Brain Damage (1987)

Episode 346, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw

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

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, it was my week to pick this time. Craig had chosen the last few movies I think that we did, and so I just, I don’t know. You know me, I’m always in the mood for something from the eighties. I just want some cheesy, 80’s horror movie.

But I have a few things that have just been on my list forever that have been really intrigued by that I wanted to see. And I remember you and I absolutely loved Basket Case. Yeah. Um, we just thought it was just this gritty, crazy, awesome little independent movie that just had a lot of heart uhhuh, you know, like.

Dirty heart. It, it showcased New York City, like the griminess of it, but it just did it so well, and, and it was just fun. Yeah. And so, uh, I’d been wanting to get back to see another one of Frank Hennenlotter’s movies, and this one called Brain Damage from 1988 was his, uh, second big movie after Basket Case.

I think from here on out, he did a couple more sequels to Basket Case and Yep. Couple other movies. He, he really only has done a handful of movies. Mm-hmm. But, um, Frankenhooker. Frankenhooker, I, I saw a couple times as a teenager actually, that movie, that movie promises more than it delivers. Really, you know, for a teenage boy renting a movie called Frankenhooker, you’re really hoping for.

Certain things and, and a lot of really excels in the sort of the horror comedy genre. Yeah. So this is build as a horror comedy. It’s definitely got, uh, its tongue firmly planted in cheek, but it has a lot of disturbing elements to it, just like Basket Case. Uh, and so, yeah, uh, this was actually the first time I’d seen it and I was really looking forward to discussing it with you, especially after I watched it.

So, yeah. How about, how about you Craig? Uh, had you seen this before or even heard? No. No. 

Craig: I don’t think that I had even heard of it, and I’m really surprised. Right. Basket Case is kind of a, a cult classic, and I, I did really like it and I, I only recently saw basket, case two. And I really enjoyed it too. And there, I don’t know, it’s this, this guy has a really unique, Hennenlotter has a really unique style.

And yeah, like these movies, all of the ones that I’ve seen are really goofy and really out there. Yeah. But there’s, there’s just something stylistic about it, and it, it does, I don’t know. It, it feels like you can feel the, the love that went into it. Mm. It, it’s, it’s really hard to explain other than that, if you have seen basket case and you begin to watch this, you’ll immediately recognize the feel and the style.

Uh, had, yeah. Had I not known that this was made by the same guy, I think that I still would’ve thought. In many ways this movie reminds me a lot of basket case, right? 

Todd: Stylistically, yeah. Thematically, yeah. Kind of too. The main, the main character, just like the main character in Basket Case is kind of this guy who’s like going through some emotional issues, some emotional trauma or whatever and maybe is a bit of a, I don’t know, like in Basket Case you get the sense that he’s kind of a loner, but he’s kind of not.

Cuz he has a girlfriend. He gets a girlfriend. Yeah, he gets a girlfriend. Uh, in this case, this guy’s got a girlfriend. They’re quite serious. They’re engaged. But I, I think that the thing that I really admire about Hennenlotter is, After seeing these two movies is he has a lot of confidence as a filmmaker. I mean, it’s very clear, you know, you can’t make a movie like this and like Basket Case without just being fully confident about, about what you’re putting up on the screen, you know?

I know it’s crazy, but we’re gonna go whole hog on it.

Craig: Yeah, yeah. And I like that. I really like it. You know, they’re really unique stories. Uh, fairly simple. I mean, if you were to, you know, summarize the plots you could do so, you know, in a paragraph. It’s not like these big complex stories, but they’re out there.

And I like that too. I like that. You know, he has a bold idea and he runs with it. Um, and he does stuff like there’s some stuff in this movie that I just can’t even believe. Right. Made it to film ever. I know. Anywhere I was watching it with my, like my jaw on the floor. Like, is this happening? 

Todd: Right? 

Craig: Is this happening? Am I really seeing this? Like, is this allowed? 

Todd: Oh, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I don’t think this is allowed. You can’t do this enough. Oh man. Yeah, it’s there. I I, I mean also they’re both much like basket case kind of a character study in a way because it’s really focused on this one guy kind of going through his own personal torment.

Right. In Basket Case, it’s this guy who’s has to kind of care for his psychotic, deformed twin brother. Yeah. That he keeps in a basket. In this case, what happens to him is just. It’s just totally out of the blue, you know, it’s kind of random really. But he’s gotta deal with it now and it’s just what he’s going through and we’re just with him the whole time and we start to see how his life kind of falls apart because of this creature.

Yeah. It 

Craig: attaches itself to, I can see why you would say that it’s kind of a character study, but it’s more, it almost seems more like a study of how would a normal person deal with this insane scenario. Yeah. Like in, in basket case, you know, the main guy, Duane, I think was his name and his brother had a long.

Complicated history and, and had known one another their whole lives and had it’s more complex relationship. Complex. Yeah. Right. It, it’s more complex. Here. This guy is just thrust into a strange situation and I didn’t really even think about it, but I was reading some, uh, reviews and, uh, articles about the movie today, and one of them pointed out how we don’t really know anything about Brian at all outside of the confines of his apartment.

It’s, it’s, it’s like he, he doesn’t really exist outside. We know that he has a brother who also lives with him in this apartment and he has a girlfriend and that’s it. Yeah. We don’t know anything else about him. We don’t know anything about his family. We don’t know anything about does he have a job, does he have friends?

It, it’s, it’s all, he’s very, very isolated and then this bizarre thing happens to him and his brother and his girlfriend are. They’re on the outskirts of it and they’re concerned about him, but it really just becomes a very personal. Journey for him, and he’s really very much kind of alone except for his little friend.

It’s, I don’t even know, like, how do you that, but that was one of the things that I liked about the movie. Like, it, it surprised me. I didn’t know a lot going into it, but I did read a brief summary that said something like, an ordinary man wakes up to find a repulsive creature attached to his spinal cord or something.

And that, so I knew that it was gonna be a creature thing, but then the creature shows up like, what? 

Todd: Uh, I, I don’t know. It’s, yeah. I can’t wait to get into the story because it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be all over the place. Well, it’s interesting because a, a lot of reviewers at the time, and a lot of people just that you read online, talk about and say that this was Frank Headen lots.

It, it’s reflective of his struggle with cocaine addiction, uh, right. Drug addiction 

Craig: and it. And it feels very much like, oh, yeah. A metaphor for addiction. But I he’s, it seems like he’s kind of distanced himself from that. Like he’s downplayed that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he’s, he’s said, oh, yeah. It, it seems like a, a pretty obvi, I mean, this is coming from him.

He’s saying, yes, you look at it, and that seems pretty obvious, but he, like, like you said, he, he downplays it, it it’s not just that, it’s not a psa. 

Todd: Yeah. He basically said, look, literally, it’s a very narrow reading if you’re just looking this as a metaphor for drug abuse, like it’s, that’s an easy thing to move the plot.

But in broader terms, he said it’s, it’s like about escapism. It’s about an a, a free ride, like an easy way out. Right? There are lots of other avenues for that besides drugs, but Right. Eight drug imagery was a simple and easy way of expressing that in a film. And so, You know, that’s kind of what we have here.

It’s very on the nose, sort of, kind of a drug type imagery. But he definitely, really, definitely distances himself from saying, this is like a personal story of his, like, uh, I don’t know if he was addicted to to cocaine or not, or if he denies that too. I, but he’s just kind of like, eh, forget about that.

Right. That’s not really what this movie’s about. So, um, he, he actually more likened it to Faust. Like a very superficial adapt adaptation of Foust is what he said. So. Right. And I think he also got some criticism too, thinking that this movie was Pro-D drug. I don’t get that. I don’t get that at all either.

It seems like a nightmare what this guy’s 

Craig: going through. I, I read it too. What I read was that, you know, some critics say that, um, when Brian is under the influence of these drugs, for lack of a better word, supernatural drugs, whatever you wanna call ’em, he’s very euphoric and seems really happy and seems like, you know, he’s having a great time.

But the article that I read said that’s ignoring the fact that the comedown Yeah. Is way worse, like, like the, the consequences far outweigh. The reward. And 

Todd: that’s kind of the point. Yeah. 

Craig: Right. And that’s, that’s the Faust thing, right? Yeah. I mean the, I mean, come on. People take drugs because it creates a high, uh mm-hmm.

Euphoria or, or whatever it, it is escapist. Um, so I mean, it would be stupid to pretend that that wasn’t the case. But the focus here obviously is on the terrible, terrible consequences of that kind of dependence. Mm-hmm. Uh, upon something like 

Todd: that. Yeah. Yeah. Also, there’s a very sexual undertone to this movie.

That’s exactly what 

Craig: I was just gonna say. I was gonna Right. Um, but I appreciate what the director says about Yeah. The, you know, the drug thing is a really simple way of expressing this. Um, but it could be any other thing too. And I think that sex is one of those things. That it could be, especially since n n not only did this movie come out, you know, kind of right at the peak of Nancy Reagan’s war on drugs, uh, her big just say no campaign.

But it also was right at the height of the AIDS crisis. Mm-hmm. And so I think that, uh, sexuality was something that was at the forefront of people’s minds too, because all of a sudden there were these new potential consequences for sexual behavior. And that seems to be explored here a little bit.

There’s also, you know, and I’ve read this several places, I don’t really know whether or not it was intended, but there’s some weird homoerotic stuff mm-hmm. Going on in the movie theater. Seems like it. But I, I, I honestly couldn’t even tell. It’s really hard to, it’s intentional. 

Todd: Yeah, I’m with you on that.

It’s not like, you know, nightmare in Elm Street. Too obvious if it, you know, if it’s there. And I don’t know if he Lauder’s even addressed that. I, I haven’t read him addressing that at all. He’s definitely addressed a sexual element to the movie saying that, right. He said in even an earlier version of the script was more overtly sexual and it that, you know, obviously through different revisions kind of got toned down, but some of it kind of remains.

But yeah, there are, there is an odd scene in here that we’ll talk about that kind of left me scratching my head with like, what was the point of this? Me too. But that on its own, Doesn’t really mean anything, right? Like, I mean No, uh, it doesn’t really carry through the rest of the film, so it kind of leaves you, that’s why he left me scratching my head.

I just didn’t seem to fit 

Craig: Well, I read, I read something else. The, I think this was just a fan review and they’re like, you know, yeah, the whole drugs thing’s there. But it’s also about, you know, a guy struggling with, uh, his. Sexuality. He’s got this girlfriend, but then he starts experimenting with this other, you know, like phallic entity or whatever, and mm-hmm.

At that point, you know, like he shuns his girlfriend and, uh, explores other avenues. Uh, okay. I, I mean, I feel like, I feel like you could read it that way, but I feel like. In doing so, it seems like there’s an agenda, like, like yeah, maybe like you’re searching for something, like you’re, you’re, you’re kind of grasping at straws a little bit.

I, I see it, I think that there’s a ra a reasonable argument, but I really kind of doubt that was intentional. 

Todd: Well, honestly, I think this is part of the beauty of the movie really, and why I enjoyed it so much is I like this ambiguity here. I mean, the movie’s not lazy. It’s very bold about the choices it makes, it’s doing these kind of crazy, outrageous things and it makes no apologies for it.

Uh, but it’s very lynching in a way. Yeah. It gets very surreal at times. You do wonder, what does this mean? What am I supposed to be getting outta this? Is this real? And there’s psychedelic imagery and the ending Oh yeah. In particular is just kind of whacked out. And, and so Uhhuh, I, I like that. You know, it’s, it’s so different.

And again, it reminds me of David Lynch. It also reminds me in a way of, um, The other guy who does, the guy who does body horror a lot, um, Kronenberg Kronenberg, especially video drum, you know, video drum mm-hmm. Is another movie where this kind of lone guys going on this journey and just weird stuff is happening and you’re not quite sure what’s supposed to be real and what’s not.

Or if it’s all just sort of magical realism or if it’s all allegorical and Right. And that’s fine because ultimately I enjoyed it. I did too. I really enjoyed it. I did too. 

Craig: And this isn’t one of those movies where like, oh my gosh, turn it off right now cuz you don’t want the spoilers. Unless, I don’t know.

I really enjoyed it too. And I think that part of what I appreciated were the surprises. Like they’re, they’re not like earth shattering surprises, but, um, Certain things would happen and I would just be taken so off guard and I, I would laugh out loud. So I would say if this is something that you’re interested in, you may wanna watch it first.

Cuz we will of course, as always spoil everything. Right. But at the same time, this is, this is one of those where I feel like you can listen to this and still. Enjoy it. Yeah. Later 

Todd: you’re still gonna watch it. We, 

Craig: we can’t, we can’t possibly explain how bizarre it is. So you’re still gonna, you’re still gonna be in for a treat.

Todd: I totally agree. I, I mean, we can’t possibly do justice to the imagery on the screen in this movie. No. So it’ll be fine. No. Well, the movie kicks off with images of tribal masks interspersed with like pages from a anatomical book with notes on it and stuff, and a very, that’s weird. Cynthia, eighties score.

Oh, I love the 

Craig: score. I absolutely love the score. Like, I’m tempted to buy the blue rage just because one of the special features is the, the score on its own. No way. Oh, wow. Yeah, I, I could, uh, I could listen to this all day. It, it’s super Cynthia, and the title is just this really bold red, you know, block letters, brain damage with, uh, like lightning bolts coming out.

And honestly, five seconds in I’m like, oh, 

Todd: this is gonna be good. Right. Well, this older man comes home, uh, to his wife and once again, Hendon Lauder loves to set his movies apparently in the dingy New York City streets, which I kind of like. So it’s just kind of a dumpy little apartment, but cute. And this older man’s coming home and he’s got a package.

You were gone so long. It’s worried. I had to go all the way to 

Craig: that goddamn gourmet darling. But you got them a dozen. Good, good. No, they’re too damn small. Well, not like the ones we got from Godley. May he 

Todd: rest in peace. 

Craig: Maybe we should order from that French butcher 

Todd: again. No way. Always 

Craig: asking questions, making jokes.

Oh, these are beautiful. 

Todd: It turns out to be brains. Yeah. Are you coming now? I’m going to feed them Elmer Din. And they go into the bathroom with this package of brains and she just instantly starts screaming and we just get a shot of the bathtub with water in it. Right. 

Craig: And I have no idea what’s happening.

It’s so dramatic. I know. And I, I, I, I have no idea who, like, I’m like, who is Elmer? Is it like, do they have some kind of weird deformed sun or are they keeping somebody captive? I have no idea. But when she realizes that whoever, or whatever it is, is gone, they flip the out. They are so. It’s insane. Like she is screaming, wailing through this whole scene and they’re, they’re looking for Elmer apparently of like, what are they looking for?

They’re like looking well for, they tearing the house completely apart. They destroy, they destroy the entire apartment. She’s like tearing everything out of the kitchen cabinets. He’s clearing the bookshelves. I’m like, what is going on? And it, it is just absolutely crazy. The score 

Todd: is pounding. They, they go, they knock on the neighbor’s door and they run into their bathroom and look in their tub and see No.

Okay. And the leave, I mean, that neighbor 

Craig: was, um, Duane’s neighbor from Basket case. Did you recognize 

Todd: her? Oh, no, I didn’t. No. Yeah, 

Craig: I mean, she’s just, she’s just in that tiny one little scene, but I, I was looking at him and Lauder’s other movies and pulling him up. I she is in all of the ones that I looked at.

Um, she’s in Franken Hooker. She’s in basket, case two. Sounds like he’s kind of got a little cruel Little 

Todd: entourage. Yeah. 

Craig: Yeah. But yeah, they, and oh my God. And so then like, they look and look and they can’t find it, whatever it is. And the last image that I remember seeing is them laying amongst the detritus that they have created, laying on the floor kind of head to head, foaming at the mouth.

Yeah. And I had no idea what was happening. I thought, did they kill themselves? Right. Like, did they drink, you know, like, uh, I don’t know, bleach or something, did they, I, I couldn’t for the life of me, Understand what was happening and then we leave them and don’t come back to them for a long time. Mm-hmm.

Eventually we find out what is going on. But I was so intrigued by this opening. It was wild. I, and, and it just, it set up, uh, to me that I had no idea what I was in for. Right. Like, I have no idea what this movie is. I have no idea where it’s going. It’s already crazy. Um, and then it just gets crazier. Yeah.

I mean 

Todd: that’s what’s great about this film is it does not waste any time. And, and no, then it’s br this guy is laying in bed, we don’t even see his face for a while. He gets like a phone call. He’s mostly asleep and then eventually his girlfriend comes over. So this guy laying in bread, his name is Brian and his, his, uh, fiance I think, cuz she had a ring on her finger.

Her name’s Barbara. She comes over to wake him up, but he’s like feeling really, really sick. And his brother Mike has answered the door and. He’s like, what’s going on, Brian? And basically, they’re supposed to go to a concert, she and Brian, but instead Mike decides that he’s gonna go to the concert with Barbara instead because Brian is just feeling too sick.

He’s like, you guys just go and, and I’m gonna stay right 

Craig: at, right. It’s at Brian’s suggestion. But couldn’t you tell from Oh yeah. Like the second that Barbara walked in the apartment that Mike was like totally 

Todd: in her, Mike was creeping on her from the, from the moment she walked in. I’m almost uncomfortably, so.

Really? Yeah. And 

Craig: that’s what I was thinking too. I’m like, dude, that’s your brother’s girlfriend. Like gross. 

Todd: Mm-hmm. But you know what, there’s an, there’s an interesting bit that I caught because it’s in my notes and, and I didn’t realize it happened at the beginning until I looked back on my notes. But he keeps in the frame that there are the, the next door neighbors, which are this man and this woman, they have like five locks on their door, and you see that in the frame from when she comes over, he opens the door.

It’s just a nice little touch that he had in there. And it was enough for me to notice and write it down. I was like, Why does that neighbor have five locks on their 

Craig: door? Oh, God’s I did not notice. But that, that’s, that’s, yeah. And that’s 

Todd: a kind of a bit of a clue because then, um, after they leave, Brian kind of wakes up and there is like blood all over his hand and he, he checks his neck and his, his neck is bleeding.

There’s blood on the bed where he was laying and he’s just kind of spaced out and he’s literally crawling on the floor 

Craig: at this point. This scene is wild. Yeah. And there are so many scenes like this that I can imagine people taking drugs specifically to watch this movie. Right. 

Todd: Well, if you want a sample of what it’s like to take drugs, you watch this 

Craig: movie.

I, right. Like I can only imagine that. This, like, it, it seems to end up visually. It, it, it’s like an injectable chemical that goes to his brain. So it, it, it seems very reminiscent of heroin and I have no idea what, aside from what I’ve seen in movies, um, what the effects of heroin are. Um, but this definitely has like psychedelic properties.

Yeah. And so, you know, once when he gets up, um, he’s dizzy and he has to sit down, he sees flashing lights, he ends up laying back down in his bed and then like blue water starts flooding his room and there’s trippy music and the lighting is all trippy and he’s staring up at the ceiling and the light fixture and the ceiling like morphs into a giant.

Eyeball in a 

Todd: very, in a very slow and deliberate way. Like it’s kind of cool, actually. It actually reminded me of being a kid trying to fall asleep, staring at my ceiling and almost seeing it as something completely different. And yeah, the light itself, you know, is one of those white kind of half dome lights with like a little black little nipple on it or whatever.

On a, on a white ceiling that’s a bit textured. And then when you see it again, yeah, it’s like a little organic looking and then you see it again and it’s quite clearly like an eyeball. That he sees. Yeah. Right. It’s almost, it’s very reminiscent of an iris and the ceiling itself is a little gooey, like the white part of the eye and glistening and mm-hmm.

I, I was really impressed actually with the editing here and just mm-hmm. The, the pacing of it and, and everything. And, and it really pulled me into sort of a trippy vibe because like you said, then there’s like water flowing and it’s like flowing over him and over the bed, this blue water and it’s like he doesn’t care.

Yeah. He’s just laying there and he just lets this water wash completely over him. It’s so interesting. But you’re like, what the hell is going on? And what does this have to do with that couple next door? Right, right. It’s pretty artsy. It’s really cool. Uh, he gets up and, and he’s still got visions of the eye and stuff, but now he’s like in the corner of the room and all this stuff is completely gone.

He’s just sitting there and he’s still staring up the light and he pulls out a mirror to look at his neck. He goes into the bathroom and he sees that there’s like a hole back there. His tub is full of water, which is kind of moving around. And he just says aloud, okay, I know someone else is here, where are you?

And then he looks down and he’s wearing this like black T-shirt and there’s something kind of crawling up his stomach under his shirt. And then this dick, like brain creature pops up behind him from his shoulder and goes, hi, 

Craig: this was so bizarre. Okay. So like specifically the special effects people were directed to make this reminiscent of a big black dildo.

Yeah. Um, it, it, it is very phallic in nature. It’s veiny, it’s got like, Ahead. Like 

Todd: Yeah, but they had also his little brainy looking too, and 

Craig: Yeah. And it, they also, they incorporated like, kind of like suction cups on its body. Yeah. It, it also looks very much like a turd. 

Todd: Yes. Like 

Craig: hanky, the Christmas poop, it’s a mechanized puppet and it moves and it talks and they like, they used different effects.

They used, they had this mechanical puppet that they used a lot of the time and it talks. They had to do all of its talking ADR because apparently the mechanism of the puppet was loud and then, but they also used stop motion. And then in a couple of places they also use animation. Huh? And it’s, I just, you’ll have to Google it.

Do a Google image search for, it sounds like Elmer, but it’s a L y m e r or something like that, which they talk about later. It’s just so strange. Like in the same way that basket case was strange. A weird design, a weird concept. And the thing, when it started talking, I burst out laughing. Yes. Because I, I had no idea what I would’ve expected it to sound like, but certainly not what it sounds like.

Todd: Yeah. Now, apparently, hen and Lauder was very specific that he wanted this preacher to actually sound very sophisticated. Right. And he instantly thought to a horror host that he used to watch on TV named Zach Lee. I’m familiar with Zachary now, I wasn’t living in the area where he was on television, but he was like a.

An Elvira type host who would do horror movies and do interstitial and things. And my dad had, for some reason, I have no idea why. My dad had a VHS tape, got two hour long movie plus Zachary Lee jumping in and doing things. So I, I actually got to see this guy and, you know, he’s just a dude. Yeah. But he has a very particular nice way of talking like this.

It’s almost 

Craig: a soothing kind of voice. Mm-hmm. It’s just so unexpected. Yeah. This guy, I, I just watched some stuff about him on YouTube. He kind of fell into that horror hosting gig by accident. He happened to do something creepy for a gig and somebody saw it and said, Hey, we’re doing this horror hosting thing, will you do it for us?

And he’s like, okay. So he just took the same costume that he had used for whatever that initial gig was, and uh, it just kind of took off. Um, and that’s what he became known for. 

Todd: This 

Craig: is the start of your new life, Ryan. A life without worry or pain or loneliness. A life filled instead with colors and music and euphoria, a life of light and pleasure.

Who are you? What are you? I am you, Brian. I’m all you’ll ever need. I don’t understand you. Will Brian, from now on your life will take on a whole new light and all you have to do is look into the light and listen. Listen to the light. Brian, just listen to the light. Yes. Yes. I’d like to again, but I don’t see it now.

Then I’ll make you a deal. I’ll show you the light if you’ll take me 

Todd: for a walk. A walk 

Craig: where? Anywhere you like. I’m, uh, hungry. Wait, wait. I’m confused. I’m not following any of this. Then don’t worry about it. You don’t need to worry about anything ever again. I do all you’re 

Todd: thinking 

Craig: for you. And so that’s, that’s kind of the fian element of it.

Like I’ll give you everything you want. At a cost. Mm-hmm. That is a typical trope, uh, you see in literature and film all of the time. You know when something appears to be good, too good to be true, it’s usually because it is. And, and that’s what’s going on here. And now what this thing does is it attaches itself.

To the back of his neck, and he never sees this happen, which I think is hilarious because it, you obviously, it’s behind him so he can’t see it. But if he could see it, he would never do it again. Because this, this thing, first of all, it looks like a big blue and black veiny dic turd. Um, but it’s got these funny cartoonish, almost like dopey sympathetic eyes.

Yes. Like it 

Todd: has a face. It’s so cute in a way. Really? Yeah. In a way it’s, 

Craig: and then, but then when it attaches itself to the back, it’s head, like the front part of its head, it’s mouth I guess opens up. But when I say it’s mouth opens up, it’s almost like his head just elongates. Yeah. And it’s just this big moth full of teeth and tentacles and it’s gross and scary.

It kind of looks like a lamp ray or something. Yeah. Like a, and then a big needle. Big dripping needle comes out, inserts itself into a hole in the back of his head, and then you see that it enters his brain and squirts this blue juice all over a Can I come on like Yeah. And, and it’s this, it’s this big 

Todd: phallic 

Craig: thing, squirting juice, constantly talking about its juice.

Like you need, you want some of that juice, don’t you? I’m gonna, I’m gonna juice. See Real nice juice you up. Yeah. 

Todd: Yeah. I mean, there’s the homoerotic slash you know, sexual nature of it of course. And, but also the drug nature of it as well. Right. It’s definitely hilarious 

Craig: though. And, and, and it releases that secretion and he immediately, like, you can, I mean, it looks like he’s coming basically like it’s.

He gets so excited. He’s got, he’s got total o 

Todd: face. Yeah. Sexual sounds he’s making and stuff. Uhhuh with fluid going, like you just said, we get this great closeup into his brain of that needle popping through and dripping the juice all over his brain. And it kind of makes things go a little electric in there.

Like, uh, there’s some animated electricity when it juices him. You know, the, the guys who worked on the special effects for this were the two, the two main effects guys who were, who did Spooks Yeah. Uh, who, who were working on Spooks at this exact same time or just come off of Spooks. And Spooky was a weird ass movie, uh, that got thrown through the ringer and, and came out like way different than it was originally intended to be.

But I do remember spooky, the one thing that we had to say about it was the effects. And they were very ambitious. Yeah. It had some really interesting and cool creature effects throughout the whole thing. And so I think that at this point, these two guys were making a name for themselves. I’m trying to make a name for themselves anyway, doing this, but it has that like low rent look Uhhuh that quite frankly, spooky had Uhhuh, but it, it really still fits the movie.

Yeah. I mean it might as well because the whole movie’s surreal and trippy, so it doesn’t really matter that this thing looked that realistic. It serves its purpose and it’s totally fine and I was totally into it. And like you said, with his little dopey eyes and stuff, he almost comes across as little cartoon character, Uhhuh, which in a way is.

It serves the drug metaphor in a way. You know, it’s like, it’s this, this sinister, horrible thing that’s gonna really mess you up, but it comes on with such promise and such niceness. Yeah. And so it all fits. And plus his voice. It’s just so soothing. You know, I’m just gonna fix everything for you. So as a package, it just totally works.

But man, if you walk in from another room and you see this movie playing, you’ll be like, what in the hell am I watching? Yeah, real quick. They’ll buy one criticism and it’s just, Kind of minor criticism really, that we just know nothing about Brian. I guess it’s the point. But like, usually a movie would try to tell us a little bit about his life.

Is this a happy guy? Is this a guy who needs this? Is this a guy who’s been wanting something like this? You know, is this a fulfillment of a Dr, of a wish or a dream? Or is is he like a victim here? He’s totally happy and he’s getting ensnared into this thing that’s that’s making it, that’s screwing up his life.

Like we don’t know any of this stuff. Right. We just know he is got a fiance and presumably things have been fairly normal for them. Right. And Brian is played by Rick Hurst. He’s got this very, very familiar face. It’s handsome. Craig. Yeah, I’m here. Can you hear me? Yeah. I’m just waiting for you to jump in anytime to talk about Rick Hurst’s, uh, 

Craig: background.

All I, I don’t really know it, uh, you don’t. Well, soaps. Like 

Todd: he did soaps, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, your, one of your favorites right? Days of Our Lives. He was 

Craig: on that. See? I see. I didn’t know. I didn’t know if he, I I saw that he did like General Hospital. Yeah. 

Todd: 1989 to nineteen ninety, a hundred six episodes of Days of Our Lives.

My man. Who was he, uh, Scotty Banning? Uh, I 

Craig: don’t know. No, I mean, I’m sure I watched it. I don’t know. He, he looks like a, a soap guy. He’s very handsome. Um, in fact, uh, throughout the course of the movie, and it bothered me. I don’t know why it bothered me. I think it just because it was unexplained, but throughout the whole movie, he had a split lip.

Yeah. I thought, did this guy just have really dry lips? And they just had to work around it. Like I couldn’t figure it out. Now you’ll read that. Um, that was because they had intended to. Shoot a scene where he got into a fight defending his brother, but that they ran out of time and budget and just never ended up filming that scene.

So it goes unexplained. But Hennen Lauder has said more recently that that’s not true. That that was never the intention. It was just, uh, in his words, the guy was too pretty. 

Todd: So, which, to which, um, Rick Hurst has said, is he crazy? This just this little split lip, if he’s trying to make me look a little less attractive, like he could’ve like scarred up my cheek or been like half an ear gone or something like that.

It’s just this tiny little split lip that’s just, I don’t know, it’s just more distracting than, than actually like, makes him look less beautiful. I think honestly, 

Craig: I, I read that quote, I read that quote from him, like, why didn’t, why not gimme a big scar cut off part of my ear or something? I don’t know.

But for me, there is something really unsettling about. I don’t know. It’s almo, it’s, it’s, it’s like, like I said, I was wondering, does he just have really, really dry lips? Like his lips are cracked or like, like, is like a cold sore, like, I don’t know. There’s something that gives me the heebie-jeebies about that.

So it worked, it worked for me. But he is, he’s, he’s a nice looking guy. I feel like you were gonna say you’re one criticism that was it. Oh, that we don’t know anything about him. So, yeah. And I have no idea. Obviously an, uh, any, you know, speculation about intention is, is really just that speculation. But I wonder if, um, along the same lines of, you know, fa like he’s just kind of an every man.

He’s just the boy next door. He could be you, he could be your friend, he could be your brother. You could, he 

Todd: could be you. You can put yourself in there if you want. I guess, 

Craig: right? By not giving him too many defining characteristics, maybe it makes him more sympathetic or relatable. Uh, I don’t know if that was the intent.

May, maybe it’s just his outside life is. Insignificant. Mm-hmm. Aside from the fact that we immediately see. This start to have negative impacts on his relationships, which again, goes very much along with, uh, drug addiction. Drug addiction often leads to isolation. It, it leads to strained relationships with loved ones and people who care about you.

Mm-hmm. Like you said, it’s, it’s, it’s kind of on the nose, but it works. And I, and I think that it’s really smart to approach it from this really bizarre, kind of wacko way as opposed to, It could have just been a serious movie. You know, it could have been the Basketball diaries or Requiem for a Dream or, or something like that.

Right. Like, look 

Todd: at this person’s fall. Yeah. Right. 

Craig: This is a different way of approaching it, a more symbolic way. And I, I think it is really effective. Now the problem is, okay. Yeah. So the drugs are great. Like immediately, as soon as he gets high, he goes out and he’s like looking around and, um, everything is like a psychedelic light show.

And we see, you know, what he’s seeing and it’s very colorful and trippy and, um, it looks great. But he ends up in this junkyard and he’s approached by. A well, not just approached, assaulted really by, uh, the night watchmen and then Elmer pops out and, and like, I don’t, what does he, he’s, 

Todd: I mean his mo it seems to be most of the time to leap right into someone’s forehead and eat their way through their skull into and suck their brains out.

Yeah. And I mean, when you see the teeth he’s got, you figure he can do it. Sure. Yeah. It just burrows into his head and, and this is where we get a little bit of stop motion of him actually like pulling a piece of brain out and stuff. He’s got this big old smile on his face. I mean, it’s. It’s kind of funny and cute and nonchalant, you know, just 

Craig: the way, well, and, and Brian is so high that it, I, I think the suggestion is he doesn’t really even, he’s not really fully aware of what’s going on.

Mm-hmm. So after Elmer eats the cop’s brain, Brian looks over and he is like, he says, what’s going on? Is he okay? And Elmer goes, not bad. A bit underdone. Like he’s also goofy. Like the thing is goofy. It kind of, it reminds me of the goblin from Sorority Babes and Oh yeah. Slim Ball Borama. Oh, very much so.

Yeah. Like he’s got jokes. 

Todd: He’s a joke. Yeah, 

Craig: he, he sings a song later, like, oh my gosh. He, 

Todd: he sings a full song later. Yeah. 

Craig: Okay. So then he kills the cops. So then Brian asks to be juiced again. Mike and Barbara are just constantly talking to one another, like, what’s going on? Why is he acting so strange? And at one point, Bri like, she comes over and, uh, Mike is like, he has been in the bathtub for the last six hours, and like he put all these locks on his door and he has these buckets of water in his room.

And he’s always either in his room or in the bathtub, and Barbara knocks on the door and is like, Hey, we have a date. And, and Brian is like, oh yeah, I’ll be right out. And then Elmer. Pops up out 

Todd: of the bathtub and 

Craig: like it’s, and Brian just starts laughing hysterically like, like he’s playing with this.

Yeah. Like they’re splash 

Todd: splashing around. And

so 

Craig: it’s funny and they giggle. Hear it from the Yes. Like he’s just giggling like a lunatic and it’s, it’s really kind of funny. Uhhuh God, he tells Barbara, I think they go out, they go to dinner and he says that he just needs to be alone for a while. And he tries to explain to her what’s going on and he starts to like, I’m going through some pretty intense changes and I need to be by myself for a while.

Why? What’s happened? I see things differently now. You mean us? Oh, everything. It just doesn’t last very long. See, like right now, for instance, Everything looks normal. See no trails. No 

Todd: trails, 

Craig: none. But sometimes, sometimes I can see completely, sometimes everything glows with a different kind of light. I can touch an object and listen to the sound of its color.

I can hear voices and and music in the flicker of a match. I can look into a mirror and see a thousand different faces staring back at me. I can turn night and day or or, or watch the darkness shine, and I don’t even have to open my eyes. You’re on 

Todd: drugs, right? I mean, he sounds like a guy on drugs. A hundred percent.

Yeah. This is the kind of thing a guy 

Craig: would say. But Elmer won’t let him tell her about him, like he upsets his stomach or something like you. You just hear this gurgling in his gut. Anytime he starts to mention Elmer. Anyway, God, I don’t 

Todd: know. He looks down at his meatballs and one of the meatballs is actually like a, like a tiny little brain that’s pulsating.

A pulsating, yeah. He looks down again and there’s like two pulsating brains now. I mean, it’s almost. Funny, I, I was actually laughing at this point because it’s almost like Elmer is trolling him through his visions and, and he runs out of the restaurant and at, and at this point he runs out of the restaurant and he just tears down the city and we get this long tracking shot as he is just running past house, after house, after shop, after restaurant, after whatever, down the night.

Streets of New York City in 1987. And there 

Craig: was a very similar scene in basket case. Mm-hmm. The main character ran down the New York streets. He was naked. Brian’s not naked. 

Todd: I was just gonna say like, this movie has energy, like it really moves. I just felt propelled through it, you know, by this 

Craig: point I did too.

And it’s short at an hour, 24. But there are scenes like this one where he takes his time, With shots. Like we, we, we watched this guy run down the street for a while and there are other shot, there are other things like this that are prolonged. And it’s interesting because I, I read that Hennen Lauder’s original edit of the film was only 66 minutes long.

And so in order for it to be considered a feature film, he had to add stuff. So he went back into the editing bay and put stuff back in that he had taken out. Like you hardly ever hear that. Mm-hmm. You know, it’s always, it’s always people being forced to remove stuff for length or, or content or, or whatever.

He actually had to go back in and put some stuff back in. And I, I, I have a feeling that some of those may have been some of these extended shots, but I like them. Oh, they’re great. I like the pacing, um, of the movie. It, it, it does move fast, but it also, it doesn’t 

Todd: feel short, you know? It doesn’t, no. Or long, I mean, it just feels right.

Craig: To me and right. Those moments that linger, it feels appropriate and it feels kind of appropriately uncomfortable. Mm-hmm. Um, like you keep expecting it to cut away and it doesn’t, and it, it, I like the way that that. Affected me. Um, and it, it kind of made me a little uneasy for whatever reason. 

Todd: And I like that.

Yeah. Talk about uneasy. Like he ends up in an alley and he’s just against a wall, almost like he’s pinned against the wall. And you can see Elmer on the back of his neck. This is very 

Craig: sexual. 

Todd: Yeah. It’s like Elmer is just banging his neck. Uh, he’s just, yeah. There, he’s just moaning and groaning like in pleasure.

And there’s a bumbo nearby who doesn’t, who barely even takes notice actually. And then he looks up and he sees a night, a sign for a nightclub called Hell. And there’s this. Excellent musical transition that takes him into this nightclub. And he walks through this whole bunch of people dancing and stuff, and he is just, again, you’re kind of your typical drug experience.

Oh, he’s tripping. Balls going, you’re tripping. And everybody else is dancing and they’re probably other people tripping there too. Whatever. He’s kinda leaning up against his speaker and just listening to the colors or whatever. And there’s a woman at the bar who’s dressed a little skimpy, uh, who notices him and.

For some reason is attracted and comes over and tries to get him to dance, which he does, but he’s completely out to lunch, you know? Oh, yeah. I mean, he’s totally tripping. She doesn’t mind at all. She’s going with it. Yeah. They look like they’re having a good time, and then they go into the boiler room. It, uh, 

Craig: I th it’s an alley, isn’t it?

I don’t know. Whatever. It’s, it’s, it’s out behind the, it’s a door 

Todd: that says Keep out, and there’s, it’s got these huge tanks and things. 

Craig: They’re alone. And I mean, and it looks like it. Look, I mean, it’s not like we haven’t seen scenes like this, you know, uh, uh, inebriated couple stumbles into the alley outside of the club and Yeah.

Start making out, you know, they, they, they start making out and like he is so out of it, like you said, it’s, it’s a little bit. I, I’m not really sure why she’s so into this stranger, but she is. And, uh, she reaches down and, and fondles his crotch and says, Hmm, it feels like you got a real monster in there.

And I thought that was the most clever line. It’s so easy. It’s such an easy joke. Oh, I thought it was so funny. And then, so then she kneels down and it looks like she’s gonna go down on him. She unzips his pants and this is the, this was the, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Yeah, because it is a sh so, uh, so his, his, his dick doesn’t come out of his pants.

Elmer does. Mm-hmm. And it goes into her mouth, but the camera lingers. It looks like, it looks like porn. Yeah. It, it, I mean, she, she’s blowing this thing and, and, you know, it’s, it’s coming out of his pants, it looks like 

Todd: porn. A hundred percent. And, and it, it, it’s, it’s straight in her mouth. It’s very erect.

It’s long and it’s, you know, veiny and blue and weird and stuff. And instantly his hands go down to the back of her head, uhhuh to keep her from removing it. Now he’s pretty out of it. Like, it’s almost like Brian’s just in the moment. He just doesn’t fully understand what’s happening. Right. He just knows.

He enjoys it. And his head is back, eyes closed and he’s got her face forced onto this thing. And I read that crew members walked out when they were filming the scene and in the theatrical release of this movie, they had to cut some shots out of this part. But, uh, the, the uncut version that we 

Craig: saw, right, I would be, because I can’t believe.

I still can’t believe that. Yeah. That this is even on the home release now. Like the, the original video release, it was still the edited version. It wasn’t until fairly recently it was released on DVD or Blu-ray that they, uh, released it uncut. But I, I, I can’t imagine them being able to show anything other than him holding the back of her head towards his crotch.

I can’t imagine anything more than that because the rest of the imagery is so graphic and so phallic and so porny. Yeah. But we have seen so much, you know, you get to the point where you feel like you’ve seen it all.

I, yeah, I can, I can still be shocked. We can. And then he leaves and goes to another alley and, and takes off his pants and underwear, and throws his underwear away because they’re all bloody, I mean, 

Todd: Elmer has. Eaten her brain. Like, like, yeah, yeah. I think it even pulls out. Yes. He pulls it out of 

Craig: her mouth and sucks it back into Brian’s pants.

Like it’s just, it’s really graphic and, and gross. And, and so then he throws away his underwear and then the, uh, the old man from the beginning shows back up. 

Todd: Shows up just randomly in this alley. I guess it must be by the house. I feel like It must be, yeah. By his apartment. And he yells at him. He says, you’re feeding him human beings.

You’re making him strong. Almer belongs to me. And then he goes into this very, um, exposition dump. Yeah, yeah. It’s, I I, you get the feeling he’s like a professor or whatever. Right. I mean, talks about how he long living relic of civilizations long since forgotten trace’s, origins to the fourth crusade, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

He paid a guy eventually and got him anyway, you know, he’s like, you’ve, you’ve gotta, you’ve gotta give him back. And Brian runs off and checks into a CD hotel, 

Craig: right? And, and he, he, he tell, he’s talking to Elmer, Elmer, whatever his name is, and says, you’ve got me. So I can’t think clearly, I can’t function clearly.

And Elmer says, but I thought you were having such a good time again, you know, heavy-handed drugs. Yeah. I mean, that’s what it sounds like. We can’t keep killing people every time you’re hungry. Oh, yes, we can. We’ll do anything I want us to do. You are mine now. Brian, I owned you. Oh, don’t worry, Brian. I won’t bite you while you’re asleep.

No, no, no, no. I want you to beg for it now. And again, this is all very heavy handed because it’s in a CD hotel and Brian immediately starts to go into withdrawal. Yeah. And it is almost a realistic depiction of what withdrawal from hard drugs like heroin can do, because there it’s a, you know, there’s a physiological addiction.

It’s not just. A mental thing. It’s a physical, uh, thing. And, and he looks 

Todd: sick. He’s sweating, he’s pale. Like he’s almost sweating. Like got sores brown. Yeah. Sores all over him. Als told him, I, I don’t get a brain. You don’t get my juice. We’ll just see who cracks first. There’s these trippy scenes where he like reaches into his ear and he starts pulling this long strand of something gross out of his ear, and then when he pulls it all completely out, his ear pops off and just blood gushes out.

I mean, of, obviously it’s something he’s envisioning, you know, it’s, it’s, I think it’s reflective of how he feels. Right. In the, in the meantime, Elmer is just very ho hum upright in this sink, and he starts singing Elmer’s tune, which is a song I know because I used to play it on piano. It’s an old sort of jazz tune and he sings the whole thing.

It is so hilarious. 

Craig: Why are the stars always weaken and bleak in above? What makes a fella start thinking folding in love? It’s not the season. The reason this plane is a moon, it’s just almost two. Well, and, and it culminates with Brian on the floor, foaming at the mouth, which explains mm-hmm. That’s the, the old people we’re going through withdrawal too.

And when we see them, when we just saw the old guy in the alley and we see them again here in a minute, um, they too look terrible. Like they look like they’re suffering, um, from withdrawal also, eventually Brian does beg Elmer says, I’ll give you more juice, but you have to feed me first. And that’s when we get to this weird scene where Brian goes, I don’t know where to a, 

Todd: I think it’s a, um, a truck stop.

No, I think it’s a community shower. I think it’s supposed to be in the ho the motel. Like, like in this motel. Oh. Like there are not individual showers in the rooms, but there’s like a shower on the floor that they can go 

Craig: into. Weird. And so he goes in there and there’s this muscular naked man. That, uh, just the way that the camera’s framed on him.

Like it’s learing. Yeah. Yeah. It’s long learing shots of this naked man. And, uh, Brian comes in very awkwardly and is kind of just staring at him like he doesn’t even shower. Like he just walks in there in a towel and just stands there and stares at this guy, and the guy keeps looking at him like, uh, don’t worry.

Yeah. And, but then, and then eventually the guy leaves and, and that’s it. Like, yeah. And, and Elmer I think, uh, you know, uh, gets off of Brian and crawls into another part of the bathroom and eats another guy who’s sitting on the toilet. But that scene with the naked guy, I just, I don’t understand, I don’t understand, understand the, what the purpose of it was.

Extend 

Todd: the running time of the movie. 

Craig: I guess. I, I. I, and I don’t, I just, I don’t understand why Elmer didn’t just eat that guy. Right. Weird. Whatever. He eats a guy on the toilet. Then back at Mike and Ryan’s apartment, Mike brings Barbara home with them. I don’t know where they have been, but they’re talking about how he’s absent all the time, blah, blah, blah.

And Mike’s like, you know how I feel about you. So not knowing that Brian is there in his room and not checking, they start to . Yeah. And Brian is just laying in his bed listening to them. Mm-hmm. Then Elmer juices. Brian, there’s a weird, there’s a weird. Like incestuous, threesome, hallucination. Mm-hmm. Where, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s Mike and Brian and Barbara, and they’re all naked and it’s really, really brief and it’s not super graphic, but weird.

Mm-hmm. And so then Brian comes out of his room, finds the two of them in bed together and tells them that they need to get out because there’s something out of his control. And if he’s high, he won’t know what’s happening and he doesn’t want them to get hurt. Yeah. And he runs out and Barbara chases them out and follows him to the subway where there’s, they, they sit on the subway car.

This, by the way, is the only permit that he got for filming Famously, hen and Lauder didn’t get any permits for. Uh, basket case, either he did get a permit to film in the subway and on the subway. The character from Basket case is on the train with them. And, and I, I just, I love them. I thought that was cool.

These eggs like that? Yeah. Like they exist, like they exist in the same world and it’s just a little, you know, kind of winking a k nod at at people who know the other movie. But I, I do know the other movie and I enjoyed it. 

Todd: I actually thought it was kind of appropriate too. I mean, here’s two guys just kind of passing by, facing off for a brief moment across the subway who both have monkeys on 

Craig: their backs.

Well, and it seems like, I keep calling him Duane, I think that’s his name. I don’t know, whatever that, that guy, it almost seems like he can sense that there’s something wrong or dangerous. Mm-hmm. He, he looks at Brian and seems to get. Uncomfortable and gets up and leaves. Yep. And this was another part of the movie that’s super, super weird, but I loved as the, so she’s talking to him, she’s like, I know you’re in trouble, but I’ll do anything to help you, blah, blah, blah.

As he’s sitting there and as the train car is moving, when the lights flash, for whatever reason, Elmer. Pops out of his mouth for just a split second and pops back in. It’s creepy. We see it, but she doesn’t, cuz presumably it happens either when she’s not looking or when the, the car is dark and it’s animated and it looks animated and it looks really strange, but at the same time, really spooky and creepy and it, it’s just you.

We’ve never seen anything like this happen before. We’ve never seen him move quickly. We’ve never seen him this animated his mouth. Yeah. Yeah. It’s 

Todd: really weird. And apparently this was very painstakingly animated. The, the effects guy did a kind of stop motion animation of Elmer to match what they had shot of Brian.

And then he went in and cut out of the frame with an exacto knife frame by frame those frames of Elmer and pasted them on the frames of, I mean, you talk about low budget handycrafts here, you know? Yeah. Or if people would use something called an optical printer for this, usually where, you know, you take two frames that are separate and you print them together on one separate piece of film.

But no, this guy literally. Pasted each frame of Elmer onto the frame of this guy. And it works because the movie’s so surreal. We haven’t seen anything like this Uhhuh, the effect, it’s still good. Like it gives, it gives a really creepy 

Craig: impression. I really liked it. I mean, it, it looks dated. Obviously, if something were to be done like this today, it would be cgi.

I, but Oh yeah. I, I really liked the look of it. It was, it was weird and it was unsettling, and then he grabs her and kisses her. And again, it’s al it’s, it’s like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Mm-hmm. And Elmer eats her brain like, like sucks her brain out. Into Brian’s mouth. And when he lays her down after he’s got blood and like chunks of brain on his mouth that he wipes away.

And it’s just little details like that that are so gross. Um mm-hmm. And so unsettling. And then I don’t know where he goes, but he gets confronted by the old couple again. They corner him in an alley with a gun. Um, the old lady frisks him and gets Elmer, but Elmer jumps onto her forehead and eats her brain.

And then I think the old man tries to intervene and it jumps on his brain. But Brian needs to be juiced before the old man is dead. So Elmer attaches himself to Brian’s back, but the old man isn’t dead yet, and he wakes up and he attacks during the juicing. So like it, he grabs Elmer by the body and squeezes, which I mm-hmm.

And then we see that like, Uh, Brian’s brain gets flooded with this blue stuff. It’s like an overdose, essentially. It’s an od, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It’s, it’s an OD and I mean, that’s what happens. So Brian gets an overdose, the old man drops Elmer to the ground, and Elmer kind of, you know, goes into these death throws, but then presumably dies.

I mean, this is supposed to be some kind of ancient creature that’s been around for centuries, and all you have to do is squeeze it for a second and it dies. Right. 

Todd: Yeah. I, I wasn’t, I wasn’t sure. 

Craig: I guess nobody, I guess nobody before wanted to kill it because they were all addicted to it. Uh, whatever. I don’t know.

Yeah. But, so then Brian starts to freak out, and this is so bizarre. His head starts bulging, like there’s clearly an air bladder under something on his head. It’s his skin on his forehead. Yeah. Right. And it, you know, it bulges out and is like throbbing and stuff, and he runs back. And he’s leaking blue juice out of his eyes and his ears, and he runs back to his apartment and he points a gun at his head.

And then we cut to outside and we hear the gunshot. And from a window up in the building, presumably Brian’s room, there’s this bright light emanating out of the window. And so Mike and the cops go into the room and light. And electricity are emitting from a, he, like Brian’s whole forehead is gone and there’s just like some sort of cosmic abyss that like light is glowing, is coming out of the end.

Like, yeah, that’s it. It’s a really bizarre ending. I mean, you know, if you’re, if you’re following the drug metaphor, it’s, it’s an OD and he dies of an od, but the way, the fantastical way that it’s executed is appropriately bizarre based on the rest of the movie. And though it’s somewhat ambiguous, I was very satisfied 

Todd: with the, oh, yeah.

A hundred percent. Yeah. Oh man. I, I enjoyed it. I love the movie and everything that we’ve said about it. I, I think you could just listen to us going through the discussion. You still might be compelled to watch it. Oh, I hope you 

Craig: do. It’s, it’s, I’m really surprised that I didn’t even know about it. Like I, mm.

God, I, I, you know, we’ve been doing this podcast now for five, six years. I, I don’t even know anymore. And it just blows me away that we still find these things, right. That are new and fresh to us. It’s nice. It’s nice to have these little. Pleasant surprises. I really enjoyed this movie too, and I would very much recommend it, uh, to horror fans.

It’s unique, it’s creative, it’s bizarre. It’s fun. It’s funny. 

Todd: Mm-hmm. It’s very punk in a way. 

Craig: Mm-hmm. Yeah. As dark as it is, and it it is dark. It, it’s also very funny. Uh, I laughed many times and, and like you said, I, I just think Hennen Lauder is an interesting filmmaker. I, I went to his IMDB page thinking, oh, I can’t wait to watch.

Something else. And like you said, there’s, there’s not a lot. He didn’t do a lot. No, he did the three basket cases. He did this, he did Franken Hooker, and then I think he’s done some like documentary work and stuff. 

Todd: He’s still working on something, but not, not no big movies like this. I think he did something, which is obviously, I think a documentary called, that’s Sexploitation and uh, a documentary on Hor Herchel Gordon Lewis.

I think his latest one was 2018. Although he is got two upcoming things, they’re both shorts, 

Craig: so. Gotcha. Well, he’s cool. Yeah, I think he’s, he’s really creative. That’s not, that’s not to say that other filmmakers aren’t creative, but he’s unique. Um, he’s got a unique view and, uh, a unique style. Um, and it’s, it’s fun.

Yep. 

Todd: Absolutely. That’s exactly what I was gonna say. All right, well, thank you again for listening to this podcast. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. If you’ve seen this movie, please let us know what you thought of it. Yeah. Just by going online and, and find us on Twitter, on Instagram, on our Facebook page, all you have to do is Google two guys in a chainsaw podcast, and you’ll find us, drop us a note.

We love interacting with you. Also, I, I just wanna take this time to, to please review this podcast. You know, one of the best things you can do to support us is just to spread the word, uh, and let people know that you enjoyed it. If you didn’t enjoy it, keep it all to yourself. All right. 

Craig: You ready? We don’t want 

Todd: to hear from Another way you could support us, uh, would be to, uh, check out our Patreon, uh, at patreon.com/.

Chainsaw podcast, we put out Mini sos. Every month we give the unedited version of our phone calls, lots of little extra treats for, uh, the people who are supporting, who are supporting us that way. So thank you all for listening, and until next time, I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig 

Todd: with Two Guys and a Chainsaw.