On this episode, we discuss Night Swim.Nope.
Nope.That's not, that's the wrong theme.
Hey everyone, and welcome to the Flophouse.I'm Dan McCoy.And I'm Stuart Wellington.
Oh man, did you hear the spooky wind whistling through the trees?The leaves are falling.The cackle of a witch in the distance.
Chains rattling.Chains everywhere.Creaky doors.Don't oil that door up.Wait till November to do that.
No, yeah.You got to keep it creepy and creaky for the season.
Yep.Along with all those, along with all those crunchy leaves on the ground.Yep.And all the various colors.
Creepier than a crunchy leaf.
Ground is filled with zombies and tremors and shit.Yeah.They're called Grappling Stewart.Oh, why do you, man, ever, I'm going to get roasted in the comments.
Uh, yeah, uh, as you can tell, obviously from everything we just said, uh, we're in Shocktober, the part of the Flophouse calendar year where we talk horror movies.
Um, in the old days, we'd sort of did it all the time, but now it's been sequestered to its own month.
That was when Stewart got to pick the movies.Yeah.
Well, it's when we did a lot more picking the movie.We're going to talk about the night that we were recording.
You're like, this seems good.Why not this?Yeah, this little movie poster looks terrible.
Yeah, this is worth our time.Sorority House Row.Yeah, sure.
But for this first Shocktober surprise, we watched Night Swim.
I mean, this feels like a blast from the past in that it does feel like the kind of movie we would settle on just by seeing what's available on a streamer the night that we got Dan's apartment.
About the haunted pool, guys.
Yeah, I mean, it wasn't a surprise to me about a month ago when I texted you guys that I was on the treadmill and I was watching Night Swim, and Dan's like, we're gonna have to do that for Shocktober, so you might as well.I hope you like it.
Here's the thing.I do like it.Or... Horror in general has been better lately than it was for a while.
Uh, I was looking at recent horror movies that we could do for October and this was kind of the most major one that got a lot of bad reviews, uh, in, in recent memory.So normally I would have been like, yeah, that's fine.
But, uh, I kind of had my sights set on this one, although I don't know, it sort of turned out to not. have a lot of electricity in it, maybe?
That's true.I mean, spoiler alert for our final judgments, this turned out to be, again, a blast from the Flophouse past, and this is a real filler of a movie in a lot of ways.Like, it's a real time filler.
Our boys over at Blumhouse are cooking up some bland stuff for us to eat.
But we'll talk about it, you know, but it's funny that Dan was like, oh boy, we better dive into Night Swim.And while I was watching it, I was like, Yeah, this feels like, you know, it's a movie.Yeah.There's movie stuff going on.Technically.Yeah.
It was one of these movies that I saw the trailer and there's a lot of like chuckling in the theater because people were like, Oh boy, a haunted pool.No, thank you.What, what are those ad wizards in Hollywood kicking up for us today?
You know, like, and I actually watched the trailer being like, I don't know, like if approached with the right spirit, this could be fun.Like, I like that sort of, silliness in a premise.Yeah.
Pools can be scary, dude.What if you do a sick ass cannonball and your underpants fall off?
Also, pools are scary.Like people die in them.It is the, it is the, it is the most dangerous thing you can have in your house after a gun, basically.Yeah.
Which is why you have both.
Well, that's why I have a pool that I shoot a gun into.Yeah.
Yeah, I feel like, yeah, they keep each other in check is what you're saying, right?
Exactly.Every now and then, if the gun's acting up, I throw it in the pool.And if the pool looks like it's got some ideas on its mind, I shoot it a few times.Yeah.
When you throw the gun in the pool, do you imagine you're the guy from The Irishman?
I always imagine I'm the guy from The Irishman.The Irishman.
Okay.The one who paints houses?
The titular Irishman.Yeah, yeah.The one who paints houses.The one who's an incredibly old young man.
Yeah, yeah.He's like, oh, Joe Pesci, I'll paint your house for ya.
Yeah. But for having sort of like- Red blood, black bullets, green clovers.
Oh, if you don't leave me alone, I'll chop my fucking fingers off.
What if that was the Irishman that was in it?I mean, Terry Condon, who's in this movie and is in that, is in the band she's having to share it.
Let's say criminally wasted in this movie.
Let's say under, underutilized.That's true.Certainly is not given as much to tear into as she is in her work with Martin McDonough.That's for sure.
I don't want to get out.Oh, I figure, I figure I might not put the pool in the back.It seems a wee bit haunted.That's the Irishman in Night Swim.
Yeah.I don't want to get out over our skis too much and like make a judgment too early in the show.
But I do think that... You may change your mind.Yeah.
Well, no, I do think that like part of the thing was like, My anticipation that maybe this would be fun was based on the idea of, like, leaning into the silliness a little bit more.
Like, I feel like the movie could use a bit more of a Grindhouse-y spirit, maybe.Yes.
I will say this about it. In a movie about a haunted pool, the haunted pool was the least interesting part of the movie for me.
And I found myself wishing this was a story about a family that's dealing with a major transition in their lives, and that there was not a haunted pool in it.And it has more pool stuff than the movie Pontypool, which has no pool in it.
So you gotta give it that.
And no ponty.Yeah, let me, whatever that is.
There's also a 0% ponty as well.
Yeah, but we really had showed up with fucking receipts against Pontypool. Okay.Let's, uh, let's dig into this.Uh, let's dive in.
Okay.Let me just get out my notes.Okay.Super put on his reading glasses and it's like, he's wait, he like, it sounded like he was funfairing so that we would comment on it.
I'm a very good physical performer.Okay.Uh, so, The movie opens, we have, it's night, we have a house, there's a pool in back, that's right, the haunted pool is in the back of this house.
Inside the home, there is a sick kid hooked up to some machines, his little sister, or big sister, but it's a little girl, named, who we will find out is named Rebecca, goes outside, because she thinks there's something going on with the pool, she sees his toy floating in the pool, then a ghost pushes her in.
It's like a little motorboat.
Yeah, which is a super important detail.And she gets pushed.
It shows up multiple times throughout the movie, so you might as well describe it now.
Which is which is weird, because like if you're going to if you're going to have a toy that is inexplicably in a pool, put something that doesn't normally go in water, right?
Well, what's strange to me about it is it becomes the the thing that the spirit in the pool is using to lure people in.And it's like, why did it grab onto this one toy boat as like its thing?
In theory, this thing has been around since time immemorial and it's had many victims.How come it's always that boat?But it's because it's what they established in the beginning of the movie.
Isn't that what like Georgie was chasing when Pennywise ripped his head off?Well, it was a origami boat in it.
It was like a paper boat, like you'd make out of a newspaper, right?
Mm-hmm.Yeah.Yeah.I, our friend, uh, our friend Kurt's, uh, daughter was like savage about, uh, Georgie and it, but I thought it was so hilarious.Like, she was like, thank you.
Like, why are you going to like believe in a, like, why are you going to do what a clown in a sewer?
Well, these, these city kids are built different, Dan.
That's true.Then those kids in Terry, I mean, but it is all, I mean, they're tied to the fact that they have to fulfill what the audience expects from the first version of that story, Georgie Girl, with its famous theme song.
Hey there, Georgie Girl, listen to the clown inside the sewer.
Yeah, I remember that song.
Okay.So as I said, it's going to tell you what you should do or, Hey there, Georgie girl.
So it's, it's, it's a, it'd be, they were like, the fans are going to understand after having seen Georgie girl that Georgie is going to, is going to listen to this clown.Yeah.Yeah.
So, uh, back to night swim, Rebecca gets pushed into the pool by a ghost and then she, the pool like spins her around and then drowns her. Okay.
Years later, classic haunted pool, classic haunted pool.
You know, I'm not actually someone who's like sensitive to child death in movies as a, you love it.
You know, I just know that like dance, who could kill a child?
Parents love to talk about Manchester by the sea.I wish more kids had burned up in that house.
I'm just like, like parents, especially new parents love to talk about like, oh, I can't, I can't do it anymore.I can't do it anymore.
And as someone who has not had that experience, I'm like, do it anymore, but it's because the kid keeps you from getting into that mood.
Uh, but I, I certainly, as I grow older, like this, this bothered me more than most because it was sort of.
realistic in the situation like I know how dangerous like pools can be for kids and and you know so unlike say assault on precinct 13 where the death of a child is sort of like almost a shocking, dark joke.
It's very rare that someone just drives up to a kid on the street randomly and shoots them in the face.Certainly an ice cream man doesn't do it that often.I would go as far as to say zero times.
This is a wild movie.But you're right, there is something much more realistic about a kid drowning in a pool.I mean, that's the number one type of person that is killed by pools is children.
But the strange thing is, even though knowing that that is a danger my own children occasionally face, and I'm glad, and I'm always worried about them.
Every time one of my kids goes underwater to swim, I get very nervous just for a moment before they come up again.
It didn't affect me that much, maybe because, like, I don't know, this movie is, I think, if it was- You made sure that your pool isn't haunted?Well, the one thing is, there's a fence around that pool.
This pool in this movie did not have a fence around it.Pool owners, you gotta put a fence around it.That's the most important thing.Put a ring on it if you want a keeper, and put a fence around that pool if you want your kids to stay safe.Oh, man.
These are important life lessons.
But I think the movie was trying so hard to feel serious, I think, that it kind of went around the bend for me in some ways.
Yeah, so we get the title.Oh yeah.
Oh yeah, we get the title.
Years later, we meet a new family who is house hunting in a little suburb near the Twin Cities, from what we're told, which again, I do have to point out, that seems like a weird location for a house with a haunted pool.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like that's not, you're not going to get to use that pool that much of the year, right?
No, you're not going to get to use that pool that much of the year, especially no in winter it's done in autumn.It gets really cold, but yes, we'll find it's the pool was more built there because of the presence of a, of a natural magical.Okay.
I thought you were arguing that, you know, the water is more haunted down South than it is around the twin cities.
I mean, you better believe it is.That's for sure.Yeah, that's true.It's all that voodoo floating around in there.
That's where Swamp Thing lives.Yeah, you know it.Okay, so we meet this family.We have the father.
Down here we got some haunted water, not like your safe water up north.When I moved, that's Crawdaddy.He goes, when I moved to Connecticut from Louisiana, I think I miss the po' boys, I miss the beignets, and I miss my haunted water.
Wow, that was a plus for him.
The long-awaited return of Crawdaddy.
Yeah, yeah.Oh, yeah, the haunted water was a plus.Yeah, yeah.Yeah, yeah.You go swam, you don't know what you're going to get.You're going to get wet.You're going to have a nice time.You're going to get dragged down to the underworld.
That risk made it worthwhile. Yeah.But up here in Connecticut, this cement pool, just nice.Never, never tries to drag you down.
Yeah.That's weird.The things you miss, you know?Yeah.We all grow up crawdaddy.
I spent so much of my life wishing I didn't have to worry about the water spirits pulling me down to the underworld.Now I kind of miss it. Like that song Stay by Lisa Loeb.Wasn't a fan of it when I was young, but now it hits me with the nostalgia.
Really, uh, really wild pronunciation, but I'm bad at it.That's how they say it back there.Uh, yeah, it's like, it's like he's pronouncing clerb.
I once brought Lisa Loeb some cheese, but I just wanted to mention that.
Unsolicited?No, no. Uh, our friend, uh, Sarah Schaefer had her on, uh, her live.
Oh yeah.I was, I operated one of the cameras for that, for the recording of that show.Yeah.
And, uh, we were like, we've got a big, we've got a big guest for once.We've got to bring her some cheese.
Did she complain that she had nerd sweat all over the cheese when he delivered it?
I, I was, yeah, I was, I was star struck.She was just sitting in the back doing crosswords though.She seemed to enjoy the cheese.I don't know.That's all I got to say about that.
All right, well, what a story.
Yeah, I love it.Okay, so we meet this family.The father is Ray, played by, what's his name?
Wyatt Russell.Yeah, Wyatt Russell, Kurt Russell's kid.Third generation Russell, yeah.
He is a recently retired or on leave baseball player.
He is experiencing medical problems, and so he has had to go into early retirement.We will learn later.
We'll learn later that he is suffering from what they describe as secondary progressive MS, and it seems to be getting worse.But baseball is his life.He loves baseball.All he wants is more baseball.
His wife, Eve, played by Carrie Condon, is a— Academy Award nominee. Academy Award nominee is a, what a school administrator.And she is excited.
One thing she's excited about is the prospect of settling down a little bit because I guess they've traveled a lot for Ray's work.Um, and though she loves him, she, you know, she also, she wants to make sure he understands he's not just baseball.
He's also a father.But he's Mr. Baseball.He's Mr. Baseball.
That is Tom Selleck.Yeah.And he's not Mr. 3000.That was Bernie Mac.
And he's not Mr. Clean.That, of course, is a bald mascot for a cleaning.
Or Mr. Mister, which is a band.
He's not Mr. Wonderful, the famous shark that Dan is always trying to pitch ideas to in his mirror.Yeah, that's a shark.
He's not one of the Mr. Men, you know, the, the series of children's books where they each of the, they have little characters with different.Oh yeah.
Yeah.Like little miss and yeah.Yeah, yeah, exactly.Yeah.Little miss.So can't be wrong. No.Legally.Yeah.Legally by act of Congress.
So, uh, their elder daughter is Izzy.Uh, we know that she likes to swim or she develops a crush on this kid who's in the JV Christian swim team.Uh, which just seems like a lot of, a lot of additional things there.
There's a lot of adjectives.She's the more athletic of the two siblings.
More outgoing, more athletic.
And then they have a younger son who seems like a like a little nerd, kind of a turd.And what do they name him?
Yeah, his name is Elliot.
Spelled right.You're in the clear now, I guess. And you know, he's a little kid.He's like, he worships his dad.He's small for his age.He just wants to spend time with his dad, but his dad is very focused on initially having MS and then recovering.
Yeah, there's this vibe that they can't relate.He can't relate as well to his son because his son isn't athletic.
His son wants to be good at baseball so he can get his dad's love and approval, but he just doesn't have it.He's just not good at it.It's just like the Kalen household.
I mean, it's that's I want my son to be so good at baseball because it's all I care about.It's the only thing that I care about.And I mean, it's so the opposite of the Kaelin household, because my older son, all he cares about is baseball.
That's all he wants to do all the time.And I'm like, can we talk about anything?
Constantly pushing you down, being like, get out of my way, nerd.Yeah.
He does get up in my face a lot.And he gets up in my face and starts beatboxing a lot, which I don't allow.
I do kind of like that.That's like a Conor O'Malley bit.
Yeah, but I will say, so this is what, I started watching this movie and I'm like, it made me really miss, it was like, there is a time when Hollywood would make a movie that was about
A former professional baseball player dealing with MS, his family is having trouble adjusting to the fact that his life feels empty because the one thing he cared about is not there.
He's having trouble relating to his son because his son just does not have the same skill and talent that he has for this one thing.And the wife is kind of trying to figure out how to navigate these emotions.
And I was like, I kind of just want to see that movie.
I just want to see like the ordinary people or whatever about that family.And so every moment before the haunted pool, I was like, can I just, can we just, just be a movie about like a family and they don't have to have a haunted pool.
You want to, you want to watch a night swim based on a novel by John Irving.
I mean, kind of, I mean, not quite as quirky, you know, but like, if you think about like the movie, The Great Santini, which I don't love, but like The Great Santini, until it starts getting into like movie plot territory, it's like, you just, you're seeing a family and you're seeing how they interact.
And like, there's a, there's an entertainment value and a dramatic value to that.
So I was, it just made me sad for, oh yeah, there was a period where Hollywood made a lot of movies that were just about like people, you know, but now they got to have haunted pools.What are you going to do?You know?
So they're house shopping, they find this house that has a pool.It's the same house as the opening.Ray, at one point, they see the pool.Ray's kind of obsessed with it.
And he sees that there's a baseball sitting on the pool cover and he reaches for it.I don't know if you guys understand symbolism.
He reaches for it and he slips and falls into the pool and he has this like series of visions of himself playing baseball.And that before he manages to drag himself out and and they're like, let's we're buying this pool.So they buy the house.
Just the pool.You use the pool.You got to buy it now.Yeah. Let's just let that movie, We Bought a Zoo, it's because it wanders into a zoo.You gotta buy it now.
We'll just sleep on the pool.No, the pool comes with the house.You gotta buy the house.
You have to get the house.We can't just get just the pool.What if we buy the pool in one of the rooms in the house?No, it's a set.You gotta buy the whole thing.
What if we do sort of a pool share with whoever owns the house?
Yeah, where we get the pool and we share it with them sometimes.No, no.
What if it's like a pool share type thing where if Cher wants to use the pool, we'll let her use it.I mean, that's an outstanding rule.
If that's going to happen.
I mean, sure.I want to use your pool.I don't know why you would say no.Yeah.
If Cher showed up to use your pool, Elliot, would you be like, no, thank you.
I'd be like, turn back time to before you asked me that question, because the answer is no.
Okay, so part of the reason we take this house is that, again, Ray is like, his doctor suggests some low-impact exercise, like swimming, and he's like, hey, I got pool therapy, again, for maybe two months a year. Again.
I don't know if it's that short.I don't know if it's just too much.
What the swimming season in the Twin Cities is?It's at least nine weeks, let's say.So they move in very quickly.We get almost no footage.
That's what that movie Nine and a Half Weeks was about, right?It was about how long you can use a pool in the Twin Cities.
Or you legally have to dispose of it.
Yeah, that's what I told my parents when I rented it from the video store.I thought it was about pool use in the upper Midwest.Like, rent it for me, mommy. Okay, so they move in very quickly.We see almost no footage of that.
Their home looks immediately lived in.
I don't know that we need to see the move.
Stuart's like, how do I know that they moved in if I don't see it?Yep.
And then we are introduced- Dan Backstory McCoy took over Stuart's brain for a moment there.
Stuart has to take some issue with the movie because we are introduced to Cider the cat, and I'm like, as soon as that cat shows up, I'm like, evil pool, there's a cat, they're gonna kill this fucking cat.
You know that cat's not gonna outlast it. Unless they're gonna do an alien thing and it's just the cat and one other person that survives.
That would have been really cool.Unfortunately, I don't think that's the case.If the pool saved the cat, then the pool would be our hero.That's true, good point.
That's what that book Save the Cat is all about.When pools are good and when they're evil.
When pools are evil on Fox.
We talked to Glenn Danzig about his pool.
Yeah, pretty sure it's evil.
Uh, that's just because he hasn't cleaned it in a while.It's filled with, uh, can I go out and swim tonight?
Oh yeah, that's true.And he keeps swimming with makeup on.That's a bad idea.The filter, that's pretty bad.Yeah.So they're like starting to get like situated in their various, uh, at school and they're starting to meet, make friends, yada, yada.
Uh, they're cleaning out the pool to get it all set up.They, uh, uh,
They are by hand as a family.They have drained the pool and they're scrubbing it by hand.Have you ever done that, Ellen?I have not ever done that.No, it seems very silly to me.In the process.
Partly also because like a pool ladder doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the pool.So I don't know how they're all going to get up out of the pool when it's done.Maybe the shallow areas is shallow enough that you can climb out.
If I understand.Hire a couple of Z boys or whatever.Yeah.
Well, yeah, that's what skate or die means is because if you can't skate your way out, you die in the bottom of the pool.Wow.OK, so they bring at one point Ray cuts his hand while fishing through the drain.That's gross.And that was dumb.
Don't reach in.Don't reach into any kind of drain with your hand.
Don't do that.And then they bring a pool guy in who explains that this pool is not connected to the Like the sewage system, it's instead connected to an aquifer under the ground, so it's super natural, and people believe it has healing properties.
I like this poor guy.I like this guy.He had a lot of personality.
This is a character that for a second, like I looked away from the screen and for a second, hearing the voice, I thought maybe it was Paul Scheer, because it had sort of that vibe of like, we brought in Paul Scheer to do this character, you know?
You would have crushed it. He would have crushed it.Yeah, he would have.If this was a sillier movie that would impulse you, I believe this is Ben Sinclair from High Maintenance.Oh, right, okay.
Yeah, no shade to him, just.Yeah.Okay, so we get a little scene of the family swimming in the pool, which is important because there's a sequence where they're fishing for quarters.Have you ever played this game, Elliot, where you chuck quarters?No.
I've not played this game.
Just because we're Jewish, Stuart, doesn't mean that all our games involve money and my children racing after money.
That's, man, got me fair.No, I, as a gentile, I've definitely done this.I have, yes, swum to try and find an item that has been chucked to the bottom of the pool.
We've certainly done that.We certainly throw like a, like a toy that's meant to go down to the bottom to pick it up, but not, not money.It's because frankly, it's a waste of money.
We need that money, Stuart.We're hungry for it.For our gumballs.For our gumballs.
They find an old magic camcorder.Every once in a while, we'll have like TVs flicker on and show us like weird flashbacks that may have happened or may not have happened, might be a fantasy.
It feels like the magic of the pool extends far beyond the borders of that concrete pond. Uh, there's a variety of different pool shenanigans that make us believe that the pool is not all it's cracked up to be.
At one point, Eve is swimming at night and she feel like basically it messes with her.Like she feels like somebody's right behind her or like when whenever you go underwater, you see somebody at the edge of the pool.
Then when you come up, they're not there.That kind of stuff. Uh, cider goes, the cat cider goes missing almost immediately.Uh, so they, uh, they, they find its collar, but that's it.So they get a pool cover, which will kind of matter later.
Um, Ray is oddly recovering super well.It's like the pool is the pool from cocoon aliens.
It's, it is like the cocoon pool.
So like his hand heals miraculously fast.And then his MS is like regressing considerably. Uh, yeah, he's doing great.He's even like, uh, he set up a little gym in the garage where he's watching either real home movies he's made or fantasy movies.
I don't know.Um, and he's pushing one 85 and that's, that's not nothing, man.That's, that's, that's some serious weight.
Oh, I'll let, I'll let the character know that you approve.Yeah.
Yeah.If he's repping those out, that's pretty good.But, um, okay.Uh, and he lets, at this point he is so preoccupied with pushing that one 85, which I get it, man.You know, gains don't sleep for no one.
Um, but he, uh, he's don't sleep for no one.
Uh, but they don't do it for no one.
No, no.You can't let you like, yeah, you can't let you, you gotta, you can't let them rest.You gotta, you gotta, you gotta work on them.Um, okay.
So he, uh, he's so busy pushing plate that he can't, uh, he can't go swimming with his son who just wants to connect with him. Yeah.And so he's like, oh, just stay in the shallow end, bud.And I'm like, this feels very irresponsible.
This is very irresponsible.This is bad.You should always have an adult at least watching a child in a pool, you know?
And so, of course, the ghost pool messes with him.It throws quarters in there somehow.It makes him believe that there's somebody at the edge of the pool or on the diving board.And then there's a little ghost girl hiding in the filter.
And it's got, it's got like hair and crap.It's really gross and it scares him.And it also shares a name.The name is Rebecca.So of course, Elliot is- Sunnybrook Farm.
Yeah, Elliot is- Rebecca's De Winter.
Well, when she said her name was Rebecca Summers, I'm like, wait, is that, that's not Phoenix's name.No, that's Rachel Summers.
That's Rachel Summers, yeah.
I know, I messed that one up. So, of course, Elliot immediately goes running to his mom to cry about the whole thing, getting Ray in trouble.
To be fair, to be fair, he's a sensitive lad and he also saw a ghost.Yeah.
Okay.So.Paddling on that ghost.Yeah.So Ray at this point.
That was always the worst.When I was a kid, I don't think kids get this as much now.When I was a kid and I was being bullied and I would go to a teacher or someone and they'd go, don't be a tattletale.And I was like, what the fuck? That's insane.
I got told that so many times from adults.Crazy.
Grew up with a bad attitude that I'm glad is gone, but I can only assume- Look, do you want to be a snitch kid?
Are you a snitch?Is that it?
Are you guys thanking the terrorists for making us, turning us into a see something, say something culture?I didn't say that.
I think I'm thanking child psychiatrists.
I think a better understanding of bullying not being like a fun thing.Yes, of course. I think we now live in a culture that I think no longer heroicizes the bully the way they once did.
Well, also, you gotta believe, that was just teachers being lazy, right?That's like, I don't wanna deal with this shit.
I think that was half of it.I think half of it was teachers being lazy and half of it, I mean, I think a third of it was teachers being lazy.A third of it was them looking at me and being like, I would bully you if I could.
I don't like you either, weakling.And a third of it was this idea of like, come on, it's all in good fun, toughen up, you know. Yeah.
And I feel like the narrative is- There's only so many times you can be walking down a hallway and someone punches you in the side that it stops being fun.
Well, you said the idea of like society heroicizing the bully, and I think that's not, you're close to it.
I think the idea is that, uh, like pop culture has really focused, had really focused in on the idea of the bullied kid turning around and like defeating the bully in some kind of show of strength or width.
In a way that, exactly, is on the same wavelength as the original bully challenge.Yes.That like, oh, if you're bullied, you should probably bully back, you know?
Yeah, exactly, yeah.Like, yeah, turn this into your crucible for which your strength is forged.Yeah.Okay, so he complains to his mom, and his mom's like, listen to him, she's concerned.
Worked for Conan.It did, you're right, it did work for Conan.When he's strapped to the wheel of pain.
I would also say that Conan, let's just, taking it at face value, he also lives in hyperborea, a time before time and a history before history, you know, when only the strong survive and the only law is the sword.
So we don't live in that world anymore, you know?
I mean, I feel like Conan really could have done with some therapy, you know?Yeah.
I mean, everyone can, but especially a guy who's been strapped to the wheel of pain for his entire childhood.
Yeah.Now, Conan, this thing about wanting to hear the lamentations of their women, that seems something we should unpack.
It's true.I think he's just telling his audience what they want to hear, though, at that point.
So the crowd and the crowd is warlord.Yeah.
So, so Elliot has a baseball practice and Ray gets invited.I do.
I gotta go.Sorry guys.I didn't mean to double book like this.
Don't, don't forget your short pants and long socks.
No, you don't wear short pants when you play baseball.You don't wear short pants and long socks.
I gotta slide into bases.
You can't do that in short pants.
No, but I mean those pants that like, they don't go all the way.Yeah.Mid-calf.That's what I mean.
They're like tight capris, right?Yeah.
But you don't, they don't, they don't really wear those anymore. They don't?No.They drink Capri Suns?They do that.I mean, that they do, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That they do, young Daniel, that they do.
They Big League chew?They just chomp it down by the fistful?
They're trying to teach kids not to use a starter pack on their way to chewing tobacco, so I think Big League chew is no longer the hit it once was.
You know, Big League chew, if I'm remembering this correctly, one of the creators of it was Todd Phillips. The director?Wait.
And then he got cut out of it, basically.I don't, yes, Todd, no, not Todd Phillips, Todd Field.
Todd Field, I'm sorry, Todd Field.Yes, not Todd Phillips, Todd Field, that's what I mean.
That, yes, I do, that is a true thing, or at least something that I've read.I don't know if it's true.
Something I've heard, Todd Field, thank you.Of the two Todds, the one who's- The one who is in the bedroom.I like a little more.
Uh, well that's, that's wonderful.
Although, Tar and Joker are kind of the same movie in a way, right?You know?
Yeah.Yeah, yeah, yeah.There's that moment when Lydia Tar gets Joker-fied.Okay.So, uh.
She's one step away.If there's any other fictional character who's going to be Joker-fied, I imagine it's Lydia Tar.Yeah.
So they're, uh, they Ray tags along to baseball practice because he's a, you know, former famous professional baseball player.And, uh, after, you know, after doing some coaching, they're like, Hey Ray, why don't you give it a shot?
He takes a couple of swings and you're like, oh man, yeah, this is probably a bad idea.And then he has this vision of the, he channels the power of the pool and he gets super baseball skills and strength.
He sees visions of himself being a bad-ass baseball dude. And he just dings that thing right into the fucking lights, baby.It's crazy.
Breaks the lights, tears part of the hide off that ball.
Yeah, he's the natural.OK.I mean, it was a supernatural.
Yeah, that's true.Oh, man, that's a better joke.Alex, delete what I just said and just make what Elliot said.
No, no, no.Like I said, it doesn't make any sense without yours.
Oh, yeah, that makes sense, too. Okay, so back home, Ray is kind of obsessed with the pool, and he's like staring at the TV of baseball highlights or whatever.He and his wife go out, leaving the kids home alone.Elliot, of course, is- Ah, burglars.
Yeah, Elliot is customizing action figures.Cool.Which is pretty cool.And then Izzy has her Christian swimming boy over.They play romantic Marco Polo in the pool for a little while, and then the ghost does some shenanigans.
Christian Swimming Boy sounds like a poorly translated foreign romance novel.
Yeah, it does, yeah.Yeah, so the ghost is like- And they were playing Marco Polo, so the ghost is now like Polo, which seems silly to me.
We're led to believe later that this is this kind of ancient force that's always been around, and the idea that it likes to toy with its victims seems silly to me.
Well, you know, it's hung around long enough.You know, it's picked up a few things, I guess.
So it's boring.Unless this is like a Tom Mombadil type ancient evil force, which is very silly.
Is this the part where she like sort of swims down and then she's in sort of a void beneath the pool and you can see like, just like the one window of light up at the, like I thought it was pretty neat.
I think so, that happens here and it happens later too, but it is neat.It's a cool image.
Impossibly deep.It's like she's traveling down into Aurelia where Cthulhu lies dead.
Lies dreaming, yeah.Dead Cthulhu lies dreaming or waits dreaming. Is he waiting or is he just lying or is he waiting?He's waiting.Okay.Or it depends.Cause the waiting is the hardest part.Actually, you know what?
When you're Cthulhu and the stars aren't right.
Yeah.I think we should just take a boat out there and check.I don't think that's caused any problems.
No one's ever had an issue doing that.
I got this idol that I bought at a store and it gives me a headache when I look at it, but I think we should still check.
Okay.So, uh, afterwards, uh, Izzy wants to, wants to keep it quiet that the pool attacked her.She and she and Ellie get an argument.And at one point Izzy's like, what makes more sense that the pool is helping us or that it's haunted?
Like neither of them make sense.
Technically.Technically it shouldn't be either.She also doesn't want to get into trouble.She doesn't want to get into trouble for having a boy over.
Yeah. And she doesn't want to get into trouble.And also that like in general, aside from pool attacks, their life seems to be better.They haven't had to move as much.Their father seems to be recovering.
They are hostages to his mood in a way that the movie is not, doesn't really get into, but again, would make a better movie that he is feeling.You mean a movie called The Shining? I mean, yeah, in a lot of ways, yeah.
But when he is feeling physically strong, the family is doing better, you know, because he is feeling confident and powerful.And exactly.So the family seems to be doing better.Why rock the boat?
Just because this pool seems to have a little bit of a haunted problem, you know.
Speaking of rocking. It's time for a pool party.You don't make a movie about a haunted pool without a badass pool party.
You got to have a pool party.
And everybody shows up.You have a big hairless guy who's really weirdly muscular.
I really wondered who that guy was and why they invited him because nobody seems to like him.And yeah, and the the dad doesn't know his name.He just calls him what a bald Shrek or something.Hairless Shrek.
And I'm like Shrek's already hairless.I think I haven't checked out.
Yeah, you haven't checked in all the way. But what if the fact is that he's hairless everywhere except downstairs and there's just a, it's just a thick, tangled thatch and thicket.Terrifying.
Around his, around his, around his gnarled ogre penis as crooked as a wizard staff.
Yeah.I like this, this idea, Stuart, that I feel like you were sort of getting into that a pool party has certain required characters. And one of them is a big hairless man.I don't know who the others are.
Like throws the kids around and always wants to play chicken and stuff.
Yeah.And their realtor shows up with a super boozy cake and talks about her husband's famous G string as if that's some kind of threat.Yeah, it's really fun.
The it while like the party's going on, Eve is cutting some watermelon and learning the tragic backstory of the house.Of course, any time a character is cutting something in a somewhat horror movie, I'm like, don't cut your finger off, please.
That stresses me out too much.But yeah, she learns that like the previous owners had children had gone missing and there were some terrifying things. Meanwhile, in the pool, Ray takes a young baseball prodigy onto his shoulders to play chicken.
They go and they get deep into the water.
This is the son of Elliott's baseball coach who Ray connects with so easily because they're both into baseball.And you can tell Elliott is left out of this, you know.
Uh, so they get, uh, you know, they're wrestling, uh, Ray and the kid win, but they ended up getting, getting too deep in the pool.
And then some like black water goes up Ray's nose and then he get ax possessed and he drags the kid even deeper into the water.And, uh, it's, it's almost like he's trying to drown the kid.Yes.
And after this, I mean, so like the, like the kid is, You know, they get the kid out.Elliot sees this from a distance, like, raises the alarm.They get the kid out.
Elliot is videotaping the party from, what, his room?Which is creepy.It's creepy.But he does, it does mean that he saves the kid.
I don't think he's doing it for creepy reasons, right?No, I don't think so.There's no implication.No, this is, he can only live through a screen like so many of us.
Yes, I mean, it's a little bit, the movie briefly turns into The Fablemans, I guess.Yeah.
Yeah.But, you know, he saves the kid and then, you know, his dad is also, like, almost drowned.They bring him back and
The parents of the kid like look I get that the you're going to be mad that this happened like this is terrifying your child almost died but the degree to which they're like you stay away from our family.
I'm like, well, there is an explanation here that this man has a disease that maybe made him clamp onto this kid and he almost drowned too.
Like, it felt like such a horror movie thing of like, not just like, I am angry and shaken, but like, stay away from us, you know?
I mean, I can understand it to some extent, but it's also like, I think the first part is correct.Like, I feel like people, when presented with something that even in a rational moment, they'd be like, oh, he is suffering from an illness.
It wasn't his fault.But in the heat of the moment, you're like, stay away from us.Yeah.
I've seen parents react that way to things.I think it is partly a heat of the moment thing.Their son did almost drown.
So they are, uh, the, you know, the party's over.It was kind of a hit, but you know, it had a bummer.It did not have a great ending.
Um, and so they, and they're like, and though the parents aren't going to press charges, I made, I made all this jello and everybody left before they ate it.
What am I going to do with this?
Uh, plus side, there was watermelon on the minus side.There were two near drownings though.
So they, they're kind of shunned by the parents and the local community.Eve's first decision is like, we need to get the fuck out of here.There's something wrong with this pool.Ray's like, I don't think so.We shouldn't.I love the pool.
Uh, but they get in the car and they try and leave, but then Ray starts choking on water.What?What's happening?So they got to stick his ass in bed and Eve starts to do some detective work.She does a little bit of Google work.
She does the kind of research that, And I know they were in a rush to buy this house.The kind of research most people would do before buying a house is looking up whatever you can online about the past history of it.
I certainly did that before I bought my house, yeah.
Yeah.Was there any terrifying backstory?Sadly, no.Oh, okay.
Yeah, just a regular house, yeah.
So she's able to- I was kind of hoping it would be like a murder house or maybe like a mysterious, you know, like, oh, you know, a gangster lived here and maybe he buried some gold in the basement and he's gonna want it back, but there's not even a basement.
TV sucked a child into it in this house.
Yeah, exactly.Nothing like that.Didn't have a black dolly or anything.No, nothing.Not at all.You have any color whatsoever.OK, that's too bad.
So the purple. So her Google work leads her to a very lovely home owned by Lucy, an older woman that we learn was the mother of Rebecca, the little girl we saw in the beginning.
Former psychiatrist, unlicensed, used to pull a football away from another kid.
Yeah, I mean, it was after that that she got that drug that let her use 100% of her brain, right?
Yes, yeah, exactly.That's how she ended up in the sky with all the diamonds, yeah.
Is the Lucy from the movie, is she supposed to have gone back in time and met Lucy, the hominid?Is that part of that movie or no?Because she does meet like a pre-human, like hominid, right?
I wonder if that's supposed to be the famous Lucy that was dug up in the 60s, you know?
Yeah, you might be right, actually.Man, that's trippy stuff, right?
That movie, what a ridiculous movie.So much of it is Samuel, sorry, is Morgan Freeman just lecturing made-up nonsense?Where he's like, oh yeah, at 50% of the brains used, you can travel through time.And this audience is like, uh-huh, yes.
What science is this built on?
I mean, this is an audience that has been doped down by explaining YouTube videos that are like, check out this crazy good spirit.Um, okay.So, uh, she has a conversation with this woman.You learn that her son is a huge success.
What is he, a Senator or something?
He's like a diplomat.He's like involved in like in some kind of international
And he had a horrible illness when he was a kid that he miraculously recovered from.This conversation happens inside a dimly lit parlor that has a very noticeable water feature that is also very loud.
At one point- It's a weird indoor water feature.
Yeah. Lucy's explaining the she's explaining the kind of the history of the region and the water of the region and basically explaining the the mystery of how this ancient aquifer heals people but requires a sacrifice in return.
And she explains this while she's pouring herself a glass of water and spilling water all over the place.
This when she is pouring the water, it is kind of funny.She is so overflowing it like that because it's supposed to be spooky, but it just comes off as like he's so distracted.She's not paying attention to what she's doing.
This scene definitely puts a lot of weight on the idea that we're just gonna find any water scary.And I'm like, is this, I don't know, is this the same water?I'm led to believe that this pool is scary, but why am I- All water.
Led to believe that all water is a symbol of evil.
I imagine you're supposed to be in the audience being like, there's water, it's so frightening.My own body, 80% of my own body.I can't escape it.You're supposed to be just hacking cells away.Yeah, exactly.
Get the water out of me. Yeah.The audience is the aliens from signs.Um, spoiler, if you haven't seen signs yet.Uh, okay.So, uh, Eve, uh, you know, Eve is concerned.She's like, that's not, that's not a real, like a sacrifice.
Isn't like in this situation, you're, you're doing something for benefit.You're trading, you traded your daughter's life for your son's life.And then, uh, Lucy starts to act weird and then black stuff starts oozing out of her eyes and mouth.
And then she. mixed with the voice of the water.And she's like- You know what?
I thought, you know what?I thought this was, I thought she seemed familiar.Sorry guys, I'm gonna have to break into a little episode of Elliot in the Isles.That's right.
Lucy is played by Jodi Long, who among her other roles, she's an Emmy award winner.I saw her last year in A Little Night Music at the Pasadena Playhouse.
She was playing the older former actress who's kind of reminiscing about her, the lovers that she had.She was really good in it.She was really, really good.
Did she have black water oozing from her eyes and don't have performance?
Strangely enough, in this performance of A Little Night Music, the Stephen Sondheim's musical about kind of like love and how love kind of runs its course or returns and the foolish ways that love makes us act, she did not have black water pouring out of her eyes at any point.
Yeah, you didn't go see A Little Night Swim music.
I think it would have been a strong choice, Elliot.
I don't know.I talked to the directors.I mean, I didn't produce this production.I didn't put it up.I just went and saw it as an audience member.
I thought Elliot was going to say, talk to the hand, because he's lifted his hand up.
But it was a great production.Anyone gets a chance to go back in time to the production of A Little Night Music or The Best Thing to Play House.
I guess once I use 50% of my brain, I can do that.
It was really good, and she was really good in it.
So Eve flees the evil woman possessed by the water. Meanwhile, Ray's at home taking a shower, and guess what?He gets possessed by the water, too.The pool then lures Elliot out to the pool using the sound of the cat.And he thinks he's helping the cat.
And then it is, I'm guessing, a ghost cat or something.And it drags him into the water.And then the magic evil pool starts closing the pool cover to trap Elliot in the water.
Uh, Eve runs out, uh, even, uh, Izzy try and stop the pool cover and they, I guess they stop at about halfway.She dives in after her son while Izzy runs inside to go get help.She slips on water.
Oh, no.And I can't get away from it.
It's a handful of broken glass for trouble.Meanwhile, her dad starts chasing her around shining style saying Marco Polo and shit.And also he has like the water seems to be leaking out of him like he's Hydro Man.
Meanwhile, underwater, the pool's impossibly deep.She swims deeper and deeper until she finds her son floating down there.They're beset by ghosts and spirits.
She's dragging her son out and they find the ghost of Rebecca, who gives them a magical quarter. and that gives them the idea to swim in which direction to escape.
They can put that in the machine from Big so that they can get a wish, yeah.Zoltar?Zoltar, yeah, yeah, something like that.Zoltar or Zoltan?
It's Zoltar, but I'm not sure.
Oh, like the movie Tar, you got it.What if, what if the movie Tar was about she turned into that machine or she got a wish from it?What if?
Yeah, yeah, well, if that was her defense for her behavior, she's like, I'm just a little kid who got Big.I didn't know better.
My moral sense isn't developed.
Yeah.Okay.So, uh, Izzy, uh, so they like, they, they get out of the water and then Ray shows up and then Izzy starts hitting him with a bat.So she beats him with a bat because he's being a brat.
And he, uh, he starts having like visions of like the good times they had.And then the water starts pouring out of him and he's back to normal. Um, but, uh, Elliot is still, Elliot is still not recovering the waters.The pool won't let him go.
So Ray knows what he has to do.He goes swimming into the water and, uh, yep.He sacrifices himself and the sun recovers.Uh, yep.It's really great.Yeah. That's it.That's the end of the moon.
Well, no, I know there's one and there's one last little bit at the end They're like They talk about how like they could move and the daughter's like but then it'll just happen to another family dad wouldn't want that and this is while the pool is being filled in which is like what I was saying like just fill in the pool like I don't know why they can't fill in the pool and then move
No, that's true.But also what I like is they're all, they're watching the pool being filled in.They are feet away from the pool as this bulldozer is about to dump a bunch of stuff into it.
It's just like, there's no way to let him stand that close to this construction site.
Like you got to step back a little bit, but yes, they are, they're filling in the pool and they will be the guardians, I guess, for eternity passed down from generation to generation of this evil, demonic,
Freshwater spring to invoke poltergeist again.It's like when craig t. Nelson pushes the tv out of the hotel room at the end This is uh, you know, we're filling in the pool.
Yeah, similar level of uh joke Yeah Um, okay.
Well the shocktober Yeah, what are they forget?Yeah, was this totally scarifying?Was it totally?Snorifying or was it frighteningly funny?
And of course totally scarifying is the equivalent to kind of liked it Here's the thing I didn't like this movie, but if there was a category that's like I Yeah, I don't know, I don't mind this.We kind of fall in there.
So even with our special October categories, we still have the same problem we always have, which is the categories don't adequately explain human art.
Yeah, they don't encompass all of existence.If you're going to pin me down, I'd go mild snoreflying.But the thing is, actually, there's some stuff in this movie I liked okay. You know, Kerry Condon and Wyatt Russell, both actors I like.
I think they do a good job in the movie.I think the movie actually looks pretty stylish during a lot of it.Yeah, it's a good looking movie.
It's just too thin an idea to sustain a whole film, even at a relatively short length.
It feels like the fun of a movie about a haunted pool, the fun would be the different ways you force characters to have to be in the pool or go to the pool.And instead the characters just kind of keep going swimming.
Like there's no, it's not, there's no, the, the fun of like why these characters have to be dragged to a pool.
It feels like there's such a commitment to the, like the, the, the real story of it, like the family, the family drama element of it.
And as, as you said, like that's in many ways more interesting than the kind of mishmash of kind of overdone haunted stuff ideas.Um, but. It also makes it less of an effective horror movie because I'm like, well, I want to be fun and scary.
Yeah.If it was more drama, it would be better.If it was a sillier horror movie, it would be better.Probably.Yeah.
But it's, yeah, it's trying to be both and it succeeds not at all.I don't say it's horrifying.
I would also call it snorifying.Again, I would, if they, I'd rather see, like I said, I'd rather see this movie without the pool and just have it be a family movie, but as it is, I agree.It falls between, uh, between two stools.
You could still call it Night Swim.Yeah.So, I mean, it could still be about like they have a pool, like you can still have a pool in the movie.
It still could be called Night Swim, but it's a, yeah, it's kind of not, not silly enough to be a pool horror movie and it's not deep enough.
It's not shallow enough to be a good horror movie, and it's not deep enough to be a good drama, but they're trying.You know what?Give them credit for trying, you know?
Sure, yeah.Everybody had fun.
Participation trophy for Night Swim. Yeah.Hey, all episodes of The Flophouse are supported largely by listeners like you, but also we have a few businesses that support us.And this week we are sponsored in part by Squarespace.
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You did.You did tell us about it.You told us you were going to tell us about it.You told us about it.And then you told us he told us about it.It's true.Good job.And now I'm going to tell the listeners about something.
Hey, everybody, it's not just October.It's not just spooky season.It's Flop TV season.That's right.Flop TV season two, the one hour televised online version of the Flophouse. where we broadcast live the first Saturday of every month.
And then that episode is available to watch at your leisure afterwards.It's going on right now.Each episode is packed with entertainment.There's a new presentation by one of us, a video segment from one of us.
We take questions from the viewers and we give the Flophouse treatment to a movie we've never covered on the podcast before.And this season, Dan, what's it all about? Sequels!That's right, sequels.Number twos.
We're talking about movies that are real number twos.Sequels, that is.We already had our RoboCop 2 episode.This episode will be coming out after we do our Breakin' 2 episode.That's the Electric Boogaloo, of course.
And our next episode coming up- Famously.Yes, famously. Our next episode will be on Saturday, November 2nd at 9 p.m.Eastern, 6 p.m.Pacific.We'll be talking Caddyshack 2.It's all number two movies.
And then later on in the season, we'll be doing Ski School 2, Highlander 2, Ninja Turtles 2, Secret of the Ooze.Lots of twos.We love the number two.
Stewart's eyes lit up as soon as Ski School 2 was mentioned.
Oh, finally, some good shit.
And for the audience.So just go to theflophouse.simpletics.com and you can buy individual tickets for each show or a season pass, which has a discounted rate.It's like getting one free show if you buy the season pass.
If you miss the first couple episodes of the season, Don't worry, the season pass, it lets you watch the video of those, and they'll be up online through the end of February, through the end of this series.
So we started in September, and we're gonna go through February, one episode a month, six episodes in total. the first Saturday of every month at 9 p.m.Eastern, 6 p.m.Pacific, go to theflophouse.simpletics.com.
And I've been having a lot of fun with Flop TV this season.I think like we've taken, the first season was fun, and now we're really pushing it even more.
We're doing more video, we're having more fun, we're joking more, laughing more, living more, loving more, learning more, twice of everything.
My doctor just told me I'm not allowed to love anymore.
I'm already loving too much guys.
Okay.Your heart's too big.
My heart is too big.Also, I'd like to make a little plug here guys.It's my time to shine.Um, my wife Charlene is opening a studio gym in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.Uh, it's called jiggle studio.
It is a body positive, uh, studio gym that is focused on moving the body you have.Um, The Kickstarter just went up because we are hoping to get some help opening this cool little space.You can find us on Instagram at jiggle underscore studio BK.
You can find us on Kickstarter.We're already doing really well, but every little bit helps. to help us get over that finish line.There's some cool rewards, including shirts, water bottles, et cetera.
And there's some cool art done by some local artists and friends of the show.And every little bit helps, so you can go check that out.She's worked very hard on this, and I am very proud of her.So please check that out.
Hey, and while we're talking about stuff, I want to say if you haven't subscribed to the flop house newsletter, flop secrets.If you go to flop house podcast.com, uh, there's a field where you can put your email in there.
And it lets you know about what we're all up to.But also, there's some extra stuff in there.It occurred to me that I should let people know the kind of thing that you can get in that newsletter.
Early in Small Timber, for instance, I listed some smaller good, bad movies, some recommendations if you wanted to have your own at-home Small Timber fun.I've done a couple of last chance mailbags where
You know, we can't get to all the letters on the podcast itself, so we answered some of them there.Lord knows we try, you know.You know, just some silly comedy stuff is in there.So, you know, why not?If you're interested, why not?
That's my slogan.It's a cool way to make sure you don't miss any of the various things that we are doing.
Yes, and it's literally free.
Hey there, it's KT at MaxFun.Have you listened to the Flophouse's bonus content?They've done commentary tracks for all kinds of movies.They got the Country Bears, Bratz, and yes, even Cats.
It's like watching a movie right alongside Dan Stewart and Elliot.You can go listen to those right now if you're already a Maximum Fun member.
But if you're not, any time of year is a good time to support the show by joining MaxFun, starting at just five bucks a month.
And when you do, you get to feel good because you're supporting the show, and you also get access to the bonus content for every other MaxFun show, too.So go on over to MaximumFun.org slash join.Thank you so much for your support.
Let's move on to letters from listeners.This first letter.
Open up that spooky Halloween mailbag.Are those letters?Is that the hair of the dead witch?These are her eyeballs.
These are her letters.These are her peeled grapes. We've just received this from the ghost office.
Oh, I mean, honestly, that's pretty fucked up that you'd just be like, have a bunch of spaghetti, like cook spaghetti and like peeled grapes.Yeah.
What kind of meal is that?
I guess the opposite of the Atkins diet, right?A lot of carbs.Yeah.
Yeah.This is from Ben.Last name withheld.Who writes Ben 10 high peaches. My wife and I love each other immensely, and we have a lot of the same tastes and things.
Sounds like it's working out.
Well, no problem here.We can move on.Taste and things, food, humor, vacations, books, etc.All golden, but not in a creepy way.
The only major sticking point... I'm sure etc.encompasses a startling range of sexual peccadilloes as well.
Yeah, the only major sticking point we have is film choices.She's got more of an arthouse taste, and I have a more flophouse palate.She loves your podcast, by the way.
We can sometimes meet on certain ground, like H24 films, Edgar Wright, Wes Anderson, Sorry Not Sorry, and such.
However- I think that was directed at Stewart since- Stewart specifically.Listeners should know, I think Wes Anderson is a film artiste of the high school, yeah.
Yeah, no, there's only one third of the podcast that's directed at- However, a lot of the time- He's not a listening guy.Be our friend.
However, a lot of the time we end up sitting on the couch, lobbing titles at one another, then eventually settling on Taskmaster, which is great, but we're running out of episodes.Any advice? Thank you in God's speed, been last name withheld.
I mean, it seems like the first, the first thing is you could alternate.
That's the first thing.Yeah.Honestly, that was also where I was like, I feel like I have this problem too with Audrey where it's not like we don't like the thing that the other person wants to watch.
Most of the time we do, but we also want to be in control.We want to be the one saying like, this is the thing that I'm interested in tonight.And the best thing we've found to do is to just alternate choices.
Yeah.Oh yeah.And if you want any, I'm sure that they also want like some, um, some, uh, Middle ground?Movie suggestions, you know?
I mean, like, the first thing that comes off the top of my head is, Sorry to Bother You, is a movie that I feel like it's somewhat of an artsy movie, but it's also somewhat of a bonkers movie.So maybe, and I think it's a great movie.
I think it's really great.So that could be one that does something, you know?But there are plenty of artsy movies that are also on the stranger end of things, you know?Possessions, that's another one.House.House.Housu, that's another, you know?
And the American house.It's very artsy.
Yes.I think maybe like a- George Wentz in it, dude.Like take a stroll to you through that psychotronic video guide.Maybe make a kind of a love game out of it.
You know, um, I would say we have recommended a lot of movies on this podcast and you can, uh, you can do, I'm sure we've recommended some artsy ones.We've recommended some fartsy ones.Oh, you beat me to it.Uh, so yeah, I would, uh, yeah.
You know, I thought you were saying like, just like alternate back and forth between Elliot and Stuart picks and then occasionally meet in the middle of the damn pick.Yeah.
I'm not allowed to send Dan pics anymore.Uh-huh, yeah.I mean, you never should have.
He's used up too many megabytes of data.The family plan's fucked up because of Dan, so he can't send them.
He's way more than his fair share.Yeah, the flop out family plan.
Yeah.Dude, you've used up all our data.This is from Andrew last name withheld.
You've even used up all my data action figures from my SDTNG collection.
Andrew, last name withheld, writes, hey guys!
Did he say it that loudly?
Well, yeah, he did have an exclamation point.I get it.Okay, fair, fair.Your Roadhouse episode.
Hey, real quick, guys, do you use, when you guys communicate with people digitally, do you use a lot of exclamation points?
No, no, I feel like there's such a presumption of passive aggressive anger in digital communication, you need to use exclamation points more than you actually mean to.
Yeah, real talk, like, do I use too many emojis, guys?Yes, but that's a different thing.
No, I don't think so.I feel like you guys both used to use too many gifts and stickers and things, and I would have to go in and delete them because I'm taking up too much space on my phone.
Okay.You need to upgrade your phone.I think it's the problem.Or I can delete all these gifts that I don't need.I guess so.
My Paltryo isn't running as fast as it should.
Oh, my beautiful gifts are being thrown in the garbage.
It's hard to get those gifts these days.Have you, this is the dumbest thing, but I was like, when I was trying to make a PowerPoint, I was trying to find gifts and I feel like there's a couple of websites that have like locked them down.
So you can't just easily save those things.
I mean, the internet, it's harder to find things in general than it used to be, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.It's almost like tech companies are bad and don't have the user's interests in mind.
It's almost like that, but I know that's not the case.
They love us.In shitification.Hey guys, your Roadhouse episode reminded me of something I've been thinking about.Roadhouse.Opening a Roadhouse?Yeah.Advice?Why do you think... Like, where could I get a fencing person who can fence in my band?
I mean, any person who builds fences can probably do that for you.
I've seen chain link fences for outside the building, but where do you find those ones that go inside the building?
Good fences make good bands, as Robert Frost said.Why do you think they used to make so many TV shows about a hero who goes from town to town, meeting new people and solving their problems before driving off into the sunset?
And crucially, why did they mostly stop making these?The example I know best is The A-Team.The craziest example I can think of is the Canadian show The Littlest Hobo.Yeah, The Littlest Hobo.
It was a kid, yeah. The hero is a dog.Oh dog.Sorry, not a kid.
Oh, yeah I think a lot of cowboy shows were like this and now I can only think of uh, jack reacher Were we more trusting of armed strangers in the past?Did we want to become armed travelers or did writers used to enjoy writing these stories?
And then they got tired of it.Thanks a bunch andrew last name withheld.
I mean, I feel like there's a couple like For shows that are currently still like that, I mean, Poker Face, the Natasha Lyonne, Rian Johnson show is exactly that.Roaming Columbo.And also there's that show Tracker.
Roaming Columbo's High School Reunion?Yeah.
Yeah, Tracker is like that.
Tracker's exactly that.And the thing is, his name isn't even fucking Tracker.It's something else that's like super cool.
He does have a ridiculous name, but his name should be like Zack Tracker.
Yeah.Yeah.Zack Tracker will get your man backer.
There's two reasons.There's two reasons why they used to make these shows and they don't make any more.One is, Episodic versus serialization.
TV shows used to always be episodic because under the understanding is once they air the first time, they will never air in that order ever again.If they go into syndication, they will air in random order.
You don't want a viewer to feel like they had to see all the episodes leading up to this one in order to start watching because you may be in the third season of a show and you want new viewers to try it.So shows back then were serialized.
Oh, sorry, were episodic, not serialized. A way that you could do that more easily is if it's almost an anthology of stories where the same main character interacts with new people each time.You don't have it going over from one episode to the next.
You don't have to worry about it.They're easier to make that way, easier to distribute that way.It's just the way that people watch television back then is different than the way they watch it. If you might miss an episode, you may never see it.
So you can't have big story points that are necessary for a good episode.The other is economically, it used to be a lot cheaper to make shows like that.You could pay the actors less because they were cycling through in and out.
Uh, there were a lot more kind of standing sets you could just rent.There were a lot more locations you could just go to to shoot things cheaply.And now a lot, there's a lot of that stuff is just much more expensive.
It's cheaper now to have like a few places that you shoot and not be kind of just going out to some valley somewhere and shooting a bunch of stuff and then coming back.And it's just different economics in the way that industry works.
So those are two very valid, very real reasons.But the main one is I think that unfortunately, except for network television, everyone decided that they liked serialized storytelling the best.And I would argue that this was a bad move for television.
It was at first when things moved to serialization, it seemed like it was having an enrichening effect on television.It was making it more sophisticated.
You could tell deeper stories, but I kind of feel like it's time for us to swerve back in the other direction because when I watch it, when I try a new TV show, I don't want to always have to start with the first episode and I don't want to always have to jump into the middle of the series and have to pick up what the story is.
Whereas if you wanted to watch a new episode of, The Six Million Dollar Man, Columbo, Incredible Hulk, A-Team, any of those, you could literally just be like, okay, I'll watch the episode that is on tonight and I'll see if I like it.
There should definitely be more of a healthy mix, like everything in moderation, you know, like let's have the serialized stuff.Let's have the ones you can just dip in and out.Those are also.
Delight and you know, I think you answer this much better than I could so no problem, dude I would also this is just my personal bailiwick right now, but I would argue that a serialization has hurt comedy shows especially Because it is hard for characters to remain funny if they are accumulating the trauma of previous episodes And it's like Barry in the beginning could be like oh
a dark comedy, and then at a certain point, it was just like, it just became a dark show with minimal comedy, because at that point, the characters had been through so much horror.
I think that is a tough example, because I feel like that show is exactly what the creators wanted it to be.
Maybe, maybe it is.Then I'll try to think of some other ones, but I feel like there is a, I feel like serialization fights the kind of like, the kind of fun of comedy.
Well, I do think that there's something to be said in comedy for, like, you know, on the one hand, you want to get to know these characters, like comedies are always going to be funny, funnier once you know the characters.
It's why, you know, like the first season of sitcoms is rarely the best season of a sitcom.But on the other hand, there is something where, You want a reset.
You kind of want it to be like a newspaper comic strip where it's like, no one ages, no one changes.No one learns from their mistakes.
Setting aside all the racism in it, Seinfeld is such a funny show to me, partly because the characters accumulate cast members.Like they remember things that happened before, but they're not emotionally affected by it.So it's not a matter of like,
Oh, I'm still carrying all the feelings that I had from when this thing happened, you know, because that that that fights comedy for me, you know.
Yeah. Let's move on to recommendations.I'm going to put Stuart up first cause I think I know where he's going to go here.
You know, I, uh, I just sent away from my kit and I injected the activator into my veins, baby.I've been substance pilled.Uh, man, I fucking loved the substance.
Um, I, if you haven't heard about it, it is a, like a body horror, gonzo feminist, uh, movie. starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.Yeah, it's great.It's like super intense, super in your face, directed by Coraline Farragut, is that her name?
Who directed that movie, Revenge, which is also very good.And it's, yeah, it's like, to me, I've heard it compared to a David Cronenberg movie, and I feel like that's a little bit false.
I feel like the closest thing it makes me think of is like a, like a very stylish, very focused, uh, Brian Usna movie.Um, and it is a little bit long, but I feel like I'll, I'll cut it some slack.
Cause I think, uh, I think everything along that movie makes sense.Every step makes sense and it goes, it gets wilder and crazier and it's really fun.I, I loved it.It's super intense and fun and yeah.
To me, it, like, reminded me of, like, the biggest, most stylish Tales from the Crypt episode, because it has, like, such a very, like, focused sort of morality tale, like, plotline, and the same sort of cruel gonzo comedy, too.
Yeah, and I mean, to me, Mork is such, like, the physicality of her performance is so incredible.Like, she is all in on this, and it's really, really great, yeah.
Well, also part of the reason I wanted to set Stewart up first is that my movie recommendation is in a weird way on sort of similar themes.
I recently saw A Different Man, which is also kind of about a person going through a dramatic physical transformation and the- I can't believe I walked into this.Yeah, it was a trap.
Oh man, wait, I'm the butcher and I'm trapped in-
And, uh, you know, The Substance is sort of a wild, uh, gross horror movie.A Different Man is sort of more a emotionally painful, wry comedy.Like, it's... It starts out sort of like grounded in semi-realism, even though absurd things happen.
And then the twist that it takes as this character has a new face and changes and then finds himself in situations where like,
It's hard to, I don't want to get into it without, while spoiling, because I think that part of the pleasure is seeing it unfold.But he finds himself in these situations that he can't be totally honest about who he is.
And because he's gone through these physical changes, he emotionally doesn't really know who he is. And the way it compiles and compounds upon itself just has a lot of just sort of knife twisting, like awkward humor to it.
And so I also enjoyed that a lot.Elliot.
is a fun movie.It's not one that I think is super amazing, but it's certainly an entertaining way to spend your time.And there's one thing in particular I really liked about it, and that's the movie, The Verdict, from 1946.
Not The Verdict with Paul Newman, which is a great movie.This is The Verdict.This is the first movie that Don Siegel directed as a feature length film.
So the movie stars Sydney Greenstreet as a Scotland Yard superintendent who has accidentally sent the wrong man to the gallows. and now is living with the shame of that.And his best friend, who is Peter Lorre, who is kind of like a suave creep.
And I really love Peter Lorre's performance in this movie.He comes off as such a like, such a decadent cool guy.Oh, you think that guy can be a creep?You think? Peter Lorre can be a believable creep.
But he doesn't come off as like a creep who's like, who's like creepy.Instead, he's just kind of like a guy who's always on the make.You know, he's always looking for girls in a good time.And Sydney Green Street now is, there's a,
A friend of his is accused of a murder, and he has to try to get him off the charges.
And the replacement superintendent of Scotland Yard, George Coloris, from Citizen Kane and The Prisoner, is determined to prove that he knows what he's doing and Sydney Green Street is wrong.
And just a fun little kind of like murderous mystery movie with a twist at the end.But I really love Peter Lorre's performance in it.It's great to see Peter Lorre playing a character who is not like a,
who's not a monster in some way, but instead it's just kind of like the ladies' man, you know?
Yeah.I went to my letterbox.I see it's already in my watch list.I think because Tarantino mentioned it in Cinema Speculation, his book, I believe.
He might have.He may have mentioned it in that, yeah.
Because it's a Don Siegel movie and he is a fan.
And it's funny to see a Don Siegel movie that, in many ways, it has similar things with his other movies. But it's funny to watch him working in a like 1890s London milieu when I think of him as more of like an American action filmmaker, you know?
While we're in recommendations, I just remembered I wanted to say if you live in New York I just saw friend of the show Natalie Walker who was on our cats episode on the with the Sharon Tate haunting of Sharon Tate episode she was kind enough to do the reading of the boy next door with us on YouTube she is appearing in a show called
Big Gay Jamboree, the Big Gay Jamboree off Broadway downtown.
That was the original title of the Country Bear Jamboree, right?
Yeah.You know, look, it doesn't need our help.I think it's doing pretty well.There was a sellout crowd.But if you're in New York, it was really good.And she was really funny in it.And it was exciting to see her in a show that good.
So check it out if you can. Yeah.And I guess that's the end of our first shock Tober episode.
Boo again.Thank you to maximum fun, our podcast network over at maximum fun.org.You can listen to a lot of other. Great podcast, funny ones, uh, ones that'll learn you something, uh, check it out.Uh, thank you to Alex Smith, our producer.
He goes by HowlDotty all over the internet.He does music.He does Twitch streams, check his stuff out.Um, but that's it for the Flophouse.I've been Dan McCoy.
I've been Stuart Wellington.
On this episode, we discuss night swim.
Let me caution you.If you are a knight, do not go swimming.Your heavy armor will drag you to the bottom of the pool.You will drown.This is a safety update from the Flophouse.Very relevant to this movie.But what if there's a lady in that lake?
Just let her throw you a sword from her own location.You stay on the shore.That makes sense.That makes sense.
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