Motel Hell (1980)

Episode 496 – 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: This week, uh, thought I’d take us back to the ’80s, 1980 to be exact, to the point in which horror movies were coming big on the scene, slasher movies, things like that. Uh, we’ve done several slasher films from 1981, 1979, whatever, just around this era, oh, a few weeks ago and, and we had been- I’d been on a bit of a kick doing these, uh, old early ’80s slashers, and I promised Craig this week that I would not choose another early ’80s slasher.

We were both just ready for something fresh. So, um, I pulled up this movie that I know I had seen at some point, or at least run across on cable, maybe not seen the whole way through, but it certainly haunted the video store shelves of my childhood. And I knew it was a horror comedy, and it comes up every now and then and people talk about it as a quirky satire, comedy horror movie, blah blah blah.

And so I said, “Let’s do it, Craig. Let’s do Motel Hell.” Had you heard of this one before? 

Craig: Yeah. Like you, I know I’ve seen it. I think I’ve probably seen it more than once. And I remembered a lot of things about it, but it had been a long time since I’d seen it, so I didn’t remember a whole lot. And I mean, I guess I was gonna say you could technically call this a slasher, but it’s not really.

No. It’s got a similar vibe, but it’s different in that it’s… I mean, y- you already said it’s a comedy, and it is, but it’s, it’s more of a black comedy, not a scary movie parody, slapstick, goofy comedy. It’s… I mean, it’s still silly, but it’s a little bit darker and it’s not as in your face with gags and stuff- Right

um, as, as some things. 

Todd: It’s a shame too. 

Craig: Well, I don’t know. I thought it struck kind of an interesting balance. Uh, I don’t know if it was perfect, but I don’t know. I’m interested to hear what you thought. 

Todd: I don’t know. Like I’ll be honest with you, I had a hard time staying awake. Now, I was watching it at like 11:30 PM or something like that.

I’d had a long day. My parents are still visiting. We’ve been running a little hard, and so I was already pretty tired going into this. But I kind of expected it to perk me up. I thought this was gonna be this fun, irreverent, satirical black comedy that everybody says it is, and both my dad and I found it hard to stay awake.

About halfway through I wanted so bad to just shut it off and finish it in the morning, but unfortunately, I mean he was watching it with me and he was staying up too, so I just pushed through. So I don’t know if that affected my reception of it, but w- I was just groaning and rolling my eyes through the whole thing, and I didn’t find it particularly funny, and I didn’t find it scary at all.

I was pretty disappointed overall. It wasn’t what I remember from flashes of my childhood. 

Craig: Yeah. Gosh. I don’t know how we want to approach it, but I mean, I, I feel similarly and I r- first of all, I just decided, like, I’m just gonna watch this. I’m not gonna take any notes. How serious can it be? And so I cuddle up in bed and turned all the lights off.

Had the, you know, laptop, like, right there next to me, and I got about halfway through it and I was like, “I have to turn this off and go to sleep.” And it was early, like- Ah. Like, it was earlier than I would usually go to bed. So I was like, “No, I’m just gonna wait until the morning.” 

Todd: No. 

Craig: And then I finish it this morning.

Yeah, I mean, it is kind of slow and there’s really not a ton that happens, but it’s odd. 

Todd: Definitely odd. 

Craig: Well, and I, I, I think that that oddity saves it, and I, there, like, there are some interesting performances. I don’t think it’s poorly shot or anything. 

Todd: No. 

Craig: And I kinda think that maybe they got what they were going for because originally, and I don’t remember, it was s- I don’t remember if it was attached to a particular director initially, but the, I know that the original script was a lot darker.

It was written by a couple of brothers, I guess, Robert and Stephen Charles Jaff, and it was, like, I don’t know, just more violent and graphic and had, like, bestiality in it and stuff. But when they got the director, Kevin Connor, he said that he would do it, but he wanted it to be a dark comedy because some of the crazier elements, I guess he thought if we played this totally straight, audiences aren’t gonna buy it.

Todd: Yeah. And I can see that. 

Craig: Yeah. And I can see that too. I think it was probably… I, I, I certainly wouldn’t, I don’t think. I mean, it would, it would take a lot to get me on board with some of these plot points if they weren’t presented in a ridiculous fashion, because they are ridiculous. Yeah. So- I don’t know.

I think it was, it was, uh, intended to be a little dark and weird and quirky, but it is a little bit slow too. I mean, I… How do, how do we wanna talk about what it’s about? I mean, it’s- 

Todd: Well, ultimately it’s, it’s a little bit inspired, I would say, slightly Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in that you have a, not a whole family, but you got, you got, you got a guy, and Nuts is not his wife, it’s his sister, right?

Craig: It’s, I, yeah, I thought it was his wife- For 

Todd: the longest time … or 

Craig: girlfriend or something for the longest time, but apparently it’s his sister, 

Todd: right? Yeah. So you got Vincent and Ida, and instead of running a restaurant, they run a motel. The Motel Hello, you know, which conveniently the O burns out at points to make it Motel Hell.

Right. And he serves his famous meats. Smoked meat. Smoked meats. Farmer Vincent’s Smoked Meats. This 

Craig: is it. 

Todd: So it’s so similar in that way to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, ’cause they had what? They had a barbecue place, didn’t they? Yeah. 

Craig: I’m not confusing 

Todd: that with- 

Craig: That may have been part two. I don’t remember. 

Todd: Oh, maybe that was part two.

Craig: They definitely did cook people up, though, and serve them to people, that’s for sure. 

Todd: Yeah. And so, um, it, you know, it really kicks off with Farmer V- Vincent, who’s this man played by Rory Calhoun, who is a pretty well-known Western guy. He was in a million Westerns and all over television and stuff I think if you watch movies and TV in the ’80s, in particular if you were into Westerns, you would recognize this guy right away.

Craig: Yeah, he’s got a really recognizable face. I didn’t watch those types of things. My grandparents, my mom’s parents were into those shows, so they were kind of always on in the background. But he has that typical look, and if you look him up on- online, you’ll see old black and white photos of him where he’s, you know, a handsome, rugged kinda looking guy.

But ironically, I think I read that he was kind of known as being the reliable, trustworthy, good guy in most of the stuff that he did back in the day. So to put him in this more menacing role was a switch for him, but I thought that it played well because he’s supposed to be charming. Like, they’re well-respected in their community, and his meats are famous.

Todd: Yes. His smoked meats with no preservatives at all. I, I don’t know how this works. With 

Craig: no preservatives. 

Todd: I think you’d wanna refrigerate these no preservative smoked meats a lot more than they ever do in this movie, but… It’s, it’s similar, isn’t it, a way similar to Tourist Trap and Chuck Connors? I mean, it’s almost the- 

Craig: Yeah.

Yeah, for sure … 

Todd: it’s got a similar vibe. And you’ve got, again, this guy who played mostly, uh, the good guy in old country Westerns who’s later in his career playing against type in a horror movie just the year before this, Tourist Trap. The movie feels a bit like Tourist Trap, and- It does … weirdly enough, it’s almost like these guys swap notes, right?

Like, “Hey, uh, you should be in a horror movie like I was last year.” “Okay, I’ll do that. Thank you, partner.” 

Craig: Yeah, they are strikingly similar now that you mention it. I mean, even down to I, I feel like there was old man, young… Well, that guy, whoever you were just talking about, there was a love interest that was younger than him just- 

Todd: Yes

Craig: kind of like there is here, which is also- 

Todd: Yes. … 

Craig: weird, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The sister, Ida, is played by Nancy Parsons, and I’m like, “I recognize her. She’s been in stuff,” and she totally has. I think probably what I remember her from around the same time was Porky’s. 

Clip: Yeah. 

Craig: Porky’s, uh, I think, I don’t know how many of them there were.

I think there were… I know there were two. There may have been three, and I think that she played the same character. I don’t remember if she was a coach or, or what, but she was such a popular character in the first one that they put her on the poster for the second one. And she’s hilarious. And she also played Janice Van Meter in Steel Magnolias- Right

who was the heavyset woman that Dolly Parton and Olympia Dukakis make fun of on the dance floor, and they say she looks like two pigs rustling under a blanket or something. 

Todd: Oh, God. Oh. Oh, 

Craig: Iris Van Meter. 

Todd: Back in the ’80s it was so fun to f- to laugh at fat people, right? God. 

Craig: But she’s funny. Like- She is … and, and she, i- if, if you look at her IMDb, I mean, she’s again been in everything.

Th- I, I could say the same thing about Rory Calhoun. You look at his IMDb page, you know, it’s just hundreds of credits with him in one episode of such and such. And same thing with her. She played a nurse a lot. She played a coach a lot, like in one episode of that show that you used to watch. Mm-hmm. And she’s very recognizable.

And I, I like the two of them. And I read that they were both really pleasant to work with, and they enjoyed each other, working with each other. I don’t remember who it was, somebody involved, I don’t remember if it was the director, but somebody in an interview much later talked about the making of the movie and said that it was a really positive experience.

They had a really good time. So that’s nice. 

Todd: One would hope so. Definitely much more positive and pleasant time apparently than Texas Chainsaw Massacre was. 

Craig: Yeah. Though again, some similarities because this d- because he do- well, he makes smoked meats. The big twist is what he’s making them out of, which is people, which is a twist enough.

Right. But that’s not the weird part. The fact, the fact that he sets up not even elaborate, but very simple traps on like a curve in the road to cause people to have accidents, and then he like gets them and turns them into meat, that’s, that’s enough for a horror movie. But that’s not the weird part. No.

Like that’s- 

Todd: It’s not the movie 

Craig: And I don’t even really understand- Ugh … the weird part either. 

Todd: It’s so bizarre. It is so bizarre, and it just happens without any explanation whatsoever, and this must have been what turned off a lot of people reading it. I think the, the brothers who wrote this, that combo really had a hard time getting studios interested in this.

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: U- United Artists finally came around after initially rejecting it because these shock films around 1980, 1979 were be- becoming big, and they’re like, “Well, this is a fricking bizarre, shocking thing, so maybe this will be a big hit.” So that’s why they picked it up, is because it was so strange and bizarre.

But before, just, just years before that, nobody wanted to touch it for that reason, and you can understand why. Ah, I guess we’ll get to it, but right now, like you said, it, it really… I, I think it jumps right in. You know, for a movie that felt a little slow, and certainly not slow because nothing was happening, but just slow to get to the interesting stuff, I thought, it starts off very promising.

Vincent is at his motel. He, uh, walks past his, uh, sister sleeping, so we establish that he’s got that girl, Ida, in there. Mm-hmm. They’ve got a preacher on television that they’re watching who turns out to be Wolfman Jack. 

Clip: Heat of hell, right? You bet. They walked across the sands and they knew they were sinners.

They knew that they didn’t know the word of the book that told them how they should behave, and they would get 

Todd: And that perked my dad’s ears up, because Wolfman Jack is from his era of radio. A very, very famous syndicated radio show out of, was it New York City? I can’t remember exactly. “Well, Wolfman Jack here.”

“Playing all the hits for you tonight.”

He’s been in a few horror movies. God, he was a featured voice in that one that we did that was kind of a musical. It was the made-for-TV one. You remember that? 

Craig: Wasn’t it Midnight, Midnight something? 

Todd: After Midnight? 

Craig: I don’t remember. Oh, God. It was a New Year’s Eve movie, wasn’t it? 

Todd: Yeah, a made-for-TV movie that it went off on all these interesting directions that had all those famous people in it or whatever.

Ah, God. 

Craig: Midnight Madness? 

Todd: No. 

Craig: I don’t know. 

Todd: Yo, man, that’s gonna drive me nuts. It’ll, it’ll come to us by the end of the episode, I’m sure. I’ll b- I’ll be frantically googling it while you’re talking at some point. Yeah, but he’s in it and he is a preacher, and I suppose that in itself is supposed to be funny, ’cause this wildly liberal dude playing a preacher would be hilar- Kind of like Sam Kinison playing a preacher in one of these mo- Oh, oh, was it Ozzy Osbourne plays a televangelist- Yeah, yeah

being interviewed in, uh… Which movie was that? What was that? 

Craig: God, I don’t remember. 

Todd: We’re getting old. The, 

Craig: the Trick or Treat or something like that, I think. Trick or 

Todd: Treat. Yeah, that was it. That was. So anyway, so here we are. He goes out and, uh, we establish then that they’re, they’re very religious and, and then he goes out to the road with his gun and he s- sits off in the bushes and it looks like he’s about to do something, but really he’s just watching the road as a guy and his, a gal on a motorcycle, she’s on a sidecar, lose control.

Now, this was so… For a movie that’s pretty well shot, this was so poorly shot. I have no idea what caused them to lose control. Did you see anything? 

Craig: No, and I don’t know. I assume that he had set a trap because we find out that that’s what he does, but that’s so… It’s so early in the movie that maybe we’re not supposed to know that yet.

Todd: I guess. 

Craig: But I mean, it’s shady nonetheless because- 

Todd: Yeah … 

Craig: the next thing we see, I mean, he walks up to them and they, they seem to be far more injured than they should be. Right. It didn’t really seem like that big of a deal. They 

Todd: just kinda bump into the tree and fall- tumble over. 

Craig: Yeah. They should’ve been…

I think they could’ve walked away from that one, but- Yeah, yeah … he carries her into the house. That was weird, too. It w- I assume they were a couple, but the guy that was riding the motorcycle was old. Yeah. And she looks like she’s supposed to be in her early 20s. You know, f- fairly typical beautiful blonde heroine of the movie.

But the farmer, Vincent, carries her in the house. 

Clip: Ida, come in here. I’m hungry, Vincent. What do you want? Good Lord has chosen to pluck this flower away from the Grim Reaper, and I wanna make good and sure he keeps his hands off her. I need your help. 

Craig: And he, like, tells Ida to- 

Todd: Do her thing? … 

Craig: get her ready or something.

Yeah. I don’t know. 

Todd: Yeah. At first I thought- 

Craig: But I guess they’re just gon- they’re gonna keep her. 

Todd: Yeah, she’s the one they’re gonna keep. They’re not gonna make meat out of her. He wants to save her. Who knows why. There’s… It’s weird. He just- 

Craig: Well, ’cause she’s hot. 

Todd: Well, yeah, but he- I think … just kinda says it and leaves her very matter-of-factly and goes off.

There’s not, like, a moment, you know? There’s nothing to really establish that, except for he just drags her in and says that to her and then walks out. And there’s a couple who shows up at the hotel, motel. Well, I think it’s the next day, and he’s sh- br- showing off his meats that are sitting there on the shelf.

He pulls up a box. He’s like, “2.95 for a box of Farmer Vincent’s famous smoked meats. No preservatives, no nothing.” And I was like, “God, get me that box at $2.95.” I 

Craig: know. It was huge. I was thinking the same thing. I was like, “That would be $40 now.” Like… Easily. 

Todd: I would stock up. But you have to 

Craig: knock 

Todd: off a few 

Craig: bucks ‘

Todd: cause it, the…

If, if this, there are no preservatives in this meat and this has been sitting out on the shelf. 

Craig: That’s true. Yeah. No preservatives. 

Todd: And then there are two little girls that are twins. That’s so weird. Yeah. Right? They’re like the twins from The Shining. They’re dressed alike, they’re little, they’re cute, and they both have these identical mirrored Mylar balloons that they’re carrying like a cartoon.

They wander into the shed or processing plant there, and there’s just hogs hanging up in various carcasses and various states of… Again, not refrigerated or anything. There is a cooler in there And then as they’re walking through this creepy moment, someone with a hog’s head jumps up and scares them, and they go running out.

And that’s just kinda it. Like, they run out to Mom and Dad, and Mom and Dad are ready to go anyway. The girls get in the car, and Farmer Vincent says, uh, “Don’t worry, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll calm them down.” And he goes over to the car and goes, “Rah!” 

Craig: That was so weird. Like, ’cause they’re freaking out ’cause they just got chased by this hog head person, and so they’re screaming, screaming, and the mom’s like, “I’ve never seen them act like this before.”

And then like, yeah, “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll calm them down.” And then he, like, terrifies them into silence. Yeah. And the mom and, and the mom and dad are like, “Okay, thanks, bye.” And they leave. 

Todd: It’s such a strange sequence. And then he drives in his tractor to this vine-covered door, goes inside. We don’t really know what’s inside here yet, and then he puts on an eight-track.

I don’t know what, what was on this eight-track. Is it, was it sound effects that are masking something? I, I never sorted that out. I don’t 

Craig: know. 

Todd: And a cop shows up. Now, Ida jumps this cop, which is supposed to be a jump scare. You, you think he’s, she’s gonna kill him ’cause he kinda wanders on into the room.

Well, ’cause 

Craig: she’s carrying, like… And she’s carrying, like, a butcher knife or something. 

Todd: Yeah. But it, it’s a joke. Is it her brother or his brother? 

Craig: It’s his brother. 

Todd: His brother He’s got a pretty young brother 

Craig: Who is also the sheriff 

Todd: Yeah. I, I think, uh, honestly, like, too young to be this guy’s brother unless his parents just had some- 

Craig: Yeah

Todd: some very distant… You know how that works. It does happen. 

Craig: The… Yeah. I was gonna say, those old farmers, you know, if, if their, if their wives pass, they would often remarry younger women and have more kids. That’s not, that’s not all that uncommon around these parts. 

Todd: Ah, true. Actually, you have a very good point there.

I stand corrected on that one. Yeah, so anyway, this is, um, Bruce. That’s his name. Played by a man named Paul Link, or Linky- 

Craig: Yeah, I don’t know … 

Todd: who was also all over television. He was in Parenthood, which is one of my… I love that movie. I haven’t seen it recently, but the Parenthood from 1989 with, uh, Steve Martin in it.

I remember thinking that was the most hilarious thing. And yeah, and he’s just been all over television, was working all the way up until 2018, and he’s okay. I, I feel like this guy of all of the actors in here is maybe the, the least convincing in his role. 

Craig: I don’t know. I thought he was fine. What conv- I don’t…

And again, I… I mean, it’s not that I wasn’t paying attention, but I was laying in bed. It was late at night. I, so I, I, I may not be as sharp on the details as I sometimes am, but I thought for a while… You were just about to reveal the real big twist, w- as you should. But at this point, Terry has woken up. The sheriff tells…

She’s like, “Where’s my boyfriend?” And Vincent’s like, “Oh, he died.” 

Todd: Right. And, uh, and- … Vincent chimes in and is like, “Yeah, and I already buried him.” Like, what? 

Craig: Yeah. She’s like, “I wanna see him,” and he’s like, “Oh, sorry, I already buried him.” Yeah. And, and she’s like, “How can you do that without anybody’s permission?”

And the sheriff just kinda goes, “Around these parts under certain circumstances, it’s okay.” 

Todd: Oh, he literally says that. Under c- “It’s okay.” 

Craig: It’s okay. 

Todd: And they, and they take her to this makeshift grave and this makeshift cemetery. It’s It’s 

Craig: funny. But from that point she’s just living with them. 

Todd: And she’s cool with it.

Craig: Like, she doesn’t seem to really object. It’s- 

Todd: No … 

Craig: bizarre. She 

Todd: gets over this boyfriend very quickly. They must not have been together very long. Oh, maybe he’s too old for her anyway. 

Craig: Maybe, maybe she’s, maybe she’s a road twitch that… But, but what was weird to me is not o- okay, so she lives there, but going back to the sheriff brother, he’s always hanging around, and he’s always talking about, like, how great the meat is and stuff too.

I thought for the longest time that he was a part of the operation. 

Todd: Yes, me too, and he has no clue. 

Craig: No, I was s- I was shocked later to find out that he didn’t know about it because it seemed like he was in on it all along. 

Todd: Yeah. Seems like he’s… I mean, especially his activity here where he’s like, “Yeah, well, we buried the guy.”

Like, “Sorry, ma’am, it just happens. It’s what we do.” 

Craig: No, so apparently he’s just real dumb, I guess. 

Todd: Yeah. So maybe him playing dumb was just me thinking that he was too simple in his role, honestly. Honestly, I shouldn’t criticize it too much because it’s really the writing that’s silly, you know? This guy’s doing the best he can with the character he’s been given, which is this dumb cop who eventually kind of is trying to woo this girl.

Craig: Yeah, but e- that’s gross too. Yeah. And, and again, that’s like… It’s really weird because it seems like he goes from being as suspicious almost as his brother and his sister, I guess. I guess they’re all siblings Which is weird. Up, like up to a certain point and then it’s like, oh, no, he’s a good guy. But up to that point he’s gross.

Like- Yeah, he’s 

Todd: gross and shady. 

Craig: Yeah. And he at some point invi- ta- invites her out. I don’t remember if he invites her out on a date or if he just out on a drive or what, but they drive to I guess like Lover’s Lane or the equivalent, I don’t know, some like overlook or something. Mm. And there’s a whole bunch of cars here.

This was the only part of the movie that potentially might have made me chuckle. Because he pulls up behind all these cars and he gets on his radio or whatever and, and says, “Hey, this is the sheriff and you’re all committing crimes or breaking the law or something. Get out of here.” And he starts calling out the cars one by one.

And you may as well have had that music behind it, the like… The Benny Hill theme song, yeah. Yeah, the Benny Hill. Yeah, because they, because they all just start to scatter. But my favorite one was one couple, for reasons unexplainable, gets out of the car fully nude- … to just kind of throw their arms up in the air and run around in circles for a second and then get back in the car and leave.

Todd: That’s so dumb. 

Craig: That was hilarious to

me. Hilariously stupid. I was like, “What are you doing?” You’re, uh, fully nude, just get out of the car, like jump around for a few minutes, then get back in. Oh, boy. 

Todd: There’s just a lot of stuff like this like that’s just so simple and basic that I’m thinking, I guess this is their attempt at comedy. 

Craig: Well, and I actually found that funny, but I lost my train of thought.

My train of thought was the whole reason that he evacuates all those people is so that they have a good view of the drive-in. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: They’re gonna watch it from this overlook, which, you know, that’s fine, noth- that’s actually kind of, you know, romantic, good idea, whatever. But as soon as she gets into the movie, he starts like manhandling her.

Yeah. Like… 

Todd: Yeah, like he gets very rapey all of a sudden. 

Craig: Yeah, yeah. And eventually when he does think that she calls for help, she doesn’t actually, it’s a cry over the radio, but when he thinks she cries for help he’s like, “Okay, gosh, sorry,” and he does back off. But before that he’s gross. I mean, he tackles her and- Yeah

and gets on top of her. 

Todd: And then once they find out that there’s a cry for help over the radio she’s just like fine again. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: Like this guy who just tried to- jump her is, uh, “No, they’re just cool now.” 

Craig: Yeah, they’re friendly from then on. 

Todd: There’s a lot of this in the movie where people are… It’s not realistic, you know?

And most comedies aren’t, but, you know, it’s especially- Right … it’s not realistic in a way that it almost feels like a teenager wrote this. You know? “All right, now they’re gonna do this, now they’re gonna do that,” but there’s no flow. There’s no, like, sense of where, okay, yeah, but how are their emotions gonna shift to allow this to happen?

And the point is, no, they don’t. It’s just a, it’s just plot. And so I think that was another thing that kinda made me roll my eyes at this movie. Like, it’s like the way that this cop ingratiates himself to her in the first place is she is completely distraught over her boyfriend’s death and crying, and then he g- goes up next to her and he says- 

Clip: What is it, child?

You feel all alone in this world? None of us are ever really alone. You do have someone What do you mean? Why, you have yourself. Think about it. You’ve been blessed, child. Oh, the ways of the Lord are mysterious. The very fact that you’re sitting here with us proves that it was preordained

Yeah I guess you’re right 

Craig: Oh my God. 

Todd: And now she’s h- she’s fine again. This grieving process of this woman was, was instantaneous. Just quick turnaround from grieving her dead boyfriend, who these people buried without her permission, into undying gratitude for this man and willing to go out on a date with him immediately.

There’s just so much plot and not a lot of attention paid to making it make a lot of sense in the real world. 

Craig: Well, and because ultimately it’s all very unimportant. A- and, and- 

Todd: Yeah, that’s true … I 

Craig: mean, there really, there really is no- 

Todd: There’s nothing important in this movie 

Craig: No, we’re not working towards anything.

It’s just a vehicle for this weird scenario, basically. And maybe the reason that she’s not into the sheriff is because he’s too young for her, because she’s apparently only into super old guys because- … pretty soon she starts falling for th- the farmer. 

Todd: Which comes out of nowhere. 

Craig: I don’t know. I mean, it’s, it’s just clunky.

It’s like… It’s, it’s later, I, but… And I don’t even remember what it was, but he, like, rescues her from something or saves her from something. Oh, from drowning, because Ida starts to get jealous and tries to drown her. Yeah Which was also a hilarious scene. But we’re, we’re … The big twist is at some point, it doesn’t matter where, somewhere about a third of the way through the movie, we get introduced to this garden.

And at first it just looks like a regular garden, but then it comes to one particular patch where there is something covered in burlap sacks- 

Todd: Yeah, a bunch 

Craig: of burlap- … moving around. 

Todd: Yeah 

Craig: Moving around. You know, some, uh, some sort of crop- Mm-hmm … planted into the garden. Could be a cabbage. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: Could be a tomato plant.

You don’t know, but it’s moving around and making noise. And- And that’s odd … 

Todd: and the inspector who had been coming before to inspect his plant, his hog plant, came back late at night, I guess unannounced, and decided he wanted to poke around the property, which is what brings him into this garden. I think he even climbs over to get in.

And when he lifts up one of these burlap sacks, which is moving around and making noise, he hears a sound from the speakers and he gets clubbed by Vincent from behind. And it turns out that Vincent and Ida are planting their victims into the ground. 

Craig: Alive 

Todd: They’re burying them up to their necks alive.

Ida, I guess she was a nurse or something like that. She knows how to sever their vocal cords so that they can’t do more than just make these, like- Ah … kind of sounds. 

Craig: Uh, oh, it, it, it’s horrible. Mm-hmm. They’re horrible, disgusting sounds. 

Todd: Yep. 

Craig: Ugh, gross. 

Todd: And to what end, I’m not sure. Like, is this their way of aging the meat or something?

See, when I was a kid watching this, I had the impression there was some supernatural thing happening here. You know? Like, they had this special method for doing something with these bodies And that’s why they planted them, like it was a magical ground or they were turning them into creatures or something like that.

That was my recollection. But there really isn’t. It’s just like a way of torturing these guys for a little while. 

Craig: Well, I read a summary somewhere that said they’re fattening them up, and, and may- I… They’re… We do see a- Well, they 

Todd: force feed them, yeah … 

Craig: where they force feed them, right. But I don’t know. It’s just so strange.

Like what? And it’s just- It’s just 

Todd: strange to be strange … 

Craig: if there is an explanation for why, if I missed it because I don’t remember them ever saying, “I know it tenderizes the meat,” or keeps their temperature low or something, y- I- Yeah … I have no idea. It’s just so that it can look like a cabbage patch of zombie heads.

Mm. Because they basically seem like zombies even though they’re not, right? Like, they’re- 

Todd: Yeah … 

Craig: they are still fully aware. Like, they just can’t talk because their vocal cords- 

Todd: Yeah … 

Craig: she does, you know, uh, apparently precision surgery right there in the garden, and sews them back up, and they’re just fine, and they just…

Oh, my God. It’s so weird and stupid. 

Todd: I mean, when you think about it, it’s actually pretty horrifying, if you think about it. I mean, you’re buried up to your neck. You can’t move at all. Oh, 

Craig: yeah. 

Todd: You’re stuck there. It’s just your head. You can’t scream nothing, and you, you can’t move. I mean, how claustrophobic would that feel?

It’s like being buried alive, but you have, uh, air. And they come in every now and then and force feed them. They have to defecate somewhere, so I guess they’re doing that in the ground where they are. I c- they got a lot of cleaning to do after they pull up these weeds. Let’s just put it that way. 

Craig: Gross.

Todd: Yeah, the whole thing when you, when you think about it is super gross, and I would feel like a modern movie would really ki- would really kinda human centipede this, you know? They would really try to play up how sinister and dark this is, and what it’s really doing to these people. But because this movie is just so off the wall and it just feels more cartoonish than anything else.

Craig: Yeah. It does. It feels like a really dark Scooby-Doo episode. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: I mean, I can just see the Scooby Gang all buried up to their necks and, oh, gosh. But yeah, it is… It’s, it’s goofy like that and I don’t remember… I thought I remembered it being something, some commentary on meat consumption. I, I almost thought that it was, like, critical of meat consumption, and I don’t know if it’s meant to be or not.

Mm-hmm. I think it’s more just about maybe… And, and to say it’s about anything is- Giving it some credit … a stretch, but yeah. You know, there may be some commentary there on consumerism and whatever. But yeah, it’s just strange. It’s just like… It’s, it’s like a, a nightmare scenario. I mean, and, and to be fair- You know, as you said, if you think about it, it is really nightmarish and it is a great visual.

It looks cool. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: But it’s, it’s almost like they had an idea of something that would look cool and they were right and they kinda built a movie around it, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with anything. Yeah, 

Todd: it doesn’t make sense. 

Craig: It just, well, and it just allows for them to play in that cool set piece.

Yeah. That’s it. Like, there’s no purpose to it. It’s just that it can look cool and they can play there. 

Todd: To be honest, aside from the fact that it’s established pretty early on that they’re killing people and he’s grinding them up for meat, we never actually really see him kill anybody. 

Craig: No. 

Todd: We never see him grinding up bodies for meat.

We never see him cackling in delight when somebody’s eating his sausages or whatever like that. Like, we never s- I don’t think we even ever see anybody eating this meat. So- 

Craig: Yeah, I mean, you see him eating, like, meat sticks and stuff. That’s true. But it’s not like they’re gnawing on raw meat or human meat.

Yeah. And I mean, it is in a slaughterhouse, so you, I mean, you see sides of pork- Pork and stuff … and whatnot. And event- well, but eventually he has human torsos. Uh, I mean, they look fake. They’re obviously styrofoam the way they’re moving around, but- Yeah … my point is, you do see some scary imagery, but there’s not, you’re right, there’s not a lot of on-screen violence Or gore, uh, save for kind of the very, very end, which still isn’t really very explicit.

Todd: And so this set piece here is the only thing that serves to give us any real 

Craig: shock? 

Todd: Shock, yeah, I guess. Uh, character stuff with Vincent and Ida allow them to play together, because otherwise this just comes off as a goofy-ish comedy. Because there becomes this whole plot where Terry falls in love with Vincent.

Craig: Yeah. Right. 

Todd: Which comes out of nowhere, but it’s like you said, it’s after he saves her from drowning. And then V- and she tries to kiss him, which was just so- She 

Craig: tries to seduce him … 

Todd: really fast. 

Craig: She throws her… Yeah. 

Todd: It’s so gross. Everything about it was strange. It comes out of nowhere. The- there’s a huge age difference.

You can’t imagine that she’s actually attracted to him. 

Craig: Well, and it feels incestuous too. Yeah. Like, I know that they’re not biologically related, but it definitely felt like a father-daughter kind of relationship up to this point, and then that just makes it even creepier. 

Todd: And then he’s all weird about it because he’s religious and he’s like, “We need to be married first before we can even kiss.”

And so then he goes downtown to the preacher to talk to him about it, and he gets a, an engagement ring for her, and he… There’s a moment where he proposes this to her. I, I mean, this is almost like a whole separate movie with a whole separate tone, and it’s so stupid. It feels so forced and basic, just like a wacky cartoon that we’re watching that’s not even that wacky.

Just kind of, just kind of cringey. 

Craig: Yeah, I don’t know. I, I, I didn’t love it either, but I thought that it was fairly apropos for the type of movie that it is. It also reminded me a lot of, I, I won’t be able to remember the name of it, but there was a movie where, I don’t know, a couple of couples or something went to an island and there was a weird family that lived there.

And the kids were like grown-ups, but they still acted like kids. 

Todd: American Gothic. 

Craig: Do you remember that ? American Gothic. 

Todd: Yeah, mm-hmm. 

Craig: Yeah. This reminds me a lot of that. I, I mean, even- Oh, yeah … even the box art for this movie, the, the brother and sister, Ida and Vincent, are s- are standing like the, the painting American Gothic.

Todd: It’s true. It’s true. That did it better. That struck a better tone, I thought. 

Craig: Maybe. I think there’s a fair argument there. But again, it’s just take whatever, everyday people, your victims or whatever, put them in this insane environment with, with wacky characters and, and just watch for a little while So I don’t, I don’t know.

I don’t want to accuse you of being overly harsh because everything that you are saying I, I don’t disagree with. I just, I didn’t hate it. 

Todd: Well, I had to keep reminding myself that this is sort of a product of its time, and I think the humor w- is just… Like, nowadays our humor’s just a little bit more, I don’t wanna say sophisticated.

I’m not sure what the word is I’m looking for, but I don’t think we have the patience for this kind of basic humor like this anymore because our movies are, I don’t know, they’re just- they just strike a different tone, and it’s hard to go back to this anymore. It would be like watching Meatballs today.

It works and it’s funny. You can’t say it’s not funny, but it’s just not our style anymore. And I feel like for its time this movie was probably just a bizarre, fun, goofy little spectacle that nobody knew what to do with, and for that, you know, it- it’s, it’s interesting. But now I feel like years later it feels kind, just kinda stupid tonally, and I, I couldn’t really laugh at it.

And it’s so cartoonish that to even call it a dark comedy just feels off because our comedy, our dark comedies nowadays can be so freaking dark that this feels like child’s play in that arena. Do you know what I’m saying? 

Craig: Yeah, I get what you’re saying. I, I mean, I, in a nutshell I feel like you’re saying it’s a product of its time- Yeah

and, and it may not appeal to modern sensibilities. And, and I 100% agree. Like, my high school students would think this was so dumb, and I don’t think they would get why anybody would find it amusing or, or humorous. I think I still am a little bit nostalgic for that. Right. To be fair, dumb humor a lot of the time is a comfort for me because- 

Todd: Mm

Craig: the world feels very serious and heavy a lot of the time- Yeah … right now, and it’s just kind of nice to just to revert back to that 13 or 14-year-old boy who was carefree and could laugh about farts and you 

Todd: know, like- Well, yeah. And I… 100% behind you on that, and I think that’s why I couldn’t hate this movie.

I, I get kinda tired of… Because I think we’ve been getting it since the ’90s, this sort of edgy, self-aware, cynical, you know? It, it… Just everything, from children’s cartoons even. Everything’s with a wink and a nod and edgy and cynical and doesn’t take itself seriously, that I feel like i- i- that was fun for a while.

But now I, I, I want movies that are with heart, you know? I k- I kinda want some movie that even though it’s dumb, it’s just really going in for dumb. Or- 

Craig: Yeah … 

Todd: did you see the Masters of the Universe movie? 

Craig: Not yet. 

Todd: Okay. I’m very biased because I was a huge He-Man fan growing up. And I know that that movie is not doing well in the theaters, but it doesn’t seem to matter because I think Amazon is thrilled because they’ve gotten the audience they were looking for, and it’s gone over really well with that audience.

Craig: Good. 

Todd: And their, their whole business model is very different. You know, they don’t really care so much about box office numbers. They care about getting subscriptions and, and targeting these niche groups with, with products and things like that. So to that level, it was successful. And I’ll tell you as a fan why I thought it was successful and why it worked for me and why I went back to see it a second time Is because it wasn’t poking fun at its subject matter every 10 minutes.

It wasn’t turning to the audience and laughing and winking and going, “Isn’t this silly?” You know, all these men running around. Like, it is silly. The He-Man universe is goofy as hell. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: It’s so stupid. All right, we know that. It’s silly, but we like it anyway. And so it gave us a movie, it played it straight with, uh, still a lot of comedy, still a lot of fun, and still a lot of humor, but it retained the heart of, “This is the story.

This is the universe. We make no apologies for these characters, and we’re not gonna just laugh at them in this sort of meta way.” Like, the Barbie movie did that really well, too. And so I feel like I’m hoping that we’re turning a corner here. And, uh, this is a very roundabout way of saying, “Yes, I agree with you.”

I… This kind of thing is, es- to a certain degree, very comforting because it’s just boldly going in a direction and it’s not trying to be cute and meta and winky and- Uh-huh … which ends up sometimes just feeling, like, cynical and insincere. 

Craig: Yeah. Ah. 

Todd: Okay. Maybe I’ve apologi- maybe I’ve, you know… I haven’t changed my opinion on the movie.

I still found it kinda boring and I was still rolling my eyes at it and whatnot. I get it. But, but still, I, I’m not gonna say I hated it and I’m not gonna discourage people from watching it. 

Craig: Right. I… And honestly, I felt the same way. Like, I wasn’t super enthused about it either. Uh, before we started recording, Alan thought we had already recorded this morning, and he asked how the podcast went.

And I said, “Oh, I, we haven’t done it yet.” I said, “But gosh, I don’t really know what I’m gonna say about this movie.” And here we are, here we are an hour in. But I didn’t love it either, but I mean, it was, you know, something easy to watch. It’s brainless. And the things that we’re picking apart like, “Oh, that’s so stupid,” yeah, they are stupid, but whatever.

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: It’s, it’s a, it’s, it’s a dumb movie. I don’t think it’s trying to be, trying… I don’t think it’s trying to be anything that it isn’t. You know? It’s- 

Todd: Yeah … 

Craig: it, it… So I, I actually would recommend it ’cause I do think that it’s, though a little bit slow, I do think that it’s pretty well made. Ultimately, the cop, who’s the brother, gets suspicious when he finds out that farmer Vincent and the girl are getting married, and so he starts poking around.

I don’t remember. His 

Todd: jealousy drives him. 

Craig: His jealousy drives him, and I guess at this point he becomes kind of the hero. Yeah. And we find out that he didn’t know what his brother was doing and, gosh, I don’t know. Uh- 

Todd: Yeah … 

Craig: for reasons that I don’t understand, right before the wedding or on the wedding night or something, Ida puts something in the girl’s drink and she passes out.

Now, I thought Ida was trying to poison and kill her- 

Todd: Uh-huh … 

Craig: because it seems like even though Ida and Vincent are brother and sister, it also seems like she’s jealous. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: But then she also looks at girly magazines, so I don’t know what’s going on with her. 

Todd: Yeah, she’s an enigma, this Ida character. 

Craig: But the girl just passes out.

Now, I don’t know what they were planning on… And, and Vincent is in on it. He apparently was in on the drugging. I don’t know what that’s about. I don’t know what they were going to do with her. 

Todd: Yeah. But Vincent’s kinda 180 here. Like, was this all an elaborate thing for them to just get her dead too? He seems very sincere and interested in marrying her, but then w- as soon as she drugs the girl, which she seems to do without Vincent’s permission, or was he in on it?

Craig: Well, he doesn’t act surprised when she passes out. 

Todd: No, he doesn’t. And he’s like, “All right, well, go, we’ll go to work on her.” What? Wh- why, why did that come in and out of nowhere? W- were we supposed to believe that this was all an elaborate ploy for him to mess with this girl for a while before they gave her the same fate as everyone else?

It’s just baffling to me. Again, I just feel like it’s a very plot-driven movie, and now they just wanted the plot to go in this direction, so they made this scene so that the plot could go in that direction. 

Craig: Yeah, I don’t know. And then, like, there’s other weird stuff going on with the garden, like I don’t even know, like- Oh, 

Todd: man

Craig: and we, I mean, we skipped a bunch. Like, there’s other victims from the road. Like, he traps a whole band, and the lead singer of that band is Cliff from Cheers. Did you notice that’s John Ratzenberger? Oh my God. I didn’t recog- I didn’t recognize him at all. 

Todd: No. 

Craig: Um- I did not … I didn’t, uh, until… I, I didn’t even read about it until after the fact.

Todd: Well, I saw the name come up in the credits, and I was looking for him through the whole movie, and I didn’t think I could find him, and I thought, “Well, he must’ve had, like, a tiny bit role in the background someplace.” 

Craig: He was the lead singer of that band in the van. Oh, interesting. Uh, and then there’s, there’s also a swinger couple who are like…

That was weird. 

Todd: That was charming for me. Again, because it was so dated. Like, I thought if you had seen this movie back in 1980, probably all of this would seem so modern and hilarious to y- hilarious to you. But now if I was watching this with some young person, I would have to decode everything they were talking about.

It, it reminded me of Terror Vision. You remember? Half of the comedy of Terror Vision is about this swinging couple, and they’re, they’re making all these innuendos that don’t make sense today. Like, about how, oh, he’s very Greek and all that, which at the time was slang for homosexual or something. And-

it’s very similar here. Like, they’ve had these innuendos that I think if you were not of the era, you would have you scratching your head and would go right over it. They just seem like they’re bizarre. And then there’s that scene where they they go for no real reason, they cut to the room and she’s dressed up in some leather outfit, and she’s got a whip, and we get a good five minutes of her just running around, I guess, practicing with her whip.

Craig: That was weird.

Todd: And then- 

Craig: You didn’t know what was happening … 

Todd: the woman just whips everything in the room, just completely destroys the room, and then the guy comes out in the w- the weirdest, most sexually unappealing mishmash of costumery you could possibly imagine. 

Craig: Like, and like lingerie. It 

Todd: was strange. With a plastic skirt and all…

I mean, ha ha ha, look at how kinky they are. They’re so kinky that d- they’re just completely over the top. And she starts… He’s like, “Rub me with oil. Rub me with oil.” And she’s pouring oil all over his chest, and he’s just getting off on her, like, rubbing oil into his clavicle. I mean, it it’s just dumb. 

Craig: Well, right, and then Ida and Victor, whatever his name is, come in carrying ropes and stuff, and they’re like, “Yeah, come join us.”

Like, ew. 

Todd: Tie us up. 

Craig: Which they do and then- Yeah … bury them, I guess. Yeah, so there’s a whole garden full of people, but they, you know… I don’t even ultimately know what happens to them. I feel like- Yeah … some of them- 

Todd: They get hypnotized … 

Craig: like, maybe break out? 

Todd: Well, ultimately. Ultimately, what happens to them is that they end up breaking out, and I don’t understand why.

I don’t understand how. One of them gets loose, and I think it’s the, her boyfriend, right? 

Craig: I don’t know. 

Todd: Terry’s boyfriend gets loose somehow and is able to pull himself out, and he more or less digs the others out, and then it becomes kind of a pseudo-zombie movie because they’re stumbling down the streets with the smoke behind them in the dark, gurgling- Gurgle

’cause they can’t make any sounds, and coming after the couple. 

Craig: God, I don’t even remember that. All I remember is that the, Bruce, the sheriff, is trying to rescue her, and they’re in the slaughterhouse and, like, he’s slaughtered some people, and he’s got their torsos, like, hung up on hooks, and he’s putting it in the smoker and stuff.

But Bruce shows up. There’s fighting between Bruce and Ida at some point. Yeah. But then the, the big showdown is this big chainsaw duel between- … Vincent, who’s now wearing that pig head. By the way- Oh, 

Todd: God … 

Craig: it must have been Ida in the pig head the first time, right? I guess so. It had to have been. It had 

Todd: to have been, yeah, ’cause Vincent was out, was in the other place, yeah.

Craig: I was really confused by that. But anyway, so he’s in this big pig head thing, and they have a chainsaw fight. Now To just kind of throw in the pig head thing, I mean, sure, why not? And it looks really good, and I guess that, that image of him kind of standing in the doorway kind of Texas Chainsaw style with the chainsaw up and him in this big pig mask, that image was used on a cover of Fangoria that if you can get your hands on now is worth a lot of money because it was recalled.

Like- Too gory … once it was on, yeah, once it was on the shelves, it was considered too gory, so they recalled it- That’s crazy … and put out a different cover. 

Todd: For Fangoria. 

Craig: I know. Jesus. But I know. It, I know. I– God, it seemed like there was always gory stuff, but maybe not on the cover. I don’t remember. But I agree that that image itself, I feel like I’m familiar with that image more than I am with the movie.

Todd: Well, it’s been copied. It’s a thing. 

Craig: Is– Was- 

Todd: Even like in- Was 

Craig: that- … 

Todd: Saw, right? … 

Craig: Saw? 

Todd: Yeah. Yeah Somebody had a pig head mask in… Oh, what’s that movie? Is it the, not The Stranger. Is it The Strangers? No, they have other masks. 

Craig: No, I- It’s 

Todd: a home- … 

Craig: You’re Next … 

Todd: home invasion movie. Yeah, You’re Next that does that too, and maybe that all came from this movie.

I don’t know. But when you think about the logistics of this It makes no sense. Like, he can’t even- No … see out of that. He’s ju- he literally has a pig’s carcass’s head over his head, right? 

Craig: Yeah, and it’s enormous. If that came off of a real pig, it would be ridiculously heavy. 

Todd: Yeah, and how can he see? 

Craig: He’d be bobbling around.

Todd: Yeah. It’s just like, it’s very impractical, and I can’t imagine it’d be very pleasant to wear either. 

Craig: I don’t know. But they fight. They have a duel with chainsaws, which is fine. I, I guess this was a last-minute rewrite. It wasn’t initially in, and then it became kind of the most iconic scene of the movie.

And it’s fine. They fight, and all the while, Terry, the girl, is on the conveyor belt, like being pulled towards the meat slicer. So it’s a race against time. But, uh, eventually he mortally wounds Vincent with the chainsaw. Like, he, he gets him in the torso, and immediately is concerned, like, “Oh, Vincent.” Like, this guy was just trying to kill you, but okay, whatever.

He swings in on a rope. That was the weirdest thing. Like, so in one scene, he’s in with Vincent, he’s like, “Oh, gosh. Oh, Vincent,” and then the next scene we cut back to her on the conveyor belt, and f- from the back wall he swings in, like I guess on one of the chains for the meat, I don’t know. But like Tarzan swings in just so that he can flip a switch- 

Todd: Yes

Craig: to turn off… Like, why didn’t you just run in there? Like, dramatic.

Right. But he gets in there and he turns the switch off so she’s fine, and then they both go in there and they’re like, “Oh, Vincent, it’s okay. You’re gonna be okay.” What the… He’s psychotic. 

Clip: Yeah. 

Craig: And then this part was also hilarious because there, it’s, there’s very dramatic music. Uh-huh. And they treat this as the emotional climax of the movie, and they play it 100% straight.

Uh-huh. And it’s so funny. Like, he’s like, “You can have the motel and, and you can have the farm. Just… A- and you can have the garden.” And she’s like, “What garden?” And he’s like, “The secret garden.” And then he doesn’t say anything else about it. And then he’s like, “Oh, oh, and take care of my animals.” And the guy’s like, “Yeah, I’ll, I’ll take care of your animals.”

And he’s like, “My whole life’s been a lie.” And they’re like, “What?” And I, again, straight as an arrow they play this thing. He says with great remorse and, and much emotion, “I used-” artificial preservatives. And then he dies. 

Todd: I chuckled at that. 

Craig: Uh- I 

Todd: did chuckle at that. 

Craig: I chuckled at it too. That- 

Todd: Mm-hmm … 

Craig: in the moment I recognized, oh, this is so funny because they’re playing it so straight.

Like, more than in any other part of the movie, they’re really committing to this with the score and everything. Yeah. And it worked. And, you know, then it’s silly. Like, they walk out together. Now, where I thought that this was going was that as horrified as Terry and Bruce had appeared to be by everything that was going on, I thought that they were gonna take over the operation.

Clip: Hmm. 

Craig: Why I thought that, I don’t know. No. Apparently, apparently that’s not what happens. They walk away from the motel and he’s like, “Oh, yeah, this place is awful. That’s why I ran away when I was little.” What? What are you talking about? He’s like, “I don’t know what I’m gonna do with it.” And she’s like, “What do you mean what you’re gonna do with it?

Burn it down.” He says, “You mean arson?” And she says, “That’s what I’d do. This place is evil.” Cut to black, the end. Like what? 

Todd: Yeah. Oh my God. 

Craig: Ah. Wrap it up. Yeah, wrap it up. Okay, folks, it’s over. Go home. 

Todd: The horrors of arson. 

Craig: Yeah. And then there’s some great honky-tonk music over the credits that I very much enjoyed.

Todd: Ah. 

Craig: Yeah, it’s a, it’s a goofy movie. It’s goofy. It’s, it’s… I, I wouldn’t go so far to say as it’s good, but I can understand why it has its fans. I would imagine that if you’re somebody who saw this around the time that it came out- Hmm … it may have even kind of been a breath of fresh air. I don’t think that a lot…

I don’t think there were a lot of horror comedies. I mean, they’ve always been around. We’ve done some that predate this, but I don’t think they were as common as they are today. Especially, I mean, this is right around the era that we were heading r- right into the big slasher explosion. And this is, uh, a little different.

It’s quirky. It’s a little slow. It’s too long. Yeah. Way too long. It should’ve been, it should’ve been an hour and 28 minutes instead of an hour and 40 however minutes it was. But I don’t think it’s a waste of time. I, I can see why it has its fans. I can see why it has a cult following. I can see why it has a reputation, and for those reasons, I think it’s worth your time.

But temper your expectations. It’s not great. 

Todd: Yeah, I think this is why I remembered it more fondly than I, than I experienced it this time around, is because I think probably for its time it was a bit of a breath of fresh air. When I saw it, quirky enough and bizarre enough that I was like, “Wow, this is clever in how quirky and bizarre,” and this irreverent comic romp that goes in all these strange directions and changes tone a lot.

But ultimately, like for today’s audience, like you, I’m not gonna say don’t watch it, but I don’t know. I’m not gonna see it again. I’m not that… I would watch Tourist Trap again, you know? I’d watch Terrorvision again. I’d watch Terrorvision 20 times. 

Craig: Maybe. 

Todd: But this, no, it, it just, it was just too dumb for me, and that’s all I have to say, I guess.

Craig: Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. Fair enough I don’t know. I just, uh, the people who talk to us, I feel like some of them would get a kick out of this, but I totally see where you’re coming from. By the way, The Midnight Hour. 

Todd: Thank you. The Midnight Hour. Oh, man. With that fantastic slow-mo scene. 

Craig: Dance sequence. 

Todd: Oh, the dance sequence is great.

Craig: Oh, that, I liked, 

Todd: yeah. But the one with The Smiths song in the, in the cellar with the slow motion with their swinging around and the blood, the wine that’s kinda flowing like blood. 

Craig: God, I don’t remember that part. Oh, 

Todd: such a 

Craig: good scene. It’s a good movie, though. I liked that movie. 

Todd: Yeah, that was a fun movie.

Craig: Check that one out. 

Todd: That was silliness and dumbness that kinda worked. Uh, that was really campy. 

Craig: Yeah. Yeah. 

Todd: Yeah, this one- 

Craig: That one’s more fun. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: Watch that one. 

Todd: Watch The Midnight Hour. Skip Motel Hell and go to The Midnight Hour. Didn’t you think it was a little on the nose, too, that they showed the, the sign just before the end credits, they zoomed in on the sign Motel Hello and sparked out the O in very slow and dramatic fashion like we didn’t know this was going on?

Craig: Uh- … I’m a sucker for that kind of thing. 

Todd: Well, thank you guys for listening and, and we hope you enjoyed this show. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. Please write us a review on those podcast, uh, review places like Apple Podcast. We love to see those, and that also helps drive more traffic towards our show.

You can look us up, Two Guys and a Chainsaw Podcast. We’ll get you to our website, our Facebook, and social media pages. We got a Patreon, patreon.com/chainsawpodcast. Full unedited episodes after we record them are immediately out. That’s our whole phone call, including what we talk about before and after and all those juicy bits that we leave out of the general public eye, if you enjoy it, or their ear, I guess you could say.

If you enjoy this, please consider subscribing, patreon.com/chainsawpodcast. Only five bucks a month gets you that, gets you our book club, and a whole bunch of other goodies. Until next time, I’m Todd. 

Craig: And I’m Craig. 

Todd: With Two Guys and a Chainsaw.