Z (2019) - "Crosseyed boogeyman"

Z - Summer Of Shudder!

Welcome

everyone to the Last Video Store Clerks podcast with Frank and Scott. The days of blockbuster Hollywood and the independent video store are over, but searching the shelves for that special overlooked movie will never end. The one that really sticks with you forever. Let's drown ourselves in a sea of streaming services, and ask the question, what the fuck is that?

Does this hold up? And just what the hell is a good movie anyway? I'm Frank Roll. I'm Scott Moran. And we're the Last Video Store Clerks.

Did I tell you Olympia wants to go see Fucking dinner theater. What does that mean? Dinner theater. Do you get dinner with some theater? But the one that we found that's closest is like a mystery one where the audience is involved. If you choose to be, uh, I don't think I would enjoy that with strangers.

Like, I, like, I think that would upset me. I want to make her dream come true, but I'm not sure how I I'll handle it. In theory. It sounds like something I want to do. Yeah. You know what I mean? You get to eat. Yeah. There's some entertainment. And it's like, uh, why not give it a shot? It's the participation part.

Like what if I'm not, it's not that I wouldn't enjoy it. It's that I would stress out about it in advance of it for a very long time. And that's the thing I don't want to deal with. Okay. Fair. I don't know how I feel. I can see that. I don't know quite how to put my finger on it to explain how I feel about it.

I will try it if we get the opportunity. I know Linda from Bob's Burgers likes it. So, Olympia was super hyped about that as well. A fictional character is really into it. Yes. So you gotta give it a shot, right? Yeah, I guess so. Is this fucking rain gonna start again right when we record? Probably. The thunder.

I think that's just what it is. Tonight on The Last Video Store Clerk's ASMR, rain and complaining. Yes. Oh, did you see that video of Metallica in Europe? Playing with the lightning. Playing with the lightning. It would have been cooler if they were playing Ride the fucking Lightning. That would have made it cooler indeed.

But they're like, lightning struck during Master of Puppets. And you're like, yeah, okay. That's not the same as striking during Ride the Lightning. Well, me just being a concerned adult, I was like, Well, did everybody take shelter after? Did they post Did they pause the show? Everybody, please proceed. You know what it made me think of?

Gavin Rosdale playing Glycerine. In the rain. Do you remember that shit? No. It was like Lollapalooza or something. Or like, I don't even, maybe it was like something else. Did he look all nineties? Like shirtless, head down? It was raining and yeah, he had like a, like a silk button up shirt on or something.

Not shirtless though? Yeah. It was just him and he was like risking electrocution. Well everyone on, on stage, right? Just about. I guess. I don't know how that works. I actually, I would probably do it and not worry about it all that much. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm sure there's. Instances of it happening. I've touched a microphone with my mouth and felt like I was going to get like blown the fuck off the stage was like, got shocked in the face thing from sweat.

Yeah. It's like sometimes there'll be a mic that's hot and you'll touch it and it'll fucking shock the fuck out of you because it's hooked up to all this stuff. The motion you made to To like, show me that is the same I would do for like, nuts on my lower lip, if that were ever a thing. And it's thank you in sign language.

Well that's this. That's just like the one. Nuts. One nut off my lips. What's the soft pat? It's thank you. Is that like, Is it like thank you in that voice? Yeah. Uh, what'd you watch this week? You know, not as much stuff as I intended to watch. We watched a lot of, uh, we'd been watching Elementary. Oh. You like it?

I watched part of it a long time ago. But, yeah. Who's in that again? Johnny Lee Miller and, uh, Lucy Liu. It's like a bad ABC or NBC police procedural in New York with Sherlock Holmes, but it's very enjoyable if you like that kind of thing. Let's get Johnny Lee Miller some work, right? Well, he, it was on for, like, two years.

Seven to ten years or something like that. It's a long series. Long enough for Lucy Liu to become blonde. Didn't Bones happen for a really long time? Oh yeah, forever. Because I didn't do Bones, but everybody was like, Bones. I'm like, I don't, I don't know. I've done Bones in a hotel room. Is that code? No, it's like, I don't know, like, out of order, like, uh, mystery show marathon, mystery channel marathon, or whatever it is, clue.

Is that what it is? Out of order. There's, there's like a, uh, Oh, I know what you're talking about. It's like a police procedural channel, basically. I think I know what you're talking about. It's the, it's been a while since cable, man. I don't know anymore. Because what's exclusive to like Roku, Roku, Roku or a Samsung TV, you know, Samsung TV is a thing.

Oh yeah. The fireplace and everything and then everything else. No, I mean on our Samsung TV in the bedroom. It's got channels like there's a movie guide. Yeah, so deserves. I watched Point Break on it. Remember? Does yours default to like the true crime channel though? It does, it's playing Forensic Files like all the time.

Or something like it, with reenactments. And that's what I like about it, is because most of the time when I do go to a hotel room, I watch Forensic Files. But hey, why the fuck is it, is that why it defaults to that? Olympia and I joke, cause like we put it on to watch whatever we watch in the evening, and it's always like, Her body was found behind the bar.

Do you think maybe it's an algorithm? And they're like, we know you. You're like, what the fuck? Or just, we always hear like the most absurd stuff. before whatever we're about to watch. I can put it on like nineties music videos. That's it makes me feel good. Um, no, just out of nowhere. She'd pointed out. It's just back.

I kind of want to hear about the fucking decapitation, you know, or whatever happened in the woods or behind the bar. I do want to hear about it in Pennsylvania, always in Pennsylvania, in Pennsylvania, like it. When is it going to be like an Amish man? That's what I want to see. I want to see a Forensic Files about a fucking murderous Amish man.

Haymitch or something like that. Like there was no ring camera footage. It's all reenactment. It's like kingpin. It's all out of context. The reenactment's like an animation Can't even can film it. Oh Man So but nothing in particular like not really like outside of elementary literally Not really. Like, uh, we watched, for some reason we watched Dumb and Dumber 2.

Because it, it puts it right in your face. Yeah. It keeps wanting me to do it. I'm like, yeah. I can't remember if I saw it or not. Ooh. I've seen it once. I, I very much enjoyed it. Okay. Very much. Maybe I should try it again. I've seen it once. It was what I was in the mood for. It wasn't as funny as I wanted it to be, but I did enjoy it.

I enjoyed the, the whole time. They're like much worse people when they're older. But the setup for the movie is incredible. What was he like comatose or something like that? He's been like doing the, like the last like face he makes where he's like in the movie. Where he like goes catatonic, like he's just been doing that the whole time.

And then it's like a running gag. Like that he just faked it the whole time. The whole time. It's fucking amazing. I ruined it. Uh, yeah, that was pretty much like, just been watching loose ends shows that have been airing here and there. You know, that's still on, which is mostly police procedurals. Uh, I need to watch Outer Range, but I just want to do it in a lump.

Season two. Yeah. It's out. I just want to go all the way through. Prime original. Yeah. They dropped all the episodes at once, but I didn't jump on it immediately. Okay. I just want to ritualize it a little, you know, like, like three days, make it a thing. It'll just be one, one, I think one to two days, man. I want to watch some of these shutter TV series.

They're not shutter TV series, but they're on shutter. I watched the Terror season one. I wanna watch The Terror season two. It's a different story. Yeah. Have you never seen those? I saw the first one. Okay. The one that was, uh, the, the Terror by Dan Simmons. But you didn't see the Japanese World War ii? No, I didn't see that one.

Okay. I. Want to watch that. I didn't finish it. So I saw also I saw one and I started to I got pretty far I just didn't it was when I think I still had cable. Oh, yeah DVR. I'm pretty sure there's a season of channel zero I want to watch too. I'm curious about that man. The first season was Incredible. Okay.

I see. I never saw the second one and I don't know if they're in order, but they're all different stories. So I see it on there. It's better than American Horror Story 'cause it's fucking weird and it doesn't have a Kardashian in it. It doesn't have a Kardashian in it. They lost me. Uh, it's fine. Uh, maybe it is.

I don't know. I'm not watching it. . I haven't watched it. I have no place to to weigh in on it at all. It might be great. I can't imagine it is. Nah, I did, I did. I've done movies and TV the last few days. Squeezes in quite a bit of stuff, Walking Dead, still going. We're at the bad one, like the first, like, what I consider the bad one.

A slump? No, like where it happens. Lucille. It hurts. We can't watch it. What season is that? It's like six. I'm pretty sure it's six. Sucks. But we're on that episode, I just can't hit play yet. But we'll get there. Um, I've been on Apple TV. That's why I've been taken away from Shutter. Have you watched any movies on there?

You can say which Greyhound. I watched the Tom Hanks World War II movie. You That's that's the one that I wanted. I kind of knew you were gonna say something like that I think I expected that to be what it was, it was some weird old man shit. It is, but Tom Hanks does so good. You know I just started watching Slow Horses.

No, this was a very like fast paced like war movie, and it looked good. It's got that Apple money. That's what I'm liking about Apple. They've got budget. Everything has budget. And I, it's, it's kind of staying prestige. You know, it feels like HBO. Everything's fancy. Yeah. It's when you get Tom Hanks on, you know, cause I want to watch the other stuff.

He's another, that, uh, I forget the name of, but anyway, also Ted Lasso. I've almost completely finished Ted Lasso. I get it. It's so feel good. Um, I just, I couldn't get into it. You couldn't? No. Oh, I'm almost done with it. Kelly would watch it and I would just be like, I don't know. It does make me feel good.

And the characters are likable. I wish I would've watched it when it was a thing. Flipping through shutters making me excited though. There's like, there's more stuff like that. I'm like, Ooh, what is that? I need to go back. I've been flipping through Apple and going to sleep to like, just old stuff on Netflix.

I'm glad you're exploring the Apple products. I pay for it. Some of those shows are really fucking good. Severance. You gotta fuckin watch it. I, I, it's on the list. Just watch the opening credits. Ha ha ha ha ha. You'll have ya. Well, I've seen the opening credits. Oh, have you? Yeah. Yeah, and there's some fucked up stop motion on Shudder.

Ha ha ha. If we don't do one of those, I'm definitely going to watch them. Yeah, I'll have, just check out the one you were talking about. Yeah, I don't take acid anymore, but Still be cool. I think it'd be scary. It'd be very scary. Watch it during one of these fucking thunderstorms. I like them. I sleep really good.

All the other, all the dogs pant in my face, their fucking butthole breath in my face. Don't get, I love the rain. Actually. They just do that to Kelly. I don't like what the bugs do where I'm at. They're like, Oh, the June bugs are out of control. Well, I'm fighting ants. The yellow jackets come out when it's all humid and shit after, you know, They're everywhere.

The yard is real long. Yeah. I mean, fuck me. The yard. Watch out for the yard. But yeah, this week, uh, Z, not world war Z. I feel like the reason, like I was like, yeah, let's do that one. It was, I was like, oh, that's about zombies. And it wasn't. And I was like, Oh, okay. Not about zombies. And then I forgot what it was about and Z didn't disappoint me at all.

This freaked me out a couple of times. Did you ever see mama? No, I never did. That, that has a old, I forget who's in mama. I have it on Blu ray. It's a Jamie Lannister, isn't it? Is it? Isn't he in that? I don't know. It was one of the last blu ray movies I bought from the last blockbuster in my neighborhood.

I feel like that's exactly the kind of movie You need to buy as your last movie from a blockbuster. Well, you know, it was pre owned, so it was cheaper. I hadn't seen it and I like horror movies. And I was, you know, back then I was happy about having my Blu ray. And there used to be like stacks of pre owned movies at blockbuster, just like a whole display of the same thing.

And you're like, yeah, you bought too many of those, huh? Yeah. I mean, I, I have some Hollywood DVDs that have the receipts in them from what was it, the dot matrix printer. The, Oh yeah. Yeah. If we had the whole, the holy shit that you could. Perforate and tear off. Yeah. I would sit at work and rip that shit off.

l, what was it? I mean, like,: 2009

From behind the, you bring us the like, the case with the styrofoam inside it. And then now we have the click, click. Yeah. Your job was easier, dude, because you only have to reshelve one thing, but the unclicking and then checking the box, you'd stack and make sure that then scan them in, oh yeah, that was my favorite.

There was a whole, like, you know, I had a whole process. Oh, we couldn't scan them in. I had to punch it in by hand. Every movie had a four to five digit number. And you punched it into the computer and it would pull it up. And so you had to, you brought up the person's account and then you punched in the thing and it brought it up like a list of, of movies that have had that number over time.

Which one are you, is one of them the one you're holding? And then you would pick it. There were parts of our system that were prehistoric, but no, checking in and out was not difficult. Basically what appeared on the screen was. The receipt that printed out when you were done it had the name of the movies and how much it cost and all that stuff And then it would print out and I would hand it to someone and they would sign it and then they'd hand it back to Me it was completely pointless Did you have the history on that profile anywhere like what a person had rented actually, you know what it was the carbon copy thing So, you would do that, print it out, and then we took one and get, you signed it, and we took one.

Oh, you even had the car Ours was no carbon copy. Yeah, it was ridiculous. It was so antiquated. And then, that was it. And then, at one point, our credit card machine was so old, it was from the 90s. And it, like, took a really long time, and it made a dialing sound. Yeah. Like a modem. Did you have to put quarters in that bitch to make it run sometimes, or what?

We fucking stopped working one day. Yeah. And we had to use the Ka Chunk machine for like a month. You know, the carbon copy credit card thing? We would do that, and he would send them to the bank. He did that for a month before the bank was like, What the fuck? Basically, they were like, Do you need a credit card machine?

We'll hook you up with merchant services. And he called them and they were like, Why do you still use that? Like, with those 10, 000 models in between, like the amount of upgrades that have happened for free. Like, just nobody bothered to ask. Z was good. I had this feeling like I'd seen something like it before.

You know what I mean? Oh, for sure. It had like components of, uh, things that actually may have come out later. Later that I was thinking of like, I felt like the pace of the movie kind of felt like Barbarian and, uh, Smile. Yeah, like the way the story was divided up, especially smile. I feel like there's a very similar story form In this one and that one and it's also sort of a Babadook.

It only gets you once. Babadook isn't as scary the second time. It's that first time when you're not prepared. I think I've only seen it once. Like Debra Logan. Debra Logan freaks me out. Yeah, it's when she's up there being the operator You know Butt naked. Yeah, skinny as hell. This was like, this was a good find because it spooked me multiple times.

Like there were multiple times where I was like And it was in a like A scary monster kind of way and very obvious like it was like we're gonna yeah, we'll just show you and it'll still freak you out The mural one. The mural freaked me out a lot. in z Beth and Kevin's son, Josh starts to play with an imaginary friend called Z.

The boy is suspended from school for generally being a little piece of shit, and they take him to the town's. He's like the town's only therapist, right? He's a . Like if that's the town's only therapist, what the fuck? I mean, how big is the town? Do you think that, like, small towns just have one therapist? I don't think it's small towns.

Or is that just a thing that happens in, like, Stephen King movies? They live in a very, uh, affluent area. Yeah, that's what I mean. It's like a harbor town in Maine, and they have one therapist. Yeah. Or something. Okay, you know, I thought of the houses more. He would make sense as like the only one. Cause he's got something in his history, right?

or something. He was renowned in something at some point. Like there's some sub story where it's like some young therapist, young red headed girl therapist that is in town. She hates the old man therapist, but he's seen the things that go on in people's minds. Did you ever see Doc Hollywood?

That old doctor was such a prick, anyway. He kind of made that movie, though. The old doctor? Yeah, yeah. Was the old doctor the grandpa from Lost Boys? I think it might be now that you say that. Oh my god, was that the fucking grandpa? No! Was it? Note to self. Wait, for real? Note to self! Sorry, go ahead. Anyway, the town's only therapist.

And he connects the imaginary playmate to a malicious entity that Beth had dreamed as a girl. I guess that's what he thinks? She created it! And to make matters more complicated, Beth's mother passes away. She's terminally ill, I think, or could be. Who knows yeah at this point mm hmm She dredges up these dark memories of the family's past when when she dies and the lesbian sister he gets all upset You think she was a lesbian.

Oh, she she talks about like her girlfriends or no way. Yeah Yeah, how did I miss that like a little like yeah, by the way in here? How did it I like I like the subtlety of it I didn't pick it up. And then later Beth starts to see Z herself and the entity becomes like violent and kind of like a perv. He's kind of a perv.

Did you think he was gonna fuck her? My, one of my last notes was did she fuck it? I thought Aunt Kelly thought that she was gonna have a baby at the end of this or something. Oh, cause Z was gonna get what he wanted. Yeah, we were thinking a baby was coming, but they definitely like fucked when they slept together, right?

I feel like that was that something was happening She was sitting there holding the phone then it comes to cuddle spoon and it was the fluffing of the sheets I feel like it was like or the comforter the you know what I mean? Yeah, there was like an extra fluff or two that was like, what's that? Was that a hippo?

Adjustment from Z like I'm glad you saw that too because I also was like are they gonna fuck yeah Well, you know we talked about those weird alien ones or like creature ones where you know They have somebody has to fuck it. And so why not with this Imaginary friend. Laughing Fucking cross eyed motherfucker.

Sigh But I think they did. I think she did. I think so too. She fucks the evil imaginary friend. This should really be the end of the conversation. Yeah. But we're here already. Let's get into how we got there. Z is yet another Shudder exclusive for our Summer of Shudder Spectacular, Summer of Shudder Spectacular, Summer of Shudder Spectacular.

No, I got this, it was a, I don't have a list, but I have like a, for Summer of Shudder Spectacular, for Summer of Shudder Spectacular. Too, too high, too high. Yeah, see, yeah. Just continue. Okay. You want it even more? No, no, you're good. Just a little like Michael Palin, you know, he always had that little twinkle.

The movie was directed by Brandon Christensen and based on a script written by Christensen and Colin Minahan and stars Jet Kline as Joshua Parsons. Keegan Connor Tracy is Elizabeth Beth Parsons. Both laugh. Like it's, like it's fucking Calamity Jane. Beth Parsons. Uh, Sean Rogerson is Kevin Parsons. Not Rogerson.

I did for a second. I was like, does that say Seth Rogen? Yeah, but it's Sean Rogerson, but it's not, is it Sean Rogerson or Rogerson it's gotta be Rogerson. Yeah, you're probably right. But I want to say Rogerson. I feel like Rogerson would need the S E N. You know what I mean? Change your name, sir. The Rogerson.

Sarah Canning is Jenna Montgomery. Steven McHattie is Dr. Seeger. Chandra West is Georgia. The movie holds a 97 percent Tomatometer score and a 49 percent audience score, with a respectable 5. 5 on IMDb. And I'm pretty sure at the time I looked this up, it said 5. 6. It's a little weird that this has a 97.

Like, what are, what's going on with those reviews? When I saw that That it was that high. Like, those are, like, very high reviews. And there were like 35 reviews, like total, like critic reviews. So I don't know what. It's happening with the equation there, but 5. 5 is the sort of movie we pick a lot of the time, and I know it's a nice well, I know it's a shutter exclusive, but I don't remember ever seeing a preview for this.

Oh, no, not at all. And it had that girl from that show. You watched. Yeah. In this case, for me, it's Battlestar Galactica. Yours is a Battlestar. Yeah. Do you know what my bigger one was? The final destination that she was in. Oh, really? I can't picture that in my head. I was trying to figure out what it was and I was like, Oh, she's a, uh, Baltar groupie.

Is that who she was in Battlestar. That's what she was, yeah. She was one of like the, the, oh, they're cater to him all chips when he was like off in some random part of Galactica. Mm-Hmm. Like doing a radio show. Yeah. Off on it. Wasn't it another ship even It was a, the Jesus moment for him. Yeah, he was, he was rising up from the, from the ashes and he was off ship.

Wasn't it a different ship, like a cargo ship or something like, you know, I can't remember now, but I think he is. They are on Galactica. Okay. At that point. One of the cargo holds or something? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, that makes sense. I'll do it again. I want to watch it all again. We started to, I think I may have lost a disc.

Oh, it's on like Peacock or something. But I think I may have lost a disc on Blu ray. I have it on DVD in a box, in a box set. Well, somebody had to get us one, like it's not the same, uh, what do you call it on the player? You know, the region, the region setting is Oh. But it still works. Oh, it's like a region three or something.

I think it came from the UK. Okay. So we didn't really have to change anything, but, um, we used to buy those at the video store and he would rent out region free things. Cause you could get it like a couple of weeks early. So Battlestar Galactica, he bought. Six region free DVD players and got season two or three early from the UK.

And he thought he was fucking, he was like, people are going to come in for this. And no fucking way they did. Nobody did that. No one wanted that. I mean, it was a popular show at the time, but. Nobody wanted that. I think I've said, our Hollywood had some of them. Everyone could wait a week to not rent a DVD player.

You know what I mean? Hey, I rent, I, uh, well someone rented a Super Nintendo for me before I had my own. I rented a Sega. They did. And realized I wanted one. Yeah. I rented a Sega with a Sega CD. And I realized I didn't need the other part. And you're like, that's, meh, very niche. Anywho. Z! Super sidetracked tonight.

Z! It's video store related though. It is. I know, it's like, I feel like we haven't had a lot of that in a while. Nah, not in a while. We should sprinkle it in more. Yeah, not a lot of reminiscing about that. Yeah, that would be a good sprinkle. Sorry. That's how life is though. It comes around in waves. Yeah, like rainstorms, so we picked this movie because it was on a list of movies that we would like to check out We've never seen it before either one of us.

I'm not disappointed. I was spooked sometimes as I've said already Because it really got me like I had some of those like you know Like monster movie things that I really like in a bad movie, too But this one wasn't that bad It just, it had some bad special effects moments here and there, but none of them were related to the horror.

No, but it had your classic asshole husband. Yeah. And he wasn't that bad. He wasn't that bad. But you know, when he faked her out that one time, totally saw that coming. I was like, Oh, when he was like, I saw the thing. Yeah. He's like, I saw something. I was like, I was with her for a second. Like I was like, fuck.

Is he fucking with her or not? And when he was, I was like, what if he wasn't? Like, I kind of turned it around in my head, you know? Nice touch. The little kid wasn't too creepy. He was almost like, not a part of it for me. Uh, he was just kind of like, we have this kid. He's going to be part of it. I like that it focused on the mom.

I also, I kind of like that, This is a person who's never like a leading role in anything. Like she is in a lot of stuff. A lot of, she is, that was a big list. A lot of things I've watched. So like, that's also like notable to me. I like when there's like a pattern to it where it's like, well, this is like a person I know, but.

Other people don't necessarily know her, but she's been in a bunch of shit. But you've never seen her. I hadn't seen her in a lead lead role before. I don't know what her fucking name is. You know, like I had never known what her name was before this. And I'm going to have a hard time remembering Keegan Connor Tracy because it's a three name.

As Beth. I'll remember Sean Rogerson. Rogerson.

Sean Rogerson. What if this is like the one time somebody, what, listen, like from the movie, listen to our podcast? And we just What the fuck are they picking on me for? I know. It's not even that weird, man. I know, it's just, it's the Seth Rogen thing. How does that happen with Sean Rogerson? The dead mother thing, like, kinda was, like, I was like, I don't know that we need this all that much.

Like, the, the mom being ill. Cause it didn't tie into how the dad left the world. You know, we didn't find that out till the end. And I'm like, give us that a little sooner. It did become a circular thing, though. In a way. Hmm. Like the catatonic mom. You know what I mean? Oh! Oh! Like the catatonic bomb comes back around again.

Yeah. So that might explain But it was like in an unexplainable way, like it was like why not? Like why not just connect it all the way? All the way back. We don't have to explain it. And somebody else might be mad about that, but I was actually like, I like it. No dude, that's a good one. I didn't put that together.

I can't believe it. Damn, that's a good one. Steven McHattie. Always a fan. Yeah. He's another one of those guys like you don't really know his name, but he's fucking great. He's got this look that I realized is in most of the movies and it's like he freezes up and he does this thing with his eyes and but you don't know what direction it's gonna go because that that's just his paws sometimes because sometimes it's not even before anything like climactic happens.

Yeah. It's just like. He gets this very, like, still look with his fuckin eyes. Oh, fuckin Pontypool. It's been years. Yeah. I mean, it's on our list. It's on Shudder. Yeah, we might do that one. Might do it. Well, and I wanted to take it back just The teacher is such a disapproving hoebag. Like, that teacher Like, because she was down on all this shit?

It was just so emphasized and I didn't feel like a teacher would have this kind of like you don't meet with the teacher and they suspend your kid. Yeah. Like you go to the principal, right? Somebody, even back in the day, like that shit was like the principal. That way it was kind of documented. Yeah, it was like an administrator meeting.

Yeah. Not like you're, you know, No. Your elementary school teacher isn't like, Pulling the trigger on a I'm here to break the news to you. In school suspension, or like, at home suspension. And guess what, I'm the one who provided all the information about him being a little fuck ass. Yeah, I mean, and if the warnings were that serious, you're gonna accept a signed piece of paper from the kid?

Yeah, that doesn't seem That's very 91, 92. This They don't do that in a newer time than that. No, no. In this movie. Well, I sent home five red cards. Like, what red What Who the fuck are you? Yeah. Where's my email? And was Dad just like, Oh, yeah, sure, whatever. Like, signing them? Or was he like, That a boy. That a boy.

Um, but then we meet Zvi, uh, I almost said Zvi. Zvi. He's Zvi. Zvi. We met Zvi right off the bat. The Discovery Zone thing? And I know it wasn't called Discovery Zone, it was something else. I just said play zone. I think that's what it was called. Play zone. But it made me think of the old DZ. Remember they rebranded it last minute where they all disappeared.

Well, so here and we had a pandemonium, pandemonium turned into DZ. I never went to DZ. Oh, they had them like in shopping centers in South Carolina, but my dad lived there. They were like all over the place. It was like an indoor playground all over. Do you know where the closest one to where we were? No.

Across the street from Highland Mall. Oh. Yeah, by Sugars. I swear to God, it shared a parking lot with Sugars. Drop your kid off at the DZ and go over and get you a steak. I feel like there was a row of like hedges. And that was it in between the parking lots of Sugars and Pandemonium later on DZ Discovery Zone.

What more can a kid ask for? Because when I was a kid Sugars is a strip club if you haven't picked that together, yeah. Sorry, just started reminiscing there as a young child going to the mall or Pandemonium and seeing Sugars. Anyway, my favorite thing in this movie is when she says my kid isn't a children of a child of the corn or whatever She says or whatever Like it's like a joke And it played really well like the way she said that, you know, it's a child of the cornfield Um, doesn't it always seem like it's always one parent who sees it It's like classic.

Yeah, yeah. One season, one dozen. Yeah, or it's just from the kid's point of view and both parents are evil or something. I kind of like that it was like, the mom, he has that play date, and he goes over to the kid's house where she's like going through the list. Why? When that happened, were you like, what the fuck?

No, that kid got fucking dropped. Yeah. I was not expecting that to happen. And I was like, surely someone's going to die soon or something. Well, no, I was totally expecting something to happen. I wrote parenting notes through the whole first part of this. I guess they were built building up to like. They were a date time.

And like you're saying, she goes through the whole list, right? Like the whole roster for that kid's class. And everybody's like, no, fuck that. Your kid's the weird kid. Sorry. We've got plans. Oh, we have another play date. No, fuck that. You know, they, the shit they do in this movie, I feel is almost like before we knew what we knew at the end, if it's, they talk about, Oh, imaginary friend.

Is that okay? Meanwhile, she's like sipping wine on the couch and they're just watching TV. Maybe do something about it. Instead you're just gonna be like, Oh, yeah, I would suck. Oh, yeah, fuck it. Next episode. You know what I mean? Yeah. No, there were just a couple of other things. She doesn't even do the fucking carpool.

She lets another mom do the carpool. So these are like parenting criticisms. Yeah. Um, he wanted her to play the lava game. She's doing laundry. It's, it's nighttime. Yeah, it might be close to bed. Play one fucking game. You wanna talk about why this kid is weird and doesn't have any friends. Maybe he needs some attention.

He did tell them that, but He, they should try to be his friend. Yes. And that's what I'm saying is that the first part of this is a lesson in parenting, this fucking kid's got issues because they're not doing their part of this. So you want to wonder why it's coming back in the mom's direction. I like how very, the subtleties of her parenting that you first attacked.

Like the first one is that. She let another person drive her kid to school. No, just obviously she's not the volunteer mom, which I'm not hating on. It's all the other things tied together. She doesn't seem like a very involved mother. She loves her kid, but what sort of, uh, sort of relationship does she have there?

She doesn't have a job, right? I'm thinking she's a stay at home mom. Look at that bathroom. There was no indication she went to work. Not at all. And that's I thought she took care of her invalid mother. But I was also like, Wait, do you just leave your invalid mother at this house? I'm sure she had hospice care.

She They just weren't around. We didn't Pay the actor these are these are gripes, but they're not really gripes. No about the movie not about the movie I'm just saying like part of what plays into the child's personality might have been the shitty parenting. That's not something I picked up How is this entity back in her mind after so many years of being blocked?

Oh shocker Yeah. Shocker! What was dad doing? Was he, like, an architect or something? Or was he, like, doing a heavy duty math equation? He's a business professional, okay? He measures the universe in quarters. And dimes.

I, I was not He's a child of the court field? He's a child of the Or whatever. Whatever. Um, coolest therapist ever? Kind of. I mean, he was in Pontypool. Pontypool. He wasn't punny. Looks good in a cowboy hat. He's got the still face. He used to be Night Owl in Watchmen. He's an old Night Owl.

Think of that one. I could probably think of some other ones. He's been around a lot. He's another one of those guys. He's in tons of stuff. Bad guy a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, how about this? She puts him on drugs. She puts the kids on drugs to cope with everything without telling the dad. That's also not good parenting.

Also, she like slips it to him. Instead of just being like, you need medicine. Here's your medicine. She crunches it up and fucking spikes his drink. Yeah, and the kid, the The entity thing is telling him not to do it. She thought she, do you think that she crushed a pill into both milks? Cause she didn't know which side he was going to sit down on.

Maybe it didn't show the placement of the one that she put the powder in. I was thinking about it. Like, I was like, if you have to set a table for the, the, uh, Imaginary friend, too, then. I mean, I had it in here, like, why did they, uh, Why'd she dose her kid? Just fuckin give him the medicine. And when did he start eating?

Like, later in the movie, he was like, the imaginary friend actually was drinkin the milk and stuff? Later, later. 2%! 2%! Sorry! Sorry! 2%? You have both kinds of milk? Just by 2%. I mean, he's kinda like a permanent dinner guest at that point. It's like an extra plate on the table, dude. Every night. 2 percent for this.

Cause we all still drink milk with dinner. That would be good. Man. We did when we were kids. Did you milk? Yeah, I had like relatives if I'd be at an aunt's house. They would do it. Sometimes. What are y'all doing? I have chocolate milk before bed. There was a show called you're the worst that I was watching and That's one of the things is like she has like domineering parents and they're like drink your milk Finish it.

She's like an adult. She's like, yes No, it's like that's such a our generation. I had my mouth washed out once or twice with milk soap soap. Uh, no, it never happened to me. I had it threatened once, but not by my mother. It was like by somebody else's mother. It only happened once or twice, but, uh, and to be fair, I probably deserved it.

This movie took a hard turn into like weird, abusive relationship stuff afterwards. So. You find out the imaginary friend was once Beth's. She went through this process to get rid of the entity. And it just so happens to be the same therapist. Because he's the only one in town. It's all coming together.

I'm glad we're talking this out. That's where I got the idea. Okay. It's like, I mean, what are the odds? Did he even know? Nobody else can stare at a patient like he can stare at a patient. Those baby blues. Yeah. Z. What'd you say? Let me show you this patient profile that has this fucking ominous mugshot attached to it like we used to take pictures of every kid when they came.

You like how everything has a picture in movies? Oh, here's their file and it's some fucking picture. Nobody ever lined me up against a wall and took a picture of me at my pediatrician. Frank age six. Frank age seven. It wasn't a thing. Look at, look at the circles under his eyes. They're getting darker every six months.

It's hereditary The fire looked terrible the fire when the house burns down. Oh, yeah If I was gonna get hung up on a special effect like that, I was like that was this is garbage Yeah, they don't have that with stereo way money. What was weird was some of it looked good Mm hmm, and then they like added more but that was my only like special effect complaint because When she's in the fucking bathtub.

Oh. That scared the shit out of me. You knew something was coming though, right? Mm hmm. You know something's coming. He was all cross eyed. Mm hmm.

That cross eyed thing really got you, huh? Kelly. Mate was like, he looks goofy and happy. And why did that scare you so much? And I was like, cause it upset me. Like I got like goosebumps and I was like, ah, I knew it was because I knew it was coming. There was like the splash. Well, and there's this certain look for these, like, okay, malignant.

Kind of similar, huh? Maybe a little bit. And I feel like that's why I mentioned Mama earlier, because I feel like the, the thing, I feel like they all have this same, like, When it ran through the tube, The tube, yes! Yeah. Yeah. That shit, fuck it. Like, I was like, Like, there were a few times, and they got you with the, like, the eyes the first time, and it wasn't even that.

Well, so, Not only did it make me feel I go to those places There's one off Anderson Mill. Oh, like you take your kid there. Yes, you're gonna see it go through

Behind your daughter See now you're gonna make me work and all your cabinets are open. Oh They tried. She tried. It didn't work. It didn't work. I mean, I did get goosebumps, and I did feel a little weird. Like, the air stood still. But that was just all in my head. It was a load of those things, like, running up the stairs in the middle of the night.

And then, and like, being like, is something behind me? You know, you just think it for a second, and then you're like, I just, I better run. Just in case. But, uh, the mural, we just, we mentioned them with that mural. Mural freaked me out too. It was creepy. Kids got some skills, right? And kind of the mural coming back is what Did it bleed through the wall?

Was that what happened? I think it was in a, was it in a different place? Was it a new one? I don't know. I think it might, I don't know. Was he just really good at drawing self portraits? Did Z draw it or did the kid draw it again? Was it like in exactly the same? And can this kid replicate art ? Was it like in the mouth of madness where he used one fucking crayon for the whole thing?

Somehow I know how to make it last. I'd rather stay in here

Oh man. But the whole. Like end portion of her, like living with it and acting like a child and then being like weirdly rapey in an abusive relationship. It was fucking gross. And so like we mentioned at the beginning, I feel like she definitely slept with it. I think they, they went to pound town. I really thought this movie was going to end with her being pregnant, which would have been just even darker.

And just weird. And then if it went through the whole thing and had it like, ah, at the end or something, it had scared me enough times that all that time at the end where you just never see it, because that whole like end part, he's just. You don't see it again. It's just implied. He's there and he's like, he's like the husband from Twin Peaks in the trailer when he comes home and he's like, got that ponytail and he looks like he's in Pantera and shit.

And he fucking, he's like, , like, it was like at a, like, you make me dinner, bitch , you know, like kind of shit was happening in that fucking house with that cross-eyed boogeyman. 2%, 2% milk only 2% for z. Were those cops or was that like, uh, those were some orderlies from the funny farm? Those were cops. He called the police for a welfare check.

Oh, that's how I would explain it. All right Because when you're the only therapist in town and you call for a welfare check you better come they're coming They're gonna send not one but two cops. Mm hmm for a welfare check with no badges. No Distinguishing marks on their clothing, but they did have utility belts like Batman and the jackets were just the right amount of puffy Little puffy.

Yeah, just the right amount. You're not flattering like her outfits when she became Abused yeah those starter jackets back in the day remember people used to wear those starter jackets. Yeah, of course I never had one. No, they were expensive. They were hideous. They were I wanted they were expensive I never I had like a hoodie not like a hoodie.

We grew up here. You'd have a heavy coat Where I come from. Where I come from. You gonna wait in the bus house, motherfucker. West Virginia. West Virginia.

But it, the dad suicide thing, so there were some circles that were too small, I thought. Like, they were like, oh, we'll reveal the dad suicide, and that's why He wasn't supposed to go in the room. Yeah. You know, early when she's first packing up the house, like he's in the room and she doesn't want him in there.

And I'm thinking, Oh, is that where the mom died? But I'm like, no, that's a different room. And I did immediately go to, Oh, this explains part of her father, but then they didn't elaborate any further. She just pulls him away. Until way later, but it was almost two after the fact. Yes. If there was something that bothered me the most, that would be it.

There were some bits that seemed thrown in, but actually, like, they were good in a not incredible way. You know, like they made the story more rich. And it might not have been as good without it. If it was just like this lady being crazy and hanging out with her fucking son's imaginary friend. Doesn't look like drop dead Fred to me.

It's like cross eyed Arnold. Zzzz. You with the cross eyed thing, guys. He's so cross eyed, man. I didn't say he had a lazy eye. I said he's cross eyed. His eyes were too close together. Oh, um, Lush, Lushus Jackson? Lushus Jackson? Naked eye. Uh, yeah. What were you going to say, though, as I cut you off three times in a row?

You Vegetable. So was her mom a vegetable because of Z? The first time. Was that what they were implying? Or was he a real entity and he just latched onto the kid now? So he could get back to fucking, he liked that Beth. Yeah. Mmm. Beth. I like that Beth. He likes that Beth. I think it was pretty quick, like, you got the cops doing the welfare check, banging on the door.

And she's on the phone with the sister, right? She goes upstairs and Gets the fucking, whatever, phone cord, rope. It looked like a pretty elaborate noose. And that was not a long amount of time to put all that together. Well, I mean, it wasn't very successful. No. She didn't die. Mm mm. If you want to die, you'll, you'll die.

So what do you, do you think the sister, like, do you think it was a very bad things situation where, like, the sister's just really trying to, like, make life happen and the next thing you know she's gotten some money, but she has to take care of her vegetable sister and her possessive She's saddled with the stuff.

Nephew. Yeah. Did Z remain with the kid at the end? Was that also implied? I think that was implied. Okay. I thought he did the whole goodnight thing, but she killed him. Didn't she? He was just inside her mind. So she hung him herself and he's gone. Well, you know, a different kind of repeater. It all happens before it'll happen again.

He's going to forget down the road. Once he has a kid, his kid's going to have a best friend named Z. Anyway, I wouldn't have put it past this movie at the end for her to be A vegetable and pregnant. Perfect. Next time, who invited them? Who invited them? Is that it? I feel like I'm fucking it up. Yeah. It's called who invited them?

It's also a shutter exclusive. So many shutter movies, summer of shutter. And you know, The scary I'm gonna have to start watching scary movies more at night, you know night lights off I watch this one lights off living room full focus This one kind of revived my urge to seek out a horror movie that actually spooks me a little bit Mm hmm, because sometimes the the ones that aren't As mainstream really are the ones that get me, you know, cause Smile and Barbarian like freaked me out here and there like they were, they were fucking scary movies.

They kind of snowballed into something else at some point, but this one did get me enough times to where I was like, I mean, that's what I came for. Lights Out. That was another one. Lights, we talked about this before. I'm not sure if you were on here. It creeped me the fuck out. It wasn't a great movie.

Lights Out fucked with my head. It fucked with my head lights out was creepy as shit, but I'm enjoying it. And then next time we're, we're going to get back to silly. I think we're going like we get so far, we've got like a late night with the devil had like a silly kind of undertone to it, but, and it was fun, but it was like, it was really good.

And then we went full silly with glorious. And then now we, we found like a, like a, a nice kind of B horror movie, you know, what a beam horror movie is these days. I'm just a little more mainstream. You know what I mean? Like, no, you're not getting that indie feel to it. This one did feel like that. I felt a little indie.

Yeah. Yeah. I felt like it had a straight to video quality to it. Like it wasn't going to be a mainstream level of actor. They, That's where I put Midsommar. Midsommar is like the more indie to me. Oh, Midsommar feels, I'm talking like kind of low budget. The fire, man. All the actors were Canadian, eh, eh,

but you know, I, I feel like this. Who invited them is a little bit more kind of a dinner party movie. Oh, that's what I got a little vibe for it, but it also felt like, uh, the beginning of mother, you know. Oh, where they like go in their house and they won't leave and like more and more people come. Like, I got that sort of anxiety feeling from it.

And I just feel like this is gonna be a, like, what is, what's gonna happen. Like, something is gonna happen. I don't know the names of any of the people in it off the top of my head either. One of them is Dick from Veronica Mars. And one of them is That girl from the, the blind one. Yeah, so we got two WB. Oh, I mean CW.

Sorry. CW characters. Wait, was the blind one on the CW? Yeah, it was a CW show. I watched it on Netflix. I thought it was a Netflix original. Uh, I think it was a CW show. Oh my gosh. And I still can't remember the name of it. I've watched the whole CW. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. Hmm. It feels like I'm right, though.

Right like 2%? 2%. 2%. I like 2 percent milk. Uh, Lactaid 2%. Lactaid? Yeah. No. I know. It's a whole conversation. Man, y'all all got problems. Can't eat whatever you want.

I hope you enjoyed the, uh, countryside and the, uh, The, uh, Madame Butterfly and the Madame Web was apparently a movie. It's got the chick from the Fifty Shades of Grey. And the boobs from the blonde girl. What? She's in this euphoria. Thanks everyone for joining us for the last video store clerks podcast.

Be sure to leave a rating and subscribe. You can find us on Twitter at last clerks, Instagram at the last video store clerks, and you can find Scott at dispatches from the pit. com.