Welcome. Welcome. Oh man. So that's the first time I've heard the full, you know, the intro where you're pulling out.
And I love that you can just hear. Well, welcome. I guess instead of saying, King me, we go. That's going to be our new, and a little welcome noise.
Yeah. It's okay. No. Just really choke your throat as you say.
Yeah. Yeah. Welcome to a series about the films of Mike Flanagan, who's basically Stephen King, but more Catholic. In a series we are calling the flanos fear.
The flanos fear. The flanos fear, like, is a play on the manosphere. The entertainment thing that Dan is a big member of. Yes.
Yeah. Frequent trips to Romania for me. I love that. I love that.
And retails whole thing is like I am like a bad guy, like criminal. And I have to live in Romania. That's where like my home base is, you know, because of all my use and sex crimes. Yeah.
All of my revenue. Yeah. Um, I, you know, I know shockingly little about and your tape. That seems like the kind of thing I'd want to arm myself with information about before you attach yourself to like the flanos fear, manosphere thing.
Sure. Well, it's just like, I mean, it's like and twins, right? We do. Yeah.
We can get away with these things because we are such little cutie pies. Right. We're a couple of. It's like when a little kid wears that suit.
Yeah. Or a couple of beta cucks poisoned by the woke mind virus. That's right. That's right.
My condition is critical. Rob and Dan here. That's just want you to know that even though it's not King me. Well, it's the flanos fear, a King me production.
Yeah, I think I think moving forward, it's all just going to be a King me production. And then we'll throw some names at different series and whatever we do. Of course, of course. And listen, when, you know, when corn kids, 15 drops will be there to do an app about it.
Wherever you see a cop beating a guy will be there. Wherever we will be there. When that happens, oh, no, helping the cop, right? Yeah, wherever there's a corn kid in a field will be there.
You know, wherever there's a doll made of corn husks will be there. Wherever there's what's even one other thing. Wherever there's a maybe like a telephone or like a. Wherever virtual virtual reality has bled into the real world.
Yeah. Wherever there's a monkey with a VR headset will be there. Whenever wherever there's a Pierce Brosnan touching a tree and then throwing up. You remember that from bag of bones?
Becca bones. Yeah. I remember that. That's one of the funniest things that's like I can't wait till I'm dying and my life is flashing before my eyes and I get to see that a few times because I will go back and I pulled a clip of it somewhere.
So I'll just go and look at it from the time it's so funny. Blaine your brain is flooding with with DMT. And that's what you see. I'd rather have my is there a way instead of my brain flooding with DMT to have a flood with DLA.
What is the L.A.? Dr. Larry Andrew. Obviously.
Pretty obvious. Yeah. Look at us. Look at us.
We graduated and now all we can talk about are the glory days of high school. That's true. I'm still wearing my letterman's jacket. Yeah.
But we're done. We're done with high school. It's off to the seminary. That's right.
We are going to Mike Flanagan's house of horrors and Mike Flanagan's house of holy horrors. Mm. This one not so holy. The Catholicism is it's there.
There's. Yeah. There's a there's a touch of touch of the big sea, but big sea touch of the big sea. Yeah.
It'll come to be the big sea or the lower case T lower case T. Yeah. What is that like the crucifix? Oh, I love the right, right?
RIP. Of course. Never forget it. Rest in power.
Jesus Christ. Rest in this Jesus Christ. So we're kind of like we're leaving a we're leaving a few things off. It seems with what what do you mean?
Well, we've got some like student film and some stuff we're not watching that come before absent shot. What like short films and whatnot? Yeah, the ghosts of Hamilton Street, still life, make believe the firefighter combat challenge. I guess the ghosts of Hamilton Street is a feature, isn't it?
Yeah, but it's a student film. We can we can come back to it. If we could find that movie. It's an award winning student film.
Right. Well, according to a plot summary on IMDB.com. Well, yeah. OK.
Anybody else curious to see what segments we come up with on the spot? Look at this guy. He's just making a ton of student films. How long was this guy in school?
Good Lord. Oh, while probably four years, right? That's that's how long it takes. Wow.
So we're going to be talking about the films and sort of mini series is of Mike Flanagan starting with this one this week with absentia. I'm saying, Shah, like Flanagan, one of our faves. We love him. We love to watch his Stephen King adaptations.
He usually does a he cares man. The guy cares cares quite a bit. He does quite a bit. And then like the mini series is which I think you've only seen Midnight Mass at this point, correct?
That's correct. Yes, which those I mean, the minis are I haven't seen Midnight Mass, obviously, but the Midnight Club, I have not seen it, but the other ones are very good. Midnight Club is sort of like a YA kind of thing, right? Yeah.
Yeah. But from what I understand, but also like I don't know. I remember when it came out, people were a little like lukewarm on it, maybe because it was YA wasn't going as hard as the other like haunted stories that he was telling, but also like I don't know by the time we get to it might also it might be like might be pretty good. Expectations are low, you know, sure.
It's going to be hard not to compare it against certain other Netflix series, YA Netflix series we've watched on this podcast. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I think it can only exceed expectations at that point.
I would have to imagine. We didn't do a cold open, which I think is controversial and it should be discussed. Yeah. In so far as to say, I had a really good idea for this one.
Oh, did you? Where it was going to be that I declared you legally dead after you were 10 minutes like that. That is a really good one. Yeah.
Where do we go from there? Right. And I really yes, and guys were more like, yeah. We're like, oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, guys. So absentia, I always I do want to say it with that stuffity kind of voice. I'm thinking. Yeah, it's it's delicious to say, isn't it?
It is. The movie is not that though in tone. So you don't think I don't think so. OK.
Yeah, the title, the tagline for this one is there are fates worse than death. Do you agree? Oh, of course. Yeah.
Like being alive. Well, that one. Yeah, right. Yeah, right off the top of my head being alive.
Yes, clearly works being alive. And then your husband coming back and being like, oh, sorry, sorry, he's gone. Sorry, I messed up all of your plans. I was getting kissed by a giant silverfish.
Yeah, I was. That's OK. Dan, we watch this movie written and directed, produced, edited by Mike Flanagan. Mike Flanagan, who before he's making films, really, like professionally, I believe he's like editing reality series, right?
That's what that firefighter thing I just mentioned was. Oh, really? I believe so. Yeah.
He's mentioned in interviews that he worked as like a as an editor on various crappy. What would you call it? Yeah, like he worked on Million Dollar Listings I'm seeing here. Yeah, a TLC special called The Ladies of Demolition Derby.
Well, that's awesome. Right. The last thing he does before he sort of becomes Mike Flanagan, like starts making his own movies at its one episode of the TV land, original series, Hot in Cleveland, starring Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli, Bertinelli. I mean, Bertinelli is the quality of being Valerie Bertinelli.
Oh, wow. Jane leaves. Jane leaves. Wendy Malick.
Honestly, completely fucking stack. Carl Reiner is an eight. Is it a show? Oh, man.
The Mad Scott himself, Craig Ferguson, get seven episodes. John Mahoney is in this. Holy shit. Is this John Love?
I mean, how hard is it to book John Love? It's for four episodes. Is something short, but yeah. Wait a second.
Wait a second. I'm sorry, Dan. This show has 130 episodes, 129 episodes. What is this?
It's on TV land, original. It's basically like squatting in an abandoned building. Like no one's checking. Unreal.
Yeah. This is wow. This is very strange. Yeah.
I remember when we were going to do a, should we watch his episode of Hot in Cleveland, the one that he edited. He edited. Yeah. Sure.
Kind of feeling like we ought to. I only, I grew up knowing TV land as the channel that only played reruns of very old shows. Yes. That is where I learned everything I know about Gilligan's Island.
Yes. The Brady Bunch. Hoggins heroes. Hoggins heroes.
That guy who would end up jerking off on a couch with Willem DeFoe. Hoggins did that. Yeah. Bob Crane.
He was that movie auto focus, a pulse rate or movie? Oh, it's all about Bob Crane. In a movie. OK.
No, no, it's his real life. Yeah. Wait, they were jerk off buddies. So auto focus is a bio pick about Bob Crane.
Bob Crane played the Hogan from Hoggins heroes back in like the 50s, 60s, whatever. He got a bunch of like, he was like a porn addict, which back then you had to really fucking work for that. Yeah. People call themselves a porn addict now, but it's like saying you're like addicted to weed.
It's like, no, it's just really easy. Yeah. I'm addicted to cool ranch Doritos. Exactly.
And then like the whole auto focus is a lot about his sexual sort of picadillos and whatnot. And him and his buddy, they would watch these like porno movies and jerk off on the couch next to each other as a friend played by Willem Defoe. And then and then he died. He was murdered in like this awful, like very gory sort of.
It's really terrible. It's not funny to be clear. It's not funny that he died horribly. Yeah.
It is funny to be like, so there he is jacking up with Willem Defoe. Smash cut to his gory death. It does sort of there's like an implied causation there, but I don't I don't really support. I mean, we have talked about Paul Schrader movies on this.
Maybe we should do like a little freighter thing later on. Yeah, that one we got to call jerk off buddies. Of course. That's right.
So we sat down on the couch and watched the movie. Yeah. So I'm jerking off to the movie auto focus, right? Whoa, that's meta.
Yeah. Oh, so it's yeah, TV land and then that show. What was that show younger, right? Do you know that one?
That one now. Please tell me you weren't jerking off to whatever that is. Younger is a show about a woman who is like 40, but she looks much younger and then she gets a job at 25. Yeah.
Really? Yeah. Yeah. OK, stay with me here.
This is also based on a reverse Benjamin button. Basically. Yeah. So she is a 25, but I'm a lot of older vice versa.
I'm 40, but I look a lot younger. Right. Now, as she gets hired at a publishing company to be sort of like the voice of younger people and like to do like to go do experience these younger things. It ran.
It's another one. It ran for like seven or eight seasons. It's very popular. Hillary Duff is on the show.
Big, big fucking to do. Oh, this is like a recent thing. Yeah. I mean, what a contrived premise.
But the premise is based on a real story. The main character, this woman actually did this. She she passed for for yeah, for like a for younger 22 year old person or whatever when she was like 10 or 15 years older. I see.
Yeah. And then there's all kinds of hijinks. People. Does Hillary Duff play the younger?
The younger. No, the lead younger. No, no, she plays friend of younger. Oh, she's older.
Yeah. She's been older. OK. All of this to say TV land.
What happened? Anyway, I guess you can't make a ton of money when your channel is just based on old TV shows. Yeah, when you're your target demographic is dying and literally dying. There's no reinforcements coming, except for I don't know, based on I'm just using you and me as the sample size here, but there's one weird kid every 25 miles.
When we were in the 25 mile radius, he's watching. He's like, I can learn more about this Bob Crane Hogan. He's here. Oh, no, I learned too much.
Oh, God. Zero. Yeah. Hoggins.
He's hoggin it. Oh, yeah. Hey, your couch. Oh, Bob.
A whole different definition. Definition. Fuck off. That's all right.
That's all right. It's all good. I'm. All right.
Well, before our conversation about this week's film becomes absentia from this episode, let's talk about it. Yeah. That's a good idea. So independent film made for like $70,000, I think I read for like $70.
This feels very, I mean, it feels like we talked about it very briefly, how it feels like like a student film or you're like, you know, it's not even low budget. That's like micro budget, totally. And it is like that thing where like a movie starts and you're like this. There's like a, I don't know if it's like the lighting or just like the color correction or whatever, but you're immediately like this is a an amateur.
Yeah, ish, a more amateur movie. Well, yeah, I think one of the big things. So this movie came out in 2011 and I think the big sort of tell there is that it looks like it was shot on digital video looks like, you know, almost like not quite a cam quarter, but like a step up from that. But yeah, you know, technology has come so far in the meantime and, you know, you can shoot a movie on a day on my iPhone and have it be tangerine.
Exactly. You could be Steven Soderberg and shoot a movie on an iPhone. You could be all of Disney live action movies and shoot it on like whatever fucking digital camera they're using and make it look like. Like the Hubble telescope camera.
Yeah. And make you you know, you can shoot everything in a warehouse, make it look like shit and people will fucking gobble it right up. Yeah, but there's no arguing with the fact that it costs $40 billion to produce. Can you imagine if they didn't shoot it in a warehouse?
Like it's so funny that they're just like, well, it's cheaper to put it through 5,000 layers of post production and to just go drive like an hour west of LA and just like stand in the desert and pretend you're on the desert planet. I know the like the set of a Marvel movie now is very similar to like a porno set where it's just like it's a big like studio warehouse with different sort of sets, a doctor's office, a regular office or whatever. And you're just, you know, after 5,000 layers of special effects and rendering and rendering, you're left with the fucking quantum mania. You rent out your Airbnb and the tenants start moving in that giant like digital cyclorama that like projects whatever planted onto it.
Boy, that thing's cool, huh? It's all very cool. We're using the technology the way that it was intended. It's nice.
We can do anything right now and this is what we choose. Yep. So this is not that. This is a this I mean, it's being of pornography.
If you know any better, you think you're watching a porno until until there was no sex. Yeah, it looks and then you see a pregnant woman. You're like, oh, the porno happened. It happened.
All right. We got it. We're late. We've got to start reporting sooner.
The yeah, so that's one thing off the because you're more versed in the the flanosphere than I am the Flanagan Uvera. Yeah, I mean, I over again. Yeah, like I said, I watch most of the mini series. Not so much on his movies, though.
I haven't seen I've only seen the recent ones, the king ones really for the show. The sleep, Gerald's game, but I haven't seen Ouija, Origin of Evil. I haven't seen before. Wake, Hush, Oculus, none of these.
So yeah, yeah. So this is a learning journey that we'll go on together, undoubtedly. Of course, of course. You do believe in.
My 2016 was a big year for him, huh? He released three movies. Not bad. Not bad.
I could do that. I mean, we could all do that. I just don't want to. Obviously, I would love to do that, but I have to do the podcast.
Right. Yeah, I'm very busy. Yeah, I'm too busy. Did you watching this movie get that thing where you're like, oh, man, I would love to make a movie like it's the same for me.
The seams were showing enough that I was like, I'd love to just get fricking five my friends together. No, I think I told this sort of movie is definitely one of those where you're like, I could do this. Like, you know, not that it's bad or that you're like, oh, this is a piece of shit. I could do this way better or something.
But it just it sort of makes the idea possible in your head, for sure. Yes. Yeah. So one thing I do want to talk about, yeah, well, maybe we'll do I forget the words to the Flanagan trope song and I swore to God I would go track them down.
Oh, is it a plan again has to. But then what? I don't know. Something my thought was it was something with OK, OK, I'll figure it out.
We'll figure it out. But one Flanagan trope, like right off the bat. Yeah, I we've addressed it a little bit already. Pregnant women.
Is this going to be a thing with this guy? Because I'm not prepared for that at all. I don't need that. All right.
Well, first off, let's not King shame anyone. They're really into preggos. But who else is pregnant Dan? Name at least one other character from a Flanagan.
Katie Seagull's character in Midnight Mass, who's sort of like an amalgam of Kalyan Trisha. Oh, yeah. And acting as real life white, isn't it? Yes.
And this one, darling, you're pregnant. Hello, I guess I'm like Flanagan. Maybe just like women with like big round bellies. That could be his thing.
I don't. OK, you don't think so. You sound pretty stoked on it, so hopefully that's it, Rob. Maybe it's not that weird to be into pregnant women, Dan.
We don't need to litigate that on this program. That's a different show. Right. Oh, maybe the maybe the flan of spheres, what he calls the bellies of the women and that's that's troubling to think about.
I'm just I'm just hogging the couch to pregnant women. Hugging the couch. All right, this is already wildly off the vial. The way we've the way we've regressed 100 percent.
Yeah, it's like like we're starting over completely. How many snails do you give this one? No, this is advanced this is advanced film. I got to say it is advanced film.
We've come a long way to absolutely we've we've cut our teeth on snails and pigs and never hogging couches. Hogging cat. Couple of couch. OK, so absentia, the story of Tricia, one pregnant woman named Tricia.
Now that is one pregnant woman. Tricia, she's pregnant. She lives in Glendale. I'm told and she when we meet her, her husband Daniel has been missing for seven years.
Oh, well, wait a second though, Dan. This doesn't add up. He's been missing for seven years and she's pregnant. Now, maybe don't just say for seven years.
OK, are you body shaming this woman for being pregnant for seven straight years? I one thing I'll say, by the way, this and the detective character who I'm assuming. Noctara. Oh, yeah.
We know it's I'm assuming it because he says it says that. I like Mike. I like Mike Flanagan and his willingness to sort of just like have the love interest be kind of like a piece of shit, right? The detective guy.
Yeah, he's like he's like pretty obnoxious, but like she loves him. And it doesn't like as like as the viewer, you don't really have to root for that guy. No, I don't think you have to root for that guy. I don't know if he's a piece of shit, though.
I didn't see him as a piece of shit. I mean, he's doing his job as a cop. I don't know. Like the way he's interrogating people, he's like the way he treated them.
Very disrespectful, very disrespectful, very rude, not a good guy, bad guy, bad guy. Yeah, I think he's just kind of a dickhead. Yeah, in the way that like he's very pushy, I guess. But I think also within the realm of this story, he could have been a lot worse, I think.
Maybe that's what I'm gauging it off of is that like, you know, he doesn't he doesn't end up becoming like the villain or something like that. No, nothing like that. But that's what I'm saying is like I like that like I kind of like that everybody's like pretty unremarkable, known as like especially good or hyper charming, you know, all of these are like very flawed people. Exactly.
Yeah, like I don't know. Callie's like a little bit like a little bit quirky girl, but like not in like a way that's like particularly compelling and you're like, I love her. No, I know. Yeah.
She's got her little quirks like doing heroin. Yeah, she's a goofy gal. She likes to goof around with a needle. And she's even even our main character, Tricia, who is like, you know, her husband disappeared seven years ago, she's pregnant.
She's obviously got a lot going on. She isn't even that like likable, I'll say, you know, no. And furthermore, she's like like with the she's like corny with the meditation stuff. I like the willingness to just like let someone do something corny because it's like sure it rings it's corny in a way that rings really true where you're like the ringing of a song bowl, like the ringing of a song bowl.
It's a song bowl for anyone who doesn't know. That's a metal ball that she like clangs and you can like it's got the stick and you could do that. Yeah. I think around it.
Song ball. That's what I call Eurovision. It's basically the song ball. Yeah.
Did you see that Eurovision movie with Will Ferrell? Yeah, I did. It was pretty good. It was a lot of fun.
It was actually pretty fun. Yeah, it was like not very funny, but it was a lot of fun. Yeah, and it's kind of like a nice time. I think it came out in like 2020 and like anything that was just sort of pleasant and innocuous was a welcome change.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Also, God, what's his name?
Dan Stevens. Dan Stevens. Holy shit. I know.
It's so I mean, it's funny that we're talking Eurovision right now. The other day I was like, what's it like flinging in podcasts? That is funny. Just kidding.
I looked up that singing montage that they do at the party or whatever. Where everybody joins in and I'm sure it's a bunch of people that share. Right. It's share.
It's Madonna. It's like a bunch of different songs that are abba is in there. A medley, if you will. It is a medley.
But it's all I think it's all by people who actually won Eurovision. But oh, really? That's like real singers. What is like what was the financial incentive to make a Eurovision movie?
I wonder must have been huge. I mean, I wonder how the movie oversees because like our country is like one of the only ones that doesn't participate in it. Yeah, I get the honestly, I feel like if you're European and you watch that, you're like, no, sure. This is dumb Americans.
This is again, little kids putting on their parents' clothes a little bit. Yeah. It's like I could just see that being like very. Yeah, just being like, it's like it's a pretty broad caricature, I think.
So yeah, so yeah, but in our defense as as slobish Americans, being Scandinavian is funny. It's weird. They're not like us at all. That's so cold.
I'm not sure. Isn't that weird? Yeah. Well, that's that's more the lowlands, but sure.
I don't even know. Sweet as chef. Is that what they sound like? He you're going to Eurovision.
Yeah, that's pretty good. You hear this? Oh, yeah. Can't fight?
Yeah. Is that what's going on? Yeah. The baby the baby cat likes to play and the bear cat is completely brain dead and she gets scared so easily.
Nothing bad's happening to her. She just doesn't like it. absentia absentia. What is absentia absentia?
absentia. I'm actually so fucking glad you asked because I got this one. I'm like absentia is when your husband is gone for seven years and then you get to declare him legally dead. When if someone's been gone for seven years, you were considered dead in absentia provided.
You fill out all the paperwork. And that was also something I liked about this movie is like how much of a dealt with paperwork, how much of a dealt with paperwork because like, you know, look, we're going to be we're going to have to talk about how sometimes grief can be the monster because that is like one I appreciate this too. That is only one aspect of what's happening here. Yeah.
But the way that sort of like you know, you like keep reliving this this absence every time you have to fill out paperwork or like talk to the detective or whatever. Yeah, like later on after Daniel disappears the second time and the detective is like, you have to fill out a missing person's form. And it's like, man, and just like there I really I feel pretty good about how he minds this premise. Like even the like the decision not to call his parents when they're on the plane because it's like what's going to happen?
They're going to get a fucking voicemail when they land like right now. Like actually don't even bother taking the time to go over here. Just hop back on the plane. Yeah.
Right. Like no, just it's yeah, it's pretty real. So yes, her Trish's husband or husband or husband? Yes, husband Daniel has been gone for seven years.
Now my experience when a character in a movie named Daniel is missing, it's usually because they are dressed as an old lady, nannying their own children to circumvent the terms of a custody arrangement. Right. The whole time. Did you also think that's where this was going the whole time?
The whole time. Yeah. Anyway, anyway, so she her sister, Callie, her younger sister comes to stay with her. It's sort of like established that like the whole saga of Daniel's disappearance is like winding down.
She's she's putting up flyers and Callie sees them. And it's played as this moment where like Trish is like kind of embarrassed. Right. Cause she's like, I don't know.
Yeah. She's like, I think she's like, I just had more. These are the last of the ones I printed. Right.
I guess seven years ago, she got like thousands of them. She's like, I figure we could do like a little cleansing ritual. And at a point in the film, she burns one. I do want to jump in here real quick.
The actress who plays Callie is a Flanagan regular. That's right. Katie Parker, who she was in, she's been in a bunch of his projects, but she was in Dr. Sleep, which we already discussed.
She played one of the one of the caravan, like the steam. What are the the rusted roots? Yeah. You played the entire the other tag.
She was silent, sorry. Yes. That's her character name. That's it.
That was her name. She also played Annabelle in the most recent Flanagan, the fall of the house of Usher. Damn. OK.
And Poppy Hill in the haunting of Hill House. Yeah. So I like. I mean, we talked about this when we talked about the other Flanagan movies, but I really appreciate the fact that not only like does this guy, I think it says a lot about a person that all of these people want to continue to work with him, you know, yeah, and he's platforming just these up and comers, like Doug Jones, yeah, Doug Jones guy.
Yeah. Yeah. Unusual look. Let's throw some prosthetics on this fucker.
Yeah. Just sort of poking around on the cast. And it seems like basically everybody comes back for Oculus. Yeah.
Oculus is the next one after this. And it does seem like he brings everybody back. They start to drop off after that Hollywood, Mike Flanagan. Yeah.
Hollywood, Hollywood, Mike starts forgetting where he came from. Greedale. Sure. Yeah.
Yeah. So Trisha, Trisha shows up with a baby book for the baby. Right. The three Billy God's graph.
Right. You know what that story is about? I do. I mean, like, I know it's like about Billy God's crossing a bridge.
And I think there's like some sort of a troll toll involved. There is a troll toll. That's right. Yeah, there's like an evil troll guarding the bridge.
Answer me. These riddles three, that kind of shit. Quite possibly could be. Do you think this in any way has anything to do with the plot of the film?
Is this maybe why she draws the tunnel on the cover of the book and writes like go to the tunnel on the book? Yeah, I think so. Probably will something to do with that. Yeah.
Yeah. So it's really not like elaborated on. It's just sort of like a hey, ever notice how these two things are similar? Yeah.
You ever notice how this movie is similar to this book that I brought up? I guess like the one of the flaws, I think, of this movie, which I think this is also like a tendency of the M F himself. Yeah, the Smotherfucker. The Smotherfucker is to sort of over explain characters motivations in the subtext of the story.
See, selling. And we do get one of those in here, right? Where like, Callie, you know, starts piecing things together and then gets into this whole thing about how different cultures all have their versions of these myths where people are snatched, taken away, disappeared. Yeah.
And it's like you could have just given her the book and we would have gotten it. It sort of like opens up that whole line of thinking. But that's, I mean, that's one of the things that I appreciate about watching somebody's entire filmography, like in chronological order, right? Whenever I'm like, I want to watch a specific director, I have a hard time not starting at the beginning because you see the evolution of the storyteller, right?
Sure. And especially if they have, you know, if they've made a decent amount of movies, you know, the person has more room to grow and expand. And like you could really see like hopefully at least by the end of it, there's, you know, the person might be trying to tell the same story, but in a more advanced controlled sort of way, you know, right? Well, this feels like somebody is first movie, even though it's not his first movie, per se, but it feels like a honestly, I was watching this and I was like, this sort of feels to me like Darkstar, not in any of its tone or anything of that.
No, I know what you mean. Yeah. It's low budget and it's trying to get at something, you know, and how it's sort of a precursor. It's like it has seeds of things that are going to come up later on in the guy's work, you know, you know, it's interesting.
I was like, I mean, again, comparing this to something like Midnight Mass, which was written as a novel and then adapted accordingly. The thing that I found, well, I guess Gerald's game is pretty restrained in that way, too. I was going to say like this, like absentia is it's pretty tight, right? It's a 90 minute run.
I actually think it could be five to 10 minutes shorter. It should be a better movie. But in general, I did just kind of feel like, yeah, like there is it felt like pretty expertly restrained for something this like early on where it's like you get just enough. There's the only time you get just enough in terms of like what what like the implied horror of this whole situation.
Sure. And it's like incredibly open ended, which is like so refreshing in terms of, you know, just like the things we always complain about with like horror being in and out like so many horror movies now being like analogies instead of metaphors where this is like it's just like it's in the title, right? It's just like the idea of people leaving and like what that and like the horror of that and how far you can go in your head with with like that empty space, that negative space, the dark matter as as Callie points out the dark matter. Yeah.
So plot plot plot plot plot plot plot plot plot plot. Right. So Callie, Callie pulling a bit of a absentia herself. She, you know, she she like she was living out of her car for a little while.
It seems like she was driving across country and out of various rehabs. Yes. She has a addiction from. She's got a she's chasing the dragon.
Yeah. I like I did like the little detail where Trish is like they're just like catching up or whatever and Trish is like I forget what city she says like Louisville or something. She's like that was the good clinic, right? Like that was the one you like.
Right. And just sort of like, I don't know, there's just something about that kind of detail. It's like that that to me says so much about like the relationship here where like they have the cutesy pattern which itself like I think without those details that give you like the sense of of distance and like the gaps in chronology or whatever. Like you're just hearing a little bit here and they were like, oh, when I talk to you, then you said it was good.
Right. You call me from the rehab and said that one was good. Right. Like that's what I.
Yeah. Exactly. So it's like when they do like the cutesy pattern, they're doing bits or whatever, you know, there's some like that is like the level they connect on because they've been distant as adults and it's just like easy to do little bits. Right.
I also think that's a pretty slick way to, you know, to sort of explain where Cali has been without being like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm seeing my sister after she's been in and out of rehabs for so long. You know what I mean? Yeah. And do that.
You know, nobody ever talks like that. Right. Yeah. There was one line where Cali calls Trisha's sister and I was like, don't do that.
Because then in the next line, she referenced, she's like, she says something about mom, like she just says mom. It would be funny. She said, our shared mother. Right.
You know how our mom gets our mom that we have together. Yeah. But yeah, like apart from like tiny, tiny little gripes like that, like, yeah, I think the exposition is handled really nicely throughout. So yeah, she's basically there to help Trisha with sort of like the final steps of like closing the book on Daniel's disappearance, right?
Getting that certificate, getting her a new apartment, helping her pack, all that kind of stuff, right? I did like that a little bit where Trisha's like, I forget what she's holding, but she's just kind of like, you know, we see Cali just like packing books, like just real quick, moving, moving to a clip. Right. And then she goes into Trisha's bedroom and just sees her.
They're sitting staring at something with like sentimental value and Trisha's like, I just can't do it. She's like, doesn't have to happen tonight? That's OK. Yeah.
So. Absolutely. Right. So once let's talk about the little Catholicism that is in this movie, when they go to bed, Cali has a cross that she hangs up on the wall over her bed and like before going to sleep.
She also has like a lunchbox, I guess, full of drug paraphernalia that like at first she's like she opens it up and then she like hides it away and then she like says her prayers before going to bed. Later on, she she just spike of aene. Yes. Now, I think probably worth noting due to the obvious intention.
The crosses above her bed and the drug paraphernalia is underneath her bed. I don't understand. Oh, wrong. Oh, they keep saying that word.
They keep saying it. But yeah, there's like there. Yes. Yes.
So one of the things that the monster is is also drug addiction. Yeah. Yeah. I know.
Whatever. You hate that. I just don't love it. But I don't love it because it's been like all of this stuff, like the grief monster is drug addiction and all that kind of stuff has just been so I know.
I just think it's so much more tasteful here because it's like instead of being any one of those things, it's like the monster is just the thing that that gets you. Yeah. Right. Sure.
Doug Jones's character is like that's Callie's first like heads up like this could be you. Yeah. So you know, Callie goes for a run down the street from where Tricia lives. Sorry.
The strangest pants I've ever seen going. Yeah. No, absolutely. I thought the same thing.
Never seen anything like that before and probably won't after. Yeah. So Tricia lives like down the street from this, I guess it's like a tunnel under a highway and it's just like this concrete sort of tunnel. It's like repeating whatever it's not anything.
But Callie goes running and she runs like through the tunnel, through the other side. Yeah. When she's coming back, Doug Jones is like laid out on the ground like blocking her way. Yeah.