Eater

Welcome back. We are here with episode five of Fear Itself, or if you have the DVD episode one, it's Stewart Gordon's Eater Wow episode one. Yeah, I think what they actually did on the DVDs, I think they arrange them in a way that um like they would have wanted it to show, maybe like it starts with Eater, which I think is a would have been a better season premiere. I already for I have a written down somewhere because I have to manually watch every disk to figure out which is on which because there's no list of it on what disc. The disc themselves aren't labeled, so I have to just keep track of like, Okay, community is on disc two side A, so next week I have to go back to disc week disc side A.

It's very confusing. Yeah. Well, the if I remember correctly, the marketing for this led heavily and it's still it seems too. Yeah, like when you pull this series up on the Roku channel or like do any kind of Google imaging search, it's always Elizabeth Moss's face from Eater, And part of that is that she it made sense because she was a good face for the time, because Madman was pretty young and getting a lot of buzz. Um, this is so far I will spoil it to say, one of the better episodes.

So yeah, right away they're that like, oh, if we're going to get somebody to watch it, let's make sure they watch this episode. Um. Yeah, I watch the quote unquote director's cut on the DVD. Interesting, you watch the ROCCU channel. I assume I watched you watched it somehow.

Yeah, it will be the TV version of whatever air on television, and I have seen this episode in multiple times, so um, I think that I'll have pretty she says, no, pretty decent recall of what may or may not be different between the two, but you never know. Um, I yeah, I'm gonna say right to start, I would probably recommend the TV version over the director's cut. Now, I didn't watch both entire I didn't watch the TV cut in its entirety, but I was really curious because I'm like, you know, this, like I'm trying to figure out because it's the same length. It's like just about forty five minutes, Like it doesn't feel like there was an added scene or anything. And I wondered, I'm like, you know, there's one scene that seems really graphic for airing an NBC in two thousand and eight pre Anibal, And so I turned on the Roku channel.

I turned on this episode just fast forwarding to that point to see if it was cut different, and yes it was, and and I and in watching it, I'm like, you know what, the TV cut is probably better, like it is more because the director's cut is trying to be graphic without being graphic, and so it ends up being very suggestive and you see stuff that like you just don't need to see. Um. And whether it was filmed in a way where Stuart Gordon knew it would be cut or just you know, it's one of those the power of suggestion being much more powerful than seeing almost seeing somebody cut somebody's tongue off. So um yeah. The end the scene in question is the flashback to when the killer is has a woman tied up, and I think on the TV cut it's just you see a flash of him heating butter on a skillet and her tied up behind him, and that's it.

And in the director's cut, it's him heating up butter walking over to her holding pliers to her tongue. Hammer cuts away, and then he throws the tongue on the skillet and nikes her eating. Did you see a skillet tongue on skillet? Did I see the tongue on the skillet? Zach says, yes, I know that.

I didn't feel like it was suggestive. It felt very clear. And then he ate the tongue. Yes, and oh I didn't see her eat it. Oh yeah, yeah, she's got to eat it too, which I definitely didn't see.

Okay, So that some other minor differences, and I really I think that seems unnecessary. It is the whole thing is like eating people. I get it, it's a tongue and not a heart, but eating people like you get their power. So like, why would you have her eat her own tongue? That's true?

That seems that doesn't seem like it's consistent with the messaging of the episode, and maybe that's why they cut it out. Somebody was like, logically, logically, why would she eat her own tongue? Yeah, yeah, we are going to spoil. Um, so let us dive into the story of Eater. Yeah, let's do it.

Um low, I know, so, yeah, let's do that. Um. So it's a single location takes place in a police station in Lanchester, New York. Oh yeah, I guess they say it. I think that's where it was filmed, but it's suggested that it's upstate New York.

I think yeah. And it's very um what's the thing like run down and like anti not great. It has a big assault on Precinct thirteen energy Like it's very very much that kind of place. There's some cops running around and they get in this like serial killer, the serial killer just got caught. He eats people.

And Elizabeth Moss is like a rookie cop or like you know, she's low low on the low, on the stepping order and like people are like you suck and you're dumb and you're abroad. Yeah, and also she likes spooky stuff, which is like a weird character choice. And I was like, I like you, except for the fact that you're a cop. We should talk about that. But it is amazing how many things um a like right now when you watch them, you're like, oh, this is weird.

This is really weird to watch right now. Yeah, Like I I don't know, I like the Elizabeth Moss character who is the rookie cop. If I didn't say that is I like her, I think she's great, but like obviously, um well, and to its credit, it does kind of say suggests that cops are assholes, that most cops are assholes except for her, and you kind of relief in at times. It's really on point with that. For sure.

There's like a funny there's a funny comment in it that I was like, oh, that's that's very self aware. But um in, you know, they there's a serial killer and he gets dropped off and he at this like precinct, in this holding cell, and he eats people. They call him an eater, like that's a thing. I don't know. Do they refer to to purpose like that regularly.

I don't know why they don't say cannibal. Yeah, but yeah, but that's fine, And he's an eater and Elizabeth Moss is like super interested in him. But like pretty quickly I'm looking, you know, probably about fifteen minutes and you realize something something's up, and like this dude, you know, is doing something to the people left in this precinct. And he is Cajun, yes, And there's like weird Cajun mysticism. Not to say that miss Cajun mysticism is weird, but the way they're portraying it is weird.

I don't know if I was okay with them not giving much of an explanation to it, like there there's you know, because he didn't have enough time, so I didn't need like a whole like oh, his mother was a witch and blah blah blah blah. Any explanation I think would have been offensive to any any hoodoo voodoo spooky ethnic mysticism is always not like X files does it so much it's irony and like oh art Asian pan has not aged well, yeah, strange like not. We're all just people and some of us believe different things. But like I think there was like a like a little rattle that I thought was goofy, but for the most part, like the chanting and like what he was trying to accomplish, I thought was effective, which, by the way, that chanting.

You want to know how much this episode is like the sort of representation of the series. The DVD. I don't know if anybody else has the DVDs, they're obnoxious aside from the fact that they're not labeled. Um, you put the DVD in and your FBI warning comes on, your lions Gate logo comes on, and then it's like another two minutes of fear, like the fear itself graphic coming up and like flashing and then blood dripping, and then this is this is this, and you're just waiting because I'm just waiting to see, Hey, which DVD is this? Yea, but that happens and throughout it it's the chanting from this episode is the like soundtrack in the back.

Yeah, and this is on like multiple desks. So at first I thought it was just the one because it was this show, but no, it's on all the all the discs. Well I will so, I mean it is like a single location, single night trapped in marked areas of what you're working with. Yeah, yeah, very small cast effectively five people, like and it's it's really it's it's tight, and it's it moves fast. It's very zippy.

Uh, flashbacks or side flashes employed when necessary, didn't feel bloated, looked really good, was lit, really well directed, It's well directed. Yeah, the perform it was, but it was it looked even better than his Masters of Horror stuff, Like he seems seems like he had a really good lighting person. Um, it looked good and it was it was a good story it I don't know it was. This is a very good episode because you think like Cajun cannibal, and it could have been schlocky or like, but it was actually like impact and by the end you care about her and you care about what she's doing and you feel bad for her. There's so this the cast and this is really good.

Everybody's really good in this. This is act cast. Yeah, I mean you have Elizabeth Moss. You have Pablo Schreiber, who was like really just starting out when this like his big thing probably at this time was The Wire season two. Um, And it was laughing when I'm watching him because I'm like, aside from The Wire, I feel like I've only ever seen him play this kind of part where he's just a misogynist asshole.

It's it's honestly my favorite. He is my favorite. He is in Weeds, and that is the first time I ever saw him was in Weeds. Unless I saw this person just didn't have any recall because he's not in it that much. But he's just so awful and dislikable but like likable, and that really that really works for me.

He's very good in this and then the cop that plays like the lighting up the white cop, or you just want to say it, it's the cop who eats Yeah, I mean, but like he's he's he's so good. That guy's so good. You know what? You know that guy from? What do I know him from?

Telling me? Well, if if you don't know, then that's because you still haven't watched the movie that you promised me you would watch Christine's Four Games. No, that's not what I'm talking about. More fundly, more importantly than anything, is his other collaboration with Stuart Gordon. Do you know what that movie is, Christine.

It's Dolls. Yeah, it's Stephen Lee from Dolls. Oh, I'm excited to see him. He has passed at the age of fifty eight. Yeah, yeah, I remember he died not too long ago.

I think I've seen him. I'm scrolling through his IMDb. I've seen him and he shows up in a ton of stuff like TV and stuff. So I've seen him in things and he looked familiar. He's his voice is very um because he kind of has almost a high pitched voice for like a man of his size.

So that's how because I didn't recognize him from his face. I'm just listening. I'm like, I know that voice. I know that voice. Of course it's it's it's the guy from Dolls.

Because it's a Stork Gordon movie. It's Ralph so he's very good in it. So the cast is all like good and then uh, there's a there's a point in it spoilers again where you're basically Elizabeth Moss is in this precinct with these with this serial killer who eats people, who's in his cell, not moving, Weird things are happening. The two cops that she's with are being weird and are very sweaty and aggressive and only filmed looking up at them, so you know something's wrong and you've like, oh no, I'm so worried for you, and like it's really escalating. And then the sergeant shows up and you're like oh, and he's like, I believe you, and if you believe it's true, we're gonna go look for it.

And they're looking and and like you're like okay, and then you know it's gonna come, but it's it's painful. The sergeant is also dead and it's not really him and the eater is impersonating all these people, including the sergeant, and it's so upsetting, Like I knew what was coming, and I was still like, I'm so sorry, Elizabeth. Well, especially because the so I watched this one with my husband. He didn't like it. Oh really, yeah, I think part of it.

Again, I wish I had watched the non director's cut, because I think it would have been a little bit And it's not that my husband can't take gore. I think it's just that the way the gore is in the director's cut is so in your face in a way that feels very two thousand and eight. It feels very Remember two thousand and eight was the era of torture porn and the era of what they want to see stuff, Let's show them everything. And so when there is this flashback to him, you know, having this woman tied up, it is every step of the way of him cutting her tongue out. And it's again, they don't show the tongue cut out.

They show him pulling her tongue out, holding plyers over them, and then cut to him throwing a tongue in a in a frying pan. Like it it feels a little much in that version, and I think for Brandon too, the cops being at the opening scene, them just being so over the top assholes to the woman, which I understand, like, yeah, that can be grading, I think, and sometimes it's it's more annoying than it's like, I get the point you're making, you've made it their assholes and their dangerous men. I think for him it was just too much. For me, I was like, it not that across the line, like it was more than I needed. But I think it also goes so far in establishing she's already under attack rights that whole idea that like men not and this is not my husband, but like men in general don't understand that.

You know, as women, we are defensive because we are always under If a man sends us a message, our first instant is always oh what is he trying to do to us? That you know, when you walk by a man on the street and if he calls says your name, or calls you out, you'll always think, what is he from me? It's the way we've been trained, because it's the way the society is. So I think, you know, it could have been done more subtly, but it's fine. It hammers at this point that she was already alone and in danger, and you're just you know, the difference between the guys and the very first scene to all of them, when they're really sweaty talking to her.

It's different, but it's not that different, which I think was also, as I'm talking it through, a really clever choice. Yeah, I mean, it's they only have forty some odd minutes and this is This is a bas based on a short story that was adapted by our friends from The Washingtonians episode Yes, Master's har which is very exciting. So once again it's m Richard Chismar and Jonathan Scheck. We should really learn to say his name next time. Honestly, I always mean to, um, I feel so bad, but I don't know people's last names.

But it's an I think for escalation purposes. If we're to believe that she the thing is she never thinks what's going on. She knows what's going on, right, And I think that's because she's already on high alert and they do that thing of establishing It seems sort of throwaway, but if you think about it, it's pretty smart. The whole, the whole. Oh, she's a horror fan and she she it's like she's already there.

She's already she already lives in a world where this is this is possible. And you know that's a really good point, um, because at first watching it, I was thinking, like, oh, they threw in the she's you know, she's reading a version of Fangoria and you know she and they like at one point they show where and she has tattoos. That just feels like, oh, yeah, you just made her into kind of the person that the people watching this want to see as the star of a show like this, which I just appreciate it and like, oh that's smart, Like that's a good way to do it. But you're absolutely right the fact that you know, it's the complaint every one of us has when we watch a horror movie about that that's about zombs.

And I mean this is somewhat true of the next episode, right right, the next episode is a zombie episode and it's and it takes the characters so long to figure out O these are like like and again, every zombie movie, or many zombie movies take place in a world where zombies on screen aren't a thing. But it's really hard to accept that when you're a horror fan watching something that you're like, no, come on, you know what to do. You shoot him in the head, You lock the door, you do this. And so in this, the fact that they make her a horror fan from the beginning means immediately you're right, her instinct would be something is wrong. This is more than reality.

Uh this, yeah, this, my gun isn't going to solve everything. This is bigger than what I'm used to. We need to figure this out very smartly. Yeah, and the over the top cop acting from specifically, Uh, the dude who plays Martyn La he's so but he's so charismatic and he's so likable when he's doing it, both when he's him and when he's possessed by the titular eater. Um, it's you.

You do skirt that line with her of like, Okay, well, is he being regular inappropriate or is this like a new inappropriate? Is he making regular uncomfortable or is this a new And I get what you're saying. I get like the the instinct to be like, they're all too much. Why is she like horror movies? This is all stupid, But like, I really do think it plays into the way the character acts the rest of the episode.

It's it's a great point because I think that Marty character in particular, it's, you know, she is a woman working in a very very predominantly male industry. Her co workers are not just you know, guys that she has to go to work and sit at a desk next to, but they are people that could potentially save her life or be her backup or not be her backup. So it's one of those like, you know, not to speak to female police off her as a but and my only real which I'm called experience, comes from like SVU episodes where this comes up a lot where you have like the male cops right to the woman, but the female cop helped them cover it up and all of that, and there is this like you you know, from an outsider point of view, I understand it very clearly as she can't sit there calling them out every time they make an incredibly inappropriate remark because then she can't do her job.

She can't trust them to do their job with her. So yeah, she has to take it. She takes it to an extent. With Marty in particular, it's this character that like she's disgusted by, but she also kind of understands like, well, I have to work with him, and because I have to work with him, I end up liking him well, and not like I know that he's not such a bad guy. He just you know, is kind of just unrestrained.

And so I don't know yet like where that line is. And I think you're right if they do establish it really well considering the time and they and again it's story Gordon. He understands how to work within any confines he's given. Yeah, so I would say overall this episode is good, but then also like depending on who you are and what you're looking for, great, Like for me, it's great, but exactly what this show should have been. I think, Yes, I agree, And so remember that the Elizabeth Moss character is interesting and weird.

Remember the last I think it was the last M saw a movie that I think it was just Jigsaw where that had like the female like Hannah Emery Anderson, who I was just telling you because you have to watch um what doesn't kill you? Oh yeah, okay, yeah yeah. So it has that real extreme female character and she has like tattoos which actually looks screen ready, they looked good and she and she ends up being like twisted and like I always want that character that like left of center female character, but they never seems to. It seems rare that they're able to do it in a believable way. You either get that goth girl I'm doing air quotes from u ncis, or you get like like it's or you get like I'm extreme and I have tattoos and I want I'm murder are you?

So it was cool to kind of see like a grounded female character who has different interests and maybe isn't well received by everyone, but also seems like smart and competent, not a maniac and not like totally it's it's like the more you're saying it like it's it is exactly because it's us seeing to an extent like ourselves on screen. And I mean, I don't look like I wish it looked like Elizabeth Moss. I don't like, you know, I'm not in a while, I do, oh believe that, But like all of those things that you're right, like the whole you know, we say this all the time that you know the we like everybody primarily in this country has grown up having to identify with white male characters because that's you know, that's what Hyman primarily is about and who it's centered on.

So we're used to it, which makes the whole like representation why it's so important, because when you see, oh my god, there's a chubby girl in this movie and the movie isn't making her a joke. Or there is a gay black man in this movie and he's not a joke, he's actually the hero. Like those things really are exciting when you see them, and you're right, it is a tiny thing, because it's not like women aren't often the center of horror stories. It's that they are mostly rarely are they crafted in any way and in they're there to be innocent or hot. Yeah, and in this like, no, she's smart, she has interests, like she could be someone I know, and I'm so not used to that in horror pro certainly not form Masters of Horror.

Yeah, it was it was nice. I think it's really well done. Like even if you're not there for like on paper, I don't want to show up for your your cajing cannibal story. I don't because there's nothing. I feel like you have offered me nothing, but somehow it's still about that, but yet like that's not the center of it, which I really really appreciate because I don't know that people that story is kind of tired.

Like I like the tangential stories of Okay, Cajun, Cannibal great, and now I want to see a person dealing with that instead of like it's about this guy. Like they did a good job of not of of putting the focus somewhere interesting. Um yeah, because you're right, Cannibal is the least interesting thing, and he's he's honestly, he's really not in it. Yeah, And and I think like the like, how what what this entity is trying to accomplish? Like it's this It's a siege movie.

It really is, Like that's all I'm sinc thirteen, It's it's really it's it's great. I really do like this one. I think there's a lot of stuff to like and it's one of those that you can come back to and be like, oh, yeah, this is good. Yeah um and then I appreciate that. And it looks good too.

I really appreciate Stuart Gordon. Oh it looks great. And this has given me a new appreciate Like I always liked him obviously, but like this has given me a really a new appreciation. This is a really good episode. I mean, and it's true of all three of his episodes for this series.

We're really good and like yeah and again we're thoughtful, like there there is something interesting going on. He's you know, and this one I think was the first one that it wasn't his script. I think the other two it was him writing with his partner, and this one he's taking somebody else's scriptum, But it still feels like a Stuart Gordon property. Um. And yet and yet there's other things to it that I haven't seen him do.

Um. The you know that one location that you like it being it's snowing outside. I love a good snowy um. You know what. The score is also really good, Like it sounds good.

The music is great, you know what. This does really good. Now. It's always weird when you watch something that was made for network TV without commercials, because you get those weird edits where you know, oh, this would have been a commercial break. What's great about this one is that it's like it's true, you could call out every time there should have been a commercial break.

But what's cool about it is that if I had been watching this with commercials, it is masterfully done that way. Every pre commercial break is a reveal or is a like it's something of like you know, the the jail cell being open, right, it's just her suddenly realizing that, and then you could tell it would cut to a commercial seeing the sergeant's body cut to a commercial like it actually like really, even though it doesn't need to be done that way. It had it been filmed for Masters of Horror, it would have been filmed differently. That would have been time differently. You wouldn't have had to queue it the same way, and you know you're watching it that way.

It's I really appreciate that he made it knowing, Okay, here is where the first commercial would be, Here's where the next commercial is going to be. I really need to time it. And I think you could see how good that was done when you watch it, you know, twelve years later. Yeah, I mean it's like chapter breaks. He put yeah consideration into like it's there's there's one in the next episode, um, the New Year's Day one that's I thought was really bad.

So so yeah, I think that maybe it's if you don't notice it it means it was done well, like if you're just like, oh, yeah, this is just chugging along like it would like that's not necessarily easy, that that's deliberate, like he did that on purpose. Yeah ah, I like it a lot. Yeah yeah, Um, I would though to everybody, I would recommend its, Um, don't do the director's cut. I think it does take something away when they just throw more gore and and it's not like just gore, it's like grow it's I mean, And I don't know if I ever told you about this. I remember having a very long conversation in college that launched me until like, this was the question I would ask everybody I met.

That scene in Hannibal the movie when um, Hannibal is has what's his name, uh, ray Leioda. I was going to say, is this the raids the Raylioda question? When when ray Leioda is, you know, Hannibal's prisoner. Hannibal's clearly gonna kill him, but first Hannibal has taken some of his brains out and has cooked them, and there's like and he goes to offer Ralida his brains and Raylyioda has to eat them. And you sit there, and I remember asking that question of like, would you eat them if somebody offered it to you.

I'm like, you know, if I thought I was going to die, why not find out how I taste at that moment um. So yeah, Like I normally appreciate a oh I got to eat myself scene, but in this case, it just felt gratuitous in a way that wasn't doing anything for the story that it just felt like it was trying too hard. So yeah, I'm well, I'm glad I didn't see that then, because this never, honestly, it never did feel like try hard or like it did never felt like someone's granddad was trying to shock you, which I I appreciate. Yeah, thanks, And again I think, and we'll see in the next episode too, how what the time we were in when these were coming out, because I think it's just so this does. The gore sequences are what makes this feel like it's two thousand and eight, but the rest of it not like could have been told any time.

I think, Mm, it's it's it's well filmed, it's not filmed gimmicky, and it's it's solid character work. So back to me makes kind of like a timeless entry into something that could have otherwise been very dated. Yeah, I'm with you, all right. Do you have any more to say about Eater? I don't think so.

I liked it a lot. I thought it was it was gross without turning my stomach, it was. It was not overtly mean. I don't know. It was just a solid forty five minutes of television.

Oh yeah, without question. If you're if you're gonna watch one of the ones we've seen so far, this I think is the best one. Yeah. This is really accessible and like it's just like good. Yeah.

All right, So that was Eater, which airs I think is episode three on the Roku channel. So if you're watching it that way, know that you were actually watching episode three. Okay, we will leave. When we will return, we will talk about Darren Lynn Bousman's New Year's Day. Who bye, all such a fussy young man.

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