78.2: The Amazing Shark-Jumping April Fools Day

April Fool. The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. It's showtime, folks. Enjoy the show.

Hi, I'm Cortland Hull. Of the Witches Dungeon Classic Movie Museum in Bristol, Connecticut. And this is Movie Meltdown. It's time for Sofa Theater. Need any help down there?

No, Clara, thanks. It's time. Last minute straightening up down here. God, I think I worked so hard in my life. You sure you don't want me to stay?

There's gonna be nobody around here to help till the first ferry back Monday, you know. No, Clara, you're a peach. This one's mine. I told my father I'd do it, and I will, my way. We don't want him to have any excuses.

All right, then. Have a nice party. Nice... He's got to be better than nice. He's got to be bloody unforgettable.

Good luck. Burning hot like an April Fool. Won't you be my fashion victim? Come on, I'm an April Fool. I'm a bitch with a snowball.

Jokes on you. I'm an April. Welcome to Movie Meltdown Sofa Theater. Once again, I am Brian. That's Roger.

I am Misty. And Marlene has gotten lost since the last time. She went to go hang out with dinosaurs. She gets easily distracted. There were shiny things.

She went shopping without me. Probably. All right, so this week's Silver Theater feature is April Fool's Day, and I am nominating it as one of the video boxes that warped my brain. Yeah, definitely. It is one of the best visual concepts for a box, and most people that saw it probably saw it on VHS.

I can't think of anybody I knew at the time who actually went to the theater and saw this movie, so it's It's probably one you picked up on VHS, and more than likely it's because the box art was just so, I don't know. What the hell? Yeah, it just sucks you in. You have to know. I don't know that I ever saw the box art.

It was on the menu page. It's them all sitting at the table, and she's standing, her standing in front of them, and yeah, the back of her hair is braided like a noose. Oh, yeah. She's on the knife-y. Yeah.

It's pretty awesome. So, yep, it's very simple and perfect. Horror movie kind of, it suckers you in. This movie does. So, the year is 1986.

Director Fred Walton and, I guess, plot. Let's see. We'll go with the, there was a pretty simple IMDb plot here. Let's see. A group of nine college students staying at a friend's remote island mansion begin to fall victim to an unseen murder over April Fool's Day weekend.

We'll leave it at that. And then we will throw out a huge spoiler alert. It's hard to talk about this movie without letting it out of the bag. And it's one of those, you know, you can only see it that first time once. So, you know, go and watch it before you listen to us totally go to town on it.

You have been warned. Moving on. So, all right, Misty. I hated this movie. For the love of fucking Christ, every character in this movie could not die fast enough.

And then at the end, it was just a big disappointment. They were super disappointed because none of them actually died at all. I know. I was so pissed. I was like, oh, my God, are you serious?

I was so excited that I actually thought these fuckers were going to die. Fucking movie. I hated this movie. I hated everything about it. It was a good time.

How could you hate it? That's what I'm saying. Do you like slasher movies at all? I do. I love slasher movies.

That's why I. Don't understand how you can hate this movie. Because slasher movies notoriously have bad characters you want to die. But at least they usually die. Yeah, but that's the good twist.

On the end. No, I wanted them dead. That's the thing. I wanted them dead. So I guess basically if we turn it off at a certain point, then you would have been like, that was good.

I watched it and it wouldn't go that far. The only redeemable quality for this movie was the song at the end. The song is awesome. It's a great song. We're definitely going out on that song.

Oh, fuck yeah. It makes so much sense. I hated this movie. I hated everything. I hated everything.

Everything. See, I don't understand that. Everything. Everything. Because this is, 90% of it is just a traditional slasher movie.

Which I liked, you know, because I kind of like how it started out. I mean, I remember the first time I ever saw it, you know, when it was on VHS. And, of course, somebody rented it. Somebody's parents rented it for us for some reason because we were too young to watch or supposed to be watching these types of movies. Of course.

And I just remember the guy getting his face crushed by the. Boat or whatever the hell happened when he was down there. Yeah. I remember that really freaked me out because, you know, I kind of thought, like, God, what if I was out having fun with my friends? And then something horribly terrible happened like that.

A boat hit you in the face. A lot of people wish a boat would hit me in the face. All of a sudden your friend's eyeball was hanging out. Well, especially, yeah, the whole eyeball hanging out. I was like, oh, my God, please get him to a doctor as fast as possible.

But, you know, that kind of freaked me out. And so, I don't know, I probably like this movie because I've had, you know, a longer standing history of, Yeah. You know, I remember way back when, and I liked it back then. Especially the whole payoff at the end I thought was good because I liked how they were all just sitting around, like, playing chess or building card houses or whatever, and the one dude just standing against the wall drinking by himself, like. What?

It's almost like surreal at that moment. Yeah, totally. Because she's screaming like nuts. They're going through the motions of like talking, but they're not. Not talking, yeah.

It's like this little dream that she's in the middle of all of a sudden. Which you get caught up in because you yourself are like, what the. Fuck is going on? Yeah, what the hell happened? Yeah.

And I like that, you know, because not many movies can take you there like, I mean, you know, that whole twist at the end, you know. See, this was the twist at the end before it was fashionable to have a twist at the end. This was a twist at the end when they didn't have one before, really, and there was not another one like this for another, like, 20 years, really. It's like they didn't, it wasn't the stupid thing to do, really, was to have that kind of massive twist at the end. Yeah, but even with the twist, I just didn't care.

I was just like, ugh. I was aggravated at the movie. Because unlike most slashers, you don't see anybody die at any point. But now it makes sense. Because I remember watching it this past time, looking at it, and like, well, it is different from most lectures because they don't, you get the gore, but it's all after the fact.

And then it makes sense by the end of the movie. There's a reason you don't see them die. Fuckers. Yeah. I'm mad at this movie.

Stupid, stupid movie. See, I wondered if it was just seeing it now. Because that's the thing, Marlena seemed kind of annoyed at this movie too. And you two had never seen it before. Roger and I have both seen it.

Because, I mean, movies that have come out now and how movies are now, I mean, definitely the whole twist thing is done to death. And so, yeah, like way back in the day, like this was like awesome. This was groundbreaking. Yeah, really. Especially because it was a slasher flick that wasn't a slasher flick.

And, you know, thinking back now, like seeing, I can't remember her name. The chick that was from Friday the 13th Part II. Oh yeah, Part II. You know, and she was like a big scream queen or whatever back then. Yeah.

I was glad to see that she was in it. Well, this is like a whole cast of, oh, it's that person. Yeah. Because you've got like the. Biff from Back to the Future.

Yeah, you've got Biff, who, we'll go into him in a minute. You've got Debra Foreman's your valet girl. So if Jay was here, he could once again talk about valet girl. Oh. The guy's like, oh, it's that guy from summer school.

Oh, it's that girl from Friday the 13th too. It's like a whole collection of these people that were like. in the movie that was popular last year. They took everybody that was sort of a side character. None of these were real stars. Their performance kind of the closest thing, and she disappeared at this point.

This was kind of the end of it. She was big for a two, three year span, and then disappeared again. I think she just got sick of it. Literally, it was like, I'm done. Did you ever watch the remake of this movie?

Did it have the same twist? Well, I don't want to watch it. Do we want to go ahead and go into that one now? Yeah, let's just attack that. We'll come back to the other version here.

But yeah, so just this week, that was one of the, I said there were a couple of things I watched that I was going to wait and go into, one of which was the new version, the, what was it, 2007 or 8? It was in the past couple of years they did the new version of April Fool's Day. Wow. I was given fair warning in the last week or two when I mentioned it. I think Barb and Eskimo got a hold of me on Twitter and were like, dude, really don't watch that.

Seriously, save yourself. So, of course, you dove right in. For the sake of the show, I will take one for the team, damn it. I wasn't going to make you guys suffer, but I will take one for the team. So I went ahead to watch it just to be able to discuss it and, you know, reflecting upon this movie.

Wow. They were not kidding. If you think you hate these characters, holy shit, you need to watch the remake. They are, at least these characters are like, the 80s version is like this conglomeration of like every little... caricature 80s person. The jock.

Yeah, you got the jock, you got the guy with the camera. All of a sudden, every movie had to have a guy with a camera in it in the 80s. You've got the slutty girl, you've got the... The prankster or whatever. Yeah, the couple.

So it's like everybody is represented in that one, but it's all kind of normal. I didn't go out of my way to hate any of them. They were all douchebags, but I didn't like... These kids in the new one are like. Over the top type?

No, it's an entirely different setup. The new one is all super... high society. Like, everybody is super upscale. Oh, no. It's like the whole cast of, like, fucking Gossip Girl, basically.

It's not. I mean, it's not any of these people, but that's what it is. It's all these little WB kind of pretty people. Oh, wow. And every one of them is, like, fucking rich.

Like, way more rich. You know, they be... heirs to the entire company kind of rich, and each one of these kids falls into that category, and they all drive their fancy cars, and it starts off at the debutante ball for one of them, and it's, yeah, I mean, the entire thing exists in this world, so you already don't like these characters, and then You spend all this time in their little fancy world, and you're just like, oh, God, fucking die. Yeah, please die. For real, die. Yeah, so there's no comparing the two.

If you want to hate some people, watch that remake. Jesus, they're annoying. You think you hate them now? And they don't even... And once again, I get pissed off when they make remakes because I don't like either extreme.

I don't like when you do a straight shot-for-shot remake because it's boring. I don't like when they don't... All you need to do with a remake is take the good idea, the basic element... Get what you need to get out of it, but then go your own way with it. Don't just rip off the name.

Because that's basically what they do. The name and that's about it. Maybe later there comes a little bit in. But for the most part, it starts off and they're really kind of ripping off, actually more of like I Know What You Did Last Summer. Oh, that movie was awesome though.

Yeah, well, this is No I Know What You Did Last Summer, let me tell you. That's a cheesy movie. I like that one. This is No I Know What You Did Last Summer. So, yeah, they're tapping into that stuff really heavy.

And then as the killing starts, it's almost got little moments of final destination. Like there's one or two kills that just feel like you're watching final destination like cut out scenes. It's like, yeah, it's such a weird grouping. And then the only name even in it is freaking Halloween girl. What's her name?

Scout. Yeah, Scout. Scout. Which Scout, I was never big on Scout anyway. I said that in Halloween movies.

But like, something, she might have had like the same thing going on with, what's your boy from the sci-fi movies now? Sean Patrick Flynn? Yeah, she might have the same thing. She's got this weird puffy face thing going on. She's allergic to air.

I guess. It was just, her face looks weird in that whole movie. She just like, I'm like, I don't remember her looking like that in Halloween. What the hell happened during this shoot? But she looks weird.

And there's a whole bunch of nobodies. So it's just a big mess. Yeah, it's just not fun in any way, shape, or form. There's one little moment in the middle where it's almost a clever scene where they think they know who the killer is and then it takes this weird little turn. There's one part that's almost like, wow, that would be cool in a better movie.

I hope they tackled it right. Yeah, so if you get midway in and you see that scene, that's it. It's all downhill from there. So how did they end the remake? Okay, double spoiler alert.

We'll throw that out too. It's not really, again, it's not the same way they do here. They. go through this whole thing, they've got all their tracking, they try to pull this version, but they do it a different way, it's like they're, there's somebody trying to kill them all, because they, they kill some girl in an accident in the beginning, and then a year later, they. Start getting notes, that's what I'm saying, it's exactly, a year later, they start getting these notes, just like, and I know what you did last summer, that are like, blah, blah, I don't know, then they have to meet at. The cemetery, and then, There's this whole convoluted bunch of shit that goes on.

They're following somebody around the whole time, and they think they know who it is. I saw what happened last year. Yeah, it's retarded. So by the end, they get to where they get the main girl who kind of looks like Tiffany Amber Thiessen, but not so trashy. She's sort of attractive, but it doesn't save her because she's horrible in this movie.

But they've got her, and she's tied up, and she finally confesses to what she did that screwed everything up. And then they're all, ha ha, it was a joke. And then everybody who got killed wasn't killed. But then in the end, they actually killed her. Oh, God.

And one kid did it to inherit money or something. So yeah, if I get there, it's spoiled. Who cares? It's retarded. I'm spoiled.

But it's not this thing. It's not what they did in this movie. So it really is just like, again, now it makes no sense. Now it's just another stupid twist because we've seen. A hundred of them since then.

But what they did in this movie and in the 86 version is a very different thing. In my mind, it's a very different thing. I still hated it. We can go through a few of the specifics along the way. We get this sort of, again, every kid has a video camera in the movies now.

So you almost, this is sort of the birth of that video verite section. We get the opening scene where they've got him on camera. And yeah, we just start to see the infancy of what that will become in the next 10 years. But it still just seems so pointless in this movie because usually later on when they use it, somebody finds the camera and they see footage on there. Yeah, it was just not for that purpose.

At this point, it was just like the novelty of, oh my God, you can hold your own camera. Yeah. I mean. Nobody could do that except for cheesy super eights, you know? So this was sort of that.

It was. It was like the 80s novelty of, hey, this kid's got a movie camera. And I hate it. Oh, let's see. What else?

I don't know. It does a lot of good setup, though. I mean, I think just that whole little creepy jack-in-the-box scene at the beginning. Yeah, oh, definitely. It almost is like sucking you in right off the bat.

It's like it's got the cheesy flashback you know filter on the camera and you've got the lullaby music going and it's all fairy tale like and then you've got this monster popped out of your face so like right off the bat they're sort of setting it up like okay you know what we're gonna dupe you it's like we're gonna present you with one thing and give you something else and i i like that they set it up that way and it's one of these movies that and i don't know if you'll ever want to do this again but going back and watching it again it becomes a very different movie it's like watching it this time you see a whole lot of other stuff going on that you never really, I mean, you don't know to catch the first time around, but there's a lot of setup.

Again, I think it's pieced together really well, the way they do this, because there's a lot of stuff that's put into play in the beginning that does come full circle. It feels smarter than something that just was hodgepodge together, like, okay, this is our idea, and we don't have a lot of money, and blah, blah, blah, and they just throw it out there, like throwing a bucket of painted canvas and just seeing what sticks. It seemed like that The flow, I remember, of the movie is really good. Yeah, I was never led on to the fact that This could be fake or blah, blah, blah. You know, I was buying into it as much as the people going along were.

That's one of the, it does so because they, they throw in all these pranks at the beginning. So you'd think they're almost like letting you know, Hey, this is all, you know, but midway in, they kind of sucker you in. And I think it's just because you're so used to seeing slasher movies. Like you're so used to falling into that mode of, Oh shit, they're going to get killed now. So you, that kind of snaps in you and you're like, all right, you move into that kind of movie and, Without even realizing that, you know, they're leading you down that path.

Oh, man, what else? You gotta be kidding. Unless Muffy knows something about us, we don't. Hold me, big fella. Hold me!

Just holster it, cowboy. Let's play hide the sausage. Mickey, help! Stop! I only recommend can hold another man.

Misty, you and Marlena were thrilled at all the weird gay innuendo. Lord, that was the gayest damn movie I've ever seen. It's not even innuendo. A lot of bromance going on. Yeah, it was blatantly like, you guys are just one shade away from doing it.

Just cock grabbing. Go ahead. At this point, get it over with. Just, yeah. Which is actually kind of weird because it's actually for the time period.

At that point. Yeah. It's like, you really didn't have, I mean, now you can get away with a lot and that's, you know, fine, whatever. I mean, they, they show plenty of stuff on movies and TV and everywhere at this point, but, For 86, this was sort of like a lot of random gay activity. Especially since nobody in this is technically gay, but come on, Biff, I mean...

Biff is gay. Biff might as well... I mean, he's got the classic scenario of he's doing all these things that are obviously gay to everyone else, but then he's, you know... continually looking for chicks and talking about how he's gonna. The dark guy very alpha male whatever trying. To see how many girls he can nail you know i'm just like yeah cover up god get it over with you got a boner for a boner he's not really bad yeah he's just back to the future back to the future but yeah you might as well be sure Oh man, what else?

Once again, this was just another example that it sort of proved our point that we brought up. a long time ago of they once again throw out a line that's like these kids are all sitting there and they don't know what to do with their lives and they're like, Why bother figuring out what to do with our lives when somebody can push a button and nuke us all? Yeah, really. And it is one of those that whole, like, you know, slacker. Slacker, end of the Cold War kind of era type deals where. That bred that entire Generation X of slackers that, like, had nothing to do with their lives because.

Because we're going to be nuked tomorrow anyway, so it doesn't matter. What's the point? Yeah. So this doesn't really delve into that, but I like... It was so, like... constant in the 80s that every movie there's like somebody's got some sort of line because we all just became so used to it at this point.

It just became like everyday life. Yeah. Well, uh, Harv's got his job interview all figured out. What about the rest of us? Does anyone know what they're going to be doing after graduation?

Good choice, Ash. This is incredible. Here we are, privileged independent, the hope for the future right at this table. Not one of us knows what we're going to do with the rest of our lives. Cholera.

You got your cholera? Oh God, I hate it back there. Everybody there was a lot of collar popping in this movie oh god I didn't even realize nice he would like specifically do it like that was they would make the joke of you know he's got two modes collar up and collar down. Oh jesus once again this. Is an era that is long gone and probably best.

For a good reason definitely no the pop collar is still around well. It's come back around though it disappeared for quite a while in the last like five years. Or so the douche bags have resurfaced oh my god yikes. Oh lord I don't know but it's got I mean this movie sets up so many very specific and kind of cliched horror moments but it's sort of playing on them all you've got your classic cat scare and you've got the you know even the cheesy picture with the eyes. Cut out the eyes behind it it's old school it's like god damn black and white.

Almost yeah I want that clock though that clock was friggin awesome. That clock was pretty damn cool the lighted cat. Clock with the eyes fuck yeah I want. That But it even plays into the grand play-upon scheme, which is the evil twin scenario. Yep, yep, yep, yep.

I was pretty sure the evil twin was coming to get him. Don't that chick look crazy? I mean, I'll say that. She looked crazy as hell. Yeah.

Especially at the end. It's like, oh, wow. Well, she does have that changeover. You have to... Again, it's like they, watching it this time, I mean, there is that next day, she becomes a different person.

You're like, why the hell is she so different? Because all of a sudden now, she's an entirely different character. Yeah, she's supposed to be a different character. It's one of those, yeah, you guys seem kind of thrown off by that the first time around. The things were happening.

From having good hair to bad hair. Seriously. Different character. Yeah, different hair. And had fancy clothes, and then she was wearing that.

Shabby shab, like, yeah, whatever. Fucking thrift store. Homely, yeah, huh. Nurse shoes, as the girl put it. But I like that the movie just plays upon what you, your expectations of what you're seeing and what you're going in for.

And so it's kind of like, you know, the movie does play a trick on you, the audience, the viewer, to a certain extent. Do what? I don't like being tricked. You don't like anything. I like something.

Star Trek. I do. And Butterscotch. I do like Butterscotch. That's good.

And caramel. Caramel. Rainbows. I'm going to say the ice cream sundae. It was good.

I actually didn't know from the beginning of this movie that I wasn't going to like it because I fucking hate jack-in-the-boxes. I hate anything that makes sudden sounds. I can't. Like, whenever Jay opens biscuits, I have to hide because they make a sudden popping sound, and I don't like being startled. I just don't.

You don't like the freshness cap of the Snapple, you mean? I don't like it. That one I can at least control, but, like, biscuits, you never know when they're going to pop. You never know when they're going. To start pulling.

You never know when it's going to come. I don't trust that shit. I never liked Jack in the Box because I don't like the whole anticipation of. I like Jack in the Box because they freak me out. There's something eerie about them.

There's always been something eerie about them. Probably because of the freaking movies. Like Funhaus. That's another movie that warped my brain. The Funhaus movie where it's like a Jack in the Box crazy clown.

Does he have an axe or something? He's coming out of the box. I don't know. It's like. It's, but it's, yeah, it's creepy and it's, here's my thing for real world wise, like, I never understood the whole, like, cranking the jack-in-the-box.

Like, it's got a latch right on it. Yeah. You don't have to go through all the suspense of it, just flip the latch and it pops right down. It's, you get, you get one, you know one thing from it just yeah it's not like it's good it's ever good enough to do it again like oh this is so fun put it back down again look what happened this time yeah comes out smoking a cigar you're like wait what. But yeah, just the real world version of me is like, just flip it open.

Who cares about the damn song? Yeah, seriously. If you think something's going to kill you in there, just find out now. Go play in that song. But was there a movie or am I thinking, there was like a Jack in the Box that when you did it, it came out with a knife and cut your throat or something like that?

There has to be probably multiple. That seems like it'd be awesome. I'm sure it's out there. Of course, the person would have to hold it up close to their face or close to their throat for some reason. Put that on the top.

Please hold it close to your throat. Yeah. For best results hold up to your face and it just pops out of the cheese grater. Oh lord it's one of those to me it's really for me it enters into a very specific area just as far as horror movies in general it's kind of like the quintessential horror movie specifically slasher movie For people who have seen all the other slasher movies, especially at that point, now I think it's harder to do. Now I think it enters into a whole new... version of that a whole new generation of kids that are like looking at stuff from a very different point but at that point in time it's like this really only worked well if.

You'd been if you'd seen Slash if you'd been watching them for the last decade you know if the last you know good portion of your life you were watching all these movies and then it built up all these rules and all these ways that everything worked and then just sort of like totally monkey wrenches the whole. Thing so you gotta be familiar with at least the design going into it to get anything out. I mean, it's years before Scream came along, but it's a self-aware horror movie. It's sort of, you know, looking at it in a very different way, but without being... I mean, it's cheesy in its own 80s horror movie way, but it's not cheesy in the self-awareness of it.

It's not near as blatant and obvious as they take it with Scream, where they're just like, it's like a horror movie. Like this, they really are buying it the whole way along. It's certainly cheesy in many other aspects, but not from that angle. It actually... takes it very seriously, but it's, yeah, the makers are making this very self-aware horror movie and playing on the preconceived notions that you have watching it. Exactly.

And I don't think it's been done since. Like, you know, there was that gap where April Fool's Day came out and then Scream was the only next one that was as, you know, self-aware playing on itself. Like any other one was just, you get another... Sleepy camp, whatever, campfire slasher bullshit. See, it's funny that you say that because I kind of have a reasoning for that.

And I think it's arguable, I suppose. But I would almost venture to say that April Fool's Day is like the jump the shark moment of slasher movies. it kind of hit that point of, like, we had the buildup of all the big, you know, you had the burning, and you had the Friday the 13th, and you have, you know, Michael Myers at this point. So you go through all the basics, you build up all the rules, and you get to the point where there's, the market is kind of saturated with them at that point. And then you get to this one where. It's just like, oh, just go for whatever.

Well, you sucker in all these people, and they're like, all right, one more horror movie. Come on, let's go. And then they get there, and they're like, what the fuck? This is not, like, I think it really did kind of, like... Just twist the knob.

And they were just like, all right, let's do something else now. Well, I think it definitely was, like we said, the perfect time for that to come out because, you know, yeah, going into it, we're going to watch it because, you know, I like slasher movies. I'm a sucker for them. But I know what's going to happen. And totally you get something different out of it because, you know, yeah, you're just kind of.

Played with a little bit. I think so, but I can see how it probably, like, would piss people off at the time. Well, that too, probably. It pissed me off right now. Yeah, I know.

But for different reasons, I think. It transcends time. But I think it, yeah, it's one of those that I think you, because you do go in expecting one thing, and it sort of pulls the rug out from under you, and you're like, well, what the hell? But I think it almost, like, in a grander sense, like, it may not have specifically been this one movie, but it was that time period, because... Were there any big slasher movies after 1986?

There were a lot more sequels that were kind of crap and going downhill. There were no new ones. Yeah, I mean, there might have been one or two random smaller ones that weren't successful, but I cannot think of any other big ones that came after this. This was kind of like the turning point in slasher movies to where it just dropped off. And there weren't any until Scream came back around and sort of revitalized the whole market again and changed the way that they did slasher movies again you know it sort of reformed them but yeah I don't know I think it's just so influential in that way that you know and again I can see there's a lot of people I've heard that don't like this one and maybe for that very reason outside of.

Misty hated it fuckers but i don't. Know i mean the late 70s to mid 80s was like this like amazing period for horror movies it's like it's something you can't go back to even now it's like they try to recreate them and they try to even get the mood of like those 70s and 80s horror movies and they get close but it's like it's just a period you'll never have again you can't make movies like that again the world isn't the same as those, you know, the time period we were dealing with. And then the audiences are totally different. So it's like, it's, it's kind of the little self-contained universe of horror movies that these were the rules and this is how it operated. And like, this was the, the cap on it.

This was like, okay, and now we're going to, we're going to fuck it all up and tell you, this is all bullshit. Yeah. And I think that was kind of the breaking point. All those people were like, well, you know what? It's bullshit.

Why are we going to these movies? And they started going to like romantic comedies, you know, it's like it, It turned the whole audience almost. Again, not maybe necessarily this movie, but just that point in general. I think audiences had hit that era where they were like, you know what? They were done.

We're done with these slasher movies. We're going to do something else now. Well, that was the time of romantic comedy. It might have bred one to the other. Look, we're going to dates.

That's a natural step. Yeah, because it used to be the date movie was a horror movie, and then the romantic comedy came along. Ah, fuck the romantic comedy. I feel that. God, they suck.

That's it. Hugh Grant made his debut. Well, they left this, and they went to see When Harry Met Sally, and the world was a much safer place for everyone. Changed forever. I mean, it was a good, like, you know, what I always like to say, it was a good time.

Definitely, I think it was a good time, but I only say that because I was there when it came out originally. So, you know. Yeah, I mean. I can understand your hatred, Missy. I mean, definitely.

Definitely. In a way, but in another, it's weird because it's still a conventional slasher movie. To me, it almost works as a slasher movie all the way up for 75% of it until it hits that point. I don't know. Didn't like it.

What I like about slasher movies is that there's at least a little bit of tension, a little bit of build-up. You get that kind of fear and you're like, something's going to happen, what's going to happen? This one, I'm just like, there was no real, like, oh, look, something happened. There it is. Well, they don't, and even that one, that was like a...

Sort of an oversight... On their part... Because they... A few of them... They...

Like the first couple... They do a pretty good set up of. Oh. And they get grabbed... And then it disappears...

And you don't really see... What happens to them... But that third chick... That random girl... That's just outside crying...

And then she just... Turns up in a well... And I had the same reaction... I was like... Wait.

Who is that? Yeah... Who the fuck. And you guys both said that. You were like...

Who is that chick? And. So I mean... They really... And as it goes on later...

It's like... They kind of continue on... But it's almost past that point... It's like... They almost needed to have...

A little more tension... Going into each one and give you, maybe even give you like a fake, you know, blood kill. And so, you know, do the fake knife or something. So we see it. But then like a second later, the person realizes, oh, okay, you know, it's fake.

I'm just, you know, kind of getting roped into this. Yeah. But still kind of cut it right before that so that you're still stringing the audience along. You've still got, you know, the blood. Cause that's the other thing.

There's really not a whole lot of gore as it happens at all. And they said, yeah. And they said it's, it actually, because of that ended up getting a lot of play on TV because they didn't, which to me, there's a lot of weird perverse stuff going on outside of the blood. Like there's still tons of sex and like, In your window. In your window.

Oh, nice. Once again, what they said was not in your window. Let's hide the sausage. It's not really. That's pretty blatant.

Who says that? Biff. Biff says that. Biff wants that. Yes, he does.

I believe he does. So, yeah, I don't know. I can see it definitely could have done a little more with building the tension along the way, but I think structure-wise it's still set up pretty good. I think the whole... As you get in there, again, you don't like these characters, but to me, that's pretty standard.

It would almost be like a tip-off if you had real characters. Since they're sort of duping you the whole way through, it's like they almost have to follow the rules of the standard slasher movie, which is annoying kids you want to see die. Having sex especially if they are wealthier you know which these kids definitely seemed from the wealthier side yeah. They were all i mean she was going to vassar you saw her house yeah these were not poor. Kids and i can even deal with not liking the characters if there was some tension or some build-up or something or just something to hold my interest it's just There was nothing, and I hated it.

I wanted them all to die, but it was happening in a very lackluster way. Yeah, I mean, you didn't get to see it. If you legitimately don't like the character, yeah, you're kind of being robbed of what you want out of this movie. It's like you don't get to see him get killed. You just see a body pop up later.

So I can see from that angle it would kind of be annoying. If all you're waiting for is to watch these kids die and then you don't get to see it, they keep cutting away. My major thing was just the lack of tension. That's what I love about slasher movies. I like the, you know, people being chased or like the jump scares.

I like, you know, a little bit of that anxiety as to what's happening. And that just, it wasn't there for me. You had a cat. A cat flew at his face. It was dark.

You could barely see it. He pretty knifed the cat. I don't know what happened. It did look like he should have knifed the cat. I'm not sure why he didn't knife the cat.

Don't knife the kitty. Yes. I didn't hate the kitty. Knife one of the other people. Repeatedly.

Oh, Lord. So, I don't know. I think that's... For me, it is a very influential movie. It was one of those that sort of...

It sure changed the way I looked at movies at that point, because I was still kind of a kid seeing it that first time on VHS, and it was one of those you're totally strung along, and then all of a sudden they're like, nope, here's what really happened. But it probably is one of those that made me a little more leery of movies going in after that. It's like, wait, what's really going on here? Is this another one where they're tricking me? Shenanigans.

Years before that M. Night Shyamalan came out. The dupas time and again. Yeah. Until the wind took his career away.

All right. Is there anything else we have on this one? I think that's it. Definitely, you know. Round it out with a fuck this.

Round it out with a fuck this. Thumbs down. Oh, I still like it. I still like it. I'm thoroughly entertained with it.

As am I. Not entertained. But, hey, that is how we roll. To each their own. We're all allowed our very specific and separate opinions on things.

I'm serious. Who wants to drink the water out of that well? That was some nasty-ass looking water in that well. Aside from the heads. Rolling around in it.

I mean, seriously. It was like brown and shit. Go drink the lake water. Don't drink that well water. It's gross.

Sorry. Listen up, kids. This is a public service announcement. Don't drink the water. Don't drink the water.

Oh, it's in the water. Oh, it's in the water. Oh, it's in the water. Oh, it's in the water. Oh, wow.

Why don't we just watch that movie instead? We can go back in time. Have an awesome fever. I fucking love that movie. Let's talk about that movie instead.

Okay. I'm going to go shoot squirrels. Because they're fucking gay. They're pretty gay. You better hit Biff while you're out there.

Yeah. Dude needs a wrecking. All right. I think that will round out the... weekly review here, so we'll take a break and be back with the rest of the show. Okay, you relax.

Oh, great. Three people are dead and you are telling me to relax. Nikki, just wait a minute, okay? Nikki, look at me. Nikki, look at me!

Okay, I know you've been through a lot. We have all been through a lot. Am I nervous? Yes. Am I a little bit scared?

Yes. But am I running around like a chicken with its head cut off? Oh, nice image. No! I mean, You gotta just lighten up a little bit.

People's dreams can come true Are we just April fools Who can't see all the danger around us If we're just April fools I don't care True love has found us now. It's time to stretch and fetch. See what's cooking in our refreshment counter. You'll find your favorite foods and beverages, plus many new goodies to tempt your appetite and add to your evening's pleasure. Everything's the finest quality.

So treat yourself now. A certain kind of girl joins Pi Theta Sorority. A girl who likes to party and likes to get close to her friends. A girl whose extracurricular activities were more daring than most. A girl who could turn her fantasies into reality.

One more sling won't set us back, Annie. Then again, Pi Theta was different from other sororities. I'll get back at you for the last thing I do! Because in this sorority, nothing is off limits. As long as it's fun for the girls.

So when it. Came time to say goodbye. They decided to make real sure that no one would ever forget the girls. In the house on sorority row. Popsyndicate.com Your one stop for all your unhealthy obsessions.

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In an April dream Once you. Came to me. You smiled, I looked into your eyes And I knew I'd. Be loving you when Then you touched my hand And I knew April dreams could come true Are. We just April fools Who can't see all the danger out there all right we're back and we've got feedback feedback yes feedback always good so this time we hear from demise and demise.

Yay demise feedback. All right, first up, we have her on The Wraith. Hi, Mike. So just calling in real quick. I'm catching up again, and I was just listening to the Wraith episode, and I'm really glad you guys reviewed it.

It's definitely a favorite of my childhood, and I think the only thing I was really going to share about it was that I was going through a time when my daughters were younger, and I was sharing different movies with them that I'd seen, like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and My Science Project and some of those, and I thought. Oh, The Wraith. Oh, we totally got to watch The Wraith. Well, they were still a little young for that one. I had completely. from the level of violence and inappropriate stuff that.

Was in that one. So that was a bit of a shocker. But anyways, it's definitely one of my absolute favorites, and I really enjoyed listening to your guys' take on it. Thanks, bye. And it probably encouraged them to, like, shove household spray nozzles up their face.

Yeah, or drink. Start huffing the oven cleaner. Hydraulic cleaner or whatever, yeah. Hydraulic cleaner. Yeah, it's probably not really a good thing to show children.

Especially if your children are mental and will just try anything they see on the idea box. So hopefully, yeah, they do better. Hopefully they're better than that. All right, and next up, hopefully at this point, I guess we'll round out and maybe this will be the last because I don't think anybody else here cares. So maybe this will be the last of our feedback on Glee.

Oh, Jesus. Heistomize. I totally forgot that I did that big call-in about Glee, and all I'm going to say is after the hiatus, I really am surprised at how little I'm enjoying the show now. It's kind of funny, the contrast, because I loved it in the beginning, but I actually fast-forwarded through a couple of the songs in the last episode that I watched, and I haven't watched another one yet. I'll probably finish out the season.

But I haven't seen a show drop off this bad since the season finale of Season 1, so... Anyhow, some of you aren't missing anything. It really started out good songs, good stories, and it's just not holding up. I guess we'll see how it does down the road. Take it off the air.

It sucks balls. I actually broke down and watched a couple episodes of Glee, and I didn't. Care at all. Yeah, it's just terrible. The Glee teacher was hot.

That was the extent of it. That's bringing you. I don't know his name. I didn't care enough to actually watch. My stance is it's ridiculous to have a kid in a wheelchair be in some.

They'd be dancing. Like, no. Give me a friggin' break. God. I mean, ugh.

You're just dead. I'm done talking about it. No, Warkley. All I have to say is they did have this weird changeover. I've only seen a few of them since the new season, but I think it's one of those that the hype of it and then probably the network influence kind of kicked in because now all of a sudden it seems like they're way bigger productions.

They have tons more money thrown at the production to turn it into a big stage show or a music video or, you know, now they're bringing in all these tie-ins with specific artists. Oh, wow. And it's totally, like, all of a sudden, like, the character development is gone. Like, you really don't care about any of the story anymore, if they even bother with story. He's a jock, but he can sing.

It's just all about the whatever numbers they're doing that week, which, I mean, granted, that's kind of what they built the show on. I mean, when you put a show like that on after American Idol, you kind of know, I mean, you're building it on that novelty. That fan base. But... It's still, yeah.

Even what little I paid attention to it, it did take a big turn right there when you hit that new season. All right. We will wrap up the glee talk. Yes, please. I'll be glee-less from now on.

No, unfortunately. I don't care about no wheelchair. I got so much left to do with my life. Don't. Don't be shy.

We'd like to hear from you. So give us a call at 502-365-5565. Or you can email us at geeksatmoviemeltdown.com. And just stop by the website for our frequent updates. That's moviemeltdown.com.

And while you're there, click on the forums link and go to our message boards at Pop Syndicate. Or go to PopSyndicate.com and go to the forum sections and look for Movie Meltdown. Okay, kids, get out your Dakota pins. Oh, my God. I'm so tired.

Oh, wow. Oh, Lord. It is time for the movie meltdown secret circle reveal of the next two features. Two weeks. Two whole weeks, folks.

For you members of the secret circle. I have a mustache. Oh, my God. Misty's playing with her hair now. Freaking losing it.

She's lost it. Next week's feature is going to be an odd tie-in. I may even wait until next week to give everybody the full tie-in, because it's so ridiculous, that's. Why I'm going with it. Yes.

But we will be watching 1978's Terror. Yes. It is out there on DVD. I don't know if it's something you can get from Netflix, because the only way I've come across it is part of those... compilation kind of deal four for one or whatever this one's like a 10 one it's like a oh. 50 like horror movies it's.

Like 10 it was like great horror hits and it's like 10 or 12 of them in one so yeah it's cheesy um non-remastered non-redone you know no special buy 10 for 10 bucks kind of a deal that was five dollars it probably was five dollars so Go. To Walmart and buy it, and then you can watch it and comment on it. Yep, so go get yourself a copy of Terror from 1978. I'm going so far to get this specific tie-in, and that's kind of why I want to do it, because it's so ridiculous nobody else would do it. That's what we're here for.

We push the envelope of ridiculousness. For you. So, speaking of which, let's talk about the following week. The following week, we're going to watch another one of those movies that I... I remember this movie.

I remember it on cable as a kid, and it was so weird. It almost didn't process, and it didn't make sense, but it was sort of fascinating. It sucked you in. The visuals were kind of weird and cool at the same time, and probably cheesy now, but... I don't know.

I wanted to go back. Again, it's another one of those I had in my head. I'm like, man, we need to dig that up and watch it. I bet a lot of people will be like, ooh, yeah, that one. And then I ran into a copy of it on DVD the other day for cheap.

And I was like, well, that does it. That's usually what pushes it over the edge for us. Once I happened to run across one of those on the mental list, I'm like, ah, shit, now we're watching it. Yeah, we're going to watch Heart Beeps. Heart Beeps.

Heart Beeps. About the robot family thing. Robots in love. Yeah. Whatever that.

That baby robot they have. Yeah. Yeah, you will be misty-less that day. Yeah, because you're afraid of Andy Kaufman. Yes.

I am. That's kind of what I want. Andy Kaufman robot. And Bernadette Peters. Yeah.

She's a fine singer. Anyway. So, yeah. Heart Beeps. I don't know what anybody's going to think of that one.

I'm fine with that one. Sure. Ain't no batteries not included, that's for sure. I don't know what I think. That movie fucking sucks.

That movie was awesome when I was a kid, dude. Stupid. Just had a bunch of old people on it. Exactly. It's like Cocoon, but with robot flying saucers.

Yeah, with less story and aliens. Yeah, it's really always a bad idea to go with the old people card. Yeah, I'll take Cocoon anyway. Cocoon's pretty damn entertaining for old people. I don't like old people.

Batteries not included. Okay. Oh man you would have not been happy yesterday as i sat there watching that movie i had actually it was okay i had i had like buffer seats on either side which i don't normally worry about in the regular theater but this was like one of those weird settings with all the geeks i was like if i can find an open area i'd probably another rather not sit by these people yeah there's probably a stench involved i don't know yeah so i sat down and i had a whole little area because i just showed up at the back and sat down and then midway into the movie this guy comes in and sits next to me and i realize he's a crazy old dude oh so i'm like whatever there's plenty of old dudes at this weekend it's no big deal once he starts talking to you about he no he doesn't even talk to me he just starts talking he's just like yeah Frank is done.

Oh Jesus and he's gonna watch the screen some more and be like oh that was good look at that that's good oh Jesus and I think he had what I'm assuming was his wife with him so I guess he was saying it. Out loud to her like I guess he does this at home. Watching TV or something or he could have been saying it to you. But he was just well he was just like naming things that were on screen oh he was stating the obvious he was like yeah thanks Captain Obvious Dracula I know thanks dude Or just like, oh, that looks good. They'd show like a makeup job.

They'd be like, oh, that looks good. I'd have freaking moved. I'd have moved. They were running out of seats, so yeah. I'd have been rude and got up, looked down at him, and then moved.

And scoffed. And scoffed. But the thing is, he's old, so he wouldn't have heard you. He'd just be like, where'd that dude go? His scoffing would drown yours out.

Eventually, I don't know what his reasoning was. He wandered off to another seat. Oh, Jesus. Further over. But without his wife.

Oh, Jesus. He kept trying to, like, wave her over, and she was like, I don't want to fuck you up. Yeah, she's like, fuck no. She's like, I don't want to sit by you either. This is my chance to lose you forever.

Yep. Wow. Old people. Oh, man. So, with that, I guess we've wrapped up this show.

We've wrapped it up as best we could, gift-wrapped it, packaged it. So I think it's time to kick off the amazingly awesome closing theme to April Fool's Day. The best part of the whole fucking movie. It is awesome. And it explains basically the show in a whole.

Yeah, kind of. It's very fitting of us. Otherwise, that about does it. We will return next week. Same geek time, same geek feed.

Thanks for listening. Later. Thank you. Peace. Word.

Or whatever. God, it's going to stop fucking raining. I know. It's going to be weird. Yeah.

Too bad you're crazy. Too bad you're loony as hell. So long, it could have been swell together. Too bad you're wacko. Wacko.

How sad your marbles are gone. All gone. We could be dancing till dawn, but you're too weird for words. Oh. How did you get so strange?

You were such a beautiful kid. Oh. Now you are so deranged. Was it mom and daddy? Something I did?

Too bad you're no-no. Too bad. You should be locked in a cell. Ha, sad, you're great, but hey, what the hell, you're crazy. You're off the deep end.

On my eyes. Your life's a practical joke. Killed homage. I'd bail you out, but I'm broke. Your brain's completely fried.

Life's just a party trick to you. Clown jokes and lots of booty do. It's time to put that on the shelf. I'm a little bit crazy myself. And what am I supposed to do?

Just throw off my clothes and jump on top of you? This show is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by Brian Renfro, featuring contact music performed by Tamara Deering. To help support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com for ways that you can contribute or advertise with us.