of the standard thing.

She thinks she hears these voices something weird in the drain. Her husband comes home and his name is Juan. 

Craig: I don’t know. I will refer to him as husband from here on out. Oh, okay. That’s how he is in 

Todd: your notes, right? He’s Juan, I guarantee you. Okay. Yeah. He comes home and then she interrupts him and says, no, I, I heard these voices.

And he is like, what, what? And what were they saying? And he, she said, they said they were going to kill me. And then at quick 

Craig: cuts, like there’s a quick cut to black like that. Shocked. I just thought that it was a really good. Start like, here are these people. We have no idea what’s going on in their lives.

It’s entirely mundane. She’s doing her dishes, and then she tells her husband about it. He’s like, uh, it’s the neighbor next door. He, he’s been remodeling. It’s probably not a big deal. What did they say? And she says. They said they were going to kill me and it immediately cuts to black. I had to rewind that like three times to read the subtitles because, because it cuts to black so quickly.

The subtitles were on for like a second, like a flash, and at first I thought and typed into my notes, they said You were going to kill me. 

Todd: Oh, 

Craig: and when I finally was able to catch the subtitles, there were several instances when the subtitles were wrong. In fact, I found myself saying, I wish I was watching this with Mr.

Mendez, your Spanish teacher. Teacher at my school. Yeah, because I knew that the subtitles were wrong and they were wrong. In this essence. It said, the subtitles said, they said the THE, were going to kill me. Oh, and I’m sure it was meant to be them, or they, excuse me. 

Todd: Well, what ends up happening is, uh, they do, uh, go to sleep and then she wakes up and goes to take a shower.

She’s disturbed, and then he wakes up and he hears that banging in the walls behind their bed. So it’s annoying him. So he goes outside and I think he tries to call the neighbor, and he, he can’t get a response, right? So he walks over there in his underwear. Yeah. Did you like that? I did. He walks over there, he hits the buzzer, and there’s, there’s noises coming out of the, the intercom there in front of their house.

It sounds like 

Craig: somebody breathing. 

Todd: Yeah, yeah. Nothing but no response. He kind of yells and then he goes back inside and, uh, hears some noises from the bathroom. He realizes, oh, those aren’t coming from next door. They’re coming from the bathroom. And when he walks into the bathroom, he realizes that this banging that he has been hearing all this time has been his wife suspended in the air, in the shower, being slammed from one wall to another violently.

Craig: This is amazing, and I have no way I, I have no idea how they did it. And it’s disgusting. And really disturbing. Yeah, YY her body is supernaturally suspended in the air and just being smashed back and forth, and the scene is terrifying because her husband like, can you imagine? Oh God, he’s trying to stop it and he just cannot, he just cannot stop it.

Todd: It just keeps happening. Yeah. He grabs her. Yeah, it gets her against the wall, but then her head just starts slamming against the wall. I mean, it’s just, ugh. He’s crying. It’s terrible. It’s awful. Horrific. 

Craig: It’s horrifying. This establishes him as a character in the movie, like I assume that he is probably convicted of her.

Death, which, I mean, what El I, I assume he would be, because this is supernatural and he, he’s all over the place. You know, his hands are on her, his hands are on everywhere. Mm-hmm. Who else could have done it except that we saw what really happened? Uh, gosh. Yeah. I loved this scene so much. In fact, visually, I think it was my favorite scene because it was so.

Disturbing. It was just one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen in a long time. You know, this is a beautiful woman and she’s being brutally, she’s dead. Yeah. By then she’s dead. Even by the time he gets there, she’s dead. Yeah, but her, like her eyeballs are popping out and her. Head is getting squished.

Ugh. It was, uh, terrible. The but what bothers me, and it doesn’t even bother me that much, I don’t care. It’s just a movie. We never, I don’t really understand what was going on there. Right? Because later it seems like any time anything is happening to people, there’s somebody doing it who is visible to the other people around, right?

So. I’m not sure what’s going on there. Ultimately, I don’t care. I’m fine. It’s a haunted house thing. Supernatural great, whatever. Yep. But. It left me wondering. 

Todd: Yeah. Well that’s a big question I think through the whole movie is there’s a lot of unknown. I mean, I think by the end of the whole film, I wasn’t really sure what the rules were, you know, what, what, what the entities wanted, what, how they propagated or moved around.

I think, like you said, intentionally left nebulous. And, and I think we had a little bit of that. And when, when Evil lurks too, didn’t we? I think that was another sort of thematically similar thing between the movies. There was a lot of stuff that we were just thrown into this world and we’re never gonna get explained, you know, to us about.

Craig: And ultimately I feel like that’s okay because yeah, if it’s life, if something like this were to happen, would you get a nice need explanation for it? No. Like, yeah, 

Todd: there’s never a moment. 

Craig: Crazy shit just happens. 

Todd: There’s a moment in here where once somebody puts a theory out there, but, but that’s all it is ultimately.

Yeah. And I think that’s good. Like you said, it’s terrifying ’cause you don’t really know what it is, what it is. But I, I assume there’s some rule, you know, I assume there’s something, so I didn’t feel cheated or. You know, like they were kinda lazy in that regard. He gets put, brought into, uh, sort of an interrogation room with three people who at first, you know, I thought were cops, but it turns out that they are these three investigators later.

We learn their names and who they are. One is Maura Alre, one is Mario Hanno, and the other is Rosentalk. They start questioning him. One of the first things they say is, we believe you, we, we know you didn’t kill your wife. So don’t worry about that. We, we need some information from you look at these photos and he shows some photos of, of a murder and he is like, well, that’s not my wife.

And they’re like, we know. It’s, it’s a similar incident that happened like back in America in 1998. 

Craig: Yeah. Again, never brought up again. 

Todd: Yeah, that’s what they said. And so then, you know, they asked him to narrate and you know, a little bit about when things started to happen and he said, well, it first started.

With the accident in front of the house. So there are two accidents that apparently happened in front of the house. One was a dog. Right. I don’t understand. 

Craig: I know ’cause, because in the initial scene when the husband is talking to. His wife in the initial scene, they say something. In fact, I was a little bit irritated with the husband because he said he was making light of the fact that somebody had run over and killed a dog.

But he is like, don’t be sad. It turns out it’s alive. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: But then they also reference another accident that had happened that we get to see. And I didn’t see this coming, and it shocked me. 

Todd: It’s confusing, isn’t it? I, I mean, was that just deliberately to kind of mess, to throw us off with the whole timeline jumping?

I don’t 

Craig: know. I don’t know, but I’m, I would be so interested in being able to talk to this director because I think that he’s very clever and very smart and he thinks you know a lot about how he’s gonna structure his movies. But I have so many questions, but I can only imagine that that’s intentional.

Like, I’m supposed to have these questions, 

Todd: right? 

Craig: I I wanna ask him, what was that guy talking about when he was talking about when a dog got hit? Because then later when somebody references the accident in front of their apartment, I thought, oh, that must be talking about the dog that 

Todd: got hit. Right. But it 

Craig: wasn’t at all.

Todd: He says, uh, well, it, uh, you know, there was the accident that happened and my neighbor Walter. Was working on renovations. And the next shot we have, and again, like you said, kind of alluded to earlier, we don’t get any help here. There’s no, you know, six months earlier or anything like that. Right. That comes up on the screen.

It’s just we’re with a guy who’s. In his office who’s, looks like he hasn’t slept in days and he’s on the phone with somebody trying to get help. He’s trying to talk to a doctor. He keeps saying, doctor, doctor, and again, this is another thing, I thought maybe he had some medical issue and he’s trying to get to one of these doctors and he’s like, this doctor can’t help you.

So. He was referred to a specialist, and so he was calling the specialist, but the specialist’s, secretary, or assistant or whatever says, well, that person’s not here. And anyway, she’s full. She can’t take cases. And he’s like, but I, I was referred to you by, you know, these people gave me the number. Who, who gave you the number?

I was all these other specialists that said, you’re the only one who can help. She’s like, all right, I’ll call you back tomorrow. So this guy’s desperate for some help from a doctor. But then he comes home and he’s just in the days going through and we realize, oh, this is another gonna be another haunted house situation.

He’s hearing noises. He hears a similar noise come out of the drain. I think when he is brushing his teeth in the bathroom. There’s a lot of water and bathroom symbology here, which again, I think that was thrown in there, but we are not exactly clear on what it means. And then he goes into his bedroom to lay down, and I thought he pushed his bed against the wall when he stands in front of his bed.

Before he gets in it, the bed kind of nudges forward toward the wall and the nudges again, and he just gets in it. And there’s a part of me that thought, well, did his bed just move on its own. But the angle is such that. I didn’t catch whether that was the case and the fact that he just gets in it anyway, like nothing happened, made me think, oh, he did nudge it closer to the wall.

So I wasn’t sure if in this scene he was pushing the bed closer to the wall or if this thing has been happening to him so often now that he just is used to it and just kind of ignores it. Do you know what I’m talking about? Did you, did you get the same thing from this? From this scene? 

Craig: No, I know what you’re talking about.

I think, as I remember in that scene. He pushes his bed a little bit. 

Todd: Okay. He did push it, uh, 

Craig: before he lays down in it. Alright. Alright. Just a little bit, like, just readjust it. I mean, it’s a, a twin bed. Yeah. But anyway, yes, he does move his bed for whatever reason, like he just scoots it a little bit like, huh, I don’t know.

Somehow it got jostled and it’s not in the right place and he scoots it, but then he lays down in the bed and then while he’s laying in the bed, it just moves. Like not just a little bit, a lot. Scooting around. Mm-hmm. The haunting in this is really not subtle. Like no. They try to project that it’s subtle for a second.

Like, oh, it’s loud noises and bangs, or whatever. Yeah. But when you find out what those loud noises and bangs are, it’s not subtle. There’s something crazy going on, and I don’t know how I feel about this ultimately, because we never really know. Yeah. We never really find out what’s happening. Yeah. Is this a particular malevolent spirit?

Ugh. Why is it centralized to this particular location? And when I say location, I mean like a radius. Yeah. Because it’s not just one. Apartment. It’s not even like one apartment complex. It’s like a, a circular radius around a area of a street. 

Todd: Yeah. It’s like a two townhouses connected together and the one across the street from it.

Something like 

Craig: that. 

Todd: Yeah. I don’t, yeah, 

Craig: and, and, and I don’t think it’s. Unless I miss something and please enlighten me if I did. I don’t think we ever find out. We don’t. 

Todd: And there’s something to do with the water connecting them 

Craig: and the pipes. Yeah. I don’t know. But 

Todd: we don’t know what that is either. Uh, there’s a point later on that’s just a minor thing.

But there’s a point where we get a very, very distinct closeup there. Like there’s a kid who’s running around and kicking a ball around. There’s a very big closeup. In the foreground of a, an outdoor faucet, you know, that’s just dripping. And as the kid goes to retrieve his ball, he takes a big sip of water.

And if I’m not mistaken, that’s the kid who later has something unfortunate happened to him. So there’s some implication that water has something to do with this. But anyway, I’m, I’m jumping ahead, but now we’re with the guy in his bed. And you’re right, the bed starts moving, he looks underneath his bed and there’s nothing down there.

And when he comes back up, it’s that classic aha. There is something down there, but only we can see it. Then his light flips off and he looks back down under the bed to plug it back in. He has to reach under the bed to plug it back in ’cause that’s where the socket is and that thing’s no longer there.

But then as he brings his head down, we see behind him there are legs that run. Out of the room, which he seems to quickly catch a glimpse of. So yeah, he gets out. What does he do? We don’t know what happens to him at this point, do we? He’s freaking out. He got, I can’t remember because it jumps around in time.

Oh, he calls from his home. The doctor still won’t take his case. Right, and all of his furniture is all piled up in one room and that he’s sitting there and he’s just kind of like huddled. It’s made clear that it’s not 

Craig: just him. Like he’s not imagining things. Yeah, he’s not crazy. It’s made very clear, you know, he tries to go to sleep and he’s afraid that something’s gonna happen, and this creepy, naked, ghostly guy is like staring at him in the night and we see that everything has been moved around.

So it’s not just him. Yeah, for sure. But it jumps around in perspective ’cause he catches when the doctor won’t see him. And again, you have to watch, obviously this is always the case, but you have to watch the movie to really get the sense of it. But like he’s. Always calling and trying to get an appointment with this doctor, and he’s just seemingly talking with the receptionist and it’s fuzzy the same way that it is when he’s talking with supernatural people.

So I wasn’t sure if he was really talking to anybody at all, but the person on the other end keeps saying she’s not available or whatever. So he sets up a camera, and I know that we’ve already talked about the events, but. The fact that he set up a camera. He has photographic proof. This Yeah. Stuff is happening.

Yeah. So we know he’s being haunted and then apropo of nothing. We get a shot of a little boy just walking around carrying a ball or something, and he goes up to a dripping spigot and he turns it on and drinks from it, and he hears from inside. I believe Walter saying, don’t drink that. Don’t drink that.

Go away. I don’t know what’s going on with the water. Yeah, I have no idea. We’d never do. But he’s like, don’t drink that. Don’t drink that. Go away. So the kid in fear back steps into the road and then get smashed by a bus. 

Todd: Yeah, 

Craig: I didn’t see that coming either. I 

Todd: didn’t see that coming at all. Yeah. I was straight out of like final destination this well, 

Craig: and it’s horrible.

This movie is very graphic in terms of like, when you see the aftermath of things, it’s, you see it, it does not pull any punches. It’s, it’s gross at some point. Husband had mentioned something to that panel of old people about there being an accident in front of his house, but he had already mentioned a dog getting killed.

So I thought that’s what it was gonna be. Yeah, but it wasn’t. It was this kid and apparently this kid getting killed sets into motion. A whole series of. That I don’t understand. We’re still spooky. Yeah. Like I liked this movie. I did. I really did. I liked the movie, but the plot is the least interesting part of it.

Yeah. If that makes sense. Like there’s just not a whole lot to the 

Todd: plot in a sense. It’s, it’s got a similar structure to like some of the ellos we watch Right. Where the plot just is kind of like. Uh, I don’t think we are supposed to care too much about the plot, or we’re not really supposed to dive deep into trying to make sense of it because the movie itself doesn’t seem to be terribly concerned with explaining much to us.

Right. No, and honestly, I, I’m, I’m okay with that. Me too. But it does force you to pay attention closer. Yeah. I liken it to, what is it, Christopher Nolan, who’s been weird lately about having movies where you can barely hear the dialogue. Oh, I don’t know. But that irritates me. He’s got a lot of flack for that, but he does it on purpose and part of his thinking for that is that it really, really forces you to pay attention.

It like gets you, you focused. I find it irritating, but in a way I almost feel like those things were thrown in there, like about the dog and then about the water that never gets resolved. All these things that either never get resolved or don’t seem to connect, but seem like they should, are just ways of forcing us to keep our brain engaged.

Craig: And it works. I mean, I’m, yeah, I am curious, but I’m a little irritated. Ultimately, I feel like this guy in this movie, I, I don’t think he did it as much in the other movie that we were talking about, but I do remember in the other movie that we. Win evil lurks or whatever. We talked about how some things just weren’t explained right, but we were willing to let that go.

I feel like this pushes that even further, and it doesn’t push me beyond my limit of being. Irritated about it. Right, right. Like how do you logically explain a haunting? 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: It just is, you know, like it’s haunted and weird shit happens and nobody’s 

Todd: gonna know for sure. Yeah. It’s the old timey, haunted house movies where, you know, there’s the ghost that appears and then the person comes and investigates more, and then they find out that there’s a very, very specific reason why that ghost of a very specific person is haunting because they have some task that needs to be completed.

Yeah. And that’s 

Craig: often convoluted and stupid. And we critic. Size it. Right, exactly. So this, it didn’t, it didn’t bother me. It was shocking enough. I don’t know. I, I feel like he tried to put a human spin on it. Eventually. The, this panel of old people who, most of them we’ve seen before get pulled into the story.

One of them is I think the lead detective on the case or something, and one of them is the guy that husband, no, Wesley. See, there are just too many people. It’s, they’re all hyperlinked around Walter. They’re all hyperlinked. The woman that Walter had been trying to get to take his case, I think eventually she comes in, she shows up.

Yeah. Yeah. And, and so this council of old people comes together and then somebody who wasn’t part of the Council of old people is this cop, this detective who is. Fez who is just, for a moment, he just serves as the role of the cop, but as it turns out, he’s also the romantic partner of the woman whose kid died.

Todd: Got hit by the car. Yes. It’s so funny how that just comes out. He also is the one who calls Hanno Yano, I think, but I don’t, Mario Hanno. Yeah. He’s the one who calls Hanno the first of the Council of Old people. And the way they’re talking, it’s like. Fez knows that Hanno has investigated weird stuff like this before.

He must know something about some previous cases. Maybe he was even involved in them. I don’t know of Hauntings, because what happens is, and the reason he gets called in is because there’s an incident where four days after the funeral, this kid’s mother. Apparently went to the cemetery and dug up the kid’s body and propped it up at the dinner table.

Craig: Well, they, that’s the conclusion that somebody comes to. But that’s not what happens. We see what happens. She’s at home. Yeah. And she hears a knock on the door and she sees muddy hand prints and footprints outside her door. Her kid came home. We didn’t see that till later. Right? No, we see that initially.

They don’t come up with some. Oh no, we see this from, oh, I missed that. Yeah, we see it from the beginning. She hears knocking and she sees the hand prints and footprints. Then the cops come over and the mom is there. We go nearly catatonic as how else could you be? But what she’s saying is he just came home and he just.

Got a cereal like he always does. And then you see this corpse kid sitting in front of a bowl of cereal and a glass of milk. But when the cop guy, the older cop guy, Juno, I think comes in, they do a closeup of the kid’s hands and he has clearly dug himself out. Yeah. Like his fingertips are stretched to the bone.

Yeah. Which looked fantastic by the way. Great. Oh yeah, the makeup and, and everything looks fantastic, but it’s really spooky. But at the same time, okay, so like Funes is the cop and he calls in this older guy, Juno, and Juno calls in and they look at this kid sitting there or whatever, and like while they’re talking, the kid moves Uhhuh.

They, they don’t see it like he spills the milk, but they’re like, well, he obviously had to move and Juno. The older cop is super cool about this. Yes, he is. Well, well we better bury him again and put up, you know, put some concrete on top ’cause we don’t want him coming back. He was just so quick to be accepting it.

Well. Yeah, he dug himself out of the grave. Look at his fingers. 

Todd: Well, Fez says, I, I’m gonna show you this. It’s pretty gruesome, but I suppose there’s really nothing that scares you. Is there Hana’s? Like, well, we’ll find out. You know, but I mean, it alludes to, this guy has a long history of investigating really spooky, scary stuff.

So maybe he’s like, Lorraine and who are they from the I I was getting a little bit of. Assembling the, the, the team for Insidious, I don’t know, like Amityville or Insidious Church or 

Craig: The Conjuring. 

Todd: The Conjuring, exactly. It’s, it gets a little bit of the conjuring vibes where you got these researchers who, with all these experience who come in, so they kind of manage the kid.

They end up having to take the corpse and put it in the freezer in the back, and he puts a plant on it. There’s a lot of kind of. Cute little humor that sprinkled in here as well that I kinda liked. They closed the lid of the, of the freezer and then I think, I can’t remember who, which of them, I think it’s Hano, puts a pot on top and he looks at Punes and says, well, you know, just in case he tries to get out

anyway. But then he goes outside and he sees the doctor, like you said, the the female doctor who is a Maura Alre outside taking pictures of Walter’s house. Next door or across the street, 

Craig: he pulls her in and then it’s like a super team kind of Poltergeist. Oh, we’re investigators trying to check this thing out.

Mm-hmm. And somehow, I don’t even know why the cop gets pulled into all of this. Like he should have just. Exited through the back door. Like, 

Todd: yeah, he’s unsettled by the whole thing. He, he’s uncomfortable. 

Craig: He’s uncomfortable. He’s personally connected to it, which is weird and I don’t really understand what the point of that is.

And like he also makes a huge, huge point, which I found to be comedy. I don’t know if you found it. He’s like, guys, I can retire in six months. Like, yeah, guys, you 

Todd: knew he was doomed the minute he said that, like, 

Craig: like my, my heart’s not great. Like I, I’ve got some problems. I’m just trying to take it easy. I can, I can retire at six months.

Todd: That was total comedy, total foreshadowing. I just got six months left to go of holding my heart ahold out. Another guys, guys.

He also has a hearing aid. Yeah. This guy’s kind of in bad shape actually. Yeah. And he admits it and he doesn’t look like he’s, uh, comfortable through this whole thing. It’s kind of funny. 

Craig: Yeah. Okay. And so then, I don’t know how detailed we want to get into the end of it, but it just turned, it just turned out there.

There’s some haunting. I don’t think that the haunting is ever explained. No, we don’t know. Why it’s, but it’s, it’s haunted and there’s a creepy naked guy, white, hairless, ghostly, naked guy who comes out at night and he might kill you. Yeah. Like, don’t live there. Just get out. Because it seems like it’s just, it is just the radius, you know?

Yeah. It just affects a, a few houses, but he shows up. There’s something about 

Todd: magnets, I don’t know. Well. I dunno if it’s mag. Not even necessarily magnets, ’cause like wooden things are moving too. But you’re right, the metal stuff. But there’s something about like 

Craig: magnetism because like metal things, like all the forks and spoons and knives are like dangling from a cabinet and then somebody’s like, Ooh, this is weird.

And puts their hand up there and then their hand gets stabbed, I guess. Mm-hmm. Because the knife. Was attracted by whatever was attracting it. And then whoever this is, I don’t even remember. It’s like something’s sucking. It’s sucking what? It’s sucking my blood. 

Todd: It’s Rosen talk, Dr. Rosen talk. Yeah. And 

Craig: you can hear like the, 

Todd: like it’s, it sucks blood.

Yeah. We know this. 

Craig: What? 

Todd: What Sometimes I guess what is happening, it, it attracts things, magnetically. It kind of plays with them more than anything. When he gets the knife out of his hand, he’s just kind of mildly distracted by all that. It’s like he gets himself bandaged up, but he’s gotta get on the phone.

He is gotta call Dr. Alre, who herself is in Walter’s house. Whose house is she at? She’s in the house with the big gas. I don’t know. They’re in apartments across the street from one another. Oh yeah. She’s in, um, Juan’s house I believe. But she has set up some kind of equipment on the table. Uh, we don’t see all of it.

And also I think the other guy’s got a few things as well where he is hano some kind of pendulum. Over some metal stuff and some tubes that almost looks like a chemistry set that at one point she has to pour some chemical into. And she seems very disturbed when she sees suddenly the pendulum swing in a particular way.

Like it’s attracted, and this again was hearkening back to when evil lurks, right? When the ghost hunters or the fighters or whatever all have this like. Weird equipment that they have to set up in order to contain the spirit, but we never see it work, nor do we ever get any clear explanation as to what it’s supposed to do and how it works, right?

That was like a little bit of confusion thrown in something that nobody ever brings up. Nobody ever points out, nobody ever explains, and they themselves don’t seem to do too much with it. I’m not even sure what information she gets from her little setup, but it’s there. It’s an element. So all three of them are just in their three different houses, kind of doing their thing, doing their little investigation.

The one guy gets stabbed, he calls her, and then Hanno calls her and at some point he comes over and he’s, she’s as upset enough by what he says that she says, I think we need to call it off. She’s looking at that crack in the wall and she can actually see a guy in there and she thinks it is Walter. And she’s like, Walter, you can come out.

There’s this thing about darkness and light as well. 

Craig: Darkness and light and perspective. Like you can see the creepy guy, like you can’t, if you just look under the bed, like a normal person would look under the bed, you can’t see him. But if you pull up the blankets from the foot of the bed and look at it from under the foot of the bed, you can, and he’s clearly under there like, okay, all right.

Whatever. I don’t know, whatever. Who cares? But Rosen talk is like manic about this. He’s like, look at it. Ha ha, isn’t that great? Yeah, great, great. That I can see this creepy guy that’s under the bed. Like, what are we gonna do? Like, I don’t know. And stuff is happening in all of these places that they’re in and they’re getting weird phone calls and, and, and some of them that are in the apartment on one side of the street are.

Seeing the creeper through the window on the other side of the street, but the people on the other side of the street aren’t seeing him and it’s crazy. And, and they all, you know, again, watch the movie. It’s worth watching. It’s, it’s, it’s fun. Mm-hmm. Find an English tub if you can. ’cause I was annoyed having to read the subtitles, but they all get killed.

There are a lot of them get killed. Like, I don’t know, there’s something with a, a China cabinet and. The action ends up following Fez. The cop. Yes. And he finds them in various ways of having been killed, but they’re also not just dead, but ghostly and, I don’t know, I think Juno or one of the old guys is like, help me.

They’ve killed me. There’s glass splinters in my eyes. Yeah, it’s just, it’s just a, the last 10 or 15 minutes is just a long, I feel like it’s mostly FIA’s just running around trying to, yeah. Get away and figure out what’s happening. And Well, at that point he has a heart attack. He has a, yeah, he has a goddamn heart attack.

For a minute, which we, and then he is like, yeah, and then he’s fine. And he says to somebody, I had a heart attack, dude. I’m like, you don’t just have a heart attack, as far as I know, and I’m no doctor, but you don’t just have a heart attack and then just lay there for a minute and then wake up and somebody comes in and you’re like, oh, I had a heart attack.

What whatcha talking about? Well, the person who 

Todd: comes in is Alicia. It’s the woman he was involved in, the mother of the, of the kid. And at first it seems like she’s not even gonna help him ’cause she’s mad at him for burying the kid again and pouring concrete all over his grave. But she does end up saying she’s gonna take her to the him to the hospital and when she takes him out to the car, he starts to get in the back seat and the kid’s Corps is in there.

Mm-hmm. She has in fact taken him out and so he gets in his own car and it’s, as he’s driving off that we see the Dr. Albrecht. Comes running out of the house. I thought this was pretty creepy. 

Craig: Oh, it was very creepy. Don’t see what it is. We saw her killed the creepy Yeah. Guy in the house reached out from a crack in the wall, grabbed her head and broke her neck.

And when she runs out now her head is like dangling on her body. Like, yeah, it’s gross. 

Todd: And she’s like, there’s, there’s still hope for us or something. Help us. You can still help us to torture. Torture us. We’re being 

Craig: tortured. Yeah. You can still save him. We’re being tortured. And he drives away. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: But then he comes back and he 

Todd: stops.

Yeah. Takes a smoke, gets a phone call from his deputy who’s like, um, I’m here at the house and things are looking weird. He’s like, leave. He’s like, oh, well I think I’m gonna go inside. He is like, no, it’s an order leave. Finally, guy’s like, oh, all right, then I’m gonna get outta here. And he stops for a minute and he thinks, and he decides to turn around.

He’s gonna torch the place. So he goes in the house and, you know, I mean. Ha. This is why, uh, I don’t know. We, we spent all this time in these houses in creepy situations where everything was tense and everything was scary because the hauntings are happening. But now that he comes back to the house with a gas can, he can just run around in the hallways and dump gas all over everything.

Without being really bothered by anybody. And it isn’t until he gets outside that he meets up with Junio, who’s his eyes are now, like pulsing and gross stuff coming out of it or something like that. He backs off, he runs away. Uh, by the way, the sound design in this movie was amazing. Very good. I thought the part where he was having his heart attack was really, really well done.

Like the sound communicated so much of what was happening through that whole scene. And it’s worth mentioning that the writer director also was the composer. Oh. For it as well, the music. Wow, that’s impressive. Yeah. But so much is unclear as to what is going on and what the end goal game is and what, what could possibly fix all of this.

So his guess is as good as any, I guess just torching the, the house right and outside. Uh, he can’t, like the match he sees who know his eyes are gross, he ends up lighting the match, starts to burn the house down. There’s a closeup on the kids’ drawings burning up. And then boom, we are now back with Juan right in jail or whatever, being pulled in front of a new group of interrogators.

Which are three completely different people, 

Craig: right? 

Todd: So now we know we’re in the future. 

Craig: Except, you know, I don’t know. I don’t remember. 

Todd: They’re asking about the three people that he talked to. They’re like, first of all, you’re not in any trouble and nothing on this. We’re gonna record this session. But none of this is legally admissible in any way.

It’s just for information. Tell us about the three people who visited you last year. How did you know them? Uh, what were they doing and how did they help you? And that’s when he sort of sees something behind them. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: And he points, he says, oh, he’s one of them. It’s Dr. Hyo. He was with you, right? And they turn around and they don’t see anything there by the water cooler.

He’s like, no, no, he’s there. It’s he’s, he’s helping you. Right? He’s with you, right? And then one of the chairs like flies towards them and into the camera, and that’s the end. 

Craig: Yeah. I would say that this movie is really successful in establishing atmosphere and spookiness, and I would go so far as to even say intrigue.

You know, in, in wanting to, being curious about what’s going to happen next and, and what’s going on. I, I’m not sure about the plotting of it, but I don’t know if that was a particular concern, 

Todd: right. 

Craig: Of the filmmakers. So I hesitate to judge it on that. I found the first part to be. A little bit slow, only because it felt familiar.

Right. I’ve seen this. I get it. It’s a haunted place. I get it. I thought that in the second half it was more interesting in. The way that it was visually presented, and I don’t mean cinematography, but I mean like the cinematography was good, don’t get me wrong, but the effects I thought were very, very good and, and creepy.

I don’t know. Ultimately, I enjoyed it. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoyed. When Evil lurks, because I felt like when Evil Lurks was very character driven. 

Todd: Oh, it had so much humanity in it. Yeah. It was just such a, right, yeah. Right. A powerful movie about God. About about what? When you’re making all the wrong choices.

Family. Family, yeah. Pressures and things. This, yeah. Mm-hmm. This, you’re right. It was like, and, and I mean you could say plot heavy in a sense, but the really, a whole bunch of elements that you’re never gonna understand. Right. That are never going to be explained. And I think that’s why the first part ultimately even feels slower by the time you’re done with the movie because all these little details that are given to you in the first almost hour of the movie, I really expected a payoff.

You know, I expected to learn what the deal was with the water, right? You know, that that was gonna give us information on how they overcome the spirits or how they contain it, or how they do whatever. I expected to learn what this, this creature was and. By the end of it, you realize, no, you’re never gonna know.

And so that makes that first half even feel longer, you know? So, uh, I I was with you on that. Yeah. I thought it was a little slow in the beginning. I think the effects were about half, half. I thought they were pretty gruesome, but pretty CGI heavy, you know, that creature was pretty much all CGI, as far as I could tell.

And it looked like it. I don’t know. And, uh, I don’t know, like, you know, when it kind of comes outta the wall and its hand and, and all that. Yeah. I 

Craig: at the end. You’re right. Yeah. Because it changes in the beginning, it’s like a ghostly, naked man, but towards the end it starts to become more creature like.

You’re right. When it reaches its hand out of the cracked wall, the hand does not look like a human hand. It it looks like something alien or, or supernatural. The, the fingers are. Much longer than human hands. And 

Todd: yeah, 

Craig: and you’re, you’re probably right. I imagine that most of that was CGII was watching it on my computer, so.

Oh, right. And that part was brief. You know, that happens in just a, a couple of seconds. I found the imagery of, even though it was familiar to me. The imagery of the ghostly naked man creeping around the house, it creep that I, I did find it creepy and that was good, but I know what you’re talking about.

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. It’s worth a watch, I think. And it’s really well made. It’s probably unfair just to compare it to this other movie just ’cause he made it too. But I I, if I were to choose between the two, I thought what, what Evil lurks was when Evil lurks was way, way better. Yes, I agree. And more engaging. So, you know, if you’re going to choose between the two, if you only have the wherewithal to read subtitles for one Argentinian movie made in the last 15 years, you should probably watch What Evil Lurks.

I think you’ll find that one more emotionally satisfying. But this one’s nice. It was fine. Yeah, it was. It was a good movie. It was a good movie, not the, not my favorite, but it was a good movie. Well, thank you so much for listening and thank you patrons for, uh, giving us another great film to review. If you would like to join the fun on our Patreon channel, you can go to patreon.com/chainsaw podcast and for just five bucks a month, you yourself can choose which ones we will review for our.

Request episodes. You can also find our book club back there. We’re meeting every week or two, always reading a new book. And we also have our complete uncut phone calls that lead to this. There are a few juicy tidbits of Craig’s personal life in here that you’re never gonna hear if you’re not a patron, 

Craig: and whether you’re well, and whether you’re a patron or not, you can contact us through social media or through.

Speak pipe. And I think we had a message, didn’t we? That we wanted to play? 

Todd: We do. In fact, if you go to our website and you click ta, uh, talk to us, you can record a little message. And uh, Jana had a message for us. Would you like to hear it? I would. Alright, let’s do it. 

Jana: Hi guys. My name is Jana. I’m from Atlanta.

Um, reaching out with a thank you and a quick rec. Um, thank you. Just because y’all’s podcast is awesome. It’s great. I know y’all have. Like full-time jobs and that you do this in addition to that. And it has just one of the very few podcasts that I have, like really, I don’t know, developed like a pair of social relationship with you guys almost.

And I’m going through the backlog of all your episodes and getting ready for Halloween. It’s just a ton of fun and I’m really enjoying it. So thank you. Um, my Rec is the Fear Street series. I don’t know, I’ve never heard y’all mention them. Um, there’s three of them. They’re on Netflix. I think they came out maybe five years ago.

There’s one continuous storyline between all three movies, but the first one is sort of set in like nineties scream style. The second one, um, is more of like a eighties, like Jason style slasher. And then the third one is more of like a witchy, olden days sort of movie, like the Witch. Um. But I think they’re really cool.

I would love to hear what you guys think about them. Um, and maybe an idea for Halloween. I don’t know if you already have something picked out, but it could be a series leading up to Halloween. Um, so yeah, that’s it. Thanks. And can’t wait to hear more. I. 

Todd: Jan F from Atlanta. Yeah. You should never move, never change your city.

I, 

Craig: I apologize that we didn’t get to this before Halloween. That was a great recommendation. I, I don’t remember if that has come as a request and I’m, I’m surprised that we haven’t mentioned it. Because I know that you and I have talked about it. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: And 

Todd: I’ve seen it. I’ve seen all three. Oh, 

Craig: you’ve seen 

Todd: all 

Craig: three?

Yeah. I think I’ve seen at least one of them, and I a hundred percent agree that it would, they would be great to talk about for the podcast, so great recommendation, but beyond that. Janna, thank you for taking the time to leave that message. You’re absolutely right. Todd, I think will agree with me. You know, we’re just, his life is far more exotic than mine.

Like he’s traveling the world and doing all these. Yeah, things let’s things that pretty much really only like celebrities and rich people get to do, but somehow, somehow you’re living that life. But I am just a humble, meager, middle American school teacher who does do this for the fun of it and beyond for the fun of it, that that’s how it started.

But the reason that it’s continued for me. Is because we hear things like that from you, that you make a connection with us, that you enjoy listening to us and that it feels. Comfortable and friendly. That makes me feel so good. That’s why I keep doing it. So thank you 

Todd: very, very much. Yeah. Let’s turn this parasocial relationship into a social relationship.

You know, reach out to us. Yeah. You don’t have to be a patron to talk to us. That’s right. You could send us a message on, I think you can even find a way to email us if you subscribe to our newsletter and you respond to our newsletter, that will come in our email boxes so we can get a nice little conversation going.

Yeah, and I’ve got all the time in the world for it. ’cause I just have to be clear, Craig is the only responsible adult in this duo with the full-time job. 

Craig: The only person with a real job. Exactly. Except for, except for the, I can’t get over that every, like, I’m always. You know, scrolling through social media and there your big dumb face pops up promoting some like, I don’t know, casino slot thing or whatever.

Some game, yeah. And a sleep app. Like every time it happens, like I have to show somebody like I’ll, you know, move my phone. Point to it. Alan’s like, yeah, I know he does that, but it’s just always so hilarious and I bet, I bet money that. Some of the people that listen to our podcast even regularly, but don’t frequent our webpage or Patreon and so maybe haven’t seen pictures of us.

I bet money they have seen you in those stupid acts. I am kind of like a cockroach. Yeah. Well and good on you brother. Like you have found a niche that I think is amazing and I, I wish I could make money doing this shit. It’s, uh, 

Todd: it’s only slightly more respectable than narrating werewolf porn audio books, just slightly.

Craig: You’re making money and, and probably more than I am making, doing a 

Todd: real job. You’re gonna retire soon, Craig. I am. You’ll be living the good life before you know it. 

Craig: It’s true, 

Todd: and, and you’ll be far more secure than I am. I blow all my money and travel so I don’t have that nice fat retirement account waiting for me.

Thanks again, Jana. We loved hearing from you and the rest of you as well. Please, uh, reach out to us anywhere you can. Just Google two guys in Chainsaw podcast. We’re all over. We got our website. Click the talk twist button, hit us up on social media. We’d love to hear from you. Until next time, I am Todd.

And I’m Craig with Two Guys and a Chainsaw.