Eye On Horror
Eye On Horror
80's Throwback Horror Movies
This week, in honor of MaXXXine's neon soaked vibes, the Boys talk about some of their favorite films that take place in or are heavily influenced by the 80's. From American Psycho to Lisa Frankenstein, what are some of your favorite 80's retro vibe films?
But before that, the boys review MaXXXine, Longlegs, The Last Breath, Starve Acre, Kill, The Dragon Lives Again, Batman Return of the Caped Crusader and Batman Vs. Two-Face, Maniac of New York comic series, Thelma, films on 70mm, I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, AND SO MUCH MORE!!! It's all new on EYE ON HORROR!
Movies mentioned in the episode:
https://letterboxd.com/correianbbq/list/eye-on-horror-podcast-sn-7-ep-11/
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Welcome to eye on horror, the official podcast of ihorror.com. This is episode 130 otherwise known as season seven, Episode 11. I am your host, James Jay Edwards, and with me, as always, is your other host. Jacob Davison, how you doing? Jacob,
Jacob Davidson:tired and sore, been working the super 70s series at work, and, man, those 70 millimeter prints are heavy as hell. Man. Well, you know, it's just those things are very heavy. They're, like, upwards of 40 pounds, and they're very bulky. So, you know, it's and, yeah, it's like several prints. So you know, it's a lot of back and forth, but my gains are going to be incredible. By the end of the month, I'm going to be swoll as hell.
James Jay Edwards:I also with us as always as your other other host, Jon Correia, how you doing Correia? Doing
Jonathan Correia:great. And I'm really excited that Jacob is making sure that those 70 millimeter prints are going because if anything goes wrong during the screening, I'm going to have Streets of Fire on 70 millimeter. There will be rage, rage, I tell you, there
Jacob Davidson:you go. I'll Willem Dafoe on us. Oh,
Jonathan Correia:man, I'm so excited. This will be the second time I've seen Streets of Fire on 70 millimeter. Thanks to American Cinematheque. So very excited. It is a staple. Last time it was, it was a double feature of Last Action Hero and Streets of Fire on 70 and that was, Ooh, that was one of the best double features ever.
James Jay Edwards:Cool. What's been going on? I know that Correia and I have finally caught up with Longlegs. That movie does not fuck around.
Jacob Davidson:That's some scary shit at all
James Jay Edwards:that is, oh my gosh that. I mean, right from the very beginning, like, literally, pre credit scene, you're like, Oh yeah,
Jacob Davidson:yeah, no, I'm glad that Longlegs has come out to such a massive success, and that people are scared by it, because it is really unsettling. And one of the best horror movies to come out this year, if not the last several years, and definitely it's just the combined talents of Michael Monroe, Nicholas Cage and director Oz Perkins. You know, just Nicholas Cage has done a lot of movies in his lifetime, but I think it's fair to say that this is the scariest. He's a nightmare human being in this film.
James Jay Edwards:Yeah, I think you're right. It is the scariest. It's not getting all the raves, though. There are some people. There are some haters, like our old friend of the podcast, Alok, the producer of 1br, he was not as big a fan. But also the woman who owns the site I write for hated it and and we were at the same screening, and we, after we discussed it, she's all, do you want to write it up? And I'm like, Well, I mean, I will absolutely write it up, but I'm warning you, it's going to be a really, really positive review. And she was like, I don't even want to think about it again. So yeah, you write. She really didn't like it. But, yeah, I didn't rave on it because I loved it.
Jacob Davidson:Well, art is subjective. You know that not everybody's gonna go for it. Plus, I feel like it's a typical case with every year or two, whenever a movie comes out, it's like, oh, it's the scariest movie ever made. And, you know, people just kind of hype themselves up so much, or, like, overestimate so much on it that they'll see and it's like, Oh, it wasn't that scary or something. So, you know, it's kind of a blowback from that kind of thing. But still, the marketing for Longlegs is one of some of the best that has been done for any horror movie in recent memory. Like all the ambiguous teasers, the cipher coding, the viral marketing stuff with, like, the crime scene pictures, like Alok
James Jay Edwards:problem was that the marketing made it better than a way he compared it to smile, and how the marketing for smile was, like, brilliant, right? So, so I think that it just didn't live up to the hype for him. But what, what Becky said is that she she was she thought it was stupid, and she thought that Nicolas Cage, that the makeup and and prosthetics were ridiculous. I'm like, I'll do now. That's what made him horrifying. It
Jacob Davidson:was uncanny, man, yeah.
James Jay Edwards:I mean, you the fact that his entire face is pretty much covered. And what makes him horrifying is that little, that sing song voice he would do, you know, you know, I get creeped out just thinking about it.
Jacob Davidson:I've seen, I've seen some comparisons to Tiny Tim, and specifically his performance in the horror movie Blood Harvest,
Jonathan Correia:yeah, which was always brilliant, because Tiny Tim was the scariest part of Blood Harvest, and he wasn't even the holy Yes, the irony, but it. Also the most sympathetic character in Blood Harvest. Like, honestly, I you bring a blood harvest. I'm going to rant about it because, like, Tiny Tim is absolutely brilliant in that movie. That movie just so strange how he ended up in that but I see those comparisons. I even said I was like, Yo, it's, it's Tiny Tim in Blood Harvest meets Nick Cage in Face/off as far as his performance, like what it felt like was, but it was, those were the influences. It was definitely something different. I liked it a lot. I could definitely see how someone after the marketing campaign would think it was one movie and come in for and it be presented with something different. Because it's, I'm not saying that they pulled a Drive, you know, where some of the trailers for Drive made it look like it was Fast and Furious, but if you're expecting something that's like, straight up horror, and you come in and it's a, you know, a horrifying detective story, I can see being upset. It's also very slow, a really good slow burn. And a lot of people don't like that. I appreciated it
Jacob Davidson:for, yeah, well, it
James Jay Edwards:wasn't slow in the respect. I mean, we'll talk slow burn on something else I've seen this week that is the opposite, but, um, it wasn't slow burn in the in the case where, like, nothing's happening. I mean, it's deliberately slowly paced, right? But, yeah, I see what you're saying. It was a lot more occult based than I thought it would be same, but, but it was, I mean, basically what I've been describing as Silence of the Lambs. If Clarice Starling is psychic and Buffalo Bill is into cryptography and the occult, that's what I've been telling people and and there's no Hannibal Lecter in it, I guess. But Well,
Jonathan Correia:and that's the thing I really appreciated about it, like you can tell that the film was in that style and also very influenced by like those 90s thrillers that were Silence of the Lambs, not knockoffs, but it became its own genre. You know, you like Kiss the Girls, Se7en. Seven, Along Came a Spider, The Bone Collector, yeah, what paid Morgan Freeman's rent in the 90s, and it was very much so of those, it was, it did. They did. He did a lot of those movies after,
James Jay Edwards:I know it's just, it's funny to hear someone say it out loud, but
Jonathan Correia:I, but I love those movies. Those were the movies that were like, it was like those in the big budget, like blockbusters, like Independence Day, that were constantly my parents VHS players. So, like, I was in it. I was like, Oh, you're doing one of those movies, but leaning harder into the horror of it, hell yeah, I'm game. Plus, you know, y'all know me, I love the occult shit. So once that stuff started popping up, I was, I was like, I was giddy.
James Jay Edwards:I didn't mind the occult stuff at all. In fact, it explained a lot of what was going on in the movie, but I didn't expect it. That's the thing. I think I was expecting more of just like a serial killer hunt, without all that stuff, which, you know, that's what the marketing kind of put out, you know, like this serial killer taunting the police with these cryptograms. So the occult stuff was, I'd say, a pleasant surprise for me, because I this stuff made a lot of the movie make sense, and
Jonathan Correia:Maika Monroe was too relatable. That character, just the whole like, do I have to socialize? Do I have to come out? I was like,
Jacob Davidson:Oh, my mom's calling about praying again.
James Jay Edwards:Yeah, it's, it's so it's so weird that at the beginning of the movie, I couldn't decide it. And I actually compared her in my review to Shelley Duvall and The Shining and then moment of silence Shelley Duvall passed the day after I wrote. But anyway, you can't tell if her performance is bad or brilliant, until you learn a little more about the background of the character. And then you realize that, no, this is brilliant, you know, because she seems kind of wooden and unemotional and completely stoic, and then you realize, no, that's, that's how the character, that's exactly what this character needs to be, you know, because Shelly Duvall is kind of the same way, where it's like you think that the woman can't act, but then you realize that she's supposed to be that timid little mouse that that, you know, because she's been abused for so long,
Jacob Davidson:although Also, I would say so much that Michael Monroe's character was timid. She was, she was very methodical to like she, she
James Jay Edwards:wasn't timid. She was like, kind of wooden and sterile and clinical, actually, is a better word for it, yeah, which, which, I think is, is a product of her past. You know? She, she's just like a no bullshit FBI agent, you know, she always
Jonathan Correia:takes a few moments. A lot of those,
Jacob Davidson:she has that intuition, yeah, well, that, yeah, that's
James Jay Edwards:what they're saying. They're, I don't know if it's an intuition or if you're really psychic, but you know, shit that's gonna happen. Speaking of slow burn, I saw this movie called Starve Acre. It stars the woman from Saint Maud. What's her name? Morfydd Clark or something. I don't know how to I'm probably not pronounced that right. And also, Matt Smith is in it too. And it is they are in the husband's parents house. They've moved into it, and their son is starting to hear voices from this character named Jack gray. Basically, the son is is troubled and ends up passing away, and the woman, she's still feeling his presence in the house, while the dad is investigating the past of the house and, you know, digging stuff up there. So it all kind of culminates. And it is one of those. It's, it's a it's about an hour and 40 minutes, and there's about 20 minutes worth of good stuff happening. And the rest of it is that, is that, I mean, there's a kernel of a good movie in there, but it's just so padded and it just moves so slow and and also, it doesn't help that I've never wished for subtitles harder in my life, because the Irish accents are so, you know, thick, and they're, like, already going out and all in the field, and I'm like, what? But, you know, and the screener I had didn't have subtitles, so I've had trouble, you know, following some things there. But yeah, it's, it's a cool, not really a ghost story. It's just more like a it deals a lot with grief. It kind of reminded me of Lamb a little bit in how just cold and unsettling it was, but it was not as effective slow burn as Longlegs.
Jacob Davidson:That's too bad. On my end, I've seen a couple of action horror movies or martial arts horror recently, that was pretty fun. Have either of you guys seen that movie, Kill I've
Jonathan Correia:heard about it. That's the let's see Indian,
Jacob Davidson:the Indian action movie. Oh, dude, it was badass. So it was basically about this commando and his best friend from the army, like he's trying to get back with his girlfriend because she's being put into an arranged marriage by her tycoon father, and they're taking the train to Bangladesh or to New Delhi. And on the train, a ruthless team of bandits hijacked the train, so he has to fight his way through, like, all the bandits to to, like, try and save his girlfriend, and I had to pitch to me as The Raid on a train. And it is pretty accurate, because it is just not withholding on the violence. Like, it's mostly, you know, like hand to hand and like weapons, like knives and hammers and stuff like that. But like, people get fucked up in this movie, like there's blood and gut spilling and people getting absolutely brutalized. And, yeah, the action is crazy. Like it's close quarters combats and the choreography is just mind blowing. Yeah, I missed it beyond fest last year, so I'm really glad I got a theatrical release, because it is fun as hell, and jaw dropping on the stuff like that. Like, there's like, just one sequence, kind of like Snowpiercer from like one end of the car to the other. It's just almost like a video game side scroll would beat him up where he's just beating up progressively bigger, bigger guys. And so, like the biggest guy, when biggest bandit comes out, and it just like they're wailing on each other. So yeah, definitely recommend checking that out. And on the other side, I went to the Alamos notorious weird Wednesdays, you know, where they show a weird movie from their selections. And they were playing probably one of the most notorious Bruceploitation movies of all, The Dragon Lives Again, which, yes, okay, you get it. It's about Bruce Lee in the afterlife, like and, and he pisses off the King of the Underworld. And he's like, trying to settle in the underworld city, where I shit you not, The Godfather with his evil teammates, Zatoichi The Blind Samurai, James Bond, The Man with No Name, Emmanuel and Dracula and his zombie army are trying to take over the afterlife. So Bruce Lee has to team up with Popeye and Caine from Kung Fu to stop them.
James Jay Edwards:See you, you almost lost me when you said James Bond, but then you went in with like, Dracula, Popeye and Caine, yeah,
Jacob Davidson:yeah.
Jonathan Correia:The brilliance is that he looks and the James Bond character is quite literally just some random white guy, like
Jacob Davidson:with mutton chops,
Jonathan Correia:with mutton chops, like he doesn't look anything like any James Bond ever, except for the fact that he has a tux. That's
James Jay Edwards:it. All white people look the same.
Jonathan Correia:They do. They do. That's true. No, it's It's definitely one of the crazier Bruceploitation films. And if you watch the the documentary, Enter the Clones of Bruce Lee. That was one of the later ones, because they categorized it in eras of Bruceplotation were like, the first round was really trying to be like people processing Bruce's death, and then after essentially people were able to process their grief, it became like, Okay, well, if Bruce was still alive, what if he was in an Indiana Jones movie? What if he was in a Bond movie? Yeah, what if he was in this? And this one was just like, what if he was in all of the
James Jay Edwards:who plays Bruce Lee,
Jacob Davidson:Bruce Long, who you may know better as the beast from Kung Fu Hustle,
James Jay Edwards:okay, the
Jacob Davidson:main bad guy.
James Jay Edwards:Does he look like Bruce Lee at all sort
Jacob Davidson:of, but they have a an explanation where, like, one of the King of the Underworld assistant says, after someone dies, the body goes for a transformation so they don't look exactly the same. Yeah, this is how it
Jonathan Correia:works. There were times where they gave explanations on, like, why he looks different, like, I'm thinking Game of Death, where, you know, when they when they read, you know, ran out of scenes very early on, and they're like, oh yeah. He had plastic surgery to look like someone else, to go into hiding. And then later on in the movie, when he fights Kareem Abdul Jabbar, they're like, oh yeah. It went back, you know, for this scene. Sorry,
James Jay Edwards:I started laughing too hard when you said fights. Kareem Abdul Jabbar,
Jonathan Correia:hey, that's one of the greatest fight scenes ever. That's the iconic Bruce Lee with the yellow jumpsuit. And that was actually him. They did shoot two scenes, but they stopped filming. He went to go do Enter the Dragon, and then never came back. That
Jacob Davidson:is nothing compared to Bruce Lee fighting Dracula and his zombie gang, I wear spoiler alert, uh, Dracula fights Bruce Lee, but the tide turns against Dracula, and also Bruce Lee's dressed up as Kato from the Green Hornet for some reason. So Dracula has the zombies, holds him down. He's going to bite his neck, but Bruce Lee uses his super secret technique where he somehow grows a third leg and kicks Dracula in the face.
James Jay Edwards:Well, Bruce Lee played Kato.
Jacob Davidson:He did. That's why he was dressed up, yeah, but in the coming that's no reason to dress up as Kato for that scene, just because,
James Jay Edwards:well, hey, it was, it sounds like it's, it's a fever dream kind of a movie. So,
Jacob Davidson:oh yeah,
Jonathan Correia:it's great stuff.
Jacob Davidson:Hopefully be on the next bruceploitation set from Severin.
James Jay Edwards:I saw this movie called The Last breath. Have you guys heard of this? It's a shark movie. It's it's a typical shark movie. It's about basically this. It actually is Julian sands last movie, his last role, which I didn't know I when I saw Julian sands, I kind of did the research, and I'm like, oh yeah, this wound up being his last movie. It's Julian sands plays this old Seaman who his him and his first mate, they find, hey, I was hoping that would go by he, he plays this old, this old seafaring guy, and him and his first mate find this old warship that that sunk in the area. I think they're in the Caribbean. And he they're gonna report it to to the to the authorities, but the first mate's college friends are all down for a vacation, and they they basically Money talks, and they convince them to let them dive it. So they're diving the labyrinth of corridors inside this sunken warship. And, of course, sharks show up, so they're being hunted by sharks while they're running out of air in this warship. So it's a, it's a pretty typical shark movie, you know? I mean, if you like shark movies like I do, you'll be into it. But you know, there's nothing really that special at it, except the fact that it's Julian Sand's last movie, which is kind of exciting. But also, along the same lines, have you guys seen that movie Breathe that came out a few months back? It's the one about the Earth's atmosphere has become, has become unbreathable, and all plant life is gone, and um, common is in it. And Jennifer Hudson, he basically, he has developed a thing that will, that will cleanse the air so him and his family can live. But Mila, Joe johovich, mila johovich, however, you say her name, she shows up with a couple other dudes, and they say they want to take a look at this thing so they can fix theirs. And, of course, nobody trusts anybody, and they all start fighting. And, you know, and it's the, you know, this post a lot, post apocalyptic world where no one can breathe. It's actually pretty bad. Um, it's a cool idea, but they, they didn't pull it off very well. I don't think it especially the very ending. The the very ending is a complete cop out. You're like, Oh, God, really, I watched 90 minutes just for it to end like this. So, but it's a cool idea.
Jonathan Correia:That's rough. Yeah, I hate it when something has a really cool idea and it doesn't like stick the landing. That's it's always rough. Well, in this edition of Correia's book corner, because, speaking of cool concepts that nail it, I finally got around to reading maniac of New York. Oh yeah, I love that book. Yeah, it's I've had volume one for since the trade came out. And never got around to and then someone gave me Volume Two recently, so I was like, alright, we, let's sit down and read it. But the basic it's written by Elliot Kalan, who did a lot of writing and producing for The Daily Show during the Jon Stewart years. He has the podcast to Flophouse. So he's, he's, he's used to satire,
Jacob Davidson:oh, and also, he did Spider Man and the X Men, one of my favorite Marvel mini series. Yeah. So
Jonathan Correia:he's written comics before too, and the concept is very it's everything that we always wanted from Jason Takes Manhattan, where it's a slasher killer mask a loose in New York City. And the brilliance of it is it starts off with like, what would be the finale of like a big budget slasher pill, where this guy, Harry the maniac, is is the killer, and he massacres 86 people in times squares New Year's Day in 2016 and then it jump cuts to 2019 and reported sightings of Harry the maniac in New York are treated like traffic reports like that's who is handling it on the
James Jay Edwards:news. Does it show how he gets away in 2016
Jonathan Correia:and no, the last shot is him standing over a massive pile of bodies covered in blood, and then they don't catch him? Yeah, they they don't catch him. He's just been running around New York, and occasionally, like, a couple people die here, a couple of people die there. They know there's, like, a Harry free zone for some reason, but Yeah, nobody
Jacob Davidson:can stop him either, because, like, he he's killed a bunch of cops, and like, bullets don't work on him. But
Jonathan Correia:it's one of those things where everyone's just kind of accepted that it's that it's, you know, that it's a thing that occasionally someone will die by Harry and the next big massacre is inevitable, and stuff which is very American.
James Jay Edwards:Does he respect the Harry free zone? I mean, how does that work?
Jonathan Correia:Well, the brilliant, the things that well, I'm I've never been so enthralled, like, like, sucked into a thing within the first three pages, like this book has done to me, and I love it because it's all a satire about, like, gun control, and because of what he was when he was writing it, it came out in 2021 so, like, it became about covid too, about America's inability to, like, be like, Hey, we should honestly do something about this, and not just accept these horrible things, but also as a slasher. It works really well because these, these little hints, like one of the characters turns out to have, like, a past history with Harry before he came to New York, like, you know, like a camp story and all that. There's a reason why there's a section of New York that never gets touched by Harry. But the first volume ends with him getting on to the first automated subway train in New York City, and it does not go well for about 200 people. And it's, it's just so good. The second volume is called the Bronx is burning, and he ends up in a school, like a private school. And that's one of those cases where I was like, Oh, this could go either really good or go really, like, rough with like, what you're doing with like this, and they handled it so well. And that one ends with him ending up in Yankee Stadium on opening day. So the body count is very high, but, like, it's, it's really good dude as like, a it's like a social satire. It nails it without being too preachy. As a slasher comic. It's enthralling, which is very surprising, because, you know, most of the time when I've read slasher comics, like Jason versus Jason X and things of that nature, they're fun, but it there's a difference between, like, reading panels and watching, like, you know, a movie of it. And so usually there's a bit of a disconnect. But they do such a good job of, like, just like, No, I don't want to say elevating, but like, putting a bit more weight behind what they're doing. Like, they go through when he's going through the train. They do, like, panels where it's like, this is, this is, uh, this is John. He was heading home to his wife and kids. He's not going home. And then it's like, the next person, this is Stuart. He just got a divorce and is on his way to celebrate the next chapter of his life. He won't be able to do that, you know? And it like, goes, like, takes that moment to like, these are people, not just Banta fodder. So it's, yeah, I highly recommend there's a the like. Each series is, like, four or five comics long, and they're on series three now, so a third volume should come out within the year, and I can't wait. It's such a good read. I'm
James Jay Edwards:way more interested in this from your description here than I was just from you posting the cover in our in our chat, yeah, and because when I saw that, I'm like, all you know, I'm not, you know, kind of lost voice. I'm like, I'm not into horror comics, blah, blah, blah, but this description that you just I'm kind of sold. I'm thinking, and the
Jonathan Correia:artwork and lettering are amazing, like the whole team did such a great job with it. It's such a cool comic series. I Yeah, if you need something to complete your summer reading challenge, I highly recommend maniac in the. Door.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, no, I I collected the whole series, and I think the best hook is that it took the concept of Jason takes Manhattan, and it nailed it better than anything thought possible. Yeah, it really did. And I can't wait to see what they're doing with volume three, because
Jonathan Correia:how volume two ends, it's like, where are you going to go from here? And then I have a couple of rapid fires. Did you guys see Thelma? No, y'all need to see Thelma. I
James Jay Edwards:got confused. Someone else asked me if I saw Thelma, and I had confused it with a 2017 movie about like a psychic girl, but I guess, yeah, this, this one's about an old lady, right? Yeah, yeah.
Jonathan Correia:It's a June Squibb plays Thelma, and she's 93 years old, and she's the star of this action film. And it is, it is cute. It is such a cute film. I love elderly shenanigan movies. I feel like that. We need to bring that back. I'm hoping, between this and Longlegs, we have, like a 90s sub genre of resurgence. But it's Thelma gets ripped off for like 10 grand through a phone scam. And so it's her trying to get her money back. The whole movie takes place where I live in. The
James Jay Edwards:Beekeeper. I was gonna say, we need a crossover film. Yes, the beekeeper,
Jacob Davidson:the beekeeper, this is almost protecting the hive. This
Jonathan Correia:is, this is beekeeper at the speed of a rascal scooter. It is. It is brilliant. It's June Squibb and Richard Roundtree rip who is? It's always great seeing him in something, but it's great seeing him in something where he really gets to like work like Richard Roundtree gives an amazing performance in this movie. It's fun. It's cute. Parker Posey's in it. Clark Craig, Nicole Breyer has a small bar in it. And it's it's a lot of fun. The has features. One of the best cool guys. Don't look at explosion moments too. So it's a nice little palette cleanse. So if you're thinking of doing a double feature, go see Longlegs, and then go see Thelma to like, you know, come back. Yeah. I highly recommend it. And then I also finally watched the animated Batman 66' movies that they did a few years ago, which include Batman Return of the caped crusaders and Batman versus two face. And they are so much fun. If you're a fan of Batman and the original Adam West/Burt Ward franchise, you gotta watch these. The first one is very much so like all right, What? What? What if Batman 66' had the budget to send them into space and have all of his rogues gallery there? They did such a good job of capturing the spirit and what the original series was, while also doing like modern references and modern storytelling, it's so good. But the second one, Batman versus two face was, first of all, one of Adam West's last performances as well. And what a great send off. But just the brilliant casting, because they never featured toothpaste in the original series. They thought it was too scary for kids. So you finally get to see what two face in 66 would look like, and what he looks like. It's William Shatner. They casted William Shatner as two face, which is he kills it. He is perfect in it. And not only that, but like you could see, oh yeah, it would be Shatner in 68 right, like, around that time, like he would have been Harvey Dent, yeah, that's awesome. And it's, it's so good. And yeah, again, if, if you, if you ever watched a Batman 66 episode growing up, I highly recommend watching these animated films. They are so fun. Burt Ward is on, like, next level, with his one liners in it as Robin, when
James Jay Edwards:you say the the whole rogues gallery, is it just Joker, you know, Riddler, Penguin and Catwoman, or is do they send up like King Tut and the Mad Hatter and egghead? Yeah, are it all those guys too? I'm telling
Jonathan Correia:you, they all pop up at some point. King Tut plays more of a role in the second one, but yeah, even Egghead pops up at one point. They cram a lot of story in those two, like 78 like they're only 78 minutes each, so it's a quick watch, but there's a lot packed into them. And they do bring back Julie newmore,
James Jay Edwards:that's what I was gonna ask. Which Catwoman is it? Julie Newmar is my favorite. So
Jonathan Correia:there's a brilliant bit in the first one where I think it's either Batman or Robin gets knocked on the head and Julie newmar's Catwoman is standing over him. He's like, whoa, I'm seeing three of you. The other two cat women are the other two. It's really, really good. Yeah, lot of fun. Yeah?
Jacob Davidson:Some quick rapid fires for me. Again, wanted to touch upon the super 70s series we're doing with the American Cinematheque, where we're showing 70 millimeter prints all month long for July. And I, yeah, no, I mean, I it is really an experience to see in 70 millimeter. Here, since it's so rare and it is an incredible format, so far I've managed to see Nope in 70 millimeter. Oh, Backdraft and oh yeah, oh, how could I forget Howard the Duck? Yes, yeah. Howard the Duck, 70 millimeter, baby. And it really does enhance that true cinematic classic.
James Jay Edwards:Now, which of these movies is the heaviest
Jacob Davidson:look? Well, to be honest, I haven't lifted all of them, so I don't know like they, you know, just it kind of depends on the shift. And also, you know, not there around the clock, but just in general, 70 millimeter prints are heavy, like we even have an opening to our movies with a little video of Matt Burris, our main transporter, who talks about how, how much effort it takes, you know, transport them because collectively, I think it, we're literally transporting over a ton of these film prints back and forth, because there's just so many, and they're so heavy, but again, worth it because, you know, the sound, visual quality of these movies are really outstanding. It's just such a fun experience.
Jonathan Correia:Well, they're literally twice the size of a 35 millimeter print, exactly 35 plus 35 that's 70. Yeah. Maths,
James Jay Edwards:a quick rapid fire from me, and I didn't realize that I had not seen this before, but I finally saw I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer. The third one, it is a pretty serviceable remake of the first one. I mean, there's literally nothing new. It is exactly the same. The only difference is the first one does exist in it, because that becomes a plot point where what happens is they, they dress, one of the guys dresses up like the killer from the first one and chases people around. And he accidentally, the person he's chasing around accidentally dies. So that becomes the, you know, the people who are behind the prank. It becomes the, oh no, we were responsible. And then, you know, the killers. But it's, there's more of a supernatural bent to it, though. It's not like a, it's, it's not like a slasher. It's more like a, like a, you know, a ghost story. But it, it is a, it's, you know, not nearly as good as the other two, but it's, you know, it's pretty much the same as the first movie, The
Jonathan Correia:Lifetime original,
James Jay Edwards:yeah, yeah, that's the thing, yeah. It's like, I Know What You Did Last Summer light
Jacob Davidson:and back on the big Hollywood horror releases, MaXXXine finally came out and I saw it all right, yeah. And I want to preface that, I saw it on 35 millimeter at one of the only location to VISTA Theater in Hollywood, which added to the experience, because I thought it was I was so much fun. And, yeah, no, it's just so funny how the series changes genres like a chameleon with every movie. Because X is a slasher. Pearl is kind of a psychological horror movie, a descendant of madness set in the golden age of Hollywood, and MaXXXine is kind of a grim and gritty 80s, neon soap, Neo noir, giallo.
James Jay Edwards:You know when Correia, when you texted us with when you were seeing it, and you said that they were playing the trailer to Savage Streets. Yeah, that I love that they were playing that. Because when I was watching MaXXXine, I was like, Oh, dude, this is total Savage Streets. So it made me really happy that someone else picked up on that enough to program the trailer before and
Jacob Davidson:and they played the trailer for one of the other more comparable films, Vice Squad with wings. Houser, yeah, yeah, no. It just really nailed that esthetic of the of the grime of those kind of 80s Hollywood type of movies, and also the giallo stuff, because it really felt like New York Ripper, because there is a villain who wears black gloves while committing murders. So yeah, it's definitely Ty West's showing those influences with those and it is interesting to kind of see the evolution of Maxine as a character, because she's in Hollywood. She's trying to break in. She's going to be in a horror movie within the movie, when she gets a very threatening visit from a good old southern boy, private detective Kevin Bacon, and things just escalate from there, and also in the shadow of the Night Stalker killings in the 80s. Yeah,
Jonathan Correia:I mean, I really liked it. I feel like MaXXXine was, for me, at least on the same level as X where, like I liked it, you know, I know a lot of people were either a lot more disappointed or a lot more obsessed with it than I was, but it was more so for me. I just liked a lot of pieces of it, but I still enjoyed, I mean, Elizabeth Debicki as the as the female director behind Puritan 2. She was just everything. I loved her so much. She had that that very like, I'm an artist and I need to protect my artistic vision, which usually makes my eyes roll. But for her, I was like, we need to protect your artistic vision. Like Maxine, get your shit together, because we need to. We need to see her masterpiece that is Puritan 2. And there was just so many like great performances there. Lily Collins also was in it for a couple of scenes, and stole everything. Halsey was just absolutely everything as well. So there's some really great bits. I love the influences a lot, like with X, the sudden kind of change of things in the in the third act was a bit like, I don't know. I'm always conflicted because I'm like, I love this, but also I don't know, because I love the third act shift up with MaXXXine. But you guys remember when, when we first talked about x. I even mentioned, I was like, Where the fuck did that connection of Maxine's backstory with her father come from? Like it felt a little tacked on. And I don't
James Jay Edwards:think it was tacked on in X, because that whole television televangelist, he was basically in the background for the whole movie, like on radios or on TV. So it kind of not really tacked on, but it kind of was like the big, oh my gosh. You know, when you find out that she's his daughter, yeah, I
Jonathan Correia:am. And again, it could just be like, a hey, it's, it's a Correia thing, and it's me, and, you know, it's my problem, and it's fine, but like, it always just felt like I was more interested in everything else. And so for me, it felt like an a tack on and that was the thing with MaXXXine, I was so into all the 80s stuff, all the filmmaking stuff, all these things that, like, when the preacher plotline came back up, I was just like, okay, like, I'm okay with this. I'm just, I wasn't as in love with it as everything else I did, like what they did with it, though there was some really cool stuff with, like, the kind of evangelical cult stuff that went on with that last not trying not to spoil anything, but with the last bit. But no, I had a lot of fun with MaXXXine. And definitely, you know me, goth ate it, you know everything. It was great. But yeah, I still think Pearl is the crowning achievement of the trilogy for me, at least. And that's that's just for me. For
James Jay Edwards:me, I think MaXXXine is the best of the three. I think my And granted, I think they're all awesome. So this isn't, you know, this is kind of like ranking the Quiet Place movies for me, but I think it goes for me, MaXXXine, X, Pearl,
Jonathan Correia:yeah. What about you, Jacob,
Jacob Davidson:uh, you know, yeah, that's a tough question again, because it was just so different. But I'd probably have to say X is probably my favorite in terms of rewatch ability. We all have different favorites, yeah, although, I mean, I like them all, yeah. But I also do agree with Correia's critique that, I mean, I did like MaXXXine. It just is some stuff that feel a little scattershot, but overall it worked. Oh, and this isn't
Jonathan Correia:me saying I don't like, I don't like the movies. That's just not saying, like, there's pieces where I'm just like, Okay, I'm not as thrilled as I am with the rest of it. I still, I think it's a great trilogy, and I have a
Jacob Davidson:lot of fun. Yeah, I'm just, I'm happy it exists. Yeah, the rewatch ability of them is very high. Oh, yeah. And also, I'm very happy that there was a character reading Fangoria in the in the movie, within MaXXXine, or just within MaXXXine, yeah, that's fun.
James Jay Edwards:Well, I think part of that, that tacked on thing that you know, the tacked on what what you say is tacked on at the ending. Kind of goes with the 80s esthetic of MaXXXine, you know, because there was a lot of that going on back then. Which leads us to our discussion. I know you like that king of segways Correia. Why don't you introduce our topic? Yeah,
Jonathan Correia:so in honor of MaXXXine and getting, uh, completely enthralled with the vibes and the and the thrills of 80s cinema. We wanted to just kind of briefly talk about some of our favorite 80s retro films, you know, films that were shot after the 80s that take place then. Because, I mean, I didn't live and I was born in 90 but the the looks, the sounds, the styles, everything about the 80s is so very specific and iconic, it's hard not to be absolutely enthralled. And it's so identifiable, like you just need a couple people with the right outfit and hair to go. Oh, this place, this takes place in the 80s. Gotcha. Yeah,
Jacob Davidson:I feel a lot of it kind of plays into kind of classical pop cultural nostalgia, where every decade will be nostalgic for a decade a few decades before it, you know, just look at how happy days was a huge deal in the 70s and 80s, right?
Jonathan Correia:Or that 70s show in the 90s, late 90s, early 2000s and
Jacob Davidson:no matter where you are, people will look fondly back at what came before
Jonathan Correia:it's. To be weird when there's like one that, because it's, there's always, it's always a sitcom. There's fresh off the boat. Was the 90s one, and then now we have that 90s show. So once, When's our 2000s 2000 10s, one coming, it's
Jacob Davidson:coming any day now, I'll be great.
Jonathan Correia:But what are some of your guys's favorite retro throwbacks?
Jacob Davidson:For me actually took me a minute, because it made me realize there's so many choices specifically in the horror genre. But my personal favorite has to be Panos Cosmos' Beyond the Black Rainbow, which is implicitly set in 1983 even though it's sort of a weird retro future version of 1983 you know, with the Arborea Institute, but also reflective of, kind of the, I guess, dystopic and, yeah, just kind of the depressing or darker aspects of that era, because a lot of it is set in, yeah, the Arborea Institute, The scientific and psychological institute that back in the 60s, was idealistic and was supposed to, you know, begin a new age of enlightenment. But everything went wrong, and now it's this brutalist building with this poor psychic girl being basically tormented by this evil psychiatrist, mad scientist. And I feel like Cosmotos was kind of kind of the core, because there's very little to no nostalgia in in that there. But esthetically, it is very fitting, especially toward the end, because, like, there's a scene where they get out of the Institute, and there's like, a couple of heshers, like metal heads, just hanging around a campfire, drinking beers while listening to music. And then there's kind of a slasher set up with like, Guy picking them off. But, yeah, no, but if you Beyond the Black Rainbow, is one of my favorites of that. And again, it tells you, right off the bat, this is 1983 I
James Jay Edwards:think, oh, one of my favorites, it's not, it doesn't explicitly say it's in the 80s, because it doesn't explicitly say it's in any time period, but it has the 80s vibe. Is It Follows because they, because they, yeah, well, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of, I mean, they kind of purposely keep it ambiguous, you know, with, like, you know, they're driving around 70s cars. But, like you said, there's that clam reader thing, which is definitely modern, but, um, what keeps it 80s for me is the soundtrack on it's just got such a Carpenter esque, you know, score to it, yeah. And also just the the supernatural aspect of it, of this, you know, plus the sexual revolution, you know, of the of the time where, you know, it's kind of just a metaphor for promiscuity catching up with you so well, I
Jonathan Correia:would even say kind of the backlash of the sexual revolution of the 70s, yeah, yes. The 80s, yeah, thanks, Reagan, yeah.
Jacob Davidson:And, and, a lot of ways, it feels like it's just kind of like an alternate universe version of the 80s. Because, yeah, it's like all these different bits and pieces that don't quite add up, but it has that style and does have that setting. Plus, Nightmare on Elm Street, probably one of the biggest 80s horror movies, was a major influence, so it totally makes sense.
Jonathan Correia:Plus, let's not forget, it follows. Introduced us all to Miaka Monroe. So yeah,
Jacob Davidson:ties all together. Yep.
Jonathan Correia:Thank goodness for that one of, one of my favorites, because it's, it's one that's so ingrained in 80s. But when you think about it, it's not one that's like all neon lights and big hairs and all that. It's American Psycho. Because that one, I was just
James Jay Edwards:thinking that American Psycho, because the book American Psycho was actually written in the 80s, right? Um, so it's Mary Harrons treatment of it that actually is retro, yeah. And so it becomes kind of heavy handed when he's like, I'm gonna go return some videotapes. You know, it's the treatment of it that becomes retro. Oh,
Jonathan Correia:I mean, it's not just the tapes, but the suits, the outfits, the it's it's Wall Street, but with a psycho killer amongst them. And that's one of the things I really appreciate, because especially when we're thinking of like retro 80 movies, it's like, okay, movies where people wear very bright makeup and big hair and big outfits and all this stuff, and then it's like, Well, that wasn't all of the 80s that was, like, very specific pop culture influenced parts of it. So like, American Psycho does a really fantastic job of, like, not only portraying but also critiquing Wall Street and all those yuppie bastards who blend this country dry and set up 40 fucking plus years of just like, absolute
Jacob Davidson:and getting reservation at the Dorsia, yeah. And,
Jonathan Correia:how could you and yeah, how could you not flex when you see yourself in the mirror now because of that movie?
Jacob Davidson:I mean, she's and, yeah, no. Like, I love a lot of these types of movies set in the 80s because they're anti nostalgia movies, because. Movies like American Psycho and Beyond the Black Rainbow show the darker sides of that decade, with American Psycho in particular, just being like, you know, the high speed wall rat race of Wall Street was incredibly hollow, and all these people are fucking miserable,
Jonathan Correia:such brilliance, like the kills are great, but it's definitely the exploration of, like, Y'all are miserable, but put on that face, because this is what you're supposed to be achieving. Is just, I would like, I still say one of the best scenes is Christian Bale and Reese Witherspoon sitting down. They're like, Wait, are you breaking up? Wait, no, no, you're not. And it's just like, what an encompassment of that misery that the film portrays. Yeah,
Jacob Davidson:and I also love like he keeps on renting the Texas Chainsaw Massacre on VHS, and he goes, like, I gotta return some tapes.
James Jay Edwards:That's how you know it was really the 80s, because he had to keep
Jacob Davidson:renting it. And speaking of throwbacks, this one's, I guess, a little bit more positive, but as of recent, Lisa Frankenstein has become a favorite of mine. And that one said on the tail end of the 80s, in 89 my birth year. And yeah, it's a lot of fun, you know, just kind of being a throwback 80s, dark teen comedy, but also Frankenstein story, and has a killer soundtrack, you know, between the Syth score and some of the picks, like their cover of, I can see clearly now that rain is gone and, yeah, just in general, Like, I mean, he got Katherine Newton being a teen pop Frank Frankenstein, and he had the whole Lisa Frank, Lisa Frankenstein thing, with the esthetic, with, like, the, you know, kind of the style, but there's still gore and people get bits chopped up. So I, I think I thought that one was a lot of fun.
James Jay Edwards:One that kind of is, is more retro 80s, but over in, like, across the pond, you'd say, is Censor, Oh, yeah. Which Censor I thought captured the whole, it captured the whole video nasty censorship, yeah, the video nasties thing of there where, like, you know, it, it wasn't so much a time capsule of, like, visually, but the ideas and plot wise, you're like, okay, they were really doing this back then. Oh,
Jacob Davidson:man, I'll never forget seeing Censor in theaters at Alamo. And there's this scene where she's listening to radio, and Margaret Thatcher's doing a speech about the video now season, everybody in the audience started booing her. Uh,
Jonathan Correia:Margaret Thatcher, the Reagan of England, the
Jacob Davidson:worst. Yeah, boo. See, the 80-80s had a lot of bad stuff,
James Jay Edwards:yeah, unless you were a kid the Nate the 80s was probably all bad, absolutely,
Jonathan Correia:to kind of continue my thread of, like, 80s, but not so much heavy on, like, the pop references. Side of things is a Paranormal Activity 3,
James Jay Edwards:oh yeah, yeah, that one's totally retro. It's,
Jonathan Correia:I mean, it takes place in the 80s, but just like the going for the not just the VHS style, but again, I will always applaud the practicality of like, well, how do we make this camera move? Oh, we attach it to a fan. Such a brilliant fucking bit.
James Jay Edwards:I love the Fan Cam.
Jonathan Correia:I am such a sucker. And I mean that fan bit was so good, it almost caused the downfall of, or not downfall. But, like, some of the issues with four which was, like trying to do the Xbox bit,
James Jay Edwards:which, although I love that, the Connect, yeah, I think I still, I mean, I'll fight anybody. I still think that's pretty fun. The imagery
Jonathan Correia:that it caused was really cool. Of seeing, like, the green dots on like the entity, that was cool, but just the setup was just like, Ah, come on, that's not gonna age well.
Jacob Davidson:So, yeah, it makes it a period movie, right?
Jonathan Correia:It does make it a period movie, but I mean Paranormal Activity three just like, really captured what the spirit of like, and what they were doing with the franchise, and like took on the challenge of setting it in the 80s and made it like a fresh take on all of it, while still expanding and continuing the more. I still think that's probably my favorite of the of the franchise as of now, we'll see what, when the next one comes out, whenever it could happen, they're definitely going to do it. Another one. Give it. Give it another five years.
James Jay Edwards:Have you guys seen Next of Kin, the the latest? Yeah, it's, it's, it's all right. Oh, wait,
Jacob Davidson:yes, I did see that. I did see that. Yeah, I thought it was okay. It was fine.
Jonathan Correia:Let's, let's rapid fire some, some fun ones. What do you what are some ones that you guys recommend for people to seek out?
James Jay Edwards:One that I'm not sure if it takes place in the 80s, but it but definitely has that esthetic with the neon and the and the soundtrack and all is The Guest with your boy, Dan Stevens.
Jonathan Correia:Oh, the one that introduced me to my boy, Dan Stevens, yeah, that's where it all began, the one
James Jay Edwards:that put him on the map. Yeah,
Jacob Davidson:one of my favorites that technically is set in the 80s, is Final Girls, because, you know, it's about a group of modern teens going into a slasher movie from the 80s. So technically, they're in the 80s within the context of the movie that was made in the 80s, you know, down to the Betty Davis Eyes sound sound track drop. And, you know, you got the Jason type killer and kind of the clash between the modern teens who understand the rules of the genre versus the clueless 80s archetype characters. And it has a lot of heart, because, you know, it's about types of Amiga reuniting
James Jay Edwards:with her mom, her mom, male and Ackerman. Yeah, male
Jacob Davidson:and Ackerman and, yeah, no, it's definitely still one of my favorites. Oh,
Jonathan Correia:absolutely for rapid fires. I gotta lean, I'm gonna lean into the retro wave esthetic with it all, and listen and say, Turbo Kid and Psycho Gorman are just like that, like super hyper pop retro wave esthetics, while still being original with it. But also, yeah, so Turbo Kid and Psycho Gorman definitely hit that retro wave feel with it. But also to kind of go back to more of a grittier type title, especially if you like Maxine, highly recommend Knife+Heart,
Jacob Davidson:oh yeah,
Jonathan Correia:French kind of Neo nuir, kind of giallo slasher that takes place in with, like gay pornography. It's like Cruising meets, like giallo slasher it's, ah, such a blast, and dark and gritty and just grimy. And, yeah, you know, you feel it's one of those ones where you feel the sweat, and it's great.
James Jay Edwards:We can't talk about horror movies set in the 80s, without talking about Summer of 84
Jacob Davidson:Oh, yeah. Where the kids? Yeah, the
James Jay Edwards:kids, they think their neighbor is a serial killer. So they, they decide to start, um, basically, gathering evidence on him, which, you
Jacob Davidson:know, and it gets intense. Always ends, well,
Jonathan Correia:always. I mean, I love a good kids on bikes movie. So it's nice to get a good one that isn't just like, hey, it's Stranger Things, you know,
James Jay Edwards:speak Yeah, speaking of, if you want, really want to go there, Stranger Things is completely what we're talking about. Oh, yeah,
Jonathan Correia:I still haven't gotten back, man, I felt I fell to that Netflix curse of watching everything in like a day or two, and then the next thing didn't come out for like, a year or so. And when they were doing the recap, I was like, I don't remember any of this. And just never got back to,
James Jay Edwards:you know what happened with me? With stranger, I watched the first season, and then was it the second season where the episodes were like, 90 minutes long.
Jacob Davidson:I think that was the most recent season, man, it was
James Jay Edwards:earlier than that, though earlier than maybe the maybe the most recent season is that way as well. But there was a season where the episode stretched out to 90 minutes, and then at that point I tapped out. I'm like, You know what? I would rather watch an actual movie than a TV episode. That's 90 minutes. So, yeah, I mean, I'm not caught up on Stranger Things, but I remember from what I would what I did watch, that it was very much the the 80s esthetic. That's
Jonathan Correia:why it's taken me so long to get through the Martin Freeman Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock Series. It's like, all right? It's a whole ass movie.
James Jay Edwards:Well, that's different, because the british series is, are that way, but each season is only three episodes, right?
Jonathan Correia:That's what helps. Yeah, yeah.
James Jay Edwards:So you know that, you know, when you've got like, six episodes and they're, you know, six to eight episodes and they're 90 minutes each, you're like, oh God, kill me.
Jonathan Correia:Well, six to eight episodes, that's three seasons right there, that show, yeah, in
James Jay Edwards:the British ones, yeah, I'm talking Stranger Things. Yeah,
Jonathan Correia:that's but I also with Sherlock, I have to remind myself, everyone ripped off this show well after it came out. So when I'm watching, I'm like, no, no, no. This was the first one to do the text messaging and doing all the things that became like standard after that time. So but they're fun. Since
James Jay Edwards:we're talking about Sherlock, maybe we've come to the end of this discussion. So what did we miss? What do you guys, what are your favorite movies that have that I kept coming back to the Neon Demon, although it's not even close to set in the 80s, only the soundtrack, I guess, is the only thing that is but what are your favorites? What did we miss? Let us know you can find us. On all the socials to let us know, or ihorror com, our theme song is by restless spirits, so go check them out. And our artwork is by Chris Fisher, so go check him out. And I think the the post script on this episode is, everybody see Longlegs, because it's awesome. Yeah, and we'll see you in a couple weeks. So for me, James Jay Edwards,
Jacob Davidson:I'm Jacob Davison
Jonathan Correia:And I'm Jonathan Correia.
James Jay Edwards:Keep your eye on horror.
