The Deep House (2021)

Episode 291, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw

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

Craig: And I’m Craig. 

Todd: So this week a movie that was Craig’s idea shot during the middle of the COVID going on and released in 2021. And it’s called The Deep House and you can watch it. I think just streaming online. I think it premiered on epics then went to paramount plus, and maybe it’s on another service or two it’s on 

Craig: Hulu.

Todd: Now this is a really cool premise. It’s funny. You had met, you had brought it up to me and I instantly was like, yeah, let’s watch it because I had been reading about it myself. Uh, I saw the poster and I thought, what a haunted house under water that is too good to be true. And at first I thought, well, this is just some dumb, low budget movie that was probably shot really cheaply.

And it was a low budget movie, but it was shot quite seriously with a lot of care. And, uh, actually when you read about the behind the scenes stuff, that when I was watching this too, I was also thinking, all right, how much of this is cheat? You know, did they really shoot all of this underwater? Yes, they did.

What an accomplishment and as much as Craig and I both love underwater photography in general, it’s just like a dream come true for us. A class. Haunted house movie in almost entirely underwater shot, practically with some great behind the scenes stories and all kinds of stuff. It’s a French movie and the directors are Alexandra and Julian, Mari, I suppose that’s how you say their names.

Yeah. They’re they’re horror people. They’ve they’ve um, done, uh, several collaborations before this. I think they did a movie that’s I haven’t seen it’s called inside. It’s supposed to be pretty brutal about a woman who, um, somebody else’s wanting her baby. And that seems, I feel like we’re going to watch some of these other ones before you know it.

And then they did a movie called among the living, which I know the title, but I I’m not aware of it. And then apparently one that that’s got some good press just before this one that was released in 2020 called Condit. Yeah, I, I have to just say right off the bat, I was really impressed with this movie.

I really enjoyed it. Uh, it is literally a classic haunted house movie underwater, even with a lot of your iconic haunted house type stuff. You know, with ghosts and doors creaking, open improbably, creaking, open underwater and stuff like that. But I thought they struck a pretty good balance and I found it pretty scary.

Actually. I know I jumped several times and was pretty freaked out. Now. I been scuba diving before I’m certified scuba, although I have not dove in at least 20 years. So I am way out of practice and out of experience. But part of the joy of watching these two is, you know, I was kind of seeing like all, would there really last this long?

What are they doing that that’s not that probable, you know, what do they do? The only thing I could, there are only a couple of things I could find. And one was, they split up way too much. Cause that’s absolutely something you never do when you scuba dive. You always dive with a buddy. Wearing. And I think this was pointed out in the trivia too.

He’s got a dive computer that plays music, and that would never happen in real life. Your, that would be too distracting. You would not have anything that plays music while you’re under water. You’re supposed to be paying a hundred percent of attention to what’s going on. And your buddy. Yeah. And the other thing is that, uh, w which was, I think, a convention for the audience, part of the kind of thrill of it, right?

It’s are they going to run out of air, you know, constantly checking their dive computers, and that’s showing their air as a percentage, which is good for us, because then we can kind of tell actually that would be done in pressure for us, like PSI. And that the simple reason, if you want to get really technical about it is that the amount of air that you have to breathe really varies depending on how deep you are, right?

Because the deeper you are with the more water pressure, the more compressed the air is that you breathe. And so you’re gonna run out of your tank a lot faster, cause you’re breathing compressed air with every. Whereas the closer you are to the surface, every breath you’re, you’re, you’re breathing in less air from the tank because it’s not so compressed.

So it’s, uh, you have more air, a couple of fun facts there, otherwise. Um, I thought that was a nice device to have the combination of the haunted house and then the whole deal. Now you’re trying to get out of the haunted house, but there are a whole, it’s a whole new challenge when you’re actually under water and the haunted house.

Right. So, yeah, it was really cool. Um, so, okay. That was, well, see, I hadn’t seen this before, but I think you had seen it before. Uh, we, we decided to do it for the podcast, 

Craig: right? Yeah. I had, I had heard of it when it was being made or when it was initially released. I don’t know, but, um, I was really interested in it too.

And I watch a lot like, like I probably watched four. Horror movies a week. Um, it’s funny because when I’m like scrolling through the streaming services and stuff, always in my mind, I’m thinking, should I watch this? Or should I wait and suggest it for the podcast? But this one, this one, um, popped up unexpectedly with zero fanfare streaming and I had wanted to see it.

And so I put it on and I watched it. And even as I was watching it. Dammit, we’re going to have to do this for the podcast, which means I’m going to have to watch it again so I can take notes and really pay close attention. Um, but you know, I don’t mind rewatching things. I rewatch things all the time, but I did like, not only did I think that it would be fun to talk about, but I knew that you would be interested in it just because of the underwater concept.

And, and like you said, it’s really a very standard haunted house movie. it gave me like, I was getting major shades of. Hell house, LLC, like just, just really spooky stuff. Like, I don’t know means it’s creepy haunted house stuff. Um, but then you, but then you add the element of being underwater and the imagery of that, obviously we’ll, we’ll start at the beginning at some point, but when you actually get to the point where super clearly supernatural stuff is going on, like spoiler alert, ghosts, the, the, you know, just ghosts underwater, you know, ghosts move in a very kind of fluid way anyway.

But to see them like floating in water and moving slowly through water, it was striking imagery. And, and I was surprised to find out that this filmed on a low budget because it doesn’t feel like it, the cinematography. Parts is just stunning. Yeah. There are parts where it’s, it’s like handy cam or they’ve got an underwater drone, which is cool.

And, and so sometimes it’s a little grainy or the water’s murky or something, but sometimes when they have really clear shots, I mean, it’s just, it’s beautiful to look at. I mean, there are many points, but there’s one. Image in particular, where, when they approach this underwater house, which we’ll explain, but there’s, there’s a family Mazda Liam outside of it.

And the guy there, there are really principally, only two people in this movie. There are a few other characters early on, but once they get under water, which happens very quickly, there are really these, just these two main characters, but the guy floats up above this Mazda Liam, and it’s shooting him from the front and he he’s goofing around.

He’s mimicking the crucifixion and floating up in front of this. Mazal Liam being back lit by the sun from the surface underwater. Oh man. It’s just. So cool. 

Todd: Just striking. It’s not a found footage movie per se, but it’s shot in a found footage style because the only three cameras, once we’re underwater that we get.

The three points of view are, like you said, the GoPros on each of the two divers and then this third drone thing that they have, that he can control that’s down there. I was reading an interview with the directors and they said that turned out to be pretty key because with a lot of found footage type movies where you’ve got the actor holding the camera and moving it around, it can be disorienting.

And then because underwater is disorienting anyway, for a lot of reasons, you know, they, they were afraid it would be a bit too much. And having that third camera there, that they could get these wide shots, you know, it’s something a little more, still turned out to be key. And I think it’s very effective in this movie, if it were all just straight through the, the GoPros of these two and we didn’t get that wide, those wide drone shots, it would not have nearly.

As good as it was. I think it would have felt cheaper to be 

Craig: honest. Yeah. Yeah. And it, it doesn’t, it doesn’t feel cheap at all. I actually would have expected that it would have been rather costly to, I mean, I just can’t imagine. I mean, I, frankly, I’m glad to hear that you found behind the scenes stuff because I couldn’t find very much, I found reviews and there’s, there’s not very much, uh, on IMD B, but you know, filming a movie, there are so many people behind the scenes there’s, you know, an enormous crew of people.

And again, I don’t really know how it worked, but to do most of this underwater, I don’t know, was the director down there with them, you know, what was there some sort of crew down there with them there must have been, well, please enlighten me because I’m absolutely fascinated. 

Todd: Yeah. So, um, they managed to fi okay, so first of all, their concept was very basic.

It was like, Hey, underwater and haunted house. And they called up their producer that they work with. And he said that he was sold on it in like five seconds. Like let’s do this. And they ended up raising, um, ultimately about 5 million to do it, which is still a pretty low budget for a movie. Like. But they needed an, a DP who could do this effectively underwater.

And they found the DP, I guess he’s one of the better, uh, one of the best underwater DPS around, uh, Jacques Ballard, uh, who did the Beyonce video running, which is all underwater. It’s like people running underwater. I went and saw it. It’s actually pretty stunning video. So they found him and then they built these sets.

Of course the rooms don’t have roofs on them that way they could get in and out of them quickly. And also for safety, you know, nobody’s going to be trapped under anything, but they got the largest tank in Europe, uh, which is in Belgium. And they built all of these rooms, this, this set, and put it on this kind of like on this.

Great. So. That would lower the set into the water, like a meter an hour, so that, you know, as, as they built a set and everything, and they started lowering it, things didn’t start floating away or the second just, you know, kind of explode on them. And then, uh, they, they was, it was basically six meters underwater, so not too deep, really, but they had people who like their crew were all professional divers and they could be underwater for like 6, 7, 8 hours a day without coming up.

And so, you know, they had lots of security. They said that was the biggest part of it all was the security aspect and the safety aspect. That was number one, right. Was just making sure that they had spare tanks, like emergency tanks, like hidden under beds and places, people down there who, if there was an issue they could come right in with spare oxygen or whatever.

And they were just hidden around different places in the sets. And then they were always up above the. With, you know, all the camera footage in front of them, the screens and things. And then they had, they could communicate, you know, through microphones and headsets with the divers and the actors. And they said it was really different from the way they’re used to shooting, which is they’re very hands-on they can get in there.

They’re like, oh, let’s move this here. Let’s do that. Whereas this time they were like, they would have to communicate with a guy, Hey, on the mantle piece, we need to move, you know, those, those three vases to the left a little bit. No, no, no, no. That’s too far. All right. Now, now a little, you know, a little more to the right.

Okay. Got it. And just everything that they needed to be done had to community communicated through here, the actors themselves they were communicating with. And so they had to act while they were also following instructions from them, because remember they’re controlling the cameras as well. So they’re like, all right, so you’re going to go into the room now.

Turn, you’ll look around. I want you to turn your camera left. Tip the excess up just a little bit to the left. There you go. Okay. Now swing back around and look over there. Those actors, they, I don’t think they were professional divers or anything before this. They certainly weren’t. Um, but uh, they said that wasn’t as important.

Yeah. And they just did it all here in, in this, most of it there in that tank. And then I think they did some shooting in a bigger lake, like some of the more exterior ones, fish and the coral and the things like that. But the rest of it was in this tank, six meters underwater and the ghosts that they said that was the most challenging part was finding people to play the ghosts because they’re not going to have scuba gear on.

And so they found three free divers. They said they were super lucky to find these three people, two more elderly. Folks and a one younger, 19 year old girl, they literally free dove. So they would go down there, they would do their scenes and then come up for oxygen to come back down and do it again. And that was pretty incredible.

Yeah. That’s 

Craig: crazy. You know, it’s funny. Like I was so immersed in the story that I didn’t even think about that, you know, like I was like, well, they’re ghosts. They don’t need to breathe. No, Craig, those are actually real people.

Todd: Well, the other thing too, we’re going to get into it, but like they move through this house, like walking on the floor, which is really impossible to do underwater. So they had to like weigh them down and pull them slowly with very, very thin wires and stuff to get them to be able to effectively walk on the floor and sort of do these more classic scenes of the ghost creeping around, which ended up looking really good.

Right. It does. 

Craig: It really does. Oh gosh. Yeah. It’s it’s fascinating. I mean, that’s. It’s selling it short to call it a gimmick, but it is a gimmick. And that’s what drew me to this movie, you know, in horror. I think we’re constantly looking for something that hasn’t been done before and also in horror, we’re inundated with reboots and remakes and tropes and, and that’s fine.

Like, I, I just, you know, a couple of weeks ago watched the new Texas chainsaw movie. Was it. Was there anything really, particularly new or interesting about it? No. Did I still think it was a lot of fun? Yeah. Yeah. So I’ll, I’ll take it whatever. But when I see something like this, which is something that I haven’t seen before, and I have never seen an underwater haunted house movie before, it’s just fun.

It’s, it’s just fun to see, uh, some, some new. Stuff. Um, and beyond that, as I’ve said repeatedly, at this point, it is a pretty typical haunted house movie, 

Todd: but it’s underwater. It’s 

Craig: different. Yeah. I think this is funny not to get too meta. Um, but I think that part of the reason that I was drawn to this was because these people are vloggers.

They are, um, like YouTube vloggers, their names are Tina and Ben. They’re a young couple, they’re romantically involved. They’re not married, but they’re shtick. And, and you know, this is a very common thing I think is they go around to like abandoned presumably or supposedly haunted places. And they tour them and they, they video it and they post it online.

Ben is super. Concerned about how many views they get and how many likes and comments they get and stuff. Obviously this is, you know, a small facet of each of our lives, but it’s something that you and I think about, you know, we think about content. We think about what people are going to be interested in and what people want to see.

And we want to reach as many people as possible. So I, I kind of related on that level. Like I get it. And when, um, they were down there and things started to get a little bit spooky, he just keeps wanting to go further because he’s like, oh my gosh, you know, like, this is, this is such great content or we’re going to get so many views.

People are going to love this. Um, and I get it. Cause I think about that stuff too. We were here. Entertain. And we like it when we get good feedback. So I totally get the, the drive to do that. I’m certainly not devoted enough to this podcast to put myself in any kind of peril. Um, but, uh, I, 

Todd: I mean, step up to the plate, man.

Step up to the plate. How much do you want it? 

Craig: Dude, I get up at 8:00 AM on Saturdays to record this. That’s like the level of sacrifice that I am committed to. 

Todd: I mean, the cops show up at my door occasionally that’s, you know, think of the danger I’m putting myself into 

Craig: man. Yeah, so, okay. So we, we opened up with this couple and we kind of see what they’re doing.

They’re hiking in an abandoned building in a town that I couldn’t begin to pronounce Vince Stevia in Ukraine, which by the way, I think I can speak for Todd. When I say we stand with the people of Ukraine, uh, we hate what is going on there right now. And we hope that it comes, um, to a resolution in the very near future and that Ukraine comes out.

Okay. All right. So anyway, just coincidence that it happens to be the case, but, um, and, and, and it’s, it’s very typical, you know, I I’ve seen these shows. I’ve watched these shows where people, you know, tour these abandoned places and it’s cool. It’s I, you know, I even have friends, you and I have mutual friends who are into this 

Todd: stuff, urban exploration.

Yeah. 

Craig: Right. The only thing, you know, we don’t see. Here there they’re touring in this place. One thing that I guess is kind of important is that they’re constantly connected via headset. I think even now they’re probably recording for their vlog. Ben goes Mia for a second and she’s trying to contact him and calling out to him and he doesn’t respond.

And eventually he jumps out and scares her, which is apparently something he does. Um, so, you know, set up for later after that, it cuts to three months later and we see Tina in a bath, no nudity in this movie, but she’s in the bath and she’s working on holding her breath. She looks at her watch to see how long she’s been under.

And it’s been a minute 22. But when she goes outside to meet Ben, I look awful in the morning. Well, think you look sexy as hell and it’s it’s Nunes. What was your time?

What was your time? I don’t know. Maybe three minutes. That’s it? What do you mean scuba diving? Not snorkeling now you’re scuba certified. Is that a thing? 

Todd: No, I 

Craig: didn’t. I assumed not like I assumed that you would just never want to find yourself in a position where you would have to hold your breath for an extended 

Todd: period of time.

I mean, there are two things. When you go through the scuba certification, there’s a number of tests you have to kind of go through. And one of them is like a breath capacity, breath, strength sort of test. I think, uh, it just had me breathe really hard into a machine and measured it and said, okay, you’re good.

But the other thing is actually, you don’t want to hold your breath under water when you’re scuba diving, because of this pressure thing, you hold air. If you hold air in your lungs and you go up high or, or, um, you know, if you rise for some reason, you know, that air is going to expand and hurt you. So especially you are definitely not going to want to hold your breath while you say, if for example, if you find yourself in an emergency situation, you have to surface quickly.

You’re going to have two problems. You’re going to have the beds where the, the, the oxygen in your bloodstream is going to expand and cause bubbles in there, which can also be fatal. But then the other thing is, of course, you’re not going to hold any air in your lungs while you’re ascending so quickly or else your lungs will just explode.

So, yeah. So it’s not really a 

Craig: thing I assumed not. I mean, it’s kind of a, it’s kind of a setup for later, but it ultimately, it’s really not even an important, 

Todd: I mean, if you were in an emergency situation, you right down there and you’re, you’ve got equilibrium, you know, you’re not going anywhere and someone’s got to get another host to you so that you can print it again then.

Yeah, of course it helps to be able to hold your breath. But, uh, hopefully God, not for three minutes, unless you’re splitting up like these two, like to do 

Craig: so they take off on their expedition and then the title comes up in the title, sinks down the screen, which I. Was kind of genius. I loved it. And they end up, they are in Southwest France in this small dying village.

I have no idea. I mean, this was shot in the south of France. Um, I have no idea where this actual village was, but it was haunting. It looked, you know, mostly abandoned and they’re seeking out this supposedly secret spot where supposedly, I think there’s like a sanitorium or something that is underwater.

Um, but when they get to their secret spot, it’s actually wildly populated. Like it’s a really popular tourist spot. People are skiing, you know, people on the beach all over. 

Todd: It’s like a lake, right? Yeah. 

Craig: It’s a lake. Ben is bummed and he’s pouty about it. And she’s like, you know what? Oh, well let’s just, you know, be tourists or whatever, but then.

Ben chat’s up this local guy, Pierre, who immediately, I was like, oh, creepy gas station guy, totally shady. And of course, for a small fee, he offers to take them to a remote secret spot in the lake where there is supposedly at the bottom, a perfectly preserved. And they take him up on it, you know, they drive far away and then they have to cover the last couple of miles by foot.

So they Trek through the woods. And then when they’re, they’re preparing randomly under his breath, Pierre says that is not dead, which can eternal lie Jew. And they’re like, what? And he’s like, oh, nothing, just an old family motto. Okay. Nevermind.

Todd: It was just thinking aloud. And that has no bearing on, well, you know, I was just thinking about this. Maybe people would wonder why there would be houses in sanatoriums under water. This is a man-made lake. Yeah. I mean, you know, this is something that obviously makes a lot of sense, but I wasn’t thinking about it, but you and I both have lived in a town that has a man-made lake.

And how do you make a lake? You basically just flood a deep part of, of the land and that’s what was done in our town. Uh, they just dam something up and let the rain fill it in or brought water and diverted some water. And I thought about this often because the place we were, um, has. Indian like ancient, like, you know, like native American sites, like Petro petroglyphs in the rocks and things.

And certainly there was a home or two or, or just things that people dropped or buried that once that water filled it up, you know, decades ago are still, probably down there under the water and under the, under, under the water, you know? And so, yeah, just flood the place and leave everything there. And who cares, consume 

Craig: around terribly uncommon.

In fact, the, the lake that you are referring to in my hometown, I’ve heard now this not, may not be true, but I’ve heard that during the construction of the lake, they got a lot of rain unexpectedly before they were completely finished. And so some of their excavation equipment didn’t make it out. Like it’s still down there.

I have no idea if it’s true or not, but creepy to think about. But yeah, this happens with man-made lakes, you know, they just flood areas and why bother to go to the trouble and expense of raising things, if you know who cares, it’s just going to be under the water, whatever, but he tells them, he’s like, well, just below, there is a perfect place to propose you can’t miss it, just follow the stairs down.

And, and they go down there and, and they, they, they submerge and, you know, it’s established that they can communicate through this sound system or whatever. And the first thing they find is, uh, is a perfectly preserved car. Perfectly preserved. I don’t know if there’s any truth to this, but I was talking to my friend and friend of the podcast, Heather, and she says that she has a read about this and that it, there is some truth to it that there’s something about the alkaline levels and lake water that preserve things it’s not.

And they talk about this in the movie. It’s not like sea water, which is highly corrosive and breaks things down immediate. Now it makes no sense that things are as preserved as they are once we actually get down here. But it’s cool to look at. And right away they find the gates, the house, there are like religious icons and other weird things like hung on the gate.

And the girl’s like, oh yeah, I forgot how superstitious people in this region are. Well, there’s reason 

Todd: when 

Craig: you, when you were talking about how they filmed it, some of it in a lake, but the interiors were mostly, um, on underwater stages. That makes a lot of sense, but they explained like, so when they are in just the lake in general, there are fish everywhere.

As soon as they cross the gate. She comments that the fish have completely disappeared. Now that makes perfect sense. There, the interiors are filmed on stages, so there wouldn’t be any fish, but it serves the story. Yeah. You know, like, like the fish are staying away from the house, which is 

Todd: creepy and cool.

They find that that little family crypt and they see the name on it. Uh, Monta

Martha Nakia. And, uh, they, they actually break, he actually breaks open the door. Cause it’s just kind of bolted there. Something he wants to go in, but she says, no, that’s bad luck. Let’s not do it. Uh, and he’s like, fine, fine. So they go up to the house itself. That’s an important element for later, which was a bit of a surprise and they go to the house and they were kind of trying to get in and it’s this beautiful.

He makes a comment like, well, it’s huge. But then later he makes a comment like, well, let’s just go inside. It’s probably not going to take as long the house isn’t very big. Are you kidding me? What this thing is? Monster like several stories, tall mansion, you know, just very Gothic looking. It’s just great, like Chateau type thing.

And it’s overgrown with vines and stuff and, and, but you’re right. There are no fish and they try the door and I just completely shut it off. 

Craig: But why shutter a house that’s going to get flooded? Let’s find out

Todd: upstairs, but they eventually find entrance to the home through a sort of a big round, a one of those cool round windows up in the. And so they go away. They, they, they pull it open and they get inside the attic and instantly it’s creepy and cool at the same time. And I think the thing that struck me as I was watching, it was number one, like you just said, said how well-preserved everything was.

And I thought, really, this is what I started wondering. Did they do some green screen work on this? Because everything is just, I would, I would expect there to be more things floating around, you know, even after you flood it, that the lake or whatever, and left the house there, I would still think. Things would float away a little bit, you know, you wouldn’t find tables with stuff, sat on it and you wouldn’t find these things all upright and set out almost as though somebody just left and it’s not underwater at all.

Right. So there’s that element to it and they’re flipping through, but then they do actually make a comment about it, right? Like, wow. At one point she says this house was flooded like before I was born and everything still seems so well-preserved and so intact there photographs. And there’s a couple of, I think, you know, how many years have we been doing this podcast?

Uh, and, uh, this might be our very first fish jump scare we’ve ever, that we’ve ever done. Which was also effective as soon as they opened that, that window, the fish swims right out and scared the crap out of me. I 

Craig: loved that too, because he was like, oh man, jump scares. Get so many views. Please tell me you got that on camera.

Todd: That’s right. And there’s a creepy floating Dall. And there’s weird animal skulls on the walls that kind of have this whole cow skull motif throughout there. Even the wallpaper has patterns of like the cow skulls and stuff on it. And some rooms, if you’re paying attention anyway, and their photographs and, and, you know, it’s, it’s pretty standard.

Explore the creepy old house. That just seems a little off. 

Craig: It reminded me of a first person. Video game. Like they come in, like they come in through the attic and then they have to just make their way down. So, you know, it’s just like a video game. Like you come in one room and you explore that room and then you move into that.

Like, it’s just a sequence of rooms and they’re, they’re all creepy. Like you said, I mean, there are skulls, like bull skulls with horns on every wall. Like, like you said, creepy dolls, all kinds of. They get into like one bedroom that’s it appears to be a nursery, but there’s a doll with like weird pagan symbols on its forehead.

And there’s a whole wall. I think they are missing people, posters. It’s all kids freaks collect those like a freebie kids. Like it’s creepy, but I it’s, it’s it’s typical stuff, but that doesn’t make it any less effective. And, and I did, you know, and the drone, um, is, is picking up moving. Even though there’s nothing else around there hearing things like that.

The equipment shorts out a little bit, the audio equipment shorts out a little bit, the video on the drone shorts out a little bit. And sometimes they’ll just hear things that they shouldn’t like. They hear a strange, low voice, like chanting, creepy words. And at one point they’re going through like the, uh, dining room or something and there’s a piano in there and they hear a piano note strike.

Like 

Todd: there’s I didn’t even happen underwater. Yeah. But what happened in a haunted house? And. Uh, pretty creepy bit where they’re in a bedroom and, uh, it has like a curtains kind of hanging around the bed. And as he swings his light around and I saw it even before he mentioned it, you can see that there’s a figure, like a silhouette in there of a person sitting up in the bed.

And I thought, okay, that’s going to be like another doll or something. And then something happens with the light and the light flickers, and then he goes over and he opens it and there’s nothing inside. So yeah, 

Craig: the only criticism that I have, and I only noticed this upon second viewing and I get it, it makes perfect sense.

I completely understand why they did what they did. Everything is perfectly preserved unless it’s. Well, 

Todd: like pianos in shambles, the graphs are like clear as day. 

Craig: Exactly. Like there will be books open on a desk that the pages are perfectly preserved, but the piano. Is a mess. It’s fine. It didn’t bother me.

You know, like it’s spooky 

Todd: also the same thing. As some things are just floating and most things aren’t right. Like, like all this stuff, these plates, dishes and vases and stuff and recording equipment. And it’s just sitting on shelves everywhere. Not, not floating nothing’s happening. It’s all sitting right where it is.

But then they go into the dining room and like four chairs are just like floating 

Craig: around and like, all of the candelabra is, are floating. Like those are metal. Like, I mean, it looks great 

Todd: classic haunted house, right? That’s like total like Disney con and managerial floating candelabra. So 

Craig: they eventually, so they make their way down to the kitchen and 

Todd: they are.

Is important because, uh, they opened the front door, which they couldn’t open from the other side. And they noticed that, you know, it’s, it’s blocked with a metal doors on the outside, but there are scratches on it. Like somebody had been trying to get out. So that’s very 

Craig: unsafe or something like they were big scratch, deep scratches.

Yeah. And they, they make their way down to the kitchen and they find they’re like, oh my gosh, what is that? And it is a full, like, huge size. Like you would only find in a church crucifix hanging over this door. Now I was sitting here yesterday, watching this and my partner Allen was sitting behind me, uh, doing a puzzle with his back to me.

And, uh, I turned, I didn’t turn to him. I just said, um, Allen, if we’re ever. Exploring a creepy house and we find a door that’s blocked off by an enormous crucifix. Let’s not take that down and go in there 

Todd: like a bad idea.

Craig: It’s like, it’s like Martha Plimpton in the Goonies when she’s like, um, brand, I think, uh, God put that rock there for a reason. 

Todd: It is so funny that you bring that up because that exact quote was going right through my head when I bought,

Craig: but they do, they take it down and throw it on the floor because they must not be religious folk. Um, and they go in and it’s the seller. And like immediately in the seller there. To corpses chained it. Like they’re hanging from chains, but because it’s underwater, it’s like they’re suspended, floating in chains and they’ve got these weird, like medieval, like torture masks on I’m sorry.

Like as much as I appreciate the desire for good content at that point, I’d be like, Nope,

Todd: we are done.

Even after they wrote where they leave that room. We’ll later that she makes some comment, like, I think we need to go straight to the police. He’s like, are you kidding me though? The first thing we’ll do is confiscate our footage. Yeah. 

Craig: Yeah, dude, you got, you’ve got a lot of memory card. Upload it, and 

Todd: then let them confiscate all they want based.

They’re swimming around up to these guys. I’m like, man, you are very, you are way more. Uh, brave than I am. And it’s like, almost like hanging over a floor thing. He says, what do you think is, what do you think this was for? Why, why, why is that there? And he says, I don’t know, but maybe the answer is under there and you look down and there’s this giant, I don’t know.

It’s like a manhole cover something like this underneath them, because they’re almost suspended under a, well, it looks like, yeah, lately we later see, like it’s a great, that leads to the surface. Um, and yeah, it has these satanic looking symbols on them. It’s the same thing. Like you said, that we saw on the girl’s forehead right out there.

He calls it a pentagram, but it’s something more than that. And then like the, the door creeks open behind them, which I thought was funny. And so they go into this door, he goes, he goes, Yeah, by himself and inside there is even more disturbing. It’s just, it’s more camera equipment. They were finding like film strips around.

Um, and they’re like a wonder what they were filming. There was more camera, equipment, more film, and then jars of Oregon’s, there’s a severed hand, little bits and pieces of things, super disturbing. And she’s like, what’s in there, what’s in there. And he’s like, um, nothing, uh, just more camera equipment. It’s fine.

And when he comes back out, is it at this moment where she turns around and looks at him and there is definite, is that when the girl is 

Craig: coming. Okay. So they, so they, okay. So when he comes out of there, like I think that finding that stuff kind of freaked him out, but she’s already freaked out and she keeps freaking out and like depleting her oxygen.

So I think that he wants to try to keep her calm. So he doesn’t tell her what he found in there. Now the dead bodies would have been enough, like, oh, that was hands and jars. Okay. Right. Like I’m a little bit more concerned about these weird ass floating courses, but whatever, but he’s like, no, no, there wasn’t really anything in there.

Just more cameras and stuff. So let’s go. So they go all the way back up to the window that they came in. But when they open it up, there’s a brick wall behind it, which is completely unexplained. And, and they can’t explain it at some point. I think it’s when they’re there. Like she’s kind of freaking out and he’s trying to calm her down to.

Stop using so much oxygen and over his shoulder, she definitely, without question, 100% sees a ghost, uh, a young woman ghost, uh, and 

Todd: open eyes open coming at her. It’s 

Craig: scary. It is. And it’s pretty quick, but it is. I mean, there’s no question it, she saw it. It was there. We see it totally a hundred percent. So now they’re like, oh shit, the house is haunted.

And, and they start looking around for ways out, but all the windows are barred up. They can’t find a way out, but then we get another catfish scare, but they, my mind went exactly where there’s did. If that catfish got in here, there’s gotta be a way to get. And so they start trying to follow it, to see if it will lead them to the way out.

Um, and it leads them back to the seller and the guy’s like, are you seriously going back down there? And she’s like, we don’t have any other choice and they follow it down there. And they find presumably where the fish gets in and out, but it’s, it’s Bard big enough for a fish to get through, but not big enough for them.

And that’s when they’re in the room with the corpses and all of a sudden, I think that she is like in right among them because she realizes that they are hanging right directly below. Well, so, so she tries to swim. It’s not like it’s a deep, well, I mean, you can see the light coming down, but she, she swims up there to find that it’s graded and that she can’t remove the grate.

And when she comes back down, she calls out to him, but he’s not there. And then all of a sudden. The corpses are gone. And then in almost hell raiser fashion, the chains that they were suspended from attack, isn’t the right word. And the way that it’s shot, it’s, it’s all shot from her perspective. And there are a lot of bubbles.

And so it’s difficult to really see what’s going on, but she gets very much entangled and immeshed in these chains, which appear to be moving. And they’ve got these big, like meat hooks on them that are tearing into her and then there’s blood in the water. So everything goes red and she’s freaking out.

And I thought that this, it was scary. Like this is a, it’s a pretty scary movie. Like I’m not, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. They did a good job with the scares. And I thought, you know, that the limited visibility and you can’t really see what’s going on and she’s panicked and all you can hear is her are her screams.

And eventually everything just kind of stops 

Todd: and he’s 

Craig: there and he’s there and he grabs her and she’s like, where were you? And he’s like, what are you talking about? I’m right here. I’ve been here the whole time. And she’s like, the corpses are gone and he’s like, no, they’re not. They’re right there. And he claims that he was behind her the whole time.

Like, whatever happened didn’t happen, but she is. 

Todd: Yeah. I feel like this has meant the cast a little bit of doubt on her sanity, like, and are we seeing things, you know, reliably, you know, or are we seeing her perspective as she’s kind of going crazy and losing oxygen? Cause I, cause I, you know, I thought that could be interpreted two ways.

Either the chains are moving and whatever, or she’s just freaking out and she’s kicking around and, you know, getting tangled up in the chains on her own, which seems to be what he is saying happened. Cause she ends up kind of upside down and he sort of untangled her and then he has the bright idea. To remove the 

Craig: masks.

Fucking kidding me. Like what would inspire you to do something so stupid? It’s really 

Todd: dumb. It’s super dumb. And I wouldn’t believe that for a second, that anybody in that situation would actually stop and do that. Yeah. So that was a little weird, but he takes the masks off and they find that they’re the couple, because they’ve seen pictures and paintings and things.

Craig: And at some point I actually think it’s later, but less, we forget eventually he finds a family tree. Um, and he finds out that Pierre, the creepy guy that brought them there is their son. 

Todd: I knew it. I knew he had to 

be 

Craig: related. So I figured I knew he, yeah. Oh, he had to be in, in some way, but once he takes off the mask, the corpses immediately.

And starts, I there’s something about, you know, a slow and the underwater effect. It just makes sense, like this slow pursuit. Yes. It’s, it’s just, there’s such a great atmosphere about. Yeah, you can only move so fast underwater. I mean, even they, they, I mean, they have flippers at least. So they, that 

Todd: doubles the danger.

Right. It was sorta like the, it follows thing that kind of works so well. Like this thing is just walking towards you. You can see it coming, but it’s not fat. It’s not like right on you. It’s like the slow moving zombie thing too. But then like you said, you’re also going to be impeded. Underwater is moving.

And so it is almost like a slow motion chase scene, you know, where they’re trying to escape from this couple and they turn around. I kept thinking, oh, they’re going to turn around and they’re not going to be there. No, they are still there right behind them the whole time. And they go up and they end up in the dining room or something again.

Right. And they go to close the door over these guys, and they’ve got an arms in there, you know, uh, they just managed to close the door on this couple, but now without pushing and struggling hard against them, that was freaky as hell. That was scary. 

Craig: They impulsively realize that they can escape through the chimney.

And so they start to go up the chimney, but then the chimney collapses and it ends up stranding them in separate rooms. And, uh, she’s downstairs. He’s upstairs. I don’t really know what’s going on with the submersible, the drone. I don’t really know what’s going on with the drone at this point. It kind of seems 

Todd: like, I feel like the drone itself is almost getting a little haunted or possessed.

Yeah. Because it flicks on a red light every now and then, and I’m not sure why, you know, he can kind of see it and control it from her risk, but it’s sometimes it’s not working. And so it’s not that effective. I thought actually the drone there was, was another creepy element from the beginning is just having this sort of mindless robot following you along in there.

And it does sort of like it’s sort of programmed to follow them, I think, unless he directs it somewhere, which he does on occasion to give them more light or to look around the corner. And so I just thought that whole element of having the drone there was also kind of creepy, you know, like the sort of silent century companion that’s, that’s dead, you know, and it seems to almost turn on them at points where it kind of doesn’t work or it’s flashing this red light or it’s kind of pursuing them, but with the red light, but it’s not helping at all 

Craig: spooky moment where the man ghost is kind of pursuing her downstairs and upstairs a woman goes.

Comes into the room that he’s in and he hides under the bed after she’s clearly already seen him. I don’t know what that, I don’t know what that was. It’s 

Todd: so classic horror movie at that point, it got a little silly, right? I mean, I liked it. I liked that they were really going for this in such a direct and, you know, bold way, but you’re right.

Having him hide under the bed while she came in, but it was, it was an interesting effect. And this is one of the things that, you know, like they said, that they said was really difficult to film was she’s literally walking through the room. Like her feet are on the floor. She walks up to the edge of the bed, kind of turns to face the bed while he’s looking from underneath.

It it’s very effective and very creepy just as it would be if it wasn’t underwater. Right. 

Craig: And she eventually, I don’t know, gets so way. And, uh, she ends up finding him in the bedroom, but he’s just kind of floating suspended there. And when she talks to him, he talks to her. Affected. And it’s clearly not him.

She doesn’t jump to that conclusion, but as viewers, we realize it’s not him, he’s possessed or something, and she’s trying to convince him to get out. And he’s saying all of these very cryptic things. 

Todd: Ah, it’s okay. You know, we’re going to be fine. And you know, w we belong here and all this stuff and follow me.

I know the way. 

Craig: Yeah. And there’s, there’s a part where there’s a snake in her suit and it crawls up into her helmet. And she, again, again, Alan is behind me, ed.

And he’s like open your mouth, let it come into your mouth, swallow it. The Allen behind me, he’s like, I saw a movie like that

Todd: and it wasn’t underwater

Craig: eventually. He’s like, I know the way out. And she’s like, oh, thank God. So he leads her to the seller again and, and they find another hidden door behind a cabinet or something. And he leads her into what appears to be like a screening room. Meanwhile, the lights have been coming on for a while now, under 

Todd: water.

Um, 

Craig: and in this screening room, he’s talking to her. I can’t remember what he’s saying, but he’s explaining. And then, uh, the, the film real. Rolling. And he basically narrowed. The back history that this family, the parents, and a sister who was the young woman, female ghosts that we saw, and Pierre had been kidnapping local children to do satanic sacrifices.

And eventually the townspeople came, um, to exact their revenge and they killed, uh, Sarah, the, the daughter in her bed. And they hung up the parents on those hooks and put those masks on them. But Pierre escaped and, and you see gruesome images of, of the torture and sacrifices and stuff. And he’s like, Joe, we have been chosen to be part of their family or something like that.

Then Sarah, the young woman ghost rips through the screen and starts to come at her. Somehow she gets away swims through the screen. The ghost and then both in pursuit, he been eventually catches her and is trying to keep her down there. Meanwhile, we’re also seeing that she has virtually no oxygen left because Ben is holding onto her and trying to keep her down there.

I think she takes her knife and stabs him in the shoulder, in the shoulder, which I guess breaks the spell and he’s himself again. And he has no idea where they are or what’s going on, but 

Todd: where they are is like some kind of chamber. It’s like another, it’s almost like a cave type chamber and they’ve their candles.

And they’re lit under 

Craig: read that it was like some kind of like say Titanic. Uh, I don’t know, something, whatever. 

Todd: There’s like a sacrificial stuff on the floor is a big upside down cross and everything I have to admit at this point. And I, I was a little disappointed in the direction that it took just the magically.

I thought, oh, this is. Corny, you know, it’s just a little campy. It’s pretty typical for a haunted house movie, really. But, but the whole, like he’s now possessed, come join us. I’m going to narrate the entire backstory of how this is going to go. And it ends up being, you know, the satanic rituals and you’re going to be the next one and all that.

I don’t know. I was a little disappointed in that, but yeah, it’s okay. And bother me. 

Craig: Didn’t bother me a little bit. So the spell is broken and she’s like, come on, let’s get out of here. She sees light. Like she thinks there’s a way they can get out. Well then ghost Sarah grabs him from behind and stabs him in the heart.

And, and the ghosts kind of converge on him. And she’s just kind of floating there watching until the older male ghost turns and looks at her and she’s like, oh shit, I guess I better get out of here. So she turns and starts to swim away, but they get a hold of her. At which point she gets the notification that she is out of oxygen.

So to escape them, she takes off her tank and equipment, which they’re clinging to and she swims away and swims up and she does get away and they are looking at her longingly, I guess. But she swims up through this shaft. She has to break through all of these vines and things to get out, but she gets out and this crypt, yes.

Oh, that’s right. 

Todd: Thanks to the fact that they broke the door open. That’s right. 

Craig: And at this point I felt like I know what’s going to happen. And I did. But I like it. I think that is so fitting. Maybe even more so than a haunted ghost filled underwater mansion. This is perhaps even more nightmarish because she swimming, swimming, swimming, and she can see the surface.

It’s right there. It’s right there. But she doesn’t make it. 

Todd: Yeah. Oh, and they tease you about it too, don’t they? Like, you’re not quite sure she slowing down, but then the way they pull the camera away from below, it almost looks like she might be floating to the surface or something. 

Craig: I think she’s going to get that one last burst of adrenaline.

That’s going to launch. 

Todd: And then they showed the surface of the lake for like the last shot of the movie is a surface of the lake, the stillness of it. And you’re just, oh, she going to break? Is she going to come through? Nope, fades away credits. And I was like, all right. That makes perfect sense. It’s frustrating and annoying that she didn’t make it away, but what’s going to happen.

What’s what’s worse. You know, she suddenly burst through the top and like, oh, the nightmare is over. Then what? You know, that would be silly. Honestly, the nihilistic ending is more fitting and more satisfying. Honestly, I think that. I don’t know. And what, like, Pierre is on the S on the, I mean, I don’t know.

Craig: Yeah. Yeah. She, she bursts through and then we get the lame, like the descent to stupid sequel where she has to go back down there and whatever dumb. Um, no, I liked it. I liked the nihilistic ending, you know, I, I’m not happy she died. Um, I just thought that it was a fitting, 

Todd: it was fitting yeah. Fitting for the film.

Yeah. And, and, and a little frustrating too, which is a good, which is a good thing. 

Craig: And then did you stick around for the post credit scene? I 

Todd: did. Indeed. 

Craig: Yeah. It just shows Pierre has a. Lured a couple of other divers, young women divers, um, to the spot, there was something about Tina had a peace sign on her scuba gear, um, and pier said something about it.

And it turns out that like the peace sign was appropriated by the hippies. And really it was about like, it was supposed to represent like a broken cross, like the end of Christianity or something. And he said something about it being a good omen. And then these two girls who are going down, they, they prominently show that one of them has a peace sign tattoo on her neck.

Todd: Oh, oh, I didn’t quite catch that, but you’re right. Well, apparently there was also a deleted scene that I guess you can see somewhere, um, on the Blu-ray I think, but I didn’t get to see it where I think Tina is swimming through the mansion and she’s supposed to see a ghost in the mirror, but the ghost is the ghost of an, of a previous diet.

Who’s like warning her go away. Right. And you’re getting you’re in trouble, but, uh, that, that didn’t actually end up in the movie. Yeah. We’re all, 

Craig: I really enjoyed it. Especially the first time now watching on the second watching, I didn’t enjoy it as much, but it’s good. Like, I don’t think it’s any kind of masterpiece, but it is creative and it’s something that I’ve never seen before.

And it’s short the characters, you know, like they did fine. Like I wasn’t particularly invested in them or care about them too much, but I was fine with following them around. And of course they made some stupid decisions, but people in horror movies always do. Um, as far as it being a haunted house movie, you know, it hit the right notes and I did find it to be very spooky.

N scary, uh, at parts I would recommend it. I think it’s definitely worth watching. I don’t, I doubt I’ll ever watch it again, but I give it a thumbs up. I, I think it’s good. And I think it’s 

Todd: worth your time. Yeah. I, a hundred percent agree with you with everything you said. I found it scary and it’s been a while since I’ve been scared and at a horror movie.

So there were a few parts that were genuinely frightening and, and, uh, and for that great, like you said, the rewatch ability is sorta like any of these haunted house movies really. Right. I mean, they really rely a lot on the slow build and the atmosphere and the mystery of what’s going on that unfolds.

So once you’ve been through that, um, it’s not as effective the second time around, but, and then my God, like the technical achievement of shooting this entirely practically, uh, underwater in 35 days in, in these conditions. So cool. Yeah, hats off to the directors, a couple of creative guys, and it sort of makes me want to check out some of their earlier movies.

Well, thank you again for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. You can find us online. If you just search for 2 Guys and a Chainsaw podcast, also, you know, we have a Patreon drive going on right now. Please check out our website and follow the link there to get to our patriotic.

Uh, we will be very grateful. If you do become a member, you have access to our unfiltered unedited podcasts. As we record them with all the little bits and things, we cut out some of the stuff that happens before or after we chat on the bone. And also we occasionally release a short little episode mini soaks for you that we’re going to be doing on various topics that will only be available to our Patriot subscribers.

So a quick plug on that, please check us out on Patrion and consider tossing us a few bucks our way if you enjoy the show. Until next time, I’m Todd, and I’m Craig, with Two Guys and a Chainsaw.