555: One Cut of the Dead (2017)

[00:00:00] Hey, Zed Heads, welcome to the podcast. Lucy and I wrapped up the season one of The Walking Dead rewatch, and we had polled you guys on Facebook, for those of you on there, about

[00:00:59] whether you want breaks in between the seasons with movies. And, you know, I said we'll do Return of the Living Dead first because Lucy hadn't seen it yet, which I thought was really

[00:01:10] fun. And you guys voted yes by a big margin. I was actually kind of surprised. I thought it would be more even but people were like, yeah, do a break in between watching movie.

[00:01:18] So that's what we were going to do this week. But then Lucy got sick and she's not feeling good. And hopefully she's better soon. I think she actually is feeling a little bit better

[00:01:27] but anyway. One of the fun things about Return of the Living Dead is that she hadn't seen it. So I thought let's save that for our next break when she's here and instead bring in some other

[00:01:38] friends and cover another great zombie movie instead. So I have Randy and Kara here, two longtime listeners and also current podcast host. Welcome guys. Glad you're both interested. And hopefully Lucy feels better. I know. I know. That's too bad.

[00:01:57] So I'm hoping she's feeling better now. She had a doctor's appointment. Anyway. Yeah. All the best to her. So the movie that we're covering is called, you probably guessed by the title of the podcast, One Cut of the Dead. It's this

[00:02:12] acclaimed low budget 2017 Japanese zombie comedy, I guess. It got good buzz when it came out back in 2017. I remember when it came out, I'm like, Oh, interesting. Listeners started recommending

[00:02:27] it. I'd been meaning to watch it ever since, but I just never got around to it. So this seemed like the perfect time. I was glad, as I said, you guys were into it. I Googled the movie and found in

[00:02:38] the Rotten Tomatoes list of 40 essential zombie movies. It's at number one and above Night of the Living Dead, Train to Busan. I think part of that is that it's such a low budget movie.

[00:02:51] I didn't look, but it didn't have a lot of reviews and everybody was like, Yeah, it was good. And then some of these other movies, they can be polarizing or people might want to knock it down

[00:03:01] a peg or something. I think it has less than 100 total reviews. So you're probably pretty spot on about that. And the people who went to watch it wanted to see it. But still, that's cool that it

[00:03:16] has 100% on there. So anyway, we've now seen One Cut of the Dead and we're going to go into it like we always do. But before we get into it and get all spoilery, let's tell the listeners whether

[00:03:29] we recommend that they just stop the podcast and go watch it and come back or not. What do you guys say? Yes. Yes. Don't look anything up about it. Just trust us. Just trust. Go watch it.

[00:03:46] Yeah, I agree. I'm so glad I knew absolutely nothing other than people had said to watch it. That's it. Yep. Me too. I only knew a little bit, but just not enough to spoil it at all. So I would say

[00:04:02] I found it charming, clever, surprising. Interesting. Yeah, I guess I don't want to say too much and spoil it, but I would definitely say it's worth watching. I think my expectations were a little too high because of that number one in Rotten Tomatoes 40 Essential Zombie Movies.

[00:04:23] But I did like it a lot and I didn't think it was the most incredible thing ever, but I thought it was really enjoyable and I'm excited to talk about it. So yes, if you're

[00:04:32] typically the person who's like, I don't mind spoilers, you're going to ruin your enjoyment of it. So I would say if you're at all curious, go watch it. It's streaming on AMC Plus and Shudder

[00:04:41] from what I understand. Also it's rentable or buyable on all the usual platforms. So that said, let's get into it because now we're going to get spoilery. So Kara, just in general, do you have any general thoughts about it?

[00:04:58] I mean, I had almost no expectations going into it, even though you had mentioned how high it was on that list. Because I feel like usually, I don't agree that frequently with favorite or best of

[00:05:14] different genres. So I was like, I'm going to keep an open mind going into it. And I'm so glad that I did because I have not had this much fun watching a movie. And I'll tell you guys right

[00:05:29] now, the way my notes are divided is my stream of consciousness notes as I watched it. And then everything that I wanted to say afterwards, and I was reading over my stream of consciousness

[00:05:40] again. And I was like, yep, that was a wild ride. For sure. But charming, charming is a good word for it. I was not expecting that going in. Yeah, I think with this one, had I not been doing this for a podcast, I may have stopped watching it

[00:05:59] if I just found this on my own. So I like, once you get towards the end, I was literally like, getting so excited. I was like, oh my, oh man, it's like it's paying off. And that's,

[00:06:12] ah! Like I was laughing and I just, I was so surprised that like the turn that the movie made and it was, ah! Like as soon as I finished, I ran over to my wife and I was like, this movie's so

[00:06:23] good. You shouldn't, you should not know anything about it when you go to watch it. But I'm going to tell you everything about it right now because I have to just get this out of me.

[00:06:32] I told Jenny too. I think Alma, you know, who's been a great listener for years now and writes in all the time. I think she stopped before she got to the twist by the tone of her letter. I don't

[00:06:50] know if you're hearing me Alma, but you should go back. Keep going. Yes. You should definitely. Just power through. But I agree. I would have stopped it too if I did not know that it had been recommended and I wasn't watching it for a podcast.

[00:07:04] Interesting. I mean, I thought the way it started out, cause it's been a while now, but Charlie Adlard who draws, drew the Walking Dead comic, we had him on and Karen and I, and he recommended this 1970s horror movie Suspiria. And it is listed high

[00:07:23] in horror movies and we watched it and it was so like, well, seventies. And it's just kind of unpleasant from what I remember. And, but in a way that I think scratches an itch for people

[00:07:38] or something. And I kind of got that same vibe for this when I was trying to take it in as if this was the movie, you know, like it feels seventies, it feels low budget, but even that

[00:07:50] had some kind of a charm for me. I don't know. It was weird. Like things I'm like, why? There's so many little weird things that happened. I was like, wait, is the cameraman a part of it or not?

[00:08:04] That I was like, I need that. So I was relieved when we got to figure all that out. But anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. One of my points is just maybe we can work this out a little bit is

[00:08:17] I'm cause I don't know if this is going to work, but I was just going to go through the whole thing and talk about what was happening in the movie within movie. And then as I go

[00:08:29] through what we learned behind the scenes, do you think that's a good idea? And then we can all just talk through it together that way or will that work? That probably would be the most, I don't

[00:08:40] know, logical way to cover it. Otherwise it'd be kind of a mess. Yeah. It's almost like a multiverse and multiple timelines. You really got to organize this. But I want to do, I'm going to

[00:08:52] do my first point. I'm going to do podcaster's privilege, even though I have two guests and go first because I want to talk about... We fought. We had that fist fight, me and Cara before this.

[00:09:05] What was that about? That was for second. Who goes second? Okay. We see how it is. So my number one is wrapping my head around this movie. Basically, if I got it right,

[00:09:17] it's a movie about a man hired to make a movie that's about people making a zombie movie that's interrupted by actual zombies. So there's a lot of layers and levels there. But I think

[00:09:30] to get more of a handle on it, it felt a bit like a double feature, like two movies. So to start, we, the audience are basically watching the same live broadcast that everyone else was watching

[00:09:44] that night when they aired it. We saw it the same way they saw it. And it's this mysteriously weird horror where there's this meta aspect to it because even that is a zombie movie within a

[00:09:57] zombie movie because they're filming a zombie movie and that's the movie. But yeah, like I said, not a lot of things. Some things don't quite make sense. It has this low budget feel. And then the

[00:10:05] second movie is about how that movie was made with explanations for all the things that didn't make sense. And that had a way different tone. For one thing, there's cuts, but it felt like

[00:10:16] more of an upbeat comedy. It felt like a really odd shift that worked well with the themes of the movie, which I'll talk about later. But I think it was really good that we didn't get that context

[00:10:27] up front because our brains are working hard to figure out what the fuck was going on. And why and why? Why is the makeup artist? She's talking to her actors about martial arts and then

[00:10:41] the scene abruptly just pans outside to witness this zombie kill like why did that happen? Or why are there weird pauses in the dialogue? Why did the yeah, just why are the credits rolling

[00:10:53] when the movie is only halfway over? I found it to be kind of like a murder mystery where you see something play out and then later you see it play out from another whole other angle and

[00:11:05] think most of it was not exactly as it seemed. And that's really satisfying. It's like every episode of Poker Face. Honestly, I don't know if you guys watch that. Yeah, that's true. Really

[00:11:14] reminded me of that where you're like, Oh, wow, I thought I was seeing this, but it was actually something else. So that yeah, that definitely once that flip happened, I appreciated it a lot more

[00:11:25] and on a lot of different levels. So anyway, that's my I think that point that TV show on its own would have actually been kind of boring. If you knew all the context ahead of time,

[00:11:36] guys think picturing it if they had explained like all of that beforehand, and then we saw the final product, it just would be dull. Not this. Yeah, it would not hit the same way at all. So the way

[00:11:48] they show it is perfect. Yeah, if you're not going what, what is why? Why then it's not I was sitting there like, I had just listened to some of the Walking Dead coverage that you and

[00:12:02] Lucy were doing rewatching the show. So I was fully into zombie mode. And so I was sitting there taking notes. So it's just like, alright, so this is kind of a shitty zombie movie, but I like that.

[00:12:15] And at first, like when the guy when the zombie vomited, I was like, what the hell? I was like, there are vomiting zombies. I was like, I've never seen that before. And then I was like,

[00:12:26] well, that guy's gonna be infected because it's been his eyes, his mouth and all that stuff. And like going through it like that. And every single note that I have here is just like followed

[00:12:38] by a question mark. But I enjoyed the first like 37 minutes because it was kind of amusing. And as soon as the director started popping up just like randomly yelling action. I was just like, okay,

[00:12:54] I could get behind this. Also, I think because it was so highly rated. I'm like, there's there's more to this. And I'm waiting to see what it is, you know, if I hadn't. So on the plus side of that

[00:13:08] rotten, stupid rotten tomatoes thing, if I hadn't had that, then I might have been like, oh, this just sucks. I would have been much more confused. Yeah, yeah, it seemed like things were going to

[00:13:19] get answered and that there was more going on. There's something going. Yeah, that was I think, expanded or something. Yeah, I was writing notes the same way where I was like,

[00:13:30] all right, this is going to be the whole movie. So I need to start trying to figure it out now. So just like you, some of the notes that I have is do the zombies have to throw up and bite you

[00:13:40] for your turn? And I was like, okay, that's a new twist. Okay, that's weird. Which then of course, later gets answered. I'm like, all right, that arm got knocked off and thrown into the room.

[00:13:51] Yeah, it was very fast. I was like, did you know zombies have super strength too? Like, yeah, it's happening. And a lot of like, what the fuck? Question mark? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I kept wondering, is the cameraman? Yes. In it or not? Because,

[00:14:09] you know, you're seeing them have this conversation about martial arts right after the actress got chewed out by the director, then the director leaves and the two lead actors are there having their conversation with his maker. And it was a pleasant conversation. I thought I'm

[00:14:22] like, I guess the they're going to do karate on the zombies or something. So this is going to play into it later. And then but I'm like, is are they being taped? Is this just me watching a movie? Or

[00:14:35] is it like a found footage type deal where the person is in it? And then when the guy just left, he like followed the sound guy outside. And I'm like, okay, it seems like this is a character.

[00:14:50] Because then it looked like the cameraman threw the arm in, you know, later we see as a crew member. But then I'm like, okay, he's definitely a character. But then they kept ignoring the

[00:15:00] cameraman after that. So I'm like, well, maybe not. But then at one point, who was it? It was the zombie. I don't know the names, but the young actor guy who played the zombie,

[00:15:15] but was just playing a zombie and playing an actor playing a zombie. He he the makeup artist grabbed him by the hand and started to hurt break his hand. And he's like, she's breaking my hand,

[00:15:26] drop the camera and help me. And so I'm like, okay, the cameraman is a character, I guess. I don't know why he's being normal. But then you find out later, no, actually, she was really just

[00:15:36] breaking his hand. And he was actually calling for help. A couple layers of like, breaking the fourth wall. There were like three fourth walls that had to be broken through. Yeah, so confused. I was like, is he wired? If weren't any of these zombies going towards him,

[00:15:51] then if the whole premise is that it's, you know, an zombie movie interrupted by real zombies. I was like, why is he immune? Like what the hell is happening? And my background for the zoom call

[00:16:02] is the dropped camera, the drop camera. And at that point, I was like, oh, shit, he's dead. And then it just gets back up. starts going. And I was like, what is happening?

[00:16:13] I didn't quite understand what did happen there. Did the cameraman like bump his head or something? He is back. So he got like, his back was hurt. He had been cramping and making comments about

[00:16:25] his bad back. And so then I guess he like pulled it. And that's when that was like the PA girl or his assistant jumped in. The one who wasn't ready, supposedly.

[00:16:36] It was like a Blair Witch moment where it's just like, yeah, I'm on the side for a little bit. There's a couple other points though. Like I think the director looks at the camera and says keep

[00:16:46] filming. And that's like another point that he's there. But yeah, I agree. Like when he's running in between the actress and the zombie, I was like, oh man, okay, the cameraman is gonna get eaten, but he's not reacting to it. And you're just like, why is this happening?

[00:17:04] Yeah, that's right. That was a meta moment because if you think the cameraman is a character, then it makes sense for the director to tell him to keep filming because he's this deranged director who wants to capture his cast genuine reactions because it turns out the zombies are

[00:17:20] real. So he's telling him to keep filming. But then it turns out, okay, I don't think the cameraman is supposed to be a character. And he's just saying that because he knows that the producers see this

[00:17:30] thing is getting out of control and they're about ready to cut it off and put up a message. And he's like, no, just keep filming, which is kind of cool. Like double breaking the fourth wall.

[00:17:41] Yeah. You think of the director's motivation, he wants to film this happening, but he's not there most of the time. So then you're also like, well, if he wants this film, clearly this guy is here

[00:17:53] filming it for him or something like, but he keeps popping into this camera. It was hard to keep track of all the different kind of like, movie within a movie and made a

[00:18:06] meta moments not made up. Like the instance where, you know, they come around and wipe the blood off of the camera lens. Yeah. I was like, Oh, that's clever. Because you always want to do that. And

[00:18:18] like a horror movie is get the blood off to find out that that was actually the crew wiping it off, not supposed to be part of the movie. And when you find all this stuff out, like, because there's this

[00:18:32] element for sure of, oh, yeah, they pulled together and they got through it. And it was triumphant. But also, it was kind of shitty. It still felt like a triumph. Yeah. Well,

[00:18:48] should I just, I mean, we've, we've kind of talked around a lot of it. Should I kind of go through step by step and see if we can, let's start out that way and see how it goes. First off though,

[00:18:57] the first thing is kind of retroactively weird until it's explained. What I mean by that is once you realize that this is a movie within a movie, it's called true fear, by the way.

[00:19:07] And that this director guy was hired to direct it. Then once you realize that, because you find out in the middle, you see him talking with the producers get hired. They describe what we

[00:19:17] just saw. So like, okay, he's hired to direct this, but why was he in it then? He's directing it. And then, and then you see him at home and his wife has is doing martial arts. And I'm like,

[00:19:29] wait, she was in the movie too. And her character had the same hobby. And I'm like, am I in like some David Lynch dream logic thing, you know, and it turned out to be a much more

[00:19:40] practical explanation that the two actors playing those characters were in an accident and they had to go live in a couple hours. So they just jumped in and it was kind of satisfying to,

[00:19:49] oh good. They actually gave an answer to that. I was worried that it was all not really going to be explained, but it was almost imagining it was going to be three separate movies telling the

[00:20:00] same story again and again with the same actor. So I was waiting for when they were in the like the first reading of the draft. I was expecting with all the people being like, oh, I'm not

[00:20:11] feeling good. I was expecting them to suddenly turn into zombies and it was going to happen again. But so I was, I did not know where this was going. I was totally thinking real zombies

[00:20:21] would show up. I was worried. I was just doing a terrible job at recognizing these actors and actresses. And I was like, nope, I'm sure that is not who I saw the first time. I was like,

[00:20:36] okay, I feel better. So let's see. It was kind of weird that they were talking about martial arts for so long, but it was really funny when the wife kind of freaked out because she got

[00:20:52] so subsumed in the role that was attacking everyone and they tried to subdue her and she kept going, palm, doing that palm everyone. That really brought it home. Yeah. And like, kicking everyone, including her own husband, ultimately just like one after another. I was

[00:21:11] like, damn what? Because I at one point, one wondered this lead actress, she's running around and all of a sudden all the zombies are just laying on the ground, like dead. And I'm like, what happened there? And apparently the wife just actually knocked them out. Right?

[00:21:29] She was actually assaulting people. In the first 37 minutes when I was so confused with that rooftop scene at the end, where one there, you know, angled in on that girl screaming for a

[00:21:42] really long time. You see the makeup lady pop up. Yeah. What is that? She's got an axe in her head. Like, how is she not dead? What that point I was thinking maybe there was magic or ghosts involved because they sort of

[00:21:59] start giving this urban legend and I was like, all right, maybe they're mixing the paranormal. Yeah. So I was like, maybe she just came back to life and I, but then she was gone. Yeah. Yeah. Then

[00:22:10] she disappeared. So, okay. So at the beginning, the director's yelling at his actress because her fear of the zombie about to bite her doesn't seem real enough. And that didn't seem weird per

[00:22:22] se, but then behind the scenes, I thought it was funny when it was revealed that he was going off script and he's like, Oh, I got carried away. Sorry. And he turns around and hits the other

[00:22:34] guy who's clearly been on his nerves the whole time. The eye drops, I thought was a nice touch how she's ready to use them for crying. And she's like, don't take it too easy on me.

[00:22:46] And then you see her actually crying on the other side of her face before they hand her the eye drop and zoom in on the tear. I was like, Oh, that's good. I didn't catch that.

[00:22:56] I loved that. Yep. And then the makeup artist tells the actors that the Japanese army was conducting human experiments in this location to research resurrecting the dead, I guess. And I guess if you draw a blood pentagram on the roof, it somehow causes

[00:23:13] the dead in the area to reanimate because of these experiments or something. Yeah. Like, were there just already dead there? Because if there's no dead there, then nobody reanimates and nothing happens. There were some plot holes.

[00:23:30] In that main one. But I guess, yeah, they were kind of, we don't really know what was supposed to happen. We only know what they made up in the moment. And then as I said, she's telling them

[00:23:43] the martial arts and then kind of abruptly go outside to see this zombie bite this guy. And then I guess behind the scenes, they were notified because they were just vamping because this zombie guy was drunk and passed out. Right? So they're notified that he's ready.

[00:23:57] And then the camera goes outside, sees the young guy smoking a cigarette and the Zed comes up and bites him. Did he throw up on him? Yeah. He threw up on his face in his mouth,

[00:24:11] which that kid was clearly not excited. I love watching it the second time where you can see his real reaction flip to being thrown up on. And I was like, oh, okay. So that's why he throws up

[00:24:23] on the girl inside because he's thinking about how he just got vomited on. It just, that made it really good. And she had requested not having any throw up on her as well.

[00:24:39] Well, and as soon as at that table read, when we get kind of to the second act, as soon as he has is sneaking the sip of alcohol, he's like, oh, to stop my hands from shaking. I was like, oh,

[00:24:52] that's why he's throwing up. I was like, this is gonna be so bad. Like they just, everything was tied together so nicely. I mean, you see the direct, the way they got him ready was the director decided to prop

[00:25:07] them up like weekend at Bernie's. Yeah. That explains why he's doing all these weird, like moves when they do finally show him. Cause I kept being like, why is that one zombie doing

[00:25:20] like karate? Then, um, then the camera goes back inside and it looked like he tossed the arm in there. And I'm like, where did he get that? And then I'm like, oh, I guess it was that guy's arm.

[00:25:37] I didn't really see the zombie rip it off. And then, um, they're like looking at it. What's that? Oh, it looks so real. Then, uh, the one arm guy comes in and they think it's a prank.

[00:25:51] And then a zombie follows and attacks the girl. And I liked that she was much more intense when it was real. She did a much better job, you know? Yeah. And then the one armed guy reanimates and

[00:26:07] comes after them. And then that's when the director's back in and shooting it all to capture their real emotions. And then he says, we keep shooting. And, um, and then we learned

[00:26:17] he had a, well, they said he sprinkled blood on the roof, but it was this blood pentagram. Yeah. Drew. Yeah. And then, um, he starts telling his story that he read about this place or

[00:26:31] something and he barely gets started. And one guy just walks out. Just starts leaving. Yeah. Freaking out. I was like, what is, what happened? Like the first time through, I was like, why is he going outside? And then they all just stare after him. And I was like,

[00:26:47] why are none of you closing the door? It seemed like, I guess he just had enough because the zombies were getting to him, right. And he didn't want to stay there, but it was just

[00:26:58] paced so weird. Cause the guy didn't even get one sentence of his story out. And like you said, they're just staring after him. I feel like we see him spit or throw up or

[00:27:08] something outside too. So I was like, Oh, okay. He's already infected somehow. And like, no, IBS problems. And so he's got diarrhea. So then, um, I, well, I don't know if I'm missing stuff

[00:27:28] in my notes, but I have the director throw to zombie at them and called action. And then the makeup artist cut its head off and it landed at the actress's feet and she screamed. And the

[00:27:38] director said, this is a great shot. Very good. This is the face of fear. And then the actor guy whacked the director unconscious. Then you see them running to the van and that's where you

[00:27:49] see the cameraman wiping the blood off. And I'm like, was that supposed to be inside the movie? And then, um, then everybody's just gone except for her. And she's fighting. Was she finding a

[00:28:00] zombie to get the key? I can't remember. Yeah. Cause he opens the door, the car, the director opens the car door and throws in the, is it that yellow shirt kid? Yeah, I think so. And she's

[00:28:14] yeah. He's like, kill her. And that's right before the camera man falls to the ground. And we see that angle on the side and she has to run and separate. And then she goes into this tunnel and a zombie's chasing her. And I was actually

[00:28:30] pretty engaged here. It was creepy. And she starts, she's limping. So she's got a sprained ankle and she gets to the end of that other one comes in from the other end. So that was pretty good.

[00:28:41] Except there, the way that they kind of like flailed at her, I was like, I feel like these are really easy zombies to get past. So I was like, maybe they're going to get stronger or something, but like these don't seem like effective zombies.

[00:28:56] And there's really no good reason for that. It's just bad filmmaking. And then, then the actor guy comes in and ushers her out and her ankles bleeding. And the makeup artist says, have you been bitten? And she goes, I don't know, it's probably just bruises. And then

[00:29:13] the makeup artist starts coming at her with her ax. And around this time, you see behind the scenes, the daughter is talking to another crew member, their daughter invited on set. And she's all

[00:29:26] stoked that her mom gets so lost in scenes that she once broke a guy's arm in an action movie and got banned from movies. You just learn that. It's like, cool. Now I guess she's just attacking

[00:29:37] everyone, right? Yeah. Tell us that before we put her in the show. Because I was wondering why he had such a strong reaction when, you know, the daughter volunteered

[00:29:50] her and he was like, no, no, no. Like I, you have no idea what she used to be like. Like I suffered from it. I was like, okay, asshole, let your wife be in the movie. And now after seeing that, I was

[00:30:02] like, oh, yeah. Okay. It's actually kind of significant. Like everybody else, like they're quirky. One guy has IBS, one guy's an alcoholic. She's just like goes into a murderous rage. Yeah. She actually is a problem. Yeah. And that's in the real world.

[00:30:22] Yeah. They have to like choke her out to get her to stop. Yeah. Yeah. Because she's breaking this guy's hand and he's like, drop the camera and help me. And then yeah, they, then she's like, palm, palm. And then they choke her out.

[00:30:38] I love the palm coming back. That may have been one of my favorite things. I think it was my favorite. Well, because I don't know if you guys have, or if this is a good time to mention it, but are you guys familiar with the play

[00:30:54] or the movie noises off? No, I think I've heard of it. Okay. So I, we, I love this play and the movie was in 1992. It's not as good as the play, but it's got John Ritter, Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, like Christopher Reed, all these fantastic

[00:31:14] people. And this movie, as soon as we got into the third act and we started to see everything falling apart behind the scenes, I was like, holy shit, this is noises off, but zombies.

[00:31:27] So noises off. We did it. I'm a theater nerd. Like I'm obsessed. And we did this play in high school when I was in high school. And it is basically a, like a farce play within a play.

[00:31:40] So the first act, you see all of these actors trying to work through the first act of their play, nothing on. Then the second act, you see the behind the scenes of the play going through

[00:31:53] the same first act, but you're focused on the actors and all of their relationships and all this shit that happens backstage that causes things to go wrong. And I'm sure how the characters are

[00:32:06] in some cases much different than the actors, right? It's just like, it's this, it's fantastic. If you haven't watched the movie, I would highly recommend it because this, this movie was basically zombie noises off, which made me appreciate it that much more. But in noises off,

[00:32:26] anybody who is listening that is a fan of that play or that movie, there's this whole stick about sardines throughout the play. And it's something that Carol Burnett's character and multiple other characters yell over and over again. It's always sardines, sardines. And this one

[00:32:43] I was like, Palm is this movie's sardines that in action. And I just, I could not stop giggling every time Palm came back. And she's like, yeah, that sounds good. Like I want to check that out, especially John Ritter.

[00:33:03] Oh yeah. But she's like, so she's just going crazy and they're, they chopper with the axe and everything. And, and the, the actor guy, right? Chops her with the axe. And then you cut,

[00:33:19] I think before this a couple of times you'd cut to this woman who's one of the producers and her partner or something, and they're really into it. Oh, it's exciting. Oh,

[00:33:28] somebody is going to get bit. And now when you cut over, like one of them's looking at their phone and he just looks over and goes kind of longish. Right in the middle of the action here.

[00:33:40] Yeah. So we're almost done. So then the, the, for some reason the lead actress doesn't want to have anything to do with the actor guy after this. I guess she was horrified that he just killed

[00:33:51] the makeup artist. And then did he fall off the roof or something? He like rolled off. I think he like, it's, I feel like that didn't get cleared up, but it's like he gets grabbed

[00:34:04] by something. Yeah. And I kept showing like his, some. Like his, the dummy body. Yeah. Yeah. I think he, yeah, gets, I think it's implied he's grabbed and turned into a zombie. Yeah. Cause he does become one. So then she, she's running around, sees all the zombies laying

[00:34:24] around, goes in the shed. And then it turns out the ankle blood was just a makeup thing for the movie, which actually worked within the plot of the movie. Cause they're filming a zombie movie.

[00:34:36] And it's like, Oh, I, the makeup artist just got killed for no reason because I could have just pulled this off and showed her I was okay. And then she's crouching and we see

[00:34:49] this ugly monstrous leg in front of her. She looks up and there's like music and then it leaves. Yep. That was my notes are in all caps here. I was like, is the cameraman there? Yeah. There's no way this thing didn't see the camera man.

[00:35:08] That is way more practical than what my notes say at that point in time. Cause mine just says, okay, well the flesh on that leg looks gross as fuck. Can the zombies not smell this chick? I was just like, I don't understand. She's right here.

[00:35:21] Was the idea that it didn't see her cause she was crouched down. Yeah. But they like, it's like, I feel like I was forgiving a lot because they were doing the one

[00:35:32] shot. So I was like, all right, they've got to stage this in a way where we get the impression something came near her, but we can still see her. And so it was not, I mean, it wasn't staged

[00:35:42] well at all. I was like, what the fuck was that? And it turns out it was a producer that they just made up her knees to look like zombies, I guess to give her the message, take the axe in front of

[00:35:54] the shed. That was my hardest laugh when they cut to the actual what's going on in that scene. I mean, like they did a great job improvising. That's for sure. It became so much more impressive when you find out. Yeah. Way more. So then you found out, um,

[00:36:18] that, or then, then the zombie guy is, has turned and he's coming after her and it's, you know, a clever reprise of the opening scene where he's coming after her, but now she's actually

[00:36:30] scared of him cause he's really a zombie within the movie anyway. And, um, she's like, it's me wake up. And then, but it's weird cause they keep stopping and then starting weird pauses.

[00:36:43] It took so long. We find out it was because they needed a crane shot, but the crane, what happened to the crane? They had that crazy cause of his struggle with makeup lady. Okay. She's knocked the crane off the building. Oh, that's what that was. Okay. That's what

[00:37:03] I was looking down at. Okay. Yeah. Now it makes sense. So they decided to make a human pyramid, but it was sort of rickety and wasn't quite getting set up. Right. But finally happened.

[00:37:13] And then, um, the actors chops off the guy's head and then behind the scenes you see the fake head had fallen, but someone threw it back up there just in time for her to chop it off. And the

[00:37:25] director's like, don't kill my actors. And then she's chopping up the director, you know, but he's off screen. And then she's all bloody walking on the roof and the music super tense cause everyone hears, but hers dead and standing in the middle of this big

[00:37:39] Pentagon painted in blood and looking up at the camera and this cool overhead shot. And then you see one cut of the dead and title and the credits roll. And I'm like, we're less than halfway through the movie. This is weird.

[00:37:50] I love that. We heard the, like, you see the camera kind of moved to the side and you hear that. Okay. Cut. And realizing what it is later on, I was like, Oh, that's good. That's the one cut.

[00:38:02] There were so many moments like that where it was just so rewarding, like the payoff of realizing what the hell was actually happening behind the scenes. And I think there's, there's like a very clever balance that they pulled in that first act of

[00:38:21] doing things just bad or wrong enough that you remembered them so that when they came up later, you were like, Oh, that's what was happening there. It wasn't just like, everything was

[00:38:33] forgettably bad. It was like enough so that you're like, yeah. Why were they standing there for so long? Am I crazy here or is that weird? Like the cameraman who turns out to basically have IBS running outside and you hear like

[00:38:49] the screaming and the let me go, like let go. And it turns out to be that like production assistant grabbing him, trying to like stop him. And meanwhile, I was trying to get away from her

[00:39:00] so he can go to the bathroom and they're all seeing this with the open door. I was like, okay. Yeah. And it worked well too, because the tone was very different from the first part to the

[00:39:14] second. As I said, the first part was like a low budget horror movie tone. And the second part was kind of a lighthearted comedy. And so when you see weird stuff happening in this horror movie,

[00:39:26] and then you see behind the scenes because this guy has diarrhea and is trying to each one fits the tone. Yeah. Yeah. That was funny. Well, what was it when they're talking about her quote unquote hobby of

[00:39:42] self defense and this martial arts come up and you find out later on that's when they've been told to improvise more because something's gone on. And the lead actress kind of looks at the guy

[00:39:53] after he asked that question. She's like, that's a random question. Because she is actually saying like, what the hell are you doing? Like, that's how we're improvising. All right.

[00:40:05] Yep. I think the thing that is clever also about this intro is the fact that it is a one cut, which is a very high skill thing to produce. Like, having all of those things coordinated,

[00:40:22] I think is maybe gave this hint of like, okay, there is more to this because this isn't just somebody like doing 1000 cuts, they put a lot of time and thought and movement into this. So I

[00:40:34] think that allowed for a lot of forgiveness for why it wasn't quite working. You're like, there's got to be a plan here because they're doing such a damn good job with this. And like,

[00:40:43] I love the fact that it comes back as a storytelling point. Because a lot of times the one shots and movies really are just like a unique way to tell a story as opposed to being

[00:40:57] story. Yeah, yeah. I felt the same like, I wanted there to be a reason besides just a fun gimmick or a cool gimmick. And it was because we needed them to have to keep going because it was live production.

[00:41:12] And they had to just push through no matter what. So that made that feel really satisfying to like, okay, good, good. There's a reason for it. Well, because I cannot imagine the pressure it took

[00:41:24] because I know like, you know, reading up on it. 37 minutes was that one take and it took six takes for them to nail it. And they actually, I had read that they got it on the second take,

[00:41:36] but there was some sort of you know, what camera or technological error that made it unusable. And before this, like, you know, I have not ever been huge on the technical aspects behind movies.

[00:41:48] I've always just focused more on like the character and the story, like the English major side of me. And when we podcasted on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Perfectly Marvelous, the director of photography M. David Mullen of that show was known for his one-ers, like his one takes these

[00:42:08] ridiculously long shots. And we had one of the actors, Austin Basis on with us. And we were talking about just one of those takes one of those one shot takes and he mentioned how long it took

[00:42:22] and how stressful it was for everyone to not want to be like the one cast member or crew that fucked it up and made everybody start over. And that was like, you know, maybe a three minute one-er.

[00:42:35] And I was just like, 37 minutes, the pressure to get all of this right or as accurate as possible. That must have been insane. And they're coordinating it with another story that you're not seeing as well. So they had to

[00:42:52] like block it out for that as well. It's just so much went into this like, what looks so cheap and not well done, but it was so, so incredibly done. I also think it's funny that at the beginning,

[00:43:06] they are talking about what is this like our 87th take of this? Which I imagine they were feeling a little bit with like, doing what six takes or whatever for this. They were probably like, yeah, yeah, I get it.

[00:43:20] For this one, I feel like probably for Mrs. Maisel. And one that comes to mind is a movie I saw in 2002 called Russian Arc. It's an 87 minute steadicam sequence shot. And it's just beautifully filmed with all these different pieces and parts that come together. It's a weird movie,

[00:43:40] but I loved it. But anyways, those you have to get just right. With this one, I feel like there was some room for error because it was a low budget shitty production, you know? I mean,

[00:43:52] I'm not trying to downplay it's still complicated for sure. But it was low budget too. I think it was $25,000 to make the movie. Yeah, I didn't make like 25 million or something insane like that. I think it made 25 million in Japan and then 30 more million overseas.

[00:44:11] That's awesome. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. There's a Birdman was another one. Yeah. But I think and I was looking forward in this a lot of times the one shot movies, they will have some hidden cuts. So when I was watching this, when the cameraman fell down,

[00:44:30] his camera fully hits the back of the actress before he falls down. And that's usually a really good way to hide your cuts because it's super blurred. And a lot of times it'll go black for

[00:44:41] a second so you can switch out your take right there. So I was convinced I was like, all right, there's one of them because the only thing I knew about this movie is when I looked

[00:44:50] it up. The first Google question was, is this movie all one take? So I was expecting the whole movie to be one take. So I was like, All right, I'm gonna start looking for these. I'm gonna find

[00:45:01] it. Yep. Nope. It turns out they did it all in one go, which is amazing. I was sort of wondering if when we started seeing it from the other angle, the behind the scenes that they were actually

[00:45:13] filming while they were taking the one take footage, but I think that would have just been way too complicated. But uh, so I have a couple more points. But do you guys have any like discrete

[00:45:27] points you'd want to do? I guess I kind of wrote up like what I thought of just their TV show, the quote unquote TV show and whether or not I would have enjoyed just that. And part of it,

[00:45:44] yes, I feel like I kind of liked the like low budget found footage horror movie that was going on even with its quirks. That was kind of funny. Yeah. And the first thing I wrote down was that

[00:45:56] it was giving me Shelley Duvall vibes from The Shining. Yes! With the way the director's treating the main actress and I was like, holy sh- wow, this is intense. And as it continued on,

[00:46:09] I started to get more and more uncomfortable with the idea of it being just this director essentially torturing this one girl to get a good take out of her and their zombies. So at that

[00:46:21] point, I was kind of like, I feel like I'm not liking it for that. Like I want more of the zombies to be the bad guy. So I feel like that was a down point for me and probably around the point

[00:46:32] where I was kind of like, if I were watching this on my own, that might have been enough for me to be like, all right. Yeah, I think I'm okay with cutting out out of this. But they also then did

[00:46:43] have a bunch of funny points, which is good. Like the circular asking of if they're okay, like the three main people and they're like, are you all right? Yeah, I'm all right. Are you

[00:46:53] all right? Yeah, I'm all right. And then she's like, are you all right? And they just asked me if I'm all right. Like, thinking this was still a weird horror movie. I was like, that's funny

[00:47:06] to just have in there because I feel like in high stress situations you do just you lose it a little bit and you just start doing weird things like that. So I was like, it fits. It's funny. And

[00:47:17] then of course the director throwing people zombies at people and just yelling action. It was insane. The number of times I typed in my notes like that first go around, I was like, this guy is so fucked up. Yeah, he was kind of the intense part of it.

[00:47:37] I don't know if it had just kept going that way for a while for for much longer. 45 minutes. Yeah, I don't know. I have a feeling I wouldn't have really dug it. But I'm not positive

[00:47:48] though. I'm not 100% sure. Yeah, I think it was by the point where it was really only her. It felt like it was only her and the director for a bit when he's just like chasing her around. I was kind

[00:47:59] of like this feels like a little more like a torture movie than like a zombie. And that was when I was starting to like feign a little bit and I was just like, but I'm so glad I stuck in there. Holy crap,

[00:48:13] it's so good. One, I think one of the things that I appreciate about this movie, because now I've seen it twice, almost all the way through. And the number of little things that they sneak in,

[00:48:27] like you know that the assistant, the girl who's assisting the cameraman who takes over after he falls down, you know, way back when, like, I think it's either right before or right after the table

[00:48:38] read, she's talking to the cameraman about how she thinks it'd be really cool to use this technique like zooms in and out on the zombie and then she gets to do it because she takes over for him.

[00:48:48] Oh yeah, he's saying no, I would not that's tacky. And there's something with the teardrops too, like, yeah, well, the daughter is on her movie sets. And she's being a little aggressive with

[00:49:03] this young girl actress who I was it that she didn't she wanted to use teardrops but the daughter wanted her to actually cry. And the mom was like, she ended up getting fired.

[00:49:16] And then on the set, the main actress was kind of a diva and had asked to use the teardrops. But as you said, she actually was really crying. And then the dad, the director, when we first see him,

[00:49:30] he's directing a scene with the old man crying, and he uses the tear the drops. Yeah. And then when his daughter and wife are watching it, they're like use the drops. So they like have a

[00:49:41] thing against the job. So I feel like as she's going on, yeah, he finally is like, we can do this like I can get past using the drops. It was surprisingly heartwarming. Some of the different

[00:49:55] moments and then you know, at the end when you see them like get the pyramid right, and they all kind of collapse and they're so like smiling. I was like, this is adorable.

[00:50:05] Like they're also happy and proud of what they did. And then you know, the end credits where you get to see behind the scenes of the behind the scenes. Yeah, it was just as enjoyable.

[00:50:16] Yeah. Well, yeah. So I mean, I all the things we've talked about how it was fun and clever to see that kind of weird mystery of why things seemed odd and then have it all solved was satisfying.

[00:50:31] But in and of itself, that wouldn't have been enough for me. It's too much of a gimmick. I mean, it's great, but I want some more depth than that. And yeah, you know, and I don't usually like clever

[00:50:43] just for the sake of clever. It's great if it's there, but I need more. And so I thought there were a couple of good themes for this one is pushing forward and working together and persevering even

[00:50:53] in the face of problems. And in a real zombie story, that is the theme persevering working together. But the stakes are life and death. And the other theme is just family supportiveness and

[00:51:07] how that can keep you going and drive you forward to. And so a difference in comedy and drama are the stakes. That's one of the biggest differences. Comedies have smaller stakes. Usually,

[00:51:17] they're not life or death usually. And so that's why this movie was really interesting to see the tone shift from horror to comedy. As the movie goes along, it gets lighter and lighter and you

[00:51:28] realize the stakes are smaller and it's about a director and a crew trying to keep their little production going. And also this daughter connecting with her father through his work,

[00:51:36] and she wants to be a filmmaker like him and her pushing her mom and dad really to be what she knows they can because she's a perfectionist and all working together and being supportive and

[00:51:47] like no one's life was actually ever in danger. And what could have been a black mark in this guy's career turned out to be a success for his career for his relationship with his family,

[00:51:58] which actually was pretty fine anyway, you know, so it's even lower stakes. And the tonal shift and revelation that this is actually a light uplifting triumphant movie was a relief to me.

[00:52:11] And I was thinking the whole time that real zombies were going to come in by the end. But as it went along, I was glad they didn't because it would undercut all of it needed to end

[00:52:20] on a happy triumphant note. And just the part especially about the daughter, like urging her mom to go in and you know, the I think at one point the dad, the director was trying to get his boss

[00:52:35] to let him do the crane shot and he said no and he said okay, but then she's like, No, we're gonna do it. And she assisted and just her like, pushing to keep it going and helping to write rewrite the

[00:52:49] script. And so all of that just gave it like you said, they did such a good job at the very end of making that moment feel joyous and triumphant that it just left me with a good feeling. Yeah, this is

[00:53:02] a movie about people working together and family and support and all this nice good things. Yeah. And it really felt like the dad's goal was to try and make his daughter proud of him as well.

[00:53:14] Yeah, he was like doing everything he could like getting the actor she's super into be in the movie. So she's interested in his movie. And it seems like he's, yeah, he's the one who maybe got her hooked up with the job that she had had at that point.

[00:53:29] So it seems like he's doing all these things to try and like, really get her attention. And this find this production really seems like he grew enough that she was able to see it, but she helped

[00:53:40] him with that growth. So yeah, it really, I wrote down that I thought the heart of this story was this family. And then everything else was just sort of like the fun stuff, right? You needed both of them together. But yes, you really needed both. I think.

[00:53:54] Yeah. Well, and it's funny, Jason, my last point that I had written down my last little note. It's funny that you mentioned that it kind of mirrors what the themes of actual zombie movies

[00:54:07] are sometimes. And I don't know if it's because I've been listening to you and Lucy cover Walking Dead, but I had written down I was like, I don't know if they did this on purpose.

[00:54:16] But this whole like having to come together and solve a problem feels pretty spot on for apocalyptic movies and zombie movies. And then I'd also be listening. I've also been listening to the whole Lost Revisited podcast. And I was like, live together, die alone.

[00:54:33] Thinking about Jack and Hal, that's kind of a survival story theme in general is having to come together, overcome adversity, and work with what you have. And I have no idea if that was intentional from them. If it was, then it's an even better movie than I thought.

[00:54:53] I'd like to think it was. And just the fact that yeah, it went from a horror movie to a comedy, and it kept that same theme. But like I said, comedy stakes are lower. So instead of fighting

[00:55:04] for their lives, they were just fighting to get this dumb movie made. And make her daughter proud of him and everything. And in the same way a zombie movie is there's like all the different

[00:55:13] character types, like there's the kind of asshole actor, there's the drunk, there's like the one keeping stuff to themselves, the one who's sick and not telling anybody, but at the end, they all come together and they like put aside their differences and create a human pyramid to

[00:55:30] lift them up. And then they recreated the picture that the dad and daughter had when they were younger unintentionally. That was sweet. Yes. That got to me. I was just like, oh man.

[00:55:41] I know. For a movie that the way it started, I was at the end, I was like, how did I get heartwarmed? And like, I was laughing so hard. I was disgusted earlier. Yeah. I feel like part

[00:55:54] of the laughter was just how shocked I was at like, yes, the emotions it was pulling out of me. Squid Game is like that. I'm covering Squid Game right now. It's so disturbing at times.

[00:56:05] And then at times it's really soft and tender. Was that executive with a woman at the end, she was adorable. I loved her. And she was just like, oh, everything went great. Like

[00:56:17] we weren't any problems. Okay. That was a nice touch. Yeah. So I have one more thing on the middle segment that we didn't talk a whole lot about. Did either of you want to say anything

[00:56:29] about that or should I go into it? I don't have anything. I have random notes. So if they pop up. Okay. So this is just where he gets hired to do the job and we're really disoriented at this point.

[00:56:44] What is going on? One month earlier, but in hindsight, it all makes sense. So he meets the actors and it really was, I felt like there for a couple of reasons. One is to set up

[00:56:58] the reasons why things would happen later. Like the guy having diarrhea because of this hard water thing and all that. But also it was kind of a comedic take on celebrities and movie making.

[00:57:10] Mm-hmm. Like the hierarchical nature of it where this zombie actor guy is dismissive and rude to the supporting actor, you know? And that's very Hollywood, but you know, this isn't Hollywood, but movie making. Actors being protective of their images. Like when the lead actor says,

[00:57:29] I wish I could vomit for you, but my agent. I've seen at conventions at Walker Stuckers, actors, they have people to be the bad guy for them because so many people come up to them

[00:57:41] wanting things and fans in particular at, and they don't want to have to say no. So they've got somebody else to say, Nope, sorry. On the side there. So it's kind of like that.

[00:57:50] And being divas where the guy didn't want to drink hard water because, well, he had a good reason. Yeah. It turned out to be legit. But I feel like in the same way, the first chunk,

[00:58:03] like you weren't sure exactly why you were being shown these things in this chunk. I was also thinking like, Oh, they're just showing us that all of these actors and stuff are quirky and hard

[00:58:13] to work with. But it's like, no, each one of those things has a reason. And the pretension too of film, like the main actor who, you know, the director's daughter was all super excited to see, who was clearly like a big deal. When he starts talking about

[00:58:30] the racist undertones of the racist themes of the project. And that other guy ultimately asked him, he was like, so where are you getting that? Like what's racist? Like what is it? And he just like glances past it. I was like, Oh, that's funny. That's good.

[00:58:48] Yep. And also it just explains why it has to be in one cut, which I was glad that it's a live broadcast to kick off a new zombie channel and there's a movie playing right after. So you got to get it right. I want a zombie channel.

[00:59:03] Yeah. All right. Any, any other points or should we go to notes? I noted some of the t-shirts that people were wearing. As there were some pretty good ones. One person, I think it might be the daughter at one point,

[00:59:18] she's wearing a shining t-shirt, which I think is a direct reference. Then somebody's wearing a Scarface shirt that says, say good morning to the bad guy. Say hello to my little friend. And then the shirts that they're all wearing, the crew, it says good guys go to heaven,

[00:59:39] bad guys go to Pattaya, which is somewhere in Thailand. I tried looking into it. Apparently there's a movie called good guys go to heaven, bad guys go to Pattaya. It's like a French comedy

[00:59:49] about two guys going there, but that's all I could find. I don't know if the implication is that they just are wearing secondhand crew shirts because that's how low budget this is or something like that. That's kind of funny. And was it the daughter, the director's daughter wearing

[01:00:08] the Scarface shirt? Yes. I thought it was. Yeah. And did she have a taxi driver? I couldn't make out what it was, but I thought it was a taxi driver shirt at one point. Yeah. And they all have just like slightly the wrong saying.

[01:00:24] It was that I enjoyed that. Yeah. The title font is very similar to the Walking Dead comic font. And assuming that's an intentional thing. I went back and compared there. They're almost the same. Yeah. Because I always thought that was a weird font actually for the comic.

[01:00:44] Yeah. It's a little fun. Yeah. I also liked apparently the actor who was playing the drunk actor playing the zombie was also supposedly drunk while filming, which I was just like, man, he's dedicated. Wait a minute. In the movie within the movie.

[01:01:10] Yes. Like he's in the actor. True fear. Playing the actor who was playing an actor. In the movie. He's just I thought he was just a zombie the whole time. Well, he got really drunk. Yeah. And that's why they had to keep holding him.

[01:01:28] Oh yeah. But I'm saying in the true fear movie, he's just a zombie, right? Yeah. But he's an actor as like, yes. Oh yeah. That's right. Because it's a movie within a movie. No, but that's when the real zombies show up. That's when he shows up.

[01:01:44] Well, so he's a real zombie. The real zombie, the actor who played the real actor who played the actor who played the real zombie. You mean the real actor? Yes. Like in real life. Oh, he's a drunk? Yes. Oh, how do you know that?

[01:02:00] I think it was an IMDB article. Yeah, I think that popped up too. And I was just like, that might be my favorite bit of trivia that I have seen. That's so funny. That just makes it so much funnier. And then I found you. Wow. They're like, hey,

[01:02:15] you'd be perfect for this. I wonder if they also sobered him up for like one day of shooting. Imitating art, imitating life. He was very dedicated, clearly. And then the other thing I thought was interesting that they did a French remake of the film called Final Cut in 2022.

[01:02:38] And to kind of keep that same concept that Japanese woman, one of the executives who makes the comment at the end like, oh, everything went great. There was no problem. She plays the

[01:02:49] same role in the French remake to go and get them to do the same thing and have this movie, this live zombie movie to launch a channel in France. And I was like, I like that tie-in.

[01:03:02] I wonder if she speaks French in it. I don't know. Now I kind of want to watch it. Yeah. The only other thing I have isn't really a note, but I think the thing that got me so good

[01:03:15] was the boom mic operator pooping and they're applying makeup to him. And then he's crying at the same time just because of how horrible he's feeling about the whole situation. That was so funny. At that point I was just like, what the hell is this? It's so good.

[01:03:34] That was, I think when I laughed the most was probably when they just like, shoved the drunk guy out and he's like making all those wild motions. And I realized that was not intentional martial arts or anything at all. Like it was just him being drunk to see

[01:03:51] the makeup artist come by and start kicking everyone. I lost it. I just had a couple notes. There's that remake you mentioned, and there's also two sequels of sorts. One is called one cut of the dead spinoff colon in Hollywood.

[01:04:12] It's a 59 minute feature made in 2019 for TV in Japan about how this director guy's daughter makes a film, I guess similar. I don't know. And then there's one kind of the dead mission remote,

[01:04:28] which is a YouTube sequel. It was shot completely remotely by the cast during the pandemic. Like as if they were all on zoom, I think. And that's on YouTube, the links in the show notes, I didn't

[01:04:38] watch it. I don't even know if it's zombies or what, but I'll put a link in the show notes. Last this reminded me of, I mean, it was a couple of years ago now we did our monthly call-in show

[01:04:54] for Patreon and we did one where and when she hosts a cast of the rings on the rings of power. And she's a long time listener and she's from New Zealand and she was in a zombie movie and

[01:05:07] worked production for it. In 2014, it's called, I survived a zombie Holocaust. And it's got the same premise as, or a similar premise as the film within a film here. It's

[01:05:19] a young runner on a zombie film set has the first day from hell when real zombies overrun the set. So it reminded me of that. That is so funny. That's one of my fears is that I'm going to show up to an event where like fake zombies are

[01:05:34] supposed to be and real zombies are going to be there. So I have a rule. If a person approaches me in zombie makeup, they get 10 seconds to let me know they are not a real zombie before I start

[01:05:44] taking care of it. Just in case. Is that why you have that shiv? Yeah. I'm always holding it. It's always ready. Perfectly normal. We used to, Karen and I used to do the news from like

[01:05:59] zombie gun where we would just report on zombie news from around the world. And I remember there was one where this like group of, I think it was zombie extras got in a car accident

[01:06:10] and they weren't really hurt that bad. But when the people showed up, they thought they were all mangled. That's the risk. Must have been some pretty good zombie makeup. All right. We're back. It's time for Listener Modes, Growns and Grunts. Uh, Carrie, you want to go first?

[01:07:11] Sure. So first up is Jonathan Blake, who said love this movie. And now I know why. Daphne Bachman. Hey, Daphne. This one is a masterpiece. Incredibly planned and well executed. Yes, yes, it is.

[01:07:29] I had read that ahead of time too. So I was expecting an incredibly planned and well executed movie and then I was getting what we were getting and I'm like, something's going to change here. I think. Michael Darwin says can't tell you how many people who

[01:07:47] watched the film thought there were actually zombies in the movie. Yeah, there were no zombies. Right? Yeah, it was interesting. CJ Dan said I remember the first time watching it that I had to show everyone else I knew that loves the genre. Nobody has been disappointed. That's nice.

[01:08:06] I do feel like that has been my first impulse is I'm like, who can I tell about this? You know, when I read Michael Darwin's comment to beforehand, can't tell you how many people

[01:08:16] who watched the film thought there were actually zombies in the movie. I thought he was saying that people would watch this and think there were real zombies. Oh, yeah. In the movie. That's how I think.

[01:08:25] Now I understand what he meant. Like, there just were no zombies in the movie. Also, before you read this next one, Randy, you talk about the impulse that you had to go tell everyone. So Penny and Jim and I podcasted yesterday. And at the end, I was like,

[01:08:41] I just watched this movie. You need to go watch it. We're podcasting on it tomorrow. Oh, excellent. So that means so many must have. Yep. Okay. So this next one's from Penny Lennox.

[01:08:54] Hey, Penny. At first, I really wasn't enjoying the movie until they pulled out to the level where we could see the frantic teamwork that went on to getting this live film made. Then I loved it.

[01:09:08] It reminded me of the guerrilla filmmaking in Bowfinger, an all time favorite movie, the way the crew had to scramble to stay out of frame and put things in place and improvise the story on the fly. They all looked so happy in the last scene after they

[01:09:23] pulled it off. Yes, I think I saw this just the first couple words from this and I was like, oh no, did I make a mistake? And then here's one from Alma Contreras who I have a feeling got about

[01:09:43] 15 minutes into this movie. She says, well, I gave this movie a try, but I just don't like subtitles. First off, I would like to think I'm a badass enough to survive in a ZA, but more than

[01:09:53] likely I would be like the first guy that got bit. I would be, Hugh dude, you feeling all right? Then bam, I would be toast. LOL. One thing, oh, hey dude. One thing I noticed the zombie

[01:10:05] projectile vomited, which was different. What'd you all think? I'm going to see if I can watch this flick in English. I know I'm a lazy oaf that doesn't like reading subtitles. I wonder if it's

[01:10:15] dubbed on any of these platforms. I saw there's a YouTube video that dubs it and it wasn't like, it was not done well enough for me to pay attention to, but it kind of exists.

[01:10:32] I don't like dubbed, but I wonder, I mean, yeah, if in AMC plus or shutter, I'm guessing there's no dubbed version or else I watched it that way. That's too bad. Yeah, I watched it on Google and

[01:10:46] they didn't have a dub. Not that I saw, but I wanted the original anyways, just in case. I want to hear their voices, but I don't know if Alma, if you're hearing this, but you're probably going, Oh, yep. All right. Let's move on to some news.

[01:11:03] Obvious threat to untold numbers of citizens. People get up and kill. Are they slow moving chief? Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up. This is a walking dead cast news update. I don't know how many times a day I think, yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up.

[01:11:23] So, that said it was a walking dead cast news update, but we're actually the cast of us now. So I figure let's have some news on the last of us, which we have not had in a while,

[01:11:32] but there's been some stuff that's come out. One is actually not great news. Max, formerly known as HBO and Max put out this one of their, the one to watch trailers showcasing some shows that are returning this year, like house of the dragon was coming out this summer,

[01:11:50] season two. But then it said coming in 2025 and it showed the last of us. So hopefully early 2025. Good Lord. Between that and stranger things, it's killing me a little. All these shows with young actors, they've got to be better about pumping them out.

[01:12:12] The thing is, um, for so season one of the last of us followed the first game and season two will follow the second game. And I hope this isn't too much of a spoiler, but there's a bit of a time

[01:12:24] jump between the two games, so it should work out good. Yep. Perfect. That makes me feel a little better. Yeah. It also showed the white Lotus for 2025, by the way. I have seen some more news coming out about that though. So it does seem like stuff's happening.

[01:12:40] Oh good. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Good. Excited. And, um, showrunner Craig Mason told variety that they will start production on season two of the last of us in February in a couple months. So it's moving forward. Uh, next thing, if you've played the last of us part two,

[01:12:59] have either of you? No, not the second part. I loved it. I played through it twice. 30 hour game played through twice. I want her. Yeah. It's so good. Um, anyway, there's a character in that game called Abby.

[01:13:15] That's a huge character and there's rumors from reportedly credible sources that actress Caitlin Deaver has been cast in the role. I don't really know her, but she was in justified last man standing and the movie book smart among other things. Do you know her?

[01:13:31] That sounds familiar. She was up for the role of Ellie actually, but maybe that's what I'm thinking. I was like, I know I've seen her. Oh no, she's a unbelievable that Netflix mini series.

[01:13:48] Actually, we talked very briefly about that on that criminal podcast that we did a long time ago. She was on that show. That's why I feel better now. So the last, uh, is this the last one? No.

[01:14:00] Second to last, uh, Naughty dog is that's the game company that made the last of us games. They're putting out a remastered version of the last of us part two set to release on PlayStation

[01:14:12] five in January next year. And you know, I think most people's first thoughts are why, because it's already one of the most amazing looking games ever made. So the remaster is going to have visual improvements. I've seen some side by side shots in there.

[01:14:29] If you're super detail oriented, you'd be impressed, but otherwise it's not that big of a deal, but it's got other things, faster loading times, dual sense controller integration. That's the PlayStation controller, uh, some new levels that were previously left out.

[01:14:43] This is my favorite thing at audio commentary featuring game lead, Neil Druckmann, a co-lead writer, Hallie gross and actors from the game. I'll play it with that. I love that kind of stuff.

[01:14:54] It'll just pop up as you're playing. I guess so. There was a portal. There was that for portal two and every once in a while, you, if you had it turned on, you'd see a little thing. And if

[01:15:03] you click it, it just pauses and you hear them talking through that. That's awesome. Yeah. Uh, there's a speed run focus mode guitar free play. Cause you can play guitar in the game, but it's more free play and there's a rogue like survival mode with randomized combat

[01:15:17] encounters. Like I don't really care about much of that except for, um, the audio commentary, but it's only $10 if you already own the game. So that's pretty cool. I don't have to pay for

[01:15:29] the whole thing. Yeah. And last, um, this is sort of tangentially related, but we haven't talked about it on the podcast a few weeks back deadline reported that Pedro Pascal who plays Joel was

[01:15:41] being eyed to play Reed Richards in the upcoming new fantastic four movie. I think that's super cool. I think I'm more excited about that than most people because there have been two or three actually kind of middling to crappy fantastic four movies. And that's how most people know

[01:16:00] about those characters. But I'm a long time comic reader for decades and like they say, Pedro Pascal is too old. I'm like, no Reed Richards is old. He has graying temples. They cast these young guys in these movies, but it's dumb. He's supposed to be a father figure

[01:16:15] and it's like a family and they have these cosmic imaginative brainy adventures. And, and, and so they really have not done the fantastic four justice in the movies. And it was, those movies were before Marvel acquired Fox. And so a couple of years ago I would have said

[01:16:30] came with the Kevin Feige magic. He's going to just totally kick ass with it now that Marvel's the lusters worn off a little bit. I'm like, I don't know, but I think because it's such a big

[01:16:39] deal that hopefully they'll finally do those characters. Right. And if they do, I think also Pedro Pascal, like he, I wouldn't know if he'd be my first choice, but then again,

[01:16:51] I also didn't think when they said he was going to play Joel, I was like, really? But he kicked ass. So I just now think he's really talented and he can adjust to the role. Yeah. He is a

[01:17:02] fantastic actor. Yeah. I feel like fantastic four needs a TV series or something like that. I feel like there, there are like a family drama or like it needs to be like a, like a colorful weekly

[01:17:19] big monster kind of thing where there's some family drama mixed in there. I feel like one movie just, I don't, although they kind of done it with guardians. So I'll take that back. I think

[01:17:30] you could have a fun big movie. Oh yeah. James gun would kill it. Yeah. That's gotta be fun. They're not, yeah, they're fun. And, but they're also really just brainy. Imagine if stories when

[01:17:43] the writer, when they have really good writers. So there's those two aspects of it. Like they go into other dimensions or cosmic, they're in space a lot. They have Galactus, this big planet eating.

[01:17:55] So anyway, Matt Shackman is directing. He was great on Wanda vision and I think he would particularly be good at the family aspect of it. But anyway, we'll see. I don't, we don't even know

[01:18:09] for sure if Pedro Pascal has that role, by the way, they're just saying he's being eyed for it. He's being eyed for every role. It's true. All righty. That is our show episode five, five, five. Thanks so much for listening.

[01:18:28] Everybody. Thanks for joining me. You guys was really fun. Yeah. I didn't care what we talk about. Thought it'd be fun just to talk to you guys. Yeah. Let's pick a really shitty movie

[01:18:39] next time and then we'll see how fun it is. Oh yeah. I love talking about shitty movies. Yeah. Like I am down. Oh yeah. Well we did all this fear of the walking dead rants. That was

[01:18:50] pretty fun. Yep. Yeah. Which if you are listening to this and you haven't gone and checked those out, you need to. They were pretty fun. Next episode of this podcast will be the walking dead season

[01:19:04] two episode one. What lies ahead? And if you want to write in or leave us a voice message about it, you can find all of our contact information at podcast to get.com. And while you're there,

[01:19:16] please check out our other podcasts. Yeah. There's tuck. It's a good opportunity to talk about a couple in particular. One is one that Kara hosts on one that Randy's about to host on

[01:19:26] Kara. What do you got going on? So we are covering Buffy the vampire slayer. We're doing a rewatch on still slang. We have just wrapped up season two. We're about to start in on our season two

[01:19:41] recap. We covered cruel intentions and then we're going to start season three here in a couple of weeks. So it's been, it's been really fun revisiting and we've gotten a lot of, you know,

[01:19:54] positive feedback. So I'm excited to keep going with that one. Yeah. You guys going episode to episode now? So for season three, we are, cause we could not figure out what episode to cut.

[01:20:05] Awesome. But you know, if you've seen Buffy season three is pretty much regarded as like the Buffy season. So how many seasons are there? It makes sense. There are seven and then there's a comic that technically did kind of an eighth season. Are you covering angel at all?

[01:20:23] We will be. Yes. Once we get to that in the show, we'll kind of start doing doodle. Awesome. I am so excited. And then firefly after that. Right. Which I would so, I bet Penny would also

[01:20:36] be down to cover firefly. I love that so much. The only thing about it is that it ended. That's just heartbreaking. I know. Probably sealed it into the hall of fame though. Yeah, for sure.

[01:20:48] Like James Dean. Yep. And what about you, Randy? You got one coming out. That's yet to see the light of day. Yes, it should be out this week. I assume the same week this podcast will be out

[01:21:02] tomorrow. Yeah. Okay. So yes, it will be out this week. I guarantee it we're in the editing process, but if you watched this movie and you enjoyed seeing people improvising a zombie apocalypse, you're going to enjoy welcome to the apocalypse where we essentially are improvising our way

[01:21:22] through a zombie apocalypse currently as well. How many cuts will you guys have for podcasts? Well, we do have to put in some commercial breaks. There will be some cuts in there,

[01:21:35] but yeah, it's me, Jenny Ryan, who is called into a bunch of shows and my buddy Rob. And then we're going to have guests on coming this weekend. Actually, we have our first guest movie coming on. So there's fun. There's stuff coming. I promise.

[01:21:51] It sounds like so much fun and that's something that podcast has never had before. So that's super fun. There's definitely some Easter eggs in there. If you're a listener to the cast of us

[01:22:01] that you'll appreciate. Oh really? Yes. Are you going to guest on there? Kara do some improv. I'd be down. I did theater in high school. Everybody's getting down there at some point, Jason, you're going to have to come back. You, you helped us with the test episode,

[01:22:20] but we got to get you in there for a, uh, maybe I'll play an actual character next time. Now your character was great. It was really fun. Well, that's on Patreon by the way. And that's a

[01:22:32] nice seg because this episode is made possible by Patreon supporters like Christopher Carlson, who pledged support at patreon.com slash Jason cabassi. So thank you to Christopher. Uh, one of the perks is our monthly Patreon exclusive podcast, the Zed head show. And that's where

[01:22:48] our inaugural test episode of welcome to the apocalypse came out maybe two months ago now, I think, or maybe it was last month. I forget. Um, this month we're getting ready to do one.

[01:22:59] It's going to be, I bring listeners, you know, Zed heads on different people each month. We're going to do best of 2023. So we'll talk about our favorite shows, movies, and games of the year. I'm

[01:23:09] excited for that. Nice. Sweet little wrap up. 2023 is already almost over. You know, 2024 might be just as fast. And then we get all those shows in 2025. So that's true. Keep it chugging along. Let's just skip 2024. That'd be good. Yeah. Yeah. Oh gosh. All right. That is our show.

[01:23:31] Thanks for listening. Don't get bit CJ Dan.