The Wild Cards Talk Terror

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For God! And your country! I hate it with Wednesday! No!

No, we can't do this anymore! Welcome to the Wild Card Podcast. I'm your host, Jared Eaton, and my co-pilots on this journey to wherever are my good friends, Jeff Curtis. Hello.

And Ron, I can one-throat a chicken tender blare. What? It's true. It's funny because it's true.

It's true, though. And, you know, we're just happy to be back with you guys. We love being here together and sharing wisdom and wit and... We're what not?

...sattic-sattic-sattic-sattic-s for the morale that we have. ...dove-fornies, what-nots, goings-on. We're so thankful that you continue to join us, and as you learn more about us each week, it despises a little more that you're still here. On the note of learning more about us, one thing we enjoy doing at the beginning of every episode is getting to know a little bit more about us, our favorites, if you will.

And today's favorite question comes from a loyal listener, Austin Carrill. Well, I love Austin Carrill. Yeah. Who is going to receive a prize for this, I believe.

Absolutely. He's going to receive a signed copy of today's transcript of the commercial. Got the whole transcript, because we want to write that. We have a sonographer here.

Right. We're taking up every one of our idiotic words. Austin will get some memorabilia. Wild Card memorabilia.

Which is going on eBay right now. It's rare item. So expensive. We could sign empty bottles of virtual review.

Holy cow, yes we could. We could make a mint off of that. So, Austin Carrill asks, your favorite celebrity man crush? Man crushes are like, Lay's potato chips.

You can't just have one. Oh, okay. No, the chips are fine with it. I don't think that's right.

They're salty. But we can't go into that hole. You know, before Valcomer got fat, like me, because fat people, you know, in my own case, I like the opposite of what I am. Sure.

Valc got that. Well, you know, you was asshole. No, he wanted to hire him, but he got that. That's how it goes in Hollywood.

Okay. Yeah. It's like 90s, 90s, out over there. Yeah.

I'm going to say 1983 for top secret. That kind of time that I watched Real Genius this morning. And that Valcomer. Yeah, that'd be fun.

Sure. Oh, yeah. I got that. I got that.

I got that. I got that. I got that. I got that.

I got that. I got that. I got that. I got that.

I got that. I got that. I got that. Yeah.

Yeah. I got it. I got that. Alright, I think that's what it was.

I got him on a 15 dash. That's what heinite Sandy was. A 15 dash. Yeah.

He recognized him with that. Darn it. But then I found him onWhenthlight where I was looking Not that there's anything wrong with that. I have to think of someone.

Names evade my head when I want to think of him. It's a few and you can say yes or no. They're being called from Highlander days. But not Christopher Lambert.

Christopher Lambert, not really man Chris. Although I like him, but some of his movies since then have been really bad. Not to mention that he's been called all of his movies since and have been really bad. But I guess I'm more into the cutting off people's heads and living forever or maybe some sort of.

Sure, Mel Gibson. Mel Gibson, no. He's being quite good. Well, when he was one, he was very shy.

The owner of Mel is not that attractive. But he's more racist. I think it's more personality than looks because he's age well. He's like, oh, what a dang.

Another one for me is Daniel Craig. He's the most recent James Bond. But I just saw a trailer for a movie. He's in with Adam Driver.

And I forget who's meant to be the actor to worry about robbing a bank during a race or robbing something during a race. And he does this incredible character voice in it. And I was sitting in the theater, myself and Clay Smith. The only ones in the theater.

Because we went and saw Baby Driver, which is fantastic. I heard of the song. Fantastic. Great movie.

We saw by ourselves it was like 2 o'clock Thursday. So no one else was the theater. So we're just being dicks and scared of the theater. We were ridiculous.

And that's really come on. And I could not stop being amazed at James Bond. Making this sissy country voice. It was Daniel Craig.

And he'd Jackman for me. That's a good choice. I got to throw in the guy that played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movie. I got to throw in for Jim Rins.

For Jim Rins. Yeah, Red Heads of any gender. I'm like, whoa, Red Head. Especially if they look like an elf in the face.

So you got to help him. You got Orlando Bloom then. Well, can I go music celebrity? Yeah.

So I'm like John Lennon. I'm like John Lennon. Paul Cartney. You guys are a beetled guy.

But yeah. Yeah, they were attractive. They were attractive. I don't feel the same.

But it's fine. No, it's all good. It's all fine. Don't say something bad about that.

I would never. I don't think that's bad about that. I'll say something bad about that. But not to be at all.

No. I have nothing. I have respect. There's very little music I particularly enjoy.

Yeah. Again, it's not that I'm not the kind of person who who's saying music is bad. I'm not saying music is bad. I said I don't enjoy it.

It's a very different state. They're music. Literally changed. No, I understand.

I'm aware of that. But that doesn't make me like it. So you don't like to be. Not much.

Again, respect. I understand their impact. But in terms of songs I want to listen to. Yeah.

In the words of Dwee Cox, they're almost as good as the monkeys. What? What? So let's move on.

What? So now you know the verbats and the celebrity vids on whom we have precious. Thanks, Austin. You've torn us apart.

You've done this to us. And now speaking of tearing us apart, we come to another episode which Ron Blair has the reins. As it should be, as nature provided. And figurating is the take over the room.

We seed the floor. You seed it. We seed it with what? Exactly.

All right. Here's what's the knowledge. All right. Here's what we're going to hit us with.

I just want to know that Ron's not wearing pants today. I never wear pants. This is the thunder dome. Let me stop you right there.

Oh, it happened so early. Because after our previous podcast in which we discussed life with no wheel, life with no pants, and in particular life with no spoons. Oh, I know this is how to heat a discussion about whether or not spoons are necessary for eating soup. Loyal listener Kenzie Blair who sent us a video of Ron Blair enjoying some soup.

Ron, can you tell me about this soup experience? It was me so soup. And the ingredients were pretty much Amash Room. And two tempura onions at the bottom of it.

And that was the consistency of the soup. And how did Ron Blair partake of said soup? Well, I attempted to with a spoon, but there was nothing of substance to really grab with the spoon. So I drank it out of the bowl as I would a cup without using a spoon.

Ron Blair enjoyed soup without a spoon. In my own home where I'm allowed to be a savage. Thank you. All right.

So I'm going to check. Spoons are completely unnecessary now Ron. Ron, please continue. If we're a creepier soup.

No justification. That's fine. That's fine. Okay.

So I'm going to check it out because we don't know what films the other has watched. It was said we make a list of 10 films or I make a list of 10 films. Present it to you guys and say have you seen it and you've not seen it. And that gave me an idea.

But before we do I'm going to read off this list. You tell me if you've seen the film, if you've not seen the film and then the fans can tell us for future episodes which film they would like to hear. Yes, Ron. Yes, Ron.

The making up. The impact of the movie. And these are films that I currently I would need to do a little research on. But these are ones that I've researched extensively in the horror genre.

So I'm going to start with the 1978 Dawn of the Dead. No. I have not seen it. I know that movie pretty well.

I've never heard of this. It's not just a good horror movie. It's a good movie. It's a good movie.

It's a good movie. It's a low budget for the time. It wasn't a big studio film. It isn't an independent film.

And yet what Romero puts into the script and the story he tells is compelling. It's dramatic. It's not just about the blood and gore zombies. It actually makes a statement.

The next film, Jaws. I don't know that I can say I've seen it all the way through. But I know the character is the story. I know the lines.

I know that it's one of the greatest movies ever made. I've heard by multiple people. I've heard about the story. I've heard about the story.

I've heard about the story. I've heard about the story. I know the story. I know the lines.

I know that it's one of the greatest movies ever made. It is absolutely one of the greatest movies ever made. I've heard about multiple people. Not just Ron.

Ron, you've said about multiple movies. It is a perfect movie. Actually I felt that way about Scallheim once. This is a perfect monster movie.

Yeah, it's no Jaws. But they're both at levels of affection. In terms of the filmmaking. Right, exactly.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Nope, nope, nope. I know the characters. I've not seen it.

Right, holy cow. That one is so good. It's not like Jaws are not the dead where you can say it's a great film. he's appealing to disturbed people.

Psycho. Yes. Excellent. Excellent.

And I think it is one of the greatest twists in the history. I absolutely agree. I've studied Psycho a great deal. We studied it in a history of music and film class.

Bernard Herman score. But Hitchcock was not going to use it for it. Looking at the show, I was looking at the shower scene. Without music, it's a joke.

No, I won't call it horrible. It's obviously shocking. But it's what lifts that scene from exploitation to something more. And I think a lot of the films that I'm talking about, here's some of our exploitation.

But many of them began as exploitation films and grew beyond that due to its cinematic quality, the quality of the story. And I think that's what makes a classic horror film what it is. The exploitation films in some way. Everything I'll ever do is an exploitation film.

We're exploiting something. The next one, John Carpenter's Halloween. My favorite horror film. It's consistently on my top three.

The original Friday the 13th. Not all the way through. No, that's not my name. Ken and Bacon.

Bacon was Friday the 13th, guys. I know the story I know is twisted that I've not seen. However, there is a connection that can be made with Friday the 13th because it was produced by Sean Cunningham, who also directed the Hills of Eyes, who produced Last House on the Left, which was Craven directed, and then nine years later, directed Nightmare on Elm Street. So there's that horror connection.

It's a small world. They're sort of a family sort of thing. It's a tight-knit group where people are, you know, their own tribe. 1961's The Haunting, directed by Robert Wise.

I don't know any about that one. It was based on The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It moves slowly, but the atmosphere is damn near perfect. And Robert Wise was an excellent filmmaker.

This was just a job for him. But I think he really has an affection for the book. And that translates into the film The Exorcist. Yeah, I've seen it.

I did not enjoy that movie. It was one that I got to talk to my parents. It was the movie that's scared the most. So I watched it with him, and it did nothing for me.

Well, I'll tell you, I saw it probably the first time when I was 14 or 15. It didn't scare me. I was like, well, that's kind of gross. Then later on, after I had children, I was working at home one day by myself, and I just had that.

I was writing a script, and I put The Exorcist on, just for background noise. And I found myself often looking over my shoulder, feeling a little creeped out. Yeah, I was drawn into The Exorcist, a great deal. And I understand what makes it scare you.

I think I'll live with you forever and ever. The 1976 The Hills Have Eyes. Speaking of what I was talking about. I've seen the remake.

I've seen the garbage. Oh, you've seen The Garbage. I mean, it was in theaters, not in college. The garbage remake.

Oh, I had a tooth whistle. Yeah, The remake was horrible, and I'll tell you why, because they went with this whole mutant thing. They went a little more sci-fi. And they tried to add the pathos that the original Hills Have Eyes.

But it was really monsters versus normal people, whereas in the 1976 version, it's a bunch of white trash cannibals who live in the hills, and they're obviously white trash. They do nothing to hide it. They don't want anything to do with the world. And they're like the sony bean, which is loosely based on, who would capture travelers on this certain stretch of road, and then cannibalize them, murder cannibalize them, and steal from them.

And it really became this family from Cleveland is going through the desert. Their RV is trapped. Friggoes are a spike trip, and they said, everybody gets a shot. It's one of those things where it's an obvious, a sabotager ambushed by the family.

And it becomes a family from Cleveland in order to survive, having to, I guess you'd say, lower themselves to the level of the savages in order to get out of that situation. And I love that dynamic. Like, yeah, that's an exploitation film that becomes something more just due to the very nature of it. And the last one is 1974's Black Christmas.

I don't know. It was directed by Bob Clark and later on directed the Christmas story and workies. Yeah. I was interesting.

So I know these things. Oh, absolutely. It's influenced by the giollos from Italy, where you had a mass mysterious person who's slaughtering people. It's all based one night in a sorority house that keeps getting these eerie phone calls.

And it predates so many films, like when a stranger calls or Halloween, as far as there's a murder in the house, on the loose. We know it's in the house. The sorority people don't know it's in the house. We know the calls are coming from inside the house.

And it really builds up this tension. The murders are genuinely, they're not bloody at all, but they're genuinely terrifying when they happen. And as a point of note, John Carpenter was a production assistant on Black Christmas. And then four years later, Mustafa Kaud went to him and said, I want to do a film about babysitters getting murdered.

And John Carpenter went, oh, OK. Let me write the script for you. And he and Deborah Hill, who's producing partner and girlfriend at the time, created Halloween. Based on that.

Yeah. Again, horror is a small world of little serendipities there. So that's my list. So four of them, no, three of them you guys have seen.

Great. That narrows it down quite a bit for me. How are you? It breaks my heart quite a bit.

Three out of 10 movies that I love. However, that brought me to this question. Now we all have expressed some love of the horror genre. As we sit here in the Wild Guard studio, Jeff Curtis has several Stephen King's, what's on display.

Peter Straub, Do you have Dean Coon somewhere here? Yeah, John Saul. So looking at the horror genre as far as literature or film or even music or what draws you to that genre. I can tell my story, but I want to hear your guys' story as well.

But I don't think it's the horror as much as it is the drama and the like Rosemary's Baby. I consider this to be the perfect horror movie. And it's because it's all done without you seeing all these little tricks trying to creep you out. It's like it's all in your head.

Yeah. And the same thing with jobs. You hardly ever see the shark. The shark.

And that's what makes it so freaking dramatic and intense. And so that's what I like. Stephen King can write great books. He can write crap too.

Yeah, but there's plenty of that. But his best stories, they keep this momentum of not terror. But you want to know what's going to happen. And that's the suspensefulness that I like about them.

And so if it's vampires, it's not that I have something for vampires and wanting to know vampires. Like I said a lot, it's the suspense of the whole story being told and how these heroes are going to try and banquish these vampires or in the stand, the world coming to an end. And the captain trips killing most of the population and then how these bands of humans combine them. You have good versus evil.

Yes, you have the devil coming in carnivides with Randall Flag and you have that old black lady who's leading the resistance in mother Abigail. Yeah, mother Abigail, right? And so they're these iconic characters. But it's not the horror of the devil incarnate.

It's the suspense and drama of these two groups coming in conflict. And what's going to happen with all these characters? Well, that's it. The drama.

Every horror is a drama. And I think what Stephen King does better than that makes him Stephen King is that he doesn't write for the academics. He doesn't write for the critics. He wrote for the normal people, the everyday guy.

And if he were right around the 30s, it would have been Pulp. Pulp fiction, it would have sold for 10 cents. What a new scene. But one of his heroes was Lovecraft.

Yeah, who was very pulpy himself. When I think of my favorite, the state is my favorite book. That is never one of my favorite book. And it's because of the characters.

It's because he'll give you a bet. And I have the on a bridge edition of the thousand pages. And I never feel bored because every character that he introduces to you, whether it be the kid, or the trash can man. These people who, they're integral to the plot, but they don't have as much writing every time you meet them.

You learn about why they are the way they are. This is the story, the humanity, of even the villains. You're compelled by these people. Harold Lauter is one of those.

I love still resonating. He's been the whole book saying, Harold, come on. Yeah. You want him to be a good kid.

He's obviously a good kid. Almost coming to realization of right and wrong and not going. But he keeps falling down on the side of doing the bad man. And there's so many people who are like that.

He is a person. He's not just. He's not a way of forming a plot. He's a person in an environment.

No. And I love characters. I think some of the best villains in films are the ones that we see the tragedy in their lives that made them this monster that made them make these decisions. And I love watching that, and especially with Harold Lauter, because he really doesn't even succeed as a villain.

No. And then at the end when he's dying on the mountain pass, he realizes all of these bad choices that he made. He had been manipulated the whole time. He could have actually been useful for the.

And they were starting to accept him. Yeah. He'd be to ostracize himself in his heart. Lloyd Henry is another story.

And I thought, here's a guy who gets with the devil. He's run with the devil his whole life. And then at the end realizes that he's been wrong his entire life to be on that side. I love Lloyd Henry.

But he doesn't stop being like, he's like, I'm in this now. I've made mistakes. But I mean, he can't not be Lloyd. The rain will fly, save my life.

So I'm in the editor. And even though I know this is wrong and terrible, that's what I'm going to do. There's such compelling people because again, you understand exactly who they are and why they do things. So from your characters and story and atmosphere.

The atmosphere is so important. When I watch Halloween, my favorite horror movie, the scariest part of the movie, aren't when he has an eye for his hand. It's when she's driving and he's standing on the road. Right.

Exactly. Or he's at the clothesline outside the window. And you hear the music. And you see him there.

And you're like, gosh, imagine if there's just creepy doing your backyard. Or you open your blinds and there's a face in your window. That's horrifying. And most things.

Any time that white masks emerges from the darkness. And there's an iconic moment in Halloween where that happens to Amy Lee Curtis is there. And then he just emerges from a darkened room. That just gives you chills.

That's perfect atmosphere. The pumpkin head was another one. Kind of a flawed film, Monster Movie, Stan Winston's directorial debut, I believe. Excellent film, but it was the atmosphere that really sold it.

The story was fairly interesting. The acting was decent. The script was OK. But the atmosphere that gets set up and the shots that he makes, which it's got pumpkin head and abandoned church.

And there's a cross that's carved into the wall. And then the moonlight shines through there, giving these great shafts of light. And that's the kind of moment. That's a Monster Movie moment.

That's the reason I continue to watch Monster Films is for moments like that. And another one of my favorites. And some people would disagree with me on the John in this movie. But one of my favorite horror movies is Jurassic Park.

It's a horror film. It's a giant monster movie. But it's got such compelling questions that ask a lot. It's not just a, hey, here's some scary monsters killing some people.

It's a, we have a story we're telling. In which, scaring people is a component. Absolutely. And so there'd be about the limits of science.

And does man's reach exceed his grasp? Absolutely. The question's really good. We plan God in this way.

I show that my knowledge is gone. But we talk about genetic engineering and the possibilities of it. And also the ethical questions it raises. And how we address those.

So I think those are some interesting things that horror can instill in us. Because just the fact that people enjoy fear when it's balanced with, I know I'm safe. Like we will go to those haunted houses. They're like, I'm going to be scared.

But the whole time, I know I'm safe. So it still evokes that fear feeling. But never, I'm literally going to die right now feeling. I remember watching The Conjuring in theaters.

In terms of modern horror movies, it was one of the best ones. I agree. I agree. I agree.

And the great haunted house, because there's not much death in it. There aren't many jump scares. But the atmosphere is incredible. The atmosphere is great.

And when there are jumpscares, boy, they get you. They do. And one of the best moments in that movie is the mother goes down to the basement. And she hurts me now that she's going down there.

And a ball just bounces out. Yeah, that's always fair. There's no jumpscare. There's nothing else.

There's just this ball goes bounce and rolls. And it's so creepy. And then she goes back and she loses her light. And then these hands appear from behind her clap.

She doesn't get strangled or stabbed. It's just that moment of terrorizing those people. And I think where Supernatural Films really succeed is when they terrify people. These ghosts are just toying with him.

I guess you could say the same about Michael Myers as a slasher. He's not actively toying with him. But him being in the background is very much terrorizing the audience. That's a big aspect of horror films.

And once you go psycho, where it's just a screw with people's heads, 45 minutes through the movie. And then at the end, that twist right there. Holy shit. One secret for me, which is the first one.

The first one, in terms of the twist. That twist of the we've been following this character. Because what do you do? When she's gone.

When you go to spoiler alert for psycho, you have never had you ever been like, this is the main character on Following This May Character and wait, they're dead. Right, exactly. I read a book recently, a Michael Craig book. It was posthumously.

And it's the same twist. Obviously, it's not psycho. You're following my character. My character dies.

Yeah. And I'm like, what? You can't do that. That's not allowed.

I recently watched Kevin Smith's Rent State. And again, within half an hour to 45 minutes of the movie, one of the characters that you thought was the main character doesn't make it. And then you have this moment of loss where you go, what can I connect to? Who do I connect to?

Because that's not allowed. You're going to make it. The kids are going to be safe. No one ever does that.

But I remember a Dean Coons book where a kid died. Oh, yes. It's got me. I was realizing I'm a huge Jurassic Park fan.

There's been four Jurassic Park movies. It wasn't until the fourth one. They killed a female. In the first three, females were safe.

No, they were in peril. But no, people died. It was in Jurassic World. They killed a female.

But when they killed her, they'd spent the previous 30 minutes making her unlockable. Before they would even kill her. They had to make it so that you don't care whether she was like. I mean, it's not like you feel good when she died.

It's not like she's the villain where you feel overcome and happiness. She's a child. She's dead. But she's annoying.

She doesn't babysit the kids as well. She's distracted on her phone. Social media. All these things that you associate with business people.

And then she dies. And that's the first one. The first time I've ever killed people. I had never considered that.

Let me ask you guys this. Because we've now proven that we at least have a rudimentary grasp of more than a rudimentary grasp, I think. What was your first memory of being drawn to this genre? For me, I was not drawn initially.

When I was young, oh my gosh. When I was young, I remember this book. The letter ends gave me that I had. I'm not a nightmare person.

I don't ever wake up from a nightmare. I was afraid. Well, maybe. But what I had said where I can't fall asleep because I'm so afraid.

So it was never a in my dream. There was something horrible. It was while I'm trying to do it, I'm thinking about what could be outside. So there was this book that I read of these horror stories.

And it freaked me out of urban legends like The Hook. Things like that. It was like that just creep me out so much. I remember seeing a movie when I was really young about killer ants.

Not giant ones. Not giant ones. Not like them. Kingdom of the Ants.

I don't think it was a teeny. It was a bad teeny. I remember watching it all. I wasn't watching it.

I remember turning around and these two young boys were playing like ball. And I was like, I'm not afraid of aliens or things that I don't actually exist. But when it's people are the problem. It's like things like ants eating a entire person very quickly.

That's pretty disturbing for a child. But it's also not real. But at that time I would be laying in bed thinking like what? I was like, I would say when I was young I was not attracted to horror anyway.

Wow. What about you, Jeff? I remember when I was a child, like Saturday afternoons, I would watch these old movies that were being played on television. And they'd be like Vincent Price movies.

Like The Fly. And things like that. And they'd freak the crap out of me because I was like four. And then, so that would be my earliest thing.

But I really started getting, and then when I was in junior high school we'd say Bladewa, Elvira. Like, you know, I think that's a different. That's not the person. She's not the person.

She's a large chef. She's a large chef. Yes. Yes, we are.

She played these old horror movies that they obviously didn't have to pay very much more. And it was the movie movies that were horrible. But sorry, I would watch that. But it was when I was in high school and I borrowed the stand for my English teacher that I started really getting into the horror genre, especially books and things like that.

And that's what I was going to say for me. It was a movie that brought me. It was books reading the shining, reading the dead zone, reading the sand. Got me into that love of following these characters and you're with them.

You feel like you're walking alongside them on a journey and you want so much of them to overcome these challenges in their way and to survive this. That's what really drew me back to the genre. My, I have a long, rich history with the genre. Beginning with the earliest memory, I think I may have mentioned this, seeing Jaws in True Grid.

I remember seeing the Marquis in 1976 at the age of three going into the Starlight Drive-In. And I remember one image from Jaws and it's where Roy Shider is throwing the chum in the water. And then the shark comes out on the boat and that's where the tension begins. And I remember that scene vividly as a child.

And being, I hadn't been forward because my grandfather was still alive and he died when I was four. But I remember seeing one scene from Kingdom of the Spiders with William Shatner. I think it's Kingdom of the Spiders where a guy opens a fuselage and an airplane and tarantulas fall onto his face. And from that moment I was like, fuck spiders, I don't like them.

But, you know, between seeing Halloween decorations all over the place and knowing that that was a special time of the year. And there is a warmth and a comfort that comes with the autumn season that you attach with horror, especially in the 1970s and 1980s when it started becoming way commercial. And all of my family were baseball players, baseball or softball players. And so there was a lot of time spent at the ballpark not playing, while my brother and sister played.

And if it was on a Sunday, there was always a discarded Courier Journal newspaper. And in the front page of the Courier Journal, you would see these big ads for films like Halloween or Friday the 13th. I remember an ad for the Boogeyman which came out in 1980 or anyone I think. And these were windows into a world in which I was forbid at the time when I was a child.

I went aloud to watch rated R movies. And so they seemed so interesting and fantastic. Because I was denied them. Now I had always watched Memories and Monsters on Friday nights at midnight, WDRB, I think, or may have been WHAS, one of the two.

But it started off with the creepy guy going tonight as James Wail was fragmented inside. And then they would show the original Frankenstein Wolfman, House of Dracula, House of Frankenstein, all these great old Universal Monster movies, the Invisible Man. And then later on they started showing Godzilla movies and I got turned off by it. But watching those films and still being forbidden to rated R ones, but I had this obsession with the horror genre.

I needed to see it, but I was terrified. Another memory from when I was a kid as my parents were watching. I think it was a Dan Curtis vampire film on some channel, the ABC Sunday Night movie or something. And it was a vampire thing.

And I remember burying my head from the beginning of the film to the end of the film. And the two times that I looked up I actually looked back and it was vampire women with bloody fangs coming out. And they were about to staker. And I was like, fuck this, this is so scary.

And finally when I was 11 years old, my cousin and I were at a friend's house. And I mentioned this on an earlier podcast. We watched House of the World of Halloween. And I was already around Halloween.

I went, this is the best genre ever. I felt the greatest thrill. Being scared exactly. These emotional responses.

The slick way that these stories are told. And the great drama like Jeff had mentioned. And all of that, that's the day I became a junkie for horror films. And coincidentally at the same time, this was when VHS stores were popping up all over the place.

And you could watch any film you wanted. All of a sudden you didn't have to go to the movies anymore. It's also when you get a crack junkie. It's at the same time, an age of 11.

But I developed a taste for horror and crack. Sliding it right in on your eyeliner. Right in the bloodstream. And so ever since then, and then I worked in a video store when I was maybe 20 years old.

I was 17 or two of the stores. And so Jeff, when did you work in a movie? I never worked in a movie. Oh, you were too old for that old fucker.

That's okay. But we, on our, one of our days, we made $2.68 the entire day. This was my 12 hour shift. So it tells you how busy we were.

And so I would pop in horror films all the time. And it was when I was working at the video store and I said, I am going to dedicate my life to the horror genre. And everything I've done since then, you know, not stage work, obviously. Everything I do is a little dark.

Even the stand up, a little bit dark. A little bit horror-rific, just a tinge of it. And so horror has been a great influence to me. And so many others around the world.

And I do think there's that, if you look at horror fans, a lot of them were on the outside. They felt unaccepted in high school. And so they, I think that goes back to when somebody's life is not what they want it to be. They try to find an escape.

And that's what was great about the horror films in the 30s and 40s. The universal stuff because we were scared constantly of the Nazi threat. And we needed something non-threatening to take our minds off of that. And I think that's what's so attractive about horror.

And especially two horror fans who have felt a little like outsiders. Like they were weird. They felt like society wouldn't accept them. And so where do they find solace?

They find it in the horror genre. And the close knit people that they find who also are fans of the genre. So yeah, so let's talk about your favorite horror films. Or novels.

Let's do our top five horror films or novels. Well, I think Halloween for me is in terms of film that's probably number one still. That's one that like the music is like, it fills me with joy. I have a weird reaction to good horror now that I'm older and have gotten back into the genre.

When I saw the Conjuring, a good moment. Now, not a jump scare. Jump scare was already bounced a little bit. But like a good tense moment.

I will laugh. Not touch that. It's out of tension. I'm really sure.

I was like, my gosh, that was set up so perfectly. And it's probably because of a little bit of director hat on. The way that was choreographed. The way they cleared it.

I was like, oh, that was so great. I just have a weird response to not getting freaked out. Like I did when I was younger. Maybe it's just because I worked so hard to not be scared by these things.