Trash & Treasures

Look, we all make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes involve recommending a movie you haven't watched in half a decade to people, because you remember it being funny and charming. Sometimes you are very wrong.

Anyway, this is the Lupin property semi-responsible for getting Red Jacket--easily the most famous installment in the Lupin III franchse--greenlit. And boy is it....awfully 70s.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of sexual assault

2:00 Lupin History

8:00 Dear 70s -- why?

10:30 A Plot, of Sorts

13:00 Character Remixes

18:00 Soundtrack

20:00 The Worst Zenigata

22:30 A Lupin Dynasty

26:00 A Very Un-Elaborate Heist Movie

29:00 Psychokinesis

33:00 Everybody Wants to Reinvent the Wheel

36:30 Should You Watch This?

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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Let's round out October with a quiet, spooky little love story about tenderness in a brutal world. Let the Right One In is closer to being a Vampire Chronicles movie than Queen of the Damned ever was; the remake is a pile of stinkgarbage; the author comes off as intensely dudebro; and yes, we're going to have a sit down and talk about The Gender Thing so that Vrai's brains don't melt out their ears.

Watch it on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/movie/let-the-right-one-in-8d493c01-1d66-488b-a0b3-a0090bcf007a

Watch it on Shudder: https://www.shudder.com/movies/watch/let-the-right-one-in/2325555

The Subtitle Debacle: iconsoffright.com/news/2009/03/let_the_wrong_subtitles_in_to.html

Author Interview: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/38839

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of pedophilia, bullying, violence toward children, animal death, gore, sexual assault, and mutilation.

1:30 Background

6:00 The Premise

9:00 We All Liked Morbid Shit, Bro

12:00 A Note on Pronouns

17:00 The Worst Character (AKA "This Was Worse in the Book")

22:30 A Nice Love Story

25:00 How Do Vampire Rules

30:00 The Eli's Gender Talk

42:00 This is Just Armand and Daniel

44:00 CAAAAAAATS

47:00 "Reinventing the Genre" (with Dick Monsters)

52:00 The Subtitle Debacle

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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Hey, do you like stories about ghosts that are actually metaphors for a nation's inability to learn from its past trauma, leading to future horrors? Well, GOOD NEWS.

We continue our month of international horror with Guillermo Del Toro's 2001 film The Devil's Backbone, a gorgeous and poignant ghost story that just got a very fancy Criterion release. Join us for wailing about the themes, the A+ effects; and yes, more fucked-up production details.

Legacies of trauma in Del Toro's work: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2850-the-devil-s-backbone-the-past-is-never-dead

Visual analysis of the film: http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/feature-articles/devil_backbone/

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of child death, child abuse (physical and sexual), gore, body horror, abjection of disability, and war crimes

1:00 Background

7:00 The Plot

10:00 "What is a Ghost"

16:00 A Brutal Setting

21:00 The Literary Grotesque

27:00 Santi

31:00 Homage to the Gothic

36:00 Them Effects

39:00 You'll Never Leave This Place

42:00 Del Toro's Mindset

48:00 Should You Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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We're starting October with one of the team's favorite horror movies. No bees here--just one of Christopher Lee's favorite roles, a movie he believed in so much he literally paid his own way for a press tour to small towns across America, and possibly the weirdest post-production history of all time.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of animal death, sexual harassment, and misogyny (because we couldn't completely escape talking about the remake)

Watch it on VRV: https://vrv.co/watch/GRGG8QG4R/The-Wicker-Man

2:00 The Most Fucked-Up Production History

18:00 Lost Scenes and Cuts

21:00 Spoilers Start Here

23:00 Speaking the Same Words but Different Languages

29:00 Personal vs Systemic Faith

38:00 The Terror of Sexuality (Howie is Lawful Stupid)

46:00 The Fuckin Remake

49:30 The Sequel That Never Was

55:00 Should You Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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No no, we're not talking about the six short stories written by HP Lovecraft, on which the 1985 film was originally based. We're talking about the novelization of that movie written by Jeff Rovin two years later. It's....well it's a ride.

Hey, when you think of Re-Animator, do you think "I sure would like to spend a LOT more time with the horrible villainous rapist character, but without the visual charm of seeing David Gale rediscover his love of acting?" Well, good news Jeff Rovin and one other person. Other highlights include characters having two different, conflicting backstories within the same book; subplots that go nowhere; pacing that results in a scene from 30 minutes in happening halfway through the book, and SO MUCH homophobia.

Yes, this is the book that all but directly acknowledges what we all knew, that Herbert West is gay, but does so in the absolute shittiest way possible. We waded through it so you don't have to.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of sexual assault, animal mutilation, racism, and homophobia

The Re-Animator Movie Discussion: https://soundcloud.com/user-960635156/re-animator-herbert-west-extremely-queer-mad-scientist

Dawn of Re-Animator (Herbert's 8-pack): https://vraik.tumblr.com/post/143092632232/the-dawn-of-reanimator-comic-is-amazing

Dorothy livetweets the novel: https://twitter.com/dorothynotgale/status/1013853742834151424

Vrai livetweets the novel: https://twitter.com/WriterVrai/status/1020442061064081409

1:00 Background

5:00 Drinks!

9:00 A Brief Recap

12:00 Headhopping, Our Eternal Enemy

16:00 SO MUCH Headhopping POV

23:00 Backstory Roulette

28:00 The Queercoding

33:00 What is Pacing

36:00 Book Dan, Budding Serial Killer

41:00 Meet Officer Homophobia

47:00 Dan, Again (Not Daniel)

51:00 So. AIDS.

55:30 The Three-Year Morgue Fight

58:00 Deliberately De-Sympathizing Herbert

64:00 The Ending

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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For our second anniversary, we once again watched one of our favorite films: the 1985 horror-comedy Re-Animator. It's the story of Herbert West, a small ball of anger with no impulse control who wants to cure death, hates plagiarists, and chooses his assistant after seeing his dick. So, a relatable guy, all told.

Seriously, though--while you might not guess it from the movie's traditionally bro-y fanbase, this is an extremely gay film, and Herbert West is the most queercoded mad scientist not directed by James Whale. It's freakin delightful, if you don't mind buckets of blood and one very sour, unpleasant scene. We're here to introduce some new fans and talk about the many versions old fans might not have heard of.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of animal death, gore, sexual assault, misogyny, and racism (it's Lovecraft, after all)

Watch on Shudder: https://www.shudder.com/movies/watch/re-animator/2370384

Other versions of Herbert West: https://vraikaiser.com/2015/12/01/a-history-of-herbert-west-reanimator/

Jeffrey Combs, foot in mouth: https://film.avclub.com/jeffrey-combs-on-re-animator-s-endurance-playing-h-p-1798236455

https://vraik.tumblr.com/post/134709246631/drbyron-schrodingers-rufus-q-first-of

The Mesmerism Subplot: http://goth-mabel.tumblr.com/post/139051001363/herbert-west-dr-hill-mesmerism-and-assaults

The Most Important Cut Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UswKc8Grh0

2:30 The Canon of Cult

7:00 The Lovecraft Stories

11:00 Our Cast

16:00 Dan Cain: Terrible Doctor

21:00 The Many Film Cuts

23:00 Someone Help Meg Halsey

26:00 Herbert West: Shitlord

30:00 The Mesmerism Subplot

34:00 Cat Dead, Details Later

42:00 Morgue Shenanigans

49:30 Sandwich and a Fix

53:00 THE SUBTITLE IS WRONG

58:30 Assault: Not Actually Funny (Morgue Shenanigans II)

66:00 Gay Science

69:00 Should You Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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This episode was requested by friend of the show Andrew, which might be the only reason we watched this truly baffling Mad-Max-meets-Bloodsport indie film. Through some kind of witchcraft this film was allegedly made in 2011, despite being the most potent distillation of "Otakon 2006" we've ever seen. Learn with us how, apparently, meth makes you good at DDR, and wonder how the hell these actual famous people got here.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of racism, sexual assault, and drug use.

The Short Film: https://vimeo.com/30097547

1:00 Why Are We Watching This

4:00 Production Shenanigans

10:00 The Road Revenger

13:30 Confederate DDR Fuckwits

17:00 Meth Makes You Better at DDR

20:00 The Fashion

26:00 Suddenly Boobs

28:30 Why are YOU In This Movie

33:00 Everything Happens So Much

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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We wrap up documentary month with one of our all-time favorite docs--a movie that's just as relevant today as when it was made almost 15 years ago: the MPAA is still out there, their members are still secret, and ratings are still being used as a way to censor films and limit distribution of films by marginalized creators.

Please, please do your best to seek out this film. It'll make you angry. And it should.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of sexual assault, homophobia, and brutal violence

Hollywood Censorship - The Blacklist: http://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/2016/1/20/blacklist-prehistory

USEFUL Content Warnings for Films: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/

1:30 How We Got This DVD

6:00 Mr. Dick

8:00 A Brief History of Film Censorship

15:00 How a Rating Makes or Breaks a Movie

20:00 The Secret Movie Ratings Board

25:00 Filmmakers' "Put in Something for Them to Cut" Hack

30:00 This Film as proto-YouTube Video Essay

33:00 Sex vs Violence (and Sexualized Violence)

41:00 The Adorable Married Lesbian Private Investigators

46:00 Submitting This Film for Rating

53:00 Ratings vs Content Warnings

57:00 Should You Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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Once upon a time, Troll 2 became known as one of the worst movies ever made. Years later, the movie's young star decided to track down the other members of the cast and try to puzzle out why the heck people keep watching their terrible movie. Some wound up well-adjusted, some less so, and the director is an unmitigated asshole merrily hanging himself with his own words.

Content warning for discussion of mental illness and abusive behavior

1:00 Troll 2's Production and Direcotr (a Legendary Asshole)

17:00 The Timeframe of the Documentary

19:00 Where Were They Now

30:00 Taking the Film on Tour

33:00 Seriously, Fragrasso is an Asshole

39:00 The Most Awkward Scene Ever Filmed

45:00 Looking at Fandom From the Outside

52:00 Should You Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

Join us every two weeks on Soundcloud, iTunes or Stitcher – and if you’d leave a rating and review, so that more people can find their way to us, we’d appreciate it!

We haven't talked about Disney for one full year--so what better way to come back to the subject than a documentary Disney did its best to bury?

The Sweatbox covers what one might politely call the "troubled production" of Kingdom of the Sun, which eventually became the tragically underrated film The Emperor's New Groove.

Also we learned one extremely important thing from this documentary: Fuck Sting, Apparently.

Did we mention it was co-directed by his wife?

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of cultural appropriation, sex work, sexism

Watch the Film: https://archive.org/details/SweatboxDocumentaryUneditedVersion

Moon Over Bourbon Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrFFTAK6Ibw

2:00 The basics

6:00 Sting

11:00 Putting on Cultural Hats

16:00 The First Cut

21:00 Tired Glasses Man and Helium Dennis

24:00 The Soundtrack

28:00 Company Policy

34:00 A Class Act

36:00 In Fairness

39:00 The Vampire Detour (Moon Over Bourbon Street)

43:00 Doc qua Doc

53:00 Should You Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

Join us every two weeks on Soundcloud, iTunes or Stitcher – and if you’d leave a rating and review, so that more people can find their way to us, we’d appreciate it!