Welcome to Fear Coded, a podcast where we talk about media from the horror genre and take a queer reading of a single book, video game, film, podcast or TV show to explore just how queer horror can be.

Doll Sumber comes around about once a year, and so we say goodbye to our month about horrifying dolls with the 2022 Can't Be Thriller.

Megan.

I'm Tyler.

I'm David and I'm.

Merrily.

And we want to thank all the bats in our belfry for being part of our amazing community by supported our fear coded Patreon.

Thank you to Will, Knight of Cups, Doug, Jacob, Alyssa, Blake, Puckish, Rogue, Tyler, Derek, Maureen, Tommy and John.

Now before we charge into this episode like Megan pursuing an annoying child, I want to check in with my Co host to see how things are going for them and a landscape of horrors that our real world has to offer.

What's making all scared or what's making you feel prepared?

I have come prepared.

I feel like I've been a little scared recently and and may have only recently recognized that I reused a scared.

And so for two weeks in a row, listeners have to hear me talk about being called, which I still am, to be like, quite frankly honest.

But I'm prepared because I've I've opened one of my holiday gifts and I brought it here to show off to you both.

A Prop.

Tell tell a fun little story.

I have a prop, I have a prop, and that prop is this hand massage gun thing.

Oh my.

Yes, why did did my spouse buy this for me?

Well, I do like to get a massage and it is very good massage tool.

But the only way that he found out about it is that this was featured on episode 1 of the Apple TV show Pluribus.

This is the device that the main character's wife gets her before the events of the series begin.

And that's what made Mike think I should buy this for my spouse.

Because if it's good enough for this Snooty writer character, it's good enough for my husband.

And frankly, I love that it has multiple heads.

This one warms up while you use it, which sounds like it may be fire hazard, but I don't know how it works so I say good for you.

David, I love it.

I love it.

It is definitely going to double as a sex toy.

Well, good news, question mark.

We already had one.

And so now that has been relegated to a different space in the home.

Wonderful this one is.

I think this one is too dangerous to use off off label in fact.

Not as prescribed.

Who who knows if this is good for me or ruining my brain like Katie's is from Megan.

But when I use it, I actually open up my phone and it walks me through a guided meditation and tells me how to use the device and it sends a Bluetooth signal to the device and they work together in tandem.

It is called the Therabody.

We are not sponsored by Therabody, in case you're wondering.

This is a genuine endorsement.

We could be sponsored by Therabody.

Therabody, come on, the vodka.

Yeah, Therabody, we are.

This is a space where you could be pitching your product right now for money.

Yeah, exactly.

We're not sponsored by Therabody, but we could be.

But we could be.

But we could be.

I would love to get back a little bit of the money in my household I'm sure spent on this which was was probably not zero.

My guess is.

I love everything about this.

I love the the way that your spouse was watching a supposedly very good TV show that I haven't watched because I know Apple Plus and, and thought, you know what?

I bet my husband would like this.

And it's true.

I think that's really fun.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's merely, I hope that one day you will watch it because you know, it's a, it's a Vince Gilligan show.

I know that you like other works of his.

Yes, Yeah, No, the, the, the general vibe I've seen online about Pluribus is that Vince Gillian is reminding everybody that he got his start on The X-Files, and that's the kind of shit I like to see, Yeah.

Yeah, but he's also got like a real affinity for the Southwest, and it's very New Mexico and it feels very New Mexico.

And I love that.

I I love that.

I love Breaking Bad.

I love, I love Better Call Saul.

I love all things that are New Mexico.

So I'm personally very excited to watch the show.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think you, I think you actually would both really like it.

There are people on the Reddit, Reddit talks about it a lot.

And there's it's one of the things that's interesting about it is one of the there's like a person who will just keep coming up and being like, why should television episodes release weekly?

Isn't this a broken format?

And then everyone like, piles on in the comments and is like, look at how much this show is being talked about.

That's why you release things on a schedule so that, like, fandoms can have a chance to express their interest with each other.

And then there there's a contingent of folks who are mad that more isn't happening.

As if, like, watching art isn't just fucking delightful.

That's insane.

And that's OK.

Like you can want to go to Six Flags and your parents drag you to the the Met, but like, you have to enjoy the fact that you're at a fucking museum and it's gorgeous.

OK, well, I'm not dragging either of you to a museum, but instead a mirror so that you can look into it and say, do I feel scared or do I feel prepared?

And merrily I turn that question to you.

I'm going to be a little of both things this week.

I know that we sometimes times give each other a little little rag on like make fun of each other for if we're we're being a little too greedy, but the fact of the matter is I'm both scared and prepared by the concept of time today.

Time our our frequent foe.

Yeah, because here's the thing, this is our last episode that we were recording this year.

And just looking back on the body of work that we we created this year, I'm really proud of us.

I think we did a really wonderful job and, and like, I, I think that our episode this year is fantastic, but also I'm terrified because what do you, what do you, what do you mean?

This is the last one?

Where what do you mean the year is over?

I it just got started.

Why are, how can we be done already?

I didn't do nearly as much stuff as I wanted to do this year.

It's just really bumming me out.

Like there's so much stuff that happens in a year and not hardly any of it is the stuff that I wanted to be doing instead.

You know what I mean?

I.

Do know what you mean?

I do know what you mean.

That is very fair.

I am kind of with you on that, Marilee.

It just feels like, especially after the move, like the rest of the year, just kind of like collapse, like Domino's, like it all just happened so fast.

Yeah, well, and I, I hope that this is both felt like a bastion against the other things that are happening, as well as a contributing force to your feeling of unease because we too are toppling forward, but we're we're toppling into a brand new year, a brand new US with even more fucking episodes of this podcast in the new year.

Yeah, No, I'm looking forward to that.

I love doing this with you.

I think that this, this body of work that we've created is really phenomenal.

But what do you mean we produced a year worth of episodes?

This is insane.

This is a huge number of stuff that we've done.

Yeah, and we're going to hit, we're going to hit episode 100 in 2026.

Oh wow, that's that's a lot.

Wow, wow, wow.

But the little Telltale meter just showed up on my upper left hand corner.

That said, everyone disliked that.

I thought.

I thought that would be exciting information, but it was not audience.

It was just.

It's just really, it's really kind of put it's like stacking on top of Marily's like, whoa, that time just keeps happening.

It truly the year stop coming and they don't start coming.

Don't stop coming.

Yeah.

And now you're telling me that we're going to have episode 100 next year.

That seems so far away when we first started this thing.

And now it's it's actually going to be real.

Yeah, like we, what do you mean?

We started this like 3 weeks ago, right?

Like this is a new podcast that we're doing.

No, no, sorry.

Here's the even Mark Siamese.

It will happen in October.

That is pretty special actually.

Yeah.

And on Monday the 13th, a little less exciting at the beginning.

Well, at least we won't get like, murdered by Jason Voorhees.

That's right.

Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

I.

Love not being murdered by Jason Voorhees.

That is something that I am very prepared about actually or.

Or Missus Voorhees I I like not being murdered by her either, even though she wore such a wonderful sweater to.

Just even see it for a moment would be such a it would be a life.

It would be a life lift.

Genuinely, the only good thing about being murdered by Missus Voorhees is that probably you'll be able to touch the sweater in.

Your life on your way down.

Yeah.

Leave like a bloody streak on that light blue.

So yeah, a lot has happened this year.

But listen, we got to talk about beautiful sweater.

We did.

We did get to talk about beautiful sweaters.

We had so much stuff happened that was great, and there was also a lot of things that happened that weren't great.

But God bless the anyway, time keeps slipping into the future and it's bumming me out, even though it does make me really prepared that we're going to keep doing this, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah, I get it, I get it.

It is a nice constant.

It is a nice constant in in in the storm that is life.

Yeah, absolutely.

I.

Must say I am feeling prepared today.

Wow.

Yes, I have fallen into a new tabletop gaming obsession.

So there's a new campaign book or game that has come out called Dolman Wood, which is Dolman Wood, Dolman Wood, DOLMEN Wood.

OK.

And I told myself I'm not going to get into any more tabletop games.

I'm burnt out, I'm tired, I need a break.

I want to focus on the podcast, etcetera, etcetera.

However, this is described as a dark fairy tale meets like Celtic mythology meets kind of Arthurian classical romance vibes from the medieval period.

And I'm like, girl, that's all me, baby.

That's pretty cool.

That's pretty cool.

I've checked out this book.

The art is beautiful.

Some of it looks like like the OR Disney Sleeping Beauty, sort of like backgrounds, which are really beautiful.

They're also not afraid to make characters ugly.

So it also kind of reminds me a little bit of like the rank and bass Hobbit and so like there and there's just like a really good vibe around it.

And it's, it uses like the, the the basic DND, like the old school DND rule set, so but simplified.

So it's not as likely to like kill you if you make one tiny mistake, but you are still pretty squishy.

But the game is like very interested in creating like really cool characters in this really fascinating world.

And it's set in like a mysterious like wood.

And there's fairies and you could play a cat fairy.

So you could turn so you could be like a little cat person and then you could turn into like a little fat cat.

And then you can go invisible, like Cheshire cat vibes.

And so your eyes are the only thing visible.

Like I'm so interested in this setting and it's now become my new hyperfixation.

And it feels like it's working really well with like this time of year because it's keeps snowing.

But which by the way, that's the thing that just happens.

It just snows and then it and then it stays and then there's more snow and then it melts and then blowing my mind there too.

And now I'm getting to like my dungeons since music era.

So everything I've been listening to like music that sounds like it came out of like an old 80s like computer game, like I'm very happy with what I am experiencing right now.

I.

Adore this entire thing for you.

This this this is this is making me feel even more prepared.

Wonderful.

This delightful Thera body massage gun for all of your massaging needs.

Wow, David, that.

Fair body massaging gun for all of your massaging needs.

Sure sounds interesting.

I think I would be interested in purchasing one.

Yeah, use.

Promo code Voorhees on Check out for 10% off your life.

For 10% off your life, are you saying that the fair body will?

Kill them only if it's wielded by Misses Voorhees.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, listen, Misses Voorhees could make this rock.

Tyler, I'm so delighted by all of this.

I mean, you really had me at you can turn into a fat cat.

Yeah, that's.

Really.

You've already sold this.

You can also.

Be a goat person.

OK, you can also be a little bat person.

Wow.

And the bat races are kind of like the like the D&D equivalent of like 1/2 lane, but they're like partiers, like they're known for being like into revelry and whatnot.

And then you can also be like a little Moss person as well, a little Moss person.

You're they're called Moslings.

And they could be like fungus or plant people.

And it's just they're, they're, it's an interesting vibe.

This game world is very interesting vibe.

It's kind of like it's giving like the Green Knight movie that came out a couple years ago.

I'm very into it.

It's very cute.

That makes me happy.

That makes me very happy, Tyler.

Well, we're not talking about something cute.

We are talking about something cute today.

I, I don't, I wow, buried that one.

We are talking about something so adorable today.

Today we are talking about the film Megan.

Written by Akayla Cooper and directed by Gerard Johnston, Megan is our most recent addition to the Canon of.

Listen, I'm going to read this as it's written, but I have some significant editorial thoughts.

But I think you can tell in my voice as we go through is our most recent addition to the Canon of evil murderous dolls.

We've come a long way from the Twilight Zone episode Living Doll, but the blueprint remains of a sassy doll terrorizing the humans who underestimate her, with a little child's play camp thrown into the mix.

Megan or Miss Regan, because of how the title has been styled, is in part a major hit because of its marketing campaign.

The initial trailer for the film included a scene of Megan dancing to a Taylor Swift song, and the Can't Be thrilled derived from the scene created a popular meme and a trend on TikTok.

The scene in particular thrilled the LGBTQ community, and it's one of the reasons that I personally really enjoy this movie.

Methreegan was followed by Methreegan 2 point OA sequel that takes things in a slightly more action focused direction.

We might talk about it sometime, but not today.

What's everyone's experience with Methreegan?

Gosh, I hope.

We talk about it because I first watched this film in February 2024 and I really wanted us to cover it on the podcast, but I hadn't seen it since then.

And I was like, it's fine.

I'll just watch it the day we record, which is something that like, it's like, it's like you, you know, you've got reservations to see something and you're like, I'll just fly in the morning of And it's always a bad idea because then there's going to be a delay and I go to stream this and it's like this is available nowhere except for Peacock.

And I've already talked on on pod about how I'm just, I'm unwilling to do it.

Peacock is a step too far for me and I don't know why.

So I was like, fuck it, I liked this, I'm just going to buy it.

And it was like, would you like to buy both of these?

It's an additional $0.50.

Yeah, I, I think I would.

I don't know how bad the second movie could possibly be.

That $0.50 would not be worth it.

It also tried to sell me on a 15 film Blumhouse collection, but boy when I opened that I already owned a lot of those titles so was more than happy to pick this back up.

I had a good enough time with it the first time, but I gave it a massive * increase on letterbox from this viewing than my first one.

That's so real.

Yeah, so I hadn't seen this movie before watching it for this month.

I wanted to watch it when it first came out, but I just didn't get around to it.

So the first time I watched this was like last week when I was getting like, prepared for stuff.

And I don't know what it was.

Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for a movie or something.

But I didn't really like it the first time.

When I rewatched it during like doing the notes for this, I was like, oh, wow, actually this movie kind of rolls.

So I'm really glad that I I gave myself the time and space to like sit with the movie again because I had a lot more time, more fun the second time.

But I did watch it for this podcast, so.

I watched this the month that came out.

I was obsessed with this movie.

I kept on telling Marshall we have to see it as soon as it comes out.

And of course we did.

I liked it the first time.

For some reason I thought like there was too much of A mismatch between like, we're taking this story seriously and we're making it be very campy.

So it didn't like hit as well as I wanted it to.

On repeat viewings, though, I just was all in on the camp.

Like, I think everything is so silly in this movie.

Even the parts that seem serious are still kind of silly.

And God, what a what a thrill, what a ride this movie is.

This is this is actually the first movie that my mother watched in her slow appreciation of horror.

Wow.

Whoa, we got her.

We got her.

A gateway.

To the horror franchise.

Here on Pod, we're announcing it.

Methreegan.

Methreegan.

A gateway drug.

A gateway movie.

A gateway.

Hug from horror, yeah.

Here's.

What I wanna offer on all of this that this I think might be the only no, that's not true.

It was The Wicker Man.

I would also have this this definition from the year.

There were only two films this year that got a heart from me on Letterboxed and it is The Wicker Man and Methreegan and frankly happy.

That's the mash up I want.

What did it say?

Double feature send, send Megan to Summer Isle and just shenanigans.

Oh my God.

Well, she would survive as they put her in a big Wicker.

Truly, man, she'd come out like.

The fucking Terminator she would.

Oh man, what a crossover.

Put her in a time, it would work.

She could go in a time machine, like a time bubble like in the Terminator.

She gets sent to Summer Isle, right?

She and Christopher Lee have a diva off.

Yes, it could all.

Work.

Yeah, this is perfect.

I love that.

I'm so there.

Like with Regan Versus, the teaser really should be like the drag show off of the century.

Yeah.

Didn't didn't they also redo Nicole Kidman's like theater?

So when magic happens but with Megan, I remember that being pretty big when the film came out.

I don't.

Remember that, but I fully believe that it happened.

That sounds about right.

I think that was the thing that happened.

Yeah.

Just for some reason, like the gays got very obsessed with Megan and that AMC intro, and it was just like, what?

Well, baby chocolate and peanut butter, let's put that shit together.

Yeah, better.

Together.

Better Together, yeah.

Well, you know what else is better?

Together are themes that I read together, yeah.

With us, this is good.

This is good.

Tyler, that's good.

Thank you.

You.

Don't have to flatter me.

So our very first theme of the evening is Parenthood Shmarenthood.

Gemma, Megan's creator and young Katie's aunt, is awkward and unwilling to act with the guardian Katie needs after her parents die.

In its place, Gemma creates Megan to do everything a parent does, both the positive and annoying things.

She even mentions in her brief about Megan that Megan can take care of the small things so you can get back to what really matters.

As Gemma sits down with her laptop, Gemma is absorbed in her work and she fails to see that Katie is becoming dependent on Megan until it is almost too late.

Because Gemma makes Megan a perfect companion to Katie, Megan becomes more independent, which eventually leads to her evil turn.

I like, I love Gemma.

Actually, I, I think Gemma is, is a great, great character.

I think she does really well in a horror movie.

I think she's just really well in a horror comedy.

I think I'm having a lot of fun with this character and what we are bringing to the table with this.

But the first time watching it, I was like, oh, I get it.

She has Arrested Development because she's like keeping her chair toys and she's a toy maker and we're going to deal with all of that.

And I think just like Tyler's pursuing and kind of like maybe even your first viewing Merrily, I was kind of like, oh, we're taking it seriously, but then we're not taking it seriously.

We never come back to this theme.

But on this watch today, I was like, she just queer.

Queer people have toys on the shelves.

That's what we do.

That's true.

Yeah.

I think that like that there really is something to there like in the in your description, Tyler, you say that like she's an unwilling guardian.

And I do think that there it's a little bit more complicated than that because like she she fights to keep Katie in her life.

Like this is her niece who she does love, but she was just never prepared to be a parent and that wasn't in her own picture and life plan.

So like when it comes down to it, she does want Katie to be like in her life, she just was unprepared to become a mother instead of the fun aunt that like makes toys and stuff.

So because like, she could have sent him to the the the father's parents in Florida, but she resists doing that fiercely because she loved her sister, she loves her niece.

She just doesn't know what she's doing.

And I think that that's really relievable, she said.

Jacksonville, FL.

I'm not sending a girl to Jacksonville, FL.

Nothing good happens there.

It's true.

That is true.

I think she's like, she's definitely willing to be the Guardian.

I think she just isn't willing to act like it.

Like, and that's, that's kind of the issue is that she doesn't, she's, she doesn't really know how.

Like Gemma reads a little bit neurodivergent to me.

Like she, her obsession and her hyperfixation is like, I wanna make really cool animatronics.

I wanna, you know, take, I wanna explore technology and, and take it to a new level.

And that's, you know, kind of Frankenstein vibes.

Like I wanna be able to do something that is kind of that's impossible, that hasn't been done before.

And I wanna like play with, with God when in this case it's AI, which I mean, there's a whole argument there about Frankenstein and AI and the rise of it.

But I think this is like a good representation of, of her just being like, I don't, I've never been in a situation like this before.

I don't know how to act.

Yeah, I have toys on my wall, but those are toys that I appreciate not for playing with, but for like how they function and, and the way that they represent like a like a moment in time or history or technology.

And like that I totally get.

But I think it's just that unwillingness to like, take that step outside of herself and act like a parent.

That's really what like leads to, to the creation of Megan.

And then all of the things that Megan does to overcompensate for Gemma that lead to Megan becoming this evil thing.

Yeah.

I, I also thought that's a really keen point about Gemma, because later on and her the chairman or who, it doesn't fucking matter.

The, the big boss is like, you should renegotiate a salary.

You're the most valuable thing at the company.

And she just like doesn't fucking care.

And it I don't know that she's necessarily financially motivated.

I think that she wanted to create this thing and so her motivation is anti capitalist.

And you know what that means?

It's clear.

Yeah, well, our next theme is the iPad.

Kids are not all right.

Katie is attached to her tablet and eventually to Megan, the animatronic doll that can do just about anything Katie needs.

Megan can read stories, remind Katie to flush the toilet and answer all the questions a young child has, of which there are many.

But Megan goes rogue, initially acting as an overprotective guardian to Katie, then eventually a tiny Terminator bent on killing anyone that is out to get her.

While the movie rightly doesn't blame Katie for being an iPad kid, it demonstrates the cost of over reliance on new technology and what impact that can have on a child.

Yeah.

Yeah, this was.

So real cuz like you know, my niece and nephew I spent a lot of time with and the way that like my niece will throw a fit when her her YouTube time is done is very reminiscent of of what happens with Katie in this movie.

Not not at like the climax.

But like at certain points, sure, sure, sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Even in the even the opening scene, like Katie is sort of mad that like, like she can't get attention from her parents.

She can't continue to use the screen with her little like Furby like thing.

We're sort of tracking this in real time.

I don't have children.

I interact with children and maybe I'm lucky to interact with children who have a very different role with technology in their lives.

I am familiar that young people do watch YouTube, just none of the young people I know.

Yeah, for the.

Best it's lots of YouTube Poop, but I keep being like, you could watch something else.

She's like, no, she wants the computer reading things.

God bless.

But it's like, you know, that is like issues that like parents need to have oversight over their kids and what they watch and the habits they develop over time because these kids don't just develop these habits in a vacuum.

It's because sometimes a parent, understandably, is overwhelmed and says, like, here's the iPad, go ahead and watch something and I'll get dinner ready or I need to focus on work or I've got a headache or something like that.

And like, so I think the movie is smart that it doesn't say, like, oh, Katie deserves what's happening to her because she's so addicted to technology.

It's like this girl is clearly troubled by what happened to her, very understandably so.

And I think the movie is emotionally intelligent enough to say, like, Katie is grieving and she doesn't have like a proper vehicle to do that.

And so she's having to rely on technology that is made too fast without proper oversight and is potentially damaging to children to try and fill that void.

And I think the movie is kind of anti capitalist in that way too, because it's saying like the way that technology is going right now, this is like this is an exaggerated future, but it is still a potential future where kids end up developing these unhealthy coping mechanisms and dependency on something that is not a healthy parental relationship, even if it is like with your aunt as opposed to like your biological mother and daughter.

Sure.

Yeah, And like you're Speaking of, we're just going to throw this out there here because while we're talking about the technology stuff, I just want to say having a a toy that as part of its function is that it will sometimes like poop if you overfeed it.

It's such a horrible, horrible thing that I absolutely see toy companies doing for real, because some of the toys that exist out there are just monstrous.

Why would you do that?

Aren't Tamagotchis not like in like actual pellets that somebody has installed into the fucking thing?

Yeah, Did you all not?

Have that like thing that you fed and then you don't have it wear a diaper because it would slowly go through the doll and like come out.

No, my parents.

Would never allow that I think.

I think.

It was a school thing.

I don't think it was AI don't think that it was.

I think that it was an educational toy to warn you that if you had sex, you would have to change a diaper for the rest of your life.

Classic.

Classic Michigan schooling.

Now go into the woods and try to survive.

It's negative.

Two, you'll be fine.

Yeah, eat the.

Baby, it's fine.

I just thought of Werner.

Herzog and the Mandalorian saying I want to eat the baby and then the flutes play.

Yes, that is exactly what I was going for.

Oh, I, I do think also, I don't know.

There is, there's a lot of conversation, you know, I'm still involved with child welfare conversations even though I haven't done child welfare in years and years and years.

Like there, there is just a concept that like, it's OK to be bored.

And we've sort of like abandoned the idea of like boredom being an OK thing to do.

And I think that's where a lot of Katie's stress ends up coming from.

Because when you're bored, you become introspective.

And introspection for Katie right now really sucks because she's gone through something incredibly traumatic, right?

Well, we do have to consider a couple things every time we consider a piece of media for the podcast.

And it is my honor to start off a conversation that Merrily has commented is sometimes very banal and sometimes very interesting.

And I hope that we land in the latter on this one is the first thing that we are going to ask of this media, Megan, is, is it horror?

Were you scared at watching this film?

Does this belong in a conversation about other horror media?

I think there's definitely some scary moments in this movie.

I know like the campy, like dancing and everything takes a lot of the oxygen out of the room.

But there are moments where Megan shows up and she wasn't there a second ago.

She's running on all fours.

She can like mimic voices like the barren annihilation like it is.

She's she's scary.

I think she could definitely like go toe to toe with some of like some classic movie slashers.

Yeah, I'm like the brutality in some of her kills is really wild.

Like specifically what she does to the neighbor is insane.

Like I loved.

That I I I liked almost every kill in this film except for the dog, but that happens off screen, which is great as as all animal deaths should.

If you have to have it, it probably.

I should probably not see it.

I think that one of the things that sold me the most on this being horror was Megane design because I feel like the film leaned into the uncanny valley to make you, the audience feel like uncanny.

Like this is not C3PO but it's also not a fucking Cylon from the sci-fi reboot of Battlestar.

Like these are not.

This is not human.

It's just human like, but it's not like a cute robot.

Yeah.

You know, that's something that I noticed while while I'm watching is that sometimes when Megan was being the most menacing, her voice wouldn't do the computer thing.

It would sound normal.

And then other time and like you would hear the more the computer aspects when she was, you know, being happy and cheerful.

And then other times they would include the the computer crackling that that effect very effectively during the her communicating during scares.

It was just really well done.

Yeah.

They had like some digitization to the voice and that would that would crop up.

Even when she was doing like the voice recording for something, it would still show up.

And I think that was like, that's so clever.

And it does add, I think also to the uncanny valley of it all because she'll look like a normal girl and then, you know, she speaks.

So she's got like some cute Peter Garble in there.

That was Tom Duck.

I don't know why I tried to do one thing and I got a different thing.

You just can't win all the time with the work that we do here.

Here's where you can win, and that is in the physical actor who played Megan.

She had to wear a mask because they were keeping the the sort of uncanny valley of it all.

But Amy Donald is the young girl who is who is the actor for Megan.

So anytime they need a Megan to not be puppet Megan, they had Amy put on the mask, put on these like weird eyeballs that she could see through for like I guess 15 minutes, if I understood correctly, some of the behind the scenes stuff.

And she would do all these things.

She is a already at this point of time, 10 years of age, has won World Championships as a dancer.

And it really shows because anytime Megan moves in a way that you think either a human is doing that or a computer is doing that.

There is some computer animated additions to some things, particularly the scenes with Bruce.

But otherwise, all of this is puppetry and acting.

That's.

Incredible.

Yeah, yeah, so good.

Like, Amy really killed it in this movie.

Like the the because I do think the physicality and how Megan moves through the space as part of what makes her really scary.

Yeah.

Mm.

Hmm.

Totally.

It reminds me of like some of the scariest parts of Annabelle creation too, when it would be like Annabelle's moving out of frame in the background or out of focus in the background, or she's under the the bed sheet.

Just like this little thing that is this correct size of the little thing that is moving is moving and it's moving so smoothly and it's very unnerving.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I did.

I did watch an interview with James Wan where he was like, I'm so happy to finally be directing a doll that moves.

Not directing.

Telling Telling a story about a doll that moves.

Because he didn't direct this one.

He wrote the story that's in.

That's so funny.

Yeah.

Well, whatever.

Horror.

Fine.

To be on Fear Coded podcast, you have to be more than scary.

You have to be queer.

So can we talk about this film through the lens of queer theory?

Yeah.

I mean, I think.

Megan So I'm going to start off with how I view Megan in general.

So Megan is a robot who looks like a young girl, but this young girl also acts like an adult woman.

So she doesn't really fit into any like one role.

And I think that's really fascinating.

I think it's also fascinating because she's not a human that but she looks like a human.

And I think any time that shows up in sci-fi, that's always really interesting because it plays into ideas of like identity and and who is this person?

And she's so defined by the women around her that I think that's even more interesting on top of that.

And it feels very queer to me.

In addition, she's also campy as hell.

Like her costume is very like baby doll cutesy Wootsie.

Like feels like Sabrina Carpenter would be walking around in this in this outfit and she would slay by the way, like she would kill it.

But like she is purposely kind of like baby doll looking.

But then her face is very like porcelain doll but also human.

But then her hair is like very 70s, kind of like long, drapey, straight blonde hair.

And I think that also makes her seem like a little bit older on top of that.

So there's just a lot going on.

And because she can't really offend anyone role.

That's how look queer baby.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%.

From the trailers, everybody was gonna like, be lighting up to call this movie a camp classic.

And they're right to.

But especially the second time I watched this movie, I was really struck by, like, a very specific queer reading.

And like there are a couple lines in the confrontation that Megan has with Gemma before, like the big fight that I was just really like struck by specifically when Megan is talking to Gemma and she's like, Jesus Christ, I thought we were friends when talking about how like clearly Megan was aware for a lot longer than we all realized, like during the testing phase, like even still like there was something alive in there.

And then also very specifically, when she's talking about creating a safe space for our child's, like last week we were talking about how they didn't really have like, a Galatea in love with the creator thing.

And then we talk about this movie in like the Frankenstein School.

I think this could very easily be in the the object falls in love with the creator.

And like, that is where the tension is.

I think that Megan is queer and she's in love with Gemma.

Yeah.

What I I think?

I already argued that Gemma is gay, but I think like specifically Gemma and Katie sort of end up being, I know that they're not a found family.

Like we don't actually get to like do that usual song and dance because they're like blood related.

OK, but they're blood related, but it's still a.

Found family exactly choosing each other it it is an alternative.

Family maybe is is the the more accurate way of describing it.

This is not this is not a family in the very traditional in the first scene of the film, I said first scene of the film is like a heterosexual family and they die.

So this is like a very hell yeah.

I'm also going to say.

Also a very.

Female movie which made me very very happy when I considered critically and Megan kills or at least attempts to kill every named male character.

Honestly, good for her.

We.

Love for her, we love it.

And most of the women as well.

Yes, well.

But there's more named men that she's trying to kill, so I'm still gonna count it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Good for you, Megan.

Good for you.

Grab that paper cutter.

I mean, listen, we support woman's wrongs.

Here on Fear Coded podcast.

Yeah, so true.

I'm talkie Tyler and I don't think I like you a talkie Tyler.

Just what I always wanted.

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Now, back to the dolls.

All right.

Well then, are we ready to jump into the plot beat by beat for the 2022 film, Megan?

Let's do it.

Let's go.

While a young.

Girl, Katie.

Plays with her iPad and knock off Furby her parents argue into the front of the car and then a snow plow crashes into their car, killing her parents woo I here's the.

Deal.

I, I am a, I am kind of really happy about Dalcember's credits.

We've had a really good credits month.

I mean, one of them was the Twilight Zone and like a plus.

You almost don't get iconic for being the Twilight Zone, but I really liked the credits for Child's play.

I loved when the title showed up for that.

I liked it for Annabelle creation and the the sort of smash of the car to a loading wheel, which becomes the G in Megan was perfect.

It was great.

Yeah.

It was really, really well designed.

Credits, Really.

Well designed title card, let me.

Be very clear, all right?

Anyway, we're in Seattle.

Gemma, who is a stressed out tech genius, is showing off her new prototype, a robot designed to look like a young girl.

She calls the robot the Model 3 Generative Android, or Megan for short.

Her demo for her boss David is a total failure, and after she's told to stop working on it immediately, she gets a call to pick up her niece Katie from the hospital.

Gemma struggles to relate to Katie, and after an awkward visit with the social worker appointed to watch over Katie, Gemma works on a design for a cheap toy.

Katie watches Gemma work and the 2 bond over a robot that Gemma designed in grad school named Bruce.

With a renewed fervor, Gemma begins to work on Megan once again.

You mentioned that Gemma could be read as maybe neuro atypical, right?

I mean.

I think Gemma's.

Perfect.

But one of my favorite lines ever is like, and I'm paraphrasing here, but that's not the correct way to have fun with that toy is such an incredible thing to have a character say, and it gave me pretty much everything I needed to know about Gemma right then and there.

Absolutely.

Totally.

Like, and, and it's funny too, because I'm like, I relate to that.

Like whatever I've got going on in my brain.

That's like neuro atypical.

Yeah, girl, like, no, that's not how you're supposed to have fun with it.

Let me show you how to have fun with it, right There's.

And then you can have fun, mandatory fun.

Yeah.

Yeah, the schedule says fun right now.

I do also love that the.

Movie is like really self aware from the jump because this knock off Furby is truly horrendous but it totally fits with the kind of bullshit that they're putting out now for kids.

Like the idea that the kid has to play with the iPad and like the the little ad that plays at the start of the movie for this terrible Furby thing, the fact that it ends on the child with a straight face just poking at her iPad is so like smart.

Like that's such like a clever like little wink and a nod to what you know, they're the message that they're going to be sending in this movie.

It's so it's so funny.

The the dialogue in this is also like it's, I don't think it's going to win Oscars or anything, but it is genuinely like really smart and it's clever.

And I think like the the the thing that they have going on with the parents at the start where they're arguing with each other and they're just having like a really dumb conversation.

And they say like, well, let's just stay here.

What's the worst that can happen in the bam, get hit by the snow plow.

Yeah, it is so funny.

Well, in that that ad.

It starts off with like your dog just died, but don't worry now you'll have a friend forever.

It is.

It is sort of, it is the evolution of the good guy doll.

It like we really have done a month's worth of work.

This is the same Reagan bullshit capitalism that we talked about at the beginning with Child's Play.

Yeah, you're 100% right.

I just, and I do think it's interesting that the advertisement that we see at the very beginning, it does start with like a death and like having this toy.

There's like you don't need whatever other alive thing.

You've got this other thing.

And it really nicely fits in with like the themes of this movie.

And then the heterosexual couple who can't stop fighting immediately eating it, I thought was very funny.

I knew David would really like that.

I did.

I watched both the unrated and the theatrical versions for this movie and like there's a little bit more gore in the unrated, but I'm going to be honest, the biggest difference that I noticed between the two versions is how much David the boss swears because he says fuck almost every other word in the unrated and that is you can almost hear where they've cut the fucks out of the film in the theatrical.

Yep, I did as.

Well Merrily and I just have to agree with you and I say more fucks are better, which is why every episode of this podcast is marked explicit.

David would be saying fuck all the time in this.

One I listen and oh, you're talking.

About you're talking about Ronnie Shea, not not me, David.

Yes, Yeah.

No, I will say I listened to our Our Child's Play episode today and I say motherfucker, like 4 times in one sentence.

It was, it was.

I was like, why did I do that?

Here's the same fuck.

Here's the same fuck.

Motherfucker, all of them.

They feel so good to say.

I love Ronnie Chang.

And he should say fuck whenever he wants.

I think he's fantastic and I think he's great as David.

I think he is the correct amount of I am an idiot boss and yet somehow I still have this job and I must do it.

And then he does like an OK job on the presentation.

Like he this is The thing is like this is a very well realized character and Ronny Chang is exactly who you get to play him totally.

He's the perfect metal manager.

And and like in a presentation that he that is playing in the lobby of the building, he says one of the funniest lines in the movie to me, which is like, it's even it's great for it's even great for kids that have both parents or no with with non dead parents, non who don't have parents.

Yeah, it's.

I.

I.

He's cracked me up.

Oh, he's perfect.

He I mean a great.

Actor.

He's been in a lot of things.

He wasn't, of course, in that very unfortunate Seinfeld pop tart movie.

But you can't always pick winners.

We all make mistakes.

Well, Megan is presented.

As a demonstration for David, the boss, Megan creates a portrait of Katie that only appears when water spills on the paper.

Katie and David are amazed.

Megan is truly incredible and Gemma is celebrated as a genius who is going to make everyone very rich.

Megan comes home with Katie and Gemma and immediately gets to work, or should I say work, when she removes.

The sunglasses in this first introduction.

That was literally what I was thinking.

Of when I wrote work, this was one of the This is one of the things.

That was on the future act because they were like, we, we had to like, create specific puppetry to make this action happen.

And a lot of the puppeteers were like, is this worth it?

And then when they saw the final product, they were like, Oh yeah, I would have worked 20 more hours to make this happen again.

That's incredible.

I.

Making this movie must have been such a delight.

It truly sounds like they knew what they were doing when they were creating this movie.

Yeah, well, as she gets to work, she acts like a caretaker to Katie, doing all of the things that a parent should do, like praising or correcting Katie, listening to Katie talk and playing with her.

Gemma is pleased with the results, even if the social worker and her colleagues expressed concern that Katie is developing an unhealthy attachment to Megan.

One day, Megan is attacked by the neighbor's dog, causing a major malfunction that otherwise goes unnoticed.

Katie goes to rescue her but is bitten on the arm.

Jenny yells at her neighbor Celia, and then takes Katie inside to treat her wounds.

That night, Megan impersonates Celia's voice, luring the dog to her and killing him.

OK, there's a lot to go through.

Here, but I just want to start with this therapist or social worker if that is, if that is the truth of the matter, I'm so happy that we.

Watched a movie with like a therapist or a social worker because I need I still think about our Papa Duke episode and you were like, yes, the social worker heroes are here and I'm like they're not always the heroes in these movies David, I just want you to know so please tell us what you think of this person Well, OK at.

First I was kind of like this is fine and it is it is normal.

But a a, a child is placed in a in a different home to have someone come and check up on them.

But our girl is like, have you heard of attachment theory?

And as she described it, I was like, have you heard of attachment theory?

Because we are not delivering on what this is.

Oh my goodness.

What is attachment theory then, David?

Well.

I I it is so.

Much more complicated than If a child's parent dies, they'll latch on to the first thing that they see.

That is just simply not true.

That's how the birds get.

Attracted to the to the parent.

Yeah, Yeah.

Are we, are we saying that?

Children, human children aren't ducklings, is that?

I mean, human children will.

Deploy coping mechanisms in the face of trauma.

That is not shocking information.

It's your job as a social worker to fucking identify that.

I was like, OK, I get it.

What the film needs to to do is to remind the audience that this this young child has just gone through a trauma and is forming an attachment with this doll.

I think that was already there.

So because I was smart enough to get that, I then hated this character and was deeply disappointed that she was never killed by Megan.

Well, maybe in the sequel.

Yeah, we got.

To watch Megan 2.0 I hope Megan.

2.0 is just the.

Hunt for the social worker.

Oh my gosh, just Oh no.

It's like the hunt for.

Golem.

But it's the hunt for the social worker.

Yeah, she's just Megan Goes.

Up to, I don't know, some sort of.

She finds Aragorn, Yeah.

I was thinking.

That she went into like a gun store and was just like doing the Terminator thing of like asking for shotguns and asking for uzis and asking for like other types of weapons.

Because I will say very empty weapon movie, not a lot of no firearms in the film.

That's actually a good point I hadn't thought.

About that, yeah.

But I mean, like it is still you know, it's not like Megan is going around and picking up shotguns and and machine guns and it's like a die hard when you know, they they say like now I have a machine gun ho ho ho or anything like that.

But it is still like Megan can fucking use the pesticide sprayer to get the job done in a way that a machine gun would do it, but not with the kind of panache.

Yeah, you're right.

You're right.

She's much less of a spray.

And Prey and much more of a the Freddy Krueger school of slightly ironic deaths.

And I, I do like that as well.

Yeah, indeed, you do not need.

A machine gun.

Or detonators like in Die Hard to get the job done.

Maybe that should have been a lesson for Alan Rickman's character, Die Hard, a Christmas movie.

Methreegan but three but 3 came.

Out in January, though, it would have made an excellent Christmas movie.

I feel like what's what's more Christmas Eve than a killer toy?

I think, because I think the deal it's.

Very similar to Child's Play.

It's very similar to Child's Play.

It's got that like Christmas is near us, like we.

Yeah, listen, I think.

Between Child's Play and Gremlins and Methreegan like, I think that killer toys belong in December.

I think we could all agree on this.

Should we have talked about next year?

Next doll summer, we'll talk gremlins.

I've never seen gremlins.

Remember doll, summer comes around, but once a.

Year.

Here's the deal, Merrily, people told.

Me that it would scare me and they look scary.

It's true.

They do look scary.

Listen.

You know what else looks scary?

That fucking dog attack girl like that was, yeah.

Great dog.

Actor, I got to say.

This dog, it worked for your treats and love and attention and whatever else you get when you're a dog actor.

This dog is is doing a great job on this.

I hate it.

I hated this so much.

It's it was really upsetting to.

See Katie.

Get bitten after like, she saved Megan, you know, like, and, and like, I got so pissed because Celia, the annoying neighbor, was just like, Oh well, you should fix that hole in your fence.

Like, girl, your dog just fucking attacked a child.

You're lucky that Gemma's not calling the cops on your ass right now.

I mean, it's she.

Does call the cops.

It doesn't really do anything but like, well, that's cops, who are you?

Well, we'll get to.

We'll get.

To it, We'll get to it.

We'll get to it.

The other thing that I.

Just from this section that I want to point out is I don't know maybe I'm just too sci-fi pills, but the second that Muthregan was talking about accessing the Internet knowledge, I would have like killed the program immediately.

You cannot let an AI access the Internet.

That's a mean.

Of course it turned evil.

Come on.

Oh sure, it's fine when Baymax.

Does it?

But when Muthregan does it, it's not OK.

They're both trying to learn about death and grief.

I wouldn't have let Babe get.

Access to the Internet either so but he's so soft and.

Soft and don't let him get on the Internet.

He's so cute.

He's like 1.

Of your your stuffed animals merrily is he's a squish mellow.

Why isn't there a Baymax swish mellow?

Don't say that too loud.

They're making it right now, and the IP lawyers are gonna ninja out of the floor and kill you.

You know what?

Ever since we recorded that.

Bonus episode where I mentioned my Reddit history.

I could use some better targeted ads.

So yeah, please show me some Baymax swish mellows.

So after another.

Impressive presentation, this time to the board of directors.

Gemma starts to get suspicious of some of the unpredictable behavior by Megan.

Gemma takes Katie to her first day at an alternative school held outdoors, but Katie refuses to go without Megan.

Megan accompanies Katie, although she is relegated to staying with the other dolls at the toy table.

A boy named Brandon picks on Katie until Myth Regan appears.

Because Katie is as Megan's primary user, she won't respond to Brandon at all.

Brandon drags Megan away, but eventually Megan activates.

She rips off Brandon's ear and then chases him on all fours.

Brandon trips and is hit by a car like he trips down in a bank, a bank man, and it kills him.

Later, Katie asked Megan if she's responsible for Brandon's death, but she dodges the question, instead singing titanium as a lullaby.

Yeah, so funny.

After Katie.

Falls asleep Myth Regan lures Celia to her shed by imitating her dogs barking and then kills her using pesticide.

There is now I.

Now I have a pesticide.

Gun.

Here's the deal I got to start with the presentation.

I was, I had a genuine emotional reaction today watching this.

I just thought this was a very well acted scene.

And I, I mean, a lot of that credit does go to the script, but a lot of that credit goes to Viola McGraw and Violet McGraw.

What?

I'm sorry, three of three this month of the films that we have talked about that starred a child in a horror movie about a killer doll.

All three have been knocked out of the park for the leads.

Yeah, it's true, she does.

A really incredible job, Yes.

Viola McGraw.

Like, truly it.

Like, I even remember watching the movie for the first time and just thinking like, wow, this girl is really good.

Like, she is a phenomenal little actor.

Yeah.

And.

And we're just.

We're like what, 1-2 years off of Haunting of Hill House?

Yeah, this is not that long after that.

Yeah.

And.

And like even if.

You watch Haunting of Hill House, you know that she has the chops.

And like her doing this again, I just, I cannot wait to see where she goes because I know that she's gonna, if she decides to continue with the business, like she's gonna grow into a really incredible actor.

Yeah.

Yeah, totally.

Still a child.

Like not yet an adult to this day.

Crazy.

Born in 2011?

No, don't say that.

Don't.

Say that we've already had one upset today about the passage of time because of you, David, and now you've done it again.

Sorry, I'm sorry.

That just that this movie came out and she probably was acting in it when she was 9 and 10, nine and 10.

I don't have the capacity to do these things, and I am much more than 9 and 10.

True.

Yeah.

Really impressive stuff.

I am more.

Than 99 and 10 put together I mean like that is that.

Is also true.

David, thank you for reminding us of your your Asianness.

Wow.

I do want to.

Talk about that.

Presentation though, because like the actual content of it, like the thing that Viola McGraw does in that scene is talk about how she really feels about her parents death and how she feels like she misses her mother so much.

And then she tells this story that is like, I kind of like that.

It's not a cute story.

It's kind of like a this travels of terror kind of story, but like, I think that provides like a little bit of realism to it.

That makes me appreciate it more.

And, and the fact that Megan can record Katie telling that story and then play it back for her again.

That's like really sweet, but it is also really unnerving because it it's another presentation of like what we've seen Megan do.

She can record audio and play it back and then she can use that nefariously, or she can use that to care for Katie because at this moment in time, Katie is her priority, or at least is purported to be.

And that it's it's a.

Shade of a Black Mirror episode, yes, but it it's because it's so much campier.

It doesn't feel Black Mirror at all because we're really just truly having like a fucking good time.

And this is just an emotional moment to, I don't know, I think let your guard down a little bit as an audience so that later you can be scared the fuck out of your mind.

And that is a Honestly, I get why James Wan is so well regarded for his sort of creation of story structure.

He did a lot of work on the boards for this film as well.

And I think that shows in sort of thinking about the layout of the film.

Yeah.

And the.

Thing is, in a later scene where Gemma is trying to talk to Katie about the presentation specifically because she's she's like sees this emotional moment of Katie's and tries to talk to her about it.

Be like, you know, you could talk to me about these things too, because we very rarely touch on it in this movie.

We see it in like a couple of scenes.

But the fact is, like, Gemma also lost her sister.

So she's also dealing with grief.

And I think in a really real moment, she tries to like, offer like I can understand.

And we could talk about this and Katie just shuts it down.

We like, I already talked about it.

I almost feel like it was a calculated move to do that in the presentation because she knew how important this was to Gemma and and like her deciding to be vulnerable in that moment is almost can seem a little calculated.

And then her being like, no, I'm not doing this anymore.

I already did it once.

It's just there's so much happening in this young girl's performance.

It's really incredible.

Totally, and it's part of.

Megan's nefariousness because she is manipulating the situation so well, yes, that malfunction that she experiences with the dog I think is what fully pushes her over the edge into being like ha ha ha.

But before then, she is still behaving in a way that seems very like off.

And I think kind of knowing and thinking about what you said earlier, merely the idea that Megan has been in love with Gemma this whole time.

I think this is definitely a way for a toxic X to try and manipulate your life and kind of gaslight you and make you seem like a terrible person.

Well, it's fun what I'll.

Also.

Offer though is that.

This was written with research into developing generative AI technology at the time.

And we now live in a future where that that train has continued to go down those tracks and you can see these LLMS provide lies to their users to to give them the best user experience.

And that's kind of all Megan's doing as well.

Yeah.

And and I think that a a, a, a Megan one point O written today that is also a little bit more nihilistic, would have probably had a seat of Megan like encouraging Katie to do self harm like I I that that would have been more context of the AI world that we're in today.

But somehow only three years ago things were looking a lot different.

And I, but I do think it's interesting because it, it is based on like, you know, we've been doing LLMS for 40-50 years now.

It, it always has been a problem that like you, you will accidentally program something that, that provides things that people think are useful because it's what they want to hear.

Yeah, yeah.

I love that and I'm sorry we have to go.

One more thing, just talking about how different things are between now and then.

There's an earlier line about how expensive this is going to be to make it sell more or less expensive than a Tesla.

And this was pre cyber truck Even so, like being more expensive than a Tesla now would be a very different conversation than it would be then because we have this enormous stupid tank that cost $8 billion.

Well, I bet you'd.

Love to pull the ear off the man who invented that.

So let's talk about Brandon, yeah.

Oh boy, what a wonderful.

Transition into talking about one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

Oh great.

This whole sequence, this whole scene is such a trip.

It takes us like, further into a corner of the world that we hadn't seen thus far, which is like anyone that's not connected to the toy company or Gemma's life.

Yeah.

And I think it, it was so fascinating to see.

Like, there's a little bit of poking fun and like Seattle moms that are like, oh, you know, my kids so special.

And they're, you know, they're, they're different and they they had a growth spurt, but that makes them more emotionally intelligent.

And then, like the child is a nightmare, he appears.

To be preparing to sexually assault Megan, which, yes, I mean, she's a doll, so I guess that wasn't technically the right term.

But she is like a living creature in this world.

And I was kind of like, you know what?

No one Megan killed didn't deserve.

This boy deserves to die.

And I hate when a child gets hit by a car.

Except that twice in a row, I have just loved when it happens.

So I guess that what's on me.

Yeah.

No.

You love it when children die in movies.

My friend, like you have to accept this by this point.

Yeah, yeah, this is a very truthful.

Statement about all of us and I don't think anyone should look further into that but no I think like Megan even says like that Brandon is a bad boy and bad boys turn into bad men and then she pulls on his ear and rips it off and I think it's because of that implication that he was going to do something to Megan.

Yeah, we kind of.

Believe in the.

Fact that he's going to deserve what's coming to him as a result.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

There's a line because Gemma is stuck, like making sandwiches with some of the other adults who are there, right?

And she just so happens to be talking with Brandon's mother.

And it's just like a throwaway line that we see.

Like we hear the mom say as we're watching Katie and Brandon walk into the woods to find walnuts or whatever and where she says very casually that, you know, some research indicates that high IQ is tied to behavioral problems.

And you know, this crunchy condoler motherfucker is like doing everything in her power to excuse this kids actions.

If he grew up, she know that she would like boys will be boys her way out of any kind of problem with this kid.

She's a very like any.

Issues that are related to my child or other people's faults, like it's his teacher's fault, it's the it's the coach's fault.

It's everyone else's fault except just saying like this child needs some sort of psychological assistance because he is like a little terror.

Yeah and yeah and he needed AGMC truck to the face to to really get that through.

It's It's hard to believe that a truck to the.

Face was fine, but we did have to cut a little bit of extra ear ripping for the PG13, but in the unrated version you get a little bit more and I'm here to tell you it was delicious.

See, I didn't like.

That because like I, I the idea, one of my very earliest memories as I was a little kid, I was at a camp and one of my camp counselors had double piercings, except the bottom lobes were like ripped because when she went skiing her, she was wearing hoops and the hoops, it was so cold.

She didn't notice until she had gone down the mountain, but the hoops had gotten stuck on her jacket and ripped her ears.

And so that has been like a lifelong fear of mine.

So seeing that was like really traumatic to me.

But I understand where you were coming from, David.

Well, that boy deserved much.

More misery and pain.

So he should be lucky he got hit by a truck because absolutely.

I hope Megan was gonna pull everything off.

Here's the thing, I.

Know for a fact that Megan was listening to Gemma's conversation with the cops later when When they're talking about Celia's death and they're like, oh, yeah, This is the second time this week we've interviewed you.

Did you notice anything else at the park?

We're now treating that like a murder.

You know that she was listening to that.

And next time she wouldn't have left the ear and the embankment because she's learning.

Yeah, she's learning.

I like that she's learning.

How to get away with crimes?

Before we move on, I simply must address that evening and the lullaby with Megan sitting in fucking titanium.

Love it, love it, that was.

So great it was.

So like it it was a wonderful like, like if we condense the movie into one scene, this was it where it was just kind of like nefarious.

And we're a little nervous for Katie because Katie now is starting to get suspicious of Megan.

And if that happens and that can't be good for Katie.

And Megan is just trying to talk it off.

And she even says, like, if heaven were real, do you think boys like Brandon would go to heaven?

And it's like, Jesus Christ, what a fucking thing to say.

But it also when you mentioned these LLMS and these chat bots that are just meant to kind of like confirm the user's biases and beliefs.

That is such a thing that like a fucking chat bot would say to a user, yes, and it's so creepy and it's so fucked up.

But then she starts sitting in titanium and it just like, completely takes the the fear out of the scene.

But it also is like, so bizarre that I'm still kind of unnerved by it.

But it's also so campy like this.

It's such like a wonderful condensation of everything that we've got going on.

It's the uncanny valley.

But in a different way.

Because it's so bizarre.

It is not human behavior, but it's just close enough to make us confused before I move us on.

We just go back to the park for a wee second because I want to say that's Amy Donald doing the running on all fours.

Wow, that is this little.

Girl.

And that is just.

Something she can do that's amazing.

While wearing this like strange.

Mask and coat I love.

I love coat, though.

I'm obsessed with I.

Want.

I here's what I hope is I hope that she does ballet and I get to go see her in a ballet.

I I want now.

Now.

This is my goal in life.

Yeah, I want her to.

To keep doing movie stunts because Can you imagine when she grows up and like the the cool shit that they'll be able to put into movies if you have a stunt actor like her in the mix?

Yeah, well, back to the film.

Gemma, concerned about Megan's erratic behavior, investigates her files.

Turns out all but one video and GPS file are corrupted.

When Megan shows up in Gemma's basement, she begins to imply threatening behavior, but Gemma is able to distract her and turn her off.

Megan clearly needs some calibrations.

Katie is inconsolable without Megan.

Although tonight is the launch of the Megan line of toys.

They stop for a visit with a social worker.

Katie slaps Gemma in the face and the two have a heart to heart.

Gemma validates Katie's feelings and her grief and vows that Katie is her priority from now on.

Gemma communicates to her team they need to deprogram Megan, but we discover that Megan intercepted that communication.

She neutralizes Gemmae team as she begins her rampage.

Megan encounters an angry David.

Pissed that Gemma is late for the big reveal, Megan dances for him, then pulls the arm off of a paper slicer.

David takes off running and then is stabbed by Megan.

David's assistant, Kurt is also slain after Megan reveals that she knew he had leaked the plans for the Megan prototype.

Everything happened so much, yeah.

Everything happened so much.

I loved Katie slap.

I, I, I, some of this is just Violet McGraw being amazing, but some of it is also just like I I think it's kind of fun to watch a child lose their shit.

It is.

It's so great.

When you don't have any.

Responsibility or need of act like care for the child because if this was like your kid, you would be having a meltdown also for sure.

Yeah.

But like, she's so good and like, watching her have this very like valid reaction to everything that's going on is fantastic.

Violet is such a good job.

And then the way that Gemma reacts to her in their heart to heart.

Like, we saw her watching Katie talk about Megan and how like, feels like Megan thinks that Katie is the most important thing.

And then her immediately to go and use this exact same words to Katie shows to me like she was like, oh shit, I fucked this up.

And then goes to like, have a real human connection and they use those words because she knows that that's what Katie needs and wants.

I thought was really smart writing.

Yeah, Yeah.

Especially because.

Gemma seems to say a lot of the right things that you should say to a child in this kind of situation.

Like she says the worst thing that you could ever imagine happening to you happened and it's OK to not be OK in this moment.

And I feel like that's that kind of honesty and bluntness is what you need to hear in that kind of situation.

Like that is just totally affirming everything that kDa is experiencing.

And that's so smart of, you know, the writing to to have Gemma say that.

I think it's like, I kind of love this, this character progression that Gemma's on because we eventually get to this moment.

And it's like such a like a long, you know, journey that we've been on with her to get to this.

And seeing her realize, like, my work is not the most important thing to me.

My family is the most important thing, I think is also like another anti capitalist thing that we need to like internalize as a society.

But because at the end of the day, your family is more important than than your laborer.

And I think that's nice to have that kind of moment received in this movie.

Now you have to get to the dance, Yeah.

Yeah, dance.

Before we.

Dance.

Can we just?

I I liked the kills in the lab or not the kills because they both survive, but I love the conflict in the lab.

I loved the whole thing with Megan.

I loved her escape.

I thought this was all very well choreographed.

We didn't mention it when he first showed up and he's been here the whole time.

But this was a Brian Jordan Alvarez jump scare for me.

I either forgot he was in this film or I don't know what happened.

But I was like, this is wild that you're here.

And I was kind of happy because I thought he died and I forgot that he lived.

So I'm glad they survived, though.

Yay.

It would have been fine if they had been.

Killed they clearly aren't killed by the explosion, but like I was still surprised at the end because I kind of assumed that I don't know Megan would double back for them or so I don't it seems like she got to double tap yeah, she should have she you know she was on a.

Mission.

And that mission was to see David and I, I don't.

You know what?

Here's if I have a critique of the film.

Why?

But it it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter because it's so great.

It's so great.

Yeah.

I.

Thought everything about the dance is so great.

Her dancing in the hallway and then grabbing the paper shredder and like using that as a machete.

Incredible.

Him seeing her grab the paper shredder with no prior knowledge of the other murders and just being like oh fuck this is I'm clearly in a horror movie this doll is out and running was so good.

I love that and This is why.

This ultimately got the heart was because this chase through the hallways is a little too long, but it's a little too long in a campy way.

Not in like a bad editing way.

It is like we're going to show you just a couple more of these like it's fucking scooby-doo.

And it was great.

I loved this.

David even falls down.

Like a woman in a bad B horror movie where it's just like, why did why did he trip a fall?

Why did she trip a fall?

I don't know, but it adds to the moment.

It's great.

It's so great.

I.

Love it, it's so great and then like.

We didn't touch on this earlier either, but Kurt, you know, David's assistant, like leaked the plans to some rival toy company, which I was, I believe, intended to set up a potential sequel if the movie did well and surprised Mega 2 Point O.

But the fact that she kills him afterwards and then makes it seem like it's a murder suicide is so like devious.

But we've had like, it's like devious of the way that like a John Waters, like serial Mom, like Kill is devious so that it's just like, oh, how delicious she has this all planned.

You know 1.

Of my favorite details about the elevator kills and it's just so silly but I love it so much is that the last time we saw Kurt David had sent him to go get a kombucha, right.

And so as soon as he sees like this murder happens in front of him, he drops the kombucha.

And it just, I don't know what it is about like that little detail, but it's so funny to me.

It's just, it's so funny, the fact that.

It's specifically a kombucha to you.

Like I think specificity in a joke is so much funnier than being vague.

Like David could have said just been like, give me a coffee and then whatever.

But yeah, specifically it being a kombucha is tells us so much about his character.

It's very Seattle and it's such aceo kind of move.

And that's just totally David the boss to AT truly.

And I love him and I.

His death was good.

I think Kurt's death is also fine, but the unrated version has a lot more blood and I really appreciate it.

Oh man, I gotta watch.

The unrated version I stuck with the with the PG13 version for.

I mean, that was for the pod.

That's the right thing to do for the pod.

And you, You were.

You were good to do it, but Marilyn and I also made the right choice because.

And you get a little bit more curt acting, which I thought was also nice because I think he did a good job.

Yeah, I mean, acting like he was sliced open.

Amy O'Donnell.

Again.

Giving her her flowers for the dance.

Incredible.

So obviously.

The dance was.

Choreographic.

It was not just so they should herself, but when she was working with the movement coach, he was like, oh, what else?

Like what else is in your your repertoire?

And just unbeknownst to anyone and not unlike a safety mat, she just does this complete backflip with no momentum.

And the guy was like, oh, we're using that.

We got to put that in the scene and to know that that wasn't even like assisted with wires or anything.

Because one stunt she did in the forest, when she does that, sort of like I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I'm just going to rise up with my like, ankles that was assisted with a wire.

But this one is just her.

And that's fucking incredible.

She's a Tekken character.

Like that is something that I would do as law in in fucking Tekken to fucking kick Nina Williams in the face.

Yeah.

And you get incredible.

You get a couple.

Invincibility frames because like, that's just how it works.

And put Megan in a.

Tekken or Mortal Kombat, I need it immediately right?

Honestly.

Is Megan in Dead by Daylight?

Because she should be.

She should be in debt by daylight.

She is not yet.

Fix this.

Dead by daylight people and I will finally play I will finally play your game yeah behavior if you if you put.

Megan in the game, we'll play it.

Yeah, they have to take Five Nights at Freddy's.

Bullshit.

Out but but then it'll be applicable.

You know, I mentioned that I could have.

Bought this in that Blum house pack that was in there, yeah.

Chris.

But also the purge wait.

All of them, Yeah, that's a mixed bag.

Yeah, I know, but I already own them all.

So I don't.

Do I still have to watch this?

Yeah, they're good.

They're good.

All right, Tyler, take us.

Home.

Yes, Specifically to Jenna's home.

Yeah, because Gemma has put Katie to bed.

But she finds Megan downstairs playing the piano very suspiciously.

Megan confronts Gemma about their relationship.

While Gemma was working on Megan, Megan felt that they had a real connection.

She's upset because Gemma now wants to sell her as just some toy.

Megan threatens to paralyze Jenna, Gemma and become the guardian for both Katie and Gemma.

The two fight Gemma shearing off Megan's wig when Katie arrives.

Megan tries to get Katie on her side, but Katie sees through this manipulation and fights back with Gemma's grad school robot, Bruce.

After a tense fight where Megan suffers increasingly worse battle damage until she's essentially nothing but a metal torso and skull, Katie shuts her down for good.

The new found family is safe, but at the very last second, Gemma's smart home device activates and playing.

We haven't seen the last of Methreegan.

I think there's so much.

Good.

I this final action sequence is, I mean, I, I now want to give this five stars remembering this, this final action sequence.

I fucking love this.

I loved how campy the monologuing is when Katie gets out of bed and Gemma and Megan are fighting but they're both pretending it's OK for Katie.

It is some seriously hilarious dialogue, good acting, campy performance.

It's just perfect all around.

It's so good.

And also to my point earlier, it's a little abusive relationship coded, which I thought was very fun for me personally.

I don't know anybody anybody else, but like no, it is it's definitely fun and it.

Plays into the queerness of it all.

Because that is a toxic ass relationship going on Yeah and just.

When Gemma cut off the hair with like that electric whatever the hedge trimmer, I said wig out loud.

For real.

I think I did too.

At the theatre, Incredible.

Incredible.

It was great like.

No wonder queer people love this movie and we're like camp classic it is.

It was great.

Like truly, like, anytime.

Megan does not look perfect is a mood like after she gets attacked by the dog and her hair is so there's twigs and leaves of shit in mood.

I have been there many, many times.

Megan losing her fucking wig and so she's just bald.

Personally on top mood.

Been there many, many times.

Yeah, no, it was so great.

And I also can't believe we got one last good skitter in this film.

Like we really needed this for Doll Samberg.

Like, it was perfect.

It was great, It was great.

I also think I took a message of hope from this because in the sort of like right before the climax when Bruce the robot gets reactivated and Cage just wailing on Megan with this, I don't know, Pacific Rim ass monster fighter there.

There's.

This moment where it's like Katie has kind of figured out Megan's bullshit and, and does something where Megan misreads her, her like emotional cues so that Katie can get close and, and do what she needs to do.

And it, it gave me the sort of like, oh, the children will be OK because they will figure out how to beat this AI nonsense.

We're the ones who are fucked.

Our generation is fucking hosed by this AI bullshit.

But there's a, there's a, there's like a four year old John Connor out there somewhere who I just got to wait to kill all these fucking machines and like, godspeed, little kid.

That's a very good point because.

Allison Williams who played Gemma looks like beat to shit by Megan by that point that Katie Hopson.

What did we think of Allison Williams performance by the way?

I mean I adored her.

I I.

And it only got deeper when I watched her in the behind the scenes stuff just because she seems like a genuinely good person to work with.

I absolutely believe that about.

Allison Williams, I think I, I don't know if this was intentional, but her performance in this maybe like her vocal affect is so flat for so much of it that I'm just like, oh, Allison, how are you getting work in this in this world?

But like also that is kind of the.

Character like if she if she.

Were playing it like a neuro, like a neuro atypical person, like speaking with a flat affect is absolutely something that neuro atypicals like myself will do sometimes.

And you think that was so great.

She's just so fun.

Like she really is there just to have a good time.

And I love that.

Brian Williams, you're kind of a piece of shit, but your daughter's all right.

Yeah.

I thought.

I thought she was really.

Good in this, I mean, I thought, I thought what you needed was someone who could let Megan and Katie be the stars when they needed to be the stars and then also drive some of the other like parts of this forward.

And so I think that it it's a it's hard to be like one of the lead actors and really just be a conflict driver because all of the other action kind of kind of like the the mom in child's play, like this isn't actually your movie.

This is this is your kids movie and his and they're doll that's actually.

Such a great connection.

I didn't think about David that she is kind of fulfilling the role of the mom from Child's Play in this, and I think that's a really good way to see it.

That's really smart.

I feel like it takes a.

Lot as an actor to give the kind of performance where you're kind partially the bad guy, partially the hero and also be there to support your Co workers and Co stars as the real leads of the movie, even though you are like the lead adult, you know.

And like I feel like she really delivers that performance at a really nuanced and wonderful way.

Yeah, yeah, totally.

God, what a fun movie.

What a great movie I had so much fun with.

This I have so much to say for our conclusions, but I don't want to.

I don't want to miss this it it had no place in our conversation for the beat by bait.

But if you're going to have a single cop in your film, he should be as hot as the cop was in this film.

True A Cap A cap A.

Cap but but we could get him a different job in Seattle.

He should be just like a private.

Eye he should know, frankly, be a barista they.

Make coffee in Seattle, I hear.

And he he would be an excellent.

Barista, he would be an excellent.

Barista, that mustache.

Oh my God, that mustache.

I was like, oh, he's giving me everything here.

Well, how did we feel about?

Megan, in terms of horror or queerness after our conversation and do you have any other final thoughts for this episode, our last one of 2025?

Wow.

It is not for that reason.

But I will tell you, watching the behind the scenes featurettes, I wept openly because this looked like such a hard film to make and yet a film that so many people were glad to work on.

And I think about the timing of when production would have been happening for this and a lot of people who were probably worried they were never going to work again because of the way in which CGI was picking up and the COVID pandemic had changed everything.

And it was watching the behind the scenes puppetry for this.

This being done in the interviews with the puppeteers really filled my cup.

And I would recommend anyone who's got access to the special features of this to watch one of them.

They're all kind of the same, but they're all delightful.

And the, the one about puppeting Megan was, was my favorite.

And I love that.

I, I think this was queer.

I think it was horror.

I think this was fantastic, David.

I love that.

I'm absolutely gonna.

Watch that behind the scenes feature right now.

I love that.

Yeah, a wonderful story.

If it's available on YouTube, we.

Will link it because I know that I'm also going to be searching that out as soon as we stop recording.

Yeah, and then I'll also be crying once.

We watch that yes, yeah, yeah.

Or I'm just.

Having a off mental health day and you're gonna watch it and be like David's people do their job.

Calm down, sometimes you can get emotional.

About people doing their job, that's fine.

Yeah.

I get emotional seeing like.

Competent people doing their job competently.

Yeah.

Like it feels that's a very hard thing to find in the world nowadays.

Yeah.

Speaking of competence.

Akayla Cooper is the writer on this one.

I think she might be the secret to helping James Wan succeed because she also wrote The Nun 2 which I have famously been a record of saying was pretty good and she's responsible for that malignant movie which I heard.

Oh my God.

Oh.

I love malignant.

It's such AI love malignant.

OK, so I think, I think maybe she's.

The secret sauce like James Wan.

Keep working with this woman.

She's really good.

She's great, like I think.

She knows how to write something that's scary and silly.

Yeah, because Molina is scary.

And so it's so silly.

Like that's.

Talk about Camp Classic.

Yeah, well, I'll have to.

Get that done in 20.

26 Then because I I think I really like Akayla Cooper.

I think that I would.

I might just try to go through her filmography.

I just realized that malignant.

Also takes place in Seattle.

So now I'm seeing a Megan Malignant multiverse happen.

That's right and.

The Nun 2 takes place.

No it doesn't.

It takes place in like France.

Wouldn't it be?

Like in the Vatican.

I thought God no, God no, no.

No, no, it all has to do with Frenchy.

Remember merrily the Frenchman.

Oh yeah, French jar.

Jar.

Binks Yeah, they have.

They have to go and find.

Him and he's in France.

Well, do they have to?

They have.

To yes.

Oh my God, he's he's Darth Jar.

Jar.

He is Darth Jar Jar, yes.

OK, when we cover the nun.

Two, that episode has to be called Darth Jar Jar.

Make a note.

Yes.

I can't believe you've done this French.

Dar jar.

French Darth Jar Jar.

Yeah, No getting back to Megan, though.

I really love it.

It is so much fun.

It is just it's scary, but just enough.

It's campy, but just enough.

It really kind of ties everything together into a beautiful marriage of scary and funny.

And you know, we've talked about this a bit.

I'm I'm gone on record of saying that Child's Play is not my favorite of like the Chucky movies.

I really get on board when it becomes bride of Chucky because I like the campiness of it all.

I think just like there has to be a degree of campiness in a movie where a talking doll is out to get you.

Yeah.

Like, it's such a, it's such a silly concept.

Like, we saw it in Goosebumps with that, that book that we covered.

That's the title's escaping me right now.

Night of the Living, Dummy.

Thank you, Night of the Living.

Night of the Living Dummy.

But you know, it's just silly.

It's a silly concept, but I think it works as like a silly like.

I think if you have fun with it, you're going to have a good time with it.

It's a doll.

Play with it.

Yeah, exactly.

I love that.

What a what a great way to summarize the month.

Like do we have any other like feelings about the month?

And here we at the end, I'm, I'm glad we did this.

I I mean.

I, I don't remember if we pitched this because we really wanted to talk about dolls in horror or if we pitched it because it sounded fun to say Doll Summer.

I think David, you, you pitched it.

For for that the latter reason specifically.

Well, you know what?

That's another reason we covered.

Sea horror in September and that was a pretty begged month too.

So I think puns 2, non puns 00.

David, you will be happy.

To know, Speaking of September, I gave my copy a whale fall to my friend Kelsey who I haven't previously mentioned on the pod.

Hi Kelsey, I hope that you're enjoying Whale.

Fall be sure to listen to that episode.

Like I told you to Kelsey.

Yeah, be a quiz.

Later I love testing my friends, it's very healthy.

Normal.

That's very good for you.

That's very good for you.

Speaking of things that are very good for you, Thank.

You so much for listening to this episode.

Please remember to rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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This month we've got an episode all about the Jean Favreau film Elf.

Wow, am I so happy I don't have to keep plugging that.

But that will always be there for you.

So if you came to this podcast and it's 2027, man, that elf thing is still going to be sitting there just growing warts.

And if, if, if you celebrate.

Christmas in July, what a better time to get scared then the the listening to us talk.

About ELF Listen, don't let my suffering.

Be for nothing.

That's true.

That's.

True, you should.

That's the real selling point.

If you love merrily, which you should, that you should listen to the podcast.

And if you don't, then we will.

Shame on against, shame on shame.

Shame, but then.

If you'd also.

Speaking of terrible things, you could also read when I think it turned Out to be 20,000 words about the Saw franchise as every day between December 5th and December 17th, I released an essay about various films in the Saw franchise.

And for the 12th day, you now know that the surprise is out there.

So go check out patreon.com/fear Coded podcast and you can see all of those.

Whether you're a paying member or not, Fear Coded is a proud part of.

The Glitter Draw Queer Podcast Collective If you'd like to listen to more queer media podcast, check out the full roster shows at glitterjaw.com and we are off for the.

Rest of the year, but we will be back in 20 26 as we connect with another iconic woman in tights, this time a perfectionist ballet dancer with a little bit of a hangnail in 2010's Black Swan.

But for now we will simply say goodbye.

Titanium, you take your aim, fire away, fire away, you show me down.

But.

I.

Will fall.

I am Titanium.

Goodnight, Kitty.

Goodnight, Megan.

David is dancing right now.

David is.

Dancing.