Wings Hauser died shortly after we recorded this, so this week’s review of a quirky film is our tribute to his legacy. We’re covering the 1988 horror flick ‘The Carpenter,’ directed by David Wellington. Join us as we explore the film’s intriguing early ’90s vibe, surreal scenes, and its surprising charm that time seems to have forgotten.

From discussing the enigmatic actor Wings Hauser to debating the movie’s intentional oddities and potential feminist undertones, we leave no stone unturned. Tune in for our full analysis and decide if this quirky gem deserves a place in your horror collection. Don’t miss this episode if you’re a fan of under-the-radar horror films!

Episode 436, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

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

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: This week we’re doing a movie totally out of left field. This is a film that I learned about online and it wasn’t like people were discussing it or anything. I think it just maybe came up in a feed or maybe it got a recent release from Vinegar Syndrome.

I don’t really know. I honestly don’t know how I stumbled upon this movie. It is 1980 eights the carpenter, directed by a guy named David Wellington, written by a guy named Doug Taylor and starring a name that I hadn’t heard in a long time. Wings Hauser. It was just one of those actors who I kind of remember from the eighties.

It seemed like he was always that special guest on a whole bunch of TV shows. 

Clip: Yeah. 

Todd: I thought for sure, like I remember him from some movies or something, and I mean, not really. He’s been in a ton of stuff, but he’s got a face I think you’d recognize well and a name you’d recognize. Yeah. But other than that, I just kind of vaguely remember him and never heard of this movie before at all.

So this is my first time seeing it. But it seemed interesting enough that, uh, I proposed it to Craig and we decided to do it. 

Craig: The title and the cover art were so unfamiliar that at first I thought maybe it was fake. Uh huh. I almost didn’t believe that it was real. ’cause it also looks kind of cheesy and Oh, yeah.

You know, it’s from 1988. This happens to us every once in a blue moon that something just slipped past us. Yeah. But no, I, I, I don’t, I think it must be pretty obscure because I’ve never heard anybody talk about it. Like, I don’t feel like. I’ve ever seen it in documentaries about the horror in the eighties, or maybe it’s just unmemorable enough that I don’t remember, but it felt weird watching it.

It felt like this can’t really be from the eighties. Right. It’s, it’s got kind of it, it does, to be fair, have kind of an early nineties vibe to it, I feel like. But it’s also weird and crazy and I don’t know if you were able to find anything about this movie. I wasn’t. 

Todd: Well, I just feel like this is one of those cases where this movie, like you said, totally slipped by us and all, maybe everybody else, because it’s hard to find people talking about it online.

Mm-hmm. I feel like it’s available on Tubi and Amazon Prime, and that’s how some people have discovered it, because there are a few people, you know, with reviews and whatnot. It is such an oddball movie that that is. I’m kind of surprised about that and I disagree with you. I feel like this movie is eighties through and through The music is like Tangerine Dream.

What they’re wearing is totally eighties. Yeah. Then the That’s fair. It’s also got that. At times, very dreamlike wispy quality to it where it feels like somebody pulled gauze over the camera, you know? And that to me strikes it’s either 1930s Hollywood or that’s 1980s romance. It’s such a strange film.

Craig: There are many strange. Things, but I couldn’t tell. One of the only things that I read about it is that apparently there’s the theatrical cut and there’s an unrated cut. I have no idea which one we watched. The one I watched was a an hour and 27 minutes long, which was plenty long, but it’s edited in a really bizarre way.

Clip: Yeah. 

Craig: That I can’t tell if it’s just. Sloppy or they’re intentionally trying to disorient you because I do think at times they are intentionally trying to disorient you. But like some I, I had a difficulty keeping track of, wait, are we in the real world right now or are we in a dream or is this some? I think that’s the point.

Yeah, I think it’s intentional, but I just found it very confusing. There were some confusing things. I guess dreams can be confusing. They don’t have to make sense, but. 

Todd: Well, it’s a Canadian production. It was released at the Montreal World Film Festival. It didn’t get great reviews when it came out, but the reviews that I was able to find, which were all kind of for much later, all give this movie sort of a, you know, it’s not amazing, but it’s really quirky enough that it’s worth watching vibe.

There’s no trivia. I mean, really like, like I was surprised this movie even had a Wikipedia entry. Mm-hmm. But I’m not, because I mean, it, it deserves, I mean, it sounds like we’re talking about some piece of shit that, you know, some kids threw together on their home camcorder. No, I think this is a really well-made movie and.

The director, David Wellington, this was his first feature and uh, you know, he’s directed like 27 things. A lot of it’s in television and the kids in the Hall Law and order episodes and things like that. A few other movies that I’ve never heard of before, like a Touch of Murder and The Hidden Room and the Man in the Uniform, but Wings Hauser.

I know that guy. I just totally forgot about him until now. Do you remember 

Craig: him, 

Todd: right? 

Craig: Yeah, I, yeah. Yeah. I mean, like you said, he’s just very familiar and I did the same thing that you did. I went, you know, down his resume and there were things I was like, yeah, I’ve seen that, like. I saw Watchers three at some point, and he was in that saw rubber.

I probably would recognize him most. He, he did like five episodes of Roseanne and we watched a lot of Roseanne in my house, so I probably knew him from that. But like you said, he’s just kind of this rugged. I don’t know who to compare him to. Like Gary Busey before. Crazy. Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it.

Kind of maybe a little Rucker Hower in his younger I, I don’t know. He’s just, he’s a man’s guy. Yeah. And I feel like he just kind of showed up as those ragged men’s men in. Small parts all over the place, and that’s why he’s so familiar. But I think that what I’m failing to articulate in talking about how weird it is, is just that ultimately it’s very surreal and I found that disorienting.

But like you said, I think that’s probably intentional. I ultimately, I guess there’s a twist at the end because I feel like most of the movie is a misdirect. 

Todd: Mm. Do you know what I’m saying? I kind of know what you’re saying. I mean, I think this is a movie that very firmly is trying to disregard convention.

I feel like this director’s trying to be experimental. I I maybe even inspired by David Lynch, I’m trying to think of Twin Peaks came out in 1988 because. It’s just giving me, not, not a hundred percent, but it’s almost like halfway there to a very surreal ish type David Lynch movie. That’s 

Craig: a fair comparison.

Todd: It’s a horror movie that is shot in a very pedestrian manner. The horror when it comes out is almost underplayed and to the point where you feel like maybe. Maybe this character’s imagining it and we have good reason to believe so, right? Because immediately when we’re introduced to this woman and, and this opening scene happens right after a very long closeup of a circular saw, cutting through wood in slow motion to very intense music, no title or anything.

And then finally the title comes with a couple of names. The next thing we see is a woman who just is in her bedroom and she goes into the closet and she picks a suit out and she has a pair of scissors and she lays the suit on the bed and just starts cutting it up into pieces. And this is done so slowly.

I mean, we watched like five or six minutes of, I swear, of this woman cutting up this suit. 

Craig: Well, she stands and looks out the window wistfully for a while, and then she lays around for a while and then she cuts up the suit and it’s all, yeah, you’re asking yourself what is she doing? Because it’s not like, you know, a hack and slash like that.

She’s angry and she’s just slashing away. No, she’s very meticulously laying it out, like cutting along the seams. And then the man who turns out to be her husband walks in. Looks at her and just says, hi, honey. Rough day, huh? And the next thing we know, she’s in the loony bin. 

Todd: Yeah. He’s had her committed again, apparently.

So I feel like that opening scene is very much meant to put us in her mind space to really get us on her side and in her head before we really know anything about her. So it’s disorienting to us because I feel like the world is disorienting to her. 

Craig: Yeah. Right. 

Todd: She is. Kind of crazy, you know? Or she’s got some issues maybe with reality.

We never really know what the problem was before, except that later she admits to somebody else that she just sees things and she doesn’t think that they’re real because they couldn’t be real. 

Craig: Right? 

Todd: But we don’t know that yet. We just know that he’s had her committed and she’s in a hospital and there’s a woman, crazy woman kind of screaming next to her, 

Clip: but I can’t, so can I go home now?

I’ll talk to somebody about getting you a private room or something. I don’t like it here. Why can’t I just go home? No. Why not? ’cause I can’t afford the suits because your love is better than any love. Sorry about. That’s like you are gonna have to stay here for a little while. Hello Mrs. Jarret. Time for the ease.

Oh, Mr. Jarret, it’s almost new. Fine 

Todd: going. And I’m putting your house up for sale, and all of this gets intercut now with her in the hospital and the people next to her and this doctor who’s almost as crazy as she is, he’s just, he’s just so odd, right? 

Craig: Well, yes, but I odd because one of the first times, okay, so he tells her the, the husband tells the wife that he.

Bought a new house and, and she’s getting out and she’s like, I am free. And then there’s this weird, surreal montage of people telling her, you’re free, you’re free, you’re free. And it, the montage ends. She’s in her bed, but her hands are bound above her. Her head suspended above her head, and the doctor says you’re free, and then holds a chainsaw up over her and acts like he’s gonna start chopping her up with it.

He cuts her bonds. What, what confused me about this. I mean, I’m, I, I feel like I’m to understand that it’s in her head, but they don’t tell you that directly? Nope. It just cuts back to normal. 

Todd: Mm-hmm. Just immediately. 

Craig: Yeah. It’s just the doctor maniacally holding the chainsaw up, getting ready to slash it at her, and then it cuts immediately to the, the door opening from the other side and they walk out just chatting.

So I, I get it, I get it. That’s in that, it’s in her head and, and maybe it’s even supposed to be metaphorical, but just the way that it’s cut and edited 

Todd: is strange. It is. I, I feel like there’s a message here and I’m hoping that we can kind of unpack it as we talk, but, but basically, the doctor is, is very cheerful and nice.

And he’s jokey. 

Clip: There’s no point in being inactive. Just don’t, uh, overdo it either. Uh, try to stay at home as much as possible. Good luck. Relax. I am relaxed. Well, you get more relaxed. Okay? House in the country is just what you need to get you firmly on your feet. I am on my feet will get more on your feet.

And don’t forget, if you have trouble getting to sleep, take two of the tranquilizers or one, even if your dreams are troubling you, I’m sure it’ll fine. I’m sure you will too. Oh, and I’m sure you’ll take good care of. I’m sure I will. And I don’t want to see you back here again. You’d have to be crazy to come back to a place like this.

Todd: Oh my God. But like you said, he said he’s sold the house while she’s been in there and. They’ve apparently gotten a new one, but it needs a lot of work. And so the next thing we see is her coming home to this new house and there’s a lot of people there working on it. So there’s scaffolding up outside Martin, her husband introduces her to Barry, who’s in charge of the renovations, and uh, he seems like an affable guy.

He had almost a bit of a Ted dancing look to him. This dude. And then we get another montage where she walks up to the house and we get long lingering shots of the house and the people working on it and her wistfully sort of walking up. And like I said, the music in this movie is really part of the mood.

It’s there, I feel like, to tell you what you’re supposed to be feeling and also to be like, no, wait, don’t feel this way. Feel this way instead, no matter what you’re seeing, because it does have this like. Tangerine Dream style, like never ending story or something. I don’t remember. I must 

Craig: not have been paying attention.

I, I, I remember there being diegetic music, like they were playing music in the scenes, but I don’t remember the score. 

Todd: Hmm. No, there’s definitely score, but you’re right. There’s also diegetic music and sometimes you don’t know. Which is which. It takes a moment to sort that out. But you know, Barry comes by and tells the scaffolding, guys get back to work.

She goes inside end scene, and then she wakes up in the mor in the middle of the night to sawing and hammering sounds. Her husband is asleep and the music gets very. Happy and bouncy. What am I trying to say? Like cheerful, like a little elf. I don’t know what you’re trying to say. That was what I was thinking because it’s, this is this typical horror scene where the person wakes up in the middle of the night and in any other movie, this would be very, very suspenseful as she creeps down the stairs, who could be in her house making all this racket with these tools.

But the music is not suspenseful. It’s quite the opposite. It’s very whimsical. And she goes into the basement and there’s a dude there who’s nailing paneling up and he turns around, it’s like, oh, hi. And she’s like, well, you’re still working. And he is like, well, it’s gotta get done. And spins around and does that shit that they always do with nail guns in these movies where he shoots it at a rat that’s a mouse or something.

Oh my God. This movie got so many male guns getting shot across the room. Improbably. Mm-hmm. But he’s like, well, it’s gotta get done. And she’s like, well, why are you working so late? And he’s like, well, you know, you gotta work, you gotta work hard if you wanna get something finished. And she’s like, oh, okay.

And she just goes back upstairs. 

Craig: I know. So right away, obviously something is wrong. I mean, like, he’s handsome and charismatic and he is not doing anything. Uh, you know, he’s being productive, getting stuff done, but in the middle of the night, 

Todd: he’s the only one 

Craig: they justify. Or explain away the husband never being disturbed by it because he takes heavy tranquilizers every night.

Yeah. And he wants her to also, he, he seems to always want her sedated. It took me a while in this movie to just figure out that he was a douche bag. Like, yeah. He always seemed a little dismissive of her. Like for her mental health problems seemed more of a. An annoyance than anything else. He didn’t really particularly seem concerned about her, so he was douchey in that way.

Then he’s constantly trying to push drugs on her. 

Todd: Yeah, he controls her money. 

Craig: She, yeah, she asks him for money to just go shopping ’cause she wants to get outta the house and he’s like, no, we’ll have to talk about that later. Just. Very dismissive, and she is now just stuck alone in this house. Like it’s very, the yellow wallpaper, like, okay, I, I get it.

She’s going stir crazy. She has nobody to talk to. So yeah. Is this guy I. Just a figment of her imagination, right? Because it could be. It could be or not. Who knows? Well, but maybe not because the next day the construction worker is like, did you guys do the basement? It’s like almost done. And they think that the crew boss is like bringing in scabs or students or something to do cheaper labor at night.

So there is evidence that something was going on down there. 

Todd: Yeah, so either, either she’s seeing this guy in her head and she’s doing the work, or there really is some mysterious guy who comes and goes and works on the house. And that was at least what I was thinking in my head because it just seems so weird and improbable.

Plus again, it had been hammered home that she is. Cra, she’s stir crazy. I wanna say stir crazy. ’cause I kind of hate using the word crazy. She’s not sure of herself. And I think that’s also why she’s just kind of goes, oh, okay, and, and goes upstairs. I think the movie is telling us very early on that this woman doesn’t even trust her own eyes.

Right. So, and I feel like there’s definitely some kind of feminist message here because one of these dudes comes onto her. Like hard. She’s in the kitchen, like washing dishes or making breakfast or something. And this dude leans in. I called him Mullet guy. Same. Did you really? 

Craig: Yeah, I just, I just named him Mullet with a capital M.

So Mullet goes to the house at night. Also, 

Todd: also another eighties thing about this movie, and he leans in the window and he just starts saying, Hey, 

Clip: so, uh, it looks like you’re on your own tonight. Huh? Yeah. I hate eating alone. Hate it. Of course. You know, we could have dinner together, huh? I don’t think so. I sure have a little dinner, a couple of drinks, maybe have a bit of a tie of it, you know?

Come on. What do you say? Huh? 

Todd: And it turns out Martin is a professor and the next scene we get is he is lecturing a class. I guess it’s a night class. I don’t know about Paul Bunion and he’s talking about how Paul Bunion was a carpenter and a symbol of hyper-masculinity and the American. Mythos. I just don’t think it’s an accident.

Right. No. And there’s this student, and I really like the way this was shot because he’s lecturing to this mostly dark classroom because he’s got the slides on the screen or something and the camera cuts between him and this woman in the audience. To the point where I feel like he’s distracted by her, or at least he’s thinking about her a lot as he lectures, but she’s in shadow.

We don’t see her face and, and then the next time we see her, which is almost immediately after the scene, they’re tussling around on a bed and the, okay, so this guy is cheating on his wife with this student, 

Craig: right? 

Todd: Maybe that’s why he wants her sedated all the time. Maybe. Maybe he’s just. Gaslighting her and stuff.

Or maybe he’s just unhappy and doing sometimes what unhappy to marry guys do. Right. I just felt like this guy was a douche bag. 

Craig: Yeah, he seemed like a jerk. Yeah. But you know, meanwhile, while he’s off doing that, mullet does go back to the house at night when there’s nobody else there. He’s very aggressive from the get go, and she is overly, I don’t know what the right word is, like she doesn’t.

Panic enough, fast enough, not early enough. She’s obviously, she’s too polite, I guess is what I’m saying. Yeah, because it seems apparent from the get go that she’s in danger, and that’s essentially what happens. He starts to assault her, but then they hear hammering from. The basement and he’s like, oh, are those those students that they’ve got taken our work?

And he’s like, I guess I’m gonna go have to teach them a lesson. And he walks over and she just kind of follows behind him looking 

Todd: just as confused. Yeah. 

Craig: And he opens. The cellar door. He, he, I think he takes one step in and then he backs back out and the carpenter is like pushing him back out. And I think he just says something like, you’re gonna have to learn to keep your hands to yourself.

And then he cuts off both of his arms with a circular saw as they all just stand there in the parlor, including this guy. And she just stands there and watches. And that guy just stands there while he, the guy cuts off one arm and then while he cuts off the other. 

Todd: He barely makes a whimper. Then I wonder about the unrated version.

Maybe the unrated version has just a slightly more gore because the movie does have a bit of gore, but for the most part it’s either very quick or it’s very. I don’t know, mild, I suppose, for what’s actually happening. I mean, this dude is literally cutting off both of this guy’s arms, and like you said, he is more or less just standing there with a wince on his face and the carpenter.

It’s almost like the carpenter could have a hat on and tip it to this woman and go, howdy, ma’am. You know, because mm-hmm. He’s just super nonchalant about it. 

Craig: He basically does do that. He basically, you know, he, he, he cuts off the guy’s arms and then he looks at the woman who’s just like looking at them like she doesn’t seem panicked or scared or anything.

And he says, he says. You go on and get some rest, I’ll take care of this. And she just walks past the guy who’s still standing there, arms on the floor, uhhuh, blood spurting out. He’s standing there like kind of convulsing a little bit. Every once in a while she slowly walks to the stairs, starts walking up the stairs.

The guy eventually falls down, but after probably a good minute of standing there with his arms off. Oh, that was. Silly. 

Todd: It was, but again, I thought, okay, this is, this is very intentional filmmaking and, and I thought there’s a message here I suppose that, you know, now that I’m going back and I’m thinking about the whole movie, this carpenter, when he’s killing these people is just very workmanlike about it.

Yeah. You know, it’s. It’s very reflective of what he had talked to her downstairs and what we get a long monologue from him later that we’ll get to, which is about, well, just, some things need to be done. You gotta be willing to do the work, you gotta be willing to put in the time. And that’s the problem with the world today is people aren’t willing to just roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty, and that’s what he’s doing.

He ends up dispatching several people who are mostly men who are being a pain in the ass to. To her getting in her way. Mm-hmm. I think it was IMDB that on the IMDB description that describes him as her guardian angel in a way. Uhhuh, that’s apt. She just pops out, takes care of this guy and then, uh, she’s like, goes back to sleep.

And I think she’s also wondering, this is so weird, did I just. Dream this. And so, yeah, I think this is the world she kind of lives in. She just walks around, not really sure if what she’s seeing is real, because it all feels very unreal. 

Craig: We don’t really know either, because she wakes up, the husband comes home, he sees a spot of blood on the ground, but he thinks it’s wine ’cause there’s a wine bottle sitting there.

That’s so dumb. But, but, but there’s no other, right? Like they’re the same. But there’s, there’s no other evidence of it. She, I don’t even know if she ever finds out that that guy has gone missing. The husband does. Mm-hmm. So we know something’s going on. We also find out she, she tells her husband kind of defiantly that she’s not taking her meds, that she’s fine, that she doesn’t need them.

You know, I always wondered about that too. I wondered. If she did need the meds or has he been gaslighting her for a very long time and the meds are used to control her, and I still don’t really know the answer. She seems a little bit crazy to me, but I don’t know. 

Todd: Is she waking up right from a dream in a way?

Right, right, exactly. 

Craig: She begins obsessively cleaning the house and fixing it up. But in doing so, she also finds herself at a hardware store, a paint store where she sees help wanted and she goes inside and the manager is very weird and it’s a very kind of. Funny, weird scene because he’s just so bizarre.

But he’s interviewing her and he’s like, do you have any, you know, secretary, I don’t know, retail experience? And she’s like, no, but I’m really good with people. And he’s like, what about your education? She’s like, uh, a little bit in the liberal arts or something. Finally, he’s like, well, I. What about your health?

Is there anything I should know? 

Clip: Well, I recently recovered from a nervous breakdown that had me in the hospital for several weeks, and sometimes I see things that can’t really be happening, but I know that, so I don’t think it’s really anything that’ll interfere with my job.

Craig: She’s hired. It’s hilarious. I see things that I know can’t be there because they can’t be, but I know that, so I don’t see how it’ll be a problem. 

Todd: It’s so funny because, you know, I’m trying to pinpoint this guy’s personality and at once he just looks really bored and at other times he seems really uptight and she says, oh, well he seems very nervous.

’cause later she gets visited by her sister at this shop and she describes. Her boss is a very nervous guy. And then I’m like, oh yeah, that’s what that is. So, I don’t know, maybe at some point this guy realizes she’s not too far off from me in that regard, so I don’t need to worry about it too much. But I also think that the questions he’s asking her are strange enough.

Like he’s asking her like, how about chemistry? ’cause you know, paint is chemistry. Uh, like anybody who works in a paint shop has a degree in chemistry to do it. I, again, I wondered if we’re talk, if this is another sort of, we’re talking about this woman who’s finally waking up, but like she’s got this guy hitting on her.

She’s empowering herself by starting to take some action at the house and starting to get to go out and get her own job. But here’s another man who’s being weird and just asking her. Weird, unrelated questions. Again, if I were there, I would think, am I in a dream? You know, I do wonder if this woman sees the way she’s treated and the way that she’s, if this, if this is her way of handling it, you know, if she kind of is being gaslighted, like she more or less thinks she’s crazy or she’s resigned herself.

Mm-hmm. To crazy and not being able to trust what’s around her, just because everything that’s happening to her objectively. It’s really surreal and unfair. Her husband’s cheating on her. This guy’s hitting on her. This dude is asking her weird questions, so you know, if there’s a carpenter in the basement who’s taking care of business for her, who’s she?

To question that. It’s just one more in a long line of odd things that are, that men are doing. To me, except this guy is doing things for me. And that might be the first time in her life she’s experienced that. 

Craig: Sure. Yeah, it makes sense. Like I said before, she’s also very isolated, so just any company is, is nice.

And he’s charming. He’s nice to her. Yeah. You know, aside from the killing, he’s very polite. 

Todd: Um, well, he’s even a polite killer. Really Sorry ma’am. I’ll clean this right up. 

Craig: We’re introduced very briefly to her sister Rachel, who is like an up and coming interior designer or something. It doesn’t matter. She just comes back later.

Clip: Yeah. 

Craig: What’s her name? Alice is painting the house through the night. She’s working a lot and the carpenter is working outside and this is my favorite scene. Oh, 

Todd: it’s so good 

Craig: because they are having a conversation and the way that the conversation is shot. Is that the camera cuts back and forth between them.

They are not in framed together. I don’t even really remember what they’re talking about because I was so distracted by the fact that every time it comes back to him, he’s doing something completely different. Yeah. At one point, 

Todd: at one point he is like painting a birdhouse or something. It’s so 

Craig: crazy.

Yeah. He’s sawing. Sometimes he’s hammering, sometimes he’s drilling. Sometimes at the end. When they’re finishing their conversation, it cuts back to her and they play all of the sounds at the same time as though he’s doing all of those things at the same time and she just looks at him wistfully and smiles.

Todd: Yeah. You can tell she’s fascinated and you can also tell that she’s not sure of what she’s seeing. 

Craig: I’m not sure of what I’m seeing. I know, right? It’s so, 

Todd: it’s so great though. Like this bit, it would be comedy. In a comedy film. Oh, because they play it 

Craig: big like he is. Uh, he’s doing wildly different things.

Yes. Like holding big tools or, or, or large objects, you know, different things in each scene. So they’re, they’re calling attention to it. Well, I 

Todd: think the thrust of their conversation is, is basically he’s telling her you gotta keep your momentum up. 

Clip: That’s 

Todd: right. You know, that’s, that’s what it’s all about, is you gotta keep your momentum up.

Once you find something you gotta, you’re doing, you should see it through. And that’s sort of the secret to life, that that seems to be the thrust of what he’s. Teaching her, I guess, is, uh, you know, you just have to take action and you can tell she’s fascinated and, uh, you can kind of see that she’s kind of into him a little bit.

I think I saw that in the eyes anyway. 

Craig: Oh, definitely. For sure. 

Todd: But the next morning everyone comes back to the house and the house is. It looks like it’s basically done. Mm-hmm. Even the scaffolding is gone and the workmen are confused. Barry comes up and it seems like Barry, who also should be shitting bricks right now.

Like, what the hell’s going on? He’s more interested in firing those two dudes that, uh, Martin had asked him to fire earlier. He’s like, uh, come over here. Let me talk to you. And he fires them and like, what the hell? What, what do we do? And he is like, well, you guys were just goofing off and the guy who’s writing your check doesn’t like it.

And so. You know, you’re gone. I’m sorry. 

Craig: Yeah. And it really wasn’t, it really wasn’t his fault at all. No, he did try to fight for them. Yeah. They don’t know that, but he did. Um, he even tells them to take the rest of the day with pay. Like this is a pretty decent guy. Mm-hmm. So it’s pretty shitty when then they.

Come back, but before they come back, right? It’s before. Yeah. 

Todd: The, the, those 

Craig: two guys get fired and then she finds a rocking chair with a gift bow on it. Are we to believe that the carpenter made that for her? Oh, you’re right. Okay. See, I 

Todd: wasn’t sure about this rocking chair scene. 

Craig: I. I’m not sure about it either, but it definitely had a red gift bow on it the first time she found it.

Todd: I did not catch that, but if that’s true, then yeah, that’s probably right. There’s just so many wide, slow misty shots with that dreamy music. Mm-hmm. And this is one of them, right? Mm-hmm. The house is really emphasized in these shots. You know, it pulls back pretty far and she walks around through it. It’s just so surreal and dreamlike 

Craig: and, yeah, and I don’t, I don’t know anything about it, but it’s an, it seems like a location, but I could be wrong.

I have no idea. Yeah. But it’s just this big open, it’s an old. Kind of almost like plantation style house, but like with really high ceilings and really big archways. So you can see a lot from any perspective. It gives them interesting angles to shoot from. It looks good. I like that about 

Todd: it. It’s cool. It, it’s a bit.

It’s a bit of a character of the movie. I, I’m positive it was shot on location. I mean, it’s a very low budget movie. It’s only 350,000 to make it, you know, this was shot in Canada, like so many horror movies of the time war, including a bunch of slashers. I would not be surprised if we have not seen this house.

That’s true. In one or two other slasher movies. Even from the outside, with the pool in the back. I swore this was the house from, I thought the house from sorority row. The house where they killed the, the girl, but the woman. But, um, I, I flipped through some shots of that movie and I, I, I don’t think it’s that house.

There’s just something about the way the porch is and the way it’s all oriented toward the pool that it reminded me of some other movie. I’m just not remembering which one. 

Craig: Well, at this point, the smarmy sheriff visits like. Except for the carpenter. All the men in this movie are gross. Yes, exactly. He, he is just like, he’s, he’s weird.

I don’t even know why he’s behaving the way that he is. Like, it just seems like for no reason. He’s trying to make her uncomfortable. Yes. But he, uh, he basically is exposition guy. He shows up for this. Scene just to have a conversation with her where he lays out the entire exposition and that’s it. You never see him again.

Todd: Yeah. I was surprised. I wondered too if, if the movie wasn’t even winking at that because, well, I mean, first of all, she has this improbably huge pile of donuts just ready for him. Mm-hmm. But how cliche is that? The cop who eats the donuts. And at some point while he’s talking to her, she goes and sets a timer and the, the camera seems very concerned about letting us know about this timer.

It just slowly zooms in on it as she walks away. And then the sheriff even mentions it. Anyway, he tells her about Ed, the carpenter who used to own this house and had a bad temper and was taking out loans and just obsessed with building this house and. Didn’t hire anybody else. He just wanted to do it all himself.

And when he ran outta money and his loans were coming in and the repo man came by, he would kill him. Yeah. In gruesome, horrible ways. Right. He went through what, I don’t know, five or six, and it sounds like he’s trying to scare her. You know, the way he says this 

Craig: and then Right. It, well, it’s a ghost story because you know, the, I don’t even remember.

She asks what happened to him, but I don’t remember what he said, or I don’t know if I could hear it. He 

Todd: says he went to the chair. He went to the electric chair. Okay. 

Craig: And, but then the sheriff, who as far as we know is a sane person, says, do you hear that? Mm-hmm. And I can hear people screaming in the distance.

And he’s like, those are the screams of the repo men, like. Is that supposed to be, are they really hearing that right or is he, is she maybe just hearing it because he’s suggesting it? Like that’s part of the ghost story? Like do you hear that? If you listen carefully, you can hear the sounds of their screams and so maybe he just suggested it so she started to hear it.

I definitely heard it, 

Todd: yeah. It was there, it was in the soundtrack. Again, I think they’re keeping us in her head for a lot of this, even in these weird scenes. I I, there was a part of me that is even wondering if she, in her mind, was making him smar than he really was. Right. I don’t know if a guy like that came in and sat down at my table and acted the way he did, I wouldn’t be as hospitable as she is to him.

She even talks to him like he’s just a normal person. 

Craig: Yeah. I wanna say, I wanna say. Gosh, it was a different time. Kind of. It’s not like it was that long ago, but I, I mean, she’s, she’s also a small wom woman and most of the men that she deals with could overpower her. Yeah. Fairly easily. They’re big guys.

Um, so I think that she’s, she’s treading cautiously, but you’re right. She does appear to be in. Imminent danger, but I don’t know. I don’t, I don’t know. I just want her to be bold and tell them to get out. But she does. You know, she told that other guy to get out several times. Yeah. The one who got his arms cut off didn’t matter.

Um, this guy’s, the sheriff, you kind of have to be nice to him, I guess. True. But anyway. Uh, that scene’s over, you never see him again. Then those two guys that got fired, break into the house at night to steal tools and one guy wants to go down to the basement to get something and as he’s going down and they intentionally wanna mess things up.

’cause you know, this is their revenge. As they go down, he takes his box cutter, his knife or whatever, and runs it through the drywall As he walks down the stairs, cut to the carpenter who’s in the basement, looking at his arm. That has a big, long. Bleeding scratch on it. Yeah. So apparently if the house gets harmed, the carpenter gets harmed.

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: And so he kills that first kid with a buzz saw. I don’t remember exactly how. And then the other kid who was really the, the, the guy, the ED or whatever his name is, even says to the kid when he grabs him, he is like, it’s too bad. You’re really not that bad a kid. You just hung with the wrong crowd.

And then he staple guns, his eyeballs. And does something else. Terrible drills right into his neck. Drills through his neck. 

Todd: God, again, it’s just very workman-like. He just does this and he’s, he’s a little quippy, you know? But also he doesn’t, he does it like you do work. Like you don’t really necessarily enjoy doing the work.

You just, just gotta be done. And so this is all very matter of fact. 

Craig: Yeah. Except it’s a, it’s a little, it’s, I was a little unclear on what was happening because Alice comes down the stairs. Calmly sees all of this happening or the aftermath of it, and he’s just, he’s just hovering over the guy just drilling and drilling and drilling into his chest cavity.

Yeah. I’m not really sure what the point of that was. 

Todd: Well, she calls attention to it. She says, you, you really think that’s necessary? And he is like, well, you know, I don’t like to leave a job. Half done. What is the full job? I, I don’t really know. And she’s 

Craig: like. Ed, you really should get your temper under control.

And then they flirt for a little while over that body. And then he’s like, have you ever, have you had a chance to go walking in the woods yet? And she says, no. He’s like, well, we should, we should do that together sometime. And she’s like, okay, 

Clip: it’s a date, 

Craig: I 

Todd: guess. There’s a little bit of humor here. I mean, obviously it’s all quite funny in a dark way.

All of his dialogue with her again is, is like if you do something right, it stays right. And the trouble these days is people don’t take the time to do things right. They’re always looking for the fastest and cheapest ways and they end up with shoddy workmanship and, and you know, it’s just philosophical stuff about people being lazy and soft and being scared of work.

Yeah. Yeah. He’s like, take a look at this guy. See what I mean? Soft. And he drills it. To him again. 

Clip: Yep. 

Todd: You know, I was thinking a lot about American Psycho when I was watching this. Have you seen that movie? 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: I also read the book It, it feels a lot like American Psycho, where you’ve got this guy who, you know, just has these very strong ideas about, about life and about how things should be.

Clip: Yeah. But you work really hard. Don’t you ever take a break? Not much. You lose your momentum that way.

That’s the thing about hard work. You can’t lose your momentum. It’s just like music. Huh? That’s a nice thought. Well, that’s just the way it is. You know, once you get it going, once you get the rhythm, it takes on a life of its own. And the moment you stop it, you kill the rhythm, but you’ve gotta stop sometime.

Not until job’s done. 

Todd: A little bit, a bit of catcher in the Rye about everything, but also you’re not quite sure if what’s happening is really happening because it just seems so fantastical and it’s just presented so matter of factly that you’re, you have caused to question it. 

Craig: I am sure I’ve told you this before, but I saw American Psycho around the time when it came out.

I thought it was. Fine, good, whatever. And then much later I decided to read the book. And I read the book, and it’s the only time in my life that when I finished a book, I threw it in the garbage. I can see why. I mean, it is a slog to get, I didn’t want anybody else to read it. Oh, really? Yeah. Well it was just so horrible.

It was just so sadistic. And I was like, Ew, no, I hate this. And I threw it in the trash can. I never done that. I hoard books, but I had to get that one outta the house. Oh gosh. A bunch of stupid stuff happens now that it doesn’t really matter. The sister visits, we find out that Martin’s mystic is mistress is pregnant, which she tells him, and then that just kind of is hanging over everything for a little while.

At one point, Martin Drugs. Alice for reasons that I don’t understand, just because she’s staying up working on the house. Yeah, like she has fixed up the whole house and he’s always like, Ugh, what are you doing? Like, what do you care? Shut up. Go back to bed. 

Todd: I feel like also maybe this is a revenge in a way, because when her sister comes over, she’s like a totally different person.

In front of her sister. Yeah. She’s jokey, she’s laughing, she’s super excited. She greets her with this big scream and this huge hug and uh, they are just chattering away and Martin is sitting there like trying to get a word in edgewise and they almost completely ignore him and that’s really clearly pissing him off.

He’s not used to that. Yeah. So I did wonder if that was just his way of, again, trying to dominate her some more, 

Craig: I guess. But he drugs her and when he drugs her. She wakes up in bed like she’s, we see her downstairs. We see her drink, the drink that he put drugs in, cut to her in bed, waking up. She goes downstairs and finds the carpenter wearing a suit, the weirdest suit, an all white suit with a black vest, which just looked so bizarre to me.

Um, I hated it. I hated his. Suit. Other than that, he looks I did. Other than that, he looked nice, very handsome, very debonair. And he’s down there and he’s in a suit and he plays a Victrola for her. He’s cranking an 

Todd: old fashioned Victrola. Yeah. And the music is very 

Craig: classic, right? It’s, and it sound I do love that sound.

The, the old scratchy sound of those old wax records. I mean, it’s terrible quality, but it’s charming. I love it. Yeah, it is. So they dance and he, I kind of lost, I think my mind wandered here, but I think the gist of what he says is things could be different. It could just be the two of us. We could close off the whole world and it would just be us in the house.

Clip: Mm-hmm. 

Craig: Right. That’s basically what he says. Yeah. And then he steps back, they’re dancing and he steps back and he says something like. Of course there’s always this too. And he un, he unzips his fly and it cuts to her face horrified. And you hear a drill sound. Yes. Like he has a drill for a wiener. Um, but it turns out this.

I think was a dream because she wakes up again in bed. Yes. And she try, she tries to wake up her husband, but, and I don’t even know if she’s trying to wake him up or if she’s just angry. She’s like hitting him, but he’s so drugged out. He doesn’t even. Wake up. She’s 

Todd: really upset about it too. I’m, 

Craig: well, I would be too.

She has specifically told him that she doesn’t like taking those medicines, you know, he keeps saying, well, it’ll help your dreams. She’s like, my dreams are fine. Like, fuck off. Yeah. Um, so I would be really mad too. Don’t do that. 

Todd: Yeah. Oh. Oh, you think she realized she was drugged at this point? Because the dream was so crazy?

Craig: I think so, yes. Oh, I think so, but I, I don’t know. I’m jumping to conclusions there. 

Todd: No, it makes sense. In the morning, Martin and Rachel have a very awkward conversation where basically he’s like, I know you don’t like me. And she’s like, well, I don’t like you because you treat my sister like shit. And then he says, you know, we could have had something, you know, as she walks out the room and just kind of clucks at him.

Craig: This was one of. Two or three scenes that I felt were really unnecessary and could have easily been cut. Like it’s clear that there’s tension between them at this point. It’s clear that he’s a douche bag. We really don’t need that reinforced ex. Exactly. It’s, it’s fine. It’s just unnecessary and it just slows it down.

Clip: Mm-hmm. 

Craig: Because then Rachel and Alice take a walk outdoors and she tells. Her sister about Ed, and she’s talking about him as though he’s real. But then some of the things that she’s saying, she, she says something like, I mean like just last night we were talking in a dream and he was telling me about how he, and she just says that casually as though that’s a normal thing.

Like you talk to people in dreams. 

Clip: Mm-hmm. Um, 

Craig: and at that point it seemed like the sister was encouraging it. Thinks that she’s ama Yeah, she thinks that she’s imagining it. So she says, look, that’s great. I’m really happy for you, but we’ve gotta do something about Martin because the wife Alice already, she knows he’s having an affair and she doesn’t even really care.

Mm-hmm. But Rachel thinks something needs to be done about it, and she’s like, we’ve gotta do something about that, because it’s important and it’s real. Like she’s, 

Clip: you 

Craig: know, okay, let’s, that’s, I like that you have a new boyfriend. That’s, that’s nice. Let’s, let’s talk about these real things. Then we get surreal clips of Martin talking to Alice’s doctor.

I have no idea if that was real or not. I have no idea if she was just being paranoid. 

Todd: It’s strange. Yeah. I’m not sure. But she’s staring into paint cans that are shaking and I’ve done that too. I’m fascinated by those machines that shake those paint cans. Yeah, they’re, they’re really. 

Craig: They’re hypnotic.

Yeah. 

Todd: Yeah. And as she’s staring into those paint cans and we’re getting these cuts back and forth, it’s just very slow in on her. They start to leak. They’re spraying red paint all over her. It looks like blood. Blood red. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. On her white dress. And when she comes home, she’s still covered in that red stuff, but she’s got groceries with her and Laura Bell, that’s the name of this guy’s Mistress.

Mistress is there waiting for her and wants to talk. Oh my God. Does this actually happen? I guess it does. That would be terrible. And I think it does, man. And uh, I was like, oh shit, this is not gonna be good. And it doesn’t go well. 

Craig: It’s funny, I, because this, by the way, the, the woman that plays Laura Bell is very beautiful, just a, a stunning blonde.

But she’s petulant. And I think, yeah, that some women, probably young, maybe not so secure women. Like to catch other women in these gotcha moments. Like, haha, I’m sleeping with your man. Yeah. And it’s, and guess what? Alice is basically just kind of patronizing her, just like, yeah. Trying to make small talk.

And she’s like, funny weather we’re having. Hmm. And she’s like, yeah, what’s even funnier is I’m pregnant with your husband’s baby. And she’s like, Hmm, don’t really care. Right. 

Todd: I do. It’s nice. Well, I do believe this is kind of a turning point for Alice because Yeah, she seems to be losing it. 

Craig: She seems to be losing 

Todd: it.

She’s losing it, but she’s also, I think, starting to come to grips with and push back against the people that are doing things to her. I mean, here’s ano, here’s a woman coming in basically doing the same shit to her that men do. Condescending to her, treating her like she’s 

Craig: stupid. Right, 

Todd: exactly. So. At this point though, instead of more or less tolerating it, she, and don’t get me wrong, in the past she’s asked people to get out of her house, but not until, you know, she’s gotten to a point of no return where she has to say that now because she’s extremely uncomfortable.

Craig: Well, and this was giving me burnt offerings. Oh yeah. She is now so connected to the house. She’s like, you are dirty. You bring your dirty filth in here. Into my nice. Clean house, and this is my house. Get out of my house, and 

Todd: she goes and sits down in that rocking chair. That was the gift to her from the carpenter, you know?

Mm-hmm. Opposite her when she’s talking it, it seems to give her power, I think, in a way. 

Craig: Yeah. But she, she chases her out and I knew something stupid was gonna happen, but I, I didn’t know. Because it’s daytime and at this point I don’t think we’d ever seen the carpenter in the daytime before. 

Todd: Right? 

Craig: So I didn’t know if he would show up, but he does and he, she picks up the nail gun and starts to point it and he like helps her aim and she shoots the mistress several times.

And that nail gun apparently. Has the same force as like a machine gun because the nails go all the way through her body and come out the front blowing holes. 

Todd: Yeah, these big nail guns in movies, we’ve talked about this before. Anyone who has handled a nail gun nose, you can’t just hold it up and shoot it across the room.

They’re deliberately designed to not allow you to do that. Because that would be dangerous. You have to press it up against something. But they, I mean, they’ve got force. Don’t get me wrong. I’m ah, oh, absolutely. And I have, I’ve, I’ve done the thing where you shoot a nail gun across the room, you can make it happen.

If you find a thing to kind of hold, pull that thing back. But I wouldn’t advise it. No, you shouldn’t do it. Trust me. You could do some damage to a person. A hundred percent sure. Would you shoot a nail through their body from, uh, 12 feet away? 

Clip: Uh, 

Todd: maybe not, but this is significant. I think, you know, I think you might be right.

I feel like she is kind of going crazy at this point, because before you could shock this carpenter up to a dream. He’s always visiting her at night under these kinda mysterious and dream-like circumstances. And here, you know, when she needs him, he’s conjured up. You know, he’s right there and the moment she pulls a nail gun up, he’s like, oh.

He kinda looks up like he’s been standing there the whole time and helps her aim 

Craig: also. Up to this point, the only other people who have been present have been, oh gosh. I don’t know what I was trying to get at. I, I guess what I’m suggesting is it’s feasible that she could have been doing all of this herself.

Right. Right. It, it’s unlikely. But it’s feasible, including 

Todd: this. 

Craig: I was still not sure. Yeah. But at this point, things are sloppy because there’s, you know, a dead chick and, and Martin comes home immediately finds a trail of blood leading from the driveway into the house. He finds the mistress’s corpse just thrown haphazardly onto the couch.

She’s dead and looks. Funny. And at one point she totally blinks and that was hilarious to me. 

Todd: Yeah, she al. I also saw her chest rise a couple times. 

Craig: She’s just sitting there that part of the reason that I say that she seems to be losing it is because she seems to be kind of disassociating like she’s not.

Really understanding the reality or the gravity of what’s happened it seems. Yeah. You know, she just seems kind of distant and vacant. 

Clip: Mm-hmm. 

Craig: And he tells her, the husband tells her, you know, you’re sick. I knew it. I’ve always known it. And she turns it around and says, no, you’re the sick one. You’re the the sick pervert.

And she starts shaming her and he starts hitting her. And of course, her knight in shining armor. Shows up and throws him to the ground 

Clip: and 

Craig: I think nails his hands to the ground with screwdrivers and then puts his head in a vice and gives him a lecture about being a smart ass. Yeah, a fairly long one 

Todd: as he twist the vice, which, oh God, that was um, to me the most gruesome thing I could not imagine having her head slowly crushed by a vice.

Craig: No, it would be awful. But that smart ass lecture, I bet if you counted the number of times he said smart ass, you’d have to use more than two hands. I don’t know. 

Todd: I mean, he is a Paul bunion type man’s man character, I suppose, right? He’s just, 

Craig: yeah, 

Todd: hyper masculine in a way. 

Craig: I’m wondering at this point, you know, where is this going?

Like I, I just couldn’t figure out where it was going, but Alice just goes up and takes a shower, her sister comes back. She also sees all the blood and bodies she thinks. That her sister has lost it, but she just wants to get her out of there, I’m sure, to get her help. But then Ed appears and is talking to her, and at this point I’m like, okay, Rachel is our rational, realistic character if she is talking to and interacting with this person.

I. He must really be there. 

Clip: Yeah, 

Craig: I’m sure I probably should have come to that conclusion earlier, but this was for whatever reason, I was like, okay. I mean, I guess it’s a ghost, right? We’re dealing with a ghost. 

Todd: Uh, yeah. I think it’s pretty clear by now. Like I can’t think of any other explanation for it.

The only other wacky theory I had was maybe Rachel is not real either. Maybe Rachel, that’s possible. You know, she has conjured up, but Rachel interacts with her boss earlier. Yep. And so. I don’t think so. I think she’s real as well. Yeah. And so she runs off, they both 

Craig: run off well because Rachel, Rachel tries to get, basically he is saying Alice isn’t going anywhere.

Yeah. And Rachel is trying to strong arm Alice out. And so he says, you’re not doing that. And it gets physical and he throws her to the ground as soon as he throws her against the wall and she falls to the ground, apparently unconscious. That’s it for Alice. She’s done. Yeah. You’re done with this guy. She says, you’re, you’re, you’re an asshole.

You’re just like the rest of them, you’re just like, Martin, you’re just like the rest of them. And that’s it. Like there’s no going back for her. Yeah. And he chases her around a little bit, and then it turns out that he is just a gross creep like all other men apparently. Because the second he, you know, she’s defied him in any way.

He’s like, well, I guess the courting phase is over time to give it up. And he keeps saying it. 

Todd: Yes. Like, ew. Gross. It’s such a weird moment for him to be insisting that she give, I guess, you know, it’s a, it’s, it’s a rape thing, I guess. Yeah. But, uh, she’s, she and Rachel figure out that by destroying the house, they can destroy him.

And that’s basically what they do. They end up in the basement. Uh, she’s hit him with a hammer a couple times, but it really hasn’t done anything to him. He says it’s a tool, not a toy, when she hits him on the head with it. 

Clip: Mm-hmm. 

Todd: But when, uh, one of them wax the house, the wall, or whatever, he, he hurts. And so they realize that’s the case.

And so they just start smashing the walls. And then Alice just decides she’s gonna torch the place and she picks up a literal torch and burns the walls, which starts burning him As they run out, we get a really impressive Burning man effect. Yeah. This, this guy is on fire, but he’s also talking like, you can see this figure’s.

Face. Wow. Really good. 

Craig: That, yeah, that was wild. And. They surely had to do it in several sections for sure, because he, it seemed like he was on fire for a long time. Oh, and because he, he starts out in the basement. He follows them upstairs. He follows them out of the house, down the driveway, until eventually he falls on his stomach and starts pulling himself along for a little bit.

All this time, from the very beginning, fully enga engulfed. In raging Flames. It looks really impressive. 

Todd: It’s super impressive. And he yells out at her and eventually, I think the last line is a, Alice, I could have loved you. We could have been something. And she turns around and says, you should have been more of a gentleman, ed.

And they walk away and credits credits. That’s 

Clip: kind of silly. So 

Todd: yeah, I mean. It’s definitely a anti-man. I don’t wanna say that, but you know, it’s just kind of a, it’s definitely got this message and this very strong character arc. This woman, I think, finally gets her empowerment. I get the impression anyway, she’s gonna go on to a better life.

Right? And maybe all the evidence of, of what just happened is gonna burn up in the house and she’s off scot free. I don’t know, man. I lo I have to say, as weird as this movie was, I. Really enjoyed watching it. I really liked it. I mean, I, I was just fascinated by it the whole time. I could see where as if maybe, and I was in some other mood where I was in a hurry or I just wanted to get something done that I would’ve maybe been a little bit more impatient with it or something.

But 

Craig: yeah, 

Todd: it was so dreamlike. I think IMDB calls it a fantasy horror, and I would call it that too. Huh. It’s got that element of fantasy about it. That I find compelling and interesting and I’ve got a lot of patience for, because I trusted the filmmakers. You know, I thought it was really well made and so I knew they knew what they were doing, that all these odd things happening was not just incompetence or stupid, you know, head scratching moments of some shit script that was thrown together or doesn’t make sense.

I think they were. Clearly trying to say some things here. Did it all land? You know, was it all perfect? No, not really. And apparently the movie didn’t really land with people because I don’t think anybody, I cannot wait to hear if other people in our crowd have even seen or heard of this movie before.

But so odd for this kind of film to come out of left field and very few people are talking about it. You know what? 30 years later, 

Craig: I really like parts of it. I thought there were some really interesting parts. I thought the scenes between the Carpenter and Alice were interesting. I think even though a lot of the stuff that we’ve talked about, I do agree that it was intentional.

I think some of the editing was a little sloppy and again. Always listening on my earbuds. The sound was not particularly clean. No, it’s his first full length feature. You know, it’s a low budget. I’m willing to forgive those things, but I will also point them out. 

Todd: Right. 

Craig: But like I said, I thought there were some really creative things.

It was certainly different. Some interesting things to look at. I did find it darkly funny there. I, I laughed out loud when she said that line about, well, I was recently released from a mental institution. Like I laughed out loud. I thought that was so funny. So it was worth seeing. It’s not a waste of time.

You know, if, if you like eighties slashers, you’ve probably never see it. You’ll probably have fun with it. But you, you’re, Todd, you’re right. Set yourself up when you’ve got time and you want to sit down and enjoy something like this. Because if you’re doing it on the. Fly, you will get impatient. I did, uh, you know, I was trying to squeeze it in on my phone at work and then, so it wasn’t the greatest viewing.

Mm-hmm. But I did like parts of it and I think that other people will like it too. 

Todd: Well, there are just so few movies like this, right? It defies description almost intentionally. So I think this movie is made to defy genre, but it’s very clearly a horror movie. But it’s also other things, you know, it’s a psychological thriller.

It’s a drama. It’s kind of a domestic, what do you call it, dome, like a lifetime movie. Sure. You know, it, it’s, it’s got a little bit of. Everything in it, and it’s got enough mystery also to keep you guessing up to the very end. So that’s true. I really think people should go outta their way to see this because it’s utterly fascinating piece of filmmaking, and I’m really surprised that this director didn’t go on to make.

More important, more, I don’t know, maybe some of his movies are really interesting and they’re just as lost to time. I mean, he’s still around. He’s still shooting episodes of TV shows and things like that. I’m just, uh, they’re just feels like there’s real clear vision here. Really interesting stuff going on.

I would sort of expect to see more of that, you know, later in your career. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll look into that. Well, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoy this episode, please share it with a friend. You can find us online, two guys in chainsaws. All you need to Google to get to our website to leave us a message there.

Over our social media as well, we have patrons behind the scenes. They get unedited episodes, mini episodes, and we have a book club going and lots of other things. If you’re interested in joining our patrons and supporting the show that way, we’d love you for it. It’s five bucks a month. You just go to patreon.com/chainsaw podcast.

Such a small price to pay for over 400 episodes of entertainment that you can also get for free.

Not gonna lie. Thank you so much. We love our supporters. You guys allow us to keep the show going, uh, to do things that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to do. We wouldn’t even have. The activity on these social media channels that we have now without it. So thank you guys so much. Until next time. I’m Todd.

And I’m Craig with Two Guys and a Chainsaw.