New Year's Day

Happy New Year, Christine? Yeah, who age twenty twenties over? Can we just? I mean we could right, Like if the world collectively agreed that let's just end it now and start over and call like tomorrow twenty twenty one? Who would Who would get hurt by that?

Honestly? But would it change anything? Willing to try anything at this point. But that's not why I said Happy New Year. I was leading into this episode New Year's Day, directed by Darren Lynn Alsman from a script which is by Steve Niles and other people.

So do you know Steve Niles as it is? I assumed you do? Yes, I do? Okay, can you explain who he is? Because I roughly know that he writes comics, but I could be wrong he writes comics?

No, you're right, okay? Um, I mean I think for most people, the most notable thing would probably be, um, thirty Days of Night. Um, so there you go, it's that snowy vampire movie. Um, it's which is which is fine? I think what's exciting about him being?

And I think I don't know, we might have both had different experiences with this um this episode? Um, so I I don't I don't have big feelings about Steve Niles, but I've never seen his name and gone like, mmmm, this is gonna suck. So like, I mean, that's nice because there are people lecy and I do think that. So but my I it's based on a short story, I guess, or did they worry its story turned into a comic turned into an episode? Maybe maybe I don't.

I'm not. I'm I'm not sure to that level. I mean, but there were a lot of a lot of hands in this idea, which is which is which I get, but also seems strange. It seems unnecessary because it for sure, it's pretty straightforward except with with something and I do I want to talk in detail about it. I also don't want to, like I will spoil it when we talk about it.

Um, but there is a twist that I think is really rewarding. So I would say, like, it's definitely worth a watch. I didn't love it, but I loved it by the I liked, I was okay with it watching it. I had issues. I was like uh at times, and then it ended I was like, oh, I like what she did there.

So I do recommend people watch it and then come back to listen. So from this point on, we will spoils that this is one of my favorite pieces of anthology television ever made. Really, if I was if I was making a list of the most interesting and impactful pieces of short anthology television, I this would be on it. Hi, I this is like every time I'm watching something and I go like, I hope it does and then it doesn't, right right this this time that did and it was so there is a there is a twist. It is.

It is um. I think it actually has increasing returns like I did. After I watched this, I was like, man, I wish I had time to watch it again, because I do and I will, I think at some point. But I also like, I'm like, I don't really feel like watching it again right now. It's that good.

That's the thing. It's yeah, that's good. It's not but the twist is so good that I'm like, oh, oh, anything I didn't like about it, I could go back and probably say, oh, that's because of the twist and be okay with it. Yeah, And I think you would find that that is true. I have seen this multiple times.

I I get that it is. It's not great. Don't do not approach this it's it's not great filmmaking where is especially when you compare it to Eater, which is a really well made forty five minutes of TV. This is not a well made forty five minutes of TV. But it's entertaining.

It's I think it's rewarding. I think is the most important thing. Yeah, I and so yes, let's let's let's spoil it do it? Okay? So this is a zombie um story?

Um, it's They call it a post apocalyptic zombie story and it's not. There's yeah, there's a nuclear plant something and people turn it into zombies, but that does not make it one day. It is not post apocalys exactly. It's so it starts on New Year's Eve and this this episode is titled New Year's Day, and this is kind of what happens on New Year's Day. Um.

The Your lead character is Helen, played by the lovely and talented Brianna Evigan. Who how crazy is it that Brianna Egon has basically like, this is what she makes as far as movies goes. She makes horror movies, Hallmark Christmas movies, and step up movies. She's the perfect actress. She's like the perfect actress for me, Like, like what me and her like, we should be like pals.

That's all I'm saying. She's she's very good. You could look at Step Up too and be like, oh, she's a little stiff or whatever. I don't care, shut up. She's very good.

She's very watchable, she's very likable, she's very charismatic. She has Yeah, she has a really good um I mean, like, she's very attractive. Obviously, she has a really distinctive voice. She has a deep forty five year old smoker's voice, which is weird in Hallmark Christmas movies, although it's very good in Lifetime movies when she plays the villain, which is another thing she does. Because again, like she's like the me.

If I could be a hot actress, I'd be her, Like that's what I do. She like she does like I love watching her, even though I will agree like she's not Meryl Streep like, but she's just fun to watch. She's very fun to watch. She so. So that's a big selling point because by the time I when I saw this, I knew who she was.

I'm pretty sure. So like I was like, oh, this is great. Um, so she is she is the lead character, and she she really is the character that you are with through this whole fucking thing. Yes. Um, So she wakes up on New Year's Day and like things are strange, the powers out seems to be some hubbub outside.

She's like hungover, a little out of it. You know, it's New Year's Day. Maybe she got into some stuff the night before. So basically it's like a slow unraveling of what's going on with her traversing the city to go to a safe place, which is the guy she likes apartment, the guy she likes played by Gorey mont Heath from Glee, but she got weird to see it's it is strange. And so it that intercut with um scenes from the night before, which I actually really liked that format.

I again, yeah, I don't love sometimes I feel like things are flashback heavy, but I do feel like this was an efficient way to tell the story. And it also hides the twist. Yes, and it doesn't cheat the twist because it makes perfect sense by the time you're done. Of right, I saw what I should have seen. You didn't hide.

Like if I had seen it in chronological order, then I would have known what was going on exactly, so it it. It gives you that very much like real time thing, but also gives you relevant information as it as you need it. And I and I the construction. My any issues I have with this episode are directorial and not story. It's it's the visual choices are so two thousand and eight.

It's not surprising because so yeah, Darren line Bausman, who like I, He's like, he's one of those directors I root for, like I root for all the kind of class of James One, um, because I think I think he is a smart guy. I've listened to Injuries with him. There's the feature at on the DVD with him just shows like he is like really well spoken, he knows what he knows horror, he loves horror, Like I mean, he really has only made horror, and I actually really love that he seems to only want to do that. Um. But this is coming off of Saw one, Saw three, I'm sorry he Saw two, Saw three, Saw four, and then Fear Itself and then after this he makes a repo which is all visually in the same it's that same like dark colors but neon lighting and shaky cam And I hated the shaky cam, and then I kind of chused it at the end because it kind of is there to suggest which the you know, when you find out the twist, you're like, okay, the shaky cam kind of yep, it was done for a reason, and that reason is, well, yeah, so the whole thing is that Brianna Evigan is navigating through this hellscape and doesn't realize that she's a zombie.

Yeah, so, which, honestly, honestly, everything should be this everything this, Yeah, it's it's this is probably the perfect format for it because it's so short. Yeah, because if you pushed it, you would have either seen it or there would have been that been holes in it. Either had to trick your audience or they would have called it. It's one of the two. And in forty five minutes you don't do either because you don't think you're getting that twist, and you don't you don't have you don't have time, like yeah, it's so you think you get a Knight of the Living Dead ending where she gets to Corey Monteath and her friend who is sleeping with him, and he shoots her thinking she's a zombie, and you're like, oh man, she went through all this, and at first I'm bummed.

I'm like really like it's gonna end with her just getting shot, like I'm so tired of the accidentally killed the person trying to help me trope, And then you're like, oh, oh no, Like it's really really good twist. And because it's it's it's her point of view, like there is this there is this sense like what is being a zombie? There's I am legend feeling to it to like, so who's the real monster here? Then? Like obviously the zombies are still biting people, although she doesn't.

She doesn't partake until the end, So like is she is she different? Is she? Like? It's it's really interesting, yeah, like what what is who? What are these entities?

What are these creatures? What are there? What's their drive? Like? Or is she is she's so pushed by love that she doesn't like, Oh well, I took it as because I think she does eat that that old man, doesn't she?

No, I don't think so, because she there's a flash. At one point she encounters this old couple where the woman is dying and has been bitten, so the husband has to kill her, and she's just watching and then the husband like goes off on her. It's like you're the reason for this and you don't know what's going on. But I thought when they like flashed back to that at the end that like she did eat him. Oh I didn't, but he like, it's okay if she did.

I think it. You know, you go back to the line in Dawn of the Dead right when it's when they're at the shopping mall and they're watching the zombies come to the mall and they say, you know, why are they why are they coming here? And it's the it's instinct, it's you know, this was an important place in their lives. This must be where they gravitate towards. And you know, there have been a few other horror projects that have like done the from the point of view of a zombie or a person turning, like um, what was the like the Arnold Tortuneager movie Maggie.

But like this is and I think like there's a lot of short zombie fiction out there. There's a lot of compilations of short zombie stories, and I feel like I've read one or two where it is this same idea of you know, what is it for the person turning into the zombie. But I've never seen it captured like this on in you know, a short entertainment format of you know, And in this case, I took it as no, she like, she does have to eat people. If she sees a person, she's going to eat them. But she is driven towards a place, and that place is going to be her boyfriends.

That's the last thing that you know, she died in part because she you know, we find out she took pills and you know, whether it was intentional or not, she kills herself because of him and is trying to kind of get back to him. That yeah, that that's just a driving force and we're seeing her as I need to get to him, and it's very logical that this is where she's going. And just knowing that everybody else is seeing it as her just you know, lurching and shaky shaky walking towards this man that she wants to eat. Yeah, I dug it. Yeah, there's some so I will.

I have two kind of tangential thoughts. One big clover field energy. Um, yeah, if you take it at face value, obviously you can't. But then two, there are some implications that aren't great if you really sit with the actual plot of this friend Yeah, so basically, so the thing is if I could get some of the nuances wrong here, but I have seen it four times, so I'm gonna trust my takee um. So she has a male roommate who is very cute but trying very hard, way too much going on, spiky hair, glasses tie calm down, sir, um any who.

She has a roommate who's clearly in love with her, who she cannot give the time of day two because she is in love with um the Corey, the core the Corey character, the man um. But they're not dating. She's just in love with him, which is wild and makes her seem desperate and strange. But it refers to him as her boyfriend at one point. Is that Yeah, but I don't think that's serious in any capacity.

Like, they're not talking to each other, they don't like like. I think this is a so from desperate girl point of view, which I do have experience, And I think that she's convinced herself that they're a good match and that they love each other and that she loves him, and it's obvious that he would like her. But they don't have anything. Like there's a point where he's like, She's like, I don't dance and he's dancing, Like obviously they're not compatible, And there's a really interesting exchange where um, like she says to him, like, you you understand me, and he says to her, likes and ever, you're not that complicated. Yeah, they're not a good match, which I do.

I do like that. So in a way, you could view this as I and I, you know, when I think at the end of the day, I choose to view it as this woman being infatuated with somebody for because of who she thinks he is, not who who he actually is, and then finding out her or realizing that her best friend, her her real friend who was actually there for her is they're very compatible and they are the same. Literally at the end, they are zombies. They are the same type of person now. But there is because this is written by a cadre of men, there is this insidious way that you could view it as well.

She had that dick in a in a case, and she was just waiting for that dude to cheat on her so that she could, you know, be with this guy, and this guy was just waiting around friend Zone all that stupid shit. There was a moment that I really liked, which is when friend Zone confronts her and says like, don't you see I love you. I think you're amazing and she and she's like dude, no, and he kisses her and she's like no, stop it and she walks away. And I was so happy because I'm like, yes, don't like. No, No, she doesn't like because then later, because we already know that he's been bitten and died and turned into a zombie, and so I'm like riding with it because I'm like yes, because I hate that trope of I was there the whole time.

Oh, you're right, Okay, I guess I'm supposed to be with you because you because you liked me, So I guess I'm supposed to like you. And I really was so excited that that this had given her and this guy who is presented very earnestly, but she's just like, no, I don't like you that way, and that's it, and then it ends with but they're together as zombies. I was like, Oh, didn't didn't need that, did not need him coming back, like, didn't need her choosing him as a zombie, like how great wind had to have been if he reached for her hand and she was like, fuck, no, I'm on my own. Yeah. But so I think there I'm very torn up about it.

I think that there is maybe a way, and who knows, maybe the source material was worse with it, maybe it was better. But I think that there's you could have thrown in one or two lines or another thing to make me know which way I'm supposed to feel about it, because there is a part of me that, of course, two zombies holding hands at the end. I love. It's great. It's great, it's great.

And he was nice to her, and he did understand her, and they were a lot alike, and she she did like an asshole. So all of these things are true. But the trope of friend zone, you know, you know, pretty and Pink I was there the whole time. This thing about friend zone in horror, because it comes up a lot, and the problem is, you know that the people writing it are dudes who were constantly quote unquote friends zoned. Because typically you know, not to make broad generalizations, but in my experience, a lot of people who turned into you know, successful horror writers and directors weren't that popular in high school, like but yet never liked the girls like me who were there, like also with the same interest.

They always still wanted the prom queen and so they like it's that whole fantasy element of oh, we'll finally write that property where prom queen understands that that horror nerd was there for her the whole time. And it's just, especially in twenty twenty when we've been talking about this a lot in a post kind of Gamergate world, it's one of those things about this that doesn't aid that well. Yeah, and like, but like, so there are instances where because I have done it not you know, you like a guy that you shouldn't like, you actually don't have anything in common with, and men do it with women all the time, you're blinded by some weird attraction or something they said once. And especially now like when people communicate online, you can you can ignore the things that don't fit with your fantasy and you can really focus in on like the one thing they said that means they're perfect for you, and and that does happen.

So do I think we should ban all stories about that? No, But like there is still a part of me that is wary of, like is this is this? Is this a toxic type of story where she you know, but but then also I don't know, like they lived together, they got along, maybe she was maybe they were great for each other, and she was just hung up on this guy because she was like self sabotaging because she was sad, which I have done. That's not a character judgment. I've done that well.

Because there's also I mean, I guess it's this was something I thought was going to pay off and didn't. But so what's the deal? She had her brother died as a kid. I believe he died as a kid. But yeah, her brother is dead and it is definitely impacting her her her so like there was a moment that I really thought this was going to go a different place.

Um. Curious if you did too the first time you watched it, because in the beginning, they established like she's really sad because either it's his birthday or it's something where this is the time of year when she remembers her brother who she loved, who died very sadly. And then when she sees the old couple and the guys like you did this, it's your fault, and I started to think, I'm like, is this some because end there's one other thing to her character, which is clearly like she's a she's a bit spooky, she's a horror fan. She has like, you know, gory posters in her room. She's got a pet tarantula like all like you know, she dresses kind of like you know, she wears like Doc Martin's and a skirt like you know, she's kind of like, oh, she's a little goth all this, and I was really waiting for it to be a monkey's Fawl situation where it was, oh, she wroughte zombies back because she wished her brother back to life.

I never thought that, but that is kind of that would have been fun. Yeah, but it and in the end, I think it's like a nuclear explosion or something that zombies. But it's again here, neither here, They're north there. It doesn't really mean much, but the it's interesting that like they put this there, this fact about her that seems very specific, but then it doesn't really have a payoff. And I was very curious where that came from and why it was there.

But well I had one question, So is this a walking dead style zombie, like if you die, you come back as a zombie, even if you weren't bit Oh yeah, because she does. Okay, well, they say it it's a blast. There is a blast at I think it's a nuclear power plant or something where they are, because because they it's like and I kind of like that. It wasn't directly addressed. It was just there in the background that there's protests going on, there is a nuclear something, either it was bombed by protesters or there's an explosion there and the like within the radius.

It sounded like people that were exposed to it or dead. I guess dead that works supposed to it would zombie. So she zombies overnight when after she takes too many pills and I guess being exposed to that radiation is what turns her into a zombie. Yeah, I mean that's what it seemed like. But then she was just laying in this apartment and there was a little zombie boy and that, and then her roommate was a zombie.

So I was like, did somebody just like come and nibble on her? But I don't. I mean, I wouldn't put it past the friend zone guy. Yeah, So it was just it was just that there was stuff about about their relationship that made me go like, yeah, fair, fair, I wouldn't disagree, but like, overall, you know, if you really just go in and take it for face value, if you really are able to do that. It's a story about a girl who doesn't who likes this guy who actually cheats on her, and when she wakes up it's she's a zombie, doesn't realize that, and then goes and kills him with her roommate who she now loves.

It's cute. Yeah, I mean there's a good lesson here, which was is a lesson that I have spent my entire life trying to teach my female friends, which is girls stop liking assholes. M because he is an asshole, like Coreyman even he's really terrible. And I think that that's what makes it like because because the friend isn't also like a piece of shit like he see, he does seem nice. I go like, should I just take this at face value?

And he's just a nice guy, and now they're both zombies, so it seems obvious that they should like team up. Yeah, I don't know. It's it's not perfect. It is a little problematic in different ways. Um, but it's I really like, this is what I want out of Fear itself.

This is what I wanted out of Masters of Horror. I want take a short format and do something with it, because it is a short format, do something in this that you wouldn't do in a movie. And I think this is a very good example of of that. This, like Eater, I don't want ninety minutes of this. This was exactly what I needed of this story.

M h. I agree, Yeah, good time. I like I like it a lot because I like I like the trick, I like the gimmick. If you don't, if you're if you don't care for that shit or it doesn't work on you, then I get it. There's probably nothing here, right And if you're you know, there are a lot of people that hated this era of horror filmmaking because it was, you know, born out of the Saw generation and the look of it.

I understand not loving the look. It's a very specific, dated style, visual style, and again I don't love the shaky effect. I think it's justified in the end. If I watched it again, I think I would excuse it because I'd be like, oh, no, what is it? What is he doing with the effect.

The effect is actually not there to be a zombie. The effect is there to suggest is actually her what she's seeing or whatever it might be. But it's it's one that I would encourage. If anybody watches it and thinks that they want to give up halfway through, don't stay. Stick it out because it's so rewarding.

But hopefully if you've if you've heard me say that, now you already watched the episode, um, because otherwise that's yeah. But that that being said, if you do know, if you're like, oh, I didn't I listened to this all the way through and now for some reason want to watch it, I'm telling you it really does play. It plays real cool and you know yeah, because you're like, you're like, oh that's why, and oh this person says that, but you could have you could interpret it this way, but it really like I it's good, it's good, but it has a rewatchability to it. Yeah, I appreciate that. All right, what is the next what are it?

What's the next round? If you're itselves, Oh gosh, I'm having trouble in two seconds? Okay, So after New Year's Day, we get community, which I think is the Mary Herron segment. I don't think I've seen that one. Okay, it's a Brandon Routh's one.

I haven't seen that one. I'm so excited. Brandon Routh is I just love him. I love him. He's one of my favorite people.

So I'm very excited about this, all right, ask you? That is Skin and Bones, the Larry Fistenden one, yes, which I have I have not seen. So this one has a good cast Doug Jones, isn't it, which is good. But it's written by um True mcqueeney and Rebecca Swan who we were not fan of from Pro life. So we'll see.

We'll see who does us you know, keep keep keep her chins up? The worst? What's the worst that can happen? We get turned into zombies and wake up and then go and live our lives and zombies and what's wrong with that? Yeah, I mean maybe it'll be good.

I'm looking at I wonder for you what it would be like, because I mean, I eat me like, I'm pretty like I'll eat anything. Um you you do not eat anything, and you certainly don't eat eat and probably have not now for a very long time. I wonder how it would affect you to eat people that's a zombie. Um, well, there's a Day of the Dead remake, the one with me in a safari there is like a vegan or vegetarian zombie. It's like a part of that maybe become a a what's the word pioneer in that front.

Yeah, that's like the Bob character and the remake, like he's he doesn't eat me, so like you know how he's like smart and there and this one he doesn't eat me, so like you're applying that you have to that's smart. People don't eat meat saying I think I was saying that that was the gimmick that in the original he was just like more evolved or evolving, and in this one like he doesn't. He doesn't. But like I I would like to think that that my differences would get me chained up somewhere and studied. So I mean, good for me, good for you.

Yeah, now I'm gonna be like I'm gonna be Oh my god, is a zombie. I would be so hungry, like I would just want to eat everybody I know myself right like and I I think I would be like I wouldn't be picky about it, but I would aim high, Like I would want to like, Oh, I'm gonna go find Bobby Flay and eat him, like the way she's trying to find her boyfriend, this guy she loves. I would try to find um like Gordon Ramsey or like the Pioneer Woman, Like I'd go find them. So that I would ideally eat somebody who eats really well. Wow, that that you'd have to be very like aware zombie.

I don't think so. I think my food motivation would be strong enough to like lead my nose to wherever I needed to get to. It would it would compel you from I'm very feel motivated, like much like the way like when you're training like dogs. Sometimes there's like food motivated dogs. There's like dogs who are attention motivated verse affection motivated versus food motivated.

I am definitely in the food category. So I think I do well as a zombie. Wow, just the men out there, I just go take a nap. Yeah, well, you know, maybe one day we'll find out if our predictions about our il was turning into zombies are true. Until then, we wish everybody stay safe and stay healthy and all of those things, Bye bye.

My baby won't sleep in a gold gold ground. She's a zombie now. Oh and the moon comes up and the sun goes down. She's a zombie now. She ground.

She's a zombie now. I've been night goes around because she's a zirre