Episode 17: "Lez Scares Jessica to Death” (w/ Parker Brennon!)

''For the second week of Listener Request Month, our guest is the very listener who requested we watch LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH, filmmaker Parker Brennon! The Queerwolves discuss the biology of mice vs. moles, casting a potential remake, and why on Earth anybody would want to make an old white man immortal. Plus, in Tea Time we sip on BIRD BOX, THE FAVOURITE, ROMA, and Parker shares some of his favorite short films!''

Trivia
Second episode of Listener Request Month. Guest this episode is Parker Brennon (Producer Brennan: No relation). Brennan comes out as not agreeing with Mark on Suspiria (2018)

Topics brought up during the episode: Candace Cameron-Buré, Mark Paul Gosselar, Hilary Swank, Sarah Chalke, Jenna Von Oy, Lights Out, David Sandberg's wife Lotta Losten, Lights Out the short, Shazam! (2019), Annabelle: Creation, Chelsea Stardust's shorts for CryptTV, Sam Wineman's short for CryptTV, Dawn a short Mark co-wrote with his partner Josh Miller for Rose McGowan, Filmstruck, Rachel Weisz, Taylor Swift's boyfriend (the blond guy), Shock Waves podcast, Blumhouse Podcast Network, Great News, Tina Fey, The Rural Juror from 30 Rock, Nay's dog Kennedy

Tea Time
Parker: David Sandberg's short Attic Panic, The Birch from CryptTV

Nay: Bird Box

Michael: The fucking Favourite, Freshman Fail, Dying to Belong

 

Mark: ekeing out Suspiria (2018) for his preferred viewing experience of 2018 was getting to see Roma on a gigantic screen in the desert

Shady Summaries
Nay: Don't trust anyone, especially men.

Michael: The most confused I've ever been while watching a movie and yet I can't wait to watch it again.

Mark: Lez scare Jessica to death.

Parker: A bored lesbian vampire who has dominion over a town of geriatric white men decides to mess around with a group of hippies

Pride Float
Nay: Well, would you give it a Pride float?

Parker: Ummmmmmm, no? I wanna give it a float in the Indie Horror Parade, but not in a Pride parade, I don't think

Michael: I think I would in the Seventies

Nay: I would love that parade

Mark: A lot of peasant blouses and a chorus of women singing "Stay Forever, My Love, My Love"

Michael: And just raw meat all over the float?

Parker: Raw meat. I wrote if that I did give it a float, it would just be like a pool that's on wheels and Emily's on a treadmill that's submerged in the water, she's wearing her wedding dress. She's just walking in the middle of the water

Michael: Oh, that's fun

Mark: That's pretty

Parker: Yeah. Coming to get Jessica, fuck that blood

Michael: Yeah, I just see steaks everywhere on the Pride float to me

Nay: I think Jessica and Emily tribbing on top of a platform. That's it.

Michael: (chuckling) I love your Pride floats

Nay: I'm not gonna get, it doesn't get one. It doesn't get one

Michael: It doesn't get one?

Nay: No

Mark: But that's not a knock against the movie, right?

Nay: No, it's not

Michael: No, not at all

Parker: It's one of my favorite movies, but for Pride? "Lesbian panic movie," is what I read someone describing it as

Michael: I can see that a little bit

Parker: Yeah

Nay: Lots of lesbian panic at Pride, so

Mark: Pride can, for many of us, be just a gay panic event

Parker: Yes!

Nay: Oh absolutely. God! I was thinking that this last year: Am I too old for Pride these days? Have I...

Michael: I was jittery as fuck at Pride this last year. Felt very out of place

Nay: There's that, the actual Pride parade, which I don't go to. But then every party, I just feel like every person that you do not want to talk to in Los Angeles and maybe the surrounding areas are at this damn party, are at this event, at this club. Every ex that you don't want to see, their friends, everyone, everyone's rolling through and, "Wow. This is actually the worst and I'm ready to go home immediately."

Parker: Oh my God

Michael: I feel ya

Mark: All right. Well, no Pride float for you, Jessica!

Parker: Awww

Michael: Do we make it do community service with Sleepaway Camp? That's always gonna be my favorite!

Parker: Maybe a little community service

Michael: Sleepaway Camp had to do like twenty hours at the Youth Center

Nay: Yeah

Mark: Sleepaway Camp went to reform school. They were just like, they don't get anything

Quotes
Michael: It's been a while

Nay: (sighs) It really has

Michael: That's the feel of 2019 right there

Mark: Yeah. Already

Nay: I've just been… you know just when you finally get around some gay people and you're just like, "Oh thank God!"? That's how I feel right now

Michael: Oh. Thank you

Mark: Happy to oblige with bringing you a little rainbow comfort

Mark: It has been a minute

Nay: It has been a while

Mark: Since we trash talked Interview with the Vampire. That poor listener, Robert was his name? Robert was like, "This movie meant so much to me," and listen, I'd be a liar if I said that my gay ass wasn't in love with Interview with the Vampire in whenever I saw it, in 1994 when I needed it badly. ''But. Woof.''

Michael: He texted me today laughing

Nay: He did? Oh good

Michael: He was like, "LOL Just listened to the show"

Nay: I'm so happy

Michael: He said it was a very funny episode

Michael: Parker, you're a listener

Parker: Yes, I've listened to every episode

Mark: I'm so sorry. My condolences

Michael: (faux anger) Who's your favorite? Tell me now!

Parker: Wow

Nay: Yeah really though

Parker: I have lovely feelings for each of you

Mark: Oh that's wonderful

Nay: That's fine. But we play favorites

Mark: I was like clearly- oh, a politician I see

Michael: I texted Nay six times today that I love her

Nay: It's true

Mark: I didn't get six "I love you" texts

Nay: Well, y'all actually hang out IRL

Mark: Um, somebody had a headache

Nay: I know. I know

Mark: And let me tell you, we watched something--

Michael: Girl

Mark: That oh my God

Michael: We kept saying, "If only Nay was here right now."

Mark: We were like, "We can't believe Nay wasn't here for this." 'Cause we didn't know if you would have broken the TV or loved it. We were like, "Maybe?" Either way it would have provoked a response

Mark: (scoffing) I don't watch short films, I'm so busy

Parker: It's three minutes long Mark, you can handle it

Mark: I know. I am totally joking. I love- it is incredibly difficult to make and write an effective short film. So, it really is an underappreciated art form

Michael: Lights Out is a film I think we have on our list to do here at some point

Parker: Oh cool

Michael: Clarke Wolfe is a fan of the show and she's really smart, and if we ever have her on, which we will

Mark: For like straight ally month?

Michael: Yes. And she has a very good queer take on Lights Out that I think would be great to hear

Nay: I don't even know what to do right now, because I liked (Bird Box)

Brennan: No, Nay, I'm so with you. I loved it

Michael: Stephen King loved it

Nay: I loved this movie. I feel like I'm the only Black person I know who liked this movie? So I dunno. But I actually really liked it, almost all two hours of it

Mark: I just wanna know what the hell (Sandra Bullock) and Trevante Rhodes were doing for five years. There are no extra babies hiding in the movie. I was just like, "Really? Y'all play Monopoly every night?"

Nay: I think it was lots of hangers. I mean, you don't have access to healthcare and she gonna have Boy One? Boy Two, Three, Four? She's like, "Fuck this."

Mark: You could blind drive to the CVS to get some rubbers, I guess

Michael: They could have. Or maybe one of them had some sort of issue that prevented….

Brennan: This is getting grimmer by the minute. Producer Brennan here. Nay, I am so with you on Bird Box

Michael: On the hangers? Yeah

Brennan: Oh yeah, I love hangers. My favorite thing. Bird Box? It depends where you're coming from, I think. Because I think it's based on one of those elemental things where it's like, "Why has no one else thought of this before?" necessarily, but I'm sure someone has. But as a person, because I have a photosensitivity, so looking at bright lights in low light situations and glare and sunlight. Whatever, everything's bad for me. But the thing is, as a human being with a survival instinct, if there's a flashing light somewhere? I'm gonna look at it and see what's going on. And trying to not look at it and avoid getting a headache is a very difficult thing. And so if I tell you right now, "Don't look at that wall over there," kind of all you wanna do is look right the hell at it.

Parker: Yeah

Nay: Naw

Parker: You would survive, Nay

Nay: I think so. I really think so

Mark: I just started laughing when Dumplin' showed up at the house in (Bird Box). I was like, "Ahhhh, shared universe!" I watched it with Josh and he had the best sort of summation of Bird Box to me, which was that it was, and no shade, but it was at least in terms of lighting or how they chose to shoot it, but he was like, "It's like the best ABC pilot ever."

Michael: Oh my God

Mark: Do you know what I mean?

Michael: That's so smart. I can see that just in the trailer

Mark: Which is not, which is like, you know, listen. After a long day's work, we're done. We're never above a really well-executed--

Michael: Like LOST

Mark: Yeah, exactly. If that's done well, fuck yes! You know what I mean? So like, it never felt quite like a movie, it felt like a sort of gigantic backdoor pilot starring Sandra Bullock yelling at children

Michael: Oh, that's really interesting

Mark: She's like yelling at children the entire time. She's like, "Look at me! Look at me! Shut up!"

Michael: I need to watch this.

Nay: We will not make fun of her

Michael: I love her

Nay: She's my favorite

Michael: I can't wait to fucking see (The Favourite) again

Mark: (orgasmic groan)

Michael: I fucking love that movie. It's so great

Parker: I brought my mom and it was the weirdest thing

Michael: Oh, that's an interesting choice

Parker: Yeah, she wasn't ready for some of that

Michael: It is so good

Mark: When I saw it, it was with a packed audience, but we happened to be sitting in front of a guy, who, every time something crazy happened--

Michael: (softly) Oh my God

Mark: He would literally, he's clearly one of these people that doesn't understand what a movie theater is, and he was like, "Oh my goodness!" "Nooooo!" This is not an exaggeration. He would say it full outdoor voice, full volume. At first I was annoyed and then I was like, you know what, it's just part of the experience. 'Cause the movie is that insane sometimes

 

 

Michael: I went with two friends and we had three seats and there was an empty seat next to me, and a person sat down like right before the movie. So he was by himself and he was kind of doing that, not as loud, but he was like, talking. There were several times where I would like turn and be like, "Are you talking to me?" Because he was like talking to the movie or to me and I was like, "This guy's having a really good time. I'm not gonna ruin it."

Mark: Yeah

Michael: It's so fucking funny

Mark: It's pretty fab

Michael: I love it. Emma Stone's-- I love her. She's so great

Mark: We need to...

Parker: It was really refreshing, because you know with all the period pieces, I thought it was going to be another like The Duchess or Marie Antoinette like type of thing, but the humor was just like, I have not seen this

Michael: The humor was bawdy British comedy set in that era. And I was obsessed with the navy blue choice that they used in the costumes. I'm so used to that era being like, colorless, and they managed to bring color to it, but also keeping it muted. I was obsessed that they wore navy blue for some reason

Mark: I want Olivia Colman to yell at me

Michael: Oh my God. I will rub her gout in so many ways.

Mark: You'll see. You'll see. Nay, Nay just made a face, dear listener

Mark: I don't really know what to say about (Roma), except that it's the type of movie where it is, this is not a movie-- it's almost a shame that it's a Netflix-produced film. Mainly because most people are going to come to it on a very small screen and they're going to start it at ten o'clock while they're on Tinder.

Michael: Right

Parker: "Meet"

Mark: Yeah. And a lot of them are gonna be like, (Valley Girl) "I don't get it, it's boring," (normal voice) and whatever and I just want--

Michael: I love Mark

Mark: I want to say from the bottom of my heart: Shut the fuck up. Watch it in the afternoon. Put down your fucking phone and give yourself over to this gorgeous, gorgeous movie. This is a movie, I don't know if it's gonna hit you the way it did for me, but it's the type of movie where I was speechless after it was over. And an hour later I'm eating Thai food with Josh and I burst into tears over like, where we just started talking about it and I just became a wreck and we started laughing 'cause I was like, I have never- I don't remember the last time I had that experience talking about a movie

Michael: I love that!

Mark: And it's just...

Michael: I love listening to Mark talk about movies

Parker: Yeah, it's lovely. The passion

Mark: It really is a masterpiece. I think it's a masterpiece and not everybody agrees, but I think a lot of people...

Michael: I've heard nothing but good things

Parker: Same

Mark: Okay. I've talked to some people that are like, "I dunno. It didn't really do anything for me." And I'm just like, "You're- I don't understand you."

Parker: The redacted trailer, (for Let's Scare Jessica to Death) I believe

Brennan: Yes. The patience in this room, I notice, gets pretty thin and this trailer's about two-and-a-half minutes long, so I cut it down

Michael: The trailer I watched was like three minutes and it was the longest three minutes of my life

Mark: Now I feel like we have to listen to all of it

Brennan: No, it's like the pilot trailer for God Friended Me, which is like the entire show

Mark: Have you seen? Holy shit

Brennan: It is bananas. Sorry, here's the trailer for Let's Scare Jessica to Death

Michael: Now I wanna watch God Friended Me

Michael: I love old trailers, or I love old movies where the title alludes to something else

Mark: Well, the title is a big misdirect

Michael: Huge misdirect

Parker: The poster too, actually. I mean, it doesn't quite give you what it's selling

Mark: Like the skeleton coming out of lava? Yeah. I was like, "Oh, no lava?"

Parker: And this woman who clearly isn't Zohra Lampert

Michael: I'll get into why the title to me is misleading, but…

Nay: Well there were several other titles

Mark: Ooh

Michael: Oh really?

Parker: Tell us

Michael: Tell us some

Nay: Well, the original- well, you know this movie was supposed to be a comedy right?

Parker: No!

Mark: Stop it

Parker: I'd heard that originally it was people going to a cove and there's something in the water

Nay: Yeah. Called It Drinks Hippie Blood

Michael: I think I saw one was Hippie Vampire was an alternate title

Nay: Yeah. It took me a long time to realize this was a vampire movie

Michael: Same. Yeah, we love doing that here

Nay: We do! But also, Jessica, with that name

Michael: Huh, that fits

Parker: Just Jessica? That's it?

Nay: Jessica and the Satanists

Mark: The Satanists?

Nay: Yeah

Mark: Huh. None of them are as kicky as--

Nay: Let's Scare Jessica to Death

Mark: Yeah, Let's Scare Jessica to Death

Michael: It's a catchy title

Parker: They picked the right one

Mark: I agree

Michael: Can you just imagine a movie named Jessica?

Nay: Jessica. That's a whole different movie

Michael: "Honey you wanna see Jessica?'

Parker: What the hell is that?

Brennan: Like, we reviewed a movie called Rebecca

Parker: Oh, well, it happens

Michael: (fey voice) That sings to me more

Mark: (gleeful) Yeah we did! We sure did!

Parker: That was my favorite episode you guys have done

Michael and Mark: Heyyy girl

Parker: The Rebecca episode

Nay: The Real Housewives of Manderley?

Mark: Why, because it was just an extended "Beeeeeep! Beep be-be-beep beep beep beep!"

Michael: Because it was G-rated?

Parker: Because you Mark, said that Mrs. Danvers takes off her dress and she has the same dress underneath. And that was when I knew, like, this is my favorite episode

Michael: Aw, look, Mark's got "I hate compliment" face

Mark: Awwww. Well, I do remember that the Rebecca episode may have been the last time that I felt that like choking feeling from laughter where I was just like, "It hurts!"

Nay: So like, all these white men in town that she has bitten

Parker: Yes. Exclusively old white men

Nay: Exclusively old white men. That is literally the last people I want to be immortal. You're walking around only biting the old white guys? Are you kidding me?

Parker: They're the only people in town. You can't find anyone else

Nay: Yeah. Right. Where is everybody?

Michael: But in making them immortal, did she make them hers? Like is she their boss?

Parker: Yeah!

Mark: I mean, they kind of seemed like her foot soldiers

Mark: (Valley Girl) Spoilers, you guys!

Parker: There will be a lot of spoilers, I think

Michael: Sorry if we spoiled a forty-eight year-old movie

Parker: I'm guessing a lot of people haven't seen it. Was I… too soon?

Nay: Oh, no. No. Not at all.

Mark: No, it's just everybody seemed to have like, "Yeah, well, we all agree on that." A weird silence fell, but go on sorry

Parker: I was gonna say, I wanted to pick a hidden gem for us to discuss, so I was looking at my Letterboxd list of favorite horror films and I was trying to find one that had some sort of queer element to it, and this was the one that stuck out

Michael: Yeah. I actually had never seen the movie

Parker: Okay, cool

Michael: So it was my first time watching

Nay: Same

Michael: And it's so interesting. I can't think of any other word to describe the film

Parker: Yeah

Michael: You had messaged me today at some point saying you had twenty more minutes to watch and I was like, "You need to watch it, it's like where stuff happens actually!"

Mark: Right

Michael: But at the same time, I loved everything leading up to that for some reason? It's such a weird movie

Parker: Yeah

Michael: There were times when I was watching it that were like, "Do these people, were these people in on the fact that they were making a movie? Or did they not know there was like cameras following them in their life?" Because I felt like stuff was really happening to them, but at the same time I didn't think they were good actors. Does that make sense at all?

Nay: You know the worst actor in the movie? That mouse that was supposed to be a mole. I was like--

Parker: Ohhh my God yeah

Mark: (as Jessica) "Look, it's a mole!"

Nay: I was like, "That is a mouse."

Mark: "Jessica, are you okay?"

Michael: Should we give a quick recap for listeners of what the plot is, 'cause it's like a two sentence rundown of what the plot is? Parker, do you wanna?

Parker: I'll try to do one

Michael: Jessica is released from a mental institution...

Parker: Yeah, that's how it opens. She, her husband and this guy who apparently just lives with them drive into town in a hearse and right away it's just like old white men who are running the town like, "These damn hippies!" So they move into this weird--

Michael: I love that none of their lips matched what they're saying

Parker: Yes!

Michael: Like, at all

Parker: And that's something I want to talk about later, but I'll keep talking about what the movie's about. So they arrive at this old house and they meet Emily, who's this, everyone's attracted to her

Michael: We should say

Nay: (scoffs) I fucking cannot. Are you fucking kidding me? (as Jessica) "Here you are in my house, I'm already can't trust myself, I'm like scare--"

Michael: (as Jessica) "Do you wanna stay?"

Nay: (as Jessica) "Do I wanna sta-- no, get the fuck out. Weirdo."

Michael: So we should probably say too, that Jessica's husband bought an apple orchard-slash-farm

Nay: On a Connecticut island

Parker: Yes

Michael: To help her get well. And basically went bankrupt in the process, so they have no other option but to make it work

Parker: Yeah

Michael: They find a...

Nay: 'Cause if there's anything you need while recovering--

Michael: Is running a farm

Nay: From a stay in an asylum is pressure to make your fuckin' farm profitable

Mark: Yeah, on top of it, it's like, it's now that you've gotten to the farmhouse and there's like, a fucking Manson girl living there

Michael: Yes! Oh my God, exactly

Nay: A Manson girl

Mark: I was like, "And she's a Manson girl..."

Michael: And she's playing the guitar

Nay: That song

Mark: I have to say, the scene in the kitchen to that song, is kind of my favorite moment in the movie

Parker: It's beautiful

Michael: Yeah, he brings out that giant--

Mark: It's a beautiful, legitimately haunting

little tune and there's something very intimate about the scene

Michael: It's really cool!

Mark: I mean, that's the thing about this movie, is that it's very cheap

Parker: Yes

Michael: Yes

Mark: You can tell it was made--

Nay: In twenty-five days

Mark: For fifty bucks

Michael: Twenty-five? That's a lot

Parker: (haughtily) It was made for one hundred and eighty thousand dollars

Michael: That's a lot

Mark: In 1971

Parker: In 1971, right

Mark: And I was looking at it going, "Did Paramount pick this up or was Paramount...?"

Michael: They had to have, right?

Mark: I dunno. I have no idea. Either way, there's- and yet the movie has something. It's somehow more than the sum of its parts. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I think that Zohra Lampert, who never really had, as far as I know, didn't have as great a showcase as this ever again. I mean, am I crazy or is she kind of wonderful?

Parker: I think so too

Nay: Yeah

Michael: There was a weird- She and the movie have this weird quality that you're like, "What the fuck is this?" But it kind of lulls you into like, "I like what you're giving me."

Michael: Fun fact about that song, by the way, is they had every intention to replace that actress's voice with a professional singer--

Parker: Yes. But she was so good

Michael: But when they played it back, I think they saw some of what you were talking about.

Mark: Yeah. It's so intimate

Michael: Because I bet it was just written as being a song that they sing. But to me it was part of the spookiness

Nay: Yeah

Michael: And I think I texted you guys yesterday being like, "Jessica's spooky."

Nay: Yeah

Michael: It was at that moment, because I was like, "There's something weird and hypnotic going on here."

Mark: Mmm-hmm

Nay: Yeah. When Manson girls start singing "Stay Forever"? Excuse me?

Mark: Yeah

Michael: I agree. Zohra, is that her name?

Mark: Zohra Lampert, yes

Michael: There is something where I kept thinking to myself, I 'm like, "This Zora is smiling like a goofy idiot this entire time.''

Parker: Yeah

Michael: And then you're like, "Is she just brilliant?" You know what I mean? 'Cause she has no idea what she's doing and then you're like, "She's brilliant."

Nay: Yeah

Parker: She has a really distinct voice, too, so Mark if you can imitate it, I wanna hear it. I know you're so good at doing those voices

Mark: I can't. I definitely can't do that

Parker: Especially when she screams, there's like this weird...

Mark: It does, she does have an odd timbre to it, right? She was also famous for being the Goya Lady in commercials

Michael: Oh, no kidding

Nay: Respect

Mark: Yeah, I think her...

Nay: Respect

Mark: Yes. Attention must be paid

Nay: Okay?

Mark: And her tagline always was, "Goya. Oh boya!" Or something like that.

Mark: What I love about Zohra Lampert in this movie is that so often when you see actors having to play vulnerability or fragility, you can see them putting it on, because they are not willing or unable to actually go, and Zohra Lampert does not have to sell it. Somehow she just captures it and I think it's sort of the secret sauce of what makes this movie work versus not work, because the other actors are fine.

Michael: Yeah. They're not horrible. They're serviceable.

Mark: They're fine, yeah. Except Woody. I'm kind of partial to Woody, 'cause he kind of...

Nay: You got a woody for Woody?

Mark: Well, you know

Parker: I was waiting for that, Nay!

Mark: I think it's maybe because he's sort of with that hair and the 'stache. I was just like, "Did they cast you- they saw you in Godspell or something?' He seemed sort of like...

Michael: You love the daddies

Mark: Anyway! And also, I screamed when he was in the orchard working 'cause they were spraying I guess DDT or something and I was like, "Holy shit, that's so much cancer they're spraying all over these apples. Oh my God."

Michael: And Jessica at one point  just takes off...

Mark: Runs through it. Like it's a sprinkler!

Michael: Like takes an entire load of it to the face

Parker: I had to tell myself at that part, I was like, "Please just let me imagine that they replaced it with water."

Mark: Yeah, exactly

Parker: Just for that scene

Michael: Yeah

Mark: I did the same thing, like, "That's water, right? Yeah that's totally water. Of course it's water."

Parker: That better be water

Michael: (to Mark) Yesterday you had texted Nay and I saying that if you ever remade this movie, you want Kristen Wiig to play Jessica

Mark: All I could think about

Michael: All I could think about then during the entire movie is that Zohra's performance reminds me of Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaids when she's drunk in the plane

Mark: Hmmmm

Michael: Like her movements the whole time, the way she moved her hands and her legs and would put her hands in her skirt pockets

Mark: Right

Michael: I was like, "She is Kristen Wiig!"

Mark: (as Kristen Wiig) "I am ready to partyyyy!"

Parker: I was talking to Elric Kane last night and he said something about Jocelin Donahue being in a remake of this? Or maybe he was saying that would be ideal casting. I can't remember. I think she'd be perfect. I like The House of the Devil a lot

Mark: She's great in that

Nay: Ugh, me too! Oh my God. I would like to see Nicole Richie as Jessica

Michael: Oh. My. God. I love that idea more than anything

Parker: Nicole Richie….

Mark: (to Michael) You said, "Jenna Maroney" and now I want Jenna Maroney to do this movie.

Michael: Oh my God

Mark: But it would be called like, Death Scares Jessica to Death or something

Nay: (to Parker) How old were you when you first watched this movie?

Parker: I was trying to remember. I saw it on Turner Classic Movies maybe like ten years ago?

Nay: Nice

Parker: It's been a while. And I bought it on DVD right away, 'cause it has such a distinct story world. I think the sound design and the music, and sometimes the absence of sound where there should be sound, it like adds to it

Michael: Yeah, there are several times where she spoke and you don't hear it

Parker: And there's nothing, yeah. And it was so otherworldly, I actually liked it

Michael: It is very otherworldly in a sense. It reminded me of two things, and one of them I'm gonna steal from somebody who was- I read an article about it yesterday. One, it reminded me of the way they shot the re-enactments on Unsolved Mysteries. Which are like, hazy and like, you know what I mean?

Nay: Yeah

Michael: That show is spooky

Nay: Yeah

Michael: And it's because of the way they shot it: on the cheap yet at the same time...

Nay: So much fog

Michael: Yes!

Mark: So much fog

Parker: So much fog

Michael: The other thing it reminded me of, and I forget what writer wrote this, but that it was like a seventies douche commercial. Like it had the look of a seventies douche commercial, and it does! It has the music that kind of goes along weirdly with like, I dunno

Nay: Yeah. Any commercial about a vagina has like a certain music and vibe

Mark: Mandolin music, yeah

Nay: (commercial announcer) Massengill

Michael: And filter! And a weird filter going across a field

Nay: Yes. Wildflowers

Mark: Yes. It's true

Nay: I just wonder if I had watched this when I was young, if I would've finished it. Would I have even thought it was scary, because I feel like what was scary to me now is that I'm crazy enough to get it. I'm like, you know? I have doubted myself because of my mental illness, or I have downplayed my gut instinct because I think I'm being anxious. And to imagine Jessica like not- well, so often when she's afraid, she's like, "I'm just gonna act like I didn't see that because I just got out and they're gonna be like, 'Damn. This bitch is crazy.'" And I just… yeah

Michael: And like the outward, other people telling you what you're experiencing is not real or wrong

Nay: Yeah. Exactly

Parker: I have kind of a weird theory about Jessica, and I'm not sure- I wanna know if you guys picked up on it at all or if it's just me

Michael: Bring it on

Parker: So, she seemed to have this extra-sensory thing going on, like she's very in touch with the dead and she can communicate telepathically with Emily. And I just wonder how- well, everyone's like, "She's crazy and she got out of this mental asylum," but how crazy is she? Because it seems like all the supernatural stuff in the world of this movie is real, and maybe she can kind of sense it, she has some kind of psychic thing, maybe

Michael: I think that's interesting 'cause I took it as, because we didn't see anything that happened to her before the time of the movie, that everything that happened to her was real

Parker: Mmm-hmm

Michael: They convinced her it wasn't. And then the movie is proving everything that happened to her before actually did happen

Parker: Yeah, yeah

Michael: I took it that way personally, like that she wasn't quote-unquote crazy, everyone else is fucking wrong

Parker: And the only hint that she gave of something that happened before she was in this mental hospital was she says that she saw her dad, and he whispered something to her. And so I thought maybe she's able to see spirits or something?

Michael: Yeah. I felt like they would have shown us the pre-house stuff had we been led to believe that's how- you know what I mean? Had we seen the quote-unquote crazy before moving into the house it would have given us this, "Okay, is this stuff happening to her real?" But since we didn't see any of that, I took it as she does have some sort of perception and everyone else in her life is gaslighting her

Nay: Yeah

Parker: Yeah, they don't understand it

Nay: Yeah. Absolutely

Michael: They shit on what they don't understand

Nay: I really did want to know, what had landed her in the asylum

Michael: Yeah

Parker: Yeah

Nay: Because there wasn't any point in the movie where I thought she was delusional or imagining--

Michael: Or a danger

Parker: Yeah

Nay: Anything that was happening

Michael: Yeah. Or a danger to anybody, including herself

Nay: Yeah

Parker: She has a really frustrating relationship with her husband, too, and the...

Nay: He ain't shit

Mark: That guy's eyebrows had eyebrows

Parker: Oh my God

Mark: I mean, I like swarthy, but holy shit

Parker: What do you think of that absence of hair?

Mark: Oh my God.

Parker: You wanna rub your hands down it?

Mark: Listen

Michael: When he kissed Emily, I was like, "Are you gonna try to suck out her esophagus? Like, dude. Calm down."

Parker: Emily was ready to get him off. She was yeah. She had her knife at the ready

Michael: She knew what she was doing

Parker: Or her teeth, I guess

Nay: Jessica is super perceptive. At the dinner table, she knew immediately when her man liked Emily. She was like, "Oh. My man liked Emily."

Parker: (whispering) "He likes her"

Nay: Yeah

Michael: Yeah

Nay: God, I hate that feeling

Mark: And yet she wants Emily to stay

Nay: 'Cause she kind of like her, too

Mark: (sotto voce) Well, exactly

Michael: Lesbian (unintelligible)

Michael: Yeah, I mean I dunno, maybe there is a way to look at it too, where Jessica is like Emily, and just is learning her power and strength and what she is

Parker: Maybe

Mark: I took it- because Jessica is constantly repressing her point of view in terms of not wanting to reveal what it is she's experiencing or say for fear of the men around her thinking that she's, you know, losing her marbles again. At the same time, she is both attracted to and repelled by Emily because on some level, you know, Emily, despite being a hundred year-old vampire, at least has agency

Parker: Right

Michael: Yeah

Mark: She's like, "I'm gonna turn all these gross old, you know, like Republican weirdos into my army of..."

Nay: Minions

Mark: "Blood banks. And you know, this is my island and Old Saybrook, Connecticut is my domain."

Michael: There's a way to look at Jessica, their ages, too. Emily kind of represents the sexual revolution and the future and Jessica, in a way, can represent the pre-sixties subservient attitude too, y'know

Mark: True

Michael: And I think Jessica's at a real crossroads in her life. Oooh, and this is interesting: Maybe she wanted out of that and they're like, "No, you're crazy. We need to put you in the asylum."

Nay: Yeah

Michael: 'Cause maybe she started pushing back on that

Mark: Who knows. (singsongy) Prequel!

Michael: I Sort of Didn't Scare Jessica to Death? I dunno what the prequel name would be

Previous Episode
Episode 16: "A Pity Party is My Favorite Party"

Next Episode
Episode 18: "Jason Shaves Manhattan” (w/ Derek Dennis Herbert!)