Eye On Horror
Eye On Horror
Retaliating with The Geare Brothers
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This episode, the boys review Jaws in IMAX, The Movie (actually title), Correia watches Children of the Corn 1-3, and Jacob live at The New Beverly Theatre. Shortly after, the boys welcome The Geare Brothers, writers of the upcoming revenge genre mashup, The Retaliators; to talk about cult movies, real life inspiration for their film, and of course revenge. The Retaliators is out in select theaters September 14th, check out https://www.retaliatorsmovie.com/ to find a screening near you!
Trigger Warnings this episode for descriptions of SA and Violence.
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Welcome to Eye On Horror, the official podcast of iHorror.com. This is episode 94. Otherwise known as season five, Episode 16. I am your host James Jay Edwards and with me as always is your other host, Jacob Davison. How you doing, Jacob?
Jacob Davidson:Doing? Okay, just trying to stay cool. With the heatwave going on
James Jay Edwards:is still hot. We were recording super early today. And it's already like 90 degrees. What the hell is
Jacob Davidson:my brain is fried. I could I could barely sleep last night.
James Jay Edwards:Oh, also with us, as always is your other other hosts John Korea and I'm sure he has something to say about the heat.
Jonathan Correia:Yeah, we were saying how I was in sticky man mode. Like four episodes ago. Yeah. Let me tell you never never came out of it. And what's even worse is the show I'm working on right now. I don't know if I've said it on the podcast. I'm working on quantum leap. The reboot, but we're doing a Western episode this week. We're doing a Western episode during a fucking heatwave. So you know, it was great sitting in a tent for fucking eight hours a day
Jacob Davidson:sicky man never ends
James Jay Edwards:I was sure you'd have something to say about the heat because you're the one of us they actually works outside on their day job.
Jonathan Correia:Which is insane because I'm an ad min but whatever. But no, it's not too bad. We actually have a decent spot where there's like some tree shade and we finally got some AC units for our tight so it's manageable
James Jay Edwards:Now the real question is working on a Western Episode How realistic is the horse training from Nope
Jonathan Correia:it's it's i i haven't witnessed that that aspect of it yet but it is honestly Nope has been in the back of my mind all week this week because we are shooting on the universal back and we are shooting in the in the western town so it is it is really it is really fucking cool and like the amount of work that the props and set deck team have put in it because I've worked in the western town before but it was always like turning like the saloon set into like an interview room or like something else. I've never worked in the wet in the in western town. They call that part of the universal when it's an actual Western so it's really cool seeing something where it's like always been kind of a shell of it be fully used to its full thing. It's like holy shit. Yeah, no, I can see why this is used so much in films because it looks great. I can't wait. Well, Quantum Leap premieres September 16 on NBC peacock.
James Jay Edwards:So what do you guys been watching this week? They're not a lot has come out since the last time we talked.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah. Now a lot of new stuff has come out but an old classic got a brand new rerelease and I'm talking about Steven Spielberg's Jaws which got an IMAX and 3d release and I saw it an IMAX at the AMC universal a couple days ago. And I was skeptical, but I went to the IMAX version. So it wasn't in 3D, but it was blown up and had the video and audio transferred to IMAX levels. And it was pretty awesome. Like, you know, just seeing Jaws on the biggest screen possible with the highest film and audio quality possible just almost made it feel like rewatch watching it for the first time. I can
Jonathan Correia:see like it being blown up for IMAX working really well, especially if you're working off of like, you know, original negatives with the transfer and restoration. The 3D I'm a bit interested in because that was my senior thesis for critical studies was rereleasing films in 3D and the different techniques used for granted that was God 10 years ago now fuck me. I'm old.
Jacob Davidson:We're all old.
Jonathan Correia:Yeah, we're getting old. So I'm a little interested in like, what they did in their process. And also, why because that's not really a thing anymore. Like no one's really, really, really seeing things in 3D. And we're doing really any 3D. And I'm also kind of scared. Is this going to be the next? The start of the next big 3D Swing? Because that was exhausting.
James Jay Edwards:It's one thing if a movie if a movie was shot in 3D, like say the Final Destination movies or you know, something that they knew was 3D From the beginning, something like Jaws, which is a 50 year old movie, or what 47 years old, and they're just going to convert it to 3D. That's why I'm kind of skeptical about it. But from what I've heard, the 3D is actually done pretty well. I mean, I haven't seen it but it
Jonathan Correia:all depends on on the techniques used because I know like when they rereleased because I part of my thesis I saw a Top Gun and Jurassic Park rereleased in IMAX 3D. And like the Top Gun one was done really well where they messed with the like depths of depths. And they did like what they called 3D scoring. And like so certain scenes weren't in 3D. Like Goose's funeral wasn't out of respect to the character, which I thought was silly. But like it, it added the depths to it, which is still a weird concept because we already perceive film in a three dimensional plane because of how its shot and our minds and stuff. So it's weird having to put on the glass for it. But the Jurassic Park one was terrible at certain parts it looked like because they cut out elements using digital so it's suddenly like, bushes that aren't CG looks like CG. And like sometimes the 3D just looked like a cheap diorama that some kid made for his classroom, you know, with like cardboard cutouts and stuff. It was very weird. So I mean, granted again, that was like 12 years ago, 12 years ago or so.
James Jay Edwards:I always loved those movies. Like in the wave of 3D that came in the early 80s. Like, you know, JAWS 3D and Friday the 13th part basically any part three was in 3D Amityville 3D, and then they always they made you absolutely sure that you knew that they were in 3D. So when you watch them feel like if you're watching on TV, not in 3D, all of a sudden, they stick like a pole in your face.
Jonathan Correia:It always, it always reminds me in the in the heyday of TGIF television, when they would do like the 3D night of 3D episodes, and there was like one where it was America's Funniest Home Video, and Bob Saget is just dangling his car keys in front of the cameras like Look out 3D It is their contribution to it. Like whatever that happens in those movies were like, what was it Friday 13th 3D with a harpoon. Like it just reminds me of Bob Saget dangling his keys in my face.
Jacob Davidson:So eye popping 3d. Literally.
James Jay Edwards:I saw this movie called The Movie, which let me tell you, I do a written review of it as well. And trying to find any information about a movie called The Movie is the most annoying thing. And we're even trying to find it on IMDb, you type in the movie. And you get Superman, the movie Paw Patrol the movie Jackass the movie, you're like, No, this is called The Movie. Anyway, it's about this, quote washed up because she's not really washed up. But she's like an aging actress who gets a delivery. And the delivery guy is actually this crazy dude who has a movie pitch for her. So he's like, Oh, I recognize you. He's all you should be in my movie. And he basically smooth talks his way into her house and wants to make his movie that night with her second home invasion kind of a thing. And it turns into kind of a torture movie. But the problem is, there's only really one scene of torture. It's like they blew their effects budget on one scene, and then the rest of it is just like, making the viewer feel uncomfortable and not in like a Megan is missing way in kind of like a, you know, how can we make the viewer more uncomfortable in this? Let's rape this woman, you know, how can we make it more uncomfortable? Let's have him take a shit with her in the room. It's just stuff like that. So it's kind of I mean, it's a good idea. It's just I don't think it's executed as well as it should be. And they didn't go far enough. They either should have toned it back and had it focused more on the psychological things or gone full bore hostile and had him you know, just brutalize this woman. And yeah, anyway, it's called The Movie. And if you can find it, as I say good luck finding it. It's coming. It's coming on VOD. I guess. It'll by the time this airs, it'll be on VOD. So you know, if you see it, if you stumble across it somewhere. If you hunt it down, it might be a little difficult to find because it's freaking called bum movie. But anyway. Well,
Jonathan Correia:I've been continuing my deep dives into franchises. I haven't done deep dives into before. So previously, it was the Chucky series, which was a lot of fun. And where I watched from Bride through season one of Chucky and this weekend I'm in the middle of tackling Children of the Corn which
James Jay Edwards:I can only do Hellraiser in why the hell did they make this secret?
Jacob Davidson:Oh, keep the copyright keep the
Jonathan Correia:reason to Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, I in watching two and three. There's definitely like, in the back of my mind, I'm going tell me you were trying to hold on to the copyrights without telling me you were trying to hold on to them. Which is I'm so glad that dimension slash Miramax made eight sequels to Children of the Corn to hold on to the rights because it was it was so worth it for them to finally make a Children of the Corn prequel that they only showed for two nights in a theater in Florida two years ago. Like ah Good job, guys. Yeah, yeah, hold on to the rights for 30 fucking years to do that. I gotta say yeah it's been it's been a fun I got the Arrow Trilogy set which came with like the 4k restoration of the original which looks phenomenal it's if you see what you will but the sequence that is a gorgeous boxset loaded with features
James Jay Edwards:and the original Children of the Corn is really good it's it still holds up
Jonathan Correia:but it's not the original and that's the fun thing about the boxset too Is it is it also has the short film Disciples of the Crow
Jacob Davidson:I love that it was the original Dollar Baby before
Jonathan Correia:they made a movie it was the it was the it was the first adaptation that came out a year prior and is worse than either of the of the first Disciples of the Crow it's just it's 18 minutes long so it's like super duper condensed but man dude like a it is funny because it hits all the familiar notes but there's there's some like really rough dialogue and but yeah Disciples of the Crow is still a fun artifact to watch you know it's very you know, low budget regional. It is still incredible to see how easy it was to find a deserted town like that to shoot in especially early 80s You know, but not much has changed with that. You still drive across America and they're still like those like ghost towns in the in these areas. But, ya know, I'm having a lot of fun. I'm going to be watching four through six today. One of the noteworthy things about that series is how many big name actors got their starts in those movies. I mean, Charlize Theron was an extra in Children of the
Corn 3:Urban Harvest which I which I had so much fun with that one that one went for hard which is which is funny because like the only the first two guns theatrical distribution and the third one was straight to video and yet the third one looked like I had much more of a budget than the second one.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, and also the third one had the special effects by Screaming Mad George so really good.
Jonathan Correia:Yeah, did oh man when when He who walks behind the rows comes out as like the giant monster.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, the husk flesh beasts thing. Yeah, that was crazy. So ridiculous. That one was also probably the goriest in the franchise just because I feel like they had Screaming Mad George like okay, let's just put as much body horror and blood and guts and crazy shit.
Jonathan Correia:There was some really cool stuff with like the corn husks like going into people's bodies and like eye gouging and like stitching people's eyes, they The movie opens with like someone getting their body like ripped, you
Jacob Davidson:turn into a scarecrow?
Jonathan Correia:Yeah, there's some like really cool stuff in there. It's still a very silly movie, but oh, yeah, I had a lot of fun with that one. And it's also funny, because came out in 95, which was the same year as Dangerous Minds. And both of those movies have very similar themes of just like a white person coming into, you know, an urban area and trying to instill you know, their ideology without, you know, really understanding what urban life is like, you know, Dangerous Minds and Children Of the Corn 3, pretty much the same movie.
James Jay Edwards:When we used to tour every summer in my band. This is like the mid 90s There are patches of the country. And you might have to be driving through on like, a Sunday morning or something. But, you know, parts of like Nebraska, Oklahoma, you know, Iowa, you're driving through and the only thing you can find on the radio is like church preaching. Oh, 1,000% and it's it would always just crack us up. We're like, all are we going into like Children of the Corn?
Jacob Davidson:Do you I mean, there's a horror movie right there with you guys to go in on tour and go into the curse down.
James Jay Edwards:It's green room. Yeah, Green Room meets Children of the Corn. We're on to something Well, and
Jonathan Correia:that's the thing too, is that like, I did my cross country tripping in the in the 2000 10s. And it's the same thing where there's large stretches of road where all you have is that fire and brimstone preaching radios and those you know, hundreds of miles of just like all those billboards and stuff and like I think I think that's one of the reasons why the original at least Children of the Corn is not only is it a really good American folk horror film, but it's also just like it's still there like you still encounter those challenges you still encounter a lot of what they talked about you know like the there's this I was very taken aback with how much of the dialogue is still relevant with like the main guy was saying you know things to the kids you know, just because I like are you so diluted from the preaching the you know, those fire and brimstone preacher say you'll just believe anything from them or like, what what is it's it's not an actual religion. It doesn't include compassion and love for others. You know, there was there was a lot of really good stuff about some of the more hate mongering aspects of some, you know, religions and it was it was is real good. And Linda Hamilton is fucking awesome. I can't stress how great that era blu ray is. They have a phenomenal interview with her and where she talks about like how doing that film because it was so early in her career to really got her to fall in love with like, the more physical aspects of doing like horror and action and comedy, and it was really cool. And Linda Hamilton is just one of the ultimates.
James Jay Edwards:So without Children of the Corn, we may not have had a Terminator.
Jonathan Correia:And without Terminator, we want to have Terminator 2.
Jacob Davidson:What a world it will could have been. I don't want to live in that timeline. Yeah, that is the darkest time
James Jay Edwards:going back to our last episode where we were line talking about people, you know, with like Fall and Open Water 2 people in dumb situations that they put themselves in. I saw a movie this week. I think it's from last year. It's not that old called 12 Feet Deep. Are you guys familiar with this at all? No, it is. It's about these two girls. I'm laughing just talking about the concept. They get stuck in a community pool when the cover is closed. For the Thanksgiving weekend.
Jonathan Correia:Is there water in it?
James Jay Edwards:Yeah, yeah, they're they're swimming in it. And I mean, and it explains why it happened. And actually the guy who traps them in it inadvertently, it's an accident. But it's Tobin Bell,
Jacob Davidson:of course, is
James Jay Edwards:one of those, you know, Cain Hodder, taken every part hes offered type of a thing. But yeah, there's they're swimming in this pool and the cover gets closed and they get stuck in there. And there's their air pockets, the cover is about a foot above the water so they can breathe. But then there's another cleaning lady who knows that they're in there and decides to use it for to her advantage. So you know, there's more to it than then just having to wait out the weekend. But it's just it's one of those kind of like, what I was saying about Open Water 2 you where they jump off the boat and forget to put a ladder down. You know, it's one of those it's like, or even Frozen, where, you know, they're they turn off the ski lift and go home, you know, for the week. You know, it's one of those How the hell can this happen? It you know, they kind of make it logical how it happened, but it's just one of those movies. You're like, this is just silly.
Jacob Davidson:That's for me. I've been going a lot to the new Beverly recently because you know how Quinn, Tarantino and Roger Avery started their own podcast,
Jonathan Correia:the video archive I've been seeing the hot takes from that.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, well, I mean, they've been programming around it as the thing so like a lot if they discussed movies, they've been making some double features around and a lot of them they've been genre which is pretty cool. Like the one I was most excited for was they did a double feature of Michael Mann's The Keep and Peter Hyams The Relic. Oh, yeah, no and, and the prints were amazing. And you know, I'm just such a huge fan of Michael Mann's The Keep even though Quinn Tarantino isn't that I went to that double feature twice that weekend. Wow. Yeah. And they also did Demonoid and The Brood a couple of days ago, so that was pretty wild. Double Bill Too.
Jonathan Correia:Oh, damn, that's awesome. I need to the new bev more.
Jacob Davidson:Oh, yeah. No dude is worth it. Especially especially to see like kind of the more obscure and rare stuff on 35mm. They also had a crazy ass. Shaolin Kung Fu double feature with this one movie called The Shaolin Invincibles where I swear to God, the main villain the evil Emperor has guerrilla bodyguards that know kung fu
James Jay Edwards:gorillas, like actual like primate gorillas or gorilla with a Gu
Jacob Davidson:gorillas is in ape gorillas. Although it was it was clearly just dudes in costumes, but still kung fu gorillas. Yeah. Can't go wrong with kung fu gorillas, ya know? And, and, ya know, it's just, that's just the kind of cinema I love. Just crazy. I had no idea this existed, but I'm glad I was able to watch it.
James Jay Edwards:Today, we're joined by a couple of special guests. They're the screenwriters of the new film, The Retaliators. So let's welcome the gear brothers, Darren, and Jeff, How're you guys doing?
The Geare Brothers:Doing great, excellent, man. Yeah. Thanks for having us, guys. Yeah,
James Jay Edwards:thanks for being here. The question I always like to start off is how did you guys get started in filmmaking? How did you guys know that you wanted to be writers?
Darren Geare:Oh, boy.
James Jay Edwards:And that's the response I usually get to. Boy. I
Jeff Geare:think there's a there's a long story. Probably there's a short story. Yeah, story is Darren came to me and said, Hey, you want to write you want to write movies with me? And I was like, Yeah, let's do it. I was about four years ago. Yeah.
Darren Geare:We grew up we grew up we're brothers obviously. We grew up with just a really obsessive love for cinema. Genre cinema and, and I mean, we just watched so many endless movies growing up up and then into, you know, just always, we just always have just been just huge passion for digging into, you know, the catalogues of different actors and directors and sub genres and just all kinds of stuff. And, and I had, my early, when I was young, I had a little bit of an acting career career would be a stretch of a word on it, but I worked a little bit, I studied acting for a good amount of time. And, and so I definitely had a little bit of a taste and a little bit of experience in the entertainment world. Via that, but but never as a writer, and then kind of got into music. And Jeff and I played in a band, and we put a couple of records out, and this was sort of the early 2000s We were young and playing and doing all that and it just, you know, all through all of that we had just always sort of kind of fantasized about Boyd B, you know, we would come up with movie ideas, and, you know, again, just sort of being a natural extension from, you know, just being such lifelong fans of film. And so, yeah, when it when it finally materialized, it really did feel like this crazy, like, Hey, you want to just try it, don't just do it. And so it was, really was, you know, it little did we know how much we wouldn't first of all, how much we just would love it to, you know, we just right away. Just, you know, we dug into the craft and, and, and sort of put ourselves through our own kind of education formally outside of what we had already, you know, sort of lived and, and reading hundreds and hundreds of scripts over the years was an enormous part of my education, too.
Jeff Geare:Yeah, it was. It's kind of funny when I think about it, because me and Darren, we, we definitely made like movies when we were kids, you know, they're newer, like, you know, older than me, so I was the little brother kind of hanging around. And, you know, we do you know, camcorder movies and stuff like that
Darren Geare:little shorts, ridiculous things.
Jeff Geare:And it's sort of sort of strange now, being a screenwriter, because I think for many years, you know, I wasn't in the film industry at all. I was always doing other things. But all the while I was always like the biggest, you know, film buff of every group of people I would come around, you know, so I studied philosophy and like, every everybody in like philosophy programs that nobody knew shit about movies, you know, they've been they didn't always kind of surprise me like, God, man. No one's like, in the movies, like, I'm in the movies. And little, you know, took a while but I kind of found I should just do movies.
James Jay Edwards:What kind of movies did you guys watch when you were growing up? I mean, what what are what were your influences? I guess I should say,
Darren Geare:Yeah, growing up, we were, we were really big fans of, you know, a lot of 70s and 80s. You know, the classic action genre films and horror, genre films. But we, one of our mutual passions that we connected on early and stayed, stayed a lifelong passion was our our love for all things B-Cinema, exploitation films, and, you know, as much as we can sit and talk, you know, William freakin for, you know, two hours we can spend just, you know, the same amount of time. You know, like digging into the Cannon Films catalog, which, which we love and watch to this day. So, yeah,
Jonathan Correia:so yeah, how you guys came from different backgrounds into this. You were saying that Darren, you had more of an active group but Jeff, you were kind of more outside of the entertainment world? What was that like getting coming together as screenwriters. I know you guys were saying that you were huge fans of exploitation and your your film Retaliators kind of kept a lot of that spirit going there. You know, there's a lot of influence of like, you know, Death Wish and things of that. But you guys really hammered in on the moral debates of vengeance, you know, there's a coming from place of healing and whether losing yourself into that really is healing. What were some of the influences in, you know, kind of debates that you guys had with that?
Darren Geare:Well, yeah, well, you know, because the film was, was inspired by You know, real events that happen in our family, the, you know, the, the idea of, of a sort of revenge fantasy was sort of born organically through, you know, you know, kind of being on the sidelines during a long trial and, and so we certainly were sort of, you know, looking at that that was on our mind, and that definitely sort of, you know, came out in the idea for the retaliate errs originally. Because of our love of genre cinema, we wanted the film to ultimately be fun, and be, you know, be something that, you know, wasn't, you know, wasn't we also wasn't taking itself too seriously. We wanted to play with the moral dilemma, but also not a telegraph any sort of message to the audience, it was important for us that we weren't, you know, we really tried to be kind of show, you know, these different characters that made different choices, sort of, through an empathetic lens both ways. And really, you know, our fantasy we would always talk about as we wanted to have a movie where people could argue after the film and debate, you know, what, what was the right thing to do or not?
Jeff Geare:Yeah, I think, you know, me and Darren, we did not, you know, we did not treat our writing sessions as like a philosophy seminar room, you know, we weren't trying, you know, our, we were really just interested in, we never really had a discussion, I think on, you know, who's right, who's wrong or anything like that, it was really just, what were the fun for us was was looking at these characters? And what what are they going to do when they're faced with the dilemmas they find themselves in? And what choices do they make? And what are the consequences of those choices? And, you know, it was made much more with the intention of having peep, you know, the movie goers walking out the theater, kind of arguing with each other going, like, oh, you know, who was right, who was wrong? You know, what would you do that sort of thing?
Jonathan Correia:Yeah, cuz there was definitely a juggling with all of that. I mean, just the basic premise of the preacher given, you know, an opportunity to get revenge on, you know, the killer of his daughter, and, you know, the cop who sets it up, and, you know, and has clearly been doing it for some time for himself and others, you know, there's, there's definitely a lot, a lot to explore there. And I did appreciate how there was no, you know, you definitely see the both sides of, of things with it, without kind of getting too preachy, but you see the consequences of both. And you guys do a great job of just like, I think Jay was saying it before, when we were discussing the film yesterday, really flipping it, you know, like, you think it's going one way, then all sudden, the film kind of turns into another?
James Jay Edwards:Yeah, we always say that, when we're talking about movies, we're like, oh, this becomes a completely different movie. And usually, that would only happen maybe once in the Retaliators is that happens like four times. So it's like, you think you're watching one thing, and it actually happens from the first scene, which is the big teaser? And then after that, you're like, Okay, no, that's not the movie. Right? It's so it's it, it's really full of surprises.
Darren Geare:That's, that's really cool to hear. Because, you know, Jeff, and I always talk about what we call it. The hard turn, you know, we're really big fans of hard turns in, in film. So, you know, like, it's some of the, I mean, the earliest example, I guess, kind of proto example would be like Psycho right, where I, you know, it's obviously you're, you're following a protagonist. And then very famously, you then switch protagonists and you switch genres, you switch tone, you switch everything, at sort of not quite the midpoint of the film. And in horror, you know, Audition is a great example, Hostel is a great example,
James Jay Edwards:From Dusk Till Dawn is THE example.
Darren Geare:Yeah, yeah. And, and so
Jeff Geare:even Hannibal Cannibal Holocaust, you know?
Darren Geare:Yeah, you know, there's,
Jeff Geare:there's a, you end up in that film.
Darren Geare:Yeah. So, you know, we, we definitely that was something we had and, you know, people were scared of that, you know, there are people you know, even some people making the film Well, that would that were, well, because because the easier choice would be to establish it You know, a kind of a familiar genre feel and then just sort of live in that and, and we very much wanted it to be like, you know, oh, I think I've seen this movie before, and then completely subvert that and, and try to like, you know, use the word surprise. That was the whole goal, you know, how can we just create this kind of winding roller coaster? So the scary scariest part truly was executing it? Can we execute it? And can we get away with it? Can it? Can it work? I mean, we were literally when we debuted at the first festival, which was Fright Fest in London. I mean, we couldn't sleep the night before, because we were just going gosh, is anyone gonna, you know? Is this ride gonna make sense? Or is this just to? Because once you know, we just really believed in that vision. It's so did Michael Lombardi.
Jeff Geare:Do you ever want to make like a roller coaster? You're the only person who likes to ride it? You know? Yeah. Exactly. Lonely coaster. Yeah. So,
Jacob Davidson:yeah. And on the development and production sides of things. How did the project get started? Like, how did you pitch it? How did it get off the ground?
Darren Geare:Well, it was such a crazy thing. You know, we had sent the film, not the script, to the blacklist, to get coverage. And we were, we were very humbly we have very humble expectations. I mean, we were like, Okay, we're gonna learn everything we're doing wrong. And then we'll, we'll work on that. And next thing, you know, we got these high ratings, and we got on their top list. And we were, I mean, that was the shock started then and went all the way till now, you know, we're we're just going wow, this is crazy. And then we started getting people reaching out and and producers and different people wanting to auction the film. And the, the, the real serendipity at the beginning was I happen to know Michael Lombardi rule, obviously, that, you know, starred in the film and was the, the the main producer. And he, he even directed a good amount of the film as well. He was the guy was a complete coincidence, as we were driving to, to a meeting with with some people who wanted to option, the film. He called me out of the blue, we had worked together, years back. And he called me completely out of the blue. I told him what we were doing. And he said, Send me the script immediately. And we did. And he was he lives on the East Coast. And he was on a plane in three days. And he said, he called us the next day said, do not option this to anybody. Don't do anything. I'm getting on a plane. And we were like, really? And he's like, yeah, he flew out. And he just said, you know, I'm I am the number one born to play this role. And Jeff said, right, when he got here, right, we saw he just went, Oh, shit, we're looking at John bishop. He was, you know, and he was being funny, but he was SEER like, we he was just right there, right when we saw him. And he said, I'll get this movie made. And I'll, I will, you know, run through how to get this made. And I'll make it happen. And he had some ideas. And it was crazy. We just sort of right at the beginning, just knew we had to partner with Michael. And we did and we just said, Okay, let's let's go on this journey together. And boy, the amount of times Jeff and I have looked at each other and said, the smartest thing we ever did was that because Michael took it and got it, got it funded and got that he was the reason we ended up getting the bands that we got in the film, and he fought through all of the COVID because we I mean, there were so much drama with getting our film made because of the fact that we were literally a couple of weeks into shooting in the third week of March of 2020. Yeah, we were the our sag rep told us we were shooting in the forest of New Jersey at the time, and the sag rep told us we were officially We, as we were getting shut down, that we were officially the last union production in the world at that moment, and, and we, you know, obviously we had to shut down and then the obstacles of shooting through the early days of the pandemic, because that's what we were, that's what we were left with. And so this was when COVID tests were 1000s of dollars. And we had to switch coasts, and we had to change directors, and we had to, we had cast drop out, cast come back in, we had to obviously monitor safety, and thank God, no one, no one became the very few people that ultimately got sick. And, and nobody was was had, we didn't have any bad, bad situations with people getting sick, thank God. But Michael was the guy that ran quarterback through all of that executing and making it happen. And it was unbelievable. I mean, it was just nothing, nothing would would stop him or us. And just and thankfully, with the backing we had through Alan colback. Same thing, you know, he just was so determined. Okay, what guys? What haven't we gotten? What do we still need? And we were like, well, we still don't have this, or we did, we're unable to get this because, you know, we've been shut down multiple times we have, you know, back again, those early days were absolutely insane. Just the amount of work it took just to deal with the logistics, you know, because it was all sad. This was all, you know, this was all above the board, you know, we weren't doing anything gorilla. You know, this was all, you know, 100%, you know, with safety being in 100% in mind, and with the rules being in mind. So it was playing it by those rules. And doing it was really, really difficult. Because you can see from the film, there's lots of locations, there's lots of casts, you know, there's there's a lot going on.
James Jay Edwards:Now, you you kind of piqued our interest with talking about the actual events, and you mentioned a trial. And I mean, we don't want to pry into anything that you don't want to say, but can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration for the story, like what I mean, it actually did happen to a family member of yours or something? inspired it? Correct?
Darren Geare:Yeah, that's correct. And, and I'll address why, you know, we're very comfortable being able to talk about this and share this story. But, but yeah, there was a there was a real life, tragedy that happened in trauma in our family, which was that our younger sister some years back when she was still a teenager, she she was she was 19. At the time, she was walking home. I mean, just straight out of out of a horror movie. She was walking home from a party, like around the corner from her house at the time in this was in Northern California. And she was walking home really late, she thought she heard a jogger running behind her and turned around and was tackled and literally tackled down a 20 Something foot ravine. She was brutally attacked, raped, and really almost killed. She had a belt around her neck and she, she was within inches of her life, of losing her life. She miraculously fought, fought and clawed and escaped the situation, ran up of the ravine, you know, close on wave down traffic and was was thankfully, you know, got away. Well, that was the the perpetrator was not caught. And so there was years of her dealing with her PTSD and, and just obviously, that was all very rough, very rough for her and, and she, you know, fought hard to sort of overcome all of those things. Well, years later, through the advancements of DNA, they find the guy and he was a serial serial rapist he was he was posing as a taxi driver in the same area. Years and years later was caught trying to do this to someone else. So God knows how many people he hit along the way. You know, I mean, it's it's horrifying to Think about, but they caught him. And then a trial ensued. And the trial was, you know, like any trial, it was a long process, it was a very rough process. There were multiple versions of the trial. And, you know, you have the typical ups and downs that go with a trial. And so, you know, the, the, it was during the trial phase where the thought just popped into my head one night, where it was like, what if there, what if there was a underground service that, you know, provided family members of crime victims with revenge, and I sort of jotted down a quick little idea and then I just wrote the retaliate errs. And it was just an A list of ideas. You know, Jeff and I, we had decided we were going to write and we were just sort of coming up with ideas left and right. Like we always do, we always just kind of stack ideas and log lines. And one day Jeff was just going through, we were like, Okay, what do we what are we going to do? And he found that one, and we basically, first thing we did was went to our sister, and basically said, hey, you know, because what was I? What was sort of ironic was right near that time, she had reached out to me and said, you know, do you know anyone? She said, Listen, I really want my story to get out. Because the happy ending for her was that not only did she get past all that PTSD, but she went on to have and still has a very successful career as a firefighter, and she's one of the few female fire captains, the United States today. And so she really wanted her story out, she wanted to be an inspiration to people who have who've suffered crippling PTSD and been through very serious trauma and and be being the survivor that she she was, she had reached out and asked me Do I know anybody in the documentary space. And I had looked, I kind of put some feelers out, and I couldn't really find anything, find a way to sort of facilitate that. And then all of a sudden, the script idea comes up. So we sat her down and just said, you know, how would you feel if, you know, we wrote a script that was sort of used your story is kind of a springboard? And we told her directly, it's like, look, we can't tell your exact story. You know, there's no way we could live in that in a script for years. And at that time, we had no, you know, we the reality of it being made into a film seems so distant, but we just was just the writing. We were just like, we want to be able to sort of enjoy the process. So the only way to do that is to sort of we can't read, we wouldn't be good documentarian of that story. Anyway, we're too close to it. And she was like, Absolutely. She said, Listen, please just use my name. She's like, if you ever have the opportunity to please use my name, her name is Jody Geare. And her story, you can Google her and you can, you know, she did some news pieces on her and the trial was documented. And so we're very proud to tell the story and use her name because ultimately, there's a lot of happy endings. Here. The guy's put away guys put away pretty much for life. He'll be a very old man when he comes up for parole. Hopefully, he won't get out. So there's a happy ending there. As I said, Jodi's life as you know, she's she's gone on to be very successful and, and, and just just an amazing, human. And then the catharsis of making the script and taking something so ugly, and horrible, but yet, finding a positive outlet for it. That's been truly ironically talked about healing. The film has been very healing for the family, and for us and for God. So it's good. We didn't have to go and torture anybody to find that healing.
Jeff Geare:So you didn't. Yeah. Just Kidding
Jonathan Correia:much, much better to to put it in writing than to actually yeah, so through
Jeff Geare:to be clear, I agree with that.
Jonathan Correia:Yeah, and that's one of the most interesting aspect except this film, because, like you guys said, you're coming from a place of love for, you know, exploitation and, you know, Cannon Films in these very like, you know, rough movies where you're, you're they're talking about doing these various sadistic things or getting vengeance and whatnot. And it's coming from a place of Catharisism because you know, you're exploring these dark themes, but going through it with the lens of of a love for cult cinema, you know? And yeah, and especially, you know, those type of films don't always get the best light, you know, a lot of people. When you're talking about these type of films, most people are like, Ah, they're so exploitive, and it's like, well, it's in the name. So it is interesting that it that it is coming from a place of Catharisism, a place of hope, and a place of, you know, healing, especially for your families. So, it you feel it a bit in the movie and, and that that's just so great to hear that you're using your platforms to tell this story. And you're right, sometimes it's you kind of have to put these things through lens. That's why genres exist, it's easier to discuss heavy issues when it's through the lens of like, sci fi or horror, you know?
Darren Geare:Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, we appreciate so much hearing that we appreciate. That just we've gotten so much great feedback. With that sort of risky thing we tried, because, again, it was just, there was a lot of a lot of doubt of, can we pull this off? And and does this make sense? And the way you just put it right now, it makes so much sense to us. It's just like, we love genre films we take, we take genre film very seriously, and we don't look down on it. At all, we can laugh at it, we can laugh at the absurdity. Certainly, like just like anybody else, but we have a real genuine love and appreciation for it. So yeah, for us, we were just like, Well, look, we don't want to do we don't want to do trauma porn, you know, it's like, you know, because there are some movies like that. And if that's somebody's taste, great, you know, no, no knocking it at all. But for us, like I it's just movies that are sort of dirge is that are just, you know, in our movies gets pretty bleak. And it's pretty darn, it's pretty dark. But it was so important for us to in that third act like you know, really have a catharsis have an experience of release, you know, we've tortured every, every sort of hero and antihero in the film. And it was so it was sort of like we got to have some. Let's let's, let's bring in the fun and that spirit. Big time in that third act.
Jeff Geare:Yeah, yeah, I think I'm going to kind of second that a little bit in a different way. You know, there are really heavy movies, I deal with these themes that you know, they're excellent movies. I mean, they're, they're some of the best cinema ever created. But you know, a lot of times you can only watch those movies once you know, they're just they're too heavy. I mean, I mean to watch repeatedly, and you know, what I think we really shot for with this movie and writing it and then executing it, filming it and stuff. was trying to make a movie that deals with these things, but is very watchable and rewatchable you know what I mean? Because of how fun it is so
James Jay Edwards:yep. Okay, great. Well, we are running out of time so we'll leave it at that. Everybody go see The Retaliators. It should by the time this posts I believe it comes out the next day on VOD, is that the 14th
Darren Geare:No, so we're we're The Retaliators is in theaters on the 14th. And we've gotten so our our tickets went on presale a few weeks ago and the pre sales been going so well that we keep getting extensions on Days and and screening time. So in some areas, we're now up to 10 days of of in theater, so no, we're not on VOD, then. We don't have a date yet on when we're going to VOD. I think it'll be sometime in October. So yeah, we're in theaters. Starting on September 14.
Jonathan Correia:Yeah, I saw I saw a preview at the Lemley when I went to go see 3000 Years of Longing for. So it's definitely playing in.
Darren Geare:Yeah. Awesome. Nice. Nice. I've been hearing about it playing. I know we were playing before. Nope. In some places and I've seen. Yeah, we've been hearing that. So it's great. And what's really exciting too is that we're we are worldwide we're in 41 countries on I think it's close to like 1500 screens. So it really, really exciting. And our we're, our presale is going well, even in other countries too. So I've been getting little reports and stuff. So yeah, it's really exciting.
Jacob Davidson:Congratulations. Yeah, Congrats,
Jonathan Correia:guys. Thank you. Thank you. So and what's what's next? Do you guys have something that you can bring up real quick that's coming over or is it?
Jeff Geare:We have a rom com in the work?
Darren Geare:Yes. Okay. Think, Nora Ephron. But then we go full exploitation? No, no, no, actually, that sounds like, Yeah, I think we'll have that one. Put that one on the back. Yeah, we've got we are really excited. And so through, we took advantage of the insanity times of the pandemic to basically go because we again, the film kept, you know, we kept starting it back up and having to shut down and kind of over and over again, it was this kind of long saga. So we really hunkered down every chance we could to, to really, you know, work on new scripts and and, and we've been so we've been working hard doing that and polishing those and so we are really excited we've got we've got a few we've got one that is sort of a creature feature that is sort of told from the creatures perspective, but it's also blends with a with a crime thriller. And it's, so it's almost as a Coen Brothers sort of like if Coen brothers did a did a Creature Feature was sort of our goal with that one. Yeah, it's
Jeff Geare:like, you know, it's kind of like No Country for Old Men meets Hogzilla.
Darren Geare:Yes, that's a good way to put it. But it's actually got it's a little it's quite a bit lighter. In tone, there's a lot more humor in it. It's a lot of there's some great Gore stuff that we've concocted we're excited about. But But yeah, it's good amount of humor in it. And then we've got another one that we're just finishing right now. But the that one's we'll keep it just that one kind of under wraps, but it's sort of a little bit of inspiration. We're big.
Jeff Geare:Magic Mike fans.
Darren Geare:Yeah. So we kind of go the metal.
James Jay Edwards:We've got it. You're speaking Korea's language
Jonathan Correia:No joke. Magic Mike XXL is one of my favorite now. movies.
James Jay Edwards:He's not joking. We're all laughing but he's dead.
Darren Geare:Before the last thing the last thing you will ever catch us doing is shaming anybody for a movie tastes because we have just so many endless like we don't even really use the word guilty pleasure but
Jeff Geare:I don't like to say that. Yeah, cuz I almost all love movies that are supposed to be so bad. They're good. So much that I'll go they're not bad anymore.
James Jay Edwards:I on ironically, love Cats. And that's what people make fun of me for. Well, I
Darren Geare:listen. We very much loved cats, but I think it was the big irony. But I think the irony was
Jeff Geare:there's some talk about the like the butthole cut. Yeah. Like what are we getting that that's what I'm waiting for? Well, yes,
Jonathan Correia:yeah. No, I 100% agree with you guys. I hate the term guilty pleasure. I do. I think anyone should feel guilty about something that gives them pleasure is if it hurts another person. That's it.
Jacob Davidson:Subjective people can like what they want. Yeah.
James Jay Edwards:I don't feel guilty about like in anything like, yeah, unless you're punching down.
Jonathan Correia:Yeah. Don't feel guilty about what you love.
James Jay Edwards:Cool. We're gonna get out of here. So thank you guys very much for joining us The Geare Brothers. Go see Retaliators. It will be in theaters and then on VOD this October. So go check it out. So thanks for joining us today, guys. Our theme song is by Restless Spirits. So go check them out. Our artwork is by Chris Fisher. So go check him out. You can find us at Eye On Horror on any of the socials or@ihorror.com Where can people find you guys? Jeff and Darren? Yeah,
Darren Geare:you can go the two important spot This would be retaliate errs movie.com That will the any theater near you will geo pop up as soon as you go to that. And then as far as finding the gear brothers, you can find us on Instagram at the_gear_brothers just look up the gear brothers that will pop up. And you can you can find this on there.
James Jay Edwards:Okay, cool. Well, great. Thanks for spending your early Sunday with us. And we all look forward to whatever you guys have coming next.
Jeff Geare:Awesome.
Darren Geare:Awesome.
James Jay Edwards:We will see you listeners in a couple of weeks. So for me James Jay Edwards.
Jacob Davidson:I'm Jacob Davison
Jonathan Correia:and I'm Jonathan Correia
The Geare Brothers:and we're The Geare Brothers.
Jacob Davidson:Keep your Eye On Horror
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