2 Guys And A Chainsaw

If you’re looking for a horror film that feels timely and hits too close to home for comfort, then grab a bottle of your strongest whisky and high-tail it over to Shudder.

The Beach House is a Shudder streaming-service exclusive that came out last year but feels like it came out last month. A happy accident for a first time director and largely no-name cast, but not a happy watch for the rest of us. Our discussion gets a wee bit more philosophical and timely this week. Stay safe, everyone!

Expand to read episode transcript Automatic Transcript

The Beach House (2019)

Episode 222, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw

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

Todd: And I’m Todd

Craig: and I picked the movie this week because I was just kind of messing around on Facebook and an ad popped up for a new Shudder exclusive called the beach house. And there was just a real quick, I don’t know, 15, 22nd preview for the movie. And I thought it looked interesting. So without even.

Consulting with Todd. I watched it and took notes. And last week after we finished recording, I said, I’ve already watched next week’s movie. So this is what we’re doing. And that is, are very intricate. Selection process at work

Todd: peek behind the curtain. Isn’t it magical?

Craig: Yeah. This is just something, you know, I, I finally, I don’t know, a few months ago when we all got locked up at home, I bit the bullet and paid the what like eight bucks or whatever it is.

Um, for a Shudder subscription and, uh, it’s actually a pretty nice service. There’s a lot of good stuff there. And, um, they actually, yeah, quite a few exclusive movies that I’ve watched and have enjoyed quite a bit. And so I figured I would give this one chance in all honesty. It’s now been well over since I watched it.

So I hope I can remember the details, but in the haze, that is my memory. I remember enjoying it. So, uh, I’m excited to hear what you have to say about it. Todd, what are, what are your thoughts? Did you have this wasn’t on your radar at all? Was it,

Todd: Oh God, no, no. I’d never heard of this before. At night probably being a Shudder exclusive.

I might never have heard of it since I don’t subscribe to shutter, but it was interesting to watch. And it said it was the directorial debut of a guy named Jeffrey, a Brown. Yeah. Who apparently does a really good job at location management, quite a few, whatever that is. I actually, I bet that’s a really the important job.

I’m sure. Super important. Like. Managing the entire location of the, you know, presumably of every place you’re shooting is probably a task, not for the faint of heart. So it’s great that Jeffrey Brown finally got his chance to strut his stuff, giving orders from behind the camera. And, uh, so I think what he did to, uh, two shorts before this, and this is his first feature length.

And I guess I looked up online and saw that it was picked up pretty quickly by AMC and shutter for distribution. Worldwide after it showed at a film festival in Europe. So yeah, I mean, I think this is the kind of movie I would expect to see at a film festival in Europe and not really on the big screen state side.

Yeah. Like not at my AMC 30 theater down the street, you know, it’s just a, it’s, it’s slow. Not in a boring way. It just as a slow pace, very simple story and takes a while to play out and really enjoys itself. I should say, you know, it’s, it’s a little artistic in that way, although it’s definitely not like an art house film.

It just takes its time with its imagery. And you can tell that the person behind the camera and the person setting up the shots is really interested in making sure that all those visuals count. And for that, I really respected it. I think in some ways also it’s a bit of a nod back to the fifties monster movies kind of, kind of, but the fifties monster movies really were well.

They were more action packed and exploitive than this movie really turns out to be. So this wasn’t that this wasn’t going for the cheesy aspect of the fifties monster movies. This was going for the modern day fifties monster movie, where here we are in 2020. I have very, very limited budget, just like they had back then.

And I wanted, you know, do something creepy about aliens or creatures or whatever invading and therefore here’s what I can put together based on that and stretch it out to an hour and a half. I hope that doesn’t sound like I’m really putting it down. I just am trying to put it in its context of how it.

Came across to me, you know what I’m saying?

Craig: I know what you’re saying, and you’re not wrong. I mean, it’s fairly small in scope that pretty much all kind of takes place in one place location, very limited cast. Uh, and it does fall back to some of those movies. In fact, the director, who’s also the writer of the movie and said that he was inspired by five films.

Some of which I’ve seen some of which I haven’t, uh, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Shivers, like crazy alien and the Quatermass Experiment. And I’ve seen at least some iteration of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and I’ve seen Alien and I can see the influence. Um, but you’re right. It is. Uh, kind of a simple movie and it doesn’t really tackle any major issues that haven’t been tackled before.

This is kind of much like those monster movies of the fifties. There’s kind of an environmental message to an extent. It’s not so much I think about it. You know, how the Godzilla movies were kind of a warning about yeah. Nuclear weaponry and all that kind of stuff. There, there doesn’t seem to really be a warning against any particular human activity here.

But it’s kind of about how we really are at the mercy of, of this planet that we live on. Right. It’s throughout the history of our planet. And probably, you know, if, if there are other planets with life on them, which I. Presume there might be. We go through phases and, and evolutionary stuff, and that’s kind of what, what this is about.

And it really, really deals with some of that kind of heavy handedly, uh, in places. But I didn’t find it to be. Pretentious. I just felt like it was kind of laying all its cards on the table. Yeah. And I didn’t have a problem with that. It’s fine. I mean, it opens up with some beautiful photography of the ocean.

I mean, it’s kind of, I don’t want to say out of focus, but much like the actual water of the ocean is. As, although in places it’s beautiful and crystal clear in reality, when you’re there, it’s not always that beautiful crystal clear thing. And so we’re, we’re, we’re getting this underwater stuff and we’re seeing all these particles and things in the water, and it goes down to the, uh, to the ocean floor where we see that.

For some reason, really unbeknownst to us, there must be some sort of Fisher or something that has opened on the ocean floor that is releasing all this gas. And we see all of this gas being released and, and diffusing, uh, up into the ocean. And obviously that’s going to cause some of the major issues, uh, in the film.

But beyond that, it’s, it’s also, at least it starts out kind of as a human drama too. Because, uh, the main characters, Randall and Emily both played by attractive young people who I’ve never seen before. Uh, Randall’s played by Noah Grosse and Emily’s played by Leon El Liberato night. Like I said, nice looking young people, I think perfectly fine actors.

I didn’t have any problems with any of the performances in this movie. Really. They’re a young couple and. They have come to Randall’s dad’s beach house, which is in this pretty nice looking beach community, but it’s the off season. So they think they’re going to kind of have this whole area to themselves for awhile.

Um, and you can tell right from the beginning that there’s a lot, maybe a little bit of tension between them. Nonetheless, the first thing they do when they get to the house is go upstairs and have sex. But afterwards, when Emily gets up, she goes downstairs and there are clear signs that they are not alone in the house.

And as it turns out, that’s the case and the movie builds some suspense, you know, you don’t know. Who else is there? It actually ends up being very innocent.  middle-aged couple who are our friends with Randall’s dad and who have, you know, asked also to use this place? Randall has not spoken to his dad in a while.

They’re kind of on the outs because he has recently dropped out of college. And that’s also kind of the crux of the conflict between him and his girlfriend, Emily too. But it starts out, you know, basically there’s the initial confusion of, Oh, we didn’t know anybody was going to be here. And the middle aged couple whose names are Mitch and Jane.

Jane played by Marianne Nagel. Mitch played by Jake Weber, who I recognized he was the husband and the TV show medium, um, with Patricia Arquette, which was a show that I really enjoyed. So I recognize it. But after the initial confusion, basically the middle aged couple just says, look, we’re here, but we would love for you to stay.

We would love the company. Um, and so they decided to stay. And the next, I don’t know what 20 minutes is really just kind of. A nice little pastiche of them spending time together.

Todd: Actually, I think that what the movie does is that sheets here a little bit, it creates a lot of a unknown tension and drama where there turns out to be nothing really, you know, the fact that they’re not alone.

And, uh, Mitch, his wife, Jane clearly has some problem, but they never really explained what it is. They don’t really allude to it, but you get the sense over their discussion. And then later on in the movie that Jane has some kind of disease, that’s maybe terminal. And, uh, that they’re coming out here as sort of a last time for her to enjoy the ocean that she’s always enjoyed and play in the sand that she’s always enjoyed because it might be the last time she can, there’s a little bit of melancholy between them, but before that, and kind of mixed in with that, it, they just seem a little off at times, especially I think Michas character is just, he’s very bubbly.

He’s very happy, almost a little too happy, but it turns out he’s just that kind of guy, I guess. And Jane is again, like a little more melancholy and throwing him. These looks every now and then when they’re talking with the kids, he gives a little bit of judgment to Randall when, when they’re at the dinner table and Randall’s, you know, first of all, Emily explains that she wants to be a scientist

Craig: thinking about grad school.

Yeah. I want to study astrobiology at the university of Washington. Great program.

Todd: What

Craig: is that life on other planets? Kind of, um, it actually has more to do with life on this planet. How organisms can adapt to extreme environments that we could not even survive. It’s um, it’s the point where chemistry becomes biology somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.

We think life is so fragile. Where the right combination of elements, the right temperature, the right distance from the sun. And, and this measure of time spent developing and changing billions of years and one thing slightly off, and we would be nothing dust or gas or something. I’m an office.

Todd: You know, classic movie case of isn’t it, it’s so great that a person with the knowledge that is necessary or somehow relates to the story and the theme and directly the problem they’re going to be confronting happens to be there.

You know, that actually doesn’t turn out to help her much. It doesn’t play out in that she, with this presumable college education and biology is any better equipped to deal with what ends up happening than anybody else. Which I thought was actually a bit of a surprise. I think I was waiting the whole movie for that to kick in and it never did.

So it was almost like a setup without a payoff, which is fine. Maybe that’s part of the point actually of the movie. There’s just a lot of drama here for a long time. As they are together. And you’re not quite sure if this couple is good or if it’s bad, or if these kids are in trouble, if it’s going to be kind of this weird home invasion type thing, eat the movie just plays it that way a little bit.

There’s just some tension over dinner. Right. And Mitch is talking about Randall’s father and about the times they had. Jay is talking about, Oh, how she remembers Mitch when he was a little kid and how there was some incident where he ate a ton of oysters. And apparently Mitch, I didn’t know if the two of them were vegetarians or what the deal was, but apparently Mitch was a little reluctant to eat an oyster, but they kind of cajole him.

He says, okay, so he downs one of the oysters, uh, but Emily doesn’t want to have anything to do with it. So she’s the only one at the table that does need the ice. The filmmaker also is sticking in images here of water. Yeah. Uh, earlier Emily, you know, when she goes to wash her face, Has her hands underneath the water in the sink and she’s moving her fingers around.

Like, there’s something odd about the texture of the water. And then they go and they pour wine and you get this really interesting closeup of the wineglass showing exactly like what you talked about earlier, about how in the ocean, there are always a little particles floating around and if you really zoom in on a glass of white wine, you can see the same thing.

Know, it’s, it’s almost exactly the same and they’re washing dishes and the camera really zooms in on the soapy water in the bottom of the sink and how the bubbles move. It’s very evocative of the ocean and, uh, you know, how the waves kind of the foam or whatever, crash on the shore, all these images. And especially when Emily is talking about.

Her interest in this biology. And then it shows a closeup of one of the oysters. This is something that didn’t hit me until much later, because I don’t really know a lot about oysters. I don’t eat oysters. I don’t care for them. Um, but I know, you know, they were eating them raw. And when they’re raw, I guess they’re alive.

Right. So. Is a closeup on this oyster really, really close that we’ve been getting these images already. So it looks very poetic, but the oyster moves a little bit like there’s a little bubble or a little Tenderloin side that kind of pops up and pops down. And at the time I thought, Oh, that’s a really interesting like image.

Like I never thought about the fact that oysters are alive and I guess they do move like a little bit, maybe when they’re in their shells. And now looking back, I’m kind of wondering. If that actually wasn’t something else inside the oyster there, that he was foreshadowing and very cleverly hiding amongst these other images.

I don’t know. Am I right about that? What do you, what did you think?

Craig: No, I think you’re absolutely right. The, it says though the director wanted to continue to continuously remind us that there’s something. About the water

Todd: and the time. Right.

Craig: Right. These oysters that they have, you know, Jane had the very first time we see her, she is coming in with this bucket.

She is, you know, she’s collected these oysters from the beach. So they are really fresh. Now. I don’t know, I I’ve eaten oysters. I’ve eaten oysters on the half shell and the ones I’ve eaten, which by the way, I just did it for the novelty of doing it. They’re gross. Yeah. But I don’t know if they’re supposed to be alive.

I mean, I suppose if they’re that fresh, maybe I don’t know, but it is unsettling at least from an American perspective. I know things are different in different parts of the world. But it’s unsettling to see your food move. You know, it’s not even indicated that I see it. It’s just for us, you know, so much of this is just for us to see, and it’s just a constant reminder.

And of course it’s always in the back of our mind, we know. That something is going on. We know there’s something in the water at one point Randall and Emily are having a tense conversation on the porch. And, and the reason that there’s tension between them is because apparently when he, I dropped out of school, he just kind of disappeared for awhile and yeah, and she didn’t know, you know, where or he was, or the status of their relationship.

And apparently the movie just picks up. Like right after he had come back and, and had asked her to go away with him for a while. Um, and they haven’t yet really resolved anything. He is, um, disillusioned with academia. He has a speech kind of where, when he’s talking to Mitch, Explaining, you know, why do I need to study all of this stuff?

You know, what good does this knowledge do? Me, which in the broader context of the movie is kind of an interesting concept, because like you said, in theory, Emily, she has a lot of knowledge about what’s going on, but it’s largely theoretical. And when the shit hits the fan, Her knowledge doesn’t really do it.

There’s nothing she can do. Yeah, no, she can recognize that something is happening, but the nature of what is happening is so alien and foreign, which she highlights when she’s talking about it, Jane asks or, you know, what would it be like if things had turned out differently or. If certain gases hadn’t been introduced and Jane says something like, I don’t know.

I mean, it potentially could just kind of be chaos, you know, just swirling chaos, which I think is major foreshadowing for what comes later. But when Randall and Emily are talking on the pool, Emily notices, what appears to be like maybe a slug or something on the porch stairs, but not a slug. You know, she just kind of grimaces at it cause it’s gross, but we again get a closeup of it and it doesn’t seem like anything being natural that we’re accustomed to.

Right. So there are all these. Little hints that are dropped and it all culminates, you know, after this dinner, they run out of wine, you know, Mitch kind of talk about maybe going into town to get more, but they’ve all been drinking so they shouldn’t drive. So Randall says, well, How do you guys feel about edibles and it’s kind of acute moment, like it’s tense in the movie, but it’s kind of cute because Emily, you know, obviously is uncomfortable, thinks that it’s inappropriate for her boyfriend to be making this proposition to this middle aged couple who they don’t know who they just met.

Plus. Emily has seen that Jane is heavily medicated. She, she opened up, um, the medicine cabinet and there was all kinds like oxycodone and, you know, Hardcore drugs in there. So she doesn’t know if it would be wise for her to be mixing medications, but ultimately, um, Mitch says, yeah, let’s do this. And so they do.

And so they take some edibles and it, and at first it’s fun, they get high and they’re having stoned conversations, but everybody is relaxed and seemingly having a good time. But then things start to get weird and they attribute it to the drugs, which I imagine you would, if you were in that space situation, they notice a fog and kind of a funny smell.

And eventually they notice some bioluminescence in the water water, which also appears to have. Come out of the water and it’s kind of clinging to the plant life near the shore. Now bioluminescence is a natural phenomenon. You know, there are all kinds of algae, uh, and, and other animal life that produce bioluminescence.

And it is very beautiful. And I can only imagine if you were stoned that it would be. Very beautiful.

So they’re interested in that, but we can see that they’re probably being influenced by more than just the drugs. Maybe not everybody would know this, but I’ll tell on myself. I’ve. Used edibles before legally it’s illegal in places in

Todd: the

Craig: United States now. And when I have visited those places, I’ve indulged in those legal activities and it is fun and it does make you loopy and, and whatnot.

Uh, and I also know from that experience that when you go. To these places where you can legally purchase this stuff that it’s on gradients, you know, there’s the weaker stuff, which is the stuff that I buy because it’s cheaper and because I’m not heavily experienced, but then there’s also far more potent stuff.

So in theory, you know, they could have taken some really potent. Edibles. And they could potentially be seeing things and, and having other sensory experiences. But based on my very limited experience, I knew I was like, this isn’t just the drugs thing more going on. And eventually, uh, Jane is so struck by the bioluminescent stuff that she decides to go down by the shore.

And when she goes down there, It’s shot very beautifully. And I have no idea how they did these effects, but it’s almost like she steps into. The world of

Todd: avatar. Yeah, exactly the same thing. Ooh, it’s an avatar for the little blue guy. He’s going to pop out, stay away from the tree of life.

Craig: There’s like slimy stuff on the trees.

And when she touches it, if I remember correctly, she kind of has an adverse reaction to it a little bit and seems a little bit worried. Meanwhile, up at the house house, Mitch, who has been talking to Emily notices that Jane is gone, becomes concerned and goes to look for her. At that point, Emily starts to feel.

Busy and a little bit sick to her stomach. And Randall has already passed out on the floor is odd. Smelling fog has gotten very thick and eventually Emily also passes out. And when they wake up in the morning, They think that they may still be feeling the effects of the drugs, which again is unlikely, but, you know, I can understand why they might think that it would be a logical, but, uh, they’re they’re not feeling well.

And. Mitch and Jane are missing. Um, and that’s when things start to get a little bit more bizarre, but at this point, you know, this isn’t a long movie. I don’t even remember how long it is.

Todd: It’s an hour and 27 minutes, I believe. And we are. Actually

Craig: a good half hour in, right.

Todd: Oh, we’re further than that.

We’re 45, two 50 minutes into the movie before this all starts happening. And that was one thing I was kind of continually looking at at my clock. Not, not that, you know, what was happening. Wasn’t interesting, but it was just kind of slowly paced and I got it. You know, I was like, okay, I see what’s happening.

I see what you know, what’s going on. I’m like, okay, now Mitch is back inside and he’s. Loopy and Emily’s looking for, for so-and-so and then Jane, and then Randall gets up and, you know, I’m watching all this go on. Finally, there’s that bioluminescence and Jane touches the tree. And I looked at, at the, at the counter was almost 50 minutes into the movie.

I thought, man, we’re almost two thirds of the way through this movie before the real action started. So, you know, the pacing, I think was a little slow for me and. Honestly, I feel like I don’t want to knock the movie in this way. I mean, you make the movie you want to make. And ultimately the movie was an entertaining hour and 27 minutes, but it could also have easily been a 50 minute black mirror episode.

Craig: Oh yeah. For sure it could be,

Todd: it would have been a faster pace. I think the action, when it did come would have felt a little more urgent and, uh, and all that, as it turns out, Emily finds Jane and Jane is in the kitchen, just sitting there, just really not moving. And she’s got pills next to her

Craig: and she doesn’t look good.

Todd: No, no. She slowly walks up around her and she has just like, Lesions and rations and stuff all over her skin. And she’s not really talking. And she kind of gets up on her own and is pretty much ignoring Jane who’s tries to help her to the stairwell, but then. She just kind of takes herself up the stairs and Randall comes down and sees her there as well and kind of passes.

And there’s this awkwardness it’s like, they want to help her, but they’re not sure if they should offer their help. You know, they don’t really know the nature of her sickness, how sick she is, how sensitive she is. She’s not asking them for help. She’s not even looking them in the face. So they’re more like, sort of, kind of respectfully keeping their distance as she goes upstairs.

But it turns out Mitch has nowhere to be found. So. Emily and Randall decided, Oh, let’s hit the beach for awhile. Well,

Craig: I think their thinking, I think their thinking is that they they’re looking for him. Like, yes, they were planning on going to the beach anyway, but I think that they are looking for him, but when they get down there, both of them.

Feel not well. Um, and so they ended up just sitting on the beach and, and falling asleep. And that was one of the scariest parts of the movie for me. Cause I was like, you didn’t even put on any sunscreen.

Todd: I know I was thinking the same thing.

Craig: You can’t fall asleep on the beach. It

Todd: looks so hot too. Didn’t it?

Like? He’s got those bright lights coming down on them and maybe just cause I’m a, I’m a red head with very fair skin. That was mine. First thought like they’re going to wake up looking just as bad as Jane. They fall asleep on this deep, but, um, Emily wakes up and when she wakes up, uh, Mitch is sitting next to her, kind of just talking, just ruminating about.

Jane and about why they were there. And this is where we kind of learn that he decided to bring her there because she loved this place so much. And it might be her last time to see the beach.

Craig: Right. And Randall’s gone by the way, Randall had woken up and it had stomach issues. And so he had to go back to the house.

Todd: He had to go back to the house and the camera shows us that he leaves his keys in his shoe, even though he didn’t need a key to get into the house that’s important for later. And then after kind of talking for awhile, Mitch stands up and says, I’m going to take a swim.

Craig: Well, their, their conversation is really interesting.

He seems like you said before this guy, because I know him from other stuff, he’s actually a very endearing man. The actor is endearing and you know, like you said, in the beginning, he’s a stranger. To them and to us. And so we don’t really know if he’s a good guy or if it’s a ruse or whatever it turns out.

It seems like he is a good guy, but something does seem off about him at this point. And she asks about Jane’s health. When you see someone change in front of, you know, won’t get any better, there’s no going back. Scares me to death. He specifically is talking about his wife and that is fortunately, I’ve not had to experience that.

But I have known people who have had since relatives loved ones, right? Whether it be physical or, or mental or whatever that they have to watch them deteriorate. And I can’t imagine how painful that would be. And I think that that’s conveyed well here, but I think that it’s also a larger commentary on what is going to be happening, you know?

Change is happening in their environment and they are powerless to stop it. All they can do is observe and ride the wave, whatever that may be B. And so I thought that that was kind of a poignant moment and he seems shaky and off. And like you said, he said, he’s going to go take a swim. And she watches him, walk down to the shore and she watches him, walk into the ocean calm and there is a bit.

What I thought was a really beautiful, I don’t know if it was a crane shot somehow they were able to, you know, have the, the camera elevated. So it’s this wide shot of them from above. And we watch as Emily watches him, just walk into the ocean and just keep walking. Until finally he’s completely submerged and he never comes back up and she panics, uh, as one would.

And, uh, then she runs down to the beach calling for him, which is when we find out that things are even more dire than we had known.

Todd: Yeah. She steps into this stuff, uh, and it looks like a jellyfish, but. Not, but not, yeah, really kind of clear and gooey and stringy, like, like cooked pasta and she’s instantly grossed out by it.

Ooh. You know, it reminded me of the inside. We did alien not long ago. Right. You remember the inside of a, of, of Bishop or not Bishop? Well, Bishop to in aliens in of Ash, Ash. Yeah. Gosh, it looks a lot like that anyway, like all over her foot and she jumps back and as she jumps back and pulls it off of her foot, She turns her foot over and under her foot is it’s like suddenly, like so quickly, it was like, this thing had almost burned a hole into her foot.

And there was a worm-like tentacle, Allah, the ruins working its way into her skin. Through this open, huge open sore that she suddenly has now, which, you know, she falls to the ground. She can’t walk on it and she chooses to drag herself away. And as she’s dragging herself away, we can also see along the beach, there are these large creatures washed up.

They look like giant slugs, but they’re really kind of hard to define, but they’re clearly lined up. Uh, along the edge of where the water is crashing against the beach, along with all this goo and. And weird bits of it. I guess it’s like a parasite type thing. Clearly what had been perhaps bioluminescent the night before, and it just totally blended into the environment when they’re sitting there on the beach, looking out at the water.

Right. Which I thought was interesting, this whole sense of what you can see and what you can’t see what’s around you, but you’re not aware of, right. Like you said, the, the commentary that this movie kind of makes that we are. Ultimately pretty subject to an environment that we do not fully know or understand.

And we’re not even aware of, you know, what’s going on around us, you know, at the microscopic level. You know, we have no idea what’s in that glass of wine what’s in that oyster that we ate, or even when we stare out across a, a beach, something, we should notice that it’s just so part of nature and not manmade and out of our experience that we don’t really notice it until it starts to affect us.

Yeah. What an interesting time we live in, and that this, that this movie would have happened to be made. Just a short year before, uh, the themes here resonate really well, very fortunate actually for the producers of this movie, that it came out when it did. I think it probably has a deeper impact on us now than it would have had in 2019.

Right. I thought that was interesting. Now the other thing I thought was interesting was I’m like pull that damn thing out of your foot. What just starts crawling back to the house. And there’s a really great shot actually. And one thing the director does really well at setting up some really interesting shots, but there’s a really great shot of her slowly coming up over.

The edge of the staircase, which, you know, this, this wooden staircase from the beach up to the house level is really tall. And she’s got to basically pull herself up at, I don’t know why she can’t hop on one foot at this point.

Craig: Right. I wondered too.

Todd: She does later. So it’s a little overdramatic. And once again, why didn’t she try to pull that thing out?

Was she afraid to touch it with her hand? Oh God. Like that was bothering me a lot.

Craig: I think that’s the answer to your question. I think that she was afraid of touching it. And I guess my instinct, as soon as I saw something boring into my body would be to try to grab it and stop it from doing now. But logically speaking, if it has the power, like, like you said, it was so fast, like she just stepped in it, like you would step in a dog turd and, you know, Picked her foot up right away.

It’s not like it lingered. And in that very, very brief time, it was able to bore this large hole in her foot and start making its way inside. You know, maybe it’s cause she’s a scientist. I don’t know. But logically it makes sense. I guess, that she might, I think that it would be dangerous to touch and ultimately she doesn’t touch it.

She crawls into the house and makes her way through the kitchen and she finds some vinegar that she pores. On her foot. And then she grabs, I think it was what, like, like barbecue tongs or. Something like kitchen, tongs and poles, the worm out, and it’s a long, it’s gotta be at least a foot long and it’s disgusting and it’s obviously painful.

And this arguably is the most uncomfortable. And gross part of the movie. It was hard to watch, you know, it’s it’s body horror for sure. And it was gruesome and well done. I thought, I mean, it, it, it was difficult to watch it looked, I don’t know if real is the right word, but convincing, um, and to see her just pull, you know, that worms stretching out, you know, over phone.

Foot before it finally comes out of her foot was gross. Um, and then I, I liked then that she immediately took one of Jane’s Oxy. I would have to

Todd: take one or two or three of those. Right. I love that. There’s a moment where it shows a closeup of that footage. She’s finally in the kitchen. Like finally, she’s going to do something about it.

And it’s like, That last little bit of the worm goes right inside and that it didn’t, she has to pour the distilled vinegar on it in order to basically get it to surface again, I guess is how it comes out. But yeah, you’re right. Every bit of that scene is gross and Randall. Um, who apparently had tried to help Jane upstairs, uh, is now throwing up and not in good straights and pale and sweating, uh, in really unable to stand.

And then Jane herself then breaks out of the, the room they go upstairs and suddenly, while they’re sitting there kind of trying to deal with him, you see behind them, it looks straight out of ’em. And our gosh, what’s that movie where those, those people with white eyes come up from the basement. Gosh, it was based on a full tree movie.

The house behind the cemetery is that they’re still here. Oh yeah. Remember that?

Craig: Yeah, we’re still here.

Todd: We’re still here. Yeah. It looked a lot like that. Actually. I was like, Oh, this movie is starting to feel like science fiction. Now it’s getting a little bit, even more horror as this almost zombie like Jane with these white glazed over eyes now is crawling towards them from the room and.

I mean the whole time here. Of course, I’m thinking zombie, I’m thinking infection. I’m like, all of you, people are touching each other way too much.

Yeah. She’s trying to clot them and trying to get out and, and, and they go downstairs and as Emily is tending to Randall, Jane ends up downstairs coming at them and they end up like going outside and they close the porch doors and she ties the door shut with a hose. And Jane. Yeah. Even as there w as these two are walking away from the house, Jane just like bursts through the glass of the door, like very zombie, like superhuman strength in a way, even though she looks like she’s weak as heck, it’s just crawling, crawling out.

So yeah. I mean, they’re all panicking. I mean, everything’s kind of hit the fan at this point.

Craig: They run to the neighbors because they don’t have the car keys because we had seen earlier that he had left them on the beach. Um, and Randall’s in really bad shape. Like he’s really sick and all of a sudden it’s still daytime, but I feel like dusk is approaching and that fog is starting to roll in again.

And they try, you know, at the neighbor’s house, but nobody answers the door. And then as they’re sitting there, they’re just kind of talking, you know, like, what are we going to do? The neighbor comes crawling around the corner, in the same condition that Jane was in. And so they run off and at this point night has fallen and they’re walking through the fog and they find a.

Service vehicle. Uh, the, the fog is really thick, but they can see the lights of the service vehicle flashing. And when they find it, I don’t remember. Why they don’t just take it, like maybe it’s crashed or something. I don’t know. Or maybe there’s no keys, but she’s able to get on a radio, like a CB radio in the car.

She hears a voice on the other end. Is there anybody there? We need help? I don’t know the address.

Yes. Yes, it has. It’s own the ocean. I, your, your, your car is here. It’s this number? Um, I don’t know the number, but we need help.

hello. So they break into a house

Todd: through a window. And then sit in the, in the bedroom, this house for awhile and try to figure out what they’re going to do and have a little bit of a moment where, where Randall is talking about how, you know, his life is worthless or something, you know, if he feels like he’s wasted, Um, his life it’s come to this.

It’s all kind of poignant. It’s all kind of coming into the theme. And it’s also really painful to see him going through this and seeing her, trying to come to terms with this at the same moment, I’m thinking my God woman, do you have no survival instinct at all? This thing just came across the radio, telling you to barricade yourself in the house and not breathe in the fog.

You’ve been surrounded by the fog this whole time. It’s pouring into the house. And you’re not doing anything to stop it or cover your face or cover his face.

Craig: I was so

Todd: irritated at this part of the movie that so much time passes and she kind of just. Goes ahead and breeze the Falk, you know, I mean, especially this girl, who’s supposed to have the scientific background.

I didn’t get it. And the fog is annoying. It’s a knowingly oppressive. It’s, it’s a really great low budget, special effect. It reminded me of the mist a bit, you know, for the fact this fog is so active, it feels like it’s constantly blowing, right? It’s like, It’s like it’s moving of its own accord and blowing around him.

So it really added to the tension and the urgency of what was going on. Like it’s never going to end and it’s coming at you. And I mean, my God put on a face mask, you know, get a sheet, wrap it around your mouth or something, you know,

Craig: bothered me too. I tried to justify it. Justify it to myself thinking they’re exhausted, they’re sick, you know, they’ve just made it in.

Um, but you’re right. I was thinking too, you know, just, just crawl out of that room and close the door late. At least that would be better. Yeah.  eventually they. Do I think that she tapes up door, uh, eventually to keep the fog from coming in, but you’re right. They linger in there for far too long, especially knowing, or having been warned that it’s dangerous, but Randall is just in progressively worse shape.

I mean, at this point I knew. He was a goner at me. He says, I can feel it churning inside side, but I also liked, you know, because they’re in a home, um, of course there’s a television there and a radio. And I can’t remember, I think she turns on the television and all of the stations are the same. It’s like the emergency broadcast.

Um, and I really liked this. I don’t know if it was tensional throwback, but it reminded me a lot of night of the living dead.

Todd: Yeah,

Craig: where they’re there wrapped in that house. And the only communication they have with the outside world are these emergency transmissions. It’s very quiet, but you can just kind of hear underneath these snippets of sound bites.

Uh, and at one point, yeah, I heard the phrase extreme  event. And, and so at this point, whether they put it together or not, it appears. That this isn’t just happening in this one location. It seems like this is widespread, uh, and that a large part of wherever they are, you know, whether it be the state, the country, the world, whatever, but something’s happening and it’s bad.

She wants to wait until morning and then go find a car. He says, I won’t make it that long. She does see some bloody footprints, which is pretty ominous. They, they thought they were alone in the house, but then she sees those bloody footprints, but she looks around, I don’t remember if she’s looking for anything in particular, but she finds herself in the basement and she finds scuba tanks, which makes perfect sense in a beach community.

And I was like, Oh

Todd: yeah,

Craig: Excellent. You know, like you can put those on, you can breathe clean auction. It’ll be great. But while she’s down there doing it, we see Randall again and he vomits up. Some sort of creature, you know, I don’t know, like one of those slug, like tentacle things and it’s disgusting. And then he kind of convulses and his eyes go white.

She’s still down in the basement trying to figure out these scuba tanks, which is when this, I guess you would call this movie a creature feature, but. I’m guessing because of the budget. We don’t see a lot of that, but there is one brief moment in the basement where she turns her flashlight, or maybe she just turns her head.

I don’t remember, but she looks over and on the floor is some kind of humanoid. Being seemingly feasting on a dead body. Now, the way that I interpreted it was that what we saw there in the basement is what Jane and Randall. We’re becoming, is

Todd: that, that’s what I thought. Yeah,

Craig: it was white and slimy. Like I said, humanoid, it kind of reminded me of in Poltergeist too, when Craig T Nelson barks up, that thing turns into like that humanoid thing.

It reminded me of that except like Outback,

Todd: Cal, uh, the worm or whatever. Yeah. I remember. Yeah.

Craig: And it was gross, but you only see it just for what seems like a second. And I actually think that that was a wise choice, you know, just let us have that image for just a second, almost to where we’re not even sure of what we saw and then just move on.

And we never see another one. I actually thought that was really kind of skillful as far as filmmaking on a budget.

Todd: And she just like us runs upstairs, uh, with the, uh, with the tanks. As soon as she gets up there, she sees that Randall’s completely gone. He’s basically crawling on the floor towards her, with his eyes, completely white vomiting out this stuff, just like Jane was.

And she has the foresight to understand what was happening and that he’s not, he’s beyond saving. And I think just to sort of put him out of his misery, you know, she, she picks up one of those tanks and knocks him in the head a couple of times until he’s dead, which I’m a little surprised at that stopped it.

I kind of got this feeling that this was a sort of parasite that would just. Yeah. I don’t know. Maybe I’ve watched too many zombie movies. Yeah,

Craig: because that, that didn’t bother me. These things, they’re organic, you know, they’re, they’re not zombies, you know, whatever this is and whatever in the world of this movie, it would be called.

It’s suggested that this is natural. You know, that this, this is just the next step in the evolution of our planet. Um, it’s an unfortunate step. For humankind. Uh, but it’s not evil. It’s just organic. And so, you know, it didn’t surprise me that she was able to kill it. Because I just thought of it as being some sort of organism.

Todd: Well, yeah, but I mean, the way that she killed it was hitting her boyfriend on the head with it. Um, w with the thing and knocking him out, you know, basically I would, I was sort of thinking, okay, well you make his brain stop or whatever, it wouldn’t stop the organism. That’s trying to take over his body.

That, that maybe was kind of a separate thing. But I guess, I guess not, I guess. In the world of this movie, the host needs to be alive, right. For this thing to, to survive.

Craig: I, and I just wanted to say that at this point, you know, this seems like. This is kind of the pentacle of the movie. Like the action is at its highest point.

And I looked at the runtime or whatever, and there are mere minutes of day smoothie left at this point. And so I was thinking, Whoa, what is going to happen? And, you know, my instinct was, Oh, well, it’s not going to end. Well, there’s not enough time for there to be. A happy ending,

Todd: right? Yeah. Yeah. She, she goes out, I guess she finds the keys.

I don’t remember. I guess she finds the keys or, or just the, there’s a truck in the driveway that has keys in it and she grabs the oxygen tanks for the first time. Of course, she waits until she’s out there inside the car with the cab close to actually put the tank on her mouth. But at least now she’s making an effort to breathe in something beyond the fog that has been battering, her left and right this whole time.

And she starts driving, but it’s super Wagner. She can’t see. And I’m not sure why she takes the. Oxygen tank out of her mouth, but she does that too, which also bothered me. But anyway, she kind of it’s to a point where she can see, but not quickly enough because the truck hits a tree and she hits her head on the steering wheel and flops out of the truck, kind of in a daze, crawls into a puddle.

And I thought, Oh, that’s not a puddle or whatever, and kind of flips over and passes out. And when she wakes up, uh, we see that she’s on the beach. So I’m not sure how she got there or if she was actually near the beach when she passed out. I’m not sure

Craig: it was unclear. Yeah. But she she’s laying there face up, but her eyes.

Are foggy now too, not entirely white, like the other people that we’ve seen, but clearly nearly there. And you know, I, again, it’s a beautiful day. Yay. This beach is gorgeous. The ocean is gorgeous. Um, but she’s just laying there in the bright sun, repeating to herself over and over again. Don’t be scared.

Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared. And then the tide. Rolls in over her. And when it pulls back out, she’s gone. And that’s the end of the movie. I was reading a little bit about it. I don’t even remember where I was reading, but, uh, I was, you know, when she was laying there saying, don’t be scared, don’t be scared.

I was thinking, you know, she’s just resigned herself. To her fate. Um, and she’s trying to comfort herself, but I read something about how, the reason that she’s resigning herself to her fate is because of her knowledge, she understands what’s happening. She understands that this is like an evolutionary process.

Yes. Uh, that

Todd: it doesn’t have malice

Craig: well, and that she maybe doesn’t fully understand what is happening to her, but she understands that whatever it is that’s happening, happening to her is just. A natural evolution. Um, and that it’s inevitable and to not be frightened, then I thought that symbolically it worked very well, but she’s just washes away, you know, she’s there one moment and then she’s gone, which I think is kind of the, the point of the movie is that sadly, realistically, That could happen to us at any moment, you know, any number of things that could happen, any number of things could happen, um, who knows maybe global virus could come out of nowhere and wipe us out, or, you know, again, uh, any number of things, you know, Our ecosystem, our planet, us as organisms, we’re really very fragile.

And really, we only exist in this very, very specific set of biological and chemical circumstances. And it would really take very little to upset that balance and. Potentially have catastrophic for us consequences now to say, you know, even in, even in the world of the movie, maybe the earth will be fine.

You know, maybe this is just. The next stage of the planet, but we won’t.

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s very upsetting. It’s like you said this and, and, and to add to the doom and gloom, and the smallness that we’re talking about right now is that we, as humans are just infinitesimally small blip. In time, you know, compared to the history of the universe.

So one minute the dinosaurs were there and the next minute to our best understanding a comet or giant meteor hit our planet and

Craig: dinosaur.

Todd: Yeah. There was some thing like that and, and it wasn’t like over a thousand years, the dinosaurs disappeared. It became very, very quick. Um, it’s extinction event for those people.

It could happen to us too. And it would probably happen to us in a way like this, right. If it’s not a big frickin meeting. Right, right. But it’s, it’s that classic war of the worlds thing to write a year, these powerful aliens come down to the planet and, uh, and they’re bested by a tiny bacteria. You know, something again that they couldn’t possibly foreseen or understood or have any defense against.

And that’s really fricking depressing to watch and to have to come to terms with during this time, you know, I mean, honestly, I don’t know if I’ve felt so nervous as I have recently and this movie didn’t help.

Craig: Yeah. It’s a horrible, I thought about it is I thought about that too. And of course I was thinking about our current.

Circumstances when I was watching this movie, but it also, it’s not comforting in any way, but it does kind of make me look at things yeah. In the bigger picture, you know, the, these things happen. Um, and, and they always have, and they probably always well and much like. Emily, uh, we just kind of have to roll with it and do our best and hope for the best.

And hopefully, uh, things will work out. Um, and, and I I’m trying, the movie is grim. You know, it doesn’t work out for them, but as fragile as we are, we’ve also proven to be really. Durable long lasting, um, as a species. And, uh, so hopefully that will continue and, and I’m, I’m trying to be optimistic.

Todd: Thank you for your injection of a Ray of hope on everything, Craig, it’s a nice attempt while

Craig: meanwhile.

Wear a mask, wash your hands, stay six feet away from people at home. If you can

Todd: read the far, all of this together,

Craig: and if you see people’s eyes go in white. Oh, get out of Dodge.

All right. Well, thank you for joining us for another episode of two guys in the chainsaw. If you enjoyed this episode, we have a huge back catalog that you can find all over the internet. Just Google search us. We are on all the platforms where you can find podcasts. Google play iTunes, Stitcher we’re on Facebook.

We’ve got a webpage. And if you do visit our Facebook page or our webpage, please feel free to drop us a comment question, or request for a movie for us to watch. If you’d like, we’ve been doing a lot of requests lately, and I have a feeling that we will continue to do that not every week, at least periodically.

And we love to engage with you. So talk to us. But until that time, I’m Craig.

Todd: And I’m Todd.

Craig: With two guys and a Chainsaw.