NEAFC film reviews and Ghost stories
NEAFC
Film Reviews from Graham and Dave and they discuss their favourite Ghost films.
Birth Rebirth
Saw X
The End We Start From
Beetlejuice
The Amityville Horror
A Ghost Story
The Others
Film Reviews from Graham and Dave and they discuss their favourite Ghost films.
Birth Rebirth
Saw X
The End We Start From
Beetlejuice
The Amityville Horror
A Ghost Story
The Others
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello and welcome back to Not Everyone's a Film Critic,
00:09 a vodcast or a podcast brought to you by The Scotsman
00:12 and presented by myself, The Coffee,
00:14 a little bit Femi and a little bit Unwell,
00:16 Graham Faulk.
00:17 I'm joined by Dave,
00:17 who's less Flemmy than he has been in recent weeks
00:20 and certainly less Flemmy than me,
00:21 but this is not a Flem-based podcast,
00:24 it's a film-based podcast.
00:25 So how are you doing Dave?
00:26 - I'm doing fine, but now I feel the need to cough
00:28 just 'cause you talk quite Flemmy so much,
00:30 so I'll just give it a wee,
00:31 and I'll be absolutely fine, thank you.
00:33 - Let's start again.
00:34 Hello and welcome to Not Everyone's a Film Critic.
00:36 I think if you've seen this before,
00:41 you will know the script.
00:42 I don't normally wear an hoodie,
00:43 but I'm wearing an hoodie today.
00:44 It is a Rick and Morty Pickle Rick hoodie,
00:47 for those of you wondering.
00:48 Dave is wearing something with foxes on.
00:51 - Yeah, a delightful jumper with foxes on.
00:53 You liked my jumper last week so much,
00:54 I thought I would wear another horrible jumper.
00:56 - So as you can probably tell, it's not a fashion-based show.
00:59 It's 100% just about films,
01:02 where we'll be reviewing stuff we've seen this week,
01:04 if we've seen anything.
01:05 As you can tell, I've not been very well,
01:06 so have a guess at how many things I've seen this week.
01:09 And then we'll have our topic of the week.
01:10 It's Halloween, so it's like,
01:12 I think anyone's seen this before,
01:13 so it knows we're both big horror heads,
01:15 and we're just trying to work out ways
01:17 we can speak about horror on a regular basis
01:18 by shoehorning it into ridiculously small niche topics.
01:24 This week is our favourite ghost stories,
01:28 one of which Dave is soon to be.
01:30 Dave, what have you seen this week?
01:32 - I've managed to dodge death for another week,
01:35 and I'm very grateful that every day's a bonus at this point.
01:37 I don't even buy green bananas.
01:40 Yeah, so I've seen lots of stuff.
01:41 I've seen lots and lots of stuff this week,
01:43 thankfully, because you've not.
01:45 So yeah, three films I'd like to touch on.
01:47 Firstly, just don't go and see a film called Eileen.
01:50 I'm gonna say no more about it,
01:51 'cause I don't wanna give it any oxygen to publicity,
01:53 other than it's got Anne Hathaway in it,
01:55 and it's really not very good.
01:57 So don't go and see Eileen is the first thing I'd say.
01:59 - Out of curiosity, is the soundtrack common, Eileen?
02:04 - That would have made it slightly better.
02:05 It's not, sadly.
02:07 - Is it just about songs that always get played at weddings?
02:10 - I wish it was that film.
02:11 I wish that you'd made one called Eileen,
02:13 and it would be better than this dreadful, dreadful picture,
02:17 which is out later in the year.
02:18 But anyway, there's three films I'd like to talk about.
02:20 First up, A Great Horror,
02:22 which you should be looking forward to, Graeme.
02:24 Birth Rebirth, it's called.
02:26 It's kind of Frankenstein-y story.
02:27 It's by a first-time female director.
02:31 So many good films this year
02:32 being made by first-time female directors.
02:35 Called Laura Moss, she wrote the film as well.
02:39 It's a really, really good kind of body horror,
02:41 kind of Cronenbergian type of tale,
02:44 about a pathologist who basically doesn't like people
02:47 very much, unless they're dead,
02:49 but quite fancies having a kid.
02:50 So when a kid turns up on her mortuary board,
02:54 chopping block, whatever it's called,
02:55 she decides to nick the body and reanimate it.
02:58 And she's successful.
02:59 She's been kind of experimenting
03:01 with these things for a wee while.
03:02 And this is the first time that it's worked.
03:04 So she basically has a kid.
03:06 Unfortunately, it is someone else's kid.
03:08 And the woman whose kid it is, who is a maternity nurse,
03:11 breaks into her house because she suspects
03:13 that she's up to something and finds her kid now alive.
03:17 The two of them essentially end up teaming up
03:18 to keep the kid alive.
03:20 And the way they do that is harvest material
03:23 from pregnant women.
03:25 It's pretty grim.
03:26 It's a pretty grim subject.
03:27 It's done really, really well.
03:28 There's lots of bits which are very difficult to watch.
03:32 It's quite twisty and turny, and it's just really good.
03:35 I don't want to say too much more about it.
03:36 That's the basis of it.
03:38 You can imagine the kind of scenes there are.
03:40 It's quite gory.
03:41 Like I say, very David Cronenberg.
03:43 A lot of people have compared it to David Cronenberg
03:46 for good reason.
03:47 Unfortunately, at the moment,
03:47 it doesn't have a cinema release.
03:49 Hopefully it will do.
03:50 It went down very well at the London Film Festival.
03:52 So it might do something from that.
03:54 Hopefully it will get released.
03:55 Otherwise, I presume it will be on streaming services
03:57 relatively soon.
03:59 Maybe "Shudder."
04:00 It's the sort of film you could see "Shudder" maybe buy.
04:02 - How did you see it?
04:04 How did you see it?
04:06 - I saw it 'cause it was part of the London Film Festival,
04:09 which was playing at the Glasgow Film Theatre.
04:11 So it's another one of these films
04:12 that is basically broadcast direct
04:14 from the London Film Festival,
04:15 where it was, I think it was its second ever screening.
04:17 I think it was at Sundance as well.
04:19 But it's well worth looking out for.
04:20 And like I say, maybe streaming services later in the year,
04:23 but really, really good.
04:25 Another film from the London Film Festival
04:27 and another debut feature film, female director,
04:31 this time Mahalia Bello, who has done a lot of TV work.
04:35 She did a really good TV program called "Requiem,"
04:37 but this is her first feature film.
04:39 And it's called "The End We Start From,"
04:42 which is a fairly insipid title,
04:44 but the big selling point
04:46 and why this does have a release,
04:47 it's out in January of next year.
04:49 Big selling point is it stars the fantastic Jodie Comer,
04:53 who I just think is absolutely superb.
04:55 She's one of these actresses I would go and see
04:57 in anything pretty much.
04:58 And she's brilliant in this.
04:59 It's a story about, it's a kind of survival story.
05:03 So she lives in London with her husband.
05:05 She's about to have a baby.
05:07 There's a massive weather event.
05:08 So with a storm coming in today,
05:09 hopefully this isn't gonna happen,
05:11 but basically the entirety of London gets flooded.
05:13 So everyone has to move out London.
05:14 There's no way people can stay in London.
05:17 So she gets out of London.
05:18 - That just sounds like London when they get bad weather.
05:20 Like, if that's Scotland, we go.
05:23 - Exactly.
05:23 Exactly, we just basically put the wellies on and go out.
05:27 But yeah, so this happens.
05:28 They need to get out of London.
05:31 She goes and has her baby in a hospital.
05:33 I don't quite understand how she's able to do that.
05:35 It's one of many plot holes in this film.
05:38 But she manages to get to hospital, have her baby.
05:40 Her and her husband go to stay with his parents
05:43 who live in the countryside on elevated land.
05:45 So lots of people are trying to get there.
05:46 So you can see society breaking down,
05:48 which is kind of what the film's about.
05:50 Go and stay with her parents, his parents rather.
05:52 Lots of bad things happen.
05:54 Mark Strong ends up very, very badly.
05:56 He plays her husband's father.
05:59 And then they flee to one of these kind of refugee centers,
06:02 which are getting set up around the country
06:05 to take in people who can't stay in their homes.
06:07 There's a really funny bit
06:09 where it's kind of like the end of "Titanic,"
06:11 where she's saying to her husband,
06:12 "I'll never leave you. I'll never leave you.
06:14 Oops, I've left you."
06:15 So basically she says, "We will never be split up."
06:17 But then basically the merest hint
06:20 of getting to safety with her kids,
06:21 she just goes, "Listen, sorry, mate.
06:22 You just fend for yourself. We're off."
06:25 And then she meets a woman and they become friends.
06:28 And then they travel.
06:29 It's very episodic.
06:30 It's very, "And this happened, then this happened,
06:32 then this happened."
06:33 Suspiciously, there doesn't seem to be a lot of rain
06:35 anywhere apart from London.
06:37 You know, they're walking around the countryside.
06:38 It just looks quite nice, really.
06:40 So it doesn't really work, unfortunately.
06:42 It's not a great film,
06:43 but it's worth watching for Jodie Comer.
06:45 It's also got a nice wee cameo from Benedict Cumberbatch,
06:48 which doesn't really work.
06:50 He's very good, but the cameo doesn't really work
06:52 in that bit of the film.
06:53 It doesn't work either.
06:54 So it's kind of a shame.
06:56 It's a really good idea.
06:57 I think the director didn't have a lot of money to spend
07:01 and it really shows.
07:02 I don't think she's experienced enough
07:04 to really make that budget go a long way.
07:05 'Cause it could have been kind of like a zombie film,
07:09 almost kind of that kind of big scenes of empty roads
07:12 and that kind of thing.
07:13 I basically don't get any of that.
07:14 So I'd kind of say, go if there's nothing else on,
07:17 but it's not great.
07:20 But what is great,
07:21 and what I don't think you've seen, Graeme,
07:22 and I can't believe you've not seen it,
07:24 is "Saw X" or "Saw X."
07:26 Have you not seen this yet?
07:27 - No, I kind of figured that, like, with "Saw,"
07:31 like, obviously I've seen bits and pieces of the other ones,
07:35 but like, I haven't really followed it.
07:37 But with, it was one of those franchises
07:38 that kind of went over my head a little bit.
07:40 - You see, I did too.
07:41 So A, I couldn't believe there had already been nine films.
07:44 I don't know how many of them I've seen.
07:45 They all kind of blur into one.
07:47 I think I've probably seen maybe five of them,
07:49 something like that.
07:50 And I literally went and saw,
07:51 'cause I was in the city centre.
07:53 I had a couple of hours spare.
07:54 I've got a cine card, so what you do, you pop the cine,
07:56 but there was nothing else on.
07:58 So I had no plan to see it whatsoever.
07:59 And I went and see it yesterday.
08:01 And you know what?
08:01 It's really, really good.
08:03 It is a genuinely interesting and good film.
08:07 And the bonus for people,
08:08 I don't know if they've done this intentionally,
08:09 for people like you and I,
08:10 who maybe not been keeping up with the entire franchise,
08:14 is that even though it's called Saw X or Saw X,
08:16 it's kind of a Saw 1.5,
08:18 because the events take place immediately after Saw 1
08:22 and before Saw 2.
08:24 Now I can't remember Saw 2,
08:25 but I think that ideally you would want to watch one and two
08:29 again before seeing this film.
08:31 But I got most of the references.
08:34 I think there's lots of things for fans,
08:35 which I didn't notice.
08:36 There was one character that came in,
08:37 so I had no idea who he was.
08:39 And I think that's an Easter egg.
08:40 He comes back in the post-credit sequence,
08:43 which I think's a fan-pleaser,
08:44 but I didn't really understand that.
08:46 But it's a really good film in that what they do
08:49 is they take Jigsaw or John Kramer.
08:53 He's just like a normal guy in the sense,
08:55 obviously he is Jigsaw,
08:56 but he doesn't wear a mask or anything.
08:58 He's in civvy clothes.
09:00 And he goes, he's got cancer,
09:02 and he goes to Mexico to take part
09:04 in an experimental drug treatment
09:07 for which he pays a huge amount of money.
09:10 And it turns out that it's a con.
09:11 And so of course, what happens next?
09:13 He finds all of the people involved in the con,
09:15 locks them in a cellar,
09:17 and begins to play games with them.
09:18 Really, really horrible games.
09:20 I mean, the gore levels are off the scale.
09:22 It starts with a guy's eyeballs
09:24 getting sucked out of his head.
09:25 It's pretty good.
09:26 It's pretty good.
09:27 And from there, it just,
09:28 I mean, it does some fantastic things.
09:30 If I tell you that at one point,
09:31 a character has to dig the intestines
09:34 out of a friend's still warm body,
09:36 but which doesn't have a head or a leg,
09:38 and use it as a kind of lasso to catch something with.
09:42 I mean, it's really, it's really ingenious stuff.
09:45 So it's great.
09:45 The guy who plays John Craver, Tobin Bell,
09:47 it's fantastic in it.
09:49 And it's also Shawnee Smith,
09:50 who plays his victim,
09:52 turns kind of a complex or trainee torturer.
09:57 And I just really enjoyed it.
09:59 It actually got a round of applause
10:01 from the very small audience
10:02 who were watching it last night,
10:03 'cause it really is quite thrilling.
10:04 It whizzes by in no time at all.
10:06 I would genuinely highly recommend it
10:07 to anybody who likes horror.
10:09 You don't really need to have seen "Saw."
10:11 You just have to vaguely know who Jigsaw is.
10:13 And it's great.
10:14 So I think they're going to make a lot more of these.
10:16 And I, for one, have got a renewed interest in it,
10:19 and will be going to see the next one.
10:20 So highly recommend "Saw X."
10:22 You should go and see it, yeah.
10:23 - It's technically the 10th, isn't it?
10:25 - It is the 10th, yeah.
10:26 Although I think that some of them weren't called "Saw."
10:29 I think.
10:29 I think they were the 10th in the series of "Saw" movies.
10:32 I think they've lost their way a little bit of late.
10:33 I mean, I don't know anyone who went to see "Saw 9."
10:35 I certainly didn't.
10:36 I didn't even know this existed.
10:38 But I mean, this has been in cinemas for a wee while now.
10:39 And because of the writer's strike,
10:41 there's so little which is on at the cinema right now.
10:43 When I ended up in the cinema,
10:44 it was basically between that
10:46 or going to see "The New Exorcist."
10:47 And I just do not want to go and see "The New Exorcist."
10:50 I would have stayed in the pub rather than going to cinema.
10:52 But that was really the only thing else to see
10:54 at that time of day in cinemas.
10:56 So it's got, how many screens has cinemas got?
10:58 About 18 screens.
10:59 So it shows how few films are out there right now.
11:02 But I think it will run all the way up
11:04 to the end of the month for Halloween
11:06 because people will continue to go and see it.
11:08 So I think it's gonna be a bit of a sleeper hit.
11:10 Laura Sakes has got very little competition.
11:12 - I mean, looking at, I don't know whether people judge this
11:15 by his attempt to judge it.
11:17 It's got really good ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.
11:21 It's got 79 critics and 89 audience goal.
11:24 - Yeah, I mean, it is a genuinely good film.
11:27 Like it's kind of nicely put together
11:29 and it does something quite interesting, the character,
11:31 as in you properly sympathize with Jigsaw
11:34 because he's always after kind of bad guys,
11:35 but sometimes he kind of goes for people
11:39 that you've got a wee bit of sympathy for
11:40 because they're not as bad,
11:41 but these people are really, really awful.
11:42 And it's got a couple of really good twists in it,
11:44 which I didn't see coming.
11:45 I'm not particularly good at seeing twists a lot of the time,
11:47 but it's got one twist in particular,
11:49 which I kind of giggled at
11:51 because I just thought it was really clever and really good
11:53 and I really enjoyed it.
11:56 And yeah, the characters,
11:57 I kind of want to see more of the character now
11:58 and I want to see more of him on a kind of human level,
12:01 which is quite nice when you have a monster
12:03 that becomes more human.
12:05 And I'm not sure if it's good to be sympathizing
12:07 with a psychotic mass murderer, but I kind of did.
12:11 - I do like the fact that you were like,
12:15 "Oh, sometimes, you know, he gets ones
12:17 you kind of don't like."
12:19 - You did.
12:20 - He goes way too far, mate.
12:22 Like there's not one person on this planet
12:24 that if that was a real life story would go,
12:26 "Well, to be fair."
12:27 - I don't know if there is a character in this film
12:31 who is so monstrous.
12:32 Like she is actually more of a monster than him.
12:35 And there's actually a point in the film
12:36 where she does something which genuinely shocks him.
12:39 So basically the whole thing about Jigsaw
12:40 is that he knows exactly what's going to happen.
12:42 He's incredibly clever and he can predict human action
12:45 and everything else.
12:45 And there's a point in here where basically
12:47 the person he's up against with is so evil
12:50 that he fails to predict what she's going to do
12:51 because she is so utterly detestable.
12:54 So she's almost worse than him.
12:57 And she would do things that he would balk at,
13:01 which is quite interesting when you have a monster
13:03 and you get even more monstrous monsters,
13:04 like alien versus predator, who do you want to win?
13:07 And it kind of is like that.
13:09 And she's, I mean, she's a wonderful monster.
13:10 You don't realize how monstrous she's going to be,
13:12 but she gets worse and worse and worse all film.
13:13 It's very, very fun to watch.
13:15 - I said I hadn't watched anything,
13:18 but I actually have watched something this week.
13:20 A bit like last week when I watched the "Reckoning,"
13:25 which we discussed, which if you want to see
13:26 what we thought about Steve Cooper's portrayal
13:28 as Jimmy Savile and so on and so forth,
13:30 last week's episodes there.
13:32 In terms of what I have watched this week,
13:34 actually I watched the Maxine Carr documentary.
13:37 I've suddenly got like back into my true crime stuff.
13:39 I don't know if you've seen that yet.
13:41 - I'm not sure, no, I watched the drama about it.
13:45 I can't remember what,
13:45 I think it was just called "Maxine," was it?
13:47 As I watched the drama.
13:48 - Yeah, that's the one.
13:49 - Yeah, yeah, that's now on Netflix.
13:52 Yeah, I thought it was good,
13:55 but I don't know if it taught me anything different.
13:58 - No, I think often these don't.
13:59 I think if you're pretty aware of the stories,
14:01 even with Jimmy Savile, like we were saying last week,
14:04 I mean, these things have been done to death so much.
14:07 Read so many books and newspaper articles
14:08 and documentaries about them.
14:09 I think often they don't add very much.
14:12 - Potentially, I would say with the "Reckoning," I suppose,
14:15 pardon me, the fact that we hadn't really seen
14:19 in public that darker side
14:21 and how Coogan portrayed that darker side was quite good.
14:24 Whereas I think when it comes to the documentary "Maxine,"
14:27 we pretty much hadn't seen these people ever,
14:30 apart from the horrific crime that they were involved in.
14:34 But yeah, that's kind of all I've watched this week.
14:39 But we wanted to discuss ghosts this week,
14:43 and in preparation for your own venture
14:47 into ghosty stuff, but-
14:49 - I'm gonna come back and haunt you.
14:51 - I don't believe in ghosts.
14:53 First question, actually, before,
14:58 'cause this could be interesting, it is Halloween.
15:01 Before we go into films, have you ever seen a ghost?
15:04 - I have.
15:05 - Was it your own reflection?
15:07 - It was not my own reflection.
15:08 I saw a ghost in a train.
15:11 - In a train?
15:12 - It was very creepy.
15:13 It's a slightly long story,
15:15 but I will tell you about my ghost.
15:16 So I was on a train and I was traveling from Glasgow
15:21 on a line to Lenzie Station,
15:24 and I went through a tunnel,
15:25 and I was in a completely empty carriage.
15:27 And I went through a tunnel,
15:28 and I was just looking in the window,
15:29 like you do looking out the window,
15:30 and the tunnel came,
15:31 and you know that when a tunnel comes,
15:33 it basically turns the window into a kind of mirror.
15:36 And I saw, right behind my shoulder, I saw a girl,
15:40 and I was making eye contact with her
15:42 in a kind of embarrassing way,
15:43 you know when you accidentally catch someone's eyes,
15:45 and it looks like you're staring at them,
15:46 and you kind of look away.
15:47 And that happened, and I blushed,
15:50 and then I turned round after out the tunnel,
15:52 and there was nobody in the train carriage.
15:55 - Could it not just been someone that ran away?
15:56 Because you could've gotten an eye contact with them
15:58 and thought you were--
15:59 - You would have to run away really quickly,
16:01 because it was quite a long carriage,
16:02 and I was right in the middle of it.
16:03 So I think I saw something, and I don't know what it was.
16:06 And I actually went as far as to research
16:09 whether anybody has been hit by a train in that tunnel,
16:12 and they had.
16:14 - What?
16:15 - So I don't know, I don't know.
16:19 - Oh, okay.
16:20 - I was genuinely creeped out by it.
16:23 - I've never seen one to my knowledge.
16:26 And I said I didn't believe in them before,
16:27 and I don't think I do.
16:28 However, I think I've probably more been,
16:31 you know when you're in a place, and it's just a bit odd,
16:35 and you're like, something's not right here.
16:37 Yeah, my old house used to have it,
16:41 and it turned out there was people that had died there,
16:42 which was not great.
16:44 But I'm not there now.
16:47 - Yeah, well, my dad used to work in an office,
16:51 and they couldn't keep cleaners working there,
16:54 because apparently every company of cleaners
16:56 who came to work after hours to clean the office
16:58 saw something and were terrified,
17:00 and all said they wouldn't go back there.
17:03 - Was it the mess?
17:04 - If it was the mess,
17:06 I don't think my father kept a very tidy desk.
17:08 (laughing)
17:12 - That made me think,
17:13 when we were discussing the other day
17:13 about doing ghost stories,
17:15 like there's so many different variations of it.
17:17 Like I literally was like,
17:18 I can't think of many off the top of my head.
17:20 I'm busy, so I'll just, I'll Google it,
17:22 and I'll see what stands out to me as things I love.
17:25 And I realized how many different ghost stories,
17:27 sort of, stories there are.
17:30 - Yeah, yeah.
17:31 - Fun, scary, romantic, like, I mean, the film "Ghost".
17:36 - Yes, which is not a good film.
17:38 - There is a pottery making thing below me,
17:41 just can't quite see it.
17:42 (laughing)
17:43 What was the soundtrack again to that?
17:46 - It was "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers.
17:51 Yeah.
17:52 - Not by Gareth Gates.
17:53 (laughing)
17:55 ♪ Lonely rivers flow ♪
17:58 Patrick Swayze, RIP.
18:00 I'll let you have the first choice.
18:03 What's your top three?
18:04 Going from three to one.
18:05 - Well, it's really hard, isn't it?
18:07 Because you're right,
18:07 I was just thinking about classic ghosts,
18:09 and then I was thinking,
18:10 are they poltergeist ghosts or are they spirits?
18:12 And then there's demons and stuff.
18:13 There's a lot of stuff going on there,
18:15 and it's quite hard to actually define what a ghost is.
18:18 - It should be natural, probably, in some ways.
18:20 - Yeah.
18:22 But yeah, so it's my first one.
18:23 So I decided poltergeist couldn't be in there,
18:26 'cause I decided poltergeist was more of a spirit
18:28 than a true ghost.
18:30 So anyway, instead of that,
18:32 I did because there's two films that freaked me out
18:34 when I was young, and one was "Poltergeist",
18:36 and the other was "The Amityville Horror".
18:38 "The Amityville Horror" still freaks me out,
18:40 thinking about "The Amityville Horror"
18:41 still makes me a little bit scared.
18:45 So "The Amityville Horror", for those who don't know,
18:46 is based on a true story.
18:48 - It's just a swan, it just came off my pen accidentally.
18:51 - It's okay, I thought it was a proper ghost.
18:53 I was really scared there.
18:55 So for those who don't know,
18:56 "The Amityville Horror", true story,
18:57 which also freaked me out.
18:59 It was kind of similar to my family, in a way,
19:02 which I think also freaks me out.
19:03 There's a dog, my family had a dog.
19:05 And it's just really scary.
19:07 It's people move into a house
19:08 where something awful has happened.
19:09 The guy's basically executed his entire family.
19:11 It's also on top of an ancient Indian burial ground.
19:14 They've got a lot of bad things going on
19:15 with the house, basically.
19:17 And the family are haunted.
19:19 The youngest daughter sees-
19:22 - Did they get the receipt?
19:23 - They did not.
19:24 It was a really bad cash deal for the house.
19:26 - I'll tell you something really interesting here.
19:30 "The Amityville Horror", correct pronunciation?
19:33 - Yeah, I think so.
19:33 - The second film in the franchise
19:35 has got the most jump scares in any movie ever.
19:38 - Yeah, they really go for the jump scares in it.
19:40 I mean, I think that they always invented the jump scare
19:42 of modern horror.
19:44 It's really, really good.
19:45 The kids got an imaginary friend called Jodie,
19:48 which appears as a kind of demonic pig.
19:50 At one point, a rocking chair rocks,
19:53 and there's nobody in it.
19:54 My parents had a rocking chair.
19:55 And this is Jodie, the pig who's on the rocking horse,
19:58 but you can't see it, but the kids can see it.
20:00 It is terrifying.
20:01 I've not seen it for years.
20:02 Maybe it doesn't stand up, but I mean, genuinely,
20:04 I don't think I've watched it since I was young
20:06 'cause it freaked me out so much.
20:07 There's flies in it as well.
20:08 I've got a thing about flies.
20:10 So there's flies at windows all the time,
20:12 and there's like a secret room.
20:13 I find secret rooms quite scary.
20:14 It's got all of the scary things from me when I was a kid.
20:17 And it's great, the "Avatar" horror.
20:19 There's loads of sequels.
20:20 There's a remake as well that no one went to see.
20:22 But the original one, which I think is 1979,
20:24 a lot of the classic horrors were like late '70s, early '80s,
20:28 these sort of things.
20:29 And yeah, I'd advise anyone to watch it who's not seen it,
20:32 but don't watch it in the dark
20:33 and don't watch it just before bed
20:34 'cause it will freak you out.
20:36 So my first one, the "Amateur" horror.
20:39 - Mine's slightly different.
20:40 The first one that jumped into my mind,
20:43 which is probably stupid because of the title,
20:45 but I actually really enjoyed it.
20:46 And I think it got like,
20:48 didn't really get noticed that much,
20:49 but over the past few years,
20:50 I've noticed people have really liked it.
20:52 A really different film.
20:53 It's not really a horror,
20:54 probably more of a romance horror.
20:57 It's a ghost story.
20:58 - Yes, that was in my list as well.
21:00 It's a brilliant film.
21:01 - It's a really good movie.
21:03 Rini Maira, Maira Mara, Maira Mara?
21:06 Ben Affleck's brother.
21:09 - Casey.
21:10 - Casey, that's the guy.
21:12 But like, I kind of haven't seen it for years,
21:14 but obviously it's based on ghosts
21:17 and they go with a really obvious ghost sheet
21:22 with the eyes in,
21:23 which kind of should make it silly,
21:25 but it's actually really not.
21:26 I won't spoil it for anyone,
21:27 but it's a really good film.
21:28 It's not really that scary.
21:30 It's more about atmosphere, I would say,
21:32 and a bit of romance.
21:33 I would say the scariest thing about it
21:35 was how much it made me cry
21:36 'cause I was an absolute mess by the end,
21:38 but it's a brilliant film.
21:40 It kind of plays with time in a really, really clever way
21:42 and it kind of cycles back on itself.
21:45 I mean, it is a proper epic.
21:46 It takes place over centuries.
21:48 And you're right, I think it's brilliant and very romantic.
21:51 It is a wee bit creepy in places,
21:53 but yeah, not properly scary,
21:56 but yeah, the story is a great, great film.
21:59 It's fabulous.
22:00 - Really like it.
22:02 - Well, my second one,
22:02 I'm gonna have to think of a third one
22:04 'cause that was certainly on my list.
22:05 I really, really enjoyed that.
22:06 But my second one is a film
22:09 which more recently scared me to pieces.
22:11 I think it's got just a,
22:14 it's just a brilliant bit of filmmaking
22:15 and it's properly spooky.
22:16 It's a classic ghost story and that's "The Others,"
22:19 which is a film set in post-war Jersey.
22:24 Basically, Nicole Kidman moves into this big empty house
22:29 with her two photosensitive kids.
22:31 It's a really nice wee way to make sure
22:33 that they have to stay in the house.
22:34 It has to be dark.
22:35 All the curtains have to be drawn all the time
22:37 so kids are sensitive to light.
22:39 And you don't want to spoil it.
22:43 Like it does work up to a really good twist,
22:45 a very, very good twist indeed.
22:47 But it's just really scary.
22:48 Again, it's my kind of sweet spot with ghosts.
22:50 I think kids seeing ghosts and adults going,
22:52 "Oh, don't be stupid.
22:53 "You've not seen a ghost."
22:55 I think that's a really cool thing.
22:56 There's lots of creepy kids in this.
22:57 Like there's her two kids,
22:58 but also there's a mute kid that comes to live with them
23:01 with a gardener and housekeeper
23:04 who are both kind of creepy as well.
23:06 And like mute kids in horror films
23:08 can be pretty scary and creepy as well.
23:10 And it's just a really, really good film
23:14 that gives you the chills.
23:15 And like I say, there's a great twist
23:16 and I did not see the twist coming.
23:18 I think even if you're watching it
23:19 and looking for the twist,
23:21 I'm not sure if you necessarily see it.
23:23 And it's the sort of thing that M. Night Shyamalan,
23:25 I can never pronounce his name.
23:27 - Shyamalan.
23:28 - Shyamalan.
23:28 It is the sort of twist that he dreams of doing.
23:32 It's like, he must watch that and go,
23:33 "Why can't I do that?
23:34 "I've dedicated my career to trying to do a twist like that."
23:37 And this guy's pulled off.
23:39 It's directed by a Spanish director
23:40 called Alejandro Aminabar, who's really, really good.
23:44 And he can fairly direct a film.
23:46 So the other is, not many people have seen it,
23:48 I don't think.
23:49 So it's worth looking up on streaming services
23:52 'cause it wasn't a massive hit at the time.
23:53 I think Nicole Kidman should have won an Oscar for it.
23:55 I don't think she's ever been better.
23:57 - I think that when people have seen the film,
23:59 they really like it and they're really buzzed about it,
24:01 but not a lot of people have.
24:02 A little bit, for me, and this is probably a debate,
24:06 but I really like "The Strangers,"
24:08 but a lot of people haven't actually seen it.
24:10 I thought it was really good.
24:11 - Yeah, I really like "The Strangers" as well, yeah.
24:13 - Yeah, I thought it was decent.
24:15 My number two's probably a bit more obvious,
24:17 but I'll kind of stand by it
24:19 because I feel like the film itself's really good.
24:24 And I think there's a lot of films around this decade
24:29 where you could say it was the one
24:32 that changed the course of horror,
24:34 'cause there's always one, like '70s was "The Exorcist."
24:37 I wrote an article about this,
24:38 so I had to think about it a bit more deep.
24:39 I think the one most recently is probably "The Babadook,"
24:43 but you could also say "Predatory."
24:44 You could also say "Midsommar" changed things
24:49 because people look at horror differently.
24:51 "Get Out" was a big one.
24:52 In every generation, a slayer is born.
24:56 No, in every decade, there's a horror film
24:59 that sort of changes the course of horror a little bit.
25:01 And I was trying to think,
25:03 what was that film in the '90s?
25:05 And for me, it was "Paranormal Activity."
25:08 People hate it quite a bit, but it's really good.
25:13 You don't really expect a lot at the end.
25:16 It keeps you on tenterhooks for most of the movie.
25:19 It's got a good payoff at the end.
25:22 The sequels are not that bad
25:24 in comparison to some horrendous...
25:26 I mean, even like...
25:28 Look, let's be honest.
25:29 Even the classics like "Hellraiser" and "Elm Street"
25:31 went a bit off.
25:33 So like, 19 out of 10,
25:34 if the classics even go off with the sequels,
25:37 the likelihood is most of the horrors
25:39 are not all gonna be perfect,
25:40 but most of the "Paranormal Activity" sequels are decent,
25:43 but the original's really good.
25:44 And it wasn't doing something
25:46 that hadn't been done before massively
25:47 in terms of found footage.
25:49 It was coming in like over 10 years
25:51 after "Blair Witch Project."
25:54 So it wasn't really like approaching something
25:56 that was completely fresh and completely new,
25:58 but yeah, it still seemed to revitalize things,
26:00 but also bring that kind of ghosty, demonic element to it,
26:03 because everything that came after that
26:05 was like insidious, sinister, being in the house,
26:09 a demon kicking about, eating your flower,
26:12 swinging on your chandeliers,
26:14 kicking the mic a little bit,
26:15 being a bit of a pain in the backside.
26:17 And I thought "Paranormal Activity" was really, really good.
26:19 And I don't really get scared necessarily, I think.
26:22 What's that really cheesy quote?
26:24 People watch horror movies
26:25 because they're scared of the world outside.
26:28 I kind of identify with that.
26:30 Like the crap's out there.
26:32 I quite like the stuff that's on there
26:33 because it's not really gonna end.
26:35 But I actually was in bed that night being like, "Oh God."
26:38 I used to, I lived in a, I wasn't at uni,
26:41 but I lived in a uni student flat
26:43 with other uni students at the time
26:45 in Heaton and Newcastle.
26:47 And it was the one night where they were all out,
26:49 and I was in my attic room by myself,
26:51 and I was like, "I'm gonna die.
26:54 "I'm gonna get killed.
26:55 "The demon's gonna come swinging on the chandelier,
26:58 "which we don't have, and I'm gonna get killed."
27:00 So for me, "Paranormal Activity" was really important.
27:02 I think it was a really good movie.
27:04 And if we're talking about ghosts,
27:05 I'm gonna classify it as ghost
27:06 because it is that kind of bump in the night scary story.
27:09 - No, I think that is ghost.
27:10 You see, I don't think "The Babadook" is necessarily,
27:13 oh, I think "The Babadook" is a demon film,
27:15 but it's very hard.
27:17 It's hard to classify.
27:19 Well, my last one, well, I was-
27:21 - Before we move on completely, by the way,
27:24 if you've seen "Paranormal Activity"
27:26 and you want to see a really experimental version of it,
27:28 we have talked about this,
27:30 but if you want to watch something this Halloween
27:32 that's completely different and you might not like,
27:34 I loved it, but you might not like it.
27:36 But if you want to see something
27:37 that's kind of probably been born out of "Paranormal Activity"
27:40 but then mixed in a blender and chucked about
27:42 and flinged up walls and then popped back into the blender,
27:46 "Scammering" is really good.
27:48 - Yes, it is, but it's very hard to watch.
27:50 - It's hard to watch, but it's scary as hell.
27:53 - Yes, we're going to try to watch it again.
27:54 We still haven't finished it
27:56 because we find it hard to watch.
27:58 - Blu-ray the other day.
27:59 - We'll definitely give it a shot before Halloween.
28:02 Yes, but I highly recommend people watch that as well.
28:05 So my last choice,
28:06 now I was thinking about funny horror films with ghosts.
28:09 I think ghosts work.
28:10 There's a lot of good funny ghost films.
28:13 It's kind of swithering between two ghostbusters.
28:15 I love ghostbusters, but ghostbusters isn't particularly scary.
28:18 It's got a couple of wee scary bits,
28:20 but I'm going to go for a ghost comedy
28:22 which all of us are scared of.
28:23 Slimer was quite scary.
28:24 The first time Slimer appears is quite scary.
28:27 Then there's the old woman ghost, it's quite scary as well.
28:30 But other than that, not that many scares.
28:32 But the one I'm going to go for is "Beetlejuice"
28:34 because I think "Beetlejuice" is a great example
28:36 of how to make a horror, which is both funny and scary.
28:39 Because "Beetlejuice" is scary.
28:40 There's a lot of bits in it,
28:43 which do give you jumps and do make you get a bit scared,
28:48 but it's really, really funny.
28:49 Michael Keaton, I'm a huge Michael Keaton fan.
28:51 I know you are too.
28:52 And he's just brilliant in it.
28:54 I think it was his proper breakthrough performance,
28:56 "Beetlejuice."
28:57 "Beetlejuice," malevolent ghost, haunts this poor couple.
29:03 Very, very funny.
29:04 Tries to scare them.
29:05 Does everything he can to scare them.
29:06 And it's just an absolute wild ride.
29:08 And it's something that I watch every single Halloween.
29:10 So when you're talking about Halloween films to watch,
29:12 which you're kind of doing this for,
29:13 I don't think it's Halloween without watching "Beetlejuice."
29:16 It's one of Tim Burns' best,
29:17 and Tim Burns made so many great films.
29:18 But I would highly recommend a re-watch of "Beetlejuice,"
29:21 should you not have seen it in a few years this Halloween.
29:24 - My number one is also "Beetlejuice."
29:26 - Oh, brilliant, look at us, dovetailing.
29:29 So we actually agreed with two then,
29:30 because I had "Ghost Story" and I had "Beetlejuice."
29:33 So that's very unusual for us.
29:35 So definitely watch both those films.
29:37 - It's kind of, he's the ghost of the most.
29:39 - He is the ghost of the most, he is, yeah.
29:41 - And it's great.
29:41 I want to see it, not like, it was pandemic time.
29:46 It was kind of the pandemic time
29:47 when you could go and do stuff.
29:48 (coughs)
29:49 God, I've got this bad cough.
29:51 And it was at the Falkirk Stadium, I want to see it.
29:54 No, I tell a lie, it was somewhere else.
29:56 I want to see "The Exorcist" after that.
29:58 And like, it's still dead funny.
30:00 Like- - It is.
30:01 - But it's part of it.
30:02 Like, when I was a kid, I was pretty scared of it.
30:04 Like, it was part of it, that was a bit like,
30:06 oh, I'm not like 100% sure on that.
30:08 Like, it doesn't seem,
30:10 like the bit that was a seance as a kid was pretty scary.
30:13 - Yeah.
30:14 - But I've even got a Beetlejuice mask.
30:16 As the dad, when he kind of, when he pulls his face
30:20 and you just go.
30:20 - Yes, that's amazing, with the pointy,
30:23 and the, yeah, it's really cool.
30:24 - Superb, and the eyes come through the mouth.
30:27 But Beetlejuice is brilliant.
30:29 Like, I think, it's the 30 year anniversary,
30:32 I think it's getting,
30:33 it's one of the last three different places.
30:35 I know, it feels longer, but also shorter.
30:39 Like, I still think it is, I'll soon find out for you,
30:42 'cause I have the image.
30:43 - It has aged really well,
30:44 I mean, all the effects are still absolutely brilliant.
30:46 You know, a lot of films have dated,
30:48 particularly from that period with the effects,
30:50 but I think it's because it's practical effects, isn't it?
30:53 I don't think there's any computer stuff used there.
30:55 I think it's all plasticine and stuff like that.
30:58 - There's meant to be a second one coming out, isn't there?
31:00 - There is, yeah.
31:01 I think Michael Keaton's involved in it, so fingers crossed.
31:04 I know she was directing it, but I think it's out, yeah,
31:06 maybe early next year, so I'm kind of excited about that.
31:09 I just hope they don't mess it up.
31:10 - Have you seen who's playing Lydia's daughter in the film?
31:15 - No.
31:16 - It is Jenna Ortega.
31:18 - Oh, now that's a great bit of casting.
31:19 I mean, you can see her in the "Beetlejuice" universe,
31:22 can't you?
31:23 She's like, got a proper face for Tim Burton type of films,
31:26 like kind of gothic chillers.
31:28 I love her.
31:29 - Interestingly, I'm just checking it on Wikipedia here.
31:31 It's been directed by Tim Burton,
31:33 but it's been produced by also Tim Burton
31:35 and a load of other people.
31:37 But Brad Pitt's one of them.
31:39 - He does a lot of production.
31:40 He produces a lot of films.
31:42 You often see his name at the end of films,
31:44 like he did "12 Years a Slave" and stuff like that.
31:47 I think he's won an Oscar
31:48 for producing a couple of films with Brad Pitt.
31:50 - Justin Theroux is also in it.
31:52 Willem Dafoe is also supposed to be in it.
31:54 - That sounds pretty good.
31:55 I'm up for that.
31:56 - A lot of interesting stuff, but yeah,
31:58 I could chuck something else in,
31:59 but "Beetlejuice" is kind of,
32:01 I'm not gonna change my mind on that.
32:02 That is the number one
32:03 and I don't think it should be changed.
32:04 But Dave, thanks for joining as always.
32:07 I'm gonna get sad when we can't do
32:09 Halloween horror stuff anymore.
32:10 - We've got another week.
32:11 - We'll drag it out as long as we can.
32:13 There's a few things,
32:16 if you wanna go see it at the cinema this week,
32:17 I'm just looking here through my Cineworld app.
32:20 There is "Five Nights at Freddy's" is coming out,
32:22 which I don't know much about.
32:24 - I know, I'm just thinking about it.
32:26 - Based on "Summit", "Gravity" is back in cinemas
32:29 because it's the 10th anniversary.
32:31 There's a film called "It Lives Inside",
32:33 which is from the producers of "Get Out", I think.
32:36 - Yeah.
32:37 - Which I believe I seen,
32:40 I'm pretty certain I seen a trailer for it
32:44 and it looked pretty good.
32:46 "Psycho" is back in some cinemas,
32:50 as is "Beetlejuice" back in some cinemas,
32:54 actually on tonight, by the time you're speaking,
32:55 at 730 Renfrew Street and other places as well.
33:00 There is two classic Halloween screenings,
33:04 which is interesting,
33:06 going on at Cineworld and outside of that,
33:08 if you wanna see something really scary,
33:11 Britney Spears' "Crossroads" is playing
33:15 as a global fan event on the 23rd of October.
33:19 - It's the scariest thing I've ever heard, terrifying.
33:21 - Terrifying.
33:22 But yeah, thanks very much for joining me, Dave,
33:25 and thanks for putting up with my coughing throughout,
33:28 both you and the viewers,
33:29 and hopefully you survive for another week.
33:32 - Fingers crossed.
33:33 See you then, Graham, bye.
33:34 (Dave sighs)
33:36 (upbeat music)
33:39 (upbeat music)
33:41 (toy squeaks)