RFYL 250: Finn Carter Interview & Season 10 RFYL Awards

You're listening to the Run for Your Lives podcast.

Hey everyone, welcome to the show. I'm Daphne.

And I'm Pate.

And this is the Run for Your Lives Podcast.

This week it is the season finale. As we always do with the season finale, we will have our Riffle Awards coming up. We'll break down like or talk about all the movies we've covered over this past season. We'll pick our favorites, as far as favorite movies, episodes, main characters, side characters, threats, and even directors this season. And we'll get into that in just a little bit. I know you guys have been waiting this you know season and then this week for that. But first we have something really, really, really special that I'm excited to get to do. Because not only is it the end of a season, this is episode 250, which is quite a milestone for us, and I'm I'm super stoked. And it's just kind of worked out, and we've managed to get in contact with somebody amazing to kind of celebrate this big milestone here. As y'all know, the first episode of this podcast, the first movie we ever covered, was Tremors. And you know how much of a huge fan I am of it. We've covered all the movies at this point, gone through a bunch of stuff. We've, you know, hooked up with Levi from the uh Talking Tremors and had them on for a couple of different things. We've had a good time. So it all comes full circle here, where we have one of the stars of the movie Tremors, somebody I'm very excited to get to meet and talk to. Of course, Rhonda LeBeck herself, Finn Carter. Welcome to Run for Your Lives Finn.

Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here. And I had no idea of all these um how special it is. Yeah. 250? Yes, that's a lot. It is. I mean, I mean, there are a lot of podcasters out there, so 250 is pretty impressive.

Yeah, most don't make it past between seven to ten episodes, and they quit. That's what I hear.

I mean, when people are like celebrating, we're all 40th, you know. I'm like, Yeah.

Yeah.

250. I'm impressed. And I'm also really um grateful to be here. So thanks. Awesome. Glad.

Well, we're so excited to have you here, and we have some questions. We'll talk a little bit about tremors, we'll talk a little bit about everything. So, first question before we jump into the tremor stuff, how did you get into acting?

Like, you know, I just feel like this is the most I have the most boring answer. Okay. When I was born, quite literally, uh, my parents were at the little theater in my hometown of Greenville, Mississippi, and they're at the little theater, and my mother's water broke. And um, they run out of the theater in the middle of the production, get to the hospital. In the newspaper the next day, it says, you know, Peggy and Hodging Carter gave birth to their second child, Elizabeth Van Carter. Uh uh, da-da-da-da. Might we think a star is born? And that's what it wrote. Right. Because it explains that we were they were at the theater and blah, blah, blah. So I think that seed was planted, you know, then not in my mind, but my mother's mind. And my mother had been a ballet dancer. So I was born, and I was born with messed up legs, so I had braces right after birth. So at the age of five, my mother put me in dance class, just you know, to help with my legs and all that stuff. And so I danced, and I danced for a long time. I would thought I was gonna be a dancer. I, you know, I was a ballet dancer, and then I was with Alvin Ailey's uh company on a scholarship along the way. So I I was interested in dance. I studied at San Francisco Ballet in the summers. I would go out there from Mississippi because there wasn't much in my hometown. Okay, so then I'm I moved to New York right after high school. My knee went out. But all along I'd been doing theater. I went to a boarding school called Walnut Hill School. It's now called Walnut Hill School of the Arts. And it's um it's a boarding and day school for, you know, dance, theater, uh, fine arts, visual arts, um, music, all that. Right now it's, I think it's ranked number one or two in the country. At the time, it was really in its infancy or its sort of genesis. Um anyway, so I went there for um for high school, where I did study theater and dance. Went to New York, dance, blew up my knee, and thought, well, okay. I guess I just always knew. I guess from the age of five, I knew I would be performing. So there was never a question of what I'd do with my life, but which uh which specialty area, you know, it sort of determined itself by by my knee blowing. Um, and so I just kept on the theater track. And I never ever expected to be in front of a camera. I really I moved to New York, you know, right after college, um, and thought, well, I'll just be in New York for a while and I'll really, you know, work on my chops and whatever, and probably I'll end up in Vermont with a barn and a little theater. You know, that's what I envisioned. And then seriously, by happenstance, I had a boyfriend who went to Yale drama, and so he had an agent, and I couldn't get an agent, but I said, Would you please take my picture to your agent? So he did, and they put it on a pile of the other 5,000 pictures, and it literally slipped into a packet. They were sent back then. They send headshots with um submissions for roles, and so mine slipped in by accident, and I got called, and they're like, Who? Like they didn't even know why CBS was calling them, right? Anyway, so that blah blah blah. So I get this part on as the world turns, and that began my professional career, pretty much. You know, this is really one of those, like, yeah, I was at the you know, what's the story? You know, I was at the soda fountain, you know, having a coke float. You know, it was like that. Like I really wasn't meant to be there.

Serendipity.

It's funny, Finn, because after I saw Tremors, I actually watched As the World Turns. I watched it and remember your character and the whole shipping of Sierra and Craig. I remember it very well.

Do you remember that I started out? My character started out at n as a boy named Carlos, right? And they put like like like sort of like what what a young man would have, like little spattering of a mustache and some dirt on my face. And I had. And in the original script, when Sierra reveals herself, you know, and she whips off her cap to tell to tell Craig my love interest, right? Craig, I'm actually Sierra Esteban, right? And I had to do a Spanish accent and I couldn't do it. They got me a coach and everything, and my accent was like, Where are you, Simoni? And uh, these are my people. It was like Speedy Gonzalez. And I tell you, these days, CBS would have been sued. I mean you they should have cast our actual Latina, you know, not me. Blue eyed, blonde haired. Anyway, whipped my hat off, but I have hair this short and look just like Carlos. Like, I'm Sierra, no, it's Carlos. I just looked like a boy. Yeah, so I can't believe you watched.

Yeah, my mom got me watching soap operas at a very young age, and and then there was uh Antonio.

Antonio was the villainous second husband or whatever, and yeah.

There has to be a villain that you have to marry for some reason, and you can't be with the person you're supposed to be with. Like it it's just it's soap opera like lore, it's like a diagram.

Yeah, it was funny. Peter Boynton played and Antonio, and he's a lovely guy and everything, but you know, when you do a show every day, and those days, we were doing our show every day, and we had a two-week lead. That's not much wiggle room, right? So every night we're getting a script of I can't remember if it's like 36 pages or maybe more. And for a long time, my character and well, CR and Craig were kind of the lead storyline, right? There was a but there was a writer's strike right when I started. So with that, there we were working 12 to 15 hour days. By union rules, you have to get eight hours or get paid time and a half. So I made a lot of money the first year. It wasn't baptism by fire. I knew nothing about it working in front of a camera. I knew nothing about any of this. But I did learn to memorize a lot of words in a very short period of time, you know. That was and so that's not really an art. That's just a skill. It was in a useful skill, you know, because um for future auditions and future shows, it helped a lot.

It's a really interesting like start. I do wonder what what's what's the trajectory? What leads from doing dance and theater in New York to doing a soap opera show? Where where where do you get from that to now you're thrown out in the middle of a desert in lone pine with Kevin Bacon? How does what leads to that?

So um, so I'm doing the soap opera, and um when you do one, you're in a contract, right? So they own you. Um, but they're out. For example, if you get offered a part and something else, you can ask the producers if if they'll let you out for those six weeks or three months or whatever. Um they would never let me out. So I would get I kept auditioning and getting other jobs. So I I fulfilled my contract. I was not particularly happy on the soap opera. Um, I regret that now because I didn't really take advantage of it. I didn't use it for all it could be, and you know, to really understand camera angles and really understand, you know, just the mechanics of working in front of a camera. But so there I was. Um now I'm uh in front of a camera, still dying to be in the theater. Luckily, um, I also got into a theater company, but the one I wanted to be in. So that part of me, you know, was getting filled up, you know, getting I was getting that out too. So I would do things on the weekends. But um, once I left uh the soap, almost immediately I got cast at the last minute in a movie called How I Got Into College. And it's because it wasn't Penelope Ann Miller, but it was someone like her. Or what's her name is Mary to Kevin Klein. One of those actresses dropped out of this movie. And it was uh Phoebe Cates. May have been Phoebe Cates or Penelli B. One of them dropped out. So on a Thursday, I was flown out to this is right when I left the soap. So I was flown out to California to do a screen test there on a Thursday. On a Friday, I did a screen test. Over the weekend, they put some veneers on my teeth. I was I was self-conscious about my teeth because all of a sudden I was like chiclet mouth, you know, it was like I didn't want to smile. But but anyway, so so I shot this movie, um once again, a writer's strike. And they fired the director who hired me and brought on a new director named Savage Steve Holland. So what was a coming of age movie became this zany movie. So it was in the zany movie. So that was that was my first um, you know, feature film. Uh just a funny story about that. So my ex-husband, my then husband Steven Weber and I were living in the Hollywood Hills, and we would go to Hollywood Video on Sunset. That was our video store. This is back when it was VHS. Do you know what that is? Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Oh, anyway, so this is a small video store, and there um the employees would put little comments next to a film or you know, pick of the week and all stuff. So one day I hooked in to pick some stuff up, and they had a new list up or two that said top 10 movies of this is later. Sorry. You asked how I how did I go from soap to in between? I'm doing theater, I auditioned for the actor studio uh with Julianne, Julianne Moore. We got in, um, but we were off, I was off shooting a movie, and she was doing Hamlet at the Guthrie, playing Ophelia, so we didn't ever work there. But but anyway, so I walk into the video store and they say top 10 movies of all time, top worst movies of all time. And I was in both lists. How I got in college, worst of all time, tremors, best of all time. Who else is playing that, right? But anyway, so so it was just I I think I shot like nine or eleven pilots in you know that time period after leaving the soap. Um, I did a sitcom with Michael McKeon and Judge Reinhold. Uh, we shot seven, and it was problematic, so that's all that's all we did. Um, you know, I was on China Beach for the last year. These are shows that don't mean anything to you, but oh no, they do.

I know, I know China Beach.

Okay, yeah. So I um well, I was a nurse. That's where I met Christina Lee, who I love, love, love. Just you know, in a bunch of guest spots and stuff like that. But but anyway, so Tremors happened because I was doing a play at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, which is a regional theater. It's in it's one of the best in the country. And it was a play that Terrence McNally had revived. It was a play from from the 1890s that he revamped and turned it into this farce, you know, whatever. And um, and Jack O'Brien was artistic director there. And these two men adored each other. So you have two people who adore each other, they can't say no to each other. And we we had Susan, I think Susan McCann was gonna be our producer, was supposed to go to Broadway, et cetera, right? So I'm doing this play opposite John Tenny. I'm going in on Mondays, I'm taking the train from back then I was taking the train from San Diego to Los Angeles on Mondays, or Sunday nights or Monday mornings, depending, for auditions, you know, for whatever. And along the way, you know, it's from various things, guest spots or movies, whatever, um pilots. And then I get this script called Beneath Perfection. And I, you know, read it and I was like, what? This is absurd. And all my castmates and I are laughing about this movie. Yeah, I'm going in for a movie about underground monsters. I'm really just being sa sardonic and and you know, above it. Oh and um, but I dished anyway, because an actor needs to work, right? So I dished, and you know, it gave 100%, and um, I got a callback. Well, callback, now I'm taking it seriously. Now I'm not commenting on it, now it's serious. So I hired a um I hired someone who was a um geophysicist or something like that, uh, to teach me about seismology and seismographs and you know, alluvial folds and all this stuff, because I didn't know what any of that stuff meant. So for a week, well doing the play, you know, what, eight shows a week, I think. Wait, two men. I think eight shows a week. Uh and and you know, working with this geophysicist and trying to learn the the script, and go to my callback and went to the callback um pretty well armed, you know, to do the role. And the Ron, the director, remembers it differently. But I mean, I'm getting into it. And I'm just and I took it so seriously. I mean, she's a seismologist, you know. So I um I'm sort of acting as my version of that reality, which they to this day still talk about. Because apparently that's how I got the part because I was because I climbed on the table. Anyway, I I didn't realize that the movie even had any humor until we were halfway through it. And I'm in the scene with Kevin and and um Fred and we're in the tractor thing, and Kevin says some line, it just seemed so over the top to me. And I was like, what? I turned him and I said, Are we in the same movie? Because that's how clueless I was. I mean, no comment. This commentary is about me, not him, right? That's how much I didn't get it. And I really was a straight man, uh, you know, really. And just didn't realize that. I because throughout the thing, I mean, the whole movie I I took my role. I mean, I didn't shave, you know, I did I wore old lady underwear, I I dressed, you know, I had white stuff on my nose. I mean, I was just like completely like, what would a seismologist be doing out here? She's not gonna be looking all dolled up, right? She's not gonna be shaving her legs in between reading the Richter scale. So I don't know what your question was, but that's how I got that role.

No, that's great. Yeah, answered it really well.

I finished out the play, and um, the day I finished, they zoomed me up to LA and have my hair permed and dyed, and and then the next day I was in the desert for three months. So that was that. And it was the most fun I ever had in my life on a job. Absolutely. It was the best cast, the best crew, the best everyone. It was so much fun. And my first day of shooting, it snowed. It was snowing. Oh my gosh. Yeah, you can't see it. Alexander Gruzinski, I always want to sing his the praises, his praises. He was our uh director of photography, and the guy's a genius. I just think he's a cinema cinematic genius. His he just got the most gorgeous shots. I mean, my makeup was now I'm repeating myself again. My my makeup was pretty much this. They'd fluff my hair up a little bit, that was hair, and makeup had a sock they'd filled with dirt from the desert, and they just slapped my face with it. Oh my gosh. And my forehead, and put that on, and the slightest bit of you know, something around my eyes, or maybe mascara or something. That was it for my makeup. Oh my gosh. Dirt being swatted on my face, my knees, and whatever. It was just fun, and it was funny.

It was seismologist chic is what seismologist chic, right?

So funny. Because well, well, okay, so back then, um, back then there was a guy named Mr. Skin. This is because this is pretty you know, pretty early days of online stuff, and you know, anyway, Mr. Skin. So Mr. Skin had a top 10 list, so top 10 panty scenes, and I made the top 10 panty scenes, right?

No.

You fighting with that barbed wire, you know. Yeah, right, getting out of that barbed wire and running and running, right? In my granny pants, right? Granny, like so. Years go by and things got a lot sexier than granny pants. I think he amended that list. I'm no longer I wasn't the original top 10 best panty scenes.

That's funny.

It is funny because there's something it's absolutely not sexy at all. But I guess if you're an 11-year-old boy, maybe it is. I don't know. We laughed so much. There were so many great people in that crew, like Mike Malone, who's just this multi-talented great guy. He was set dresser, but he has everything else. If you Google him, you'll you'll see credits. He's also acted. He's he was he was great. Was the art department or whatever he was? I think set set to set dresser. Oh, back to Alexander though. Alexander Grzezinski just got the most amazing shots. I mean, you know, he's doing this all day, this all day shoots, right? Um, the we were in this valley with the mountains on either side. So the sun would set. I mean, we had short days. So the golden hour, I mean, he had to catch it, right? And that lasts about a minute and a half, three minutes or something. And he would get these gorgeous, gorgeous shots. And he he made people look so good. I mean, just with natural lighting. There was so little, so little um lighting on the exteriors anyway.

I love hearing, yeah, just like the the stories about that. Yeah, you you've talked a lot about uh just how awesome it was working with a lot of people, how much fun it was out there. And so to tie in, we we've talked on this you know podcast, uh I've I have been lucky enough. I've met a lot of the different like casting crew and stuff. Luckily, I haven't met you until today, which is great. But yeah, like I I met Michael and uh even like on the production side with Ron Underwood and and Steve S. You met Ron.

I mean, what a sweetheart!

Yeah, Ron is is so sweet, he's so great. I um had a chance to meet uh Robert, or he was Bobby Jacobi at the time, Melvin.

Uh yeah, now he's Robert Janes, right?

Yeah. Great. Yeah, so it's just like based off of who I've I've run into and had the opportunity to meet, yeah. It seems like you had like just a really great, like stuff out there. So in that, like to what degree, I guess do you still like stay in touch with some people or have those kind of moments where you get to reminisce and catch up from time to time with the the Tremors gang and and kind of how that goes.

So the 28th aner anniversary of Tremors, um Conrad Buck Buckman, um he dies early. He's um in the the the car that gets you know sucked under.

Yeah.

He and his wife. Okay, he's he's just a great guy. And he had started a film festival in Kentucky. So he invited us to to there. And I'd been out of show business for so long. I quit in like two thousand. Four, I think, or five, I was my last movie. Um but but anyway, so he invited us for the 28th. I thought, why not? Went and so that was my my the first time after years, you know, 28 years that I got to reunite with a bunch of people. I hadn't really stayed in touch with anyone. Um trying to think. I mean, Ron and Steve and Brett and I would exchange Christmas cards, you know, that kind of thing. Um, I love them. The three of them, the the amazing and Ron. Ron, Ron was so, so, so wonderful and cute and patient and supportive. Uh he just everything was good about it. I can't say anything bad. I wish I had some juicy story to tell you, but I don't. There were no sorted affairs. There were, you know, like it was like nothing. Just fun. And I fell in love with the desert. Like I got out there, I was like, oh dude, three months out here. What the fuck? I mean, everything looks the same. But you know, you spend a little time in the desert and you start seeing the palette of the desert, and it's really quite beautiful. But um, so more recently, since since the 28th, since that, which was well, now we're on our 35th, right? Yeah, yeah. This is this what we just we just passed our 35th anniversary. So for these past six years, I've been much more in touch with people. And that's been nice. I mean, it's been really nice.

Yeah, I can imagine. It's just something that has uh I mean, it's got such a cult following and still holds up in a lot of places all these years later, to where I mean, you're here talking about it now, and all these years later, you know, somebody here who's I've that movie, I mean, it was one of the first movies that I remember watching with my dad that he really wanted to just show me something like that he thought was just like really cool, you know, like that I just like fell in love with it when I was a kid, and I've I've watched it numerous times.

So I've been doing conventions, which I swore I'd never do. I just thought, who does that? You know, I had this whole attitude about it, and now I'm so grateful to get to be asked to do it because I hear a story like that. I swear I spend half my time at these conventions crying, because it'll be my father's father showed it to him and he showed it to me, and this was our bonding movie. Or my mother, it was my mother's favorite movie, and she was dying of cancer, and and we would just watch tremors every night, you know, or just I mean, there's these beautiful and sad, but oh heartwarming stories, but they're always stories about family, you know. Of I never thought as a family movie, but it actually has become this multi-generational bond or kind of like the story you just told, right? Uh who knew? And really, who knew? None of us knew.

And you watched it on VHS, right, Peg?

Yeah, back in the day, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, yeah, which is a whole different experience. I've tell you, yeah, but it so I um last year there's this drive-in called Mahoning Drive uh Mahoning Drive In. It's in Pennsylvania, and it's a real holdout, and they um obviously show movies, but they only show cellular. I mean, they actually have the the reels. And I hadn't seen it, I hadn't seen it in that, you know, for that um form, I guess, uh since the premiere. And it's just stunning. It's stunning. And the difference between VHS and and and DVD, night and day, you know, just the richness, the the depth of it and stuff. So it's it's really cool that way. I wish people could see it more often, you know, in film because it's just another experience.

I went to see Jaws for the 50th anniversary in IMAX. And there's something so incredibly beautiful and special about being in a theater and being able to see a movie that is 50 years old but looks crystal clear on the screen. It's just beautiful.

Yeah.

Well, I hope they do that with Tremors someday.

Yeah, it's it's it is one of those movies that just it it works so well watching with people. Like I said, even all these years later. I mean, there's been a couple of different like Tremors Fests where, you know, watching the Tremors movies in in theaters. I was gonna say, even um Reba McIntyre owns a like restaurant and shop in Oklahoma, and she did like a screening of Tremors last year in her restaurant. Oh, did she? She just like had like a little watch party in the street. Yeah.

Because of all the cast members, she was kind of the least accessible because she was such a major country star, right? So she'd fly in on her private jet, she'd have her entourage, they'd arrange it so all of her scenes could be shot like in two days, yeah, on that particular set, and she'd fly out. But I'll just never forget her saying, I've never been in a movie before, or however she talks, you know. I ain't never done a movie. And um, and you know, you know, what's his I don't know expressions, but you know, when someone's um not sly like a fox, but crazy like a fox. I don't know if okay. All I mean is that woman learned fast. I mean, she she was I think she and Michael stole the show. Um they did. Michael, um, you know, he he's very fastidious, he's very, you know, uh whatever that personality type is, um, the opposite of me. I'm random, so it's whatever that is. Type A. So my so Mike, there's not a gun that Michael ever had in his hand that he didn't know how to take apart, put back together, know exactly how it functioned, what its meaning was, I mean everything. So if they were dealing with guns or or what what any of all the ammunition, he knew what he was doing. You know, and those two they just worked like a team, like amazingly well, I think. And she did, and she did beautifully. I mean, there wasn't one inauthentic moment coming from her. So it was hard to believe it was her first time in film. But she had been on stage a lot, I guess, so that helped.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Bert and Heather are always so much fun to watch. So much fun.

Yeah. I mean, absolutely. It just yeah, they were great. I mean, every I just feel like everyone was kind of perfect. Um, even Bobby, I mean Robert, now, Bobby. I mean, could you get a better Braddy kid? No, you can't. I can't even think of another actor who could have done what he did of his generation.

He was the annoying little pain in the ass.

Yeah, 100%. I mean and Ariana just jumping on her little pogo stick. And I'll tell you, um, Charlotte, who played her mother, she wrote an um autobiography. You gotta check it out. She was a loose woman, and she'd be the first to tell you. She in her autobiography, she talks about I I can't remember, was it wasn't James Dean? No, the doors. What was his name? Uh, you know, uh Jim Morrison. Jim Morrison, I think that was her lover. Um, or one of them. She was lovers with everyone. She had quite the past. You know, and then she there she is in Tremors, Plains of the Earth Mother, you know, like and so it's well funny. Uh she she's just a bunch of great people.

Tremors is Peg's favorite movie. My favorite movie is Jurassic Park. And yeah, yeah, it's in Jurassic Park.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it makes it makes me really happy. All the people who had careers beyond Tremors, I mean who wanted them, you know, because um each deserving. And and you know, the heartbreak is that Fred died. I mean, I was so in love with I was married, but I had the crush on Fred, like you would not believe. This is how it works, right? So, you know, everything's like from the top down. So I was from midway in terms of you know, value or something. So uh Fred and Kevin, they had rented houses for them. Um I stayed in the Dow Villa Inn, which was the low-rent hotel in town. There were the only two hotels, and it was the low-rent one. Anyway, but in the mornings, the van would come around because we had to drive 20 miles up into the desert past this um uh what do you call it, borax factory, where we'd rented the land and built the town, right? I mean, that was a fully built town. It wasn't yeah, I mean, some only a couple of the buildings were facades, the rest of them were fully realized buildings. Um, and like the tower was real and all this. I mean, it was three-dimensional and all that, but um so the but the back to my crush. So in the morning, I would, you know, sometimes be a little hungover because the me and the crew would be in the jacuzzi having wrapped beer, but so I get away, but I always think, oh no, Fred's getting in the van, Fred's getting in the van. Always trying to look my best for Fred because so we so we would pick up, we picked up what was the order, because like the low, the lowly the lowly ones, like me or Bobby ones, whatever, and then there was Fred and Kevin uh and Michael. So they were the last to be picked up, you know, because you're not gonna make them wait. And Fred would come sauntering out of his house with his guitar thrown over his shoulder, and he was a little bit bow-legged, you know, but he had this saunter, you know, I can't explain it. Like this sexy saunter. And he didn't, it wasn't an affect, it was just was who he was. And my heart would start pounding and pounding. Mind you, I was married, happily married. But he would come towards the van and I'd think, oh, please, please, why don't somebody skit over sweet sit next to me? Yeah, never did. He always ended up in the front seat, but um so uh we had all kinds of adventures, like true adventures. There were there were cool things up there in the desert, you know, like when we'd have like a long weekend or something, they'd hire like a cowboy to take us off, you know, on horses and do things. And then one time Mike Malone and Beth, I can't remember her last name right now, who worked with Mike, and a couple other people in the crew, we went wet rafting down the um cool. You know, in those big, big, big, big uh, I guess the inner tubes of big tires. We did that. It was like you know, meandering down some river. But then we we discovered by the side of the road, okay, you're gonna be bored with this, but it was to me, it was cool. We discovered these um hot springs.

Ooh, yeah, right?

But but they were just they weren't marked, they weren't anything. They were just you pulled off on this dirt road, you'd have to know to go on that dirt road, and go in about a half a mile, and there are these bubbling hot springs. And I guess a lot of the Native Americans were using it uh ritualistically and stuff, but then and not many people like us knew of them, but we knew of them somehow, and we would go do that, and it would there's all kinds of cool stuff.

I will ask, uh, as far as yeah, doing you know fun adventures and in action and stuff while filming, yeah. Uh how much of your own stunts do you do?

Yeah.

Especially I have to know if you got to play around with the pole vaulting rock to rock, if you got to actually do any of that and how fun that was. If so.

Okay, here's the deal. Back then, even though Mike Malone used to have to carry me over his shoulder after I ran 50 yards, I was in relatively good shape, right? I knew I was physically capable of doing most things, but you know, there is something called insurance.

Yeah. Yeah.

And so pesky insurance. Allowed too much. And um, but I insisted, I'm doing the pole vaulting, I'm doing the pole vaulting. There's no danger in it, I'm doing the pole vaulting. Now I was really putting my foot down and like as if I had any power, but um, I'm gonna do my own pole vaulting. So my stunt double, who was absolutely amazing, but she had huge tits, right? So they'd have to strap her down because I have none, right? Every day she'd have, or they had to be like, you know, uh uh, what do you call it? Stuff the, you know, whatever. They'd wrap her up to get her to look like me. Wait, she's there, and so I'm determined to do my own pole vaulting. So she's gonna teach me, you know, the fundamentals of pole vaulting. So I take my running start, and after she's told me how to do it, I go up, and I was just like Fred in the in this in the scene, boy, boy, back flat on my back. You know, they had padding. So I said, no, I can do it, I can do it. Second try. Pole vaulting is really hard. That's just the end of the story is I the only part of me pole vaulting is me holding the pole, running, getting the pole in the ground, me going into the air, and then the the tower, you know, the water tower. Yeah. I think all of that was me. Okay, sure. But leaping into the the moving, you know, the thing that we were all in the the cat or I mean the that was carrying the that thing. Yeah, the cat was pulling that thing. Yeah, so I did not leap into it, they wouldn't let me. But I did do the part where I I dive into the car to to to to do the pedals with my hands. Yeah. So that part was me. So I take pride in that. I mean, I you know, I'd love to be like Tom Cruise. I did all of it, but no, they weren't gonna take that chance. What you got to do was super fun. Yeah, no, everything I got to do was fun. I mean, and I'm not kidding. I would be so tired some days, and I'd, you know, run, run, run, and they'd say, cut, okay, back to back to you know, back to A or whatever. To the beginning. And I'd be and Mike Malone would run over and throw me over his shoulder and run me back to the beginning mark. So I could do another take. Oh my god. I should be embarrassed about that.

No, it's it's kind of funny. Is that that's the real movie magic, is no exerted energy that doesn't need to be. We're gonna we're gonna move you to your mark back to the No exactly.

Yeah.

Dailies are like um, like you they shoot, and then that same day, that that night, they've got sort of the raw, very rough footage. But I had never been to Daily's before, not on any other film I'd done anything. So I went to Dailies, and I was so horrified, I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that can't be me. That's not me. That's what I looked like. I know I ran out of the screening room and never went back to Dailies. Because I didn't know like how layered filmmaking was, you know, and how how what went into making it look and sound and feel the way it does, ultimately, right? I I just saw me looking like that's not what I meant to do, you know, kind of that's what I'm doing.

It's hard sometimes to look at yourself on film because it just is like almost a surreal experience. If someone's recording you, yeah.

They say, no, I don't know who does, neuroscientists or somebody say that how we see ourselves even in the mirror is not at all how others see us. And that's not a psychological thing. This is actually a visual thing. So it has something to do with perception, and I don't know how eyes work exactly and how it transmits to the brain, but I will never see the me that you see. So when I see me, you know, I'm seeing something unrecognizable. You know, and it was really it was really frightening for me. Uh passage of time makes me appreciate it a lot more, but at the time, horrified, absolutely. I think that makes sense though. I do. Yeah, I mean, I'm not I'm not unique in that. I mean, I think a lot of people like the sound of my voice, I'm not too fond of it, and still not too fond of seeing myself. And that's why I think that's why I love the theater.

They don't go in and film you in the theater like it's for TV or movies.

Okay, and so so here's the deal, right? You're doing a play, and and you're supposed to be the mo you're the most desirable woman or or man in the in that cast or in that story. And it's you it's your internal life, right? And you can't deny who you are, right? And and one must believe, but when you're acting, and for film too, but one must believe I am this thing, this person, whatever it is, ugly, pretty, evil, kind. In this in the theater, you don't your only reflection is the audience, you know, and if it's going well, you have an interplay with the audience, right? It's an interactive, it's an interactive thing. It's a living thing. So you get feedback. So, you know, subliminal, subtle, or obvious, but you get feedback immediately. And you don't conscious, I mean, I one doesn't consciously adjust. Uh, but adjustments are made. But no matter what, I mean, if it's when I okay, this I can only speak for me, right? So I can believe anything about me on a stage, and nobody can prove I'm not it. There's not gonna be a film of that tomorrow showing me, nope, that one you that wasn't it, you didn't get it. She's not that because I believed it, I was it, and and and that's why I love the theater. And also the arc of I mean, you get to play the whole arc in one in one night, you know. So that has that feel that feeling of resolution or whatever it is, it ends, and then you get another chance, you know, you get another chance, you get another chance until you until the play closes, you know. Had I been wiser, I would have um learned to work with the camera and with the DPs and stuff in a way that I could have had that experience, but I wasn't that wise. You know, I was just like trying to hit my mark and remember my lines and whatever, and being very self-conscious, you know.

No, I could I could see that as the uh the immersion of like like you said, playing out the whole arc in one night and one go versus you're filming over the course of months. Months, yeah. You're kind of having to get in and out of the character day after day.

And when I would do a play, you I would come into a scene, knowing where I was coming from and where I was going and what the weather was. I would have that information about it, um, and bring that to it. And I would have to do the same thing with film, but I would didn't have control. It's so collaborative. I mean, it's sort of like did the camera capture that? D was the lighting hitting this? You know, I felt like much more in control on stage of my performance, I mean, you know. I mean, after once a play is frozen, you just get notes, but no one's gonna change your work, you know. In film, it's like out of your hands. I mean, once it's wrapped, it's wrapped, and you don't know what's gonna come out. I remember once I did a um TV movie with Stanley Tucci. It was this short-lived uh weekly TV show called Life Stories, and every week they would do a different illness. I can't remember who the producer was. Um, he cast me in several things, I don't remember his name right now. But um, so and that was a really harsh uh learning experience, you know. So I was playing this alcoholic wife, and he was the husband, and he's trying to get me into rehab, and and and I like acting my butt off, right? You know, like anyway, so the thing find the airs. I was like, dude, the camera didn't catch any of it, you know, just didn't get it. Had I been more like a business person and learned, you know, like where the camera was, or talked to the the the DP or you know, understood, you know, just sort of taking advantage of those moments. Um you know, I whatever. It's not a big regret. It's more like if I were to talk to a young actor, this is what I'd tell them, you know, kind of thing. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's weird since I've started doing conventions, um, which is recent. I mean, 20 years I haven't acted. I haven't looked back, I've never thought anything about it. I made a decision. I've got two kids, whatever, and life was what life was. But um talking about it and doing like this podcast or doing conventions, you know, it kind of made me a little itchy to be on the stage.

So you haven't done any movies or TV or anything. Have you done any stage acting? Or did you completely just walk away and say Well, well, I w no, I walked away.

I mean, it was it was a process too to say I'm not an actress, I'm not an actress. Took me like three years until I really I mean I wasn't acting, but I also couldn't give up that that as my identity, right? And then when I when finally I got that place where there was no more pressure in my chest, and and no, okay, I'm not. I'm not an actress anymore. I'm you know that that was great. That was a moment of relief. Um however, I met a person who was a storyteller um in Pasadena, California. And just happenstance, right? And so I did end up doing some um storytelling. It's its own art form, it's a weird thing. Spoken, you know, spoken word stuff. And I mean spoken word, of course, word spoken, but um it's just a different form of. Well it's called storytelling. Anyway, so I did that a little bit for a few years and enjoyed it. Um you know, it it it's a whole different form, you know, of of performing, of of telling a story. So I really was learning it and doing it, and I, you know, performed at some festivals and stuff and storytelling events, but other than that, no. Um really haven't pursued it, haven't looked for it, nothing. Which is so weird because I so identified, you know, as a performer. And then I stopped being one. Which is kind of weird because like even this conversation, I'm thinking, hmm, what about that thing I wrote? Maybe I should do a one-man show. Maybe I should, yeah.

It's always gonna be there a little bit, right?

Yes, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I thought it it was dead forever, but you don't know, it's kind of a little bit the itch is coming back. And at my age, actually, it's not bad because so many actresses don't want to be seen old, and I don't care. So hire me.

I think it goes beyond actresses. I think as women, when you as you age, it becomes a thing where you don't want to be in pictures. Like you don't want to be in. Yeah, exactly. No, don't yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Um it it's just a thing. I I think we need to change that. We've gotta get over it. But oops, hold on, you cut out again.

Pictures of me, um, knowing that I look at the age I do and goofy or whatever, because I really want my daughters to embrace every part of their lives as they you know, year by year. So I try not to um focus on that too much. I mean I'm vain as can be, but but um but I also you know I'm not gonna get a facelift. Well, I say that later maybe in five years of mine.

I feel like there's a lot of pressure though on women to do that.

Yeah, there is, you know, and I guess I I used to have a much harsher judgment about facelifts and stuff. Well, mainly because they've they've improved dramatically because everyone used to look like you know the cat lady or whatever, you know. Um and and they've they've come with much more subtle uh ways of doing it, and people are doing it slowly, piece by piece, so it doesn't look so drastic. And that's great. I mean, if and for major stars, sure. Um, but I don't know. I I think there's also there's a use for people who don't do that. I mean, in terms of casting, I mean, you gotta have somebody who looks old. Yeah. So I that's I figure I'll fill that slot.

So so you're saying the Finn Carter resurgence is not fully off the table.

Yeah, no, it's no, it's it's I'm I'm I'm toying with the idea of doing something. I mean, the truth is, though I abandoned my identity as an actress, I think in me, because it started at birth, will always be a performer. You know, and and that I just can't put that far out, I don't think. And doing things like this, like you know, this site gets me going, hmm, mm-hmm, you know, right? Like me.

By talking about it, you get to connect with a piece of yourself that maybe you haven't connected with in a while.

That's that's a good insight, and I think that's true. Because I mean real life, I mean, people who know me for the past or uh have met, let's say recently the past 10 years, 15 years, um, don't even know I was an actress. Right. I mean, it's not something I bring up and they don't know it, and they just know me as Finn, and and that's been great, right? But but getting back into this million or whatever, uh, where I'm known for being an actress exclusively, yeah, it is kind of bringing it up a lot. I don't know. We'll see. My health is good. Now I've really sound like an old person. My health is good. I'm agile.

So I guess the to tie into the trimmers of it all. Yes. We'll we'll imagine for a minute then with this resurgence as a possibility. I know we won't get into the weeds of all of the legal issues of the stampede and the trimmers of all.

If you know Levi, you know all of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But let's just say, hypothetically, I think is the word I was looking for there. Yes. We've got we've got a trimmers reboot or sequel new one coming out. We're bringing all back the old ones and you get the call. Are you taking that call?

Absolutely 100%.

Yes. I love that.

Yay! I love that too. I love that too. I'm saying 100%, if it they don't the the reboot isn't really a reboot. If it is, we are who we are at this age. And this is where our lives have this is what we've evolved into. You know, maybe I've got um an institute uh somewhere, you know, of my character. Rhonda's, you know, still doing things. She's got apparently got a daughter. Uh yeah. Yeah, lives, lives have gone on, right? If it's that, but if it were um kind of a literal reboot, like let's try to do tremors again, no, I would have no interest. But but but Ron and Steve and Brent, they wouldn't never do that anyway. Yeah. They're far too clever and they're far too meticulous. Whatever they did, if they did it, would be great, I think.

Agreed. I don't think that I think some things are sacred and shouldn't be touched unless it's for the right reasons with the right people.

Yeah, I agree.

It's all gotta align.

Well, this is yeah, and I feel like Tremors, the first Tremors, um, was just a perfect storm. I mean, it like Heather Locklear was this big star back in the 80s and 90s or something. She wanted the role of um Rhonda. I mean, she was fighting for it, her agents were fighting for it. Well, they didn't cast her because that would have been wrong. Not because she's not a good good actress, she's a good act, I mean, she could have done it, but that just would have been wrong, right?

I couldn't see her. I s I've seen her in many things, and I don't see her as Rhonda at all.

Right, but but I mean, but if there were and then that's the beauty of Ron and Stephen Brent, is that they weren't gonna I mean, of course, yes, of course, they got Fred and Kevin, so they did need some star power. But um that would have been it would have been wrong for for a lot of reasons. Again, not because of her acting.

I'm I'm not at all the lockplay. Yeah, she's I don't think she would be right for the role. Like, I don't I think the way you played it made it was correct, like it was perfect. I I can't see anyone else in that role.

But thank you, I mean either. But um, yeah, and I hope nobody would be, but um I d I do think that if if they did write uh you know the next chapter, um I I'm I I would hope they would use me.

Yeah.

And I would hope Kevin would come back and everyone else who's alive.

Yeah. I know Kevin's yeah ex expressed interest himself, so yeah, yes, which is interesting because you know he kept his distance from it for a long time.

You know, he just he I think he wanted his name off the titles even. You know, it just um but I think he's really come to appreciate the beauty of Tremors and what it means to a lot of lot of people.

Yeah.

You know, and and that it really really was a little gem of a movie. Just and that's yeah. Who who who could have I mean, I never would thought 35 years later people would st still be watching it or interested in it or have any curiosity about it. Yeah, never thought that. Um it just and that's why that's why another movie would have to be so great. Because and I think those three can do it because I think they spent five years writing the first tremors, you know, um, to make it absolutely perfect, and I think it was. I mean, I think we stuck to the to the script. I don't I don't think there are lots of cuts or amendments or anything. They really had what they wanted. And then they put together this crazy cast of characters, and you know, it worked. Uh yeah.

And and then they did a couple of sequels and then it switched and more sequels were done.

Yeah, so you know what? I need to watch them. I haven't seen any of them.

I'm sure even if you hadn't heard it from anywhere, Levi would have told you that Val and Rhonda have a daughter named Valerie.

Right, yeah, no, that that's what I yes, that I do know that. Yeah.

What do you what do you think about that? I mean, what do you what do you I mean I can see?

I think I think that I don't know, like I don't know that in the story, I don't know how old she was when she was introduced and what the timing was from when he and I knew each other. Because you you know the end of the movie was not like that originally, right?

Yes, yeah, there are two endings, yes.

Right. They they the all the test audiences kiss her, kiss her, because I just walked away. So they flew me back out three months later just to kiss him for a day. And so that was that.

So that's not a bad little trip to take a flight to go kiss Kevin Bacon, just real quick.

Because Kira, okay, Kira had been like staying in LA or coming to visit us you know out in the desert, and she was like eight months pregnant, and she's nine months pregnant, then she gave birth while we're shooting the movie. So I fly back. I oh I'd been asked to come back on the soap opera for a couple of weeks or months or whatever. I'm shooting soap opera. I fly out on a Friday night, uh, red-eyed to LA, drive up to the desert, kiss Kevin for about eight hours, you know, crane shots, two shots, whatever. But our kissers were like this. It was like, mm-mm, how's Kira? Is the baby doing well? You know, it was like it was like kissing my brother. You know, it was, you know, because that's what our relationship was in real life, was not romantic at all. And he just had his first child. So that so everyone thinks, ask me, what was it like kissing Kevin Bacon? And I usually sort of say, great and giggle, but you know, it's really just it was just really silly.

You're catching up in between kisses, yeah. Yeah, no, exactly.

It was it was there was yeah, it was not the sexiest of kisses, but um, but yeah, yeah, so they brought the character. Yeah, so she when would I have gotten pregnant? Is what my question is. Would I have gotten pregnant right then? Like did we have a romance then? Uh, and then she's the product years later.

Peg, when did Cold Day in Hell come out?

20 uh 2018 was the release year for that one. Okay, 2018. So 28 years later.

I think they had some time, Finn. I think there was some time because I don't think she was more than maybe 22. I think maybe at the time that they introduced her.

Okay, and that and that film came out how many years after the first 28 years.

So you had a good five years of romance before. Yeah.

I kind of can't see that, but maybe maybe we did. I mean, maybe Val. I don't know. Ron will come up with that. Ron and Steve and Brett. They'll they'll explain it.

But um I thought it was super fun because Valerie was like a graboid expert and a hunter. Oh, I'm like, are you are you sure this isn't Bert's daughter? No, exactly. That seems more likely.

I think she learned more reliable survival techniques than oh, the Richard Scale's saying this. Like, let's throw let's throw a rock. I think she'd be amazing. Um I'm proud of my daughter. Yeah, so so yeah, so maybe I maybe we had a yeah, short-lived um romance that produced a daughter. I I don't know the story, but um I think it's cool.

Yeah.

I mean, I would love to show up as like like you know, sort of the modern day Jane Goodall Goodall for for ass blasters, you know, like the wizard. No, what was their last name? Was it ass blasters or I don't remember the last incarnation of them? But what yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm the Jane Goodall of of these creatures.

Like it's I can see you now, not in a jungle, in a desert, right? You know, just making friends with the graboids.

Exactly. And so I'm I you know I'm the authority and I I have to explain to humans the how valuable and and how they they communicate, you know, things like that. I think that would be cool.

Just hanging out with El Blanco.

Yeah.

So you mentioned there were two endings. Is there an ending you like better than the other? Which one do you like better? Um or or prefer?

Okay, let me just think. I I I like open-ended endings where like anything could happen and the kiss kind of made it something else. I think I I I think I preferred the original and I said, well, thanks for you know saving my life. But I think it was really unsatisfying for the audience. I mean, people like closure, they like like they like endings. They I think audiences like endings. And I'm okay with uh questions.

So sometimes you can make up your own ending in your head.

Exactly. I mean, but but who knew they were gonna make seven more, however, however many they made. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't think they did. I don't think they knew they were gonna make some money.

I was I was perfectly okay with the original ending. I guess that's my answer. Though I don't dis I mean I don't disagree with the kiss. It it just I don't know. I now maybe I do disagree with you. I just don't think it was necessary. But audiences did, so that's what matters. Yep. Right?

I guess we have discussions on this podcast about different movies that we cover, and one of the things that's come up a f a bunch of times is when a movie ends and the people are still just best friends or good friends and not like romantically involved. Yeah.

Like it's it's it's an interesting kind of trick in writing. Is it frustrating for audiences, or is it for me it's not. I guess it depends on the movie. It's kind of because there's some that we will watch and we've covered where we're like, if it's the first time I've seen it in newer movies, like I'm taking notes halfway through and I'm going, if these characters end up like together romantically into the end this movie, I'm gonna be a little annoyed because I don't think that's earned. I think they're better off just like as friends or just having survived something.

Yeah. I didn't see a lot of chemistry there. I saw Earl pushing it. Uh, but I didn't see I I couldn't imagine Val really making that 180 switch. Starts out saying, let her are you there? Yes, yeah, we're here. Okay. You know, he starts out, I don't know the I don't know the exact lines, but let her have legs for days and big brown hair and tits here and blah blah blah. He's describing the woman who have his dreams, right? So then he's with me, my I mean, with by by fate, chance, whatever. Um, and I'm this nerdy female who's not the great beauty, um, but all and in all fairness, comes up with almost all the solutions, you know, which I think for Val would be very emasculating. So I can't really imagine those two together, right? Yeah. Because he has because he has that kind of swagger.

Yeah. I guess like the other like the the coin flip version of that though is why I think I'm I'm kind of with you. It's like I think both are are good for different reasons in a way, is maybe you know, Valentine is very just like he's putting on very machismo in a lot of macho stuff, and really, you know, where it's like, oh yeah, like if I'm gonna pick my perfect woman, it's this, this, this, and I think it it could be viewed as like, well, he was humbled a little bit of like he found like maybe he was reaching a little like not too high, but like just like in a whole different direction. Where you're reaching low. You know, machismo is yeah, like going into one place when he realized, like, no, the answer you're looking for was in a different place completely.

But see, that's where I thought Earl and I could see Earl and and Rhonda together. Yes, he too understood Rhonda. Earl her brilliance. He saw, he was aware that she's the one who said movement, she's the one who said rocks, she's the one who said throw the, you know, she's the one who came up with the solutions, right? Earl is aware of that. Uh Val is just going, oh what? Okay, and and thinks he's and thinks he's the hero. Yeah, I mean, in the end, he thinks he's the hero, right?

Yeah, yeah.

With no awareness of like all the contributions of others, yes, it seems. I mean, it feels that way, right? So I just can't, I just I don't know. I I think I liked the original original better. But oh boy God, now if they're gonna do another movie, they're not gonna cast me now.

No, they fight. It's okay, because you know what? Rhonda doesn't need a man to be happy.

No, actually, absolutely, and that's again why I liked her walking away because she said, This means the experiments, I'm gonna be in on it, National Geographic or whatever. I don't know, lines, but all this stuff. And I'm gonna be there, right? She is so passionate about, and I was about the character. I mean, this is why I hired someone to teach me every I mean I any word I said I understood, you know, fan fend it. Um because because that that was Ronda, you know, it's like, and now she's gonna this is gonna go another step. She doesn't want to sell stuff from a tourist shop, little pieces of the you know, of the graboids. She's gonna like discover things, you know. This is this is her work, her life's her life's work, her passion. So I guess that's why I liked her walking away. That's why I said that's why I said, you know, and I don't mean this to elevate the character of Rhonda to Jane Goodall, but I meant that sort of pursuit. I I can see her sort of not abandoning seismology necessarily, but finding some way to work with the discovery of the graboids. I never liked that name, but I get it. That's the thing is I but see that's the thing. I never got to move. I never got that it was a sci-fi, you know, 50 sci-fi spoof, that that it was there's this amalgam of of uh genres, right? Yeah, but yeah. The first time they said graboid, I was like, you're really calling it graboid? Like, yeah, and I'm thinking some scientific name would be more appropriate. Yeah. That's me getting into my character a little too much, I guess.

I can see Rhonda being the one that explains how the graboids work. Like she's gonna investigate and study and learn and understand them.

Yeah. Now, now apparently look, I can show you right here, people give me things, right? So I have this is the prehistoric egg. Whatever the first incarnation. Oh my goodness. This is their egg. People give me funny things. Um, someone gave me, I don't know what which incarnation this is supposed to be. Maybe it's the first. I don't know. Someone knitted, no, crocheted this. No. Tell me if it's on camera.

Oh my gosh, that is so cool.

Right.

But I feel like oh my goodness.

Even though I apparently in the next six um movies, they explained, they went back into time and explained the prehistoric nature the history of the creatures, uh, it would still take more scientific research. And I think that's where my character would be interested in, you know. Yes. So I mean that that's how I'd see it. Oh, though that's a humorous point of view.

No, I think it makes sense for Rhonda, the character. Like she was so interested in that. I think she thrives on it and the possibilities. Right.

She's possibilities at the end. Yeah.

And they are great. It works for the character so well, as yeah. I mean, because a lot of the banter and the humor you have between Earl and Val, some of the like humor comes in like just the conspiracy-mindedness of of Bert and you know stuff. And so Rhonda works very well as like that rock in the center of like the very pragmatic character that people can can bounce off of.

Right, pragmatic. And I'm really I'm I I I am the um sort of essential straight man, right? Straight person or the foil or whatever. Because Rhonda, I mean, never says anything other than what needs to be said, really. You know, you know, it's just there's nothing extraneous.

She's absolutely essential, though. There is a need for the straight man. There is a need for someone to keep that.

Yeah, yeah. But and again, I I always say this, you know, woman woman power. She when she's uh she says it at some point, why do you keep asking me? Well, because me, K Rhonda, has come up with every solution so far. You know, like it react to sound, they react to noise, kick the water, make them go this way, throw this. Up to the very end, she has realized what motivates the graboids. Okay. If I've been doing some broad comedy acting too, it wouldn't have played.

I think that the way you played Rhonda, which is why I don't think anyone else could have played her. I mean, in some roles, in some movies, yes, I can see different people in roles, but I think the role of Rhonda was you did the research, you did the work, and it came across in the way you brought her to life.

Okay, my my greatest pride about the whole thing is I met a girl named Alexandra. Alexandra, I'm sorry, and she went into either geophysicists or geop geophysics studies or seismology or something in that realm because of that movie. She is a working scientist today. That's cool.

That is so cool.

And that makes me proud that I did the homework and the work that I thought necessary for the role. But most people think really it's just a movie, it's just a silly part. But I'm glad I did. And I'm glad one person was influenced or inspired enough to go into those sciences. It's kind of cool. Absolutely.

Yeah. It's been it's been really fun. I'm love talking with you.

I hope at least um you've gotten something out of this. And so cool that I'm here on your 250th and you started with Tremors and you're ending with me. And I'm flattered.

Yeah, it was kind of at least for the seven movies that exist, that was our first seven seasons was ending each season with a Tremors movie. And then we we finished that up. And so it's it's great now, after a few seasons after that, to still end a season with a Tremors connection and have you here.

Yeah. Yeah, you come full circle, and that's great. And I hope this is the first 250 of another 250.

Yeah. For you.

Yeah. Yeah.

A lot of great movies out there to cover.

Yeah. I really appreciate you inviting me. I'm so flattered. Yeah. I mean, honestly, uh, because I've it's been, you know, I'm not in the business. It's really touching. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you, Finn. Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much.

Great meeting you, and hopefully, yeah, we'll we'll we'll we'll talk again sometime soon. Hopefully this won't be the last time I get to chat with you. Man, that was a lot of fun. I'm really excited we got to do that. Uh so thanks again once more to Finn Carter for coming on and chatting with us for a while and hanging out, telling stories. It was it was so much fun to have her here, and hopefully I'll get to you know, we'll we'll get to check in with her again sometime in the future. That was a lot of fun.

I hope so, and I know that there's been more talk about Tremors Fest, not in the original location that they had planned, but somewhere else.

Yeah.

That is seems easy to get to. So I'm hoping maybe maybe to get to Meet Finn.

Yeah. Great. Uh yeah, she was a lot of fun. So much fun to have her. And again, as you know, on on the top, as I kicked off, it was just it feels like such a cool, like, full circle moment to have started this podcast doing tremors, and now 250 episodes later, or I guess 249 later, but on episode 250, that it's a huge number, quarter of a thousand.

Uh I can't believe that we've been doing it this long. Like, it's been five and a half years.

Yeah.

And it blows my mind because I now can't remember a time that I wasn't doing a podcast. Like, podcasting has just become such a thing that I do.

But we could go back to our tiny little baby young child selves in season one, you know, it was that long ago. Uh and be like, oh yeah, this first movie you're covering, you're starting with trimmers. It's like you're gonna make it to 250 episodes. And on that one, Rhonda herself is gonna be on the podcast. What do you think about that? It's it's cool to put that in perspective. It's like, yeah, we're we're out here doing things.

Uh I mean, it's kind of funny because the first episode that we did was really like a tryout to see if it was gonna work, and it did, obviously. And it was your favorite movie. And so, yeah, it was such fun. This has been such an amazing journey, and I'm excited for what comes next next season. I think it's gonna be great. I'm looking forward to it already. We got some good ideas and maybe some new stuff. Maybe we'll we'll throw some new things at you.

Yeah. So I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about next season and stuff later after the show. Feedback section, shout-outs, things. Uh stick around for that. And but yeah, until then. Yeah, it's it's already been a little at an hour, but we've still got a awards show to do. So a little super size episode this week, but it's a big finale, 250.

Man, we have to do it up big.

Yeah, so on to the regularly scheduled programming. Uh welcome to the 10th Riffle Awards. Season 10 Riffle Awards.

You know, I thought this was gonna be difficult, and in some ways it was, but I also think we ended up with movies that it was incredibly easy to say, yep, across the board.

Yeah.

Four or five, six, even sometimes. And then others that it's like, okay, yeah, that was a lot of fun to cover, but it didn't grab me like these movies did. I yeah, I think that was a some clarity that I got as I was going through comparing movie to movie and what stood out to me.

Yeah. It's it's kind of fitting that we are doing this right on the end of our Oscar specials during Oscar season. Because it feels like that when I'm like, you know, these are nominations, the five in each category that we'll bring forward to discuss and pick a winner out of. There's kind of the the ones that are just have they're they're sweeping the nominations, or like they're in all six categories, or at least four or five of them, a lot of these movies, where it's like, oh, you can tell which movies showing up over and over and over again, that were definitely the standouts for me.

Yeah, and we didn't talk about this before. So I don't know what Pake has picked. He doesn't know what I've picked.

Yeah. So if for whatever reason this is somebody listening's first time, listening to a Riffle Awards season finale special, quick rundown of what it's gonna be is yeah, we have six categories. We usually do five. Daphne decided we're adding a sixth one, and I like it. Um, but we will have our six categories, and we each on our own decided uh our top five picks in whatever order. Um I actually put mine the way I will deliver mine are in a randomized order, so they're not even in chronological or by order of which ones I like most out of five. I made sure to like shuffle them up even. Yeah. So it's just like very random in a way. But mine too. We will go back and forth, taking turns, delivering our top five nominations for each category, and then out of those we will pick a winner, and usually that winner will come to if there's one that we both have in our list of five, that's kind of a bigger. It was like, okay, well, that one showed up with both of us, that one showed up with both of us, so it's probably gonna be one of the ones we pick. But we can make arguments for whatever. Um, and then after we pick a winner, we do have honorable mentions in each category, because we gotta just give some shout-outs to other things that we enjoy. But of course, the categories are main characters of a movie, side characters of a movie, best threat of a movie, which can be anything from a villain to a killer to a monster, to just a bad person, to a concept, or a storm, or a nature weather pattern, whatever that falls in under, you know, the thing that is the, you know, antithesis of of what good is happening in the movie, or is is the threat or the thing that people are having to face or deal with. Um, and then after that we have our best episode and best movie. The difference between that is best movie award we'll go to just literally that kind of feels like a best picture for the Oscars, is literally just the movie standalone. We watched all these movies, obviously, to talk about them, so which movies did we like the best just on their own as a movie? And then best episode is kind of taking aside the movie itself, is which episodes we enjoyed recording the most, whether it was the conversation that we had, whether it got really deep, or it was really funny, or we did something unique or fun, or we had a special guest on, or all those kind of things. We look at the episodes that way. And then new to this season and this awards, uh Daphne's brought in Best Director, because we do love to give a lot of love to the directors of these films, and so we're gonna kinda look at that is whether they're directors that are well known and have done incredible things, have left a legacy, or are doing really cool things that we love to talk about and always looking forward to new movies, or sometimes it's first-time directors that bring something new, or it's the first time we've seen a work by them, and it really was, you know, enrapturing to us for whatever reason. A lot of different reasons to bring up a lot of different directors, so we'll see what that where that goes when we we break those down.

Yeah. I'm super excited. Like I said earlier, I think we've got some great movies with a lot of cool components this season, and I'm just so excited to be able to break this down. It's probably one of my favorite episodes every I mean, we do it every season, but I always look forward to it because it's just so much fun. I feel like it's an accomplishment that we have gotten through 20 plus movies again this season. And it's kind of like the metal at the end where we get to just talk about all the cool stuff that we covered. So I'm already I'm excited too for next season because we already have some great plans for movies. It's gonna be a lot of fun. So yeah, um, we're gonna kick it off with side character, and Paik is gonna go first with his first pick.

Alright. Like I said, it's just kind of randomly selected in a random order of the top five that I have. Um, some of these, yeah, side characters, some of them play a really big role, and then other ones are literally just very small pieces of a movie that just really stood out to me for one reason or another. So the first one is I'm going to bring up John Carroll Lynch's Stan Olber from Volcano is my first nominee. Again, because he seems kind of like a blow-hard guy when we first meet him, and he has one of the most tragic but yet kind of beautiful self-sacrifice scenes in the movie. And super intense, but like really shines the light of like who his character is in that.

Yeah. Um, interesting that you pick him, because I also picked Stan.

Nice.

Like, I have to, because he was, like you said, it was so tragic, but also poetic the way that we meet him and learn about him and see how dedicated he is to his job, and so dedicated to the people, like not leaving someone behind to save his own life and making that snap decision to save the conductor and he himself perishes. It's a scene that just makes me so sad every time I watch it. And so, yeah. I picked Stan as well. Should I give you my first one, even though we matched? Yeah, okay.

Yeah, if it we'll we'll let us we'll let each other know and the listeners know if we share one when it comes up, but then you still get to be the next one to reveal a new one.

Mine is again, we did not get enough of this character in the movie, and I spent most of the movie worrying about if he survived or didn't.

I have a feeling we're gonna have the same conversation. Also on my list.

Uh Elliot Hopkins.

Yep, that would have been my next one. Yeah. Two for two. We're on we're on a similar wavelength. We had to.

Um again. I mean, Peg and I go and find out about what happened after. And it's, you know, just so that we knew that he was okay, because the last time we see him, he's in the water and it didn't look good. Like it looked terrifying. And so I really just appreciated the way that Spencer Watson played the role. And I wish it had been bigger, but I also feel like because it wasn't such a big role, it made it even more impactful because you were bought into what he was doing at that moment.

Yeah.

And again, it took me out of the movie. I was worried about him. I'm like, oh my god, is Hopkins okay? You know?

Yeah.

So, yeah.

All right. Next one for me. Now, these are always the these categories get a little muddied sometimes. We're always talking about who counts as a side character versus a main character. And I think some of these, in this or in main, when we do that category, we can make some of these, it's like, well, they could have fit in the other one too, but I try not to nominate one more than one person for a category in a movie. So I kind of have to like if they're like, you know, slightly less main, I'm gonna push them to the side, even if they are a big role. So some people might view this one and another one that I've got as main characters in some aspects to big story points, but I think they're not like the focal character of the movie. All that to say, Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost from Pacific Rim.

I'm sensing a pattern here.

Is it three for three?

It's three for three.

Hell yeah. Which also makes it kind of hard because if we have the same five, then it's like we're in the same boat now, we still have to pick from five.

I will say I don't believe we've ever had gone five for five in a chaotic.

I don't think we have.

But yes, I have to agree with you. Stacker, absolutely. Idris Elba, we don't cover enough movies with him in it.

Yeah.

I want to cover more. Idris Elba, please go do some horror movies or disaster films, do something so that we can can cover a film that you're in. Um, I think it speaks for himself. He was a complex character.

Yeah.

And I think he made decisions based on sometimes his want to protect his surrogate daughter. But I think he also had to realize how strong she was. And so I appreciate that. I mean, Pacific Rim is definitely a it it's a not a creature, it is a creature feature movie. Like it is, it's one of those, you know, genuine kaiju non-Godzilla films. And so, yeah, I had to pick him too. Oh man. We go four for four.

I don't know. I've got two left, so let's see if you hit one of them.

I have two left as well, and I don't know. Um so my next one is a character that I thought was a colossal pain in the ass.

And I'm gonna say this is probably a cook-a-ka combo breaker, because I don't think either of mine fits that category.

I thought okay, so I thought this character was a pain in the ass, and then it turned out he kind of just had a crush on the main character. And that is Bowman from Sketch.

Uh-huh.

So that's the direction I went in.

Yeah. Okay. Yes. It's a good call.

Again, he was a pain in the ass. Like he was not, he was a little brat. And then he wasn't. At some point, it flipped, and I decided, no, he's not a brat. He has a he just has a little crush on Amber. I'm that's cute. Okay.

Yeah. No, Bowman was fun. Like that. Alright, uh, next one for me. Uh I don't know, just like do I have to set them up every time? Not really. Uh Damien Bashir's Mondo from Black Phone 2, the camp uh kind of I don't want to say counselor, but he was, you know, one of the guys working at the camp and kind of takes Finn under his wing to talk about a lot of trauma and risk trauma responses, and and the guy who's there. I try not to go too deeply into spoilers in case people haven't seen all these movies, but if you've been listening, but I mean he has a big role of I mean, he's there all the time, letting his own kind of guilt and worry keep pushing him towards this mission of spending all of his free time up there still like searching and investigating and doing what he's doing, and so just to see the heart that this guy has and to finally get to see it all kind of come full circle and fruition in this movie to get a win for this guy uh and see who he is. I just you know, one of those, you know, mentor guys who will, you know, had it rough, was you know in prison and had like a rough life and now can take the lessons he's learned and pass it on to the youth next, the next generation. Um really good guy. I really like that character.

I can totally agree with that. I overlooked him, he's in my honorable mentions because I just had other characters I wanted to do. I mean, it it's so hard. Okay. So my last one is we just covered this movie two weeks ago. Um and is the character of G Nu from K-pop Demon Hunters.

Okay. He may show up later in a different way for me. But we can talk about that. I don't know. We'll see.

I felt like he was complex. He was not what you thought originally, like he ha it seemed like he had a purpose and he was going to be one way, but then he turned out to have one of the best arcs of the movie.

Yeah.

And so, yeah, he is my last pick.

Alright. So then my last pick for side character, much like Pentecost, is one that if you really look at it, probably is a main character of this movie in a way, very important and integral to the story. But not the main focus, but still, like I said, integral. We don't get the ending that we get without this character. And that is our sweet little Alex Lily from Weapons.

Aww.

Just the the trauma and the things that that kid goes through through the movie, but still yet is the strength to turn the tide at the end, and really is the one that plays the most pivotal role.

Yeah. Um, also on my honorable mentions. Such a great movie weapons. And yeah. So Pake, I think that puts us in position with three.

Yes.

We started off really strong. Um, I think at most we've gotten four the same before, but never more than four. So I think that leaves us with Stacker from Pacific Rim, Stan from Volcano, and Elliot from the Lost Bus.

Indeed. That would be the three that cross over between us. So most likely that we can go in. I guess there's not technically a rule that we have to, but it does seem to be the way we go.

So Yeah. Are you leaning in any direction? Because I'm struggling with it.

It is a struggle. It is hard because I feel like any of them are deserving of it.

They are. I I it's hard to narrow it down because each one, there is something special about each one of them. And I'm just not sure who is in the lead. I mean, because when thinking about it, we just covered The Lost Bus, so the character of Elliot is right in my head from that. But then also, I've seen Volcano so many times. So Stan is a character that I really cared about. But then with Pacific Rim, that's a movie that was kind of a sleeper for me that I really hadn't watched or appreciated. And the character of Stacker is just he's a big part of that movie.

Yeah.

Um a big part of the character arc, but big part of all of it, so I feel like I do have a way I'm leaning.

Okay.

For the way that as you mentioned, there's only one of these characters that made us actually have to step outside of the movie itself and do further research to know more immediately because we could not live without knowing.

Yeah.

So in that regards, I think Elliot Hawkins is where I lean as not only a great character in a movie with a like important tense kind of moment, but a real life human being who did amazing things.

Okay. I am good with that. I'm good with us picking him. Again, it's so hard to make these decisions because even getting to the point of narrowing it down to five was hard. So yeah. Okay. That brings us to threats.

I knew you were gonna skip them. I was waiting to see. Honorable mentions. Oh my god.

Okay, okay.

All right.

Honorable mentions. I do want to do them after we choose our winners so they don't mess with them.

But instead, yes.

So I think the way we'll do those is instead of going back and forth, and we don't get to like give them too much of uh explanations, but I will just run through my list of honorable mentions. I'll just tell you all of them, and then you tell me all of yours. There could be some overlap still.

Not many, because I don't have that many.

Well, I mean I usually try to have like a list of ten that then I narrow down to five, so then the other five go to honorable mentions. It's not the case in all the categories today. They I had some fewer. I have one with two, like three, one with two, one with four, but I do have five for this one, so I'll just kind of run them down real quick. Just other characters, side characters I really enjoyed throughout our movies. Uh first is Elizabeth Harlander from Frankenstein.

Ooh, yeah. Okay.

Mia Goth there. Uh then I'm also in the world of K-pop demon hunters with some non-human characters, just the the marketable goofiness, comic relief of Derpy and Sussy, the tiger. Oh yes. Uh love them. Uh Ricky. Ricky the boyfriend from Better Watch Out.

Oh, yeah, that's yeah.

Yeah. Again, I don't want to get too many, but you if you listen to the episode, you know why. We like him. Uh don't think you're gonna like him, but you like him. Uh also Rust from Clown in a Cornfield.

Oh my god. Yes, absolutely.

Great side character, has some great moments. And lastly, uh tragic character, but this also just goes to the acting of this kid. Uh, with the character of Oliver slash Connor Bird, spoiler, from Bring Her Back.

Oh, yes, absolutely. So mine are uh Duncan Kincaid from Jurassic World Rebirth. Um, and I already had said uh Alex Lily is another one of mine, and my last one is as you said from Bring Her Back, Oliver. I didn't have as many extra ones on this one. Alright. Now that we've completed the honorable mentions and we have crowned a victor, let's move on to threats. And it will be my turn to go first. And my first threat that I want to point out is a diabolical child named Luke Lerner. He was relentless, and at first you look at him like, oh, he's just a kid with a crush, and then he becomes something so much worse. Yes. So, yes, that is my first one.

Alright. Short and sweet. Not not the character of Luke, but uh he's not not really either of those things. Um, the first one, I mean, has kind of become an iconic figure in recent horror. It's a second movie, it's a sequel. The absolute just terrifying and disturbing Ethan Hawke as the grabber in Black Phone 2. You gotta gotta put him on the list.

You do, but I didn't. Not as at he's a he's an honorable mention for me. Okay, my next one is couldn't do this list without her. Laura. Laura from Bring Her Back.

Yes. Also just terrifying and unhinged in ways that are Yeah.

Yeah, just awful, awful, awful.

Alright, another fantastic uh female threat lead in a way, and not just from Run for Your Life standards, but Oscar nominated this year as well, Amy Madigan, as Gladys from Weapons.

And this is our first crossover.

Yeah.

Because was it ever a doubt that she'd be on both of our lists, okay? Of course not. Right. So happy to see her get the nomination. And we'll see who wins. Um I don't know. She's gotten some love, a little bit of love here and there in some of the other awards. So maybe. My next one is. And you can look at him as a main character in a m in the movie because he kind of was, but I'm sorry, he was the threat, and that to me is Victor Frankenstein.

I I like that you're doing that because I'm gonna go ahead and bring mine, even though it is a different nomination, but it's two sides of the same coin, because I did the same with both. So Victor Frankenstein and the creature from Frankenstein. I viewed both of them as equally a main character and threat of the movie.

Okay.

And it's just kind of like it's hard to so I I went with the creature on the nominations, but kind of the same reason where he could fit and maybe does fit in both categories, but is also is one of my nominations for the best threat is the creature. Um, he may not be as just like evil or at least selfish and destructive manipulatively emotionally as Victor Frankenstein, but actual carnage and physical damage that he does do throughout the movie is pretty devastating to some people. For sure.

Absolutely. Agreed. Okay. Um the next one is kind of a conglomeration of so what's it's Atha Hill and the townspeople of Kettle Springs masquerading as Frendo the Clown.

That is an honorable mention of mine. Is the Frendos slash Mr.

Hill, yeah. Yeah. Uh had to do it. Um just horrible. Horrible. And I will tell you, I have been listening to the book, the follow-up book, and I really like it. I just haven't had a chance to get back to it. Um, I listened to it on my way to Lake Placid back in November, and I haven't started it again, but I got a chunk of the way in. It was really cool. So I want to get through the rest of it. All right, Peg, what's next for you?

My next one, I'm gonna go a little bit uh conceptual, a little outside the box here. Not a physical threat necessarily, but the way it was portrayed and the way it was shown, and the way it was so poetically and terrifyingly done, the concept of death and mortality itself from Good Boy.

I wondered if you might do that. Yeah. Um yeah, I'm I'm not surprised. Um not on my list, but easily could have. Could have been. Um so that leaves me with one. And this one shouldn't be a surprise. It took us a very long time to cover this movie. Like we should have covered it ages ago. Especially given the love that we have for Lee Wan L. Yeah. Um, Jigsaw from Saw.

Mm-hmm. Also another honorable mention on mine. It's just iconic horror characters for sure.

Yeah, I mean, it's just we had some some cool threats this season.

So I do have one more, and I said it would come up in a different way. And that is where Genu from K-pop Demon Hunters enters my threats. Uh, because for most of the movie, he absolutely is the main threat, challenging, attacking, combating, and trying to stop the good side of that movie. Is there an incredible arc? Does he kind of come out heroic in the end? For sure. But he is still a major villain of that movie for most of the movie.

He kind of is, but I always felt like like Guima was like the main villain like behind the scenes.

Of course, yeah.

Like he who brought walks behind the rose.

Yeah. But if I had to pick one that I wanted to give a little more spotlight to, it's like between Guima or Ginu. It's like Ginu is the more fun character of.

Well, it isn't who is the most fun. It's who's the most lethal, I guess. Anyway. Alright. I think we have a clear winner in this one. We only overlap all the time. Honestly, I would have sworn that we were gonna go in this direction anyway. Like, to me, that's where we were headed.

Yeah, so yeah, Gladys from Weapons. So, you know what, Amy Madigan, since you're out there and you're definitely listening to this, we wish you super well. I don't when does this come out in accordance to the actual Oscars?

So, the Oscars are when? The 15th?

Mm-hmm.

Okay. So we have Jurassic World Rebirth coming out this week. Frankenstein comes out the week after. This comes out, this episode comes out the Thursday before.

Oh, perfect.

So, Amy Madigan, we wish you the very best of the.

Yeah, so as people are listening to this, there's still don't know for sure. We've still came in another wire. So, Amy Madigan, yeah. Good luck with Best Supporting Actress this weekend at the Oscars. But you know what? If you don't take that one, you got something better. You got a riffle award.

We got you covered here.

You know? Because I mean, you win the Oscar, that's cool, but it's no riffle.

So, honorable mentions. I had Amber's Monsters from Sketch. They weren't as terrifying, but I just they were so much they were so fun. Uh the Kaiju from Pacific Rim, Volcano from Volcano, The Fire from The Lost Bus, and Martin Krebs from Jurassic World Rebirth. Because he was pure evil.

Yeah.

This is one that I didn't have a whole lot. It's like three, and two of them I already mentioned because the Frendos and uh Jigsaw are already part of that. So the only one that I didn't mention um is Amelia from Megan 2.0, the the new AI bot person. It was fun.

That, yeah. Oh my gosh. Alright. So, um, we are moving on to main character peg.

Right. Lead us up. We have to start start this one. This won't be the first time we've had a character nomination not be a human character. I think we had a side character that won that was a cat. But I think this might be the first time a main character has gotten a nomination as an animal, and that is definitely Indy from Good Boy, who has also picked up real life. This isn't a real life award. It is. The revels are prestigious, but also has won other big awards for that. This dog. Yes. Top dog for sure.

Absolutely so much so. Paik Indy is also on my list. Had to do it. So incredible what Ben Lienberg was able to do in that movie and all that emotion and get that out of the dog. Oh my gosh, Indy. Oh. We don't need to have a good boy too, but I'm just so happy that we got a good boy because I feel like it was such a great um concept.

Yes.

And we had a great discussion about it. Okay, my next one is Barbara from Night of the Living Dead 1990.

Yes. Honorable mention for me. And I have to specify from 90. Uh not the original 68 Barbara.

No, this Barbara, oh my gosh. She's fantastic.

Mm-hmm. Took the original version and turned it on its head a little bit and did something cool with it.

Oh Tom Savini, thank you for giving us badass Barbara. Thank you.

Alright. Speaking of badass female characters making a comeback in a way. Definitely the main character, and we talked about it. It was a whole point when talking about this movie, is this was really the main character role for this character, is of course Gwen Blake from Black Phone 2.

Gwen Blake from Black Phone 2 was also on my list of top five.

Mm-hmm.

Had to be, right?

Yeah.

Okay. Next one for me. Um. Alright. I I listed these two as a duo because I had to do I had to do it this way because I couldn't split them up and decide which one was the main character better. So it's Andy and Piper from Bring Her Back.

Okay. Um I have one of them. I did split one.

You did, of course you did.

And I have one of them in my uh not just but in my top five is one of the nominations, and I went with Piper on that.

Okay. So we kind of crossed over there.

Yeah, I mean, definitely just kind of a main focus. Maybe doesn't have as many like heroic or kind of, you know, action kind of scene kind of things, but still the emotional center of that movie in a lot of ways. And also just again to give the props to Sora Wong who played her. This was really her like first film. She did not have any kind of background or experience in film and to just throw into this movie and give such a performance like that.

It was fantastic.

Yeah.

I hope that she gets to do more. I'm really hoping that we're gonna hear of her doing another movie, maybe another horror movie, maybe we'll get to see her in something, you know, that we can cover again because I really honestly the cast of that whole movie was great, and I really am hoping that we'll get to see more. Right now, there's nothing on her credit list, so we'll have to wait and see, but but maybe.

Yeah. Uh next one for me on my list, which I talked about being two sides of the coin, could be either so still Jacob Alordy's Frankenstein's monster, the creature, as a main character for me, just Incredibly well done. Again, when we talked about, I mean Frankenstein was last week, so this is very new for us. Uh but just like I was not very familiar at all with Jacob Alordi, and for him to really blow me away with this movie and just be like Again, it's that like emotional beat where like you think, like, yeah, he's the monster, we get it. And then seeing the story told from his point of view and the things that he went through and the like lesson he learned, and man, it's it's just a really powerful character and really well done.

We talked about it, it's love. It's like the love that we got to see, which is just not always apparent when you're watching a Frankenstein movie.

Yeah.

Okay. Uh last one. It was really hard for me to pick between two because there was one that I wanted to pick. And I'm like, no, I think I've got to go with the other one. And that is Rumi from K-pop Demon Hunters.

Yes. Honorable mention for me. She is in there. Uh yeah, huge uh arc and and lessons learned in that as well. Important. So my last official nomination, uh again, when it's it's hard to argue between who's the main character, and I think for you, you would give that probably to his sister, but that's my boy. And it's just like sometimes when I really go into these movies, uh it's the characters that I see a lot of myself in, especially my younger self, that's similar traumas and similar things. And so Jack Wyatt, Jack, the older brother from Sketch, just like really I was just so touched by like him as a character, as a brother, as a rock that's also focused on care so much that he forgets to care for himself, and seeing just a lot of that, it's I had a very cathartic kind of monologue talking about his arc, and it meant a lot to me just to kind of see that personified in a movie. And Jack's my boy.

He oh, so great. He and Amber were both on my honorable mentions list. So we have three crossovers with Piper, Indy, and Gwen.

Yes.

And I've I'm looking at it from two different um I think I I'm leaning towards there are two that I'm leaning towards and I'm just not sure. And now I'm looking something up because I I've got a weird feeling. Okay. Um, so I'm leaning between Indy and Gwen.

Okay.

And what what are you thinking?

Ah. It's tough. Um, because I really like Piper for it too. I really do. Um. So we go the Amy Madigan route. It's like Indy's actually getting all stuff out there. So it's not just us. But then uh Madeline McGraw. And I'll take this second second time she has brought that character into life for us and has been just been phenomenal.

And when we covered Black Phone, she won supporting character or secondary character.

And I just feel like So she's won an award for it all.

She has. But that I don't think should make us feel like we shouldn't pick her.

Right? Yeah.

Because I think that what she showed in this movie was it is such a step up from that. And the depth that was there.

And I don't know if we've ever had a character win awards more than once. Have a multi multi-awarded uh character. Maybe it's not a bad time to start doing that.

I know, but then you look at Indy and what Indy did in that movie and carrying that entire movie, and it's a dog. Like it's hard to and then looking at Piper and what Sora Wong did with that.

Yeah. It's a tough one.

Yeah. So it's hard to make a decision.

Mm-hmm.

We can't yeah.

I feel like I've narrow I'm narrowing in a little bit though.

Okay.

After what you said, I do kind of feel like I wouldn't be mad about giving it to Gwen again.

I know. I thought for sure that we would give it to Indy. Like, that's what I was thinking of where it was gonna go. And now it's like, uh. Man. It's so hard to make decisions so quickly. Like, once we get to this point and we know.

You just gotta like roll with it.

Oh man.

I don't Gut instincts sometimes.

Alright. Oh, I c I just oh, Peg, I'm so conflicted. Because I really want good boy to get some love. Oh okay. We we'll give it to Gwen. But it's I am going on record the comp the amount. of conflict, internal conflict I'm having right now about it is more than I should be having. But I can't help it.

It was a said there's some definite top like runners of this season for movies to where I I love giving it to Gwyn, but also like if it goes indie or Piper or you know it's like I would have been a hundred percent happy with either of those two because it's like yeah there's just some great performances. So it's like, you know, the awards are kind of gut feeling and it's fun but it's also like at the end of the day we're not like saying well this performance was definitely better or more important than this one. It they're all they've been some really great ones.

No, they're all very good. I think it's definitely it's definitely it was hard. Like I think the number of films that had multiple nominations there were more than maybe I was expecting which makes it even harder. Like because you're just looking across the board at movies or discussions that were fantastic but then breaking it down by character you have to look at it. And so yeah it's hard for me not to have Indiewood because I really that dog was fantastic.

Yeah. So honorable mentions Yeah I'll I'll run through mine. I do have a full uh quiver. Okay. Of honorable mentions all five um for this one so I'll run through them. Um I didn't think this movie was going to get anything from me but Ricky from Sleepaway camp just uh like uh uh like the cut of that kid's jib.

Um you know what I love that I got to expose you to that madness.

I don't know I want to use the word expose when talking about that was exposed to plenty of things um I think it fits perfectly Paik. Um also uh Charlie Hunnam's Raleigh Beckett from Pacific Rim uh Rumi from K-pop Demon Hunters Barbara from the Living Dead 1990 the Tom Savini and then lastly uh Matthew McConaughey's Kevin McKay is his you know performance of that in the lost bus.

Okay so I had Amber and Jack from Sketch um I also had Raleigh from Pacific Rim. I had Quinn from Clown in a Quinn Field Kevin McKay from The Lost Bus and The Creature from Frankenstein And so that brings us we're halfway through and that brings us to movie we're gonna go ahead and do Best Picture Best movie right now? Well I don't know should we do best picture?

I feel like we should and then director yeah let's do picture all right and I get to go first and this should be no shock to anyone my first pick is weapons same I had a feeling this one's gonna be a lot like I think I mentioned because I don't know if we were recording yet so a lot like Best Picture for the Oscars where you look at the nominations in that and it's like yeah those movies are also the ones that are multiple nominations in a bunch of different categories so it's kind of similar so like we're gonna be bringing up movies that we've already talked about and talked about those characters and stuff because like there's a reason that some of these movies and my favorite movies of the season is because they had great characters and great arcs and great things like that. Absolutely okay um so we share weapons and so the next one that I could feel like we probably also share and I don't know I don't know if we're gonna go five for five on here but this would maybe be one of the best chances too but uh Bring Her Back is in my top five for sure.

Mine also my next one is Good Boy.

Okay. It was in one of two honorable mentions.

I only had two because I was I just kept very tight on this category for some reason and I knew which I only have a couple yeah all right uh so the next one that makes my five is black phone two that's on my honorable mentions so we're not nailing it as far as I thought we would okay my next one is Sketch My other honorable mention yeah fun uh next one fresh on the brain but I really did talk about how much I just like surprisingly loved this movie uh Frankenstein Yep uh honorable mention all right and is this my last one I think so I only have one left okay my last one is a movie that I was not prepared to love as much as I did but I think it came along at a very cathartic point and helped me verbally process some things.

Yeah and it's also my last nomination that made my top five also we're back on track together.

We're back on track together at the end hunters that's how it's done done done right yeah now you would be golden in that guess yeah it just it had to be it had to be like again it came along at a time that I didn't realize I needed it and didn't even realize it until we started talking about it how it was yeah how I really connected with it at a time that I was needing to process through some things so we overlapped on three weapons, bring her back and k-pop demon hunters a case can be made for all three of them I do have one I'm leaning to two that are it's very hard. Yeah but like I think if I had to just like make a quick decision right now I think I could be very comfortable in making that okay it's hard for me I have to let go of wanting to make sure that all the movies get all the love that they can get because I just I feel like we discuss them while we do this.

So they still get the love and they don't get the final award. Because I yeah I knew there were gonna be some hard choices made um the one that was just like the most impactful or at least really made me think and I had so many conversations with so many people in my life outside of podcasting and just like stuff about the movie it's gotta be weapons for me I think okay um I'm okay with that I'm good with that. Bring her back is a close second for you. It is that was a surprise of the year for me for sure.

Yeah I was not prepared for that movie to be as dark as it was but I am super glad that we covered it and we need to cover their other one needs to happen.

Talk to me I have to do it next season.

And I have seen Talk to me already I haven't yet so the Philippus are just so good. They're like fresh new concepts I'm excited I'm excited about a lot of the horror direction like the directors that we have in horror right now are innovative and different and so I'm I'm into it. My honorable mentions Saw Clown in a cornfield and I think I already said Frankenstein. Yeah and black foam as well and black foam too yeah yeah I only had two I said I kept this one tight uh and you both of them were on your full list so sketch and good boy were my yeah honorable mentions yeah sketch was this was probably the biggest surprise to me this season as far as I didn't really know what it was gonna be and when we covered it it was such a yeah we'll get to it that brings us to directa I get to start off on the new category.

Yes this one's a gonna be interesting I haven't done this before but because I was like how do we look at it aside from just like our favorite movies but then I think with directors uh then a lot goes into I mean they don't always have a say in the casting but just the way that they work with certain people or the way that just like I don't know it is different than just like best movie because like the directors really put their own like what what's the message of the movie in a way kind of what what are they getting across sometimes and then sometimes it's just like I can look at just the s cinematics or definitely like the settings, the production, the things like that of the movie and like that they have a say in on set and how the the the masterpiece, the portrait that they paint. Um and then sometimes like this first one that I'm gonna name is just somebody setting out on a small budget doing something all on their own and seeing how it pans out and being a first time kind of in the world of film for a lot of people and just you know snagging something and and catching people's attentions with something small and that is Ben Lienberg with Goodboy is my first pick.

Yes um Ben Lienberg is also on my list as a pick. Because I think what he did with Good Boy is an example of what you can do when you're creative and innovative with no money and stretching it out and making things work.

Yeah.

He's also someone that I think we might be able to get an interview with.

Cool.

And so again starting smaller and building up we can't be interviewing Zach Kregger yet. Not yet eventually we're gonna get there okay so um my first one uh not a surprise probably Danny and Michael Philippo for Bring Her Back.

Yeah honorable mentions for me it's a tight one it's a tight it's a tough one because as much as I really did love Bring Her Back like Well when we get through the full list you'll maybe see where my game was at. Alright why they're there. I mean you have to give them the love but like again there's kind of a separation necessarily of like full movie versus or you know movie viewing versus just like the whole everything around it. I don't know. We'll see we'll see.

Okay. Alright.

They were great definitely honorable mention and love what they did there. Uh next one one of two directors this season with two films in the season um again just last week's episode but I went on and on and on and on about the work ethic and relationship you know building team building of the people he works with and that is just the incomparable wonderful Guillermo del Toro.

And you're Pacific Rim and Frankenstein this are you and which one are you nominating him for or are you nominating him for both? Okay.

Alright um just as a director that we talked about this season yeah.

Okay um so I nominated him for Frankenstein but I think we can count that as like okay it's overlap. So my next one is also a visionary um I didn't nominate any of the characters from this movie or anything else for this movie really. However the respect for the beginning where it all started way back in 1968 George A. Romero.

Yeah he's on my list as well for sure he is I mean the king of zombies yes of course yes he is we gotta bring Romero in on on that for sure so he's definitely in my top five as well okay uh next one um a name that gets mentioned so many times on this podcast we've covered two of his movies and even in when we're talking about movies that he had nothing to do with his name still comes up in conversations so often that is of course Zach Krager uh for bringing us weapons this season appreciate so much so much that he's also on my list and now uh I'm done all of mine have been listed.

Really? Okay.

Yep. Danny and Michael Philippu, Zach Krager, Ben Lienberg, George A Romero, Guillermo Del Toro.

Yeah, alright. Then I have one left uh and that is the other director who gave us two movies to cover this season. Um neither of those movies have gotten like super deep love in a lot of these categories but he is just great on like creepy supernatural horror or just like intense spectacle that is James Wan.

I've always loved James Wan and the stuff he brings and so of course early on in this season the first episode of the season we got the conjuring and then he was also the man behind Saw so yes he brought us things to terrify us always and forever and he's involved in things going forward. There has been talk that he's going to be involved in the next Saw. So we'll see I would love it personally if he and Lee Wanan would come back together and give us like one final movie to end the franchise but I don't know what's gonna happen. So we'll see yeah so Paik that gives us a very difficult decision there are four that we overlap on Zack Kreger Ben Lienberg Guillermo del Toro and George A Romero. Yeah all for different reasons all for different reasons Zack Kregger you don't even have to say another word other than weapons and that's enough okay Ben Lienberg what he did with Good Boy and his vision was fantastic George A. Romero in his original movie that started the entire world of zombies for us that still 60 years later is going I mean it's crazy. And then Guillermo del Toro and we haven't even covered all of his movies that fit our podcast so they're all great and it's it's tough.

Uh I think I have one that I'm I'm I'm leaning into more it is tough and it's like second and third and we're like very close but but again that just like if you make if I'm forced to just like gut feeling give me an answer right now I think I comfortably could be okay with doing so it's always harder for me.

And I look at things differently like I look at well Guillermo del Toro did two movies that we covered and we loved like and really enjoyed covering this year.

Yeah.

Um Romero like I said started a world Crager Lienberg I I don't know like in my heart it the thing is my heart and my brain don't agree at all because my heart wants to go with Romero because of what he started my brain wants to go with Del Toro. Alright well my answer was Del Toro for Director then I think we go with Del Toro for Director.

Kregger's a close second for me just because again we we talk about him so much. Clearly we have an affinity for him.

But but I think Del Toro is just one of those guys that I mean he's really forever and he gets it he understands it he knows he does deserve it gets it he knows what he's doing man it's still hard though go with Del Toro.

I am just so hard so honorable mentions Danny Michael Philippo bring her back. Philipu's definitely honorable mention it's you know the first thing I've seen from them and I know they've got other great stuff out there that I want to go check out now. I want to watch their other movie. Um also Eli Craig Clown in a cornfield but just he's we've covered two of his other movies. That's the third movie of his we've covered and I always have a fun time with his stuff.

We need another clown in a cornfield I'm ready for let's do the sequel. Like let's make a sequel because I I feel like I need it.

Yeah yeah I also had to make sure to give some love to Scott Derrickson Blackphone 2. And then lastly I have one last one is similar to Ben Lienberg uh a director that is new to us was not familiar with at all that gave us something was a big surprise and was not expecting that is Seth Warley the director of Sketch.

Agreed. So my honorable mentions Seth Warley for Sketch, James Wand for what he gave us in Saw and the Conjuring Eli Craig for Clown in a cornfield which I feel like has not gotten enough good love from us for the amount of fun that that movie was um and Scott Derrickson for Black Phone 2.

Uh-huh yeah so closest we matched on four out of the five we made yeah and then even with honorable mentions we made up for those and and matched up a lot. And it doesn't surprise me that out of all the categories this would be the one where we were the most aligned.

We don't talk about the movies that we're gonna cover like if we even if we see one that we if we know we're gonna cover it it fits we don't talk about it. But we can talk about the director and we do talk about the directors and so I feel like we align on that because we have a lot of similar thoughts on what we like in a movie and director is a big part of what gives you that. Alright and that brings us to the final category I'm starting to get excited about what our listeners think and what they're gonna pick. Um it's been such a fun season.

Um okay best episode I don't know if there's anybody who's listening to this as their first season but maybe we might have some so again difference between movie that we did a little bit ago versus episode is yeah the movie just on itself watching. Now we're looking more just on after the movie, after the notes, after the prep, the recording of the episode itself, the conversations we had, the jokes that were made, the guests that we had things like that. So more about the episode of Run for Your Lives that we put out around this movie or things sometimes you know there are episodes that we don't cover movies and those are eligible in this category.

Um my first episode is Pacific Rim. Okay great same how much fun it was to have my two of my worlds collide and have Vincent come on and talk about Pacific Rim. I mean we nerded out for a couple of hours and probably could have nerd out for even more like we were having such great conversation and so yeah Pacific Rim.

Yeah and he he may be too humble to like me saying this if he listens to but but but also gives us some street cred because now forever on I can always say like oh yeah when we had an Olympic gold medalist on our podcast. And that's always cool. So I do enjoy that this one will be a huge surprise and nobody will ever see it coming because we I definitely haven't said anything about my love for the movie Or the characters, the directors. Weapons. Again, you know, like we have like fun episodes, and I won't I don't know if I'd categorize this episode as fun, but like, but also, yeah, because I love getting into those really deep conversations in this movie. Write out some really heavy conversations about some very heavy and deep and dark and you know those that subject matter that's just like alright, buckle in, we're digging into it. But I always do really love those two because like gives us a chance to just to like really like break into like important things and give our our thoughts on stuff and kind of you know talk through just things that like I don't know, maybe maybe it helps people. Maybe, I don't know. Do we give ourselves that much credit? I don't know. But but I I do like those episodes where we really get to dive into, even if it's really like dark subject matter and and and tough things. Uh trauma and you know, things like that. With it's a lot of trauma movies we love to cover, and as dark and depressing as they can be, they they lend some of our conversations.

Conversations are movies like this. Or like Monster. I always go back to Monster and the discussion we had. It's like therapy during the movie, like movie discussion. We just keep talking through things and it's like a verbal processing. Um shouldn't surprise you that that is also on my list. Uh but my next one is Clown in a cornfield. Had to pick it. It is not and now, honestly, it has not gotten enough love today. It needed more love because it's so wonderful.

Yeah. It's a fun one for sure. Uh next one. Mix a little bit of uh two of the previous ones we talked about. Uh heavy subject matter, great conversations, also having really cool guests on. Black Phone 2. We finally got to have our friend Sam come on and talk with us and get to hang out with her for an episode, and break into, again, just like some really deep personal conversations about like a.

I think Sam was the perfect guest for that movie. I'm so glad that she came on, and that was also on my list. Oh boy. Okay.

Um so three for three. Got it. We're running good so far.

Uh, this is my last one because uh weapons, Pacific Rim, Clown in a Cornfield, Black Foam 2. So I only have one left, Pake. This one were three for four.

Not three for three, it's three for four.

This one was deep subject matter, talking about grief. It was difficult, but it also the conversation to me was just so good, and that is sketch. Uh-huh.

Also in my top five, yeah. For those reasons, uh, again, as going into it, being like, I didn't know what to expect from this, because it's like a kid-friendly movie on like a Christian faith-based streaming service, and it's like, oh man, what are we getting into? Like, this could go some several different ways, uh, not all of them great. And it ended up being such a deeply like moving movie about grief and love and self-acceptance and the conversation we had that was deep, but also a deeply funny movie in a lot of ways, too, that I think we had some really great laughs. And so, yeah, that one's easily in my top five as well. It was one of the bigger surprises of the season.

Again, like you said, we did not know what we were getting into, and it ended up exceeding my expectations so much that I now am following them, the the company that the platform that it was on, to see if anything else pops up that would fit. And I want to see what the director's gonna do next. Because I think there's a lot of um possibilities.

Mm-hmm. Alright, so then last one being named, that I guess is not gonna be a winner. It's not gonna cross over, but gonna give it a nomination anyway, which I guess is a little surprising that it's coming from me and not you, after conversations we've had. But it is K-pop Demon Hunters. I I think just in general, without getting into the weeds or explaining, that episode recording came right off the back of like the not best mental space for either of us, I think, at the time. It was just kind of like a uh, I don't know if we can record, but we're gonna have to do it anyway. And then it ended up being, I think, exactly the movie we needed at the time to talk about. Uh yeah, it just kind of worked out that way. And then just a lot of the stuff and talking about the music and being able to like have a deep conversation that was very cathartic in a lot of ways, but also just like nerding out about like some like the culture stuff, like the Korean culture and the music, and it was just hit on a lot of different things a lot of fun.

That was the movie we needed that night. It hit.

Yeah.

I ended up feeling so much better after recording because of that movie and because of our discussion. And sometimes it works out that way. Sometimes you just end up with the right movie at the right time, and um, it's on my honorable mentions, almost made my list because again, for the same reasons. So that gives us three four? No. Four overlapping Pake. Four.

Yeah, Pacific Rim, Weapons, Black Phone 2, and Sketch.

It's very tough.

Um as I've said, if I had to give an answer right away, I wouldn't feel comfortable at all right now with that. I don't I don't know at all. This one is harder. Although I do now feel the pull towards one. I feel it. It's going, it's going there. It's going there. I'm not saying what it is right now because I'm letting you work out your own process, whatever it is, but I'm leaning somewhere.

I have a terrible process because now after talking about it, I want to give it I honestly want to give it to one that wasn't in my top five. But um for so many reasons, I do. But I also honestly I'm failing one. I'm failing one. I don't think it's the same one as you. I don't think so. Um hasn't gotten enough love tonight. Uh gotten a little. Um I'm leaning towards Pacific Rim. And you're leaning towards Black Phone too.

Okay.

No.

No.

No. My heart is leading me towards sketch, honestly, which is a surprise. Oh. I didn't even think that that would be a thing. But it is.

I feel like I've given the sketch love the all night has been me giving the sketch love. I've tried to make it love tonight. I've given love with it. Oh man. And again, honestly, it might and I think it could just be because it we didn't record it that long ago. But I'm also like thinking, why didn't I put K pop Demon Hunters in my top five? Because it was a movie I needed at the time. It really was. Um But again, Sketch is in my top five for a reason. And I don't like having to pick between episodes that we had guests on because it's like this one.

I know. I have to try to separate that because I'm like, it's not if we don't pick that one, it's it doesn't, it's not because of that guest or anything. It's like, we had a great time with you, but like, not to say that like we like episodes where you're not on them. No. Gotta separate a little bit. Um that's why I try not to take it too seriously because I'm like, you know what? Even if it doesn't win the award, the point of us picking our own five separately is to make sure that we share the love with a lot of things. So for listeners here, even you know the ones that don't win, like all of these ones that we're commiserating over choosing, if you haven't listened to those episodes and watched those movies, that's like a good call for you to be like, hey, while we're taking a break after this episode, before the next season, yeah, there's your episodes to go listen to for each season.

Oh, I just agonize over this. I need to have a much different approach to it. Alright. Um we'll go with sketch.

Okay. I was gonna say, but it's finalized, so can't go back. Because I was gonna say, like, I think tonight we've we've like really battled and like uh even had to like haggle over some of them. Like, you get this and I get that. We've had harder seasons. Tonight went a little, I think you just kind of acquiesced most of them, I think, over to me this episode. And I would have been okay with you fighting for them a little more, but also like I like it was easier.

I don't know. I mean, we both have them on our list for a reason, and that just makes sense for that. I'm excited for like I won't I want to know what our listeners loved this season. And what they might like us to cover next season, because I love hearing from them, like what they might like. But yeah. So, Peike, you wanna remind everyone what we picked? So that oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Yes, that that winds up, wraps up another. We I see now I'm just gonna do that. Honorable mentions.

Um I already said K-pop demon hunters, uh Frankenstein really loved our conversation about that. The Lost Bus. Bring her back. Those are my honorable mentions. Oh, and Piranha, because it was an absolute ridiculous conversation. It was so much fun.

Just silly times. Uh all right, my honorable mentions for episodes. Uh one of the non-movie episodes, the movie movie game. Um, just because it was the first, uh, it was something new. Because like the other ones, like we've done outtakes and bloopers before, we've done chats with us before, we've done quote quits. Oh, yeah. It was great for you to quote quits. Okay.

You know why you didn't know. So I don't know how well I feel about it. Um yes.

I think I'd just gotten home from uh vacation that I had driven 13 hours straight.

Not straight, I broke it up into two days, but still I did all the driving for It was wild that we did that because Um Because we don't know how to be kind to ourselves and just say, you know what, we're not gonna post an episode this week. Peg's coming back. But we hadn't recorded the week before because I had been gone too. Like it our vacations or trips this last year were like boom boom. We didn't record for like two weeks at a time, and yeah, that used up a lot of banked episodes. I don't think this year, yeah.

Yeah. But uh movie movie game was an a newer thing that I I got to try, and I think we had a lot of fun with, so give that a shout out. And then I was doing it with random movies and TV shows and stuff, but then also I had like a whole section of them that were all the Red Your Lives movies. It's fun. Um And then as far as other movie episodes that I really had a good time just talking about them. Good Boy for sure was one of them. Uh Better Watch Out, just holiday specials are always just fun for me. I I enjoy it's the holidays, it's Christmas, so it's it's fun to just kind of talk about those movies. Uh Jurassic World Rebirth, honestly. Um, just because I like to like nerd out about dinosaurs, but then also I think it's the first Jurassic movie that you were even okay with me just like riffing the whole time and just like poking fun at things and just it was like I got to get away with doing uh mostly jokes and bits and notes on a drastic movie.

We were in the theater together. And I told you at the beginning, I don't care about the plot. I just want to see the dinosaur. I don't care about the plot, I just want to see the dinosaurs. That's it. That's that's what I want. And and that's what I got, except for oh no, that one dinosaur.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Uh yeah. And then lastly, uh Frankenstein as well. Just we it wasn't even as I mean, there were some deep conversations. It wasn't like super like heavy, but it was just like the great, like the themes and stuff of of love and humanity in that was great to talk about.

But then we like nerded out on like again, Del Toro and like a lot of the like technical side of that movie because of the things it's nominated for and stuff that we kind of like dive into those and we could definitely do an episode about directors, like in general, just like who our favorites are. Because I think we'd have some overlap, but I also think that we might not. And it could be fun just to talk about it. Um maybe we could get our friend Jeff to come on and talk with us because he also m being into the Oscars like you, yeah, probably has some pretty cool thoughts about it.

So now that winds up, wraps up another Riffle Awards finale special. So, one last time, just so we have the official awards and the the graphic will go out maybe in a couple days we might wait.

Uh uh a little bit after it uh it drops, but I usually don't post it until like mid the week after because I want people to be able to listen and not be spoiled.

Yeah. So that'll come up like next week sometime during the break. Then we'll get the official graphic. But you heard it here first if you're listening to the episode. Um yeah, run back through. I'll try to do them in the order we did them. Uh so best side character officially goes to Elliot Hopkins from The Lost Bus. So the best threat, Gladys, from Weapons. Then Best Main Character went to Gwen Blake from Black Phone 2. Then we had Best Movie Weapons. Best Director, the first time winner of this award, inaugural winner of the Best Director Riffle Award, Guillermo del Toro. And then lastly, best episode of the season for us was Sketch.

I think that is pretty fantastic. And we did show a lot of love to most of the movies. There's some that we barely mentioned. It doesn't mean that we didn't enjoy covering them, it just meant that there were some that stood out more than others.

Yeah. There was definitely a good handful of movies that were just like head and shoulders above everything this season in just terms of a lot of different things, whether it was character arcs and stories, directing, uh just the conversations we got to have, the enjoyment of watching those movies, either returning to them or watching them for the first time.

Yeah, lots of greatness. It's been Born Week since you It's been a fantastic season. It's been 250 episodes of friendship and fun and discussions. I don't even want to think about the number of hours that means that we've recorded. Um but it's been so much fun.

Yeah. That's a another season in the bag. Got it there. I will be back with you in just a little bit. Hopefully, you know, give you some shout-outs and things to listen to in the meantime and stuff like that. And then how would I almost forget the feedback phone? Because hopefully, yeah, we've got your thoughts on your favorites from this season. So that's all we answer that and go check that out. Okay. Alright, and of course we do have some feedback for this week, the season finale. Um, and we'll go ahead and start with before breaking down the whole season favorites and stuff and some thoughts on this finale episode from people. We do have one little bit of feedback to go to last week's final movie of the season, Frankenstein, and Daphne, take it away.

So, uh Tony sent us this message. Uh, what a wonderful movie. I love these gothic horror movies that we are getting lately. A beautifully acted and directed movie. The set designs were magnificent. I love the wall mural of Medusa in Dr. Frankenstein's lab. Thanks for covering it. Yeah.

Yeah, they have been good with this, and then a lot of people have kind of talked about Nosferatu as well as being in that vein. And then I know Eggers, who did that one, has got like a werewolf movie coming up in the near future. So it'll be interesting. Yeah.

I'm really excited. I feel like we have been really spoiled by these gothic movies, and it seems like it's this nod to the old school, like monster movies. And I love it. It honestly makes me want to cover some of the older movies like The Invisible Man and uh Yeah, it makes me want to go back to some of those that we haven't covered, really.

We just might have to. Yeah. Alright, and then for this season favorites feedback, uh, this episode here, of course, the first one coming from Catherine says, I hadn't seen 11 of the movies covered. And I think that means she hadn't before and then and then did see them. So 11 movies a season that were first-time watches for her, I assume, is what that means. Because I think we got feedback from her pretty much every week. We did, if not mistaken. So yeah, that's awesome. Uh, I love that we can sometimes force people to watch other movies. We have power.

And not just each other, because I feel like sometimes I kind of did this year with piranha and with Sleep Boy Camp. I kind of expose you to those, and now they live in your head rent-free.

Yes. Uh but anyway, yes, she says I hadn't seen eleven of the movies covered. My favorite of this season is The Lost Bus. I hadn't heard of it, didn't know it was based on a true story until the end, and it kept me hooked the entire time. Bring Her Back stood out as an amazing movie that I will recommend, but we'll probably never watch again. Totally understand that. Uh she also says, I couldn't pick my favorite characters, there were just too many, but the dog in Good Boy deserves some recognition. My favorite episode was Pacific Rim with guest Vincent Xiao. The sleepaway camp and piranha episodes, as you mentioned those, were really fun too. And an interview with Ronda sounds like a good reason to re-watch Tremors. Do you ever need a good reason?

Uh rewatching Tremors on the weekly could be something that you could do.

Yeah.

It's just got that camp and fun, and yeah, it's one of those great rewatchable films.

Yeah, if you did check that out. And then yeah, uh hope you enjoyed that interview and stuff as well. Again, one more time. Thanks for Finn thanks to Finn Carter for for coming on and chatting with us at the beginning of this.

Definitely. It was so much fun to talk to her. Sam says, Woo-hoo, congratulations, hard won accomplishment, and an interview with an OG Tremor star, Epic. The main standout hero for me is Indy. I'm biased. He's the best boy. He can sit and stay next to Frodo the Cat from last year. Just my two cents.

That's another one for Indy. You know, and if you've listened to this, it was close. You almost got it. You almost did. It was Yeah.

It was hard. Oh, so hard.

Mm-hmm. And then lastly, just a little note from Becky that just says, Love this. Congratulations. And I don't know if that's about the 250 or the movies or the interview, maybe all of it. But either way, thank you, Becky.

Thank you, everyone, who has continued to write in this season. We have been building more and more feedback each week, some weeks more than others. And it's just amazing considering we've been doing this for 10 seasons and to still be getting new listeners who are sending in feedback. It it just makes us feel warm and fuzzy.

Yes.

And I am very grateful. If you want to prepare for next season by chatting with us during the off season, you can check us out on the Podcastica Discord server. There is a Run for Your Lives channel there. And during this little break, we'll, or at least I'll be hanging out there from time to time. So you can come on and leave us messages and let us know what you might like us to cover next season. We've got a ton of movies on our wheel already, but we can always use more. And sometimes we're looking for something very specific to cover, like maybe one that's a little scary but with more humor involved. And so we we'd love those suggestions because it helps us. Um so we'll be there. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Run for Your Lives Podcast, or you can email us at RunFeyourlies Podcast at gmail.com. You can go to RunFoo Your Livespodcast.com for all the links that you'll ever need. If you're enjoying the show, tell your friends. We are available on all the podcast players, including Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and more. If you feel so inclined, drop us a review on Apple Podcasts as that is the best way to share the love and get us out there even more. We really appreciate it.

Absolutely we do. Appreciate it a lot. So yeah, reach out and say hey. Um and of course, speaking of sharing the love, gotta give those shout-outs to things going on in the podcastica universe around us and beyond. A lot of good stuff for you to check out now and soon. Of course, the Cast of Us continuing their Walking Dead rewatch. Jason and Jonathan covering season six, episode two this week, and then whoever else Jason has on with him going through season six for the next several weeks, so you can definitely just continue to check that out. Uh, a lot of good coverage there. And then, of course, Severance coverage with Jason and Karen over on Wax Episodic. They'll be continue running through that. They got episodes four and five this week. Uh, Handmaid's Tale podcast is coming back very, very soon. Um, and I'll let you kind of say some more about that.

Yeah, so Jason, Wendy, and I are going to be covering the new series, The Testaments. It's on Hulu. The first three episodes are dropping on April 8th. We will have our podcast ready to drop that day, too, so you'll have something to accompany you as you go through the process and we go back to Gilead. Um, we're going to continue the same stance that we had for the last season of the Handmaid's Tale, which is we will likely get political. We're not going to shy away from talking about those connections. And we hope that you'll be on that journey with us. And we plan to start dropping those episodes the day that the episodes drop on Hulu. So you can check that out.

Awesome. So yeah, definitely stay tuned uh for next month to check that out when that happens. Um, and then as I say, beyond a lot of other great stuff over at Pirate Core Entertainment Podcast Network, our good friend Mark at the helm of that doing some really cool stuff. Of course, he has teamed up with Dimitri and launched a new podcast covering Monarch Season 2 right now that's going on. Uh that is also joint uh effort with Podcastica as well, so you can get that at the podcastica.com feeds and stuff over there. Uh so yeah, Monarch Legacy of Monsters season two, so you can check that out. Uh great coverage over there. And you if you've listened to this podcast for a while, you know Mark and his love for all things Godzilla, so of course he's doing the Monsterverse stuff there.

Uh yeah, and I actually, through another friend of ours, Levi, helped Mark find a co-host. And Dimitri may be as big of a nerd about Godzilla and Kaiju as Mark, and they're just killing it together. They both just love it. The passion, you can hear the passion.

So, yeah, so if you're a a big kind of Toho, Godzilla, Monsterverse, all of the above, some of the above, whatever in there, go check out their coverage over there. On KaijuCast. And then, of course, What's On Tonight, bringing the big stuff with the pit. I mean, just critically acclaimed, loved by audiences everywhere. I yeah, I mean, the pit is a huge deal, and Becky and Andy have been just absolutely killing it over there, not just with the coverage of the show, but then getting all kinds of like really cool interviews and stuff over there. So, I mean, you can check out recent interviews right now over there with uh Shane Hartline, who plays Mr. Phillips, and Ernest Harden Jr., who plays Louis Cloverfield. So, yeah, they're just bringing in all the best for interviews and stuff. So if you're a fan of the pit, check out their coverage, listen to their interviews. Becky and Mandy are top of the top. Absolutely go give them some love. And then we gotta give a shout out to our friends at TV Podcast Industries as well. Of course, as I've mentioned the past several weeks, they covered all the Wonder Man stuff over on Disney Plus. Another fun thing about TV Podcast Industries is they do their pub quiz episodes at the end of series or seasons and stuff, where they'll, you know, if you were paying attention to the show while watching and listening to their coverage, they've got some pub quiz stuff for the fans, so definitely check out that one to kind of wrap that up with the questions and the quiz. I think they give away like even like some kind of prize or something.

They do.

They have a lot of fun with that, so definitely go check that out as well. And so, uh, yes, but I will get into it in just a second. We are taking a little bit of a mid-season break after this, but that doesn't mean you can't still hear me and Daphne every week for the foreseeable future. Uh, if you still want to, you know, get some new, fun, fresh Daphne and Paik in your ears, um, then you can check out the Buffalo Buffalo podcast. Uh, we're joined by our friends Jeff and Jerry, and we're gonna keep on going every week on that one. We're still having a blast over there playing games, hanging out, making each other laugh, or scream and cry. I don't know.

Uh yeah, some weeks, uh maybe closer to screaming, but not yeah, you know what? It's so much fun, and there's an episode coming up, I think it's episode 92, that I had a little surprise for the boys of Buffalo.

Yeah.

So you have to check that one out. It's gonna be fun.

92 episodes. We're almost at 200. It's crazy. That's a joke for you. If you've been listening to that podcast, uh definitely do.

Um Jerry.

So, yeah, definitely check that out. Uh, and then after plugging Buffalo, of course, is you know say, well, Daphne, what are we doing next week? But uh, as I mentioned, you know, we've said it like a billion times, this is the season finale, so we are gonna take our little midseason break. Sometimes we'll usually give you like a and then we'll be back at this time. However, don't fret, but we don't have exact uh date. Just, and you know, I won't speak for for Daphne, but at least for myself, um, I need a little bit of an extended break. I've been doing a lot of stuff, whether podcasting and also just in personal life, and just been super, super busy. So I came to Daphne and was like, after this season, take a little bit of an extended break, and I don't know exactly how long that's gonna be. I don't think it's gonna be a super duper long time, but but enough to where I can't give you a concrete answer of like we're coming back in exactly a month or something like that. But um I don't think it'll be too long, but just taking a little break. So definitely stay tuned to our uh socials and on Discord and stuff and chat with us. And if you're following us, you'll be the first to know when we're coming back. Once we decide, we will let you know. Just taking a little bit of a break. It's spring break, you know, we gotta have our own in a way. Um so yeah, a lot of stuff going on. It's it's already shaping up to be a busy year, but like getting ducks in a row, getting stuff figured out, letting myself rest when I have a chance. And we'll be back with you because we have so much cool shit that we want to do next season that we're already planning, so we won't be able to stay away too long, I know.

Yeah, and we've I know we've said before that we will bank episodes, like we'll record our movie episodes, and then we release them, we record the feedback at different times and we release them as we go. Um usually we take like it seems like we're gonna take more time, but we only end up really taking a week off in between, and then we start back up. So this time we're taking a few weeks in between. And so we won't start recording yet. We're gonna take some time and then we'll start recording and we'll bank some episodes and then we'll start releasing again. So that's kind of how it works, that's kind of how our schedule is. Um and as Peg said, we've got some really fun ideas for next season um beyond movies. And so we're gonna see what we can put together.

Yes.

And this gives us a little extra time to do that. Yeah. Um so yeah.

So yeah, so little warning that yeah, like the break between seasons will be a little bit longer than usual without with a indefinite time. However, it is also uh to tell you, but do not worry, I promise you we will be back. Uh just whenever. Uh, stay tuned. Um then there was something else I was gonna say. Oh yeah. And so, of course, in that downtime, you know, we go like these lookbacks and these riffle awards, we go back and like look at all the movies we've covered. Take this little extended time that we're not releasing new stuff. If there are episodes that you haven't listened to, either this season or even all kind of I mean, we've done nine full seasons previously of a lot of great movies and stuff. So, yeah, we've got a lot of stuff in the uh tank for you to go check out and listen to uh in our backlog. A lot of great movies and stuff out there, so can as we say, continue, yeah, tell your friends, point them in the direction of some really great episodes, and hopefully we'll, you know, have you hanging around when we come back.

Well, we have 250 episodes. Yeah. And if you take out the ones that are not movies, we still have at least 230 episodes that are movies.

Yeah.

So there's tons to listen to. And I think our chat episodes are also super fun and our quiz games. So there's tons of episodes for you to listen to in the interim. We will be back. Um, we're recharging our batteries right now.

Absolutely.

So that we're able to come back full force and be excited and into it. You'll get the very best Peg and Daphne when we come back.

So we're looking forward to it. See you then. Season 11. Holy cow.

I can't believe it. With that, we've reached the end of another fun episode and fantastic season. Thanks everyone for listening. I'm Daphne.

And I'm Peg.

And if you have to run, you better run for your lives.

Bye-bye.