Wrong Turn (2003)

Episode 320, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw

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

Todd: And I’m Todd.

Craig: This week we kind of were at a loss for what we wanted to do. Uh, so I thought of something that’s been in the back of my mind for a long time because we’ve talked about how. After all of this time, we’ve pretty much covered about every franchise that we can think of.

Yeah. Um, but every time we have this discussion, there is one franchise, uh, that I think about that we haven’t done yet, and that is the Wrong Turn franchise . Wrong Turn. Uh, this movie came out in what, 2003? Is that right? Yeah, 2003. I remembered really liking it. In fact, I think at some point I bought the DVD v d It’s been so long since I’ve actually watched a dvd.

I have no idea if I have it or not. I don’t even have a working DVD player in my house anymore. So, uh, I may still have the DVD somewhere. I don’t know. Um, and it’s, it’s, it’s actually one, uh, that I’ve wanted to revisit, but it’s kind of hard to find, at least. It’s hard to find for free. Yeah. Um, , 

Todd: and that’s a little something about us

Yeah.

Craig: Um, but, uh, I, I, I asked Todd to work his magic , and I came and he did. Well, you, you did. But, um, Unfortunately, uh, the magical link that you sent me didn’t work. Uh, so, so I paid four whole dollars Oh, no. To 

rent 

Todd: it . Oh God. I’m so sorry. You should have told me earlier. . Oh, 

Craig: I know. No. Like, that’s $4 I’ll never see again.

Yeah, it was fine. It, it, honestly, it was worth the $4 just to be able to revisit a movie that I remembered liking, but probably haven’t seen in at least 15 years. Um, it, it had been so long since I’d seen it that I didn’t remember how it ended. Uh, I, I certainly remembered certain things about it, um, but I, I didn’t remember it well.

Uh, so it was kind of fun to go back to this movie. Did spawn a whole series of sequels. Uh, I think that there are five direct sequels to this movie. Um, and then in 2021 or 2022, there was a remake slash reboot. I haven’t seen it. I’ve read the synopsis and the synopsis Sounds nothing like this movie, really.

So I, I don’t think that it’s a, a remake. I think it’s a reboot of the franchise. It’s written by 

Todd: the same author though. Yeah. 

Craig: Yeah, it is. Yeah. It, I think it’s the first time that the writer returned to the franchise. I, I, Correct. He’s, he’s credited on all the other ones, but only because, uh, the characters are inspired by, Yeah.

Uh, the original, I don’t know if I saw all of the sequels. They got progressively worse with each one, but they were fun because they had really. Interesting and really gross kills. Yeah. So it was always fun to revisit them just to see, you know, the innovative new kills. But they were bad. Yeah. , they weren’t, they weren’t good movies.

They were all direct to video, which is fine. But this one, I don’t know. It was interesting to revisit. Yeah. What, what, what’s your 

Todd: history with this? Well, I have no history. You know, I keep, I keep mixing it up with that, uh, Sean Penn movie, What was it called? Dead End or something like that. Anyway, yeah. So I always think, Oh yeah, I saw wrong turn.

And then when you suggested, I was like, Oh yeah, okay, well, we’ll watch it. But I don’t, not even sure that’s, Yeah. Then I realized, no, that’s not the movie. I thought it was, and I haven’t seen this movie ever before. Yeah. So I have, I had no history with this movie. It’s the first time I saw it. I, Well, as soon as we were watching the credits, I was kind of surprised to see that, because I didn’t read anything about it going in.

I was surprised to see that Stan Winston was involved. Yeah. And I thought, Oh, this, this must mean we’re gonna get some. I mean, he didn’t direct it, obviously. It was directed by a guy named, uh, Rob Schmidt. Honestly hasn’t really done much else. I mean, he’s done other things, but nothing of that I would consider of note, the author Alan B McElroy, as you said.

He, he actually wrote Halloween 4, That was his first, um, produced screenplay. And he’s had more of a, I think later in, especially now, he’s done a lot of writing for television. Mm-hmm. . Um, but yeah, their director hasn’t really done much else. And it seems like Stan Winston, although he produced it, this was one of the last things he was involved in.

I think one of the last movies he was involved in before he died, from what I read, he had some say in the, in the makeup effects, I guess. Mm-hmm. for the, our three inbred killers that we have here. Right. Um, but there’s no other like, creature of sorts in it. And yeah, I don’t know. I. I mean to be com completely honest with you, like it didn’t really blow me away.

I thought it was kind of dumb in a lot of spots and surprisingly really thin on the characters. I was, in the beginning of the movie, I really thought, Oh, these characters are gonna be interesting because they seem to have. Yeah, especially our, our guy who’s the doctor who we are introduced to first off.

And then as the movie went on, I was like, Oh, it’s just these people going through this thing. And I didn’t really feel anything particular for any of them. , to be honest. I accept, you know, again, like you said, really brutal. More brutal than I expected it to be. And I knew this was kind of a mainstream movie.

I know it was released to theaters. I remembered that much. But, uh, it does look like it did have some trouble because, uh, even the previews for the movie were deemed bad. Like, like sensitive. And so, uh, they weren’t able to even run previews for the film on too many, um, stations, or they had to cut them up a lot.

They even had to cut the movie quite a bit just to get an R rating. And I, and I’m not surprised because what we end up with is still a pretty brutal r Yeah. But also it has that slickness. Yeah. Of the time. Right. It doesn’t, it doesn’t feel like a low budget movie at all, which, No, it might be going against it in that way.

Like I, I, I mean, who cares? The movie is what it is, but, uh, I, I read that they were going for a 1970s style movie, like on the, like, like The Hills Have Eyes or Texas Exchange on Massacre. And although yes, the subject matter is that they definitely weren’t going for it in terms of filming style. Right. It was very slick.

It had, it had some really nice, like, interesting shots and some interesting sweeping camera angles and things that, uh, that were impressive. Some, some, I think some CGI in there. Magic had to be done to make some of that. But yeah, it’s, it’s definitely, uh, it feels slicker than maybe we’re used to seeing this subject matter being shot in

Yeah. 

Craig: You know what I mean? Yeah. I totally get what you’re saying. Like those movies, the director, uh, Rob Schmidt considers this kind of his homage to those types of movies. Like you mentioned, The Hills Have Eyes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and it really does have a lot in common with those, uh, in terms of plot and characters.

But those movies are gritty. Yeah. They’re, they’re gritty, not just in, in terms of their plot and the story, but in the way that they look, they look kind of gritty. Yeah. Like you said, I mean, this looks very clean. The cinematography is actually really good and, um, it’s. Almost entirely outdoors. Uh, I, I think that this was shot mostly in Canada, but it, it’s supposed to be West Virginia and it looks like the mountains of West Virginia.

Yeah. You know, these, these, uh, dense forests, um, isolated from civilization and, and as far as like outdoor photography and like you said, like the opening credits, Well, not the opening credits, but the opening shot is an aerial shot. It looks like a drone shot. I don’t know how they did it, but it looks like a drone shot over the forest and it really, it looks great.

It’s, it’s beautiful to look at and it really highlights the isolation Yeah. Um, of these areas. And, you know, I, I think most of our listeners these days are from the states. Uh, and, and if you are, I’m not a world traveler. Maybe you can tell me that this is the case all over the world, but here in the States, of course, obviously we’ve got small towns, we’ve got cities, you know, it’s populous.

But, um, there are also parts of the United States that are very remote and these dense, huge forests that are beautiful. But , they are very isolated. And in the 2020s, people still. Lost and never make their way out, you know that Sure. They’re, they’re sweeping. Um, and so there’s, for me at least, uh, even that kind of environment, if you were to get lost in a, in a desolate remote, Area the situation could be pretty dire.

Then add in , you know, backwards, cannibal, backwards, cannibals. Mm-hmm. , right? Honestly, like I, Okay, so on the weekends, I sit here in my chair, in my living room, uh, and either watch TV or watch these movie. On my computer screen, and Alan is usually sitting right behind me with his back to me doing puzzles because he loves puzzles.

I could care less about puzzles. I don’t touch ’em. Do you mean 

Todd: jigsaw puzzles? Like little, Yeah, jigsaw 

Craig: puzzles, like thousand piece jigsaw puzzles. Wow. He, he’s just sits there for hours and hours and hours, um, and does these jigsaw puzzles. I don’t have the patience, but as a result he listens and he’s seen this movie, you know, uh, we, we’ve been together for 25 years, so we were together when this movie came out.

So he’s seen it, but it, like me, he hadn’t seen it in a very long time. And last night when we were having dinner together, I said, you. I I that I actually liked it. I thought it was pretty good. And he said, Are you kidding me? It was miserable to just listen to it.

I, I, I see what you’re saying. I don’t, I, I can’t even put a finger on why I liked it, but I kind of did. Now, here, the reason here, okay, first of all, I was initially drawn to this movie when it came out in 2003 because it stars Eliza Duku, and I am a big fan of Eliza Duku. I was and remain a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire S 

Todd: Player.

Yes, I know. 

Craig: I, I stand by. I think that is one of the best television series to have ever aired. I, I, I just think it was amazing. Um, it was a fun, you know, kind of light horror comedy, but I just thought that it was ingenious the way that they made. The, the difficult things that people face in growing up and going from adolescence to teen years to adult years.

They used monsters and, and demons as metaphors for the types of things that everybody experiences. I, I can talk about that. Mm-hmm. , maybe we’ll do a mini, So about Buffy the va, I could talk about it all day, but , Eliza Duku, uh, was on that show. She played kind of a rogue, darker slayer as a counterpoint to Buffy’s Sweet Valley girl type slayer.

So I’m a huge fan of her. That’s what drew me to the movie. That’s one thing that it had going for, for it for me, um, from the beginning. But the other thing, I found myself feeling legitimately tense through a lot of this movie. Yeah. Um, there are some really, really tense scenes. Um, and there were at least two or three times when I jumped.

There are a couple of really good jump scares in this movie 

Todd: too. You’re right, you’re right. Absolutely. I’m with you a hundred percent on what you’re saying. 

Craig: I am. It’s, it’s not a, it’s not a great movie. It’s not, and, and it’s really kind of predictable and kind of something. It, it’s not original, you know, it’s no backwards hillbilly mutants for whatever reason.

I don’t know if there’s really any explanation other than inbreeding maybe. 

Todd: Yeah. I mean there is a, I didn’t pay close attention cuz I was distracted a little bit during the credit sequence. Yeah. But it seems like the credit sequence is trying to set up or hint at. Something cuz there’s like, I don’t know, like cells moving around and there’s newspaper clippings or something about genetic things.

I don’t know. I I, I don’t really, I didn’t really catch it all, but that’s it. I mean, if, if it’s anywhere it’s there and I, it wasn’t explicit. I think it was just, uh, Yeah, 

Craig: and you get some kind of, you get some vague quick shots. I mean, these are all like newspaper clippings that you’re just seeing little snippets of and it tells you, you know, it shows all these people have gone missing and, and you, you kind of see some, I don’t know, like, not full shots, but like small shots of, uh, disfigured people.

Oh, right. Yeah. And, and that’s, that’s, that’s what we, we end up with. But I, I just thought it, it, it, I don’t know. I, I, I can’t defend it too much because I, I have to concede that it’s not a great movie, but. Ultimately I liked it. . 

Todd: Well, I think, you know, in the same respect, I’m having a really hard time pinpointing why it didn’t really push my buttons, and I’m hoping that maybe just during our discussion we’ll I’ll, we’ll be able to kind of hash that out because there’s nothing wrong.

I mean, a horror is, is is rarely original . Yeah, yeah. You know, we get, we get our Jo Jollies from just seeing the same types of stuff over and over again and we, we like it. You know, I, I’m not really sure what criteria we, every, every week, I’m really not sure what criteria we’re gonna be measuring this movie by.

Right. I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if it had been shot in the seventies. I think, uh, you know, grittier style, those, those other movies, I don’t know what it is. They, they definitely tend to, maybe because of the low budget and the film stock and whatever, they do tend to have a slightly more like a hint of a documentary feel to them.

Right. Which makes them a little more. I don’t know, uh, be real or believable when a movie is this slick. And, and I mean, this movie’s slick. I I feel like it’s like, it’s like Texas Chainsaw crossed with like, I know what you did last summer, you know? Yeah. Yeah. In that, in that way it’s just beautifully lit and, uh, beautifully filmed with great set pieces and, and nice looking people Yes.

That are pretty young. And so I think that’s, might be what goes against it. That, and just like you said earlier, it’s not particularly original and so, uh, I was expecting, I was hoping for something more than what I’d seen before, but it’s an homage, so Yeah. You know, it’s not trying to be something new, it’s trying to be a throwback.

So I can’t fault it for that. And certainly I’ve enjoyed other homages as well. What didn’t I like about this movie? I don’t know. I, I didn’t hate it. I just, um, turned it off and thought, Oh, okay. That was, that was fine, but. 

Craig: Well, it doesn’t bring anything new to the table. And, um, not that this is a requirement of horror in any way, so this really isn’t a criticism, but it really doesn’t have anything to say, You know, like, yeah, it, it’s just a story about a bunch of young, sexy people who get stranded in the forest and get chased around by mutant canals.

That’s it. There, there, there’s not anything more to it than that. Um, but I did, I, I thought that the performance. We’re good. I, I, I stand, I stand by my appreciation of Eliza Duku. I think she’s a, aside from being gorgeous, uh, I think she’s a good actress. And I didn’t think that there was anybody in this movie who was bad.

Jeremy. Oh, Isis. Jeremy Systo annoyed this shit outta me, but I I didn’t think that, I thought that that was his character. . 

Todd: Yeah. He was an annoying character and he was meant to be that way. Yeah. But, but it wasn’t over the top annoyance to the point of caricature. I just, I felt like these were real people.

I really did. Um, I, I, the acting was perfect. Uh, perfectly serviceable. I thought. Um, Kevin Zegers is in this, and he’s been all over the place. He’s quite famous now. More, I mean, uh, a ton of tv, that movie that we wanted, that we’ve been talking about, maybe seeing called Frozen. about people being stranded on a chairlift.

Oh, oh, was he in that? 

Craig: He’s in that. Yeah. I like that movie. I’ve watched that movie more than 

Todd: once, so, um, We should do that sometime actually. But I mean, this guy’s, this guy’s been all over, all over. He was in the Dawn of the Dead. He was in the, the Dawn of the Dead remake that Zach Schneider did, which I loved.

Craig: So was the girl who played his girlfriend Francine? Uh, her name’s Lindy Booth. They were both in it and, and I think there are a couple in this movie and, uh, I think they become a couple 

Todd: in that movie. And as far as horror goes, he’s gone all the way back to when he was a kid. He was in the, in the mouth of Madness and, uh, Airbus.

How was that? You know, in the se in the nineties. So even at this time, we have actors who are well trained and, and regarded all of these 

Craig: young actors. Ha have done a lot since then. Yeah. Um, and Jeremy Systo, who plays Scott, he, again, like I said, he’s an annoying character. He’s, he’s a fine actor. He’s just an annoying character.

But, um, he’s done tons of stuff. He was in May. Mm-hmm. , He was the boy that she was obsessed with. I think that he was originally considered for Titanic. Leonard, Leonard DiCaprio’s part. I think there are actually Oh, interesting. There a screenshot or like screen tests of him for that movie. He’s very recognizable.

Um, even like, uh, the guy who plays Three Finger, one of the mutants. Mm-hmm. , his name is Julian Richings. He’s like an esteemed actor. Like, really? Check out, Oh my God. Check out his IMDB page. He has. Uh, like it, it’s a h He has a huge resume. Um, and if you see his picture Oh, feature, you’re right. I think you’ll, you’ll, you’ll recognize him.

He’s done tons of stuff. He’s got tons of stuff like in post production now. Yeah. Getting ready to come out. I just recently saw him in a mo, a Netflix original that I really liked called, uh, anything for Jackson Uhhuh , where he played an older, uh, very, uh, like Gen Teal gentleman. Like, he, like, I couldn’t believe when I saw that it was him, because I, I, I think it’s cool that somebody who is such a.

Uh, uh, clearly, clearly a good actor would take on a role like this where he doesn’t even speak. It’s, it’s all no physicality and like strange vocalization and manic laughter. 

Todd: All, all buried under makeup. You know, Uhhuh ? Yeah. You, Oh, 

Craig: you, oh yeah. You’d never recognize him. There’d be no way to recognize him.

Mimic 

Todd: cube, Ivin legend. I mean, he’s not afraid to do horror for sure. He’s. But I’m saw four. He was in saw four, um, , but also 228 total credits. So, I mean, yeah, you’re right. It’s 

Craig: insane. Even the guy that plays the creepy gas station attendant had done quite, I think he was in Cube also. Um, he passed away in 2011.

But like, there’s, there’s talent in this movie that, like you said, the director hadn’t done a lot. I, I don’t remember. I looked at his credits, but I don’t remember anything 

Todd: else that he had done. I mean, pretty much nothing before this. I mean, you know, he did like a, a couple shorts and a TV movie called an American Town and something that I don’t called Crime Plus Punishment in Suburbia, 

Craig: which, uh, Yeah, Yeah.

But, but for somebody with not a lot of experience, he, he seems quite skilled. Uh, Yeah. Cause it’s well directed. Well, 

Todd: honestly, I’m, I’m shocked he hardly has anything since then. Really. 

Craig: Yeah. Yeah, me too. And the writer has, has a, a huge resume as well. A lot of tv, but, um, lots of stuff. So there’s a lot of talent going on here, but 20 minutes in, we should probably start talking about what, what happens in the movie.

Um, like I said, it starts out with an aerial shot at it’s West Virginia. Uh, the first scene that we get, I, I actually think it’s a great opening scene as is the case with many opening scenes in horror, especially this type of horror. Uh, it’s, it’s just, it’s the opening 

Todd: kill, it’s the Roger Corman, uh, formula, right?

You gotta have a kill right away, right? You gotta have some blood right away. 

Craig: A sexy couple is doing some rock climbing. The forest of West Virginia and the, the guy gets to the top first. The guy, you know, like walks out of her line of vision, uh, and she hears something strange. And then he falls kind of back into her vision again, right at the edge of the cliff.

And blood starts dripping, uh, onto her. Then he is thrown over the cliff and some unseen person starts rapidly pulling her up, uh, the cliff. So she cuts the rope and eventually falls, But is inexplicably uninjured, . Yeah. 

Todd: And even though her attacker was at the top of the cliff, there’s apparently somebody waiting for her at the bottom as well, who grabbed, had some barbed wire right.

Craig: Yeah. The trips he trips are with Barb Dwyer and, and then she gets dragged off frame, presumably to her death. So, um, we, and, and at, at the top of the ridge before she’s attacked, you know, you see the, the tree or like the, the shrubbery moving as though somebody’s running behind it and you hear this very creepy manic laughter.

Yeah, it’s kind of silly that, uh, she’s so easily overtaken when it seems that the attacker is at the top. But we do come to find out that there are three of these right guys. So potentially one of them could have been up at the top and another one or two of them could have been at the bottom, but, I thought it was a good opening scene.

It was scary and solid. Um, bloody and, uh, not something you want to 

Todd: happen to you. 

Craig: Exactly. Right. Then we, uh, after the title sequence with the like newspaper clippings and we also get some images of like dirty hands, like touching and mutilating dead bodies. Um, all of this in black and. Then we cut to what I suppose is our main character, even though this ultimately becomes kind of an ensemble.

Uh, the character’s name is Chris Flynn. He always introduces himself by his full name . 

Todd: Mm-hmm. , I dunno why, like, I don’t know either. Maybe like a douchebag doctor. I, I got the sense, the way he was playing it, at least, you know, he’s playing it rather cold. He doesn’t seem to be like a real sensitive person, uh, who’s just super friendly.

He’s got a lot on his mind. At the very least, he’s driving to get somewhere. Um, and he’s late and he’s gotta go through this sort of backwoods, I guess, of, uh, of West Virginia to get 

Craig: there. Well, he finds himself in a traffic jam. There’s been an accident. Oh, right. 

Todd: So he turns around to shake an alternate route.

Craig: You’re right. Right. And he takes, uh, a dirt road, which leads him to this rundown backwards gas station. with a filthy toothless. Sitting there drinking Pepto Bissol, , 

Todd: the dirtiest man, you could possibly imagine this. It’s really gross. Hats off to who put him together, you know what I mean? But, you know, I was expecting, and this I thought was kind of cute, right?

I was expecting the typical gas station thing. Well, you definitely don’t want to go up there. You better turn yourself right around and leave. Right? But this gas station attendant is completely uninterested in this guy. Yeah. Doesn’t care. . 

Craig: But, but when he, he see there’s a map on the wall and Chris says, Well, why is this road a dotted line?

Is it, cuz it’s a, a gravel road? And the guy’s like, Yeah, I guess they haven’t got around to paving it yet. like, you can barely understand him when he talks cuz he has no. True. And so, uh, Chris is like, Okay, well take care. And as he drives away, the guy goes, You’re the one good nude. Take care . Yeah. Like, he knows what he’s sending him into.

He just doesn’t give a shit. He just doesn’t 

Todd: care at all. It’s the, it’s the Antiga station attend it,

Craig: So immediately he heads down this, uh, dirt road and he’s driving recklessly. Like he, he dropped like his CD skips. So he pulls it out and drops it on the floor and like bends down to pick it up. And I’m thinking you’re going to have an accident, but it’s not even then it’s uh, he sees a dead deer along the side of the road and he passes it and he looks into his rear view mirror.

I, I guess cuz he needs a better look or something. And he smashes into this SUV that’s parked Yeah. Uh, kind of along the side of the road. I mean, it, it’s a na, it’s a dirt, a back. Dirt road, so it’s narrow anyway. Um, but he smashes into this suv. As it turns out, the SUV was parked there because it had gotten flat tires, and they, and the flat tires are because barbed wire was strung along.

The, the road. Yep. But this SUV was carrying this group of people. I read in the trivia that originally in the script, these people were all supposed to be in their late twenties, but they changed them to being 19 year olds to appeal to the younger slasher crowd. None of these people look anything like 19 years old.

No. . 

Todd: Not at all. . I read that too, and I was scratching my head. I was like, were there ages even referred to in this script? No. They all look like they’re in their mid to late twenties , 

Craig: I think. Oh, yes, yes. And I was thinking, I was thinking maybe like 23, 24 at the, At the youngest. Yes. I, I think they mention college.

Like I think they mention that they’re in college, whatever. I mean, it’s not like, it’s not. It’s uncommon for teenagers to be played by people who are clearly significantly older than teenagers. I just thought that it was interesting that they were intentionally going for younger. Right. And yet they still casted 20 somethings.

Like, 

Todd: And by the way, can I take this moment? I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this on the show before about how ridiculous this notion is that you need to cast people of a certain age to appeal to that age as though teenagers don’t like seeing movies about older people or younger people. Right. You know what I mean?

It’s just the stupidest thing. So this is almost like that taken to the, a hilarious degree where some executive was, was like, well, only green like this script if it, you know, if, if, if it appeals to, instead of the, the 24 and 25 year olds, the, you know, 21 and 22 year olds, Right. And they’re like, Okay, all right, we’ll write that in.

And then they end up casting, you know, 30 year olds anyway, . Right. And it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t matter. 

Craig: No. I feel like, especially in horror, like they just need to be sexy. Like that’s the appeal. It doesn’t have anything to do with their age as long as they’re hot. Young people, middle aged men like us, are, are going to find it appealing.

So it’s fine is all we care about anymore. Yeah. And, and all these people, you know, they are good looking young people. You know, the, the, the guy who plays Chris, uh, who’s supposed to be older than them but looks the same age, um, he’s played by a guy named Desmond Harrington. I kind of recognized some of the things that he had been in and I kind of recognized his face.

He’s just a good looking man. You know that. That’s it. The group of 20 somethings. You’ve got Scott played by Jeremy Systo. His girlfriend Carly, uh, played by Emmanuel. Uh, Cheeky. Um, I didn’t recognize her specifically from anything, but she’s been in tons of stuff too. Another couple. Francine is a redhead.

She’s played by a girl named Lindy Booth. Been in tons of stuff, has done, is still working. Tons of tv. Um, her boyfriend Evan, played by Kevin Zegers, who you’ve already mentioned, has been in a bunch of stuff, and Jessie played by Eliza Duku. Uh, apparently they are all on this wilderness trip because they’re trying to cheer Jessie up because she’s recently been dumped, 

Todd: which I don’t think we find out about until later.

Craig: Right. Yeah, I, I, Francine says something, To her boyfriend because everybody except Francine and Evan, even like within the next five minutes take off walking to look for help. Francine and Evan stayed behind and Evan says something like, We should have just taken her to New York City. And Francine says, Well, she likes all this outdoor stuff.

Yeah. 

Todd: So, but it’s for her sake that at least we know by then. Yeah, right. 

Craig: For her sake. But we don’t find out late until later that it’s because she got dumped or whatever. But lucky for her, this hot doctor has come along and they like, this is so funny to me, because they immediately gravitate towards one another, which is fine.

You know, they’re, they’re, they’re the only ones who don’t already have a partner, so it’s logical that they would gravitate towards one another. But as soon as they find themselves in peril, you would think that they had been in a relationship for years. , 

Todd: they just have that air. That’s right. They’re, they’re stuck with glue.

They’re communicating 

Craig: everything. She is clinging to him, like, like physically, like , like digging her nails into it. Like, uh, well, 

Todd: at the same time he’s just kind of like, Barreling ahead with her in toe, you know, Uhhuh, it’s not like he’s giving anything back to her. There’s no like real chemistry between them, beyond this is the stuff we have to work together to do to get through this ordeal.

Right? Yeah. He’s, he, he’s surprisingly just kind of cold and, and to the point where I thought that that was gonna be a plot point. Or I thought there’d be a character arc here, you know, where he warms up a bit or he tells us about his terrible life, or he was, you know, stifled and blah, blah, blah. And then this, this ordeal kind of makes him more sensitive and, and kind or some, There’s no character arc for any character No.

In this movie at all. No. Not at, just doesn’t happen. Nor do the relationships between the characters really change. Yeah, I mean, just like you said, aside from the fact that, uh, as soon as they meet each other, they’re stuck together like glue. Nobody gets closer to anybody else. Nobody find, you know, they’re just.

It’s just like four separate people doing their or well, I’m sorry, five separate people doing their five separate things. 

Craig: Yeah. And honestly, you know, in a situation like this, like if you’re, it’s realistic, right? I mean, yeah. I mean you, I, I, I, I can only imagine that you would clinging to whomever. It’s a kind of a love, the one you’re with kind of thing, you know, , right?

We’re in this together, whether we like it or not, so, We may as well have each other’s back and look out for each other. But like I said, uh, the two of them, Evan and Francine stay behind. And, um, as soon as the rest of them start walking away, we get POV shots to show that somebody’s watching from the woods.

It cuts back and forth between the people who are walking and, and Evan and Francine. Um, it’s, it’s more than suggested, but you don’t see anything that Francine blows Evan on the hood of the car, but there is zero sex. Or nudity in this movie? No, no. Surprising. And, and I read that in the original script.

There was, you know, there was a sex scene between Francine and Evan in the woods. Jessie, Eliza Duku was supposed to have her clothes ripped off, uh, at some point and, and maybe some other stuff too. But ultimately it just didn’t happen. I’m not really sure why. And it kind of makes it stand out. It does really in the world of horror, because there, I mean, that’s a staple in, in horror is, is nudity and, and sex.

And in the sequels, all of the direct to video sequels, tons of nudity and sex like , like that’s like definitive of tho those, those movies are defined by the amount of, uh, sex and, and, uh, nudity. But none here. And honestly, I didn’t miss it. No, it didn’t even really cross my mind. It seemed to me like it almost would it, I mean, it certainly would’ve been gratuitous, and it seemed like it almost would’ve been out of place.

The only place that I thought that maybe it would’ve made sense was near the end when Jesse is taken captive by these mountain men. Yes. Um, then I thought it would’ve made sense that the only reason that they would’ve kept her alive 

Todd: and, and not killed her right away, which they do to everybody else.

Right. 

Craig: That would’ve made sense if they had had other motives with her, but, Right. Other than that, I don’t know. I mean, I guess, you know, Francine and Evan, her boyfriend and girlfriend, it would’ve, it wouldn’t have been out of character, especially since they were alone in a remote place. And, and like I said, it’s suggested, you know, she kneels down in front of him and pulls his pants down.

Um, but then it cuts away, whatever. It’s, it’s just kind of an interesting, in this type of movie, you, you, you pretty much expect it and it’s just not there. 

Todd: Yeah. And, and when you’re building an homage, Right, especially like, you’re definitely expecting it cuz you’re thinking this is one of those tropes that has to be, you know, it’s a box that has to be checked.

So when it’s not there, it’s kind of, again, like you, I don’t care if it’s there or not, honestly, but, but you know, you’re, when you’re waiting for it and it doesn’t show up, it’s surprising . Mm-hmm. , you know, you’re trained to expect it. And also when you’re trying to figure out who’s gonna live and who’s gonna die, this.

Sort of thing tends to define that. Right. Although, although I’ll say from the beginning, I mean, from the first 10 minutes I had picked out who was gonna live it. It’s really no big surprise. 

Craig: No, no. You know, you know for sure. Yeah. And so, uh, the first, aside from the opening kill, Evan hears something in the woods and he walks away and Francine notices that he’s missing right away and calls for him and he doesn’t respond.

So, you know, something’s going on. Like I said, it cuts back and forth between the two groups. But, uh, eventually Francine takes two steps into the woods, , um, and. Evans first she finds his shoe and then she takes two more steps into the woods and finds his ear . 

Todd: Yeah, right. One thing that’s pretty remarkable in these early stages, cuz there’s a little bit of people sort of suddenly disappearing at like, they’re walking next to somebody and then they, you know, they take three steps and then they, they turn around and that person’s not there anymore.

Like, these guys are rather quiet about being able to dispatch these folks who are right around them, into the woods, let alone cut off their ear and do whatever to them. Uh, all while everything else is completely silent. You uhhuh, uh, completely silent. I, I had to smile at how absolutely silly that was.

Yeah. But, but that’s brutal though, when he comes up behind her and he Yes. He gets that barbed wire right into her mouth. And that’s like a theme in this movie. There’s a lot of people getting. cut in their mouths. , somebody gets an ax in their mouth later. Oh yeah, she gets uhhuh. You know that barbed wire instead of around her throat, which is where you expect it’s right for her jaw.

And, and 

Craig: it’s this, it’s a hulking guy. You don’t see his face, They don’t re, they don’t show these guys faces very much at all. Not in the 

Todd: begin, not until 

Craig: the very end. Right. More so at the end. I mean, you get kind of, you get glimpses, but it’s more so at the end that, uh, you really see them. But it’s just this hu you know, she, she sees the ear and she’s obviously frightened.

And so, um, she steps backwards and steps right into this hulking man, um, behind her. And then immediately the barbed wire threw her mouth and she’s lifted by that wire. And then it cuts away. Uh, and, and, and of course it’s, you know, barbed wire and your, it’s very bloody and it, it looks good. The, the effects, Yeah.

Overall in this movie, I think look very good. And it is very brutal. All of these movies, the direct to video ones, uh, and this one are bloody and violent. Mm-hmm. , I think that a lot more care was given in this movie to the effects. A lot of the effects in the direct to video sequels are cgi, but they’re still creative, um, and fun to watch.

Here. Um, more practical, I’m sure some Z g involved, but more practical and look pretty good. The, the other group, uh, Scott, oh God, he, I want to like him cuz he seems like a nice guy, but he’s so annoying. Like he’s just going on and on and on talking. He and his girlfriend are getting married and he’s like talking about the wedding plans stuff.

I’m like, dude, shut up. Like . 

Todd: Yeah. I feel like he’s supposed to be a bit of a parody or a spot on interpretation of like a California dude. He’s very positive at times. Yeah. He, he kind of goes off on these little soliloquy and rants about, you know, that are just basically like positive thinking. And I felt like that we were supposed to be laughing at him a 

Craig: little bit.

Oh, I think so too. And, and his girlfriend picks a flower and hangs it from the chain that he’s wearing. So every time you see him from that point forward, he’s got this silly flower necklace on. Uh, yeah. He’s a good guy. He’s a nice guy. He looks out for his girlfriend. He’s just, he would annoy the crap out me.

Yeah. But anyway, they, they find this cabin out in the middle of nowhere. There’s, there’s smoke coming from the chimney. Eliza Doku seems to notice right away that there are lots of cars out like in the front yard. Yeah. Which, which she seems to think is weird. I live in rural Missouri. This is not uncommon

It’s 

Todd: all . 

Craig: Not strange. It’s very common in rural areas to find a dilapidated house with five or six cars on blocks in the front yard. , 

Todd: Right. Weeds growing through them. Yes. Some different, different eras of cars and I don’t even understand it really. I, I don’t know what’s, I dunno what goes through the minds of residents.

The only thing is as a homeowner I can. You know, as you can probably say too, they’re just things you forget about and then they just sort of blend into the 

Craig: scenery. . Well, that’s the thing, I I, I think in my experience, I’ve, you know, I’ve known, I, my, my grandfather was a, a farmer and so, uh, I’ve spent a lot of time in rural areas and, and I think that these people who have these cars in their like, They’re gonna get around to it eventually.

Yeah. . Exactly. 

Todd: Or they’re just like, they just don’t want to throw those things away. Like, it’s just like, for me it’s just like, you know, the extra paper clips and, you know, scraps of paper and stuff. I think I might use them again and they just kind of pile up in a drawer here. It’s just that on a grander scale, that’s a, 

Craig: that’s a good car.

I’m, I’m gonna fix 

Todd: it’s parts in there. At least pull something out for another car. You know, when Tucson right, 

Craig: they debate whether or not they should go in. Um, and Chris is like, Listen, I’ve got places to be, so I’m gonna go in and see if there’s a phone. And Carly’s like, Well, I have to pee so I’m going into, So they all go in and it’s a very, you know, cabin in the.

Uh, Evil Dead. This 

Todd: was so dumb. I’m sorry. Like, I mean, it was cool. Don’t get me wrong. The said design was awesome. It was cool. Yes. It was very much like Texas Chainsaw Massacre without the bones. Right, right. It just like crap everywhere. Like a hoarder’s house. Yeah. 

Craig: But it’s beyond obvious what’s going 

Todd: on.

Yeah. Like, yeah. That’s, that’s what made it dumb. 

Craig: The, the fact that it takes them so long to even worry about it. Like, it’s so 

Todd: obvious they’re in there for like 10 minutes probably of the movie as them peering around. Like, this is strange. Oh, look over here. This is strange. It’s like you idiots, you’re kind of surrounded by horrifying things.

Yeah. Like I would’ve popped in there, I would’ve glanced around there and been like, Yeah, f this, I am heading out the door. 

Craig: Oh, God. But I mean, it, it’s so clear that this house is full of things that have been collected from people just like them. You know, like, yes, people who are on vacation, who have the things that one would take on vacation with them, It, it’s just full.

Like, they find a, a huge collection of sunglasses and like sporting goods, like, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s insane. Um, that they don’t figure it out sooner. It’s an insult 

Todd: to the viewer really, that this is, that this scene is allowed to go on for so long. Like, we get it. We got a long time ago. Please don’t draw this out any longer.

Like, do you think we’re stupid? And that sort of culminates in the point where, uh, Chris Flynn, uh, walks into this room and see there’s a generator running and three refrigerators there. Uh, and of course, you know immediately what he’s gonna find in those fridges. Like, there’s no question. Yeah. And he walks up to one of the fridges and he opens it and he’s looking, there’s, there’s gross jars in there with un almost unidentifiable organs or weird things in them, right?

But he’s the doctor, right? He pulls out a Tupperware container. Oh my God, this was so belabored. I was checking my watch at this point. We all know this is a psycho canal, backwards, hillbilly house, everything pointed to it. And why are we still here, , 

Craig: that, that’s fair. This does go on far too long. But when they do finally realize that, This is bad news.

They run to the front door only to look out the window and see a truck approaching the house. And it’s a tow truck to truck. It’s a tow truck and it’s, it’s pulling their car. 

Todd: Yeah. Both of their cars. is fantastic. 

Craig: Yeah. And, and this scene actually, you knows, like the, the people, the guys come in again, they’re shot so that you only see their torso, you don’t see their faces.

Um, and they come into the house and we don’t know where these other people have gone, but we see that they have hidden, Scott and Carly are hiding in the bathroom. And Chris and Jessie are hiding under a bed. And this scene goes on for a good four or five minutes. And it’s very tense. Yes, because it’s, it’s quiet.

The two that are hiding under the bed, Francine’s body is dropped. Within inches of where they are. And of course, uh, Jesse is horrified, but they have to remain silent. They have to remain silent as they watch these men butcher. Their friend. Um, and it’s a struggle, uh, and I can imagine that it would be a struggle to remain silent when witnessing something so horrifying.

And I found this scene very, very tense. I was on the edge of my seat and I’ve seen it before. , I knew they were gonna get out and then I don’t really understand why. Like, apparently after they kill somebody, these guys need to take a nap, like butchering people, Like where’s them out? Um, so they all lay down and go to sleep, and then everybody has to very quietly get out of there and, and it is tense.

I thought it was kind of stupid when Carly like kicked a metal pitcher. Like, Look where you’re going.

there are murderous sleeping mountain men right there. Like have a care take.

Todd: But this scene was good. I mean, this, this, and like you said earlier, this movie, what it does have going forward is it does have a few moments of genuine tension and well constructed scenes. And I actually really liked this scene. I did too. I was on the edge of my seat and I knew they were all probably gonna get out, or maybe one of them wouldn’t.

You know? That was kind of the one, the one thing I was wondering. But I knew they would get out, but I knew they would get out just in the naked time and they would end up waking these guys up who they would chase after ’em, which is exactly what happens. But it’s a 

Craig: great shot. Like they get all the way out the door and Chris is the last one.

He’s like holding the spring of the swinging door so that it won’t creep. Squeak. Yeah. And just before he. Goes to leave after everybody else is out, he looks back and one of the guys has his eyes open and is looking right at him. It’s crazy. And so then they just take off running. Um, the girl who plays Carly, I think either sprained or broke her ankle, uh, on this run.

And then in the next scene, well, I don’t remember when it was. Uh, the guy who plays 

Todd: Chris, he gets shot. I mean, they basically, they run up the hill and they run through the woods. And these, the, the cannibals hop in their truck and they take off down the road. So these guys are going into the woods, uh, and they’re hoping they’re not gonna encounter them again.

And where they end up is a kind of a clearing that is an even bigger car graveyard 

Craig: and blood. Stained everything. 

Todd: Everything. Yeah. And so that they’re in a good spot for another scene, which is exactly what happens. Those cannibals swing into that graveyard. And so they quickly decide that their best, their best choice is to sort of split up and, um, distract them in different directions so they can’t get them all at once.

And so Chris just runs away and is like, Hey, over here, over here. Which I thought was stupid, but yeah, it’s stupid for him. Uh, but he does it and he runs to the woods and he gets shot by the guy I believe with. Was it a gun or the arrow? I can’t remember this time. It’s a gun. This time it’s a gun. So one’s got a gun, one’s pretty good with a bow and arrow one’s 

Craig: really good with a bow and arrow.

And I think that that one, I, I think the one that I, I couldn’t really tell, um, they, they’re never named in the movie, but in the credits, they’re labeled as three finger saw tooth and one eye . And I’m not sure who was who. They’re, they’re all, I don’t either. Kind of gross. Um, but yeah, he gets shot right in the, in the calve of his leg.

Um, and you know, I get that it’s a movie and you have to have willing suspension of disbelief, but this guy is not gonna be running around the forest for the next 24 hours having just been shot in the leg. But he does. But anyway, because he’s taken out the other guy, um, Runs off in the other direction to try to distract the guys away and, and that works.

So the two girls go and get Chris and they take him to the tow truck. And they get in the tow truck and they. drive away with one of the mutants, you know, chasing after them on foot, but they get away and they’re driving around and they, uh, the guy running through the woods, Scott almost gets to them. But one of those mutants is really good with a bow and arrow.

Like really, really good , 

Todd: Like unbelievably good. Yeah. 

Craig: and, and shoots Scott in the back three times and he falls over dead. So they have to just keep going on without him. Carly is in my notes. I have, Carly is dead weight. , like they should have just left her behind cuz uh, she is just dragging them down.

But they, they eventually, the, the truck gets, they come to a dead end, the truck gets stuck, so they have to continue on foot. The cannibals are after them. Eventually they find this watch tower. Mm. And this is the scene that I remembered the most. I thought that this was a really cool scene. They go up into the watch tower and there’s a radio up there, and they’re trying to call somebody on the radio, but the cannibals are approaching and they think that the cannibals are going to just pass them by.

But at the most inopportune moment, somebody responds on the radio and the cannibals hear it. So they know they’re up there. Let 

Todd: me just say how dumb this is too. I mean, this watch tower is really, really high up in the air. Yeah. They have to go inside of it. It’s got a trap door. There’s a, there’s a radio inside and, and these cannibals are way, way far down on the ground, walking through the woods with their torches.

Mm-hmm. . I do not think that a little static on this radio, which is all it is, uh, that goes like this is gonna suddenly alert them from down below. It’s just not gonna happen. Maybe, 

Craig: I don’t know, but it does. Oh god, no. Well, and, and so they, the cannibals start climbing up, but they barricade the trap door.

So the cannibals set the 

Todd: tower on fire and, and the whole time this is happening, I’m thinking these guys are just spelling their doom because Yeah, they’re creating a big fire in the woods. I mean, if they’ve been able to go under the radar this long, um, this is surely gonna rat them out. , 

Craig: Right? Well, and this, it, it must be some kind of magical fire because it doesn’t spread to the sur like the immediately surrounding trees.

Todd: Right. Oh, the fire’s completely disregarded. As soon as they jump out of the watch tower, the only thing they can do is jump outta the watch tower. 

Craig: So they do. And trees, which is dangerous, but could potentially work. And it does, it could work. I mean, it still looks rough. Like when Eliza douche who hit the branch that she landed on, I audibly went, ah, like that had to hurt

Todd: They were really lucky, but it could happen. Um, yeah, and I saw in the trivia there that um, the other gal, the one who jumps down first, Ema Emmanuel Chiqui, the actress who placed her uhhuh actually dislocated her shoulder during this fall. and you can actually hear her shoulder pop on the production track.

Yeah. That’s crazy. 

Craig: I knew she got injured somewhere. Um, and, and, and then there’s actually, I I, I thought this improbable, but kind of a cool scene where they’re like traversing the branches of the trees and moving between trees and tree. Yeah. And uh, the, uh, one guy, the smallest one three finger is, uh, you know, up in the trees two and following them around, he eventually sneaks up on Carly and that’s when he axes her like in the mouth, like cuts the top part of her head off and then her body falls to the ground.

That was 

Todd: surprising. It was surprising. Yeah, I didn’t expect that. And like you said, as improbable, I mean really I was thinking about it the whole time as improbable as this, you know, walking between on the branches between trees up here, like. As improbable as it was. It, it was cool. . Yeah. Yeah. And it was shot really well, uh, Uhhuh and it was engaging and so I liked it, you know?

Craig: Yeah. And so the other two, Chris and Jessie set a trap where Chris is, He pulls a branch back and pulls it. T and Jesse goes out as the bait and lures this three finger guy onto her branch, onto her branch. And then she, I think she actually gets knocked over by him. Um, but she’s down low so that Chris can release the branch and it knocks three finger out of the.

Uh, out of the tree and he falls to the ground. Um, presumably dead. But these guys apparently have like superhuman strength because all of them, all of these mutants should have been dead at some point in the movie multiple times. Yeah. And yet continue to come back as does three finger later. It’s kind of a surprise cuz you assume that he’s dead.

But, um, so the only two left are Jesse and Chris, and they run off together and they hide. They hide behind a waterfall. Yeah. 

Todd: This is just like a quick cut. It’s like they’re in the trees, that guy falls and now suddenly they’re by a waterfall. Yeah. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: like, Okay. I, I, I mean, I guess, you know, sparas the, the boredom of watching them slowly climb down from the trees, look and see for some reason the other two aren’t there.

And then find their way to a waterfall. But Sure. I was a little surprised. . 

Craig: Yeah. And, and they see the two. Mutants who are still after them. They see them bypass them, so they assume they’re in the clear, at least for a little while. So they, they sleep until morning. She is startled awake by it. It’s a dream.

But she imagines she dreams that they’ve been found and you know, the guys there with an ax or whatever. And that’s kind of a startling moment too. Mm-hmm. in the morning, they wake up and they continue looking for a road. They eventually find one, but it’s, it’s at the bottom of a very steep hill. So they’re talking about how they’re gonna get down there and there’s a great jump scare where an ax.

Flies into a tree right next to their faces. Mm. Um, I jumped at that point and, and the mutants are right there, and Chris gets knocked down the hill and they take, they, they get, uh, Jessie and, and take her away, but they were able to reach some sort of authority on that radio briefly. Uh, and so there’s, there’s a police SUV coming down the road and Chris is able to intercept it.

And the guy, whether, I don’t know if he’s like a, a forest guy ranger or something like, like that, a ranger or search and rescue. I don’t know what he is. But, um, he gets out of his truck and he is like, Calm down, calm down. And Chris is trying to explain what’s going on. The Ranger dude just gets shot with an arrow right through his eye.

Todd: Oh, that 

Craig: surprised me. Oh, I figured that guy was dead. . Well, 

Todd: I mean, you figured that’s the only thing that can happen in a movie like this, right? Cuz certainly Chris isn’t just gonna suddenly be saved. But once again, these guys are just escalating their own d I mean, if they have been living out in the woods under the radar for this long, doing this for so long, they have now burned down a watch tower, set a fire in the woods, and, uh, now they’ve killed a ranger who’s gone out, uh, to look for them.

I mean, they’re go, the authorities will descend upon this area and, uh, be startled by what they see very soon. . You know what I mean? Yeah. 

Craig: Oh, I mean, one of them even says that like one of. , one of our protagonist group. When they find all those cars, they’re like, how have they been getting away with this for so long?

That’s a good question. . 

Todd: It is a very good question. Did none of these other people have family and friends? You know, , nobody came looking for them. What? . 

Craig: But, uh, Chris tries to drive away in the police guy’s truck, but the keys aren’t in it. So he drops out of the truck and rolls underneath it and the mutant guy doesn’t think to look under the car for him.

The cannibal guy gets the keys off of the police officer and loads the officer into the back of the SUV and drives home. But like, and. Very improbable, but Chris, like suspends himself from the undercarriage, oh God, one. I don’t know that that would be possible. I don’t know that there would really be anything down there that you could grab, suspend yourself from.

Secondly, it would be incredibly dangerous. But I guess in this circumstance, what are your choices? So yeah, when the mutant guy gets back, drives the thing back to the cabin, Chris is there, they’ve got, they’ve got Jessie, uh, bound to a bed and she’s gagged. And one of the remaining mutants is kind of menacing her with a knife.

Todd: And yeah. And like you said earlier, the whole time, it’s going through my head, why every other person they have just dispatched immediately and dragged off. They’ve dragged her there. And my only explanation again, was like you said earlier, well they must be planning to do something else with her, but. It doesn’t kind of, it doesn’t really seem like that he’s about to kill her.

I, I think it, 

Craig: I don’t know if he’s about to kill her. I think it, it seemed to me like he was just trying to scare her. Maybe like he was getting off on, on frightening her. And I imagined that logically they were keeping her alive. I’ll try not to be gross about it, but to have sex with her. Like Yeah. That, that’s what I imagine.

Sure. Maybe, 

Todd: Or maybe they just ran out of fridge space, you know, that could be 

Craig: too . They have would make more sense. They have had a pretty big harvest over the past couple of days. , Yeah. Maybe they need her to like, help cook. I don’t know . But, uh, anyway, the, the other mutant comes in, drags the cop and they start butchering him and then, Chris, I, I, I think he Oh, he drives his car through there.

Yeah, well he sets the front door on fire first. Mm-hmm. . And then when one of them goes to like, see why it’s on fire or whatever, he drives the police officer’s truck in over that guy. Yeah. And then there’s a lot of fighting and it seems like they kill the mutants three or four times, but they keep getting back up and keep fighting.

And then three finger, the one who fell out of the tree shows up and they fight. I mean, they get some, one of the mutants gets axed in the chest. One of ’em, I don’t even remember what all happens to them, but ultimately, even when they have all of them down on the ground, they’re all still clearly alive.

Yeah. 

Todd: One of gets an arrow almost into the brain. I mean, Yeah. It’s 

Craig: pretty How, how, however, It happens, They’re all still alive, but Chris and Jesse go outside. He has one shot left in his shotgun, but I don’t think that he even has to use it because the suv, the, the, the, the cop’s SUV has gas tanks strapped to the back.

Um, and I don’t think that Chris even has to shoot them. I think that just because of the fire, the whole house blows up. Yeah. And the next thing we see is the tow truck speeding down the road and it goes back to the gas station and the, the gas station guy like locks up real quick and is peering through the window.

Um, which made me think that probably. That’s where these guys got their gas. Yeah, good point. And he probably knows about them, but it, of course, it’s not them. It’s Chris and Jessie. Um, and they just came to tear the map off the ro off the wall, and then they drive off into the sunset together and we never know.

You know what ultimately happens to them? There’s a mid credit scene where another search and rescue officer comes to the completely burned down shack and sees a boot or a hand or something and pulls some of the rubble away to reveal his partner or coworker, whatever, and then a burn. Three finger creeps up behind him and raises an ax, uh, and presumably kills him.

Yeah. And that’s it. You know, again, like ultimately I didn’t think it was bad. I was entertained. Uh, there were moments when I was tense and, and a little bit scared. It’s not a great movie, but I thought that it was ma it was well enough made that I found it to be an enjoyable experience. And if you not counting the credits and not counting the opening sequence, the, the opening credits, it’s really only about an hour and 17 minutes long.

Um, so it’s not like you’re wasting a lot of time in watch He moves. It moves. 

Todd: Yeah, it does. A more or less, again, I, I’ve, I was entertained too. I was on the edge of my seat at moments of it. I was forced to suspend my disbelief several times. Oh yeah. I rolled my eyes a few times and I was kind of waiting for something new to happen.

And, you know, late, you know, three quarters of the way through the movie, I realized, okay, there isn’t gonna be any twist. There’s not, this is just exactly what it is. And that’s fine. Friday the 13th has, has less creativity than this movie really. So, I mean, I’m not gonna complain about it as a horror movie or anything, um, it’s just, I’m gonna throw it on the pile as another one of these kind of films.

And I think, like I said earlier, if, if this had been a low budget, gritty movie, I’d probably look down on it with a little more relish than I did with this really slick production. Um, that was an homage to those kind of movies. But not only, didn’t really bring anything new to the table, it it. It up the production value considerably , you know, which I think worked against it, to be honest, in an emotional level anyway, for me.

But yeah, anyway, uh, yeah, it was, it was fine. , it was 

Craig: fine. Yeah, it’s not great, but I don’t know. I liked it and I think that fans of horror would enjoy it. It’s, it’s not bad, it’s a ride. The sequels are bad, but kind of fun. Three Finger is the recurring character. Like they said it in different places.

There’s different scenarios. There’s, in, in some of the movies, there are three or four mutants and, and at least one of them, there’s like a whole family of mutants. But the character of Three Finger inexplicably kind of recurs. Um, and 

Todd: I guess he’s. Basically immortal, right? , I 

Craig: guess. I don’t know. At least in the ones that I remember seeing, like I said, there’s five of them.

I know I saw at least the first three, I don’t know if I saw all of them, but they’re, you know, one of them is Henry Rollins is hosting an extreme reality show in the woods, and they encounter these uh, folks. One of them, I feel like there’s one, one of the later ones has Doug Bradley as like the patriarch of this mutant family.

He’s not a mutant, um, but he’s the patriarch and it’s at like some big festival or something that’s being held out in the woods. Huh. Um, so they’re, they’re creative and they’re interesting and they shake things up. One of them is set during the winter at like a winter resort. So they do different stuff with it.

Um, not good movies, cheap cgi. Um, but I still kept watching ’em, uh, and, and thought they were kind of fun. I’m really interested to see the reboot. It’s streaming on one of the few streaming services that I don’t subscribe to yet. It’s on, uh, showtimes streaming service. Um, Oh, you will, you will. I know I will.

I probably will today because if I bundle it with Paramount, it’s only $3 a month . 

Todd: And now you have 

Craig: an excuse. I know. And I was telling Alan, I’m like, I paid $4 to watch just this one movie. Surely I could afford $3 a month

So yeah, stay tuned cuz I’ll, I’ll probably have watched it by next week, . Anyway, Uh, yeah. So, uh, there you go. Uh, I, I literally at this point, Off the top of my head, can’t think of another franchise that we haven’t touched. So, uh, if you all, uh, can, Well, that’s not true. There are a few. There’s like Demonic Toys.

I don’t, we haven’t done any of those yet. . 

Todd: Witchcraft We haven’t touched the Witchcraft series. Oh 

Craig: God. I know. I’m dreading you making me do those , like you can’t wait. Yeah. Softcore straight porn really isn’t at the top of my list, but whatever. For the sake of the podcast, I, I’ll guess the sake of me.

Grin and bear it. Thank you, Appreciate it. But anyway, until 

Todd: we, we’ll only do the first seven, I promise you. All 

Craig: right. Uh, until then, , uh, thank you for listening and, uh, if you enjoy this podcast, please, uh, share it with a friend. Of course, you can find us on virtually any place that you can find podcasts. We do also have, uh, a Patreon website where you can show us a little more support and get a little bit of extra content that we don’t make available to the general public.

But, you know, we appreciate your support one way or another, just by listening and, and, uh, sharing, uh, us with your friends, you are supporting us and we very much appreciate that. So, until next time, I’m Craig. And I’m Todd with Two Guys and a Chainsaw.