Cannibal Girls

Cannibal Girls

cannibal girls still

We really love our tribute episodes. Not only do they allow us the chance to reflect on an actor or filmmaker’s life and work, but also because they often send us to some more obscure stuff that we might never have chosen on our own.

This week’s tribute to Ivan Reitman is a pure grindhouse-style horror-comedy, starring none other than Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin. We might have had a little TOO much fun with this one, as it got Todd into some real-life trouble of his own. Apparently recording our podcast is more hazardous than you’d think. Listen in to find out why!

cannibal girls poster
Expand to read episode transcript
Automatic Transcript

Cannibal Girls (1973)

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

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Craig. It seems like we’re going through a whole series of tribute episodes. I know people are dying left and right. What’s going on? I don’t know. It’s a. This week’s tribute episode, a person who has very recently passed away that should be near and dear to many of our hearts, famous director, Ivan Reitman died in his sleep this month in February, Ivan Reitman is probably most famous for directing Ghostbusters, right.

But he’s done a whole lot of stuff before that he has a such an interesting history. He has an interesting family history. And, you know, you would think that, oh, well, Ghostbusters, maybe we would just do that on this podcast. Thankfully, Craig had done a little bit of research and reach out to me before I saw it and said, you know, we could do Ghostbusters.

It’s kind of a horror movie. Yeah. Well, 

Craig: as it is. And not only that, but I can only assume that like me, you know, being a kid of the eighties, I mean, Ghostbusters, I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters is a great. Movie and yeah, it’s, it’s a comedy, I think first and foremost, but it’s a horror comedy and, and it’s, it’s a good movie.

So, so much talent, such, such great actors. And, um, it was just a huge, huge success. And of course that was the first thing that popped into my mind. That’s what I texted you. I’m like, well, Ghostbusters obviously.

Todd: However, it turns out that back in 1973, Ivan Reitman directed a little known film called cannibal girls, 

Craig: terrible.

Todd: Oh, how perfect is this? This just hits me in all the feels. I was so happy to hear this. I’m so glad you found this. When you go online and you read about Cannibal Girls, uh, in IMDB. And if you pretty much stop there, you’re not actually going to get a ton of information about it. You’re going to know that Ivan Reitman directed it.

It stars. Oh God, it’s it stars Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin. And in one of their first screen roles, uh, very young, very hairy Eugene Levy,

Just in case you’re racking, your brain as to who Eugene Levy is. Think about the American Pie movies. He’s the dad.

Craig: Oh, and Schitt’s Creek. I don’t know if you’ve watched Schitt’s Creek, but, uh, he, uh, he and his son Daniel wrote it and it starred in it. Oh God, it took me a minute to get into it. But then once I did, it’s just one of the most clever, funny heartwarming things and, and just swept awards shows, uh, over the past several years.

Um, and, and rightfully so genius. And, and he, yes, uh, all of the, uh, Christopher Guest movies, um, that he did in the Christopher Guest movies, he was often paired with Catherine O’Hara, uh, the mom from home alone and she played. Just brilliantly played his eccentric wife on Schitt’s Creek. You got to watch it, bro.

Todd: you’re not the first person who’s told me. I’m going to have to check it out. Yeah. It’s just so cool. Like Eugene Levy, just he’s one of those actors, that’s just a character in himself, right? Yeah. Like he just has a look. He has a way of speaking it’s unmistakable and he gets cast in these roles that are just perfect for him.

But he has his roots in like SCTV, second city, all that stuff. Like he and his co-star in this film. Andrea Martin, both. Yeah. And both of them really owe a lot of this to Ivan Reitman. And everybody’s from Canada. Right? And like SCTV, this, this movie, Cannibal Girls was a Canadian production. And as I was watching this.

Loving it to death because I love these kinds of movies. It’s a total Grindhouse movie. It’s like the epitome of a cheaply shot, exploitation, horror flake that is destined for the drive-in, but it’s got a cool flare to it that I’m sure we’ll talk about. When I was looking up Ivan Reitman and the genesis of this movie, I was got back into his college years and then back into his kid years.

And I was shocked to find out that he is a first-generation. Um, Canadian American, he, his parents were Hungarian Jews who survived the Holocaust. His mother survived Auswitch. They fled communist Czechoslovakia by hiding under the floorboards of a tugboat for five days. Wow. He was born in Czechoslovakia, made it to Canada, grew up in Canada where his father, uh, who had owned a vinegar factory in Czechoslovakia before they had to leave, bought a dry cleaning business and a carwash, and just started living the Canadian dream.

And, uh, he ended up going to McMaster university in Ontario, studying. He just seems like the kind of guy would have been friends with cause he was involved in all the things that I would have been involved in. I was involved in, in college, he directed some student plays and then this being the mid to late sixties, it’s a hippy time.

It’s very, there’s a strong counterculture thing happening in the U S and in Canada. And, um, there’s a lot of interesting stuff happening on college campuses. A lot of experimentation, drugs, sex, you know, kind of free love kind of time. He got very involved with the film scene here on the campus and McMahon.

And there was this guy named John , who had just a couple years before him had started the film club up at McMasters and created something. They called the McMaster’s film board or whatever. And, uh, I’ve been right, but got involved in that and, uh, started becoming a part of the film. This John Hoff says, had these grand ideas about film and its ability to kind of help with sexual liberation and all this stuff.

And he started producing these extremely, already very experimental sort of soft. You could say, like soft-core pornographic student films, but also he was doing already things like with dual projection and, and different soundtracks and people reading stuff while the film was going and trying to kind of had these very esoteric ideas about breaking down people’s inhibitions by showing them a sex, frankly, and from a distance and all kinds of.

Anyway, Ivan Reitman being a part of this scene ended up being a co-producer on this guy’s movie, the Columbus of sex in 1968, which was a student film. It required two projectors and they showed it on campus. And in the middle, about 20 minutes into the showing, a bunch of cops came in for the vice squad and shut it all down and arrested them, all arrested him.

And, uh, John, this John Hobson and another person who was producing this film, they were charged and convicted of obscenity. And he ended up, he ended up having to pay Ivan Reitman ended up having to pay 300 Canadian dollars, which I think was like the equivalent of 20 American bucks got us, you know, suspended sentence or whatever like that, uh, probation for a year.

It’s just so cool because he, I don’t know. I just feel like he. You know, I was experimenting with movies and stuff in college too. And I was involved in theater and film and music and all that. And so I just thought, yeah, like these, this is one of these guys, you know, that kind of came from that and, uh, just grew something.

Yeah. After that they ended up selling that movie. They sold that movie to a, uh, an exhibitor in the United States and then they cut it up and they shot some extra footage and they released it. And so then he went on to move into another movie called my Foxy lady, which was another sort of sex comedy, which didn’t do too well, but it got distributed and it also was Eugene Levy and, um, Andrea Martins first screen role.

Oh, wait before that, before this Foxy lady yet, they were both in, I didn’t, by the way, by the way, Eugene Levy fun fact, he was a, he was a cinematographer on that student film that everybody got arrested for crazy. Right. So anyway, uh, they did all this and they did this, uh, Foxy lady, which he was his first directorial debut, starring Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin didn’t do too great, but was distributed ended up, uh, deciding, well, we need to go for the lucrative horror market.

It was a total of 12 people just went in on it. Uh, and they decided they were going to get equal shares and whatever they could produce out of it. And then they convinced. Pathway productions, which had an editing equipment and editing studio there to forego all of the fees for using their equipment until after the film has picked up and they get money for it, then they were going to pay these guys.

Their original budget, I think was like nine 30, 9,000 or something like that. They ended up spending $12,000 putting this movie together. They cut it together. And, uh, after they were finished, cutting it together, they ended up with something that was 60 minutes long and they all decided wasn’t very good.

So Ivan Reitman, he goes to his dad and borrows money. They shoot extra scenes in Ontario and Toronto, some other places. And try to flesh this out to something that makes a little more sense and is about an hour and a half long now it’s I think it’s an hour 24 minutes. Yeah. And, uh, there you go. Uh, it premiered at the, uh, horror festival in Spain.

And it was a down to the wire kind of thing. It almost didn’t even premiere because they were in dispute with pathway over their money. Pathway was whole threatening to hold onto the negatives unless they signed over all the rights to them because they were tired of waiting. And his co-producer on this just basically gave an ultimatum and said, if you do that, I’m just going to drive the negatives off a cliff.

I’ve spent two years on this movie. I don’t give a care anymore. And, uh, they were shocked by that and they ended up releasing the negatives to them and they managed to get a finished print of this film in their hands, in the Spain, 30 minutes before this produced the performance appeared on screen. Yeah, it premiered at for like 15.

But it just so happened that one of the 15 people in the audience was a scout for American international pictures, which was Roger Corman and Samuel cops, big B movie distribution machine in the United States. Uh, this guy said, you’ve got to show this to Sam Arkoff and they were like, holy crap, Sam Markoff, he’s like a God.

They ended up going to, uh, his like, like some crazy hotel. They had a second screening of this film for him. He and, um, James James Nicholson ran American international pictures and it was the great B picture releasing organization of a, of an entire generation. And it’s this extraordinary hotel on the tip of the Mediterranean is probably one of the most expensive hotels in the world.

They lead me to the biggest suite at the hotel because he was the number one guy and the sweetest full of people milling about it’s busy and there Sam. Okay, Kate, come with me and throw the bed into the bedroom. And he’s got this fresh orange juice glass with a hotel, du cap napkin underneath it. And he moves the orange juice.

He takes up this big fad ball, ballpoint pan, and he writes $50,000 and he gives it to me like this. And, um, and I said, would you mind signing it? And then after we recoup our costs, you can have 20% of the groceries. And that is how this film got us distribution in mostly drive in. It was released as a drive and double feature with a movie called raw meat, which started Donald Pleasance and Christopher Lee.

Roger Corman was a little, you know, he’s got his requirements and you gotta have a lot of nudity. You got to have a lot of gore. This movie’s got nudity, but it doesn’t have too much gore. And that was a bit of a problem. So he came up with this gimmick that he stole, I think from an earlier William castle type production, where in the trailers for this film and in.

Screening of this movie, there would be a bell that would ring before some scene that would be shocking so that you knew to close your eyes. And then you could open your eyes again after the doorbell sound, which lets you know, that it’s safe to watch again during the showing of 

Craig: cannibal girls in consideration 

Todd: of those of you with delicate sensibilities, a special warning bell has been installed.

It will 

Craig: signal you when to close your eyes to avoid certain scenes of a shocking nature.

Todd: Apparently that was successful. If you get the DVD version of it, I know there’s an option to turn that on. Isn’t that crazy? I 

Craig: know. I, I really kind of wished that we had been able to see that. I just wanted to know. I just wanted to know what it was like. I thought it was actually really kind of clever and gimmicky and um, I know that, uh, corpsman and probably.

Others like him were experimenting with those types of gimmicky type things. Um, in the theater, you know, like smell of vision and, you know, all of these, uh, gimmicky type things. I kind of, it would have been funny to be able to see that, but 

Todd: whatever, why don’t we do that anymore? We should do shit like that now.

Right. We kind of get mixer fun. So they shot this movie. Uh, it was, uh, nine, 16 hour days in a row. And when you watch the credits for this film, I mean, actually to their credit. It, it mentions it’s a story by such and such person, uh, a writer written by Robert Sandler. But then, but yeah, yeah, it says the dialogue was developed by the cast, basically.

So apparently they basically just had a rough outline. It was like a 13, 14 page outline of the movie and with the main beats and stuff. But then all of the dialogue in this was improvised by the cast. Yeah. 

Craig: I would imagine that most of that was the Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin stuff. Cause they’re the ones who have the most dialogue, the, the everybody else.

There’s not really a whole lot of talking, you know, they’re, they’re just things happening, but it’s interesting, you know, sadly, uh, I only worked on one student short film when I was in college and it wasn’t with you. It was with another. Filmmaker. And I had such a, a wonderful time doing it. Like it was just so much fun, but, uh, you know, when you’re doing that, when you’re doing those types of small, cheap productions, everybody just does whatever needs to be done.

And so, uh, as I was looking, you know, over this cast list and looking at the people, because aside from Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin, Andrea Martin, by the way, went on to have a very, also have a very, uh, successful and prolific career. 

Todd: Yeah. She’s still going to EO. 

Yes. 

Craig: Um, she was in the original Black Christmas.

She was in the first Black Christmas remake. She was in My Big Fat Greek Wedding movies and TV show. I think like she’s very recognizable. Uh, just a whole Arius lady. Both of these stars are just genius. Yeah, funny people. Um, and, and you get a little bit, you know, this, this movie’s kind of tongue in cheek, it’s billed as a horror comedy.

It’s light on the comedy air. At least it’s not like it’s not, you know, slap your knee. Ha ha ha comedy. It’s it’s more just like this is silly and 

Todd: yeah, almost, almost a surreal sort of odd comedy in a way to write letters, some weird stuff in here. Well, 

Craig: but I just, uh, the three, the cannibal. I just love that they were all, uh, it, it says in the opening credits and introducing, and it lists their names as the cannibal girls.

So these are, you know, nobody actresses. And, uh, I noticed that, uh, Randall carpenter who plays Anthea, who’s the blond, there’s a blonde, a brunette and a redhead. It’s perfect. It’s so clever. But the one who plays, uh, the blonde, she was also the costume supervisor. Like I can just only imagine that this was, you know, a labor.

Love or they just had to do things because there was nobody else to do it. And you and I have both been in that situation where you just wear whatever hat you have to wear, 

Todd: because somebody has to. Right.

And how cool, well, if, if we could have just like approached some distributor with, with the shit that we made and, uh, yeah. Yeah. There’s a bunch of people out there who watch this shit, you know, while they’re making out in the back of a car and he made money. But 

Craig: anyway, let’s get back to Cannibal Girls

Todd: Cannibal Girls, Cannibal girls.

Oh my gosh. Oh, I, I, 

Craig: I know you do. And so I was kind of, you know, when I. Realized what it was. I didn’t look too much into it. I saw the title. I saw that it was 1973 and I was like, do I mention it to Todd?

Craig: Do I just say, let’s do Ghostbusters? Cause I knew if I mentioned this, that you would want to do it.

But frankly, I, I was intrigued 

Todd: Honestly, we don’t do enough of these kinds of movies here. Uh we’ve we haven’t really, I mean, we, we do a variety of films. There’s only so many movies you can do, you know, once a week, but as far as like a Grindhouse type drive and pick like. Debris in the last six years.

Craig: Yeah, not many at all. And, and that’s, that’s probably mostly my fault, I guess. 

Todd: Um, well, there’s too much to choose from. 

Craig: Well, there are, but I just, this isn’t what I’m typically drawn to, but I saw this and I saw who was in it and I, I, you know, I knew this wasn’t necessarily going to be the type of Eugene Levy stuff that.

And familiar with, I knew it was going to be something different, but I was, uh, interested in seeing where he and Andrea Martin kind of began. And frankly, I expected it to be bad and it is, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going be. And, and honestly, like when it was over, I just had like this shit eating grin on my face.

Like I 

Todd: know I expected this to be, so I’ve respected. Let me just put it this way. I expected this to be as bad as the movies I shot when I was in college. And I was really surprised actually at, at, uh, the Bowman’s of cleverness and just the overall effect that it gave and what I got out of it at the end, I thought this movie sort of does deserve to be, uh, to be talked about.

Craig: And I don’t think that many people know about it. I had never heard of. At all. Um, we knew nothing about it. Uh, being a fan of both of these lead actors, I had no idea and I don’t think it’s widely known. I think that it has a small audience who appreciates it, but I don’t think a lot of people have seen it.

And if you haven’t seen it, I say, you should check it out. And honestly, like, usually we’re like, if you haven’t seen it, then turn this off and watch it and come back. No, you can listen. 

Todd: It’s fine. 

Craig: It’s it’s what you think it’s going to be. Better than 

Todd: I’ll expect. It’s it’s so funny you say that because the poster itself, the tagline is these girls do exactly what you think they do.

Cannibal Girls wears its heart on its sleeve. This movie. Well, well, and it’s like 

Craig: what? It comes down to it, it’s kind of like that the farmer’s daughter kind of story, you know, like there, you know, there’s this farmhouse and these beautiful girls live there. Like, you know, that can go in a couple of different directions.

Todd: Right? And then 

Craig: in this case, it kind of teases you and it, it, it does go in that direction because like they lose their men to the farmhouse for. Sex and naked time, but then they have like rituals, blood rituals and they eat them.

Todd: Um, this was a, this was a common issue in the late set in the early seventies in Canada, by the way, which a film, this film was good at bringing that to light and raising awareness.

Oh my gosh. Well, apparently before we talk about the movie, apparently to wrap things up on the history, this movie was one of the very first Canadian productions that really broke through and got major distributions south of the border and kind of paved the way for all of these other Canadian horror movies that we’ve been talking about incessantly on this podcast, uh, prom night and, you know, uh, black Christmas and all of those films.

You could argue, oh, a little bit to this movie. So weirdly enough, many people will say this because this was the first one to kind of say like, Hey, maybe we can make a thing out of this, up here in Canada, where at this time Canada’s film scene was kind of struggling. Like, what do we do? You know, how do we build this up?

Uh, and the Canadian film board even to this day is really good at funding, independent films and promoting Canada as a place to make movies. Well, they were turned down by the Canadian film board, but after the distribution of this film and a couple that kind of came in its wake and inspired by this movie, as well as Ivan Reitman’s subsequently produced movies.

Ivan Reitman went from here to produced a movie called deranged, another horror movie. To a, of David Cronenberg’s first films, uh, shivers and rabbit, which starred Marilyn Chambers. He produced again, Canadian filmmakers shooting in Canada, getting wide distribution in the states. And so it’s sort of in a way, opened up the flood gates, uh, for the ability for people to kind of take notice and, uh, take Canadian film a little bit more seriously.

And now a lot of films actually are at least partially shot in Canada because of the development of the film scene up there. Well, and it’s cheaper too, right? Exactly. Well, that’s the point, right? The government kind of like really encouraged to push it offers a lot of tax breaks and also offers a lot of support government support to Canadian filmmakers as well.

But anyway, cannibal girls, there’s 

Craig: an opening kill scene. And like it’s funny. Cause when it first opens, like it’s this aerial shot of a coast and I. Pushing my volume. Like I can’t hear it. Something’s wrong. The link that Todd sent me is broken, but there’s just no sound for the first couple minutes that it zooms in on these lovers frolicking on the beach.

Of course, it’s Canada. So it’s not like it’s tropical, it’s 

Todd: cold, 

Craig: but they’re just frolicking on the beach. And you know, they fall to the ground and start fooling around, you know, in their snaps. And then you see a killer POV and, uh, somebody, the guy is, they’re not, they’re not having sex. They’re just smooching on the beach, but somebody pulls him off the guy off the top of the girl and kills him with a pickax.

And it’s a woman. I mean, you are at least. You would assume it’s a woman, it low, the person has painted red fingernails and is wearing what looks like a woman sweater. It is a woman it’s not this direction. Um, but they kill, uh, the guy and then they, uh, rip the girl’s shirt open to expose her breasts and rub some blood between her breasts.

And that’s it. And that’s the last you ever see of her, which is a little bit 

Todd: confusing. The last we see of her, I thought it was the blonde. We eventually ended up seeing, uh, maybe I’m wrong. 

Craig: No. Oh, later. Okay. So then, uh, Lou Jean Levy, who plays cliff and Andrea Martin who plays Gloria, they are a young couple, a new couple.

They’ve been together for like a month, but they are just going away for a weekend and they’re just, you know, wherever the wind blows them, you know, they’re just gonna stop at some small town or whatever. There their car dies. And that goes on for 

Todd: far does. No, I don’t. I want to interrupt you here because you missed the credit sequence.

Like under the credit sequences, this odd, this odd montage. It’s cool though, of these girls, it’s like, there’s this farmhouse and there, these girls kind of coming and going, and then there’s this dude. That’s like an Igor type hunchback kind of weird guy. Who’s like digging in the garden. And one of the girls comes out of the house and lays like a bowl of food down for him.

And he just runs up to it like a dog and just starts like eating the food out of it. It’s. 

Craig: Please tell me that you did this research because I didn’t, but I am absolutely fascinated. This Igor character is 

Todd: played by itself. He’s 

Craig: yes, he’s, he’s credited as himself bunker as himself. And I clicked on his IMDV page and he’s been in two movies credited as himself.

I have no idea who 

Todd: is this? I wish I knew. I looked forward to, I couldn’t find anything. It’s 

Craig: like, he’s like a hunchback deranged kind of character, and he’s just built as hymns. That’s a weird God, but you’re right. It is very strange. And we just basically see these three. Beautiful, young women, again, a platinum blonde, uh, you know, a, a cherry red, red head, um, and a 

Todd: brunette, your typical seventies girls, uh, long hair is a way they had a way with makeup and stuff at this era that I kind of like, 

Craig: he did it well.

And the Marcia Brady hair just long and, and, you know, not slicked down, but just like brushed totally straight, you know, whatever. And the three of them are very beautiful. They don’t really have a whole lot of acting to do. They mostly just do a lot of killing and like 

Todd: munching on blood caressing and.

That’s 

Craig: right. And, and all of this, you know, you see this and then there’s like, weird, what, what do you call it? Like the, the face of this weird guy, like super 

Todd: imposed. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like this odd montage, right? Where it’s like his crazy eyes and then the girls one after another and yeah, that was our little RD, right?

Yeah. I like it though. Yeah. 

Craig: And then the two, the couple is stranded. There, there I have in my notes, their car won’t start and then it does, and then it dies. Good. And then it starts gap. Okay. Yeah. She gives it a pep-talk. Oh, no, it 

Todd: was funny. I know it’s been hard on you. It’s very cold outside and I know that you’d rather just be sitting someplace, but if you could help us out just this once, we’d really appreciate it.

Craig: Please 

Todd: go ahead. Talk like that. Don’t be sarcastic. 

Craig: Was it a circuit? What it sarcastic or was, is the sarcastic it’s going to start anyway. We love you. Love you love you.

There’s there’s so much, honestly, as I was watching this, there were so many times when I’m like, this is hilarious. I hope that he cuts this kid because there are so many parts that are just so Arnie and they’re plates. Great. It’s 

Todd: a very understated comedy, right. It’s played super straight and it just makes it so much funnier that way.

And I liked this bit between the two of them in the car, because I mean, it did go on too long for sure, but it kind of set them up just sort of wacky, but cute. Somewhat charming couple. And, and I, you know, initially when you see a couple like this and they’re driving a car and they’re going down the road, I sort of imagined, oh, maybe they’re husband and wife, maybe they’re, you know, long-time boyfriend, girlfriend, but it’s, it’s much, much later in the movie that we find out they’ve only been dating for like a month or two, but they’ve got this, 

Craig: it’s a seventies.

Todd: I don’t care. But they got this chemistry. That’s, that’s really cute. And there’s like, uh, probably because they’re ad-libbing and because the camera just keeps rolling, but there’s sort of a, a realistic kind of relatable quality to it. Like if you had just let a camera go on my family for 10 minutes, you know, it would more or less sort of be like this, mostly boring, but you get some interaction and stuff.

Craig: I didn’t know that they had worked together before a lot of the hit some of the history that you said contradicts what the. I am DB trivia said, because you said that they had done a film before and the IMD trivia says that this is Andrea Martin’s first film. Now, maybe this is the first one that, you know, actually got distributed.

I don’t know. But knowing that they had worked together before now, I can see that these are, these seem to be two people who are familiar with one another and comfortable with one another. And that, that reads on the screen and she’s playing kind of ditzy and flighty, but likable and he is playing kind of cool.

And it seems like he’s mostly into it for the sex, you know, you know, like he, it’s not like he does. Enjoy, you know, like they, they, they seem like a believable. I believe that they’ve been together for a month, you know, like they’re still getting to know each other. They enjoy each other’s company. He gets a little irritated at some of her quirks sometimes, but he hasn’t known her longer.

You know, like they’re not married, so it’s not like he despises her yet. 

Todd: That takes a while. Even you have to be married for awhile

know? Yeah. But it’s cute. I think your point too, is that there’s something kind of charming about these two people in the beginning. And then I think it helps. I mean, it really helps with the movie because most of movies of this caliber don’t really even bother with that. 

Craig: No, you’re right. You’re right.

They are characters that you, not that you’d necessarily care about. I mean, if they get eaten by the cannibal girls, that’s fine. But they, they feel like real people. They don’t just feel like. Lame bad actors in a movie. Um, but anyway, so they, they ended up going to this mechanic shop and they run into, first of all, everybody who works at the mechanic shop is super shady and like the chief of police’s hanging out there.

And he’s also obviously super shady. There’s no sense in trying to hide anything about this movie, as it turns out, everybody in the town is in, I don’t know if there’s 

Todd: some kind of like cult or something. Right. 

Craig: But everybody’s in on it, but there’s another, you know, they’re there and there’s another outsider there who’s asking around and he’s showing this picture and he’s like, have you seen this girl?

She’s my sister. Well, that was the girl on the beach, but we, but we never see her again. No, which doesn’t make sense. Cause it seems. All ultimately, it seems like, and I do feel like I’m giving something away here, but I don’t care. Ultimately it seems like they’re actively recruiting cannibal girls. So why, so why 

Todd: wouldn’t she be one now there are multiple houses with myth, cannibal girls in it or something.

I don’t know. 

Craig: Maybe she resists. I don’t know, but they, they get directed by the shady, a F a mechanic to this motel down the street. I don’t remember. Mrs. Wayne writes the motel or whatever. And this is Mrs. Wainwright is this, you know, frail little old lady with a Walker. And she tells them, she’s like, oh yeah, we don’t get many people around here.

Very, maybe it’s because of the, maybe it’s because of the old

Todd: creepy lady in our town who knows. And then she 

Craig: tells the whole story. See it in flashback and it’s detailed and wonderful, loved 

Todd: this. I love this whole concept that there’s this whole flashback, the detailed where the cannibal girls. Well, just the idea, by the way, Mrs. Ray Wainwright, the actress who plays this may Jarvis has her name.

She is apparently was from a wealthy, very like historically pop your family in Toronto. Like there’s a Jarvis street in Toronto. That’s named after her grandfather. And so she owned the farm house that they ended up shooting most of this movie in. And so they put her in the movie. So that’s how she ended up in here.

That’s hilarious. So she tells this tale, which is loads of fun, and I love the way it’s cut together to, uh, there’s a guy that we later here is named Earl and he’s. Camping, he’s camping without a tent. I don’t know. Maybe he just laid down, sleep, sleep in the woods. Maybe just lay down and put his head on the log.

And this girl comes up to him. That’s the blonde girl and she’s all seductive. It’s like, Hey, why don’t you follow me? And he’s like, Ooh, Hey, cool. You’re a hot chick. Okay. I’ll go after you. So they leave. And then there’s a guy named Felix. Who’s sitting in a quote unquote Tavern, which we know because we see a close-up shot of some neon light that says Tavern.

And then the next shot is this guy sitting at a table in front of a window, which looks suspiciously like just a window you might have in your house. 

Craig: Yeah. And it’s a really tight shot and you don’t see anybody else around him. I mean, it’s low budget. It’s funny. All three of these guys. Earl Felix and Rick, each one of them gets picked up by one of the girls and they all get brought back to the house.

And then it’s like, they’re just there for days. 

Todd: They play monopoly that 

Craig: yes, they play monopoly to hang out. The girls cook for them at some point, like they’re all having dinner together and all the girls are dressed in the same outfit and one of them comments on it. And they’re like, I don’t know, but it’s just like, they’re all just there and lingering, like on the assumed promise that they’re going to get late.

Todd: it’s like, oh, well, you know, like one of them is like an ice cream. Salesmen or something. One of them’s, 

Craig: one of them is a parade organizer. 

Todd: It’s silly. One of them’s just rich. He just says I’m rich, but they’re open. One of them wants to leave really fast. Like, oh, I got to organize a parade soon. And they’re like, yeah.

But yeah, you know, why don’t you just hang out here for a little while longer? Cause you know, we’re all going to get laid. Right. And 

Craig: you’re here two of us. That’s right. Earl. Finally, one for you, one for you. What’s Brian’s we’ve been waiting on waiting for I’ll try you. Can’t leave. Don’t forget the bull 

Todd: for all of us.

I got to be in buttoned field. We can score. I have missed a parade in eight years. Have you ever had this. Throughout this, then each of the girls are interacting with each of the guys it’s like each of the girls are sort of paired up with them. And they’re having these little moments, these little dialogues, where there are these things being dropped.

Like he’ll say, she’ll say something and whatever. Oh, I can’t wait to eat. Oh, food can be appetizing. Well, I’m looking forward to the main course myself, you know, like there are all these God, 

Craig: that was such a funny line to me. You know, food can be a wonderful appetizer.

It’s just so funny. And like, not even like, again, they’re playing it totally straight, but it’s just so stupid that it’s hilarious and not even stupid in a bad way, like in a funny way, like these guys are just they’re following their dicks. Like it’s so it just doesn’t make any sense that these. Three hot girls who happened to live in this farmhouse just happened to find these random three guys and like, oh, yo, I’m sure we’re, you know, we’re gonna, we’re gonna hook up.

Okay, Felix. 

Todd: Okay. Okay. Harry, Felix, Felix, who’s like a gorilla by the way. Just like the seventies. There’s tons of hair in this movie. Oh yeah. 

Craig: I don’t remember which guy. There’s one guy in his tidy whities. Who’s like a eight, but you know, and that was the thing back in those days. Um, you know, eventually Clarissa who I think is the red head takes the rich girl.

I don’t know who he is upstairs and.

The day, but then she, she stabs him with some scissors and then the weird Igor guy chops him up in the basement. And then Leona who’s, the brunette actually does sleep with Felix. At least Felix got laid. Um, and he’s the super hairy one. And like, she menaces him with a knife, which backs him into Anthea.

Who’s the blonde. And she kills him with an ax. And then I’m, I’m straight up reading from my notes then and Thea throb or no, Rick, and then. He wakes up handcuffed to the bed and like, he’s kind of panicked for a second, but, but then he’s not, like I said, all three girls come in at a, like, they 

Todd: have like one, 

Craig: this seems like the beginning 

Todd: of something it’s so funny because the come in and, and he, he looks a little concerned at first and then they come in and one of them has a silver tray with a silver sort of a bowl on it.

And there’s a red liquid in the bowl and they, like, they pour a little bit of this red liquid on his chest and they gather around him and they start like licking this off his chest. And it’s so funny because actually he’s not even like really in the foreground, it’s all about the girls and what they’re doing, but you can just sort of see out of focus in the background.

Like he’s like smiling and like kind of thing. And then he just. And one of the girls, you know, we get a closeup on her as she like lifts up and her mouth is just full of blood and she’s she’s munching and she’s 

Craig: chewing. Yeah. 

Todd: Yeah. It’s cool though. I like this stuff. It was, I left 

Craig: it. I thought it was great.

Todd: I thought it was. And then you’re reminded that this is a, uh, this is a flashback because suddenly we get back to them motel 

Craig: and Mrs. Mrs. Wainwright. And that’s the story of the three cannibal

Todd: and they’re, and they’re like, and they’re like, what happened for them? Oh, well right now that house is it, you know, that was a long time as a restaurant. It’s a very popular restaurant. You should go. It’s really exciting. I’ll take you there. 

Craig: And they’re like, there aren’t any Campbell girls there, right? Oh no, no cannibal girls there anymore.

Todd: It’s wonderful. Wonderful. And then one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie, Gloria. And cliff ended up back in the motel and they’re sitting on the bed and, and this, I thought this, honestly, I thought this was comic genius. They’re tasseling. And they’re just having, again, kind of like a real moments, you know, and he’s kind of slowly sort of like playing with her and then like, he’s talking with her and he’s like, spreads her legs a little bit and he’s on top of her and he’s kind of kissing her and smooching her.

And they’re kind of, you can tell like, okay, this is getting to sex. And then she says, you know what? I would love more than anything right now. And he’s like, no, what? And she says, if you would get your guitar and play a song for me. So he’s like, oh, uh, oh, okay. And he goes, and he gets his guitar and he sits down by the way, the whole time that they’re rolling around in the bed, he has had a lit cigarette in his right hand.

It’s yeah, it’s solid time. And, uh, 

Craig: it is funny, but the thing that I loved about this scene and. Yeah. I feel like it’s exemplified in this scene, but it’s probably true of the whole movie that they probably did. Most of this stuff in one shot, like true. This stuff that happens between them is awkward. It doesn’t feel staged really at all.

Like I imagine they had some direction, but it’s not like when he’s trying to spread her legs. Awkward, but it’s how real life is like real life doesn’t just happen smoothly. And balletic only, you know, like feet gets stuck

and he can’t, he can’t figure out what to do with this. Like he’s like the best thing finger and around with his cigarette for the longest time until he fired. His guitar has like strings that at the end, uh, just poking out everywhere. And he eventually just pokes is the butt of his cigarette. And then one of those strings.

So it’s just like, it’s bobbing. And at some point, at some point she’s like playing with it. Like, it’s just so obvious that they’re just, you know, making this up as they go. And it’s charming. Yes. I, I 

Todd: really almost like slice of life material and I, but they’re good enough. I mean, look, this is before these people are like trained in this kind of thing.

I mean, these people are fresh out of college. You know, there was later when they’re going to SCTV and do improv and stuff like that, but at the same time, like. They don’t break character. It’s it’s smart. It’s real. It moves. It feels real, like you said. And I found that really charming. 

Craig: Yeah, me too. Uh, Mrs.

W w we got to get to the Campbell girls, Mrs. Wainwright walks then. To this 

Todd: house, the restaurant, you mean? 

Craig: Yeah, the restaurant, it’s not even like accessible by the road. Like they have to walk up through the snow to get there and then they go up and it’s clearly just a house and they go inside and it’s funny cause they’re like this where there’s this restaurants of weird and he’s like, yeah, it’s frequent.

And they’re there. Of course the only ones there. And they’re greeted by this guy in a tux and the top hat and gloves. Introduces himself as the Reverend, Alex St. John. And he super weird cliff offhandedly says that he seen the Reverend before. Did I miss something? Because yeah, 

Todd: he says he seems familiar, whatever, but I don’t think anything really came of that.

Craig: Well, the, the, the Reverend guy is totally creepy with Gloria. Like he’s groping her ass as he’s running around the house and stuff, and it, and she doesn’t say anything, which, which made me think like, God, this is such a different time. Like, I know that women have to put up with a lot of shit today, still sadly.

But I feel like this was a different time before women even necessarily felt like they could say something like, she just kind of has to like roll, which is disgusting. And he doesn’t even notice the, the 

Todd: actor Ronald Aldrich. When I first saw the credits, I thought Robert Allriches in this. And then I kind of did a double double take that it’s Ronald Aldrich and he hasn’t been in anything else.

Kind of odd, look, he chews up the scenery in this, in this movie, but, um, I watched an interview with Eugene Levy. It was talking about this movie and he mentioned that this guy, he was like a seasoned stage actor. I mean, he’s young, but yeah, like very much he said, this guy would like more than any of the rest of us in that production.

He was the real deal actor in the whole thing. It’s kind of ironic that he didn’t end up going on to do anything else, movie wise anyway. But, uh, I 

Craig: can see that though. He kind of seems like a 

Todd: stage actor. Yeah. It’s sort of like a Willy Wonka ish sort of thing, right. Where he’s got a top hat and he’s loves 

Craig: and he has creepy, but not necessarily like run for this.

Yeah, 

Todd: except it’s super obvious this isn’t a restaurant. It’s just a house. Oh, what else is there? Yeah. 

Craig: Right. Eventually they sit down and he hands them a menu, but there’s only one thing on the menu, but that that’s after he shows them around the house and he tells them all of these whole layer, RIAs stories about these artifacts and, and like portraits of people in the house.

It’s like, he works at Disney’s haunted mansion. Right. Everything is some story about how, oh, here’s great. Aunt Matilda. She killed 47 people in 1932. Yeah. 

Todd: This is my grandfather’s piano. He was a man of rare taste and Gusto, a musical genius sometimes still, you know, in the dead of evening, religious hymns seem to fill this room.

That’s amazing. Right. You know, just the other day I thought I saw my distant cousin Rex. It’s rumor that he liked, man, sometimes exceedingly well, he did produce some very fine children, to be honest, none of them resemble him in the slightest. I could’ve 

Craig: listened to him for another five minutes, but it goes on 

Todd: for a long 

Craig: time.

It ends up with this weird like thing over the mantle, which doesn’t even look particularly ominous. It’s just. Boards and snowshoes or something he’s like, but this was a shrine that was put together by those cannibal girls. I suppose I should take it down, but I can’t bring myself to do it because it carries a terrible curse.

And I’m 

Todd: very superstitious. I mean, yeah, in a way it reminded me a little bit of the muda later. Do you remember in the muda later when that guy takes everybody, all of his friends out to his father’s beach house, and while they’re in the living room, it’s like telling us all these bizarre artifacts and things that all have terrible stories by him.

Here’s 

Craig: the spike that my dad killed somebody with. Right? Yeah. It was very much like that. It’s so haunted house, but just so funny, I just, 

Todd: I just loved it. The movie has kind of an art house feel to it because while he’s telling them this thing, it’s all in voiceover while the camera. Very slowly and deliberately panning around the room to all of these things.

Like we’re sitting in the room, just looking at this stuff right. While he’s talking. And that, that was a jarring, but also kind of cool way of, of presenting this. I thought it was creative. I liked that bit. 

Craig: I love that. They, they, they, they sit down to dinner and like I said, there’s only one menu or item on the menu.

The guy’s like, oh, don’t worry. You’ll love it. And they’re like, okay, well, we’ll take two then. Um, and then the girls Leona comes out and serves them wine and he’s like, um, 

Todd: 1913 was a beautiful year. We grow the grapes ourselves own vineyards, the grow on my grandfather’s grave. I don’t know. There’s something about.

Human remains that add a certain earthy quality to 

Craig: wine. And then he chose to grandfather. 

Todd: So funny.

Craig: And the other thing that’s funny is like they are creeped out. Um, it it’s a little bit like, um, uh, Rocky horror. They’re, they’re, they’re in this weird ass place and they’re kind of shooting each other glands.

Todd: Then 

Craig: there’s like some, they hear a scream in there, some commotion and the Reverend runs out and they try to get out of there, but they make the mistake of like fumbling around for money. Like they want to leave money to, to pay. And so they don’t get out of there fast. And, uh, he comes back and he’s like, oh no, no, I’m so sorry about the disturbance.

Dinner will be on me. Um, and they’re like, well, okay, we better go. And he’s like, no, you should really spend the night. And they’re like, oh, that’s all right, we’ll go. And, and he’s like, oh, That’s fine. Um, but there is a maniac loose. And so if you hear anything at all in the forest, while you’re walking home, run as fast as you can, and don’t look behind you by, 

Todd: and they step outside the front door and it’s this great shot where they step out there and suddenly it’s dark and they slow down and they stop and they look around thunder goes the dudes in the backyard.

They look at each other and the. Ah, you know what? Maybe we’ll stay the night.

It’s good. 

Craig: Okay. So then, so, so they do stay the night and like, he wants to get sexy times and she’s not really into it, but she starts to give in until the Reverend like walks in and he’s like, oh, I’m sorry to disturb you. And like, he only showed up to say, if you hear any weird noises night, just ignore it.

Todd: And then he leaves, she goes, all right, that did it. 

Craig: But they, but they stay 

Todd: anyway, you skipped over the parlor scene where he starts quoting Shakespeare and then the three girls get together and sing it. Oh yeah, that was 

Craig: oh, they saying, yeah. 

Todd: Uh, fearless day should look their shames upon. They will filet themselves exiled from LA.

And you must, or I saw it with black 

Craig: brown 

Todd: Knight.

may 

Craig: we? 

Todd: Uh

and then

even like Eugene Levy’s character clips starts to kind of sing with them. It’s so cute. 

Craig: It’s silly, but, okay. So then the, the they’re they’re asleep and the Reverend and all three girls come in while they’re asleep, they handcuff Eugene Levy to the bed, and then she wakes up and the Reverend like hypnotizes her and like hands her, like a huge knife, like she supposed to kill him.

But then he screams, which breaks the trance and she gets up and she runs away and she runs through the woods and. The castle freak attacks are. Um, and she runs away from him. And then now, honestly, this is the part where it’s like, oh, okay. This movie is more than I expected. She wakes up to cliff, waking her up in the motel.

She had fallen asleep and he had left. To, to go get the car fixed. 

Todd: She falls asleep because she runs out to the car. Uh, and, and, and there’s a cop or whatever, somebody it’s, I think it’s a cop car picks her up. And the next thing we know, there’s some guy it’s a doctor who gives her a pill, right? Yes. It’s conspicuously a red pill.

And I thought, because they’re trying to get her to drink this blood or something. Right. It seems like there’s a whole blood thing going, like they drink blood. There’s some ritual 

Craig: at the scenes where it’s made 100% obvious that the whole town is in on it. Like pretty much every character that we’ve seen the cop, the doctor, Mrs.

Wainwright, the mechanic guys are all gathered around this table, eating me with a portrait of the Reverend hanging above them. And th you know, they say something about him being their leader. So we know that everybody’s in on it. So when this doctor picks her up and gives her a pill, we know there’s something going on.

She goes to sleep and she wakes up to Eugene Levy waking her up as though this had all been a nightmare. Yeah. It’s it’s like the, the earlier 

Todd: in the day, it’s the same. We’re back in the spot where they were on the bed. He was trying to spread her legs and he ends up playing the guitar. She’s even wearing the same clothes.

Right. 

Craig: And she’s like, did you put me back in these clubs?

But he’s just playing it. Cool. Um, and then they, they go and like, they walk around town and she wants to get out of there. She tries to call her parents collect, but the operator tells her that the phone lines are down. She tries to get a bus ticket to go back. Toronto or wherever they’re from. Um, and, uh, the person on the line tells her that there are no buses until the next day.

And so she, she tries to hitchhike. She jumps in the car. It’s one of the creepy guys from the mechanic place. So she jumps back out. She doesn’t want to do that. Yeah. So she really has no choice, but to stay and he’s being weird. I didn’t, I didn’t know what to make of this. He’s being weird and he’s being kind of standoffish with her.

Like he’s trying to tell her that she’s being crazy and there’s nothing wrong. And finally, he’s like, fine. Do whatever you want. I don’t care if you want to leave, go. And he walks away. And while she’s in the phone booth, we see out of focus behind her, him talking to the police chief, who we know is bad.

So there’s something going on. And I don’t know, they like, they spend the day walking around the town. Nothing eventful happens eventually once it’s nighttime. Yeah, go 

Todd: ahead. Eventful things do happen, right? They, they walk by a, uh, a barber shop at one point. And as they’re walking by the barber, who is like a, got, you know, a razor blade or whatever, trimming around some guy’s ear, like literally cuts this guy’s ear off.

And he screams. Yeah. It’s so fast. Did you could almost miss it? What, a little bit of like comedy slash you know, foreboding, I mean, we already know what the whole town is cannibals or whatever, so, but right. I just loved the fact, this is what I loved about this movie is I was never bored. No, I was never bored.

And then with this bit, with this whole, her waking up again, and like, what is going on? Like you’re, like you said, there’s suspicion cast on him because he’s in the background. And I mean, this movie is so much better than most of the movies like this. Yeah. 

Craig: Agreed. It’s it’s clever. And it was, this was unexpected to me.

I didn’t expect this twist, but they, you know, at some point he’s like eating a meat pie, which he makes a point of saying, and, and he gives her a bite. And like, as she’s taking a bite, she, I guess accidentally bites his finger. Like just little details. I mean, I mean anything, but it’s just interesting. But then at the end of the day, when it’s night time, they’re just sitting on the curb and the police chief is like, we don’t like vagrants and hippies around here.

And they’re like, uh, well, we’re staying at the motel. And he’s like, okay, well, get in the back. He’s like, where, where am I supposed to drop you? And the cliff is like, well, I guess the restaurant. And I’m like, what, why would he automatically say that? But the cop takes them back to the restaurant, the quote unquote restaurant and drops them off.

And he’s like, and if you change your mind again, I’ll be out here waiting for ya. And he’s like holding his rifle so stupid. So they go back in there and then. 

Todd: Craig just a second, dude. There’s somebody knocking on my door. Let me just answer really quick. Go for it. Go for it. No problem. No problem. Hello, loyal listeners.

I’m going to cut in right here and let you know that at this point in our recording, the cops showed up at my door, which was a funny little incident that happened. And, uh, because we normally edit these sorts of things out of the podcast. You’re not going to hear it here. However, if you are interested in hearing the full unedited version of this here, a little bit of my encounter with the Chinese police, uh, as well as, uh, all of the podcasts that we do in the future, we’re currently running a Patrion campaign.

Uh, if you go to our website to guys.red, 40 net.com, you can check out the details on that. If you throw a few bucks our way and become a. We have a, several benefits. One of those is the access to the completely unedited versions of our phone calls every week in case that’s something that’s interesting to you.

One thing that we’ve put together, especially for folks is access to a full interview that our loyal listener. Has put together with us. And she asked us a bunch of personal questions, a bunch of questions about the podcast, horror movies, what goes into doing this, what we’ve learned over the years. I think it’s a lot of fun and very entertaining, and that is going to be available exclusively for our patrons.

Also accessible for patrons is many sodas that we’re going to be putting together a few of those per month. We’re just a shorter version of what we do here. Maybe one of us may be both of us, depending on how we’re feeling, talking about some movies that we’ve watched and our thoughts on those as well.

So once again, if you are interested in hearing my encounter with the police and, uh, all of these other extra goodies that I’ve just rattled off, please go to our website, to guys@redfortynet.com and consider tossing a few bucks our way to keep this podcast going and become a. Thank you so much for your support.

Craig: Okay. So, um, he dropped some off there and then, you know, just they’re they’re in there for like a second. And then the freaky Igor guy, the Reverend, and all of the girls show up and walk in the room. And Chris cliff is like, well, I brought her, so I guess he was in on this, like, I think that what had happened was they told him that if he could deliver her, they would let him go.

So he tries to leave. But they don’t let him. And then the, uh, Reverend hypnotizes her again and hands her amaze and she kills him with it. She swings it at him and it hits him right in the abdomen and he’s all immediately dead. And so all the girls and the Reverend join hands meal around him. And sing again

because you know, that’s what you do. Yeah. And I have in my notes here, I’m like, oh, well, Gloria has black hair. So I guess now they’re like a full set.

Todd: That’s so true. Oh man. I didn’t even pick up on that. Lead it, leave it to you. The 

Craig: freaky guy, drags cliff away. And then the next thing we see is all the Reverend and all of the girls, including Gloria sitting around just feasting on meat and it’s like barbecue. I’d like all of the girls have like barbecue sauce and crap all over their hands and all over their faces and, and Gloria.

It’s sitting there and she seems a little bit reluctant. Um, but then she looks at the Reverend and he gives her like a smile and a nod and she smiles and then she just digs into, and then, and I thought this was so clever. It fades to Mrs. Wainwright. Talking to a new couple at the motel and saying, so that’s the story of the four cannibal girls 

Todd: that cycle continues.

Yeah. And 

Craig: then that’s the end. So like, obviously this is what they do. Oh 

Todd: God. I have to, I have to admit to you while I was watching this movie, I was eating ribs. 

Craig: No gross. 

Todd: Yeah. It was really gross. And here’s the thing like when, when I was watching the walking dead, I haven’t watched the walking dead for years.

I gave up after like season five, I think. But, um, I would, I would watch the walking dead. I had ordered chicken wings. I didn’t care. I was watching this movie and eating ribs. There was something about the scenes where the, where they’re eating this stuff, this raw. That’s prepared stuff with red goop all over and shit.

That was, it was just gross. It grossed me out. I don’t know. Maybe the walking dead gore is just too slick or whatever, and this was just a really visceral and gross. I was a little more grossed out than I usually am. I 

Craig: think it has something to do too with the juxtaposition of the beautiful girl, probably.

Right. Yeah. They’re so beautiful. And then they’ve got sauce and crap all over their faces. Like, it just doesn’t seem right. Like you 

Todd: like you’re right. Why, why do that? 

Craig: But it’s effective and you know, like you said, Well, I don’t know. One of us said I just, uh, walked away feeling, you know, I wasn’t bored. It was, it surprised me.

I was expecting it to be really bad and I was ready for that. And I was, and I was okay with it and I was, and, you know, going in I’m like, I know it’s going to be bad, but sometimes we have a really good time talking about these really bad movies. And, you know, if somebody were to say to me, this is a bad movie, I would say that’s, that’s fair.

It is in many regards, depending on what you’re judging quality based on, but I still. I had a really fun time with it. I’m glad to have watched it. I kind of can’t wait to pull it out of my back pocket and talk about it. Oh, you like Eugene Levy, you should really check out cannibal girls. And I like, you know, I honestly, I don’t know a whole lot about Ivan Reitman.

What I know about Ivan Reitman is Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters too. I love Ghostbusters. I still love Ghostbusters. Uh, it’s a hilarious movie. It’s a lot of fun. It was the first horror movie that I remember being really, really interested in. And I wanted my, my parents went and saw it in the theater.

Begged them to take me with them. And they didn’t, and it was probably more a matter of them just wanting to have some time away from their kids, rather than thinking that it wasn’t appropriate for me. But I did eventually see it Ghostbusters two wasn’t as good, but I mean, I still enjoyed it, I guess in Ghostbusters too.

Uh, at some point where they’re doing, you know, these city shots of ghosts invading and stuff, there’s a theater and on the marquee, it’s cannibal girls and in, uh, the newest Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters after life, they repeat that gag. There’s, there’s a theater marquee with cannibal girls on it. I had never heard of it before.

I probably never would have if Ivan Reitman hadn’t passed away and we weren’t doing this podcast, but I feel like it’s a find like this is, it’s just a little treasure that I knew nothing about. And I went in totally blind. It was, it was fun. I had a great time. I had a 

Todd: great time talking about it. I did too.

I thought it was a fun movie. I was really shocked at how much, like you said, I was shocked at how much I actually enjoyed it. I was never bored. It was weird, but it was also a product of its time. So kind of that bit of it is fun to write just to the slang and the dress and the talking about hippies and things and the excessive gore at times.

It’s not actually that gory really, but at times it’s just, yeah, it’s the blood. It, it, it did definitely subvert my expectations and the humor part of it was just so I guess, smart. Right? Like it was just so understated played straight that I thought that bit of it, it will, sometimes it was goofy comedy.

Sometimes it was just like, like we said, like slice of life silliness and, uh, yeah. You know, which can only come when you’re just getting your friends together to do a movie and you’re improvising half of it. Right, right. I mean, a little bit of a lightning in a bottle. I can see where this movie would have tickled people who were going to see it for the first time and the drive in, or the grindhouse or whatever.

Why would have caught the attention of a person like Samuel Z Arkoff or, um, Roger Corman and been distributed in the us. And you know, it, it was the springboard for Ivan Reitman’s career. You know, he goes on from here to Meatballs and Stripes. Both of which Bill Murray, who was also a Second City guy, who then therefore was a huge actor in Ghostbusters and launched his career, certainly.

Uh, and, uh, you know, even into the nineties, uh, Ivan Reitman, I believe, was doing like Beethoven and space jam. Yeah. You know, he’s had a cool career and he’s a name that whenever it pops up on the screen, I do take notice. And, uh, yeah, it’s sad that he’s gone, but, uh, yeah, I would love to die in my sleep. I hope that’s how it works for me.

So. Very cool to see sort of the genesis of a career and have this opportunity to explore this. Uh, we don’t often think about, you know, that these people who are so famous and so popular today came from beginnings, maybe so similar to ours, they just had an interest in this sort of thing, and they rounded up their friends together and they did the stuff, you know, it ended up one way or another again, launching them into this, this great successful career.

It’s, it’s really cool. It’s really inspiring. And, uh, it is, I think, a fitting tribute to, uh, his humble beginnings as the director of Cannibal Girls.

Well, thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, please share with a friend. You can find us online. If you just search to guys and chainsaw podcasts, our Facebook page or Twitter feed, and let us know what you thought of this episode and let us know what you’d like us to do in the future.

If you have any requests until next time, I’m Todd and I’m Craig with Two Guys and a Chainsaw.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *