Backrooms

0:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Hi, welcome to Medium Literate, the show where two long time best friends tried to sharpen their media literacy skills by talking about a new movie in theaters each week. [SPEAKER_01]: My name is Monica Scott, my co-host is Emily Fay, and today we're doing it, we're talking about the long awaited backgrounds by Cain Parsons. [SPEAKER_01]: If you haven't seen the movie yet, it is going to be spoilers from here on out, so that's your spoiler warning. [SPEAKER_01]: go see the movie and come back and then one last thing is just I must remind you to your sweet audio only listener that we have a YouTube channel where you can see our beautiful faces as we talk about this.

0:52 [SPEAKER_01]: You know the YouTube watchers get to see what T-shirt I'm wearing which is something you audio listeners won't ever know. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you

1:11 [SPEAKER_02]: Hello, we're a little late, but we're still here. [SPEAKER_01]: Late, I'm so sorry for my tardiness this week, but crime con called, and you I had to answer. [SPEAKER_02]: You had to hang out with Chris Hansen. [SPEAKER_02]: which is going to be very relevant when prime time comes out and maybe he's talk about it. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it will. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll tell. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll tell our dear listeners a little bit. [SPEAKER_01]: In case they don't know, I work on a true crime podcast and I was invited to be on the awards jury for the crime con, clear awards.

1:50 [SPEAKER_01]: So I went to the award show because you know, if you make me feel important about my opinion, I will show up.

1:59 [SPEAKER_01]: But so, yeah, it tended to the award show and it was hosted by Chris Hanson, who I have a feeling didn't know that trailer was dropping this week. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I guess he wouldn't, he didn't have anything to do with the movie, so yeah, why would he? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know that I have any takes on what he definitely was like he brought it up immediately. [SPEAKER_01]: First thing he said on stage was like, oh, were you expecting Robert Pattinson? [SPEAKER_01]: And then he said a few things about like, I listen, I was at an award show.

2:41 [SPEAKER_01]: I was like eating a steak. [SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't really like fully listening to what Chris Hanson was saying on stage. [SPEAKER_01]: But it was

2:49 [SPEAKER_01]: Spinning the idea of the movie as like, you know, when you have a legacy like mine like it's something to be proud of that People want to talk about it like that type of I don't think those are his exact words, but it was that energy I Have a question. [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, did they serve everyone sweet tea if their reception? [SPEAKER_02]: No

3:13 [SPEAKER_02]: That's the thing, and to catch a predator, the bass always like on the other word, and the bass always like on the other word, and the bass always like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the other words, like on the [SPEAKER_01]: Um, he, he was there because he's promoting the new Roblox documentary, the like Roblox Predator's documentary that he made with that YouTuber named Chlepp, I think, or something, because there's like, there's some kid who like, [SPEAKER_01]: You know, kid, I don't know how old this YouTuber is, but he was essentially doing it to catch a predator type entrapment thing on Roblox to predators and Chris Hanson made a documentary about it.

4:06 [SPEAKER_01]: That's all I know. [SPEAKER_02]: I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I

4:28 [SPEAKER_01]: I also arrived at the award show around the same time as Ronan, and it was in Caesar's palace in Vegas, so we had to walk with it. [SPEAKER_02]: Was there so awkward running into your eyes? [SPEAKER_01]: Like that? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my husband was there. [SPEAKER_01]: No, it was funny though, because we were maybe like four feet behind Ronan as we walked through the entirety of Caesar's palace. [SPEAKER_01]: And so I just was watching like waves of people like, [SPEAKER_01]: Look, look at the guy in the Tuxedo, then look down at the dog and the Tuxedo, I'm gonna go, Yeah, it's just getting excited.

5:04 [SPEAKER_01]: And like everyone was, you know, he was walking so fast the guy, his like handler, and like so they were very focused on what they were doing. [SPEAKER_01]: So people didn't have enough time to react to a dog in a Tuxedo walking through a casino. [SPEAKER_02]: And they didn't even know that that dog was a former crooked cop. [SPEAKER_01]: They were just reacting to the outfit. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, a cabin clue is grown in the K9. [SPEAKER_01]: It's like sorry you've had all this old.

5:35 [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, it was a good time. [SPEAKER_01]: I like going to CrimeCon. [SPEAKER_01]: It's fun. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll take any other questions about it off air.

5:46 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, we won't talk about it, but everything you've ever told me about it is the craziest thing I've ever heard of. [SPEAKER_01]: If you're not into true crime, I think it's like really shocking. [SPEAKER_01]: I was certainly, you know, as a first, I've gone, this is my fourth one, and he had never come with me before, and he was like, oh my God. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, this is a lot to take in. [SPEAKER_01]: But I am so desensitized to it. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't even take pictures of anything, I'm just like, yes, that's all here.

6:16 [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, so that is the reason we're a little late. [SPEAKER_01]: Vegas called and I have to answer it. [SPEAKER_01]: You can't say no when Vegas calls. [SPEAKER_01]: We are gonna cover back rooms, yeah, but first, [SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna dip it out in Mandalorian and Grogu. [SPEAKER_01]: Something we swore we wouldn't do. [SPEAKER_02]: Like, if you had told me three weeks ago that I would have voluntarily seen the Mandalorian and Grogu, I would have killed you. [SPEAKER_02]: I would have stabbed you in the neck.

6:52 [SPEAKER_02]: I do think that's true, but things change so fast, you know, life just comes right atcha and you're evolving. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I don't, okay, so I saw it. [SPEAKER_02]: I saw it this past Wednesday, I saw it in Dolby and I saw it because as I said last week, or maybe I don't remember when I said this, but the PR campaign, the press run. [SPEAKER_02]: of the puppet.

7:29 [SPEAKER_02]: I was so taken by it. [SPEAKER_02]: It's the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life. [SPEAKER_02]: And I was seeing all these clips on Twitter of him getting like spit out by a toad and looking sad and bewildered. [SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, God damn it, I have to see some more of him doing stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: So I went and I saw it, and I am obsessed with.

7:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Grugu! [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, I think that that's to healthy and normal. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the character design is like made in a lab to make us all feel such affection for it. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yesterday one of my friends who has not seen it, he called Grogu emotional warfare on women.

8:27 [SPEAKER_02]: It just seemed like it might be some sort of like Trads I opt to like raise child birth rates or something I'm among women like me. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we're in adoption And like I already got two with us, but um [SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's a long movie and every single part where it was mostly the Mandalorian doing something else fighting something. [SPEAKER_02]: I was like, get me out of here, wrap it up. [SPEAKER_02]: Every time he would fight some people and then they were like, done, I was like, think fucking God.

9:01 [SPEAKER_02]: And then a new guy would come in and I was like, oh, no more. [SPEAKER_02]: But every time it's just the puppets. [SPEAKER_02]: This remains the most pro-puppet podcast. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, one of the most pro-puppet podcasts out there. [SPEAKER_02]: Like that part in the middle where it's just baby and his little or guys. [SPEAKER_02]: And baby alone in the bayou. [SPEAKER_02]: Real good. [SPEAKER_02]: A lot in the bio was really some of my favorite stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: It was like it felt very muffity from the moment the little guys came in to win the little guys left.

9:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Definitely. [SPEAKER_01]: I also really liked those little guys that I kept calling Elderly Minion. [SPEAKER_02]: I may be as obsessed with the little or guys. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean not quite because a lot of my obsession is how they interact with. [SPEAKER_01]: Right, that made me grow goo you need grow goo there. [SPEAKER_02]: Yes love the little guys, but the way the little guys. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean first off Look I keep to myself when I'm alone I keep going bad baby. [SPEAKER_02]: That's all horrible baby

10:12 [SPEAKER_02]: Which is terrifying? [SPEAKER_02]: What has become of me? [SPEAKER_02]: But I can't stop. [SPEAKER_02]: I can just watch endless clips of them calling him baby. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I did be we be back Okay, I mean listen

10:34 [SPEAKER_01]: I saw it on a whim opening night just because I just, you didn't have anything to do that night. [SPEAKER_01]: So I asked Alex, Alex who does not really like Star Wars stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: My relationship with Star Wars stuff is like, I like it generally. [SPEAKER_01]: It's cool. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't really know a lot of the [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't follow it. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not a male nerd about it. [SPEAKER_01]: No offense to all love love and respect to male nerds, but I don't know for yourself.

11:03 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know that much about like what things are called or things like that. [SPEAKER_01]: And so the only Star Wars thing I've truly loved is Andor, which I've watched six times in an obsessed with it. [SPEAKER_01]: But that is an adult. [SPEAKER_01]: political thriller with some of the most amazing speeches I've ever heard in any TV show and it's just about like

11:30 [SPEAKER_01]: Fascism and it's like made by a guy who like doesn't really give a fuck about Star Wars And that's why it's good. [SPEAKER_01]: It also is no creatures in it, which is a like nice I like I mean I like it because it's like I like a Political thriller, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So I just like yeah in rooms talking. [SPEAKER_01]: It's that's always my shit [SPEAKER_01]: But I saw a man to learn and grow a guy having never seen a single episode of the show. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, same, obviously, I had to ask people afterwards.

12:01 [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, oh, so is this show for kids? [SPEAKER_01]: And everyone was like, no!

12:08 [SPEAKER_01]: This is the Dolt Western, the show is a Western, yeah, the show is supposed to be set up like a neo-Western like episodic thing where it's just like, you know, lone gunman ramblin from town to town, kind of thing with his little baby, of course, with his little baby. [SPEAKER_01]: So seeing this movie was the moment where I learned that that Grogu makes human baby sounds

12:36 [SPEAKER_02]: I You had told me that prior seeing it and there were maybe three human baby sounds where I was like, oh, hey, that's a little too human baby But most of his little gurgles. [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, not that's cute I think what I wanted for it to be was like [SPEAKER_01]: a cat breathing heavy. [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_01]: Like being a cat, like an animal being fussy kind of sounds. [SPEAKER_02]: And when it would be a little coup, yeah, I was like, I do not like I think I like to because my cats will do a little coups sometime.

13:15 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

13:24 [SPEAKER_02]: It's just like his little face. [SPEAKER_01]: This little face is really sweet. [SPEAKER_02]: And I would have cared if it were like, if it were CGI, this wouldn't have effect. [SPEAKER_02]: I like it wouldn't have gotten me at all. [SPEAKER_02]: But like, I feel like it's not my ass because he was a puppet. [SPEAKER_02]: And then the little are guys, like the way they'll walk is so puppet like. [SPEAKER_02]: And then when they find their little friend and they're like, [SPEAKER_01]: the way they'll hug it's like fucking fraggle rock in there yeah I like that they can kind of like barely walk and barely hit the arms it's very very charming it's so good now I will say the movie did not convince me to watch the TV show and I also [SPEAKER_01]: I don't have much story observation to make about the movie outside of the fact that it seemed to me, again, haven't seen the show, it seemed to me like where we meet the characters in the beginning and where we leave them in the end, absolutely nothing changed, nothing happened, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing,

14:38 [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe there's a super I bet there's like super cuts you could just like all I want is a super cut because I'm like I don't want to force this fucking movie ever again, but I want to see all the baby. [SPEAKER_02]: See I want to see that baby [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a good baby. [SPEAKER_02]: I just love it so much!

14:57 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's our review. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to go through. [SPEAKER_01]: We love the baby. [SPEAKER_01]: We love the baby. [SPEAKER_02]: We are pro-baby. [SPEAKER_02]: I could be like at the bar someone gets a shot and I'm like, you know who that would be a perfect size for?

15:16 [SPEAKER_01]: And you're really popular at the bar. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, everyone loves that. [SPEAKER_02]: And then I have to be like, no, don't worry. [SPEAKER_02]: I hate Star Wars. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just obsessed with the baby. [SPEAKER_01]: There's some nerd guy in the corner hearing you just like twitching with Rick. [SPEAKER_01]: I get this and some of the nerd guys don't like. [SPEAKER_01]: Grow, grow, grow, are they fun to be like that? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because they're probably like, this makes it not serious.

15:42 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, well, it was not serious. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, serious. [SPEAKER_02]: We still need it. [SPEAKER_02]: We still need it. [SPEAKER_02]: We still need it. [SPEAKER_02]: I think that maybe this movie I was able to get through because look, again, haven't seen most of the other Star Wars. [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe this is the case with all of them. [SPEAKER_02]: But it very felt like an oops, all creatures, Star Wars movie. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it's like almost essentially the opposite of Andor, which is, oops, no creature.

16:08 [SPEAKER_02]: Sorry, this is just people. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Abbs, Jabba the Hudson was weird. [SPEAKER_01]: No, boring. [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't care about any of that. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, bad performance. [SPEAKER_02]: That weird phoned in performance. [SPEAKER_02]: So bad. [SPEAKER_02]: It's so funny watching a giant slug just be like, no, this is my last fight. [SPEAKER_02]: I love people to fight. [SPEAKER_02]: I have been enjoying the meme where everyone is just like, that I hear he's so much like his dad.

16:43 [SPEAKER_02]: Because there's a weird thing where they have them say that every single fucking scene. [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, oh my god, okay. [SPEAKER_01]: The movie was made for children. [SPEAKER_02]: That's true. [SPEAKER_01]: They have to repeat stuff like that. [SPEAKER_02]: I guess it's just,

17:00 [SPEAKER_02]: But they were fucking sexy. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. [SPEAKER_01]: It's sexy the word. [SPEAKER_01]: That was it. [SPEAKER_02]: They were laughing. [SPEAKER_02]: It was interesting to me on an ironic and it's steamy a lot of them. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, um, this loves, yeah, freaks. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't need them. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how I want anything with them. [SPEAKER_02]: But anyway, I just not have cared less about the movie, except for the baby. [SPEAKER_02]: And then every time the baby was on screen, I was like, [SPEAKER_02]: Where the little guy is going?

17:31 [SPEAKER_02]: Deep pipe. [SPEAKER_02]: Uh-huh. [SPEAKER_00]: Deep pipe. [SPEAKER_00]: Good shot. [SPEAKER_00]: Baby. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Where was the little ship? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_01]: I did love that. [SPEAKER_01]: The little ship. [SPEAKER_01]: This ship, being tiny, that even Grogu was like kind of too big for it. [SPEAKER_01]: That was very huge. [SPEAKER_01]: That was so wild. [SPEAKER_01]: Got it. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: It was.

17:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, that's all I think all we have to say about the [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, we can move on to this. [SPEAKER_02]: It did bother me that I couldn't see a human face under the helmet. [SPEAKER_02]: I know, I, I figured that that was like a big plot point. [SPEAKER_02]: The helmet doesn't come off, but I'm like, this is really fucking annoying me. [SPEAKER_02]: Just let me see a fucking face. [SPEAKER_01]: Let me see Pedro Pascal. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I will say, [SPEAKER_01]: Pretty impressive, like under the helmet body acting in terms of like, I understood a lot of emotion in a lot of scenes, which I, that's hard.

18:31 [SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm impressed by his stunt guys that do all the helmet stuff, but yeah, well, if not my favorite, let me see Pedro. [SPEAKER_01]: Let me see him. [SPEAKER_01]: I get how it's a very good gig for him. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god, can you win like a match?

18:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Happy for my my my lovely Pedro especially because that character I [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he's a good actor, so I assumed this was on purpose. [SPEAKER_02]: He's very emotionless in dead pants, so it's like he doesn't even have to do very much acting. [SPEAKER_02]: He just goes in a room and he's like, yeah, no, we're going to find the guy. [SPEAKER_02]: And then we're going to find the guy and grow goo. [SPEAKER_02]: Hi. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: It's tough guy. [SPEAKER_01]: It's tough guy.

19:20 [SPEAKER_01]: Gunslinger stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: So he's just like never has anything to say other than like okay. [SPEAKER_01]: No, yes. [SPEAKER_01]: Bye. [SPEAKER_02]: So we love the baby. [SPEAKER_01]: Moving on. [SPEAKER_02]: If we must moving on, we love the baby. [SPEAKER_01]: Big weekend. [SPEAKER_01]: Big weekend at the box office for your ideal genre. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, or having quite the moment, um, I've gotten a lot of feedback on my not liking obsession, and I don't take it back because I simply didn't like it.

19:57 [SPEAKER_01]: I can't do anything about that. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I've really enjoyed the experience of like, like, hearing you talk about it, seeing what other people are saying about it, and we've actually gotten some really interesting cool, like, comments on YouTube. [SPEAKER_01]: You wouldn't know because you don't go on there, but [SPEAKER_01]: and scared of you too. [SPEAKER_01]: But there were a few really interesting people who replied to either the real shorts or our full conversation where they either agreed with me or didn't, but kind of had interesting takes.

20:28 [SPEAKER_01]: And then there was this thing I came up with, I think, on TikTok, which I mean TikTok commenters are bless your hearts, the dumbest people alive.

20:40 [SPEAKER_01]: I genuinely don't believe a lot of them are real people. [SPEAKER_01]: I think that it's, you know, some sort of troll universe where everyone is just dedicated to misunderstanding everyone else or like making everyone miserable. [SPEAKER_01]: You know there are ecosystems like that that exist on the internet. [SPEAKER_01]: Sure. [SPEAKER_01]: I believe a lot of them exist on TikTok The thing I kept getting that actually got me under my skin because people being like you're a bitch if you didn't like the movie I liked is like, okay But the thing that was getting under my skin was people kept calling me condescending when I'd say like [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I didn't like this movie, but I think it was because I don't like horror.

21:25 [SPEAKER_01]: It's just like user error. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, anytime I clip to that, someone would call me condescending. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, it's the least condescending I could be. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm saying that I'm wrong.

21:39 [SPEAKER_01]: That's what you said. [SPEAKER_01]: You said error. [SPEAKER_02]: Be it. [SPEAKER_01]: And I just, I don't know. [SPEAKER_01]: There was something about the experience of that, and it wasn't a ton because we are not that popular yet. [SPEAKER_01]: But it just was bombing me out about like, and also kind of making me feel like it's important that people talk about movies with each other because I think we need to all be a little more de-sensitized to the experience of people having different tastes than us.

22:07 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and like the internet has weirdly codified that, like, someone not liking the thing you, like, is hurtful. [SPEAKER_02]: And there are, for somebody liking the thing that you didn't like is, like, somehow offensive too. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think we talked about this on our cursed forgotten pilot for weathering heights. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. [SPEAKER_01]: That that you listener will never hear. [SPEAKER_02]: It was never meant to see the light of day. [SPEAKER_02]: It was just practice.

22:40 [SPEAKER_01]: But it is it is something that I think will come up again and again as we get deeper into this project which is like [SPEAKER_01]: I want to I want to lift all boats in terms of like people's discourse around movies because I think it I like talking to people who thought something different about a movie so that I can kind of see it from their perspective and even if I don't get to the same place I don't know I just think it's cool and boy it's been I don't know who our fans can sometimes not be normal about Yeah

23:15 [SPEAKER_02]: I have in the in the couple weeks since it came out. [SPEAKER_02]: I have talked to some people who also didn't like it, so you're not alone. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, and I it was so funny, Alex. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, my darling husband was like, you know, I told him my thoughts about the movie and he does this very sweet thing where he's like, well, you're so smart. [SPEAKER_01]: Like anytime I tell him an opinion about a movie, um, and then like a few days after he's like, man, I'm seeing a lot of people talk about the movie and like say what they think of it.

23:49 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's pretty different from what you said.

24:05 [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, maybe, I don't know, to late now, buddy. [SPEAKER_01]: The little, your traps, I don't know, but yeah, it is funny, and, you know, my personal experience of the movie is I, like, I'm really excited by this, like, thing that happened this weekend where these two movies made so much money. [SPEAKER_01]: It's so cool and exciting and I feel like it's got people so activated and I know people are comparing it to like Barb and Hymer, which I sat out completely. [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't see either of those movies ever.

24:44 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I knew that. [SPEAKER_01]: No, I didn't see the first year. [SPEAKER_01]: It was like the year I had moved to Chicago and I didn't see any movies that whole year. [SPEAKER_01]: So every so often if something's going on enough in my life, I just have sat out movies for a year And that was one of them. [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't see Barbie or Oppenheimer, but I like that these are like You know, it's not like these are like [SPEAKER_01]: you know, some some completely independent enterprise.

25:15 [SPEAKER_01]: But I think it's cool that these aren't tentpole IP blockbuster totally. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. [SPEAKER_02]: And basically it's like it's so cool for it feels like we have finally moved past the Marvel era where like [SPEAKER_02]: It's nice when it feels like for a brief period, there is a bit of a monoculture in movies. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, not just say some people still have it been like, wait, what's the premise of obsession again? [SPEAKER_02]: But like a movie that like so many people are talking about, that's fun.

25:54 [SPEAKER_01]: It's totally fun. [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, it just gives me a lot of hope for this art form that I like really love and want to keep [SPEAKER_01]: I want the whole ecosystem to be healthy, and this all feels like a really good sign that this happened this weekend. [SPEAKER_02]: I want it to be an ecosystem where a big frog would eat grogu, might thrive in, but also bugs for grogu to eat.

26:26 [SPEAKER_01]: That's my wish for the moon.

26:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Um, so I know that I'll put my flag in the ground now, I fucking loved backrooms. [SPEAKER_02]: This isn't interesting one because the total opposite of what I was doing. [SPEAKER_02]: I... [SPEAKER_01]: Really did not think it was very good You know, I so here I think I have boiled down why this would have been the case because I actually guess that this was gonna be the situation because yeah We didn't talk I did I purposefully didn't tell you any of my thoughts on it before right now But I was like I was like when I saw this I was like oh my god I loved that and I was like I found [SPEAKER_01]: This is the exact type of horror.

27:20 [SPEAKER_01]: I like in that this is a sci-fi It's horror sure, but this is a sci-fi movie. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this is fully a sci-fi kind of a video game like This is extremely stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: I like it is kind of a video game [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, yeah, he also, he sites my all-time favorite video game as Hillin of his like major Inspirations, which is portal [SPEAKER_02]: And I never even heard of it. [SPEAKER_01]: The premise is that, so, here's a little backstory on Portal. [SPEAKER_01]: Portal is like an indie game that came out in like the mid, maybe 2010-ish somewhere around there.

28:08 [SPEAKER_01]: And it was indie. [SPEAKER_01]: Like it wasn't really like this huge place. [SPEAKER_01]: It was kind of a short game, but you essentially wake up in a lab. [SPEAKER_01]: and there's a like AI voice that's like hello please do this test and you get this like gun where you can shoot an in-portal and an out-portal and then it's essentially a series of puzzles. [SPEAKER_01]: So you just like, oh, I have to shoot through a window and then shoot here and then jump through and the night.

28:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay. [SPEAKER_01]: That it's like a very simple promise but the [SPEAKER_01]: story that you're getting told by the AI voice is like very funny. [SPEAKER_01]: She's like increasingly evil as it goes on and it's just like, it's known for being like incredibly like inventive and interesting, especially in a time where it was like, [SPEAKER_01]: you know, all the video games around that time where shoots on be on a end or whatever. [SPEAKER_01]: And this was like a very interesting story that built out a lore for itself.

29:08 [SPEAKER_01]: But [SPEAKER_01]: only in if you inferred stuff like only what you could kind of see and then they had a second one that was you know a lot bigger a lot more what more wealth-funded because it was incredibly popular the first one um but it is essentially a liminal space [SPEAKER_01]: You know, we weren't using the word liminal, I think when it came out. [SPEAKER_01]: But it is that. [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, you wake up in this weird, like, lab rooms that are concrete walls and you just have to figure stuff out.

29:39 [SPEAKER_01]: So it's not the 90s office liminal, but it is still like a liminal space experience.

29:55 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh wow, okay. [SPEAKER_02]: So for reference, because did you end up watching an explainer you too? [SPEAKER_02]: So I tried to, I did a little bit. [SPEAKER_01]: I watched, I watched like half of the like three and a half hour. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I did, I would probably did less than that. [SPEAKER_01]: I got to a point where I was like, you know what? [SPEAKER_01]: I actually don't need this. [SPEAKER_01]: I love how this. [SPEAKER_01]: I would, but I, and I watched some of this just the full, like, yeah.

30:23 [SPEAKER_01]: I watched, like, the first three, but none of the little side ones. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because I almost, I almost like, I wanted to talk about it first. [SPEAKER_02]: like divorced from anything we learned from that and just like the in-feet or experience? [SPEAKER_02]: Definitely. [SPEAKER_02]: Because both of us, right, had no relationship to backgrounds besides vaguely knowing what it was. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I knew the notion of it and I had seen the original like 4chan posts that was around.

30:55 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, my experience of it was actually that it didn't need, I don't need the lore really at all, like, that the more usually I love lore, but then the flip side of that is that I am fickle because then if I don't like the lore, it immediately becomes so much less interesting to me. [SPEAKER_02]: And in this one, it felt like every bit of lore,

31:24 [SPEAKER_02]: made me less interested. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so basically, like with the whole background's concept, I love the concept. [SPEAKER_02]: I think that's a great concept. [SPEAKER_02]: And I thought the production design was awesome. [SPEAKER_02]: Like, I thought the production design was so good and cool. [SPEAKER_02]: And that kind of ends what I liked about it. [SPEAKER_02]: Um, yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I thought it was not written well. [SPEAKER_02]: I thought it was very like style over substance.

31:59 [SPEAKER_02]: And, [SPEAKER_02]: It's, it is so wild that there's these two Oscar nominated serious actor actors in this with what I thought was links such a not good script. [SPEAKER_01]: That's funny. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I, I'm not, I'd not there with you on that because what I felt was that the script was like,

32:25 [SPEAKER_01]: simple in a way that was economical. [SPEAKER_02]: I think I wanted it to be either simpler or more complex. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I think it hit a bad middle zone for me. [SPEAKER_02]: Because again, love the concept, love to have it looked. [SPEAKER_02]: My favorite parts were definitely like the in-camera found footage POV parts. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Because I think a lot of the other parts [SPEAKER_02]: I, it is such a creepy, existentially scary concept, the back of us.

33:01 [SPEAKER_02]: And I wish that they had sort of like, let that breathe a little bit more, where it's like the idea of being in them, and the idea of hearing footsteps. [SPEAKER_02]: that is such a scare on its own, but it's almost like they didn't trust that to be enough. [SPEAKER_02]: So almost immediately, it's like, oops, creature grabbing something scary. [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, I wish that they had just sort of stayed in that sort of like eerieness. [SPEAKER_02]: I get that. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean there were definitely some like the the rhythms of that stuff and the the chunks of the movie that feel like just kind of like traditional movie stuff where they're like here's the story and here are the people [SPEAKER_01]: was fine to me, but um, I loved this stylized.

33:54 [SPEAKER_01]: I could watch the slow pans of each room that take like three minutes for the full two hours. [SPEAKER_01]: I could have done that and been fine and just here. [SPEAKER_01]: And like, one thing that was really standing out to me when I was watching the movie was that that like, I was really impressed by the like,

34:16 [SPEAKER_01]: digital texture of the entire experience of it, because it would be like, we'd go from like, someone's one person, you know, the scientists, whatever he records with, and then it's like Finn Bennett's character's camcorder, and then it's TV commercials, and then it's also like cassette tapes and radio. [SPEAKER_01]: Like there was like, there were so many layers, and then every time he was in the backrooms, or we would spend time in the backrooms. [SPEAKER_01]: There were so many sounds and there was just like, it was just a really artful deployment of like this rising pressure where it was like, like, why am I hearing like a hum, like a weird buzzing every second?

35:02 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I thought all that stuff was so cool and like, [SPEAKER_01]: It did something that I always yearn for more than anything in any movie or a piece of art really which is that like I was fully immersed like I really was not aware that I was a person that was alive in a movie theater [SPEAKER_02]: See, I really was like, I, yeah, it was, I think that there was a framework there that was so promising, but then I don't know, there was just like as it went on, it got less and less.

35:55 [SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to feel the vibe more of the like mysterious, just kind of offness of it all. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, how scary that is. [SPEAKER_02]: And I just didn't with all the back and forth and then there immediately being like a creature and like,

36:23 [SPEAKER_02]: I, you know, and then the, the two employees who just exist as these like sacrificial lambs to the plot. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, yeah, yeah, and I, I mean, I thought I took them as like, them going in and because he asked them to, I took that as he has already lost his mind and was like intentionally sacrificing them. [SPEAKER_01]: I think that it's interesting to sort of, you know, obsession was

37:02 [SPEAKER_01]: I feel like it was more traditional horror storytelling that was rooted in like something that speaks to you a lot more. [SPEAKER_01]: And like mine was like, I think maybe my horror storytelling that I like, I mean, I don't know, this is probably not good, but like, is style over-subst.

37:22 [SPEAKER_01]: And I want it to be like sad 40 year olds that are sharing like an aesthetically weird experience and you know this guy and his therapist wandering at a nightmare mind palace [SPEAKER_01]: is all I needed or like the simplicity of that and the economicalness of it being a therapist patient relationship so that we can get his interior already really quick. [SPEAKER_01]: I thought all that stuff was like [SPEAKER_01]: In any other movie, I would have found it cheap, but there was something about the for me, something about the care that Kane Parsons had taken to like every little texture and detail of the world that he had created that I don't know, it just like fully sucked me in and even, [SPEAKER_01]: you know, this movie was incredibly popular with super young people and you know, people weren't the most amazing behaved in my theater.

38:22 [SPEAKER_01]: And I was still like, I love this so much. [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe it was also like, I liked that Clark ended up being the villain. [SPEAKER_02]: That made full sense to me and every time. [SPEAKER_02]: But in that, you actually get very little in the movie of somebody being scared and confused in the backgrounds. [SPEAKER_02]: Like I guess once Mary, you know, is running around sure. [SPEAKER_02]: That's the part where you get like that. [SPEAKER_02]: But

39:05 [SPEAKER_02]: Until then, it's sort of, he's just like, whoa, and then the freely in and out. [SPEAKER_02]: There is something interesting that I'm choosing to go back in there, but yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: And it's not so much, I'm not like, it's not like, oh, I don't understand why he decided to stay in there and became fully fucking nuts. [SPEAKER_02]: It's not that I don't understand that. [SPEAKER_02]: It's just that I wanted a little more of the between. [SPEAKER_02]: you know just because it's like well that is the story and the the character development is the story.

39:39 [SPEAKER_02]: So where is that? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, I could see that. [SPEAKER_01]: I also like it's funny because I just relate [SPEAKER_01]: I relate in the way I experienced obsession, like where I was like, everyone is so excited about this and I want to be there with them so bad. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, none of it was hitting me correctly, but that feeling is bad. [SPEAKER_01]: And I kind of feel like, it's an interesting experience that I think everybody has at some point where once you're in a movie and it starts to creep in that you're like, [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not really, yeah, I'm not really like vibing with this once you're like, and it just like, I think it like feeds itself and gets worse and worse and worse as the movie will goes on because then you're like around people that are enjoying it and you're like, [SPEAKER_01]: Wait, the train is leaving me.

40:35 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it is a funny thing that it's like everyone is talking about how nobody in this movie theater knows how to be a person in a movie theater and I do think it's because it's a lot of young people and I think it's so busy that it is just a lot of people who don't go to the movies very often. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: The fucking ladies next to me.

41:01 [SPEAKER_02]: That's hers, a little girl!

41:06 [SPEAKER_02]: And then as soon as the movie started, she's like, Uh-huh, time for me to adjust my purse chain, my metal purse chain, my girl. [SPEAKER_02]: And the reason, to the exact right length, but um, I, I don't think I, I think I would have noticed the purse chain less in obsession, because I was more immersed in that. [SPEAKER_02]: I think also, [SPEAKER_02]: On online, a lot of people are trying to find a lot of different meanings and backgrounds. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Alex is really into this ecosystem, but I'm not there.

41:41 [SPEAKER_02]: And I think pretty much every single thing I'm seeing, I'm like, this feels like a stretch. [SPEAKER_02]: Like, I think part of the style over substance is I'm kind of, and you know, I'm not saying I'm correct, but I'm just like, when people are saying these things that can mean, I'm like, I think that maybe you are signing more meaning

42:08 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, the only thing, I mean, the funniest thing is people being like, oh, another horror movie about trauma, and it's like, no, it's not, it's not about that at all. [SPEAKER_02]: But anchor issues. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the only thing that makes sense to me as a sort of metaphor is AI. [SPEAKER_02]: Like, that's the only thing about the just, like, things being [SPEAKER_02]: The replicas of real, but a little off, and without a human hand in it, and then things being distorted and more distorted as they get copied and copied, and then the feedback loop of him deciding to stay in there.

42:51 [SPEAKER_02]: Like, okay, I'm not going to change. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm just going to stay in here and have this fucked up version of himself. [SPEAKER_02]: To me, that's like people who like, you know, become obsessed with like talking to their like chatbot, and it's just this like constant loop of like, yeah, you're amazing, and also right.

43:14 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm telling just fucking destroys everyone around them. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I agree. [SPEAKER_01]: I can see that mapping on there, but I think it's not what I landed on. [SPEAKER_01]: I felt like it was about memory. [SPEAKER_01]: And I guess trauma to some degree,

43:43 [SPEAKER_01]: the torment of like bad memories warping in your mind, the more distance you get and the more you think about them and and and how that can trap you if you are just harping on a negative [SPEAKER_02]: Hmm, memory, I feel like the memory thing is definitely what it was like supposed to be about. [SPEAKER_02]: But for some reason, that just didn't like connect for me. [SPEAKER_02]: I was actually happening on screen. [SPEAKER_01]: I haven't seen a few interviews with Kane Parsons, who I like, I mean, I also just like, I think I respect him so, so I cannot believe he's so kind of like,

44:34 [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, he just, he feels very wise with the stuff he's saying and how he's talking about his own success and also the fact that he like composes all the music for the web series. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, he composes all the music and he taught himself blender, which I've tried, is hard at like 15 and like made all these videos, told a story that like, [SPEAKER_01]: for all the lore that exists that I've really only stuck my toe into what the lore is.

45:08 [SPEAKER_01]: It's impressive that he did that and that it all kind of fits together nicely. [SPEAKER_01]: It makes sense. [SPEAKER_01]: It's not of interest to me, but that doesn't mean that it's like not good. [SPEAKER_01]: It did make a

45:25 [SPEAKER_01]: I found it to be quite...

45:30 [SPEAKER_01]: It's the word I'm looking for. [SPEAKER_01]: Like they held back a lot of the lore stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: And I've heard him in interviews, say the phrase, lore bloat, that he was like, I don't want to do what some other, he's like, you know, I don't want to name any names, but like, I've seen other adaptations of things that kind of get bogged down in this lore bloat. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, oh, five nights at Freddy's. [SPEAKER_01]: It's definitely what he's talking about but I've heard him talk about like that he sees it as like a

46:07 [SPEAKER_01]: uh, his experience of like obsessive thoughts and mental illness and then like that's that he's like not truly trying to prescribe what other people see in it. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he has a he has a thing he sees in it and that that's what he's trying to do and you can see whatever you want. [SPEAKER_01]: But um, I don't know. [SPEAKER_01]: I just really

46:32 [SPEAKER_01]: I think that there are some things where the movie held back on the creepiness of like the crazy style and like creepiness of the space and they wouldn't hover in it too long and let that be what's creepy. [SPEAKER_01]: That's sometimes to me felt like and maybe I'm just like absolutely riding too hard for this 20 year old, but it felt like producer notes. [SPEAKER_01]: It felt like people aren't going to like that. [SPEAKER_01]: We need to like do some traditional horse.

47:05 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, the parts that, the only parts that felt scary to me, and the parts that feels like people are talking about the most, are the parts that are shot like the YouTube series, the found footage, like everyone talking about like the Christmas tree room, which yeah, that, that was a great scene, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah and you know, I guess the reason that I think that I'm not blaming him for like when it held when it seemed like it was kind of pulling its punches a little on the weirdness was that [SPEAKER_01]: in terms of the web series of it like the stuff I've seen he honestly seems fearless about that stuff he's like not worried about if you know if it like is going to land I mean a lot of those a lot of those videos are just like a bunch of slides people or like diagrams and [SPEAKER_01]: And it doesn't hold your hand in terms of like, you know, filling out telling the story and filling out the backstory of this place and then once we get into like this major studio movie.

48:20 [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, I just can't tell. [SPEAKER_01]: I can't tell if it's you or not. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure there were a lot of baby sitters assigned to this 20-year-old first-time director with $10 million, isn't it? [SPEAKER_01]: It's just Mosul. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm sure if you've seen that quote coming going around from, like, I think James Wahn, who was one of the producers on it, that was like, we didn't even know he was 15. [SPEAKER_01]: When we contacted him. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, we did not really invite funny.

48:47 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's very impressive for a high school.

48:51 [SPEAKER_02]: something that as as it as the movie was wrapping up on this like and I'm not he he is 20 I'm not saying this is like a like it just is a thought I had and then felt kind of affirmed in after watching the lower video that explained everything in further detail. [SPEAKER_02]: I do think this is very clearly the work of somebody who grew up on Stranger Things and then was heavily influenced by Stranger Things. [SPEAKER_01]: So, I've not watched Stranger Things and can't pick out a reference, but I can kind of feel what you're saying.

49:34 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I mean, even the nostalgia for...

49:38 [SPEAKER_01]: the media of that. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I guess when it really, really felt like, okay, like to me was near the end when they show all of the backgrounds that are just exact replicas of places in the real world, but it's like,

50:08 [SPEAKER_02]: It's the underground, no, what the fuck, what's it called? [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_01]: The upside down for us to eat anything. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_02]: It's like, okay, that's that. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, there's a bunch of scientists like studying this other sort of like, [SPEAKER_02]: you know, connected but not reality? [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, they're kind of menacing. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, and then with the YouTube getting into it where it's like in the original videos, there's like essentially like bacterial spores that like, [SPEAKER_02]: You know, get in there and fuck you up.

50:44 [SPEAKER_02]: It's like, this is a kid who was basically the same age as Stranger Things at this point since it took them fucking 30 years to make it. [SPEAKER_02]: But like, I'm like, okay, there are clear things here that are clear parallels to specifically like, early Stranger Things when, you know, it was still pretty good. [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm not saying like, [SPEAKER_02]: It's the worst thing ever, but it just felt very like clear to me that there was a heavy, heavy influence there. [SPEAKER_01]: Definitely.

51:18 [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, it's like I could see the portal influences. [SPEAKER_01]: You could see that I think that he is young enough that he, I mean, for he is like truly gifted, but I think there is just like something that comes with age where you're able to parse your [SPEAKER_02]: influences a little better than you can when you're really young and it's also hard when it's something that like has is something that you that started like got into your brain as a child versus like it becomes harder to recognize because it becomes part of like your brain mush as you're as you're growing you know [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

51:59 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, definitely. [SPEAKER_02]: I think I would have preferred the scientist aspects to not be in it at all. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, that's one of my favorite parts. [SPEAKER_01]: I loved it so much. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's very science fiction, and I like an evil, I like an evil science corporation. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't always hate it, but I'm like, and I know that it was kind of on purpose that they're like, oh, they never actually say what they're doing here, but I'm just kind of like, why even have them, if literally it's just going to be like, we used to make MRIs.

52:34 [SPEAKER_02]: No, we don't. [SPEAKER_02]: No, we do this. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but I think I liked that. [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's like, I mean, because MRIs are... [SPEAKER_01]: Isn't it like magnets, I remember in the lore videos like magnets had a lot to do with like how they opened it or something it was like some kind of like magnetic pulse thing which MRIs are just like magnets that spin in circles and rip all the metal out of your body.

53:03 [SPEAKER_01]: Great. [SPEAKER_01]: Great scene with an MRI in the last final destination. [SPEAKER_01]: But.

53:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't, that stuff worked for me because, I mean, also to be honest, like, I think Mark DuPlas, I think his warmth, his natural kind of warmth that even though he's playing kind of like a scary, ish scientist guy that has four lines in the movie. [SPEAKER_01]: There's something about his, like, warm energy that, like, by the end of the movie, I felt, I welcomed it. [SPEAKER_01]: I kind of, like, felt, like, it was nice to, like, wind down. [SPEAKER_01]: That's just, like, I just, like, I think I like to see him and stuff.

53:52 [SPEAKER_01]: But, [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, man. [SPEAKER_01]: I just love, I love science fiction. [SPEAKER_01]: I love a, I love a weird evil science company. [SPEAKER_01]: I like liminal spaces a lot. [SPEAKER_02]: I guess that's the thing is I'm, I'm not as into a weird science company. [SPEAKER_02]: Whereas like on, you know, I read a lot of thrillers and a lot of like, I watch a lot of horror. [SPEAKER_02]: Honestly, every time the answer is like, [SPEAKER_02]: Weird science company where it's like any time someone discovers a lab.

54:27 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm like fuck Like it kind of Bores me in the same way that often when just like the answer is just like it was a witch I was just gonna say that. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was like what is this similar to the witch take? [SPEAKER_02]: It is similar. [SPEAKER_02]: Like yeah It just doesn't It's not my thing I guess and so with this I'm like

54:52 [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_01]: Is your acceptable range of answers like human cruelty, mainly? [SPEAKER_02]: No.

55:03 [SPEAKER_02]: I just want to be like surprised a little bit. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Like just like surprised me. [SPEAKER_01]: I think, you know, I, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I think this speaks to me on a lot of levels. [SPEAKER_01]: I like to watch old VHS footage of like abandoned spaces.

55:27 [SPEAKER_02]: And again, those were my favorite parts. [SPEAKER_02]: Were the like VHS, yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, like those were the parts I actively liked. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but the other thing I quite like is like sort of a journalism about tech being bad and evil and stuff which I think is why when it's like an evil science corporation that is doing something that they know puts people in danger.

56:04 [SPEAKER_02]: even when they're just studying it, not creating it.

56:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, the thing is that they're studying it, but they also aren't warning people about it. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, if he saw [SPEAKER_01]: So Mark DuPla sees Clark in the camera, and then he also sees Clark in the commercial. [SPEAKER_01]: So he knows where Clark is. [SPEAKER_01]: He does nothing to help.

56:38 [SPEAKER_01]: And that is all I needed to believe that they're bad, that they are just watching, I mean, and even like, [SPEAKER_01]: the opening, the cold open of the movie right when it's the scientist that gets attacked and then they switch off the TV and three scientists were just watching it like motionlessly. [SPEAKER_01]: I think those were all indications to me that this company [SPEAKER_01]: says they're just monitoring and and studying, but I think that actually they are allowing people to go into harm's way intentionally so that they can study that.

57:15 [SPEAKER_01]: So there is like an evil element there, but it's like a it's like a obscured slightly. [SPEAKER_02]: It in I feel like in the YouTube lore video I watched it seemed like [SPEAKER_02]: The guy was saying how, uh, because I just based off the little bit of YouTube I watched and I get why plot why is it makes sense to have like a portal that is just there that like you can go in and out of but like I do think it's scarier that anybody could just kind of fall into it at any point and be like yes stock [SPEAKER_02]: that is so much scarier.

57:57 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but I think if I understood correctly the YouTube nerd was saying that the science company, async, them trying to open the portal to it, they actively led to this destabilization that created a bunch of other portals. [SPEAKER_02]: causing way more people to fall into it and get trapped forever. [SPEAKER_02]: And I guess, which is like, you know, it's good air. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I have a feeling like I think they announced already that like another back room's piece of media is in the works already.

58:40 [SPEAKER_02]: And it's been greenlit. [SPEAKER_02]: It's going to be a different writer. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he didn't write this one there, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he didn't write it, it was some other guy. [SPEAKER_02]: It was some other guy, but I saw something that was like, he's, because I'm like, I do think that a lot of the main criticism about this has been like the, the writing, um, yeah, that's interesting. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, I have a feeling that though, I think this could be, listen, I would, [SPEAKER_01]: I was talking to Alex about this earlier.

59:08 [SPEAKER_01]: I am like, I crest my fingers hoping so bad that Kane Parsons has retained the IP of this because

59:22 [SPEAKER_01]: This could be a whole, this could be Star Wars. [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean, like, to that level. [SPEAKER_01]: But like, this could be like an entire ecosystem of shows and movies and what we're like, and so I just really hope that he had a good lawyer when he was 16 and first getting encroached. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, but yeah, because I do think that would be interesting. [SPEAKER_01]: I would love a TV show of that of like, yeah, maybe like a, I would love it. [SPEAKER_01]: Here's, here's my pitch, a show that is an anthology series that's like 10 episodes and it's just like that event and like different stories of people like that, um, sucked in that day.

1:00:05 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, in the same way that Cory Barker was like, oh, an anthology of the one wish willow would be like interesting. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Because I mean, the thing that's tough about like the background thing is the thing that makes it so scary is that it doesn't seem like something that there could be like a normal arc of where it's like, you have to find a way out. [SPEAKER_02]: It seems like the scariest part is that there isn't any way out. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, or that the way out is like never going to be indicated you have to find the part of the wall where you can get through and it's like a needle and a haystack where it's like it could be a Million miles away from you.

1:00:49 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but in a corner. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but I was also thinking about like [SPEAKER_01]: I am a little worried that Hollywood is going to learn the wrong lesson from this because I think the right lesson is like take a chance on young creative talent and I think the wrong lesson is gold rush on creepy pasta stories. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: That's true. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know how the IP would even work to be honest on Yeah, those No, that's like Tom But You know, I would hate if that's what it ended up being because I don't think that there are any other ones that are quite [SPEAKER_01]: as rich of a van as well and also it's like he he did so much with the concept and you know like created a very cohesive vision out of that concept and grew a huge fanbase yeah around a huge fanbase of people who don't know how to go to him if you think of it

1:02:04 [SPEAKER_01]: One person in front of me was fully just scrolling Instagram for like five minutes of the movie and I was like You're not even like checking a text or something you're just bored. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you just I think it was a lot of people who are used to mostly watching shit on their laptop [SPEAKER_02]: They're not even used to watching shit on big TV, just laptop, which like, there is a step, it's like, let's do like a little like big TV boot camp where we watch big TV. [SPEAKER_00]: And then maybe we go to the movie theater.

1:02:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Then maybe we go to the movie. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was bad. [SPEAKER_01]: There were there were two teenage girls who were like, I mean, teenage. [SPEAKER_01]: I have no idea how old I were. [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone looks teenage to me. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think it was cool that they got to Oscar nominated very serious actory actors in it. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Certainly lent the film a lot of grovitas. [SPEAKER_02]: But I, and especially, you know, even with them, I thought the writing was kind of so weak and stuff.

1:03:08 [SPEAKER_02]: I can't imagine what I would have thought without them, you know? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because they obviously elevated it. [SPEAKER_01]: It is really funny that, like, my complaint of obsession was I felt like after school special type dialogue with each other and this felt like, yeah, this is our adults talk to each other like this feels real. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's so funny where it's the opposite just like he said to me I was I a little bit felt like This isn't how anyone talks to anyone Like the the kind of like hard-ass therapist that like really don't believe that that man would be In therapy in 1990s were not a therapy Yeah, that's the part of my just believe I cannot suspend [SPEAKER_02]: Um, I, like, there are some things where I'm like, oh, that's like interesting.

1:04:06 [SPEAKER_02]: We're like, yeah, even though it's like, okay, how, okay. [SPEAKER_02]: So it's all this memory stuff, but it's like, how is it so personalized to him? [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know because some people were saying, like, oh, that one still life was like a memory of a memory of like his wife because she was a redhead and we saw that she was a redhead.

1:04:28 [SPEAKER_01]: But like, I just don't think so. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think so. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think so. [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, I just do not believe that to be the case. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I think the movie would have made it clear if that was the case. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: And maybe like.

1:04:46 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_02]: I just the fact that the big scary thing was sort of interesting, but also it's like, it's a big fucked up looking pirate humanoid creature. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_02]: I love it. [SPEAKER_01]: I love it. [SPEAKER_01]: A big weird, like, puppet pirate on, like, guy on still. [SPEAKER_01]: That was practical. [SPEAKER_02]: I hate it, but I'm like, this is the big thing. [SPEAKER_02]: like the emptiness is scarier. [SPEAKER_02]: This is the big thing.

1:05:17 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, like, that's it. [SPEAKER_02]: She hits it and it bleeds, you know, like, okay. [SPEAKER_02]: So it's just, it's a different type of guy. [SPEAKER_02]: It's a guy. [SPEAKER_02]: It's just a weird looking guy.

1:05:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it worked for me, but I have seen a lot of criticism of it. [SPEAKER_01]: So I know I'm open to it. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't like hate it. [SPEAKER_02]: It just like this movie didn't like do anything for me. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Like I guess I did like her running around. [SPEAKER_02]: Not necessarily the being chased by him aspect that wasn't as much what I liked, but I guess I liked that it made her run around through a bunch of different rooms and like yeah stuff with the little stairs over a complete void of nothingness like that was scary because I'm very scared of heights, so I'm like yeah.

1:06:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I would love a movie, a background's movie that was just like a chase for the full 90 minutes, like that once you're in, you're in, we're not going back out to the real world, for the duration, and it's just a chase, so sometimes you're running through room after room after room at some times, there's a fight, and then, you know, I'm sure similar things have happened in skyscrapers or whatever, movies. [SPEAKER_02]: Like the underground like the the underground laundry room VHS POV.

1:06:47 [SPEAKER_02]: That was good. [SPEAKER_02]: That was like scary. [SPEAKER_02]: There was a real earningness to that because also it's like There's a real trapped aspect to it because he is down a shoot.

1:07:00 [SPEAKER_02]: But I

1:07:06 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, I want it to like it more because I really do like the concept. [SPEAKER_02]: I just don't know if I loved this story being how the concept was rolled out. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and also, I mean, it's worth noting you don't like science fiction generally. [SPEAKER_01]: Not really, it's not really a genre that speaks to you. [SPEAKER_02]: I like speculative fiction, which is a type of science fiction, but I don't like hard sci-fi, where it's just full sci-fi shit. [SPEAKER_01]: yeah and it's like you know this was there was no spaceships but it was certainly an evil science evil science was happening evil science is at the root of all of this one minute in color weird science no that's something different that's where you make a weird weird science well i mean a lady was made that's true as was a pirate after some other weird guys

1:08:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, listen, the last couple of weeks, you know, we're just flip-flopping back and forth. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, look, ultimately, my takeaway was that if I were in this situation for even a moment, I would kill myself immediately. [SPEAKER_00]: And so all of this would be a non-issue.

1:08:39 [SPEAKER_01]: I was simply taking myself out of that situation, A.S.A.P. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm seeing the big, the room with the big drop and I'm just jumping. [SPEAKER_01]: There's no argument. [SPEAKER_01]: Get me out of here.

1:08:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I think I would probably explore it and get killed, but that's on me. [SPEAKER_01]: I just think it's interesting looking. [SPEAKER_02]: I would just be so scared. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I get scared in houses. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you'd be scared in this room right now. [SPEAKER_01]: It's completely different. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, absolutely. [SPEAKER_02]: Like I just scared in houses that have a single room where I don't know what's going on in there. [SPEAKER_02]: I get scared sometimes in a stairwell when I'm by myself.

1:09:30 [SPEAKER_02]: I feel like reality could just completely change in a moment. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm alone in a space. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't like it. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there is something like, yeah, what happens to our brains when we're alone in a space? [SPEAKER_01]: There is something weird. [SPEAKER_01]: You just get creeped out. [SPEAKER_01]: Even I get, you know, if I'm home alone, which is almost never, because we both work from home. [SPEAKER_02]: But there's that, like, phantom, like, prickling feeling.

1:09:58 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and like I think that's what like I mean maybe this is just me being like that's what would have scared me personally So I wish the movie was that more, but I'm just like like how one of the scariest things is like Someone thinks they're home alone and then they hear like footsteps upstairs, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's such a little like it's little mundane things, but that are so wrong because of their implications I just love that and I guess I wish like [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, or like you're in a room and you hear some far off voice, but yeah, even just the footstuffs, like I just wish that they had like let that breathe a little bit more before it's like courageous and matching things, matching people up.

1:10:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I just want a full movie of someone exploring it. [SPEAKER_01]: And nothing bad has to happen to them, really. [SPEAKER_01]: I just, I just want the urban explorer video where I feel uncomfortable because it's creepy. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like that's that's I mean it's also like it's that's kind of what a lot of the YouTube videos are like there's a little creatures Yeah, and there, but it seems like it's a lot of just sort of wandering around being like what the fuck Yeah, I think is cool.

1:11:15 [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's cool too Do we have anything else to say about back rooms?

1:11:24 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't Think so I think we did it

1:11:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Well guys, we did it. [SPEAKER_01]: I have no idea what movie we're seeing next week. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's... Salim pickin' so... [SPEAKER_01]: It's lookin' rough out there. [SPEAKER_02]: We're probably gonna talk about that right now, actually. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: So tune in next week to find out if we had to watch the fuckin' he-man movie. [SPEAKER_02]: And if we might, I'm gonna bring my- I don't think we might. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we might. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.

1:11:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Um, thank you for listening. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, bye.

1:12:01 [SPEAKER_02]: Okay. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for listening to our back rooms episode. [SPEAKER_02]: As always, if you liked this episode, if you like this podcast, the most helpful thing you can do is copy this little link. [SPEAKER_02]: text it to a friend, text it to your movie friend, text it to your friend who you behaved badly in an AMC theater with well-watching backgrounds and you can follow us on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube where the full video episodes are always available and we will see you next week for unspecified

1:12:48 [SPEAKER_01]: media and literature was created and produced by Monica Scott and Emily Fay. [SPEAKER_01]: Our theme music was composed by Christian Larson, and technical help is from Alex Luchin. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for listening and we will see you at the movies.