2 Guys And A Chainsaw

How did we ever miss this one? We tackle a spooky ghost tale that just sits perfectly for the Halloween season. Not only does it center around Halloween night, but it’s one of those “kid horror” flicks that we have a serious soft spot for. Long requested by loyal listener and good friend, Heather, we’re excited to discuss this overlooked gem of a movie that we OURSELVES somehow never managed to catch until now.

Expand to read episode transcript Automatic Transcript

The Lady In White (1988)

Episode 363, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw

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

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Here we are on week two of our Halloween countdown, uh, looking for Halloween horror movies. Last week was just perfect. Uh, Gothic. Man, uh, you know, you pick a movie about… of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the story that sort of led to Bram Stoker’s Dracula that takes place in this crazy ass mansion has pretty much every horror movie cliche in there.

Yeah. That was a good way to kick it off. I applaud you for choosing that. Thank you. I enjoyed it. Yeah, it was fun to talk about. This week… What kind of happened upon this? I sent you a list of… Why propositions for the month, and you have yet to even respond to 

Craig: that list. I don’t know, I’m so indecisive, I can’t decide things. 

Todd: But normally we sort this stuff out, I don’t know what it is about this year, but normally we sort this stuff out pretty quickly. That’s true. Between the two of us. 

Craig: Anyway, yeah, this week we’re doing… 1988’s The Lady in White and it’s funny because I know that our friend Heather has requested this for years, but I think we’ve gotten, I think it’s been a request from other people at certain points in time too.

I have no idea why it took us this long to do it. Hmm. It’s bizarre to me, like I put this movie on, I’m like, you know, I pull up the IMDB page, I’m like, Oh, it’s Lucas Haas in the leading role. Like, I remember him. Uh huh. You know, when we were kids. Then I started looking at some of the other cast, and I’m like, I know all of these people, and I started the movie.

And I texted you, I’m like, I’m three minutes into this movie and I f ing love it. Like, I now have theories as to why maybe I’m not familiar with it. But in those first few minutes, I’m like, how have I not seen this? 

Todd: Right. Had you seen it? You know what’s funny is I had also not seen it. And I also can’t believe I haven’t seen it.

This was right, this should be right up there with the Monster Club and something wicked this way comes. Yeah. I mean. You know, it’s got the feels of all of those 80s, kid, neighborhood adventure type scary movies with heart and funny bits and… You know, ultimately kind of a family friendly ghost story is what this turns out to be, although it has some dark moments.

Oh my god, 

Craig: that’s why I said like, I, I kind of understand maybe why I didn’t see it because I feel like, I don’t know what the time, I feel like it’s, it’s a great portrait of the time, but today there’s some stuff in here that I feel like it would be difficult to air on. Television. Yeah, there’s just like casual use of the n word like up until that point up until that point I was like, oh my god, this is so cute.

Like how do I and then boom n word and I’m like what? No, okay, this is why I haven’t 

Todd: seen this movie up to that point I was thinking huh this This might be a good enough movie for me to show my son like I know then the n word comes and then somebody gets blasted in the face 

Craig: and then There’s a whole the whole mystery plot is around not just a child murderer But very specifically a child molester.

Yes 

Todd: obvious, 

Craig: I Feel like it’s so crazy that that’s In this movie that appears to be for children. I believe that this movie is for kids and I also believe that if I had seen this movie when I was a kid, it would have been one of my favorite movies ever. It’s got so many things in it that I just absolutely adore watching it from an adult’s perspective.

Like I’m giving it side eye every once in a while, like, but if I had seen it when I was a kid, I am.

Todd: I think a lot of the more disturbing elements of it be that, I mean, I saw some fairly shocking things on in movies as a kid. Heck, even kids movies back then would occasionally have things like that in it. I think most of, of the stuff that I kind of give the side eye right now as an adult probably would have got right over my head, just like those things did when I was a 

Craig: child.

Absolutely. I, you know, I have, uh, that’s, that’s kind of what I was trying to get at, like, the movies that we grew up with are different. than movies that are targeted at children today. I feel like the movies that we grew up with didn’t treat kids with kids gloves as much as movies do today. This movie’s got, like, jerkin off jokes in it.

It’s got all kinds of crazy shit that I’m like, this would never happen today. Child murder. Right, and molestation. But, you know, I even think about, I have… A friend, a colleague who is my age and we agree, like we, you know, we have the same childhood experience. We liked all the same things, grew up with the same bands.

Like, totally, totally in sync, but she cannot watch or, like, participate in any nostalgia for the Goonies because she doesn’t like the fat phobia and the way that disabilities are portrayed in the Their point of view. Right. Gosh, it was just such a different time. And, and, and the same thing is going on here.

Aside from the casual use of the n word, which I actually talked to my sister. My sister watched this movie because I was watching it. And we were talking about it, and she was talking about how she liked it, but she brought that up. That, like, the n word just pops up. It’s jarring. It’s, it’s jarring, and it’s just…

Like, it immediately disqualifi I was gonna tell her, Oh, you should watch this with your daughter, my niece. Um, cause they like the, you know, they like the same kind of stuff that I do. That’s not the only thing either. Yeah. I don’t remember if we have said this yet or not. I think I did Heather recommended this.

Yeah, right. When I was watching it, I was texting her too. I’m like, Oh, this is great. Thank you for recommending it. And she said, Yeah, it’s really nostalgic. It reminds me of to kill a mockingbird. Now, when I was texting her, I was only three minutes in. But now that I’ve seen the whole thing, there is like that whole, I feel like there’s a racial element.

There is this movie, 

Todd: and that is, it’s odd because it is not essential to the core story. There’s a lot in this movie that’s not essential to the core story, and it’s so chock full of that, that if you were to take out those bits, I think it would be a nice tight 90 minutes. It would have been maybe not so oddly received.

I don’t think this movie, well, it didn’t do well at the box office. It’s not well remembered, as far as I know. It kind of should be, because, like, we’ve just been talking about, you know, it’s pedigree. In a way, it’s so chock full of random stuff and little side plots and little diversions and things that aren’t really essential to the story that I think the writer and director are the same guy, and this is, um, Frank And producer.

Yeah, Frank LaLogia, and he went through a really interesting money raising process to, to make this movie by basically turning it into like a, a penny stocks thing, like creating a, a production company with his friend. And then had people all around the country, like, basically selling stock in this production company.

Uh, took like three years before they could finally get the money together. And then they were really, really tight with the budget. And it worked out well for them. That movie made, made some money for them. They definitely recouped their costs. But it was a bit of a box office bomb. I looked it up. Roger Ebert liked it.

He gave it, like, three stars and had a lot of really nice things to say about it. And nothing really that negative. But yeah, like, I think, as I was watching, I’m like, God, this movie is long. It’s long. Like, I’m not sure I would have had the patience for this as a kid, and I think why it feels so long is there’s just so much stuff in here that is central to setting up the time period.

And nostalgic little things that isn’t really essential to the 

Craig: plot. You’re absolutely right. 100%. I just want to out of the gate, say I liked it. Like I did. I liked this movie. Me too. Uh, I think it’s beautifully shot. Like the, the opening, it reminds me of the opening of something wicked. This way comes when we’ve talked about a bazillion times, stolen from it.

Oh, right. You know, it’s just shot for shot. Well, oh my God. And the voiceover. Willow Point Falls was just like any other small town. At least that’s 

Todd: the way it seemed to me. There’s even a guy out in front of his cigar store sweeping like with a cigar store Indian in the window like. Oh 

Craig: my god. But it’s like, universal backlot, small town America, and the leaves are falling, and oh, it’s so Halloween y, like there’s jack o lanterns all over the place, and like, just, I, I’m not even looking at my notes, but if I were, because I was taking so many notes, I’m like, okay, so here are the things.

that we have. Bike jumps over a creek, bridges over a river, every kid is in a Halloween costume, an old lady sprays Frank with a hose, there are stray dogs everywhere, nuns, Catholic school kids hitting Frank, and then the nun scares the dogs. Like, it is just the most, like, 1950s, 60s nostalgia. Yeah, that just slays me like and they were laying it on thick and I’m like I am in like I am so into this.

I’m 

Todd: not gonna have much critical bad bad critical things to say about this movie because I also loved it and I’m a sucker for this kind of movie. Yeah, I think we both are. So of course I was watching it and smiling the whole way through. I suppose somebody who’s coming into this first time and maybe from a different era or maybe just doesn’t have this degree of nostalgia for these kind of stories that we do.

I don’t know. Would probably say, this movie lays it on so thick, it’s almost embarrassing. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Loved it. I li I liked it too. There are moments in here where they take some tangents off just to be silly and goofy, and like, this is what kids do, and this is how kids play, and isn’t it cute and it’s charming, and this kid’s the goofy one, and this kid’s the mean one, and, you know, like there’s so much of that in here, that is s again, not at all really essential to the plot.

Characters who, Have very little to do with the story, who are just in there to do these little things. Yeah, I think pe I think there are people who might hear our podcast, who would go watch this movie after we’ve gushed over it. And would maybe be scratching our heads if they weren’t of the same mindset.

Craig: You’re right. Well, and I have no idea. I have no idea what the demographics of our audience is, but I would guess that maybe some of them are like people our age. And if you are somebody our age, and if you haven’t seen it, this movie is going to be just like an amazing nostalgia bomb, because there are so many people.

In it, like yes, Lucas Haas, like he was this cute, super cute kid actor because he has these ginormous eyes and ears and this, I’m pretty sure that this is his first movie and it’s hilarious, like in one of the opening scenes. The first scene, I think, that he speaks in, he screams at his brother. Oh, I think I may need you to put in that scene.

Because it’s like, What are you trying to do? Kill me! He’s screaming at the top of his lungs. It’s hilarious. His acting gets a little bit more calmed down through the rest of the movie. But then, his brother… Is named Gino in the movie. He’s played by a kid named Jason Presson. Who, I was so familiar to me.

I think that I remember him from The Explorers. With uh, I think River Phoenix was in that movie. And maybe… Was he in that? I’m pretty sure. The one where they like build a spaceship out of like garbage cans. Oh, I love that movie. 

Todd: We watched that like a billion times. Oh, it’s 

Craig: fantastic. But he, he’s been in lots of other stuff too.

Gremlins 2. Yeah. Yeah. So really enjoyed seeing him. He’s cute, super funny. There’s a Kind of bully named Donald. Like he’s kind of a bully, but he’s not like a super bad kid. I feel like he’s kind of, you know, friends with the main guy. Uh, but he was played by the same kid who was Josh’s best friend in big.

Yes. And he was also in Overboard. He was one of the sons of the man who kidnapped and manipulated a woman into marriage. Yes. Uh, in that movie. He 

Todd: was also in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. 

Craig: Oh, that’s right. He was Russ. Yeah. He was great. Oh God. He’s great. Great 80s actor. And he was, I said he was in Overboard.

With the woman who played Mona on… Yeah, who’s the boss. Who is also in this movie. And who plays the woman in white. Which, this is so weird because we haven’t even really gotten into talking into the plot, and the movie is called Lady in White. She’s barely… A part of the 

Todd: story. Yeah, and half the time it’s mostly her sister who’s not white haired at all.

Craig: No, and they should have called it, like, Ghost Girl. Because that’s a far more integral 

Todd: part of… A little girl in curls or something, yeah. 

Craig: Yeah. The lady in white just kind of shows up randomly every once in a while to be spooky. Another thing that I loved about this movie is that it reminded me very much of, like, after school specials.

Yes. That’s what it feels like in the shooting. Especially that shot where Lucas Haas is in his bed, like, dreaming or something, and then the woman in white is right outside his window, and the wind is always blowing, and her hair is… It felt very after school special to me, and I loved it. Those after school specials, 

Todd: I think another reason why this felt totally like that.

It also reminded me of It, because of the whole kid angle and the kind of like, all these different things that 

Craig: happen in town. It, and hold on, just real quick, it kind of felt like a TV movie because it felt like there were commercial breaks. Yes, they did. And it just kind 

Todd: of cramped, like those after school specials were either little kid adventures that were just light and fun, really serious, like, uh, you know, don’t do drugs.

My brother has AIDS kind of things. Yeah. Or like spooky ghost stories. Right. And this is like, has all of these things in it. I don’t remember 

Craig: if I ever saw it, but I’ve definitely seen the scene. There was like an after school special that I think Helen Hunt Started, and like, she smoked weed or something, and then freaked out and threw herself out of like a three story window and died.

Look it up on YouTube, it’s HILARIOUS. God. It’s so funny, but no, yeah, it does, this reminds me of that, but it’s also, it’s so cute! Yeah. Like, I, you guys, those of you who didn’t grow up with us in the 80s, I can’t explain it to you, but. Movies were different. Yeah. They just, like, I don’t know, there was just some magical, even this movie that ultimately is pretty silly, there are just some magical moments.

Even, I’m not gonna try to defend the acid, trippy Screensaver special effects, like… Ha, ha, ha, ha. Even though I enjoyed them, I’m not gonna try to defend it, but… It’s a low budget movie, yeah. You’ve got a kid who’s kind of a nerd. No, I love this kid. Like, the teacher, who I, uh, was also in a bazillion things in the 80s.

The teacher calls him up, she’s like, It’s Halloween! And they’re all in costumes, they’re like having a Halloween party. And she’s like, It’s Halloween! And now, Frank… is going to read us a story that he wrote and he reads the story. What is it? The beast that destroyed London, the beast that destroyed London.

And he tells this whole story about a sea monster that ate all the people and the bullies are like picking on him and being kind of hilarious. And then he finishes the story. But just when everyone had given up, thrown in the towel and really become depressed, a miracle occurred. The ground began to open up, and the monster who had at least a million tons sank into the huge hole eaten up by the only thing bigger than him the earth.

And the depressed citizens of London applauded and cheered. And there was nothing to be frightened about anymore. Unless the monster had a baby.

But that’s impossible. Or is it? And the teacher and the little girl that he has a crush on both gasp, like, 

Todd: Yeah, like the teacher and scared by this story. 

Craig: And then, it’s so cute! Uh, everybody else, it’s the end of the school day, everybody else leaves, the teacher’s sitting at her desk and the only people that don’t leave Our Frank and the little girl with braces who has a crush on him and she looks at him with a great big smile and says, Uh, I wish I was as weird as you.

And then she dances out of the room. I was dying. I like, this is my favorite movie.

So cute. So stinking cute. 

Todd: I thought this bit with this little girl being like having a crush on him would like go somewhere. I thought it would, you know, be a thread through the movie, but it just gets kind of dropped. It’s just for 

Craig: that scene. Nothing really goes anywhere and you can take me to task because I just listened to our last released episode where I complained and complained how things didn’t go anywhere.

And that is true of this movie too. And I don’t. 

Todd: Because this movie wasn’t made by a bunch of Italians in the 70s. Is that what it is? 

Craig: This movie, this movie is cute and engaging. So he gets bullied by those boys and they trick him into getting into the cloakroom. Oh my God, how cute is it that there’s a cloakroom in the classroom?

Yeah, it’s so cute. I desperately want a cloak room in my classroom. 

Todd: Remember Invaders from Mars? Had a similar little room in there. I felt like they shot in the same classroom. That’s how similar it all looked. Oh, 

Craig: it’s adorable. But they, they trick him into going in there after school and, uh, they lock him in.

That’s mean. And plus, it’s, it’s Halloween. And so not only are they locking him in there, but they’re depriving him of Halloween. I thought that was so shitty. Also, 

Todd: bullies in the 80s were way, way more cruel than 

Craig: they are now. Yeah, mean, mean, mean, mean. But he’s in there, and then a little ghost girl comes.

And, what, I don’t know, she’s just like, Hey, I’m a ghost 

Todd: girl. This stretches credulity a little bit, because ghost girl comes in, and, uh, he’s sitting up in the corner, he’s got his little vampire mascot. It’s a cute, it’s a cute costume, by the way. I love the mask. The Mask apparently, um, the director, uh, wrote, did a movie just before this, it was only, uh, his only other movie before this called See No Evil, which is on my list and I think we need to do.

But in that movie, they shot in a mansion, I believe, that used to belong to Bela Lugosi or had some connection to it, and I don’t know, somehow the main star in that movie was kind of vamping it up and, uh, He asked him to design a mask that gave the impression of Bela Lugosi without actually being him, and I thought that mask, it looked appropriately like a 1960 something Halloween mask.

It was very cool. 

Craig: Oh, yeah, I read that too, and that’s exactly what I got from it. Mm hmm. I knew exactly what it was going for, and I thought it was fantastic, and then the thing that I read was like, people just thought it was like a Richard Nixon mask. What? I think whoever wrote that must have been high on drugs, because I don’t know what they’re 

Todd: talking about.

You can’t always trust the trivia on IMDBs, because people can 

Craig: just Yeah, it definitely looks like a Dracula mask. If you don’t make the Bela Lugosi connection fine, but it definitely looks like a vampire mask and it’s great like it’s like a paper mache kind of homemade looking thing and I loved it. I thought it was great and this kid 

Todd: is into these things to like we see his bedroom later and he’s.

Again, another one of these kids from these movies, like Monster Squad or whatever, who just Right. Hey, Peppers is ha his room full of, uh, science fiction and horror 

Craig: stuff, but And he’s got comics and figurines, like, I love this kid. Yeah, 

Todd: he’s great. It’s cool, it paints a picture of him. It also has v nothing to do with the story either.

No. Like, usually these kids in the story, you know, people will say, Oh, you’re imagining things because that’s what you’re into, and it it doesn’t even go there. It’s kind 

Craig: of funny. No, no, this is a, it’s, it’s not a, well, I guess it is supernatural cause there’s ghosts, but it’s, it’s really, it’s a mystery.

Like he sees this girl and then he sees her violently assaulted. Oh my God. I was like, what is happening? The assailant is invisible throughout the entire movie. Until you find out who it is at the end. But when you see the, you see the assault and it is violent and he murders this little 

Todd: girl, chokes her out, I guess.

Yeah. And then picks her up 

Craig: and you don’t see this immediately. That’s all he sees in there. Alright, okay, so we’ll stay with that. And then… 

Todd: By the way. Yeah. Uh, he’s sitting up on the shelf by this window, and that’s, this is like a, a huge icon of the movie because it’s in, like, the poster and stuff like that.

That’s what I remember seeing on the shelf as a kid. And the school has a graveyard right behind it? 

Craig: Apparently, which is weird, but also in a haunted forest and God, 

Todd: don’t get me started on the forest, but straight out of Hansel and Gretel suddenly at every time of day, it reminded me of that company of wolves that Angela Lansbury movie we did, I feel like they shot it on the same set, but there it made sense here was just like, really, this town and fantasy land.

But, this graveyard, which I thought would be like a key story element because it’s spooky, and it’s made to look spooky, and it’s behind the school and stuff. Also has nothing to do with the book at all. No. Nothing. Ah. But might as well stick it in there. 

Craig: Oh, it looks good. I like it. So that’s it. So he sees that, and then…

Coincidentally. I’m not going by my notes at all, so I apologize if I’m jumping around, but Uh, it turns out this guy, some guy, like, you can’t see him, Comes in and starts pulling up the floor vent grate. Yes, and and this appears to be a real guy and there’s a what’s supposed to be a very tense scene where like there’s a rat Up on the shelves where the kid is hiding and the guy hears the rat and shines his flashlight on the rat but doesn’t see the kid which I’m not sure if I buy but then the rat crawls on the kid and the kid reacts and The guy sees him and grabs him and chokes him out.

Yeah, but then it goes to black And the next thing that, wait, is that when he said he’d die? Yeah. That was the 

Todd: first trippy part, right? He has the visions. I liked this part of the movie actually, but I’ve got to say. What a coincidence, right? I guess it’s Halloween night, so that’s why the ghost appeared.

No, 

Craig: the ghost appears every night. 

Todd: So if you’re not locked in the cloakroom overnight, you’re just not gonna see 

Craig: it. Right, but don’t you remember? The teacher says they’re replacing the furnace over the weekend. Yes, I do remember that. And it was so like, when she said it, I’m like, well obviously that’s important, like why would you say that?

So apparently, somebody killed this girl in this room, and now that they’re replacing the furnace, what, 11 years later? He’s afraid that maybe there’s some evidence in there. Are you kidding me? That’s so dumb. It’s fine. It sounds Did you read Encyclopedia Brown when you were a kid?

That’s what it makes me think of. Like, clues. And so, and so, after he gets choked out, eventually he goes back and he pulls up the vent and he finds a hair clip and a, a class ring. Like it’s so encyclopedia brown, like clues, clues, clues. 

Todd: I looked at it when I was seeing, I was watching this, I was like. And, and especially as the clues get put together, I realized this is going to have to be one of these mystery movies where by the end of it, once the killer’s found out, he just kind of like reveals himself to everybody because there’s no way this kid is building a case against him that he could take to the cops and hold up in a court of law.

Craig: That’s crazy. The weird subplot is that everybody just assumes. That it’s the janitor of the school who did it. And, and it’s not only Lucas Haas that has been… Assaulted Like over the past seven years or ten years. I don’t know like 11 kids have been killed Most of them were from the city that they can see from their town.

Yeah, what city was 

Todd: that supposed to be? I don’t know that gets dropped but that’s oh, it was like a horrible Matt painting. Honestly, 

Craig: I love this Yeah, it didn’t matter, but most of the kids were from the city except for the first one who was a girl from their town and they just assume that the janitor did it because he’s black.

Todd: Like, yes, because 

Craig: racism, I mean, they even talk about that. Like, I feel like it’s very heavy handed because, um, Lucas Haas’s dad. Who’s the dad from dream little dream? one of the great Cory movies of the 90s, but even the dad is like Why do we just automatically assume he did it like almost 

Todd: everyone is saying that even though Yeah, even the 

Craig: cop the janitor’s motive is that he got drunk and passed out like that’s Legit.

I mean, I guess I mean he was on He was on the premises, I guess, but they really… They don’t have any evidence. Well, even the sheriff. I feel like the sheriff goes to the dad at some point. Yes. I didn’t understand that scene. I didn’t understand what the sheriff was trying to do. Was the, was the sheriff trying to get the dad to in some way protest it?

Fuck yeah. All I’m saying is… Unless Frankie can verify that it wasn’t Williams that attacked him. Come on, Ray. You’ve talked to Frankie. He told you it was too dark to tell. 

Todd: They’re gonna put Harold Williams away, I guarantee it. Where’s that proof? He was in the building, Al. What the hell was he doing there in the middle of the night?

He got drunk and passed out. His goddamn prints were all over that 

Craig: cloakroom. And all over the rest of the school. He works there, for Christ’s sakes. He’s the janitor. I’m telling you, that doesn’t matter. This case has been making monkeys out of all of us for the past 10 years. Harold Williams is a perfect scapegoat.

He’s black. And I couldn’t, I couldn’t tell if he was saying that, like, Oh, that’s a good thing, or, oh, this is an injustice. I couldn’t tell what he was saying. At 

Todd: first, I thought he was saying it, that this is a good thing. But then as the movie went on, and I saw his whole attitude toward this whole thing, he seemed as skeptical as everybody else.

Yet here he is in a position to do something about it, but he doesn’t, which kind of made me think, is this just a very overly simplistic, kind of, to kill a mockingbird type situation, where this movie’s trying to be too nice, and trying to make us believe that all of these characters that we see, none of them are racist, and all of them are very uncomfortable about this.

It’s just that it was a different time, and they were sort of… powerless and kind of had to go along with the faceless people who are not seen and mentioned in this movie that want to just take the black guy down. 

Craig: I, yeah, and I think that if we’re going to In any way kind of address the whole movie.

We’re just gonna have to tackle one thing at a time So I think we should just like yeah, this uh, this guy It’s a thing like he’s accused of all of these murders Well, and then his wife and kids are suffering too because some lady like calls them out in church and this poor wife, you know, passes out and has to be carried out of church.

But then ultimately the grand jury decides that there’s not enough evidence to Indict this guy so he’s released and we see him I so knew where this was going and I was so angry I was so angry and I I wanted the movie to defy my expectations because yeah Exactly where it was going so he comes out and he talks to the press and he’s like I’m just so happy to be able to go home You know there they’re gonna take me to the jail so I can get my stuff and then they’re gonna take me home and his Wife and kids are there and he gets into the back of a police car and his wife is on one side side and the woman who confronted the wife in church tells her husband, I want to go apologize to him, which she does.

She goes to the other side of the car and says, I’m sorry for all you’ve been through. And then she pulls out a gun and blows his head off. Not only Does she shoot him, but because the wife is Right behind him on the other side of the car. She gets shot, too Yeah, and she’s just in shock and then you never see them again Like yeah, I feel like there’s a point there make the director there because the writer the director the producer They’re all the same person.

This person is making a point But then it just it’s just dropped. Yeah, there’s no more to 

Todd: it I I really feel like this is like just a little bit of overzealous world building It’s sort of like this movie is supposed to be this, you know Dandelion wine like the magical summer of 1967 or whatever, you know in my youth and here are all the things that happened during there But it does therefore kind of lose focus on the story because of it Because, ultimately, although, I mean, it’s a very tenuously connected to the story, and like you said, it’s just dropped.

That’s frustrating. So, yeah, I mean, again, I’ll fault it for that, and this is another reason why I think by the end of it I felt like, Boy, the movie felt a little long, and that’s probably why, as there were things like this in there. That didn’t really need to be. That was like, okay, well that was an interesting diversion.

But what about the ghost and what’s gonna happen to the kid? Well, we haven’t even 

Craig: talked about that, right? Like, that’s, that’s the whole story. Like, there’s this ghost girl. Like, she just keeps showing up. And she keeps saying, like, My mommy is lost. Help me find her. I, I, I say it in that annoying voice only because that happens multiple times.

It’s not annoying. It was kind of cute. And like… It’s the 

Todd: cute child ghost thing that appears to the other kid. Practically becomes a playmate, except when she suddenly stops talking to him in random places and starts reenacting the events of that night, which, like I said, you said, right, kind of happens every night.

Yeah, 

Craig: and eventually, after the kid gets attacked, this, we may be, I may be going back a little bit, but this is something that I definitely wanted to talk about, after the kid gets attacked in the hospital and they bring him home, To recuperate. By the way, there are a grandma and grandpa couple. Oh my god.

Who are hilarious. Hilarious. Like there’s a running joke that the grandpa smokes, but the grandma doesn’t like it. And so she’s always like foiling his attempts to smoke and stuff. And my favorite one was one night where they were just sitting at dinner and somebody said, where’s grandpa? And she says, he’s drowning himself because I hid his cigarettes.

And then it comes 

Todd: him with his head submerged in the bathtub. . I thought 

Craig: that was so funny. I was dying laughing. You say 

Todd: it’s funny, I think some people would say it’s kind of corny and a little over. Oh, it’s super 

Craig: corny over. I loved it. Oh, it’s ridiculous. It’s so weird. It’s ridiculous. It’s 

Todd: ridiculous, and it’s very much, movies of this time had this kind of thing in there all the time.

I would say, look, I agree with you, I still love this movie, but I thought this whole bit, this running gag, was not very well played. I thought it was a little stilted. I don’t know if it was overacting, or just stereotypical 

Craig: immigrant kind of like… Oh, yeah. It was, for 

Todd: sure. I kind of found it a little 

Craig: cringey.

Oh, it was over the top, silly, stupid, intentionally, and I thought that was hilarious. And 80s movies were like that, like you just said, and I know that I don’t have to tell you that. But, okay, so after the kid is attacked, then like, he’s recovering at home, he’s got like a neck brace and stuff, I don’t know, whatever.

But Phil? And Tony, come to visit him. Who are these men? Now, is, who are they? Who are they? And are they a couple? I know, right? 

Todd: I was asking myself that the 

Craig: whole time. I 

Todd: guess they’re childhood friends. Of the dad? Well, one of them is Phil. I mean, 

Craig: we find out Phil 

Todd: is. Phil is. And it seems, it’s never explicitly stated.

But is Tony his 

Craig: husband? I know, right? Yeah. In my world, he is, Phil. It’s… Yeah. Uncle Phil and Tony. Yeah, 

Todd: I have an Uncle Bill and Uncle Scott, so I completely understand. 

Craig: Super nice, and uh, They visit him and bring him a bow, as in a bow and arrow. All right. So then what? So then, then they kind of like, uh, the ghost girl comes to Frank’s room.

Frank is 

Todd: Lucas Haas. I’m sorry, real quick. Since you brought up Phil and Tony, and since we’re probably going to go over on this episode anyway, can you talk to me a little bit about what his dad does? What Lucas… Oh, 

Craig: he’s an iron worker. I love that. And so Phil works there 

Todd: too, right? Yeah, I think so.

Craig: Working 

Todd: on the… Gate To the cemetery. To the cemetery. 

Craig: Mm-hmm. , that, 

Todd: that we see at the wraparound story. We didn’t even mention the wraparound story. No. It, it doesn’t wrap 

Craig: around. It, it like it’s a book? No, it’s just introductory. And that’s, that’s the director, right? Oh, is it? Doesn’t the, oh, I am pretty sure Frank Lu.

Plays the adult Frank. 

Todd: Oh, interesting. It’s so funny because by the end of the movie, I was like, wait, why did we not 

Craig: come back to the wraparound? Well, why did this just end here? I know it’s weird. So the ghost girl just shows up a lot. I don’t. She shows up, she types on his typewriter, but we never see what she types, like, I thought that would surely be something.

Todd: Yeah, she does a lot of ghostly things, that you just kind of, like, I don’t know, there’s like a contractual obligation, I think, if you’re doing a ghost girl story, that all these things kind of have to be in there, even if they don’t make sense. 

Craig: And the woman in white… She starts showing up, I guess, and…

Because of the 

Todd: creepy old house. 

Craig: Yeah, yeah. 

Todd: The kids go to this, like, creepy house, and I had no idea why they were there. Maybe I missed a line of dialogue or something. And then I realized, is this just the neighborhood creepy house? 

Craig: Frank is just hanging out. This part of the movie doesn’t make any sense, because there’s a house, like, on his street.

Where he says the creepy old woman lives and we look at that house for a second And we see her like looking out the window But then we never see that house again, correct? And then they Uh, are always talking about this cottage by the cliffs. And like, that’s the creepy house, and then it’s supposed to be abandoned, but it’s clean and fully furnished.

And that, from that point forward, that’s where we keep seeing. Amanda, the woman in white. Yeah, I did not get that at all. So I don’t even know why they bothered to introduce that other house. I think that the suggestion is that’s where she lives and this other house was the house, as it ultimately turns out Oh my god.

She’s like a caretaker. No, I think it was either her daughter or her sister. Her sister. Who was the mom. Yes. 

Todd: Of this, of this girl. Of 

Craig: the ghost girl. Uh huh. And there’s the ghost girl! Ha ha ha ha! I will beat myself up if I don’t tell this story, because I don’t have a lot of cool stories from my life. But, Amanda is played by Kathryn Helmond, who is Mona.

On Who’s the Boss, who was, by far and away, the best character on that show. Oh, yeah. She was like the slutty grandma, and she was fantastic. I saw her in a live production, a dinner theater production of, uh, Noises Off. 

Todd: No way! 

Craig: Yeah, in St. Louis, Missouri, when I was in high school. My high school drama club took a road trip in to see Noises Off.

A dinner theater. I love it. And, and we got there. Of course, you know, this is before the internet. Well, the internet existed, but we didn’t have it yet. Um, so I had no idea. So I got there and I opened the playbill and I saw that she was in it. And I was so starstruck. Like, it was like a moment in my life.

Um, I am going to see Mona from Who’s the Boss in a play. 

Todd: Oh my gosh. How was she? Oh, 

Craig: she was fantastic. Oh, she was great. 

Todd: She 2019. Just before, just missed out on all the COVID excitement. Really? 

Craig: Oh my goodness. She must have been a hundred years 

Todd: old. Yeah, she was born in 1929. And I mean, always good.

Honestly, I thought also, look, this movie is full of good acting. Uh, there’s some cringy weird acting, but, you know, I have no, really no real complaints about the acting in the movie, except sometimes it’s a little over the top. Her scenes, especially when she kind of goes in and we get the whole backstory, fantastic.

Yeah. Fantastic 

Craig: acting. I kind of wish that she had more to do, cause she just kind of creeps around, like floats around, with arms outstretched, and it’s great, it’s so, like, it’s, it’s old school ghost story. Yeah. For kids. Yeah. You know, spooky. She’s, she’s pale. She’s gaunt. She seemingly kind of floats around with her arms outstretched.

She’s got this long, wispy hair, a high hairline. She’s kind of got a bride of Frankenstein or bride of Dracula thing going on. Um, but it’s great. It’s, it’s spooky. Not in a Yeah. Shit your pants scary way, but just in a spooky way. Spooky ghost 

Todd: way, yeah. It’s sort of a, if you’re not listening, you’re probably going to miss it moment where somebody happens to mention.

That there was a woman who committed suicide there, threw herself off the cliff, because her daughter was murdered. 

Craig: Right. And that’s it. There’s no sense in skirting around it. That’s what happens. We see it happen. Jesus. At some point, Gino, who’s the brother, also sees the ghost. He and Frank… Follow it, cause Frank’s like, she, it’s almost 10 o’clock, that’s what time it was when she gets killed in the tower.

And so they, they go there, and she’s already been… killed again, and her invisible assailant is, uh, carrying her away. Frank’s like, he’s taking her to the cliffs, and Frank runs after her, and Geno conveniently, like, steps on some glass, so he can’t fall or whatever, but Frank sees this invisible assailant.

This was horrifying, too! This was terrible. Like, as, as though it weren’t enough that he had… violently murdered her? As it turns out, she wasn’t dead. So, she wakes up and is horrified to find herself being thrown off a cliff and screams for her mother before he throws her? 

Todd: Off the cliff. I love the balls of this movie.

I absolutely love the 

Craig: balls. It does not pull punches. 

Todd: I sometimes, and I think we’ve talked about this before, lose so much respect for a horror movie that comes right up to the point where you think they’re going to kill a kid and then it backs away and doesn’t really do it. And you know. Of course, nobody wants to see a kid die, but that’s like, cross that taboo every once in a while, right?

Like, get some balls. And this movie, it was the last movie that I thought was gonna cross this taboo. 

Craig: Because it’s for kids, like, it’s a clearly a movie for children. 

Todd: If bad enough, a kid already died, but now we see this kid being held over a cliff, waking up, oh, she’s not dead, screams for her mom and then plummets to her death.

Craig: Oh my god. It’s horrible. And then, and then the mother runs out and she’s like in a, like a pristine white gown and like the wind is flowing. She 

Todd: already looks like a ghost. She, she, she dressed properly for the afterlife, uh, that, that much is true. 

Craig: Right. And she looks down and sees her daughter’s mangled body.

Swept away by the waves. Oh my god. Jesus. So she sees that and so then she raises her arms and her billowing gown makes her look like an angel which the ghost girl has already like shown an angel ornament to the boy like help me find my mother or whatever and like an angel she like throws herself off the cliff.

Yep. Supposedly, that’s how she died. But, the central mystery is who is the child molester killer? What’s his but? Frank found all that evidence. First of all, when he went into the abandoned cottage that is perfectly clean and fully furnished, Uh, he obviously found Ghost Girl’s bedroom, and On her bureau was a jewelry box that had like three sets of hair clips, but one hair clip was missing and it was the one that he found.

I know, this is 

Todd: like a point and click adventure game at this point. Yeah, right, right. 

Craig: So he just puts it back and then maybe he has a vision, I don’t know, whatever. But the other thing that he found was… It’s like a class ring and he dropped it in his room and his brother found it. And then later, the kid’s like, Oh, I have some evidence.

And he tries to show it to his brother and he’s like, Oh, I. I must have lost it. But the brother doesn’t say anything. That was weird to me, like, why are we keeping secrets? It didn’t make sense. Because ultimately, ultimately, Geno does his own investigating. He gets in his dad’s trunk. Which he’s not supposed to.

Does his dad have porn in there? 

Todd: I know, his dad is so upset when he finds out he was in his trunk. He’s like, I told you there’s nothing in there that concerns you. Jesus. Honestly, after that response. I had a moment in my head where I thought they’re not setting up the dad to be the killer, are they?

Because I was pretty sure I had this thing figured out about 10 minutes into the movie and I wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t, 

Craig: no, it wasn’t 10 minutes, there was a scene, there’s a scene where… Uh, Frank is at the factory, and he’s like eavesdropping. No, that’s toward the end. But yeah, uh huh. You figured it out before that?

I didn’t figure it out before that. 

Todd: Dude, he was the only You know how it works with movies, it’s gonna be the guy who has no other reason to be in this movie. And, well, it wasn’t the black guy because we knew he was the setup. This friend, this family friend who just comes over every now and then and plays with these guys, I was like, Why are we seeing him?

Why is he every now and then, you know, chumming up with Frank? Of course it’s him! 

Craig: I didn’t figure it out until, I just thought they were the friendly gay uncles, until he comes up behind him, like, uh, Frank is like eavesdropping on his dad and somebody else, I don’t even remember what those people are talking about, but Uncle Phil, or whatever.

And apparently, like, apparently, there’s a, there’s a really weird scene where Phil and the dad have a heart. To heart on the porch and like cry, 

Todd: you 

Craig: know, when we were kids, nothing frightened me more. The thought of losing my parents, then I watched it 

Todd: happen to you. Both 

Craig: of them within a year.

Todd: If it hadn’t been for your mother and father, I don’t know what I would have done. Took a lot of 

Craig: strength to deal with a loss like that stuff. A lot of mixed emotions. But, Cuesta a la vita. Eventually you grow up. You 

Todd: grow out of 

Craig: it. I used to think fear was something you grow out of, like, uh, Being afraid of the dark.

But now with Miriam gone, I’m more fearful than ever.

You know, Philly, the thing that scares me the most is the thought of 

Todd: losing one of my 

Craig: kids. So these guys are tight. They’re like, like brothers. Anyway, he ends up being behind that kid on the stairwell and the kid turns around and it’s kind of a creepy shot of him. And I have in my notes is Phil’s a killer.

And then, okay, so the brother Gino has the ring and Fortunately, for us viewers, the rings have initials inscribed in them. Um, and it, like, he compares the found ring to his dad’s ring, and they’re the same, they’re from the same year. So he gets out his dad’s yearbook, and he looks it up, and he finds his dad in the yearbook, and then he looks up the other initials.

Um, and even though the first initial isn’t… P. Apparently, Phil is this guy’s middle name, um, and he finds him. And then, obviously, the brother knows. And, ultimately, we find out that the brother alerts everyone, and the dad knows, and the police know. But, Frank doesn’t know. And he’s, he’s out shooting arrows with Uncle Phil, and they’re having a great time, and it’s so much fun.

And then, Frank gets in the car, and Uncle Phil starts. Whistling that song just before that though Uncle Phil’s like, let’s shoot Oh, that molesty part? 

Todd: Let’s shoot one more arrow, and he gets down next to him, cheek to cheek, and it’s like, alright, now hold it steady, and then he kind of looks over at him, and he’s got his cheek, he kind of rubs it up against him a little more, takes a breath in Oh my god.

God, that was creepy 

Craig: as hell. Oh, it was so, I have in my notes, super molesty vibes. Yeah. And part of it, like, the acting was good. Like, the guy who played Phil was giving me those gross vibes. But a big part of it was just the camera work. It was a tight close 

Todd: up. Yeah, it was very intimate. 

Craig: Of the, right, of their faces pressed together.

Ugh. Yeah, big molester vibes. But then he whistles and sings, That’s right, have you ever seen a dream walking? I’ve heard that song before, I don’t remember where. I think I’ve heard it in a movie. I’ve heard it in a movie 

Todd: before. It’s a song, I don’t think we mentioned it, but it’s a song that the little girl ghost keeps, keeps singing and saying that it’s her favorite song.

Craig: Well, and when she’s attacked the first time, she says to the assailant, I know what your favorite song is because you sing it all the time. Random. So obviously that’s gonna be a big deal. And so now Phil sees it and I loved this scene in my notes. I have Frank knows and Phil knows he knows.

And then, and then I, the next thing Frank locks himself in the car, Phil f ing loses it. He turns into A madman. Yeah. 

Todd: Like, it is crazy. I loved this sequence. This sequence was tense, well shot. Like the whole movie is very well shot, honestly. This sequence is really tense. I didn’t think he was going to get out of that car, but he does.

He gets out of the car and immediately runs into the spooky old woods. 

Craig: Right. And, and, but when he’s in the car, Frank’s like, just, just, oh God, I don’t know. He’s like, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not going to hurt you. Uh, it’s very scary because this is, you know, kind of legit upsetting. This is basically this kid’s uncle.

Mm hmm. Like somebody that he loves and trusts. 

Todd: Grew up with, yeah. Who does things for him and takes him places. 

Craig: Yeah. And you also, or at least I did, got the impression that Phil… Really loves this kid too, like because when he, when he attacked him, he says this, you know, when we were in the cloak room, I didn’t know it was you because you had your mask on.

And that’s true. Uh, he, he didn’t know, uh, that it was him. And I don’t think that he wants to hurt this kid. When I, uh, was looking at, you know, stuff about this movie. I, I scrolled down on IMDB to the comments and the first one, you know, that popped up gave a pretty good review of the movie, but they said that their only complaint about it was that the killer’s motives are never even discussed, really.

Except for that, when they think it’s the janitor, Phil and the dad talk about that and isn’t it Phil who says something like These guys don’t need a motive. They’re just sick Yeah. Doesn’t he say something like that? He does. You’re right. Mm hmm. So I guess that’s enough of a motive. I mean, and I guess that that’s true to life.

Like, you don’t always know. Yeah. What happened, what people do behind closed doors. The, the people who seem the most normal and… You know, the, the 

Todd: psychotic people are really good at manipulating folks to get this, you know, it kind of comes with that personality, right? So, of course, they’re also really good at…

At, uh, at being trusted and gaining people’s trust, you know, in all aspects of their life. So they always, it’s always that guy, Oh, God, I, I, everybody trusts him. Everybody thinks he’s great. Well, yeah, that’s what allows him that, that’s his tool. Right. You know, that gets the trust of these kids to murder them, or to lock them in his basement, you know, for 20 years and whatever.

All these kinds of things that you find 

Craig: in the news. well, that’s like, it was upsetting. It was upsetting. Like, because he chases him into the creepy woods and there’s like a confrontation in the woods where he’s trying to convince them, you know, like, just give me the ring. Nobody has to know. And like, your dad can’t know.

And then like, he starts crying like, Oh, 

Todd: his dad. Yeah. He’s like, uh, really upset about, uh, at this point, it sets us up for the end of the movie anyway, where 

Craig: he’s talking Well, he’s losing everything, eh, it’s, you can’t sympathize with a child molester slash murderer, but I understand. There’s this shameful thing in his life and now it’s, his world is crumbling around him.

I understand why he feels that way. And 

Todd: he tells him he could never look his dad in the eye. It’s already been set up how close friends they are. He says, I could never look at your father in the eye, you know, and talk about this or admit what I’ve done or anything like that. So, uh, the kid gets out. Does he put the car in gear?

I don’t remember. 

Craig: Somehow he gets out. The weird thing, the weird thing about that scene to me was it, like, night fell in 30 seconds. Yeah? It was really kind of a weird sequence. And he chases him to the cottage, and he chases him around the cottage, and he’s throttling him like he’s going to kill him. But the whole time he’s saying, just tell me and what you know, and we don’t have to tell anybody.

And then the w the lady in white hits him over the head with a brick. This last part was Yeah. I find it I find it funny. Yeah. Not in not in that I didn’t like it, but it is humorous. Like, the whole house then Okay, so he wakes up in Ghost girl’s bed in this fully furnished and clean abandoned cottage.

Amanda is playing the piano, which we’ve been told before that she used to teach kids piano. And then she like creeps over to him, and she’s like, don’t worry. And she tells the whole story, like, that the woman was my sister, and… When her daughter was killed, she couldn’t handle it, and she just killed herself.

And I wanted to kill myself, and I tried, and that’s why they put me away, but now I’m back, blah, blah, blah. Her acting was 

Todd: great in this. I really, I really liked the acting. This is what I was talking about earlier. I enjoyed 

Craig: it. I don’t know if I would say it was amazing acting, but I really enjoyed it. 

Todd: I would say it’s amazing.

It 

Craig: was, it was fun. And ghosty. I, I’m not saying that it was in any way bad, I’m just saying I don’t know how much this actress really had to put into it, like, it’s just kind of ghostly, but she’s great, I liked it too. How beautiful she was. And how she loved her little girl. She lived and died for her.

I wanted to die too, but they wouldn’t let me. What is the good of living when all that you love is gone?

Even in death, she couldn’t rest. I know. I see her roaming the cliffs at night, searching for her little girl. Calling out her name. Melissa. Lucas Haas is weeping. I’m not sure. I’m not exactly sure why. Yeah, he’s just laying there 

Todd: weeping. He’s also surrounded by about a million candles. Yeah. 

Craig: And she says, don’t worry, I killed that guy.

And then it is a very ghostly shot from his perspective where it’s just her face right in his face and she’s kind of pulling away above him. And I, again, I knew it was coming. You see Phil come up behind her and he starts strangling her. Like she just starts choking even before you see him. She starts choking and then she’s fighting him.

And then. They knock over candles and the house catches on fire, and he violently beats her to death? 

Todd: Yeah. Right? Yeah. Oh 

Craig: boy. Uh, one way or another, like when the movie was over, because more happens, when the movie was over I was like, so Amanda’s dead, right? Cause the house burns down. It’s true. 

Todd: We don’t get to see her ghost float away, Abilie.

Let’s just put it that way. 

Craig: No, the others we do. He, uh, he violently beats Amanda to death and then he struggles with the kid in. The house that is engulfed in flames. They end up outside and he takes him to the cliff like he’s gonna throw him off. Oh god. Ah! Ah! So, I watched this yesterday after having just come home from a one year old’s birthday party.

Oh. And I was, uh, talking to… I don’t know what you call your cousin’s wife. My in law, I don’t know, my cousin in law. Your cousin in law. Yeah. I was talking to my cousin’s wife and she was talking about how her kid, her, her youngest is, who’s still a baby, gives her monkey hugs. And that’s when, that’s when he wraps his arms and legs around and just won’t let go.

Lucas and just won’t let go, and the guy’s trying to, like, pry him off.

Oh, and I don’t remember. I don’t know. Somehow Lucas Haas kind of falls off the cliff and he’s hanging on to something and then like Phil is like kind of going to help him up, but doesn’t. 

Todd: I don’t know. I’m not, I don’t remember how all that went down. Cause then by now, like the rest of the police and everybody’s show up with the father and the, and the kid, they all show up, but they all stand far away and watch all this go down.

Craig: Yeah! It’s so weird. Like, what? And, and like, does the mom ghost, like, she comes down from heaven in a bolt of 

Todd: lightning. And startles Phil, uh, which causes him to fall off the it.

Yeah, literally. Oh God. That, that was hilarious. And 

Craig: so then he falls off and then like, like there’s a good full five minutes of people hanging off the cliff. Oh God. And, and so like, like the kid is hanging off the cliff and then he gets up and then Phil is hanging off the cliff and then it seems like he falls, but he didn’t really fall.

And then like the dad tries to save him. But looking in the dad’s eyes, he just can’t. Like, nope. Can’t do it. Well gonna have to I have to die. Yeah. And, and so he, lets go then. So then he falls off the cliff and then the mother, the ghost mom and the ghost daughter are 

Todd: reunited. Oh my God. And then . 

Craig: Heather.

Heather. I was texting Heather and she’s like, you have to tell me what you think when it’s over. ’cause I usually cry at the end. And then she texted me again later and she’s like, I just rewatched it and I didn’t cry. I blame it on pregnancy. The last time I watched it, I was pregnant.

Todd: Could it have had something to do with the special effects being a little distracting? Oh, they’re terrible. It looks like a big metal cage or something comes, it comes over them and like. In some sort of like, Star Wars beam me up moment, they shoot off into the sky. They might as well have like, zoomed across the sky in a heart shaped pattern.

That’s kind of what it, the level of effects and corniness of everything. They, they do a 

Craig: little curlicue up there, before they shoot off into heaven. 

Todd: I also love how there were those blue screen shots of those, of the people falling into the water, that… are so unconvincing that Phil’s death was 

Craig: HILARIOUS.

He was clearly laying on a floor, just flailing his arms. And they superimposed that badly. Over some water. It was huh. And then that’s, and then that’s what I have. And then like it’s snowing on the cottage that is engulfed in flames and that’s just it. Like that’s where I have in my notes. So Amanda’s dead.

I, I guess, right? Like, which is fine because she wanted to be dead, but it would have been nice if they had let her ghost fly off with them too. 

Todd: Yeah. I don’t know. They need another bolt of lighting or something to come down to make that happen, I suppose. I 

Craig: enjoyed this movie. It was fun. I, like, it was two hours long, and that is too long of a movie for me, but…

I enjoyed it. There was good stuff going on. There was some problematic and just outright curious stuff going on. Like, what? There was some weird shit. We didn’t even really talk about his acid trip when he dies. That was insane. Insane. But… Like, there’s some great nostalgic actors in here. I think it’s beautifully shot.

Aside from those weird special effects, like, uh, I already talked about the autumn. It also goes through Christmas, and it was like, it felt like Christmas in my house. Like, it was great. It was fantastic. So, I, I think there’s a lot going for it. 

Todd: No, I agree with you. It’s kind of a jumbled mess of a movie in, in, in all the fun, right?

Ways. Honestly, it doesn’t probably stand the test of time for modern audience, but I think that’s why we like it is because it’s kind of checks all the boxes or any special effects, childhood, neighborhood adventure, you know, kids 

Craig: writing. Bikes. Oh yeah. I never ever see kids riding bikes and it makes me so sad.

Some of the greatest adventures of my childhood were just riding bikes somewhere and just getting into mischief. Yeah, it makes me sad that kids don’t get that. 

Todd: That was going through my head the whole time we were watching that, that I just said to Liz, cause she was watching with me, I said, You know what?

When we were, like, that age, like, a bike was freedom. Yeah, you could go anywhere! It’s like a 16 year old getting a car, you know, it’s the younger kid version of that. Suddenly you can go everywhere, and your parents let you. Yeah. You know, like, you could just go everywhere, it was just, you got in your own little adventures, that’s really…

Kind of like maybe why we’re so nostalgic for it, you know, is because it brings back those actual memories that we have. 

Craig: Yeah. I mean, I, yeah, I, I try, I try not to be that guy who gets so wound up in nostalgia because I’m sure kids are having their own great experiences today that I just don’t understand.

You know, like when they are our age, they’ll talk about things the way that we’re talking about this, but it does. It makes me sad because I just have such amazing memories of riding all over town with my friends and my cousins and getting into trouble, like, you know, like doing stuff that we weren’t supposed to do.

Riding to the, literally riding to the video store at 12, 13 years old and renting R rated movies and taking them home and staying up all night watching these. Terrible horror movies. It’s kind of the basis of my whole identity. I suppose that’s why I’m nostalgic about it. 

Todd: I think if you’re like us, if everything that we’re saying resonates with you, you’re going to like all this movie, this movie as much as we do.

Despite admittedly all of its problematic and head scratching moments. Man, we’re two for two for Halloween movies this time. I can’t wait to see what we come up with for the next two weeks. Presumably because I’d like to prepare. So we better figure this out soon. We will have figured it out though by the time you listen to this podcast.

And by the way, thank you for listening to this podcast. If you enjoyed it, please let other people know about it. There’s no more perfect time of year to introduce people to our podcast. Then October, when we are the giddiest and doing, you know, presumably some of the most fun and lovely movies that we’re gonna do all year, so.

Also, please consider supporting the podcast, get behind the scenes with our Patreon. Patreon.com/chainsawpodcast, just five bucks a month, or ten if you’re feeling particularly generous. Gets you access to a whole bunch of behind the scenes stuff, minisodes, an interview with the two of us, our complete unedited phone call, which we’re good friends and if you want to, uh, eavesdrop on our conversations, become a member.

Craig: I like the unedited ones because they get to hear, like, the stupid tangents that I go off on. Ha ha ha ha ha. I, like, I’m such a dork.

Todd: That you are. Until next time, I’m Todd. 

Craig: And I’m Craig. 

Todd: With Two Guys and a Chainsaw.